On this day in 1947, film industry executives announce that 10 directors, producers, and actors who have refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) will be fired or suspended.

The HUAC hearings were part of the “Red Scare” of the late 1940s and 1950s, during which Senator Joseph McCarthy and others hounded alleged communists, making unsubstantiated allegations against many innocent citizens and damaging many lives.

Starting in the fall of 1947, HUAC held hearings to investigate rumored communism in the film industry. Numerous actors and executives, including Ronald Reagan, Robert Montgomery, Gary Cooper, and Walt Disney, testified. Some actors named others who allegedly belonged to the Communist Party. The hearings raised deep concerns about civil rights and freedom of expression, and some actors, including Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, and Gene Kelly, protested the hearings. Others refused to testify against their colleagues.

Unfortunately, refusing to testify destroyed the careers of many actors, screenwriters, and others who were “blacklisted” (prohibited from working in the industry). The “Hollywood Ten,” who refused to testify about their political affiliations, were not only fired or suspended without pay but also jailed and fined for contempt of Congress. Eventually, some 300 people were blacklisted, some on very slight evidence, and many careers were ruined. In fear for his career, Humphrey Bogart called his earlier protest against the HUAC hearings “ill-advised and even foolish.” Among those named as communists were Dashiell Hammett, Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker, and Lloyd Bridges.

Some blacklisted writers and directors were able to work in Hollywood under pseudonyms in later years-in fact, “Hollywood Ten” screenwriter Dalton Trumbo won an Oscar for his script for The Brave One, written under the pseudonym Robert Rich.