When she's remembered, Judy Holliday is mainly known for her role in Garson Kanin's Born Yesterday as gun moll turned citizen.

Recently, an article in Esquire (behind a paywall, of course), cited Mary McCarthy's infamous putdown of writer Lillian Hellman in a 1978 interview: “I can’t stand her. I think every word she writes is false, including ‘and’ and ‘but.'” Writers on the right and left love this line. What's better than a catfight, first of all?

A nice (and short!) profile of filmmaker Nicole London, whose beautiful documentary about performer and activist Hazel Scott is in post-production. This is a long overdue film about Scott's impact, influence, and art.

Turns out that film noir classic Laura, written by blacklisted screenwriter and novelist Vera Caspary, has a perfect 100 on Rotten Tomatoes. In a recent article, Kelcie Mattson (who coincidentally graduated from Stephens College, where blacklisted actor Jean Muir once taught acting) describes the film as depicting "the ways realistic women move within stifling conditions, and how men react when women breach patriarchal expectations." As such, she adds, "Laura stands tall as a minor miracle."

Great piece by Martha Fischer, who I had the pleasure of meeting when she visited to read Jean Muir's papers (which are archived at the University of Oregon). Can't wait to read the biography she is writing.

Judy Holliday was brilliant. She was a smart and funny, a member of a Village improv group called the Revuers. She was committed to a wide range of political causes, including serving on the radical Voice of Freedom Committee along with Dorothy Parker and Paul Robeson, and supporting the Civil Rights Congress.

Hannah Weinstein was a blacklisted writer who left the US in 1950 with her three young daughters and founded Sapphire Films in England, a company that went on to inaugurate the costume drama craze of the fifties before returning to the US in the 1960s and, with Ossie Davis, James Earl Jones, and Rita Moreno, founding Third World Cinema Corporation. Her daughter Paula became a successful movie producer and studio executive in the US.

Just sharing a great article for Women's HIstory Month about the invisible history of Black women's contributions to classical music, including Shirley Graham Du Bois, whose Tom Tom was the first opera produced by a Black woman when it premiered in 1932.

I just stumbled across this article, which combines three wonderful items: Langston Hughes, the Chicago Defender, and ghosts. Hughes was a poet and writer who was blacklisted in the 1950s and the subject of much government and anti-communist organization concern because of his powerful voice and the respect he commanded. The Chicago Defender was one of the most important African American newspapers.