Transcript McCarthyism:

"Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right
regrets."
-Arthur Miller
1915-2005
 Grew up during the Great Depression
 Wrote screenplays for Hollywood
 Won a Pulitzer in 1949 for Death of a Salesman.
 1953- wrote The Crucible based on Salem Witch
Trials.
 He wrote the play during the McCarthy hearings
when his friends were being attacked for procommunist activities.
•Attended The University of Michigan for Journalism but
graduated with a degree in English
• Wrote two short plays under the collective title of
A View From The Bridge(1954);
•Married Marilyn Monroe (1956), wrote screenplays (Misfits)
with roles for his wife, and divorced her (1961); She dies 1962
•1965 – Miller was elected president of P.E.N, the international
literary organization
•Numerous problems with the House of Un-American Activities
Committee for being a “romantic Marxist”;
•After a nine year hiatus he returned with After the Fall – a
seemingly autobiographical play about Marilyn
Finishing the Picture – last play, depicted the making of Misfits.
 It is important to note that Miller used the
events and names of those who were
involved in the actual Salem Witch Trials…
 However, he made changes in order to create
his story…..
 For example: Abigail Williams was 11 during
the actual trials not 16 and did not have an
affair with John Proctor. However she was
involved in the accusations….
Arthur Miller & The Crucible:
When The Crucible opened in January of
1953, audiences noted the similarities
between the Salem Witch Trials and the
HUAC investigations.
In 1956 Miller was called to testify before the
committee. He was later convicted of
Contempt of Congress for refusing to name
persons seen at meetings organized by socalled Communist sympathizers. Miller’s
conviction was overturned in 1958.
 Before he sat before the committee, a congressman
requested a signed Marilyn Monroe photograph,
saying that the hearing would be dropped.
 Miller refused, just as he refused to give up any names.
He stated, “I don’t believe a man has to become an
informer in order to practice his profession freely in
the United States.”
“Witch hunt”refers to any search for a scapegoat who can
be blamed for all the ills of society and whose
removal will eliminate the problems.
Miller’s play depicts Human Nature’s role when fear and
hysteria take over…..this is a universal quality that
transcends time.
The Witch Hunt without Witches
A term for the widespread accusations and investigations of
suspected Communist activities in the U.S. during the
1950s.
Fed by the quick invention of the Soviet
Atomic Bomb. It was assumed spies must
have helped them.
Blamed the problems of the U.S. on the
supposed secret presence of Communists
in the government
Senator Joseph R. McCarthy was a little-known junior
senator from Wisconsin.
He claimed to possess a list of 205 card-carrying
Communists employed in the U.S. Department of
State.
 “McCarthy's power to stir fears
of creeping Communism was
not entirely based on illusion, of
course; the paranoid, real or
pretended, always secretes its
pearl around a grain of fact.”
-Arthur Miller
Loyalty boards investigated the
federal workers under
Truman’s command to search
The senator created the UnAmerican Activities Committee
(HUAC)
 HUAC- most widely known for its investigations
of suspected Communist influence in the late
1940s and early 1950s.
 1947, HUAC subpoenaed 41 witnesses for its
hearings on Communist influence in Hollywood.
 Ten of them, mostly writers and
directors, refused to answer questions at
first, denounced the committee, and
were held in contempt of Congress.
 These witnesses became known as the
“Hollywood Ten” and were “blacklisted”
from the industry for many years
afterward.
 The Big Hollywood 10: 8 of 10 actors refused to appear in court and were
sentenced to a year in prison
 The Waldorf statement: stated that 8 of the ten were to be fired
 The blacklist: Informally, if you were accused of communism you could not be
hired
 McCarthyism is now used as a reference to “reckless
public accusations of disloyalty to the U.S.”
 Friendly Witness: Testified and gave names of
potential Communist sympathizers
 Unfriendly Witnesses: Either refused to testify at all or
refused to give names.
 Innocent people’s careers ruined- three hundred and twenty artists were
blacklisted
(Among them were Arthur Miller and Charlie Chaplin.)
Arthur Miller & The Crucible:
 Miller wrote The Crucible as an allegory for the unjust accusations of
Joseph McCarthy.
 During McCarthyism, the United States was terrified of Communism's
influence. Like the witches, communists were seen ingrained within
every aspect of society.
 Miller was sent to jail for withholding information from the court,
namely the names of those assumed to be communists. Many of
Miller’s peers fearing the wrath of the court provided names of
suspected communists in an attempt to save themselves.
 During both time periods (Salem and McCarthyism), the enemy did
exist and people used fear to reach their own goals and fulfill hidden
agendas.
 McCarthy’s influence finally faltered
in 1954 when a famous CBS newsman,
Edward R. Murrow, aired an
investigative news report which
revealed McCarthy as dishonest in his
speeches and abusive in his
interrogation of witnesses
The public was finally made aware of
how McCarthy was ruining the
reputations of many individuals
through false accusations of
communism.
 In 1954, he made accusations
against the US Army
 Resulted in a nationally
televised Senate investigation
 Censured by Senate in 1954.