Inside a Broadcasting Blacklist: Kraft Television Theatre, 1951-55

Journal article

Cynthia B. Meyers
Journal of American History, vol. 105(no. 3), 2018, pp. 589-616

DOI: 10.1093/jahist/jay280

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APA Click to copy
Meyers, C. B. (2018). Inside a Broadcasting Blacklist: Kraft Television Theatre, 1951-55 . Journal of American History, 105(no. 3), 589–616. https://doi.org/ 10.1093/jahist/jay280

Chicago/Turabian Click to copy
Meyers, Cynthia B. “Inside a Broadcasting Blacklist: Kraft Television Theatre, 1951-55 .” Journal of American History 105, no. no. 3 (2018): 589–616.

MLA Click to copy
Meyers, Cynthia B. “Inside a Broadcasting Blacklist: Kraft Television Theatre, 1951-55 .” Journal of American History, vol. 105, no. no. 3, 2018, pp. 589–616, doi: 10.1093/jahist/jay280.

BibTeX Click to copy

@article{cynthia2018a,
  title = {Inside a Broadcasting Blacklist: Kraft Television Theatre, 1951-55 },
  year = {2018},
  issue = {no. 3},
  journal = {Journal of American History},
  pages = {589-616},
  volume = {105},
  doi = { 10.1093/jahist/jay280},
  author = {Meyers, Cynthia B.}
}

"Anyhow, it had better not happen again," wrote John (Jack) Platt, Kraft's vice president of advertising, to John U. Reber, the head of the radio and television department at Kraft's advertising agency, the J. Walter Thompson Company (JWT), in October 1952. Kraft, Platt continued, was "still getting repercussions from the last appearance of a certain subversive character on Kraft TV." Platt was referring to the objections by an anticommunist activist named Laurence Johnson, a grocer from Syracuse, New York, to the appearance of the actor John Randolph on the program Kraft owned, Kraft Television Theatre (1947-1958). Reber, who was in charge of producing and casting Kraft's program, then wrote to Edward G. Wilson, the vice president of JwT's legal department: "Jack's statement that 'it had better not happen again' seems to mean we have no alterna tive but to check all Kraft names against a blacklist," though a » "we all had been hoping that this step would not be necessary." Wilson complied by creating a "Master List" of 1,045 names.