Investigating Broadway: The House Committee on Un-American Activities meets members of the New York theatre community at the Foley Square Courthouse, August 15--18, 1955

A group of actors, theatre professionals, and folk singers received subpoenas to appear before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) in New York City, August 15--18, 1955. This was to be the "Communism-in-Theater inquiry" ("Theater Red," 1955), of Chairman Francis Walter. With few exceptions, those subpoenaed were unknown outside the theatre community. Was the committee scraping the bottom of the publicity barrel as suggested (Goodman, 1972; Vaughn, 1972), or did the committee think there was important information awaiting them from several of the witnesses who were expected to cooperate ("Revealing of Reds," 1955)?; The hearings and the members of the New York Theatre community who participated in them have been virtually ignored in the pantheon of work published on the entertainment industries, HUAC, and the McCarthy-Era blacklist. These 1955 hearings---their origins, the response of the theatre community to them, and their outcome---are the case study of this dissertation, which provided a narrative of the hearings.; A wide range of primary sources---13 personal interviews, union archives, and previously unavailable government records---will be used to reclaim this neglected dimension of cold war political history.; Unique to these proceedings was the strong stand taken by Actors' Equity Association (AEA), the union of stage actors and stage managers. In 1952 it enacted an antiblacklisting clause. AEA's history, its relationship to the League of New York Theatres and other employers, and the membership resolution that resulted in this clause illustrate an approach in direct conflict with the other performing arts unions at this time.; By 1955, many of these witnesses had been blacklisted off radio and television. How the new television union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), reacted sharpens the contrast with the AEA's position.; This study begins by introducing a community of witnesses as they are subpoenaed and prepare to testify. It then goes into the hearing room to learn what ensued during those four days in August, concluding with a summary of what happened to the major players in the aftermath of the hearings.