WHEN ACTRESS JUDY HOLLIDAY
TALKED AND BALKED

Note from The Judy Holliday Resource Center: This article is from a tabloid magazine. This piece is nothing more than propaganda for the politicans that interrogated Judy. The excerpts of her testimony are slanted in such a way as to cast her in a bad light. While they did not falsify anything, they did do quite a bit of creative editing. Statements and explanations that supported Judy's side, or made the interrogators look bad, have been removed. The claim that the testimony is "verbatim" is laughable. This article is a perfect example of the negative publicty she endured...even 4 years after the hearing. To read the real and complete transcript of her testimony click here.

Written by George McGrath
(From The National Police Gazette, January 1956)

     The doors were locked and everyone was barred, except the Red probers. Judy took the stand and talked and talked and talked. Did the investigators get what they wanted? Here's the inside [scoop] of what happened at the secret session...

     Ever since Congressional committees have been ferreting out subversion and anti-American activities, misguided crusaders and Communist-slanted liberals have been trying to distort the true nature of these vital investigations.

     They have fed the public a lot of false propaganda to the effect that the secret executive sessions are torture chambers where witnesses are coerced, browbeaten and intimidated; and that the curtain of secrecy serves to hide vicious abuses of a witness' rights and dignity.

     These false charges have been difficult to disprove because records of the proceedings are not available for publication. This secrecy is necessary to safeguard classified information revealed at the hearings or to protect innocent witnesses, but it lets phony accusations run riot.

     Now, however, the Police Gazette is able to present the never-before-told secret testimony of an executive session of the Senate Internal Security subcommittee at which screen star Judy Holliday was principal witness.

In disclosing the verbatim record, the Police Gazette has been assured that there is absolutely no breach of national security.

     This eye-opening document shows clearly that though Judy Holliday was linked with a large number of organizations deemed Communist-dominated, she was treated fairly by the committee and given every opportunity to explain fully her views and activities.

     Giving the lie to charges that witnesses are stripped of their rights, the record shows that all the safeguards in our judicial system were scrupulously observed. In fact, at one point when Sen. Watkins, chairman of the subcommittee, told the blonde actress that the committee was "trying to protect people and their rights," Judy answered: "I appreciate that enormously."

     In probing for subversive infiltration of the entertainment industry, the committee brought out that Communist-front organizations had been using Judy's name and prestige for their own purposes. The actress, whose role as a dumb blonde in "Born Yesterday" won her a Motion Picture Academy Award, admitted she had been "irresponsible and slightly---more than slighty---stupid" in tying up with these groups.

She was Duped

     Right at the outset, Judy revealed that she had let her name be used by one of the most notorious pro-Communist groups in the professional and entertainment worlds. She was questioned by Richard Arens, Chief Counsel of the Senate Committee.

MR. ARENS: Please affirm or deny the fact that you were a signer of an advertisement which appeared in Variety on December 1, 1948, sponsored by the National Council of the Arts, Sciences and Professions, which has been cited as a Communist-front organization, to call upon the film industry to revoke the blacklist.
MISS HOLLIDAY: Yes, I was.
MR. ARENS: How did you happen to become affiliated with the National Council of the Arts, Sciences and Professions?
MISS HOLLIDAY: Well, that organization has had a lot of initials and names. When I first knew it, in fact, when I actually belonged to it, it was called, I think, the Independent Citizens Committee. That was way back. I got into it on the basis of something that they may have called Actors for Roosevelt, it was an election thing...
MR. ARENS: Do you know that the National Council of the Arts, Sciences and Professions has been officially declared by an investigative agency of the United States to be a Communist-front?
MISS HOLLIDAY: Yes, I do.
MR. ARENS: When did you first learn that?
MISS HOLLIDAY: I learned that when I read it in Red Channels for the first time.
MR. ARENS: It has been repeatedly cited as a Communist-front organization, has it not?
MISS HOLLIDAY: Yes.
MR. ARENS: Do you have a recollection of who solicited your membership?
MISS HOLLIDAY: I don't have a real recollection of a specific person, but I do know that people would call or write with names on their letterheads or call and say, "I am speaking for a committee which is headed by Jo Davidson, Eleanor Roosevelt," people with names that are immediately reassuring. At that time, they didn't have to be reassuring, but nevertheless they commanded your respect and made you think about it. I must say that I got into it because of the kind of people that were getting into it, and because I wanted to help elect Roosevelt even though I never did anything very positive about it except, as I said, give them my two bucks.
MR. ARENS: You let your name be used?
MISS HOLLIDAY: I let my name be used.

     Judy, whose real name is Judy Tuvim and whose married name is Mrs. David Oppenheim, got her first real job in show business with the Revuers, whose other members were Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Alvin Hammer and John Frank. In questioning the actress, committee counsel referred to this phase in her history.

