During the Cold War, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) conducted investigations into potential communist activity. While investigating the motion picture industry, ten screenwriters, producers, and directors, deemed the “Hollywood Ten,” took a defiant stand against HUAC and jeopardized their careers.
The Hollywood Ten were jailed for contempt of Congress. Each sued his employer for breach of contract from prison.
This case file is a result of the legal battle that ensued pitting the “Hollywood Ten” (Albert Maltz, Lester Cole, Edward Dmytryk, Adrian Scott, Ring Lardner, Jr., Dalton Trumbo, Alvah Bessie, Samuel Ornitz, Herbert Biberman and John Howard Lawson) against the Hollywood studios they were employed by (Loew’s Incorporated, Twentieth Century-Fox, Paramount Pictures, Columbia Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures, Warner Brothers, Republic Productions, Hal E. Roach Studio, Universal Pictures and the Motion Picture Association of America).
The case was postponed several times due to the activity of the breach of contract cases filed by the individual men. It was finally set for jury trial on April 7, 1953, only to be dismissed on March 11, 1953.
The selected documents include the introduction to the case, which accuses the major Hollywood studios involved of violating the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
Included are pages 1-12. The entire case file can be found in the National Archives online catalog.
