ABC’S David Muir zooms viewers in to celebrate the life of Kirk Douglas, as a Hollywood light who stood against censorship in a culture where politics was too heavy-handed and blacklist occurred from government. A friend and mentor named Robert, who is 91 and lives in Beverly Hills, once got black-listed because he worked as a journalist who would socialize with black people in Los Angeles when reporting.
He was Jewish, yet he could pass for Parsee. Robert was associated to Lena Horne‘s circle of friends, when Lena was black-listed as a communist. He was blacklisted too. They were crazy times. Robert is still a registered member of Pen America to this day, an organisation that is a global literary community dedicated to protecting free expression and celebrating literature in humane ways.
David Muir’s story goes: “In the 1950s Hollywood was consumed by the blacklist. Writers, producers and actors were called before Congress amid fear they might be Communists. The mere mention of a name was enough to end a career.
“It was the worst time in Hollywood,” Hollywood veteran Kirk Douglas told ABC News. “Everybody told me I was crazy.”
Crazy because as a producer of Spartacus Douglas put his own career on the line, his own fortune, to hire Dalton Trumbo, one of those writers on the blacklist.
“If you do it … you’ll never work in this town again. You will be declared a Communist,” Cleo Trumbo, Dalton’s wife said people told Douglas.
But Douglas, hired Dalton Trumbo anyway, and Spartacus became the top movie of the USA that year. The movie wasn’t only a box-office winner, it was also instrumental in breaking the blacklist.”
Douglas realized that within the face of Dalton Trumbo’s faceless story was his own story, that “there by the grace of God, go I.” He acted on that basis with integrity in liberty, in one pivotal action of inclusion that went beyond surface appearances of the milieu-of-the-day, thus changing history. With confidence in peace Douglas disciplined a system that had become drunk on power, elitist exclusion for personal gain and was blind to the image of itself, while being clearly unjust towards humanity. Kirk Douglas hacked the system of inequality and greed backed unjustly by a state system’s might.
The tyranny of the blacklist was broken. He was an agent of redemption, the only true firm foundation of real grace. Freedom returned, the marginalized advanced and Kirk Douglas included others more honestly with his spirit of wise compassion and fearless courage to love others as he wanted to be treated himself. He demonstrated: “there by the Grace of God, go us.”
[Photo caption: Source: Wikipedia, courtesy of Mesa County Libraries. Spartacus movie still ATTV].
[Photo selection: Author's own & Graden Carter for Vanity Fair]
To the grey-set, wise Jewish doms of Beverly Hills, California… for their humanitarian philosophical thoughtfulness… their sense of humor in displaying a wider humanitarian cause through the oft shallow glitz of show biz’s circus… we say “thank you.”
News selection: as broadcasted on air in New Zealand by Mr. Peter Williams, TVNZ.
~Posted by Horiwoodblog, Aotearoa New Zealand, Polynesia Asia-Pacific. 30.6.12~
June 30, 2012 | Categories: Action Stars, Activists, Actors, African-America, Agents, beverly hills, Blacklist, Boulder, Box Office Stars, Boxing, Censorship, Christopher Trumbo, Cleo Trumbo, Colorado, Combating Racism, Combatting Racism, Communism, Community, Compassion, Costumes, Courage, Dalton Trumbo, Democracy, Directors, Directors Guild Awards, Disabilities, Discernment, Discipline, Diversity, Empathy, Encouragement, Endurance, Entertainment Celebrity News, Entertainment Distribution, Entertainment News, Eros, Fair Partnership, Faith, Freedom, Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Speech, Governance, Government Witch Hunts, Grace, Greece, Greed, Grey Power, Hacking, Halle Berry, Hats, Heritage Arts & Culture, Hollywood Entertainment News, Hollywood History, Hollywood Maori Kings, Hollywood Television Service, Hollywood Today, Hot B*tches, Hot Chocolate, Hugo Butler, Human Rights, Humanitarian Angels on Horiwood.Com, Hy Hollinger, I have a Dream, Ian McLellan Hunter, Icons, Imagination, Inequality, Integrity, Jean Rouverol, Journalists, Kirk Douglas, Lena Horne, Leon Uris, Liberty, Life, Life Coaches, Life Expectancy, MacKinlay Kantor, Mitzi Trumbo, Movie News, Nikola Trumbo, Novelists, Oscars, Otto Preminger, Paranoia, Parsee America, Pen America, Playwrights, Police Corruption, Police Rehabilitation Programs, Politics, Pop Cultural Commentary, Postcard from Hollywood, Power Struggles, Prisons, Producers, Producers Guild Awards Hollywood, Redemption, Robert Ellis, Robert Rich, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Screenplays, Screenwriters, Slavery, Slavery Narratives, Spartacus, Star System - The Art of American Celebrity, Stars - Hollywood Walk of Fame, Super heroes, Talent Management, Wisdom, Wisdoms Buffet, World History, World News, World Peace, Wrestling, Writers, Writers Guild of America | 1 Comment »
HOW KIRK DOUGLAS HELPED TO BREAK BLACKLIST
ABC’S David Muir zooms viewers in to celebrate the life of Kirk Douglas, as a Hollywood light who stood against censorship in a culture where politics was too heavy-handed and blacklist occurred from government. A friend and mentor named Robert, who is 91 and lives in Beverly Hills, once got black-listed because he worked as a journalist who would socialize with black people in Los Angeles when reporting.
