Biography
John Howard Lawson, a screenwriter and playwright who had been the first president of the Screen Writers Guild and was regarded as the intellectual “dean” of the group was one of the “Hollywood Ten,” the screenwriters, directors and producers who in October 1947 were subpoenaed before the House Un-American Activities Committee at the outset of its investigation into alleged Communist influence in the motion-picture industry. All ten refused to answer the committee’s central question — “Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party?” — arguing that the inquiry violated their First Amendment rights of belief and association. On November 24, 1947 the House cited them for contempt of Congress; they were convicted the following year, and after John Howard Lawson’s and Trumbo’s appeals failed as test cases and the Supreme Court declined to hear them in 1950, all ten served federal prison terms. Every one of them was blacklisted by the studios under the “Waldorf Statement.” Lawson’s combative testimony — gaveled down by chairman J. Parnell Thomas — became the emblem of the confrontation, and his conviction was carried through the courts as one of the two test cases for all ten.
