The Chelsea Girls

AUTHOR’S NOTE

For over a decade, beginning in 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) set out to rid the entertainment industry of suspected communists. The names of individuals accused of being members of the Communist Party were compiled on index cards, a stack that ultimately stretched ten feet high. During those terrible years, careers were derailed, finances drained, and lives destroyed. Although this is a work of fiction, I hewed closely to the stories of several blacklisted artists. For example, much of Hazel’s experience with the HUAC parallels writer/director Lillian Hellman’s, as described in her memoir Scoundrel Time.

The publications Red Channels and Counterattack, as well as the organization American Business Consultants, existed, as did Vince Hartnett and, of course, Roy Cohn. The character of Laurence Butterfield is based on Syracuse grocer Laurence A. Johnson, who threatened to lead boycotts of programs that hired blacklisted artists, demands to which the advertising firms of Madison Avenue readily yielded. The despicable “clearance industry” described in the novel, where artists could pay the people who blacklisted them to get exonerated, is also factual.

Books that proved vital to my research include Inside the Dream Palace by Sherill Tippins; Naming Names by Victor S. Navasky; Unfriendly Witnesses by Milly S. Barranger; Red Spy Queen by Kathryn S. Olmsted; Red Channels: The Bible of Blacklisting by Jason Hill; In the Enemy’s House by Howard Blum; It Happened on Broadway by Myrna Katz Frommer and Harvey Frommer; The Chelsea Affect by Arthur Miller; I Said Yes to Everything: A Memoir by Lee Grant; Just Kids by Patti Smith; and Over Here, Over There by Maxene Andrews and Bill Gilbert.

Despite early threats from the American Legion and the HUAC, New York’s Broadway community proudly welcomed blacklisted artists to continue working in the theater. Many found refuge on the stage as opportunities in film, radio, and television dried up. Still, the impact of the blacklist—the many movies and television programs never made, the careers and lives ruined—is immeasurable, and remains a heartbreaking loss.