Transcript of Judy Holliday's Testimony - Page 9
Mr. Arens: Now have you had any affiliation with the World Federation of Democratic Youth?
Miss Holliday: That is the name of the people who came to me about the peace conference.
Mr. Arens: That was in 1949?
Miss Holliday: Yes.
Mr. Arens: And you know now of course that the World Federation of Democratic Youth has been cited by the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947 as a Communist-front organization?
Miss Holliday: Yes.
Mr. Arens: You learned that since you actually became identified or affiliated?
Miss Holliday: I learned all of that last year.
Mr. Arens: Now I state as a fact and ask you to affirm or deny the fact that you were a sponsor of the United States Committee for the World Youth Festival in Prague in July and August of 1947?
Miss Holliday: I have no recollection of that.
Mr. Arens: Well, now according to the New York Times article of May 25, 1947, you were a sponsor of the United States Committee for the World Youth Festival in Prague in July and August of 1947?
Miss Holliday: Is that the same as the World Federation of Youth?
Mr. Arens: Yes.
Miss Holliday: Well, it could be, but I don't remember it.
Senator Watkins: You have no memory whatever of it?
Miss Holliday: No.
Senator Watkins: Nobody talked to you about it at that time?
Miss Holliday: You see, a lot of these things if you participate physically in something you are bound to remember it. If somebody calls you or sends a lot of letters which you throw out and they finally get to you and say, "Look, you haven't responded. Will you lend your name?" It is just a voice on a telephone, someone that you don't know socially and you haven't seen in person, and there are many of those calls.
Senator Watkins: You were not in the habit of saying yes to strangers calling you on the telephone?
Miss Holliday: No; they always identified themselves with the cause or sometimes mentioned other people.
Senator Watkins: That you knew?
Miss Holliday: On the letterhead were respected people. Then I would say "Yes." But it is awfully hard to know who they were when you never met them.
Mr. Arens: Now in 1948 did you express yourself in opposition to the House Committee on Un-American Activities in its efforts to ferret out Communists?
Miss Holliday: I don't know whether that was part of the Stop Censorship thing.
Mr. Arens: Yes, in conjunction with the Stop Censorship Committee?
Miss Holliday: It was brought to my attention.
Mr. Arens: Who brought this to your attention?
Miss Holliday: Mr. Bierly.
Mr. Arens: Who is Mr. Bierly?
Miss Holliday: One of the investigators.
Mr. Rifkind: Counsel means, who brought the matter to your attention in the first instance.
Mr. Arens: Yes.
Miss Holliday: My speech had to do with censorship, the one that I made.
Mr. Rifkind: The one on the tape recorder?
Miss Holliday: The one on the tape recorder.
Mr. Arens: Who contacted you or requested you to make this speech in 1948?
Miss Holliday: There were a number of people that called me for all these things, mostly clerical workers and secretaries who said they were speaking for other people or for organizations, and I couldn't say which one called me for what.
Mr. Arens: Do you know a lady by the name of Yetta Cohn, C-o-h-n?
Miss Holliday: Yes; she is my best friend.
Mr. Arens: What has been your association with her?
Miss Holliday: She has been my best friend for 12 years.
Mr. Arens: And how did you happen to know her?
Miss Holliday: I met her at a house in the country, Mount Tremper, N.Y.
Mr. Arens: What is her occupation?
Miss Holliday: She is a policewoman for the city of New York.
Mr. Arens: Has she had anything to do in any respect with your signatures and affiliations with these Communist-front organizations?
Miss Holliday: None at all.
Mr. Arens: Has she ever counseled with you on this?
Miss Holliday: No; she has no interest in that sort of thing. I was told that she was a Communist.
Mr. Arens: I beg your pardon?
Miss Holliday: I was told that she was a Communist.
Mr. Arens: Who told you that?
Miss Holliday: Mr. Bierly, who was investigating me and my friends.
Mr. Arens: Would you kindly identify this Mr. Bierly?
Mr. Rifkind: B-I-E-R-L-Y. He was an investigator employed by Columbia Pictures to look into the past record of Miss Holliday.
