Tom Rosteck <[log in to unmask]> writes: > I have found the original documentaries produced _during_ the era > itself to be the best way to introduce undergrads to McCarthyism (and > they reward in other ways as well). > Try the CBS _SEE IT NOW_ programs produced and aired from October 1953 to > April 1954: "The Case of Milo > Radulovich" is a frightening case study of guilt by association; > "Argument in Indianapolis" concerns the ACLU and the American Legion > controversy over free assembly; "Report on Senator McCarthy" is Murrow > and Friendly's direct assault on the force at the center of the > McCarthyism movement; "McCarthy's Reply" aired on SEE IT NOW shows the > Senator confirming, in his attack on Murrow, what all his critics > long suspected about his tactics; "Annie Lee Moss Before the > McCarthy Committee" is charged coverage of the abuses of the > McCarthyite's "investigative techniques." > Aside from introducing the students to the original figures in the era, > the documentaries ALSO reward by showing examples of _SEE IT NOW_ the > earliest and seminal documentary series and represent a means to suggest > comparison with techniques and aesthetics of documentary practice today. > The "McCarthy Report" and "Reply" programs were slightly edited and > included on a forty minute 16mm film available from McGraw-Hill > films. I have seen this film in public library collections and media > centers in many places so I would think that you should be able to find > it without much difficulty. The other programs have a much more limited > circulation. > You might also want to see if you can locate a copy of OPERATION ABOLITION (I believe that's the correct title), a film that HUAC made and distributed by demanding newfilm of demonstrations against the Committee at a San Francisco(?) hearing. The HUAC version contained many distortions of the facts of the demonstration. There was a later remake of that film, titled OPERATION ??????????(help, somebody) that debunked the HUAC version; as I recall, the remake didn't get as much circulation as the HUAC version, but it made a useful counterpoint for those who had an opportunity to see it. -