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how the blacklist ended

As the anti-Communism crusade slowly died down in the 1960s, so did the blacklist. One of the Hollywood 10, Dalton Trumbo, was publicly credited for his work on two films in 1960, which helped end the blacklist. The HUAC and the film industry were no longer after Communists. Many of the people on the blacklist used fake names to write screenplays and such as a loophole. Some of these actually won Academy Awards.

"The film industry is a great industry with infinite possibilities for good and bad. Its primary purpose is to entertain people. On the side, it can do many other things. It can popularize certain ideals, it can make education palatable. But in the long run, the judge who decides whether what it does is good or bad is the man or woman who attends the movies. In a democratic country I do not think the public will tolerate a removal of its right to decide what it thinks of the ideas and performances of those who make the movie industry work."

Eleanor Roosevelt's newspaper column, "My Day," October 29, 1947

Remembering the Blacklist

There have been movies that pay tribute to the blacklist, including Guilty by Suspicion (1991) and The Front (1976). They remember a time when the film industry went crazy over the HUAC and various organizations.

Another way the Blacklist is remembered is with 10 stone benches that are engraved with quotes from the Hollywood Ten. It is in front of the USC Fisher Museum of Art on Exposition Boulevard, and serves as a permanent reminder of the Blacklist.

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