Hollywood Divided: The 1950 Screen Directors Guild Meeting and the Impact of the Blacklist

ISBN: 9780813168920; Hardcover174 pages, 6.00 x 9.00 in, 13 b/w photosHollywood DividedThe 1950 Screen Directors Guild Meeting and the Impact of the Blacklistby Kevin BriantonOn October 22, 1950, the Screen Directors Guild (SDG) gathered for a meeting at the opulent Beverly Hills Hotel. Among the group's leaders were some of the most powerful men in Hollywood -- John Ford, Cecil B. DeMille, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, John Huston, Frank Capra, William Wyler, and Rouben Mamoulian -- and the issue on the table was nothing less than a vote to dismiss Mankiewicz as the guild's president after he opposed an anticommunist loyalty oath that could have expanded the blacklist. The dramatic events of that evening have become mythic, and the legend has overshadowed the more complex realities of this crucial moment in Hollywood history.In Hollywood Divided, Kevin Brianton explores the myths associated with the famous meeting and the real events that they often obscure. He analyzes the lead-up to that fa