Mr. Arens: He was a former FBI man, was he not?
Miss Holliday: Yes.
Mr. Rifkind: That I don't know, but he was in the business of conducting investigations, and he was instructed ----
Senator Watkins: When was he doing this?
Miss Holliday: Last year, oh, in the spring. The only way that I can figure out that anybody could say that she is a Communist is because she knows me, and they say that I am, because she is the most blameless creature, the most patriotic and honest creature that I know, and she is not only a member of the police force but she has also been promoted to editor of the police magazine and I have full confidence that the police force of New York investigate their employees rather thoroughly, so that I think there is not only no basis for this but that it is a dreadful thing that she should even be mentioned simply because she is penalized by knowing me, and I am penalized by knowing her, and it just never ends anywhere.
Mr. Arens: I give it to you as a fact and ask that you affirm or deny the fact that were a signer of a statement, "Who's Un-American?," a statement attacking the House Un-American Activities Committee which appeared under the auspices of the Stop Censorship Committee in a paid advertisement in the New York Herald Tribune on October 27, 1947?
Miss Holliday: I have no recollection of the ad or the situation, but I do know that I made a speech and undoubtedly after making the speech signed my name to something. I think that people would do that. I would assume that whoever participated that much, those people's names would be used in whatever functions that organization went ahead with. I don't recall this particular thing, having had anything to do with it.
Mr. Rifkind: She refers to the tape recording.
Mr. Arens: I understand. Did you know that the same advertisement also appeared in Variety, October 29, 1949, page 14?
Miss Holliday: I didn't know; no.
Mr. Arens: Did you read this statement that you say you signed or might have signed?
Miss Holliday: Oh, I read it aloud; I read the speech aloud.
Mr. Arens: No; I understood you to say that you signed something?
Miss Holliday: You also give clearance if you endorse a piece of soap, you have to sign your name. I assume that I would have to give clearance, although it's not a positive thing. I don't know whether I did or not, but the very fact that my participation was that much, I must have given them the idea to go ahead under my name on whatever else they were doing.
Senator Watkins: We called your attention to the fact that this appeared in Variety. You read Variety?
Miss Holliday: Yes; not religiously, but I read it.
Senator Watkins: It is one of those things that professional people do, and it is really the organ of the theatrical profession?
Miss Holliday: Yes.
Senator Watkins: You already said that you confine your reading to the theatrical papers?
Miss Holliday: In the newspapers; yes, the theatrical column came first. However, there could have been many issues of Variety that I missed. I even missed the issue which prognosticated that I would win the Academy Award; somebody had to tell me about it. So it is possible that I didn't see this either.
Senator Watkins: You have a wide acquaintance and take part in some social life in New York City, do you not?
Miss Holliday: Not very extended.
Senator Watkins: You say no one had called your attention to this ad?
Miss Holliday: To this particular ad, no.
Senator Watkins: None at all, not even your husband?
Miss Holliday: No.
Senator Watkins: He is more or less interested in the theater, too and his work is in an allied field to the theater, is it not, his recording business?
Miss Holliday: He is a recording executive, but that is a new job.
Senator Watkins: That is what?
Miss Holliday: That is a new job. This is only a year and a half old. Before that he was an orchestra musician and as a musician wouldn't read Variety unless I told him there was something about me in it.
Senator Watkins: The strange thing is that in your profession when your name appeared in something of that kind someone would not mention it to you. When was the first time you learned of that?
Miss Holliday:This particular Variety thing?
Senator Watkins: Yes.
Miss Holliday: Yes. The only Variety ad I was in.
Senator Watkins: What about the Herald Tribune ad?
Miss Holliday: Of the youth ----
Senator Watkins: This same ad he called your attention to appeared in the New York Herald Tribune?
Miss Holliday: No.
Senator Watkins: Do you read the New York Herald Tribune?
Miss Holliday: That is the paper I get.
Senator Watkins: And yet you did not see it?
Miss Holliday: I did not see it.
Senator Watkins: And no one among your friends ever mentioned that they saw your name attached to the ad?
Miss Holliday: No.
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