Showing results by narrator "Rob Leibman" in All Categories

From 1947 until his death in 1962, screenwriter Gordon Kahn, father of series producer Tony Kahn, was the target of harassment by the House Un-American Activities Committee. Blacklisted tells the story of Kahn's 15 years of persecution and the fear that followed him, his family, and thousands of other Americans for having - or being accused of having - "the wrong political ideas."

Episode One: The House Un-American Activities Committee opens its stormy hearings into Communist influence in Hollywood, in October, 1947. Ten leftist screenwriters denounce the investigation and are sentenced to jail for contempt. Gordon Kahn, a well-known enemy of HUAC, escapes a similar fate when the Committee suspends it hearings before calling him to testify. Blacklisted and under FBI surveillance, Kahn fights publicly for the freedom of "The Hollywood Ten" as fear of criticizing the Committee spreads through Hollywood.

Episode Four: Gordon Kahn learns that his business partner, an FBI informer, has robbed him of his money. Blacklisted and bankrupt, Kahn suffers a heart attack. While recovering, he writes day and night, stockpiling short stories, articles, and plays to sell under a pseudonym in the States. Forced by political and financial pressures to leave Mexico, he makes plans to return, hopefully unnoticed, to the shelter of his wife's father's house, in New Hampshire.

This program is part of a series of six half-hour dramas about one of the darkest periods for the First Amendment in American history:...