Surely an interesting topic and most of any errors have been corrected (Seeger 1st Ammendment--thanks Ron) and some insights surely gained. The scrolling is long so I may not recall some of the posters. I would just add a few brief comments and/or insights.
    I would suggest reading Robert Koppelman's book---Sing Out Danger--Sing out Love. It goes into depth re: Lee Hays writings and his thoughts of the group and the era. I had the pleasure of interviewing him for my Tabletalk Program on WFDU. I will be airing another interview by him on the Traditions program (WFDU) on 4/18--with a focus on his music and that of The Weavers.
    There is now a group called Work O The Weavers which offers a presentation of The Weavers music (sounding just like them) and documenting their history. Their web site is:

http://www.workotheweavers.com

If you get a chance to see them I think you will find it quite enlightening in a historical---and musical sense. One of the performers was a neighbor and friend of the late Lee Hays.

    As to a few thoughts---Walter Winchell. Probably the most listened to man in the U S in those years. Sadly he was taken at face value and believed. What he was was an awful gossip columnist (who started out as a song and dance man). HIs biography is fascinating---Television finally did him in and when he died only 1 person ( a relative --according to the bio) attended his funeral. His feuds with legit columnists are legendary.   He also ruined many a career when he held sway as the most listened and believed commentator on the air---"....Mr & Mrs North and South America and all the ships at sea" (remember that??)

    As to the importance of the Weavers' contribution to the resurgant interest in "Folk" music. I have to differ a little bit with Ron---we are hosts on the same station/program (disclaimer for truth in advtsg). The names he mentioned are giants in the field---and, yes, they had been collecting and performing many years prior. But--as Phil Ochs once wrote---Links on the Chain. Recordings, Radio and later TV came along. Prior to that it was limited to a small core of adherants.
      As Lee Hays points out---in the Koppelman book---his thinking was that Pete Seeger believed in the aural/oral tradition and Hays felt that now is carried on electronically.   
      Given the music Ron mentioned re: C/W, Gordon Jenkins w/ The Weavers, etc; it was Pop. No doubt. But---and here is where I think The Weavers influence shines through and kept the music and interest alive---it got the people who listened to the inisipid pop music of the late '40s and '50s to hear this music. Paul Robeson was a giant and one who I admired and listened to. Sadly, I doubt that during the HUAC years there was any interest in him. Prior to that I would think that he had a following limited to a more intellectual audience and to a religious group enjoying his spirituals---and they are great. Luckily I still have the LPs and 78s---I digress.
When they returned after the HUAC days they came up with a purer version---and, I think, people responded and wanted to hear and learn more about this kind of music---the Leadbellys, the tradional pieces, and it also evolved into the later type of folk music---the protest songs of the likes of Ochs and Dylan. After all ---folk music was in its early time the newspaper of the time. In one sense anyway.
I have taken too much space and time here--briefly---check out the book and the group and thie programs I mentioned. And, finally, my opinion---were it not for the Weavers I doubt there would have followed a PPM, Ochs, or Dylan---in the popularity they gained. And let us never forget the contribution of Woody Guthrie---and Seeger in keeping that alive which is now being modernized--so to speak---by Nora Guthrie's projects

Bill Hahn
WFDU
Traditions/Tabletalk
      
    http://www.wfdu.fm