Henry Fonda, seen here in 'The Grapes of Wrath' (1940), was an early member of the Committee for the First Amendment. His daughter, Jane Fonda, is relaunching the committee. Everett Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment "Any investigation into the political beliefs of the individual is contrary to the basic principles of our democracy," read the stern words from the star-studded Committee for the First Amendment (CFA) on October 28, 1947. The CFA was founded that year in Hollywood by John Huston, William Wyler and Philip Dunne in response to the speech-chilling loyalty investigations foisted upon the industry by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Today, the CFA has been resurrected by Jane Fonda, whose own father Henry Fonda was an early member of the original organization, and it has already locked horns with the Trump White House. Related Stories Business Threats, Anxiety and Power Struggles: How Hollywood Tangles With the FCC News The Bid to Oust Performers Like Jimmy Kimmel Has Been in the Works for Four Decades This time around, the signatories feature a range of talent like Ben Stiller, Helen Mirren, Spike Lee, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Larry David, Natalie Portman, Nicolas Cage and Nikki Glaser. The motives of the new CFA are clear, as its website states, "The federal government is once again engaged in a coordinated campaign to silence critics in the government, the media, the judiciary, academia, and the entertainment industry." The anti-communist witch hunts of the 1940s and 1950s across American industries were a precursor to the Trump White House's own targeting of immigrants, professors, media personalities, or anyone who dares push back against America's authoritarian lurch. The new CFA is billed as a McCarthy-era movement, but it's important to note that the CFA predates McCarthy by several years, as does HUAC, which began in 1938. The CFA's origin story is an instructive legend worth revisiting during this increasingly heated moment. It was The Hollywood Reporter's founder, Billy Wilkerson, who published an unhinged screed on July 8, 1947, about the industry supposedly kowtowing to Soviet sensibilities. A couple weeks later, on July 29, he unleashed one of the most infamous columns in Hollywood history. Titled "A Vote for Joe Stalin," the column attacks the Screen Writers Guild as "thought-police" for endorsing the American Authors Authority (regarding copyright protection), before naming names of suspected communists in Hollywood: Dalton Trumbo, Maurice Rapf, Lester Cole, Howard Koch, Harold Buchman, John Wexley, Ring Lardner, Jr., Harold Salemson, Henry Myers, Theodore Strauss and John Howard Lawson. The names and assertions were all the U.S. government needed as justification to set their sights on Hollywood. A perfect conduit to get national attention on their bullying campaign. Wilkerson's rhetoric was Trumpian in tone, criticizing those he disagreed with as supporters of a communist agenda working to "surrender freedom of speech or freedom of conscience." Wrapping himself in the American flag, Wilkerson's word salad grumbled through accusation after accusation, maintaining that the political left sought a "monopoly of opinion." By claiming to protect freedom of speech, Wilkerson helped launch a war against it. On September 23, 1947, forty-five members of the American film industry were subpoenaed by HUAC to prove their loyalty to the United States. Signed by committee chairman J. Parnell Thomas (R-NJ), the subpoenas were "a command to perform - perform before a legislative ringmaster, at a grand, three-ring investigation of Hollywood," wrote screenwriter Gordon Kahn in Hollywood on Trial (1948). Kahn lost his job at the end of 1947, one of hundreds of artists blacklisted for supposed subversive activities. "Everybody is afraid of being investigated," wrote Kahn, noting the mood around Tinseltown before he fled. "The prospects are that pictures like Grapes of Wrath, Gentleman's Agreement and others with force and meaning - the kind in which writers, actors, and directors can take pride - will be strangers to the screen in America." While current power brokers haven't scrapped movies over their content, yet, Hollywood has a recent history of companies obeying in advance by shelving projects until the tensions cool. The original Committee for the First Amendment signed a statement published in The Hollywood Reporter on October 21, 1947, that denounced HUAC because "any investigation into the political beliefs of the individual is contrary to the basic principles of our democracy." A Committee for the First Amendment statement placed in the Oct. 21, 1947 issue of The Hollywood Reporter. Going further, the CFA wrote, "any attempt to curb freedom of expression and to set arbitrary standards of Americanism is