July 26,  2001

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:  John Pavlik - (310) 247-3000

Beverly Hills, CA - One of the most controversial and damaging eras in Hollywood history, that of the blacklist, will be the subject of a full-scale exhibition presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, beginning in February of next year. For the first time anywhere, this exhibition will present the full history of the blacklist through visual materials.

Photographs, audio and video tapes, movie clips and documents of all types will immerse visitors in the blacklist era and transport them through it chronologically.

The exhibition will be curated by Larry Ceplair, co-author of "The Inquisition in Hollywood: Politics in the Film Community, 1930-1960," one of the most respected studies of the blacklist period and its antecedents.

"This will be an unusual exhibition for the Academy," said Academy President Robert Rehme, "in that we don't think this complex and difficult subject has ever been presented visually before."

"The rift the blacklist created in Hollywood hasn't healed," Rehme said, "even though more than 50 years have passed. Maybe it never can heal. But any era with that long-lasting an impact needs to be carefully studied, and I hope this exhibition will provide new insights for those who remember the period and a valuable overview of it for those born later."

Ceplair said that the project was being announced now in part so that people who may have relevant and heretofore unknown visual materials might contact him, although he said that he was in no danger of running short of material. "We've had invaluable help from Norma Barzman and others from the Hollywood community who were in the thick of the events of the period, " he reported, "and the main job between now and the opening will be sifting out the most telling images and organizing them effectively."

Ceplair said that the exhibition would examine the historical background and foundation of the blacklist era, beginning with the conflicts of trade unionists and studio executives as early as 1933, then move through the origins of the Cold War, to Washington in 1947, when the first 50 witnesses were subpoenaed to answer the questions of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. The Committee's return to Hollywood in 1951 and the testimony given by dozens of witnesses who did not want to face the consequences of refusing to cooperate will also be covered. In addition to examining the consequences faced by those who refused to cooperate, the show will document the complicity of the studios, guilds and unions and the effects of the blacklist on the industry. Finally, the exhibition will highlight the beginning of the end of the era, as well as the controversies which continue to this day as seen in the reactions to the Academy's decision in March 1999 to present an Honorary Academy Award to Elia Kazan.

"The lessons of that time should not be forgotten," Ceplair points out. "For those who did not live through it, this exhibition is being designed to help them understand the causes and effects of a time in the United States when one's political past could be used to intimidate, coerce and even destroy."