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Post by Kerrie on Apr 23, 2005 17:40:31 GMT -5
Katharine and McCarthyism - How did it affect her career - Was it one reason she spent so much time overseas in the 1950's or were there other reasons?
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Post by Karina on Apr 25, 2005 7:29:05 GMT -5
Sure, Katharine was against McCarthyism and all it stood for, and she occasionally went out of her way to help those "on the list" as she'd done earlier with the scriptwriters of Woman of the Year. But she herself was a liberal, not a communist and I don't really think her views affected her career one way or the other - they weren't strong enough for her to have to be silenced. True, there was an absence of film or theatre work during 1953 - 1954, but whether this was politically motivated or not remains a mute point. Personally I don't think so.
Nor do I think Garson Kanin's intimations of Spencer Tracy having had a secret mission for President Roosevelt were likely to be true either - ergo, I don't think Katharine was joining him on clandestine trips abroad. I'm not really sure how much she travelled during the McCarthy years - obviously she went abroad to make The African Queen during that time and also made a few private European trips, but her Australian theatre tour came when McCarthy had more or less been silenced.
As far as her travels are concerned, I'm more interested in her 1961 Middle East tour. As far as I know, neither she nor any of her "biographers" ever alluded to it - was she a mere tourist seeking a change from her usual European spots, or were there other reasons?
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Post by Kerrie on Apr 25, 2005 16:20:25 GMT -5
The whole point of McCarthyism is that people were caught up in it that were not Communists and Communism was legal .
Katharine was more involved in the era than you have mentioned . For example in 1947 she made a speech in front of 20 000 people where she denounced censorship . The speech was very controversial and attracted major headlines . She was involved in the 1947 Henry Wallace campaign and apparently got into trouble at MGM for the speech . Her family was also highly political - I mean Kit Hepburn knew all types of people . She was also carrying on a relationship with a married man which would have made her a bit vunerable in terms of the era .
The trip to Egypt - it was a holiday with her father and stepmother - I think -
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Post by Karina on Apr 25, 2005 16:27:48 GMT -5
Point taken. But how do you think all this affected her career? Would it really have evolved differently had her political views & associations been different?
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Post by Kerrie on Apr 25, 2005 22:46:31 GMT -5
Well there is some evidence that she lost some movie roles - MGM was reluctant to cast her because of the controversy . It might have been one of the reasons that she did start working more overseas - I think there were other reasons as well - the breakup of the Hollywood system, she was getting older and roles were harder to find
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Post by Kerrie on Apr 27, 2005 2:36:08 GMT -5
I don't doubt that Katharine was affected by the blacklist but its a bit hard to say what part other factors played in the reduction of the number of film roles that she did . I would love to see the booklet - any chance that you could scan it in
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Post by Karina on Apr 27, 2005 3:41:38 GMT -5
Yes, please scan the booklet if you can, I'd like to see it too - I didn't realise she was so high up on the list. Has anything come to light yet regarding the FBI files on her & Spencer Tracy?
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Post by Kerrie on Apr 27, 2005 6:53:32 GMT -5
Both Spencer and Katharine have FBI files but I don't believe either of them are of much interest
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