[7] Participation in Creighton's dramatics society helped Fitch to develop her acting skills, and her debut on stage came unexpectedly when she had to go on for a leading lady who became sick.

[22] In the early years of the Cold War, the Red Scare and McCarthyism were rampant in the United States.

In 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy propelled himself into the spotlight by claiming he had a list of over 200 confirmed communists working in the U.S. State Department.

Red Channels was a pamphlet published in 1950 that identified people in show business who were supposed communists.

Even though she and her husband at the time, writer Jerry D. Lewis, cooperated with the FBI's investigation into their communist background, she had difficulty obtaining movie or television work in the ensuing years.

[4] Eventually she landed minor roles in horror films such as I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957) and Blood of Dracula (1957), and in TV series such as The Lone Ranger.