Committee for the First Amendment

It was founded by screenwriter Philip Dunne, actress Myrna Loy, and film directors John Huston and William Wyler.

Other members included Lucille Ball, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall,[1] Jules Buck, Richard Conte, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Dandridge, Bette Davis, Olivia DeHavilland, Melvyn Douglas, Henry Fonda, John Garfield,[1] Judy Garland, Ira Gershwin,[1] June Havoc, Sterling Hayden, Paul Henreid, Katharine Hepburn, Lena Horne, Marsha Hunt,[1] Danny Kaye,[1] Gene Kelly,[1] Evelyn Keyes, Burt Lancaster, Groucho Marx, Burgess Meredith, Vincente Minnelli, Edward G. Robinson, Robert Ryan, Frank Sinatra, Kay Thompson, Billy Wilder, and Jane Wyatt.

[4] The group, which was generally composed of non-Communist New Deal liberal Democrats, was hurt when it was subsequently revealed that Sterling Hayden had been a Communist Party member.

Bogart, one of the biggest Hollywood stars of his time, was attacked by many liberals and fellow travelers for supposedly selling out to save his career.

[7] Edward G. Robinson, a well-known long-time New Deal liberal who had been friends with Franklin D. Roosevelt, was "graylisted" (never officially blacklisted, but not hired by film producers), and made his living as a stage actor during the period of McCarthyism until director Cecil B. DeMille, a noted and vociferous anti-communist, hired him for his 1956 remake of The Ten Commandments.

[8] John Huston later moved to Ireland, reportedly to avoid any backlash from the McCarthyism that gripped the United States in the post-War period.