"Hollywood Ten"
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Correspondence: Telford Taylor to Martin Popper


September 27, 1949
Mr. Martin Popper1
160 Broadway2
New York, N.Y.
Dear Mr. Popper:
As I told you over the 'phone, our firm has considered the litigation3 that we have under discussion, and in principle is prepared to take the case.

However, the questions raised by you in a conference with Mr. Garrison4 and me last week remain to be determined. We are dubious about the validity of the argument that no Congressional Committee, acting in a field lying chiefly within the purview of the First Amendment (such as the movies or the radio or the press), under any circumstances has the power to require any individual to divulge his political party affiliations. We all feel that this categorical and unqualified position would be unlikely to prove persuasive with the Court,5 and would diminish the chance for a successful outcome of the litigation.

Quite apart from this particular legal question, we envisage the probability that numerous legal issues will arise in preparing the brief and in presenting the case orally before the Court. I am sure you realize that we will welcome the fullest exploration of these issues with you and the other counsel in this case prior to making final decisions. We fully understand, furthermore, that this case involves very fundamental issues of principle to which you and your clients attach great importance. Our general approach to the case is as set forth in my letter to you from Bermuda.6 No doubt these views would be refined and, I hope, improved should we get deeper into this case. But we would not want to take this case under the handicap of fundamental disagreement, and would want it to be understood that we were taking full charge of the conduct of the case.7
Sincerely yours,
Telford Taylor
TT/pg
MAILED
SEP 27 1949


1 Martin Popper (1909-1989) (Attorney representing Dalton Trumbo (1905-1976) (Screenwriter and writer), who was among the "Hollywood Ten" defendants convicted in 1950 of contempt of Congress for refusing to tell the House Un-American Activities Committee whether he was a Communist.)
2 Martin Popper was a founding partner of the New York law firm Wolf, Popper, Ross & Wolf located at 160 Broadway, New York 7, NY in 1949.
3 The considered litigation under discussion concerned the "Hollywood Ten" case. In this legal case, ten motion-picture producers, directors, and screenwriters who had appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee in October 1947, refused to answer questions regarding their possible communist affiliations, and, after spending time in prison for contempt of Congress, were mostly blacklisted by the Hollywood studios. The ten individuals were Alvah Bessie (1904-1985), Herbert Biberman (1900-1971), Lester Cole (c.1904-1985), Edward Dmytryk (1908-1999), Ring Lardner, Jr. (1915-2000), John Howard Lawson (1894-1977), Albert Maltz (1908-1985), Samuel Ornitz (1890-1957), Adrian Scott (1912-1973), and Dalton Trumbo (1905-1976).
4 Lloyd K. Garrison (1897-1991) (Telford Taylor’s law partner in the general legal practice firm: Paul, Weiss, Wharton & Garrison located at 61 Broadway, New York 6, NY in 1949. He was also a leader in numerous social causes and a great-grandson of William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879) (Abolitionist and founder of the antislavery journal The Liberator (1831)).
5 The term the Court refers to the U.S. Supreme Court.
6 See, Taylor’s letter and memorandum transmitted from Bermuda to his law partner Louis S. Weiss (1894-1950) (Chairman of both the New School for Social Research and the Legal Defense Committee of the NAACP) at Telford Taylor Papers, Arthur W. Diamond Law Library, Columbia University Law School, New York, N.Y. : TTP-CLS: 7-1-1-8 (Aug. 30, 1949).
7 See, Martin Popper’s letter to Taylor delineating their fundamental disagreements about the “Hollywood Ten” case at Telford Taylor Papers, Arthur W. Diamond Law Library, Columbia University Law School, New York, N.Y. : TTP-CLS: 7-1-1-8 (Oct. 20, 1949).


Citation:
Telford Taylor Papers, Arthur W. Diamond Law Library, Columbia University Law School, New York, N.Y. : TTP-CLS: 7-1-1-8 (September 27, 1949).

Image Scan: Original manuscript scanned by Yelena Grinberg. (Date: June, 2004)