SENATOR WATKINS: Did you not have any friends that were Communists?
MISS HOLLIDAY: Never.
MR. ARENS: Alvin Hammer, however, refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee as to whether or not he was a Communist.
MISS HOLLIDAY: That is correct.
MR. ARENS: Adolph Green and Betty Comden, with whom you were associated in the Revuers, have Communist-front records, do they not?
MISS HOLLIDAY: No.
SENATOR WATKINS: Are you sure of that?
MISS HOLLIDAY: I am as sure of that as I can be of anybody that isn't me.
SENATOR WATKINS: You knew them well?
MISS HOLLIDAY: I knew them well, and I know them to be completely unpolitical people. They are terrific hard workers, and that is their life.

     There was no pressure to get the actress to change her testimony or force her into an admission that she did not intend to make. Even though the press and public were not present to act as restraints, the committee---in executive session, let it be emphasized---did not harass her. Instead, it went on to additional activities of the young actress.

Was for Henry Wallace

MR. ARENS: I put it to you as a fact that on October 28, 1948, you were a signer of an ad "We are for Wallace," sponsored by the Communist-front organization of the Arts, Sciences and Professions.
MISS HOLLIDAY: I was a signer of an ad sponsored by the organization, which I did not know was a Communist front, but I was for Wallace.
MR. ARENS: What has been your affiliation with the Scientific and Cultural Conference for World Peace sponsored by the National Council of Arts, Sciences and Professions?
MISS HOLLIDAY: I can tell you exactly, I have gone over it many times. The bell rang one day, and a group of young people aged, oh, I don't know, 15 to 18, stood there and said, "We are some sort of youth"...Anyway, they said that we are this youth organization and we don't think that we have to have a war, and there is going to be a big peace conference and Albert Einstein and Thomas Mann...
MR. ARENS: Why do you think they called on you?
MISS HOLLIDAY: Well, I was sort of flattered.
MR. ARENS: It is because your name could be used in a movement of this character.
MISS HOLLIDAY: Yes.
MR. ARENS: Because your name had the prominence in the theatre.
MISS HOLLIDAY: But I was sort of pleased that these young people thought of me as belonging to their age category rather than the adult people, and I signed the petition.
MR. ARENS: And you knew that your signature on that petition would have an influence on public opinion, on the people of this nation, did you not?
MISS HOLLIDAY: Well, I didn't know....

     Persistent, but courteous, questioning brought out the facts that Judy's name had often been used without her permission by Red-front groups---or, at any rate, so she claimed. In any event, the committee gave her ample opportunity to make her denials and at the same time it was revealed how Communist-led organizations try to win public support.

MR. ARENS: Now, affirm or deny the fact you were a member of the sponsoring committee for "Enroll for Peace" luncheon held at the Essex House in New York on May 10, 1949, under the auspicies of the Women's Committee of the National Council of Arts, Sciences and Professions.
MISS HOLLIDAY: This is a new one I don't know about.
MR. ARENS: Do you have a recollection?
MISS HOLLIDAY: No, I don't.
MR. ARENS: Some couple of months after you became affiliated with the Scientific and Cultural Conference for World Peace you sponsored "Enroll for Peace" luncheon at the Essex House in New York.
MISS HOLLIDAY: No.
MR. ARENS: You were an entertainer at a carnival and dance held at the Hotel Capitol in New York on March 25, 1950, under the auspicies of the National Council of Arts, Sciences and Professions, were you not?
MISS HOLLIDAY: I was not.
MR. ARENS: Do you have anyway of explaining how the Daily Worker of March 21, 1950, would list you as one of the entertainers at the affair I have just described?
MISS HOLLIDAY: I have theories about it because it has happened to me many times. My name has often been used without my knowing anything about it by various organizations. My name has been used publicly in print, it has also been used to get other people. They say, "Judy Holliday is coming." A great many of these things I knew nothing about. I never even knew about that, because I don't read the Daily Worker, until the Columbia people (Columbia Pictures) told me. Then I said that I never saw it.
MR. ARENS: Did you make any protest to the Communist Daily Worker when your name did appear---that your name had been publicized by that Communist paper as one of the entertainers on March 20, 1950, under the auspicies of the National Council of Arts, Sciences and Professions?
MISS HOLLIDAY: I didn't hear about it in 1950, I heard about it in 1951.
MR. ARENS: I understand. When you did hear about it, did you register a protest with the Communist Daily Worker?
MISS HOLLIDAY: No.
MR. ARENS: Do you have any comments on the item appearing in the Communist Daily Worker, April 4, 1950, to the effect that you were a scheduled entertainer at a benefit, "Broadway Builds a Theatre" at the Hotel Capitol on April 9, 1950, under the auspicies of the People's Drama?
MISS HOLLIDAY: That is a new one. I don't know about it and never heard about it.

     Judy's denials became more frequent as the questions probed more deeply, and her explanations became more and more involved. If nothing else, her testimony disclosed how the Communist conspiracy uses it's front groups to ensnare, dupe and exploit the innocent.

