Mr. Blankfort and I conversed outdoors, poolside on a patio in his backyard. I found him extremely engaging, articulate, and eager to tell his story to someone of my generation. During the course of our talk, I was introduced to his wife Sylvia, and from time to time his young grandson came out, whereupon Henry would ask him to find a cigarette for him. I was a smoker at that time, and he didn't hesitate to take one of mine, insisting he was doing me a favor by taking it away from me.
Our conversation was leisurely, but organized, and we spent a good two hours together.
HB: I suppose the way to begin is to start with Jump for Joy, which is how I first met Ellington.
DC: I'd like to go back to before Jump for Joy. You were a member of the Hollywood Theater Alliance. Tell me about that first.
Yes, I was the director for the Hollywood Theater Alliance. This was back during the Depression, 1939, and a group of writers and I were unhappy about the nation and the world, which is something inborn in writers, I guess. We felt this town had an enormous amount of talent that had no opportunity.
I was in New York at the time, at a cabaret called TAC, the Theater Arts Cabaret. We were open Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It was really a showcase for people involved with theater.
Who were the members of TAC?
Oh, I don't know their precise names, but probably from the Theater Guild. Most of these writers tried our space as a hangout, where they could come as sort of a club and, at the same time, give opportunity.
The people who started the Hollywood Theater Alliance, and then in New York with the Theater Guild and also the Civic Theater downtown. And we thought we might do the same thing here: not only a non-profit thing, but a less-profit thing. We put in some bucks and rented a little place, just Saturdays and Sundays. The people who performed would get the profits, if there were any. We'd feed them and write them material for a week. Each one of us put in money to get the set launched, and we rented a little place on Sunset Boulevard.
Most of the people who started the Hollywood Theater Alliance were left of liberal, and naturally their thinking took on a color taint. Some of the people in the administration of this city did not like this, so we usually had a [police] Red Squad out here.
Am I correct in thinking this was not an organized [Communist] Party political thing, with a Party fraction behind it?
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| Henry Blankfort, far right, confronts HUAC in Hollywood, 1951. |
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| Henry Blankfort testifies before HUAC in Hollywood, 1951 |
I. L.A. Times Obit, June 22, 1993
Henry Blankfort; Screenwriter Was Blacklisted in McCarthy Era
Henry Blankfort, 90, a screenwriter who became a publicist after he was blacklisted during the McCarthy era died Wednesday in North Hollywood of cardiac arrest. A native of New York, Blankfort moved to LA in 1936 and three years later became director of the Hollywood Theater Alliance, where he co=wrote its "Meet the People." He wrote or co-wrote 25 screenplays, including "Tales of Manhattan" and "Double Exposure." During World War II, Blankfort made military films for the Signal Corps. His show business career ended after he refused in 1951to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, which was seeking information about Communists in Hollywood.
II. Interview, Studio City home, 8/13/82
Henry Blankfort spoke with me for two hours. Throughout our conversation, he was articulate, remembered the past vividly, and was eager to tell me his story. When I mentioned my earlier talk with Sid Kuller, Blankfort was surprised he was still alive and living in Beverly Hills. He resolved to give Kuller a call.
A. Genesis of Meet the People, 1939
HB was then the exec dir of the Hollywood Theater Alliance, described as "mostly a writers' hangout." Evolved into a co-op to produce cabaret theater in LA, music and schtick comedy. New York at the time had much more of this kind of entertainment.
Before MTP, the Alliance had conceived a play with the theme of fascism
B. The Alliance was not exactly a non-profit. It was a "less profit," out-of -pocket seed money. The performers were paid with whatever the show took in. Most of the Alliance's members were "left of liberal." (Not an organized CPUSA fraction!). Meet the People was strongly influenced by their outlook.
When trying to open the show as a cabaret, they couldn't get a liquor license. So MTP became instead a "variety show." HB: "tremendously successful... made me the executive director in charge of production." The creative team included Jay Gornay, H. Myers, for the music. The entire cast contributed skits at the ? Theater. The box office took in $24 on opening day. The columnist Hedda Hopper denounced the show "attacked all our principles, but audiences gave it standing ovations."
We continued talking about the Red Hunt, HUAC in the 1950s. MTP had a decidedly anti-racist thrust and introduced a song whose lyrics quoted the Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution. The show received bomb threats. But it was so successful that it was able to perform in ever larger venues in LA, even opened in San Francisco and aimed for Broadway. Initial stars were Jack Albert and Virginia O'Brien.
By the coincidence of O'Brien's having to leave the show, according to Blankfort, MTP was the very first show with a biracial cast, by the presence of the teen-aged Dorothy Dandridge (who would perform again in Ellington's show two years later). Blankfort auditioned her privately, away from the rest of the cast, but she was frightened and did badly at first and wanted to leave the room.
Blankfort followed her out and told her she'd been great. After continuing private rehearsals, Blankfort announced to the rest that Dandridge would replace O'Brien and ignored those who feared how audiences might react. Blankfort drove her home at night.
Dorothy Dandridge's movie career began (soon after?) with a contract with MGM.
"Sensational hit": The show kept changing sketches to remain involved in the issues of the day. There was an election campaign skit, in which an actor with his back to the audience turns to reveal his rubber mask of FDR. He goes on to perform a song, "The Same Old South." The show began making money. After touring a wider swath of Southern California, the show opened in SF. Parts of the show were also performed at strikers' picket lines.**
MTP was the longest-running Hollywood theater attraction for many years. The show spawned road companies and Actor's Lab classes. Blankfort himself earned $150 a week and left his usual job as a screenwriter for a time.
MTP ran successfully in SF and Chicago, but in New York its competition included the huge hit Pal Joey (Rodgers & Hart?) starring Gene Kelly, and consequently MTP closed after a very short run. In New York the critics regarded it as "outlanders from California invading the Bi9g Apple." Once the company returned home, some had the idea of mounting a MTP number two, but Blankfort was uncomfortable with it. In the end there was no serious intent about such a production."
But in the following year the Hollywood Theater Alliance conceived the idea of an all-Negro revue. Their first intent didn't attain fruition, but the following year a series of circumstances brought JFJ to another Hollywood theater smash hit.
HB met Sid Kuller, who then lived in Beverly Hills, whose screen writing a few years earlier. had contributed to the controversial (?) film Zero Hour. After they had exchanged ideas, the pair organized the American Revue Theater to have another try at an all-Negro revue. There was considerable support in the show business community.
Parenthetically, Blankfort was optimistic: "I have a feeling the space program is going to bring peace to the world. Nations, as they exist today, are a silly thing."
Blankfort supervised the entire production of JFJ.
*The title sounds like it might have inspired some ditties in Jump for Joy a couple of years later. Ellington's show was controversial in the same way.
**Answering an earlier question of mine about the direct involvement of the CPUSA, here remarked,
"Moscow had nothing to do with it. We went on to the subject of the Hitler-Stalin pact in 1939, specifically a cartoon of Stalin dancing with Hitler, each one hiding a dagger
