Communism in Hollywood
As a "Whore of Babylon," Hollywood has sold its soul to the god of money, and is a tarnished lady; but is she unredeemable?
Vision Forum, the Christian homeschooling and family resource ministry, offers a CD by filmmaker Geoff Botkin called "Hollywood's Most Despised Villain." When I listened to it, I was not convinced that Hollywood had ever been the target of Communist strategists, as Mr. Botkin proports. I had been studying Hollywood for over thirty years, and knew of very few American films, besides Warren Beatty's Reds and maybe The Way We Were, that I would say were sympathetic to Communism. I felt Mr. Bodkin was preaching from fanaticism due to his own conversion from Communism, rather than from facts - much as my dad used to preach relentlessly against the evils of smoking after he had given up cigarettes. People who have been converted from something tend to be the biggest opponents to it, even to the point of fanaticism. So, I was skeptical.
When you read about McCarthyism and the hearings conducted by the House Committee on Un-American Activities back in the 1950s, the evidence is pretty unclear. Neither side seems particularly convincing. The best testimony that I know of that there was subversive Communist activity in Hollywood in the 1950s is from our film-actor-turned-president, Ronald Reagan: he said there were a lot of Communists in his profession. I believe Ronald Reagan.
But I came across another piece of evidence that helps support Mr. Bodkin's claim.