Faye Emerson
- Episode aired Dec 7, 1954
- TV-PG
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- TriviaTelevision personality Faye Emerson and television critic John Crosby debated Aware founder Vince Hartnett and president Godfrey P. Schmidt about blacklisting issues. Hartnett reportedly got so angered at Emerson's positions that he physically confronted her backstage after the program's taping.
Vincent Hartnett was an employee of the Phillips H. Lord agency, an independent radio-program production house who held right-wing views. In 1947 Roy Brewer, a close friend of Ronald Reagan was appointed to the Motion Picture Industry Council. Brewer later commissioned a booklet entitled "Red Channels". Published on 22nd June, 1950, and written by Hartnett and Ted C. Kirkpatrick, a former FBI agent, it listed the names of 151 writers, directors and performers who they claimed had been members of subversive organizations before the Second World War but had not so far been blacklisted. Entertainers and writers listed in Red Channels included Larry Adler, Stella Adler, Leonard Bernstein, WB, Marc Blitzstein, Joseph Bromberg, Lee J. Cobb, Aaron Copland, John Garfield, Howard Da Silva, Dashiell Hammett, E. Y. Harburg, Lillian Hellman, Burl Ives, Zero Mostel, Arthur Miller, Betsy Blair, Marsha Hunt, Dorothy Parker, Joseph Losey, Anne Revere, Pete Seeger, Gale Sondergaard, Howard K. Smith, Louis Untermeyer and Josh White. Hartnett also formed "Aware", which published a series of bulletins that were distributed to industry executives. The organization was funded by Lawrence A. Johnson, the owner of a chain of supermarkets in Syracuse. According to Victor S. Navasky, the author of Naming Names (1980): "Since about 60 percent of television advertising revenue came from goods sold in supermarkets, Johnson's campaign was effective."
In 1955, radio and television host John Henry Faulk discovered that Aware had labeled him a communist because of his involvement in the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists union. With the encouragement and financial support of Edward R. Murrow, Faulk sued Hartnett and Johnson. Faulk engaged New York attorney Louis Nizer to take his case whereas Roy Cohn appeared for the defense.
After a long delay, the trial finally opened on 23rd April, 1962, in the New York State Supreme Court, presided over by Justice Abraham Geller. During the trial, Faulk's attorney Nizer proved the existence of the blacklist and its detrimental impact to Faulk's standard of living. The trial ended with a jury award of $3.5 million, the largest libel award in U.S. legal history at that time. The defendants' appeals resulted in the reduction of the damages to $500,000.
Co-defendant Lawrence A. Johnson passed away the day the verdict was reached, forcing the court to appoint a temporary administrator. Faulk eventually settled out of court with Johnson's estate for $175,000. Co-defendant Vincent Hartnett became destitute during the trial and appeal proceedings, making it difficult for Faulk to collect damages.
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