3. The case against Charlie Chaplin

02/05/24 • 37 min

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Charlie Chaplin’s personal life sparks legal woes. Hedda Hopper, known as the queen of Hollywood gossip, was Chaplin’s nemesis, and she deemed him "un-American.” Joan Barry was just 22 years old when she arrived in Hollywood with dreams of stardom. She soon met Chaplin and the pair became romantically entwined. When the relationship went sour, Chaplin’s enemies – including J Edgar Hoover and columnist and radio star Hopper – saw an opportunity. Chaplin soon landed in court facing charges under the White-Slave Traffic Act.

Archive: The Hedda Hopper Show, 3 December 1940 J. Edgar Hoover, Battle of the United States, Army-Navy Screen Magazine, 1940 Pearl Harbor newsflash, WOR Radio 1941 The Great Dictator, Charlie Chaplin, United Artists, 1940

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2. Red menace

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Dalton Trumbo’s career as a screenwriter blossoms just as FBI director J. Edgar Hoover makes Hollywood his focus for rooting out communism. Trumbo becomes active in the Screen Writers Guild, a harbour for radical politics. Charlie Chaplin makes influential friends on the political left. With his first talking film, The Great Dictator, Chaplin draws critical praise and unwanted attention with a rousing speech. Shifting alliances between Soviets and Nazis force an awkward political reckoning in the US. Host Oona Chaplin explores the FBI's covert operations which targeted alleged communists. We learn how Hollywood became the battleground for the soul of America.

From the BBC World Service and CBC Podcasts.

Archive:

Interviews with Dalton Trumbo, UCLA Department of Communication Archive, 1972

G-Men trailer, directed by William Keighley, Warner Brothers 1935

Upton Sinclair interviewed by Joe Toyoshima, 1966

The Great Dictator, Charlie Chaplin, United Artists, 1940

Battle of the United States, J. Edgar Hoover, Army-Navy Screen Magazine, 1940

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4. Hearts and minds

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and allies like Ayn Rand were convinced that Hollywood was infested with communists. Now they started scouring the movies themselves for evidence of propaganda. Anti-communist figures in the movie business, including John Wayne and Gary Cooper, create the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals to counter groups like the Writers Guild. Even American classics like It’s a Wonderful Life came under FBI scrutiny. Studios began to feel the pressure – even changing seemingly innocuous scripts to avoid political heat.

Archive:

The Locket, directed by John Brahm for RKO Pictures, 1946 Robert F Wagner on National Labour Relations Act, Labor Comes of Age, ABC Television, 1965 Ayn Rand interviewed by Mike Wallace, ABC Television, 1959 Interviews with Dalton Trumbo, UCLA Department of Communication Archive, 1972 Woman of the Year, directed by George Stevens for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1942 Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood Show, 14 January 1951 It’s a Wonderful Life, directed by Frank Capra for RKO Pictures, 1946