BY JOHN BENSON
LOS ANGELES - "Don't Stand for Kazan," chanted 500 people as
motion picture industry personalities arrived for the 71st
Academy Award Ceremonies. The demonstration was called to
protest the presentation of a Lifetime Achievement Award to
Elia Kazan by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
at the March 21 ceremony in downtown Los Angeles.
On April 10, 1952, Kazan informed on fellow writers and directors to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). He claimed that eight people he had worked with in the Group Theater had been members of the Communist Party.
The Los Angeles Times tried to downplay the impact of the opposition to the award. They quoted award opponents as saying Kazan's appearance was "anti-climatic" and a "nonevent."
According to the Times, Kazan acknowledged applause when he received the award, saying, "I really like to hear that. I want to thank the Academy for its courage and generosity."
The size of the demonstration exceeded the expectations of organizers, the ad-hoc Committee Against Silence. Many more protesters showed up than could fit in the area blocked off by the police for the demonstration. As a result, about 200 of those protesting the award to Kazan rallied across the street from the main action.
Signs that were prepared by the Committee Against Silence included "Don't Whitewash the Blacklist" and a blowup of a drawing by the cartoonist Conrad from the Los Angeles Times depicting the award statue "Oscar" sitting on his hands. Others brought signs that said, "Honor Courage, Not Kazan," "Grandson of Two Blacklisted Writers," "Witch-hunting A Lifetime Achievement??" "Elia Kazan, 1952's Linda Tripp," and "Ratting to the Government - No Way to Win an Oscar."
Three groups organized counter-demonstrations. The Ad Hoc Committee for Naming Facts, organized by the Ayn Rand Institute, brought signs saying "Silence Against Evil is Immoral," "Hollywood Communists Should Apologize," and "Kazan Told the Truth." The Jewish Defense League (JDL) and the Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) also demonstrated in support of Kazan. Among the YAF signs were "I Love Blacklists" and "What's wrong with naming a few commies?"
Several of those arriving in limousines at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion to attend the ceremony rolled down their car windows and waved to indicate support to those backing Kazan. Several others in limousines indicated their support for those protesting the award.
Cinematographer Haskell Wexler stood up through the sky roof of his limousine as it passed the crowd. He held up a sign that said, "Kazan Is a Fink," and videotaped the protesters. Wexler is a member of the Academy Board of Governors and has been quoted in the press saying he regrets his vote to give Kazan the award.
The mood of participants and organizers of the protest against the award to Kazan was upbeat and celebratory. Broadly smiling, many were congratulating each other. A number of people approached Leone Hankey, an organizer of the Committee for Silence, to thank her for the initiative to propose the demonstration. Don White, a leader of the committee, said after the demonstration, "We won here. We forced this to be an issue."
Joan Scott, one of the blacklisted writers present whose husband Adrian Scott was also blacklisted, commented: "It's marvelous to see all the old-timers protesting against an informer being awarded. It's wonderful all the young people learning about this."
The protest extended to inside the award ceremonies. According to the March 22 Los Angeles Times, when Kazan finally walked on stage to receive the award, about half of the audience remained seated and did not applaud. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion seats 2,850. Roger Ebert on ABC television's post- Oscar show estimated 60 percent remained seated. Several different media reported that among the actors not standing were Nick Nolte, Ed Harris, and Amy Madigan.
Rightists try to provoke confrontation
Several times during the protest outside, tensions began to
rise.
About a dozen members of the JDL and YAF moved their counter protest directly beside the demonstrators who were protesting the award to Kazan - trying to provoke an incident. They singled out individuals, yelling vulgar and crude remarks, trying to stir up a confrontation. Some members of the Progressive Labor Party fell into this trap and responded. Committee marshals were able to calm the situation for the most part, though two scuffles did occur.
Young Socialist Mike Broumas was on a special team of marshals organized by the Committee Against Silence. This team faced the counter protesters of the JDL and YAF and separated them from those demonstrating against the award to Kazan. "They did everything they could to provoke us. Several of our marshals were women and the anti-woman insults they yelled were disgusting. But we were disciplined and we helped others among us to be more disciplined. I had never seen anything like this before. We succeeded in making this protest against the Kazan award a big victory."
Taunts of the counterprotesters included: "Kazan's the man," "You're all communists," "Che Guevara got what he had coming to him in Bolivia," and "Kill the cop killer," referring to Mumia Abu-Jamal, a Black journalist who was framed up and is on death row.
The controversy over the award to Kazan has been one of the main topics of discussion and debate in the media, on campus, and on the job over the last few weeks. A press conference held by the Committee Against Silence in Los Angeles March 18 helped gain attention to this issue in the media. Some of the blacklisted screenwriters, a blacklisted actor, and their supporters in Hollywood spoke.
A hundred people packed the room, about half of them media representatives. Originally scheduled to take place on the sidewalk in front of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences offices, the press conference was moved inside the building when the Academy responded to pressure from the media and the blacklisted.
Norma Barzman, a blacklisted screenwriter, spoke at the press conference. She answered a statement by actor Charlton Heston on the TV program, "Larry King Live" the previous evening. She said Heston repeated the claim that Kazan hurt no one because he only had only named names that had already been named before the HUAC.
"Being blacklisted was being harmed," Barzman said. "My husband [screenwriter Ben Barzman] and I had three small children. My family had to go to France to work." Barzman pointed out that many of those who were blacklisted were active in the battles of the 1930s to organize the Screen Writers Guild and the strikes following World War II that led to the organization of the other unions in the film industry.
Becca Wilson, daughter of screenwriter Michael Wilson, also spoke. She explained how her father had co-authored with Carl Foreman the screenplay for the Oscar-winning movie Bridge over the River Kwai. Michael Wilson did not receive credit for the screenplay until after his death. He was awarded the Oscar posthumously. Becca Wilson added, "No apology from the Academy has ever been offered."
Nick Castle, a member of the Directors Guild of America, the Screen Writers Guild, and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said, "This award tries to put wind in the sails of those who look back to the time of the blacklist as the good old days." He urged others to join the protest outside the awards ceremony.
The March 19 issues of the entertainment trade periodicals Variety and the Hollywood Reporter ran full-page ads protesting the award to Kazan. The ads were organized through the efforts of the Committee Against Silence. More than 350 people signed the ads, including Castle, producer-director Carl Reiner, and actor Sean Penn.