The Hollywood Ten
Bob A. Feldman
A folk song, written in the 1980s, about the political blacklisting of Hollywood screenwriters, that began during the late 1940s in the McCarthy Era.
(chorus)
The Hollywood Ten
Were labeled “Reds”
And Washington
Jailed all of them.
(verses)
Once the movies they were written well
And real feelings touched your heart and mind
Then an Inquisition began
And the ones with talent all got expelled. (chorus)
Their crime was their social awareness
And not being just careerist
Friends of labor and all oppressed
The courts were used to make their lives a mess. (chorus)
Ain’t it plain when you walk into the theatre
That the films they show just mask all the lies
The plots don’t ring very true
The hacks who write them seem so very blind. (chorus)
The U.S. courts and HUAC committees
The right-wing answer to good minds
To make a war they must control the culture
And wreck a lot of literary lives. (chorus)