[78-L] Red Scare - McCarthy era songs.

[Steve Shapiro]

There were several songs about a HUAC hearing involving People's Artists.  

Talking Un-American Blues
In Contempt/Die Gedanken Sind Frei

Betty Sanders and Irwin Silber had been called to testify; Ron Radosh reported that their subpoenas were ultimately cancelled.  I think folksingers Josh White and Burl Ives both testified and "named names".  In those days, if you got "named", you got blacklisted, couldn't get much work, and stood a chance of losing your job.  This was much worse than just being placed on a no-fly list. I recently read where the first Alice Kramden from the Honeymooners was Pert Kelton, who suddenly lost her job after seven episodes of the show because her real life husband had some years before once endorsed a call for people to march on May Day.  You can't be too careful to whom you get married and you can't be too careful about what you expose the American public to culturally.  Thanks to the McCarthy Era, our country and our people have been safe and morally upright ever since, but we still need to remain vigilant, lest bad influences corrupt us.

Talking Un-American Blues by Betty Sanders (Sanders/Silber)Hootenanny Records 103-B  1952

Sounds like Pete Seeger on banjo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Snvidt4veiE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OZpmin8N4I

http://www.folkarchive.de/talkunam.html

The reverse side is "In Contempt/Die Gedanken Sind Frei", Hootenanny Records 103-A

http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/laura_duncan__ernie_lieberman__betty_sanders_and_osborne_smith

steve


On 5/14/2014 1:39 PM, 78-L Mail List wrote:

A friend sent me this request and of course I open it up to discussion.

Eric


Hi Everyone,
I'm looking for a song from the Red Scare" era about 
either McCarthy himself or ,HUAC. There are 2 verses in "Wasn't that a 
Time?" and a verse in Malvina Reynolds' "Quiz Show," but I can't think 
of any others. What am I not remembering?



____________________________________________________________
Do THIS before eating carbs (every time)
1 EASY tip to increase fat-burning, lower blood sugar & decrease fat storage
http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/537fb43d432a4343d1342st01duc