Panic!: CBS and the 1950s Blacklist

In 1949, radio and television network CBS was riding a wave of critical acclaim. Its news division and documentary unit boasted brilliant analysts and renowned filmmakers, while its slate of family programming held widely successful shows, many of which featured immigrant families as they assimilated into American life. But outside CBS, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover saw a problem: he accused the network of “selling socialism” and subverting American values by broadcasting programs sympathetic to communism to the nation. The FBI pressured CBS into cooperating with its widespread anti-communist campaign through a coordinated strategy of threats and retaliation. In response, CBS fired union members, filmmakers, and actors rumored to have communist connections—and it became the only network to institute a loyalty oath program requiring all employees to attest to their political affiliations.

In this special event, we will present two pieces of CBS broadcasting from the period: first, a 1951 episode of the TV sitcom The Goldbergs entitled “Mother-in-Law,” featuring a young Anne Bancroft. Gertrude Berg, the show’s creator, writer, and star, was pressured by CBS into firing her co-star, Philip Loeb, after he was blacklisted. To follow, we will hear a 1943 CBS radio broadcast, “Open Letter on Race Hatred.” William N. Robson won a Peabody award for the special broadcast, which he wrote in response to the 1943 riots in Detroit.

Following the event, Carol Stabile (University of Oregon, author of The Broadcast 41) will join Patrice Petro (Dick Wolf Director of the Carsey-Wolf Center) for a discussion of blacklisting and television.