John Randolph's life and legacy

HOLLYWOOD: John Randolph, actor and activist, passed away 
earlier this year, aged 88. Noel Rabinowitz recounts his life and 
times.

John Randolph shined his light through the anti-Communist 
hysteria of the McCarthyite 1950s. He was systematically banned 
from film and TV for over a decade by the Hollywood blacklisting 
of those named as Communist, but made a triumphant 30-year 
comeback with his principles intact.

Young Randolph, of middle-class Jewish immigrant stock, grew up 
in the Bronx in the 1930s. This was a hard time for anyone to 
find work, as the Great Depression still gripped the country in 
massive unemployment.

Randolph's first stage work came via the New Deal's Works 
Progress Administration (WPA), which created work projects for 
the unemployed in their field of skill.

"I was in the theatre project part of the WPA and we did original 
works", said Randolph. The Federal Theatre Project (FTP), formed 
in August 1935, performed across the country. Its mission was to 
bring affordable theatre productions to working class 
communities. Two-thirds of the FTP productions were free and the 
rest were cheap. Their Negro Theatre Unit's Macbeth, which 
electrified Harlem, for example, had a price scale from 15-40 
cents, compared to a ticket price of $1-$3 for a Broadway show 
then.

One of the FTP's children's plays was called Revolt of the 
Beavers. Randolph describes the 1937 production. "There were 
beavers stripping the bark. They made the food, but they were 
always hungry. And I was on the other side. I played a 
reactionary beaver. There was 'Rough', 'Tough' and 'Gruff.' I was 
'Tough'", said the smiling Randolph.

His first brush with stardom was also his first brush with anti-
communism. The company was "hounded by Boy Scout Troop 237 in the 
Bronx who said Revolt of the Beaver was a Communist play", 
said Randolph. And the FTP would soon be engulfed in the 
gathering tempest of right-wing attack.

In 1938 Representative Martin Dies of Texas established a 
committee in the House to investigate "un-American" activities, 
especially of the FTP that Dies claimed was "nothing but straight 
Communist propaganda".

With corporate monopolies of 1938 facing a rising tide of union 
victories and progressive social changes, the right wing could 
not afford public arts programs that spread pro-worker politics. 
Dies' hostile "red-baiting" attack on the FTP from his House Un-
American Activities Committee (HUAC) led to the 1939 WPA 
appropriations bill to specify none of its funds "shall be 
available for the operation of any Theatre Project".

However, three other WPA arts projects — music, art and writing 
— held on to their embattled funding until 1941. It was in this 
context that Randolph gained political and union experience.

"I met all these wonderful people. Then I became the editor of 
the newspaper in the union that was formed in the City Projects 
Council. Unheard of. A union? The government giving you money and 
you formed a union?"

While HUAC continued to operate through World War II, Randolph 
served in the Army Air Force as a control tower operator and fire 
fighter, never sent overseas due to health reasons — the same 
that had kept him from joining the Abraham Lincoln Brigades (ALB) 
fighting in Spain against Franco Fascism. In later years, he was 
made an honorary ALB veteran for his fundraising dedication.

Randolph was active in the early civil rights struggles and 
participated in efforts to open up the stage and screen to actors 
of all races. He said, "I've been with African American actors 
all my life. I was in Native Son and we went all over the 
country". In fact, he married his wife, actress Sarah Cunningham, 
in the break between two performances of Native Son in Chicago in 
1945.

Blacklisted

Soon after the Cold War was declared, the venomous Republican Joe 
McCarthy chaired the new Senate version of HUAC. McCarthy's HUAC, 
formed in 1951, lived off hunting "reds" in high places of 
government power and Hollywood glamour.

"Are you now, or have you ever been a member of the Communist 
Party?" was the battering ram of the red scare. Hollywood studio 
bosses actively ran their part by sharing a list of accused 
Communists (the "blacklist") with each other and the FBI.