MR. ARENS: Have you been affiliated with the People's Songs?
MISS HOLLIDAY: I gave them a dollar after much nagging and pestering. I dislike folk songs intensely. I think that the People's Songs are terrible. I have no interest in it at all. They kept sending me literature and I called them and told them to please cut it out. I had nothing in common, but by that time someone had already taken my dollar.
MR. ARENS: They just took it away from you physically?
MISS HOLLIDAY: No; they said, "We have been calling you and calling you, and you haven't responded." I opened my bag and said, "Here, go away." But to be on record as being part of that just annoys me because I don't like any part of it.
MR. ARENS: According to the bulletin of People's Songs, you were listed as a member of the board of sponsors in a letterhead dated March, 1948. Is that correct?
MISS HOLLIDAY: That is what they told me. That is probably because I gave them a dollar. But, I have no feeling for sponsoring them. I didn't even know they were Communist. I just hated their stuff.

     Senator Watkins then interposed to imply that persons in the public eye had the responsiblity, whether they liked it or not, to check on the organizations which were using their names.

SENATOR WATKINS: Do you realize, having been associated over the years, that this is not anything new, this matter of using people's names? If you allowed the use of your name, did you ever make an investigation to find out what they were like?
MISS HOLLIDAY: Not until lately, not until last year.
SENATOR WATKINS: Of course, lately it has become a liability to be associated with groups like that. Before that did you not make an investigation?
MISS HOLLIDAY: No.

     A little later, Mr. Arens drew the admission from Judy that she was now aware of the dupe's role she had played.

MR. ARENS: Did you know about Communist-front organizations, controlled and used by the Communist Party and for their own purposes?
MISS HOLLIDAY: I had heard of them mostly through people who had been active in Actors Equity.
MR. ARENS: Do you know about Communist dupes, people who are sucked in by the Communists and have their names used by the Communists?
MISS HOLLIDAY: I do now.

     As the hearing progressed, the list of suspect organizations with which Judy Holliday had been associated kept growing longer and longer.

MR. ARENS: This is a letterhead of the Voice of Freedom Committee, is it not?
MISS HOLLIDAY: Yes, it is.
MR. ARENS: And your name appears there as one of the sponsors---does it not, on the letterhead?
MISS HOLLIDAY: Yes, it does.
MR. ARENS: And there are a number of Communists also appearing there on that letterhead as sponsors, is that not true?
MISS HOLLIDAY: Well, if they are Communists I don't know which ones are Communists. But I am sure that there are Communists in there; there are Communists in all of these.
SENATOR WATKINS: How do you know that?
MISS HOLLIDAY: I have been told that many times. I didn't know it then.

     The actress disclosed that, after promising to give details about the organizations she had been connected with, she had made a one-minute recording for the Stop Censorship Committee. However, pressed to identify persons connected with these organizations, she apparently balked.

SENATOR WATKINS: You said there were a lot more, and you said you could name them. Now you have told about this one, about making this recording.
MISS HOLLIDAY: That is right.
SENATOR WATKINS: Who asked you to do that?
MISS HOLLIDAY: A secretary. I think most of these came...
SENATOR WATKINS: Can you answer that or not? Who asked you to make that recording? Somebody requested you; you did not just volunteer, did you?
MISS HOLLIDAY: Oh no.
SENATOR WATKINS: Who asked you?
MISS HOLLIDAY: It was one of many things that I was called up for by people who said "I am calling up for this committee."

Judy Was Never a Red

     At the request of Judy's lawyer, the committee permitted her to read into the record a long statement. In it she denied being a Communist, expressed her hatred of Communism and spoke of her love for America, asserting that "with all my heart I would defend it any time, any where, against any enemy."

     As the hearing neared its end, Senator Watkins himself explained to the actress the necessity for holding secret, closed-door hearings. His classic explanation has not been available to the public before. The Police Gazette is glad to be able to print it now.

SENATOR WATKINS: Now, Miss Holliday, one of the reasons why we have executive sessions is that we try to, in making an investigation, screen out a lot of the so-called evidence that is so flimsy that it should not ever be presented and, unless there is substantial evidence indicating activity that might be harmful, we do not make these records public. But if there is, as we found for instance in this public employee union, United Public Workers, we definitely found that the Communists were practically in control of that union and, of course, it is a dangerous thing because they have public employees and they even refuse to give us the names of the members of the union who worked for the United States Government. Here they are. Your security and my security may depend on some of those things, and finding out the truth. So we are trying as much as we possibly can to avoid un-necessarily injuring a person, yet after all the good of the country as a whole must prevail. If we had had this hearing in public, you know what would have happened. If we had let that happen, you would have had television [coverage] and many other things.
MISS HOLLIDAY: That would have been my last appearance.
SENATOR WATKINS: We are trying to protect people and their rights and not doing any more damage than has to be done.
MISS HOLLIDAY: I appreciate that enormously.

     In conclusion, Senator Watkins eloquently pointed out to Judy Holliday that the committee took no joy in quizzing her, but that it was part of the "unpleasant duty" the committee had to perform in the interests of the country. Asserting that many more people were going to follow Judy Holliday to the witness stand, Senator Watkins added: "Personally I would much rather find that there were not any subversive elements in this country trying to overthrow it, and I would sleep much better, and I would feel that the future of this country was going to be much happier and more prosperous."

WHEN ACTRESS JUDY HOLLIDAYTALKED AND BALKED

She was Duped

Was for Henry Wallace

Judy Was Never a Red

WHEN ACTRESS JUDY HOLLIDAY
TALKED AND BALKED