Mountain Banjo-

"His comment didnt derail anyone's career-it was the witch hunters who did that."

Well, I can see how that might look to someone younger than myself and it's partially true. But giving the press coverage of the earlier hearings focused on "Communists" in the movie industry, it should have been clear to Ives what would happen if he mentioned any names as "Communists" or "fellow travelers." Ives was indeed a fine singer and for a while he was a good friend of Dyer-Bennet, Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie.

"The Witch Hunters" who did the follow-up dirty work were a mixture of super-patriots and self-serving professionals. For example my grandfather who was a well-respected sculptor was also identified at the hearings as someone who signed petitions circulated by "Communists" in the 1930's, and one of the groups that circulated his name was a conservative sculptor group based in Washington, DC, whose members were in competition with him for monument projects; my grandfather won all the lawsuits for commissions that he was denied because of their work but we'll never know how much other work he was denied because project directors were not willing to take the risk of considering such a "controversial" artist. The John Birch Society was one of the Witch-Hunt groups.

Charley Noble