Blacklisted actors, writers and directors could not work and 
could only "clear their name" by naming others for HUAC. 
Hollywood was poisoned by an atmosphere of fear and paranoia 
where thousands lost their work and some, their lives. In so 
doing, the studios gained power over the unions and their workers 
by muzzling the most outspoken and setting worker against worker.

As a known progressive unionist and activist and rising actor of 
the screen, Randolph was betrayed to the blacklist by another 
actor who was "under suspicion". He and Cunningham were 
subpoenaed by HUAC in 1955. They both refused to answer any 
questions, pleading the 5th Amendment — the only way not to 
incriminate others nor get thrown in jail.

Randolph was a proud member of the Communist Party. His defiance 
of HUAC was based not on fear, but on principles plainly written 
by Randolph to the Committee prior to the hearing, "I may think 
what I want, and associate with whom I please, either in the 
union, on the stage, or in politics".

In every struggle

Like before the blacklist, Randolph was a steady activist as he 
worked to overcome it. "I've been in every struggle in my day. I 
go back to the early days of the civil rights movement. I 
picketed against war. I marched for peace. I was elected to union 
office. I loved what I was doing. I didn't try to dodge it. So, I 
say, 'Speak up, say how you feel. Don't just sit in the back and 
let somebody else take it'".

Randolph said he survived because "I grabbed any job I could and 
I fought the whole time against blacklisting and so did my wife". 
By the '60s, TV commercials opened up to him when the TV union 
(AFTRA) stood against blacklisting. Dozens of TV roles would 
follow, including in recent years as Roseanne's father on the 
long-running sitcom Roseanne. In the '70s and on, after 
the Screen Actors Guild finally dropped its anti-Communist 
clause, he was back in film: King Kong (1976), Heaven 
Can Wait (1978), Prizzi's Honor (1985), You've Got 
Mail (1998) and many others.

His long comeback was capped by a Tony Award in 1986 for his work 
in Neil Simon's Broadway Bound.

Accepting the Tony, Randolph joked, "I didn't get into acting to 
win awards; it's just that I couldn't do anything else".

Stuck to his principles

On March 21, 1999, the Academy Award for lifetime achievement was 
given to director Elia Kazan, who cooperated with HUAC in 1952 
and destroyed the careers of friends and fellow workers by naming 
them.

That tense night at the Academy Awards set the stage for a 
vindicating encore by Randolph. With millions watching news of 
the Kazan controversy on TV, Randolph spoke at a press conference 
of protesting actors.

He said that by Kazan's "choice and by his words, people's 
careers were virtually eliminated and lives shattered. No amount 
of filmmaking can change the unpleasant, uncomfortable truth. 
This was also part of his lifetime achievement." Kazan, without 
apology, saying few thanks, took the award and exited stage 
right. The deafening orchestra couldn't mask the loud jeers and 
the cameras couldn't avoid the many who stayed in their seats in 
protest.

Randolph remembered that night, "To see so many people not 
applauding was an example of the world not accepting rotten and 
stinking and hurtful people. When nobody's afraid, that's a good 
feeling."

Looking back on his own career and life, Randolph said, "You know 
you can't act if you're afraid. So I became a better actor 
because of my politics. It was a tough fight, but there's no 
answer to anything except you fight together. I have not given up 
my political convictions to this day and I didn't give in to 
anybody, and neither did my wife."

Looking forward to the tough road ahead, Randolph reminded us 
that German Communist playwright Berthold Brecht said, "When you 
see them rising up, the ones who hate the Jews, hate the Blacks, 
they are bringing back the lie and the lie will support them to a 
certain extent. And we have to fight against that lie. If you 
just talk and you don't fight back, what good are you?"

If measured by fightback, Randolph was damned good. Throughout 
his life, he lent his name, energy, resources and love to the 
cause of workers, equality and socialism. In today's atmosphere 
of fear and suspicion, of secret military tribunals, and 
corporate, right-wing media control and film censorship, we can 
help see our way through with light from Randolph's smile and his 
example.

* * *

People's Weekly World