Marsha Hunt, 1917-2022: An Appreciation of One of Hollywood's True Heroines

The death of actress-activist Marsha Hunt this week is a historic turning point and a personal loss. Marsha was one of the last living actors to begin her film career during the Great Depression in 1935. She became part of a now-defunct Hollywood, first at Paramount and then at MGM, which linked contract talent to studios with artists having little or no say. their choice of roles and careers. Nonetheless, she thrived in the studio system becoming little less than a proper movie star and more of an accomplished professional actress.

Marsha's career was derailed by the Blacklist, a treacherous period in American history that been endlessly reported and misunderstood. Never a communist or a radical, she was an outspoken liberal who refused to accept that her voice was marginalized by the endemic sexism and politics of the time. Marsha was the last survivor of the First Amendment Committee, a group of film actors, directors and writers founded by screenwriter Philip Dunne, actress Myrna Loy and directors John Huston and William Wyler. Members of the group flew to Washington D.C. on October 27, 1947 to protest HUAC hearings investigating alleged subversive communist influence in the motion picture industry. From a public relations perspective, the band's involvement backfired and many people in the band had to seek political cover. After the "Red Channels" pamphlet was published in June 1950, naming Marsha and 150 other artists, journalists and writers as falsely portraying them as subversives who manipulated the entertainment system, she had great difficulty finding work in Hollywood. /p>

Marsha told me she was presented with a loyalty oath that she had to sign for appearing in 'The Happy Time' in 1952, but was never one to dwell on personal unhappiness - Marsha was the original "using lemons to make lemonade" optimist about life. Instead, she preferred to remember her husband in the film, the debonair Charles Boyer. "Every woman should have the opportunity to marry Boyer even if it's only in a movie," she recalls with a smile.

There is a story about Marsha and the blacklist that I experienced first hand. In 2007, my wife and I took Marsha to see “Trumbo,” a documentary about the great screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, written by his son Christopher, whom I knew. Of course, Marsha knew Dalton before and after he was blacklisted as one of the original Hollywood Ten who would be jailed for contempt of Congress. She also appeared in Trumbo's 1971 film adaptation of "Johnny Got His Gun". Watch the film and ask Marsha to tell her where she was sitting and what she was thinking at the time, in the form of a news clip of the HUAC audience in the film. showed him at the 1947 hearing, looked like he was reliving history.

At one point, one of Trumbo's letters was read about the whereabouts of producer Adrian Scott. Scott had been married to actress Anne Shirley, who was one of Marsha's best friends. The letter described Scott's downfall due to being blacklisted: he was fired as a top producer at RKO, his marriage to Anne Shirley ended and he now lived alone in a small house in the valley. , writing television scripts for "The Adventures of Robin". Hood” under an alias as he sat in a chair with his typewriter balanced on a crate of milk and only a picture of Franklin Roosevelt adorning the bare walls of his home. Marsha moaned audibly and put her hand over her heart. When I asked her if she was okay, she nodded and said, "You know I wasn't exactly politically astute back then, but I knew Adrian so well and admired him immensely." I thought he was one of the best men I've ever met, so if he was up for something, I knew it was the right thing to do."