McCarthy has been "reincarnated" (though I don't believe in that) by Daryl Issa. Today's
GOP politicians and some Dems make McCarthy look quaint.

I supported Wallace (Henry not George) and many friends I had were blacklisted and couldn't find work in the entertainment media because of Joe McCarthy.

Most of the naive members, many ex members of the CP didn't know what Stalin was doing. They found out later. The Soviet Union did not control the CPUSA as was advertised.

Pete and Woody both got out of the Party. Woody was too individualistic for the doctrinaire. Ask Pete what he thinks of the Soviet style Communism today?

McCarthy was like many of the bigots we see today and he was a drunk. He had delusions of power and that was his real motive.

The era of the Fifties was saturated by this fear of "the red under the bed" and the propaganda of the time reminds me of the kind you hear on CNN and Fox today.

What do the French say about "the more things change"? That's why being an American is about being vigilant, not vigilantes.

I knew some of the Hollywood Ten and actors and musicians who were called up by HUAC.
They were brave people when they refused to cooperate. Everything was underground and Woody Allen's "The Front" depicts the era well. "Hecky", (Zero Mostel) knew this position in real life.

Pete Seeger wanted to sing for HUAC the song "Wasn't That A Time?" but was turned down flat. He was brave because he took the First Amendment when most took the Fifth. He nearly did time for it.

McCarthy brought out the bravery and American idealism in some people despite the fact that many others were cowering in fear.

One of the historical blights on our country was the Peekskill riots at a Wallace Rally featuring Paul Robeson. You can read about it. The song "Hold The LIne" came out of it.

The hysteria was thick as fog and everyone was afraid who had a government job or a top flight position in a corporation or the entertainment industry. I had the distinction of being called a communist by someone who didn't even know who I was, that someone, Reverend Billy Hargis, head of the Christian Anti-Communist Crusade who was finally busted for molesting one of his boy followers.   

It's disgusting to see the rebirth of the John Birch Society who were instrumental in attacking almost anyone they could, a strategy used today by the GOP.

The names Howard Hunt, Walter Winchel, JackTenney, Father Coughlin, Alexander Mitchell Palmer, Gerald L.K. Smith - these are names that are forgotten today.

Nobody knows about the McCarran Act or Red Channels today.

Robert Kennedy served under McCarthy which is not talked about much today.

The HUAC went after Robert Oppenheimer and Harold Urey also.

Will Geer worked as a landscape architect when he couldn't get work in Hollywood.

Jeff Corey got a degree in speech therapy when he couldn't get acting work either.

Don Murray, actor, ran a laundromat for a while.

Gail Sondegaard was disappeared as an actress and wife of Herbert Bieberman, one of the Hollywood Ten.

The Actor's Lab in Hollywood was closed down when the head of it, Morris Carnovsky was attacked.

Writers like Howard Fast who wrote Spartacus was targeted.

There were so many people hurt during this period, losing their careers.

Fortunately, there were Left-wing organizations that could keep actors and musicians employed on a smaller scale. In those days, we called them "bookings".

Many blacklisted folks knew each other and found a support network.

Burl Ives and Elia Kazan ratted to the HUAC on people they knew.

"Wasn't that a terrible time!"

Of course, the Weavers were blacklisted and lost their position in the music industry,
which in the long run, might have been a good thing. They were not a flash-in-the-pan
like some pop acts.