He was Jewish, yet he could pass for Parsee. Robert was associated to Lena Horne‘s circle of friends, when Lena was black-listed as a communist. He was blacklisted too. They were crazy times. Robert is still a registered member of Pen America to this day, an organisation that is a global literary community dedicated to protecting free expression and celebrating literature in humane ways.
David Muir’s story goes: “In the 1950s Hollywood was consumed by the blacklist. Writers, producers and actors were called before Congress amid fear they might be Communists. The mere mention of a name was enough to end a career.
“It was the worst time in Hollywood,” Hollywood veteran Kirk Douglas told ABC News. “Everybody told me I was crazy.”
Crazy because as a producer of Spartacus Douglas put his own career on the line, his own fortune, to hire Dalton Trumbo, one of those writers on the blacklist.
“If you do it … you’ll never work in this town again. You will be declared a Communist,” Cleo Trumbo, Dalton’s wife said people told Douglas.
But Douglas, hired Dalton Trumbo anyway, and Spartacus became the top movie of the USA that year. The movie wasn’t only a box-office winner, it was also instrumental in breaking the blacklist.”
Douglas realized that within the face of Dalton Trumbo’s faceless story was his own story, that “there by the grace of God, go I.” He acted on that basis with integrity in liberty, in one pivotal action of inclusion that went beyond surface appearances of the milieu-of-the-day, thus changing history. With confidence in peace Douglas disciplined a system that had become drunk on power, elitist exclusion for personal gain and was blind to the image of itself, while being clearly unjust towards humanity. Kirk Douglas hacked the system of inequality and greed backed unjustly by a state system’s might.
The tyranny of the blacklist was broken. He was an agent of redemption, the only true firm foundation of real grace. Freedom returned, the marginalized advanced and Kirk Douglas included others more honestly with his spirit of wise compassion and fearless courage to love others as he wanted to be treated himself. He demonstrated: “there by the Grace of God, go us.”
[Photo caption: Source: Wikipedia, courtesy of Mesa County Libraries. Spartacus movie still ATTV].
[Photo selection: Author's own & Graden Carter for Vanity Fair]
To the grey-set, wise Jewish doms of Beverly Hills, California… for their humanitarian philosophical thoughtfulness… their sense of humor in displaying a wider humanitarian cause through the oft shallow glitz of show biz’s circus… we say “thank you.”
News selection: as broadcasted on air in New Zealand by Mr. Peter Williams, TVNZ.
~Posted by Horiwoodblog, Aotearoa New Zealand, Polynesia Asia-Pacific. 30.6.12~
June 30, 2012 | Categories: Action Stars, Activists, Actors, African-America, Agents, beverly hills, Blacklist, Boulder, Box Office Stars, Boxing, Censorship, Christopher Trumbo, Cleo Trumbo, Colorado, Combating Racism, Combatting Racism, Communism, Community, Compassion, Costumes, Courage, Dalton Trumbo, Democracy, Directors, Directors Guild Awards, Disabilities, Discernment, Discipline, Diversity, Empathy, Encouragement, Endurance, Entertainment Celebrity News, Entertainment Distribution, Entertainment News, Eros, Fair Partnership, Faith, Freedom, Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Speech, Governance, Government Witch Hunts, Grace, Greece, Greed, Grey Power, Hacking, Halle Berry, Hats, Heritage Arts & Culture, Hollywood Entertainment News, Hollywood History, Hollywood Maori Kings, Hollywood Television Service, Hollywood Today, Hot B*tches, Hot Chocolate, Hugo Butler, Human Rights, Humanitarian Angels on Horiwood.Com, Hy Hollinger, I have a Dream, Ian McLellan Hunter, Icons, Imagination, Inequality, Integrity, Jean Rouverol, Journalists, Kirk Douglas, Lena Horne, Leon Uris, Liberty, Life, Life Coaches, Life Expectancy, MacKinlay Kantor, Mitzi Trumbo, Movie News, Nikola Trumbo, Novelists, Oscars, Otto Preminger, Paranoia, Parsee America, Pen America, Playwrights, Police Corruption, Police Rehabilitation Programs, Politics, Pop Cultural Commentary, Postcard from Hollywood, Power Struggles, Prisons, Producers, Producers Guild Awards Hollywood, Redemption, Robert Ellis, Robert Rich, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Screenplays, Screenwriters, Slavery, Slavery Narratives, Spartacus, Star System - The Art of American Celebrity, Stars - Hollywood Walk of Fame, Super heroes, Talent Management, Wisdom, Wisdoms Buffet, World History, World News, World Peace, Wrestling, Writers, Writers Guild of America | 1 Comment »