Will Geer, who most people today remember for his role as Grandpa Walton on the long-running television show, was black-listed by Hollywood after speaking before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the 1950s. Geer reported to the hearing dressed in the costume he wore playing Jeeter Lester in “Tobacco Road” on Broadway and chewing gum like a wad of tobacco. Walking into the room he said “Where is the hot seat?” Geer invoked his Fifth Amendment right and refused to implicate others or to confirm or deny past membership in the Communist Party. He was but one of many people in the entertainment industry called before the HUAC and subsequently black-listed and denied work. By the end of the 1950s, black-listing was discontinued and Geer was hired by Otto Preminger in 1962, to be in “Advise and Consent.”
Greenfield Recorder-Gazette. “Will Geer, Movie Actor, Keeps Silent on Past.” April 11, 1951. Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, American Centuries. https://americancenturies.org/collection/l06-067/. Accessed on October 16, 2024.
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