Original subtitles

Hello, I'm calling from the internet. I'd like to...

We're checking on our Freedom of Information Act request, plus Wilson's

Newman's. I think something did come in for you. Hold it.

Progress. Yeah, and it only took six months. Right.

Sign here, and it is all yours. Thank you.

Must be a big story.

Well, it all depends. We'll know when we see what's in here.

The file is turned over with nine out of ten pages detained for reasons of

national security.

Yeah, that's more for the course.

It ought to be called the Frustration of Information Act. The government's

calling any notice calling. The government is uptight, and I can

Hey, if I was in government, I wouldn't want people seeing what I'm doing

either.

Yeah. I can understand them worrying about foreign agents, seeing how our

security system works, or organized crime figures finding out who it was

informed on them. Has that ever happened?

The point is they think it could.

Is someone going to say something to the FBI, for instance, about a criminal if

the crook can request his folder and find out who it was that ratted on him?

eight months, I've been waiting for something on a product safety story.

Toy safety.

Children's toys. That's not national security or violent crime.

No, but see, most of these requests come from businesses looking for data on the

competition. So that's the biggest backlog.

Adam, they're stalling you, too. Yeah, I know. But I can understand.

Really? I'm just saying, I can understand.

You guys ready?

Let's do it.

You know they want to change the law.

Who? Lots of people. They want to make it tougher to get information.

Good. It's not challenging enough as it is.

Okay, back me up about four beats here. Which Freedom of Information Act request

is the problem? I can't get anything on my product safety story. And I've been

hung up on my rubber industry piece.

We've got Taylor's stand here. That's the worst.

The physicist who was appointed had the radiation lab but didn't get security

clearance. I thought it might have to do with his political affiliations in the

60s. I told Ross and Abby to run it down. We apply for the FBI files through

FOIA. Six months later, what you see is what we got. Delete, delete, delete.

We'll keep trying.

If we still can't get anywhere, we'll sue them for the information.

Sure, in about two years we'll have enough for a story. I said keep trying.

You know, maybe you're not looking back far enough.

What do you mean? Well, maybe Stanfield was political in the 50s.

Some of these entries go back that far.

Try that.

Use the file, clips, everything you can find out about the guy in the 50s.

Thanks. Thanks, Donald.

That's a good idea. I hate the 50s.

And you hate the 50s. You're in kindergarten. Everything you know about

here. So you have to live through the 50s, eh? I don't see what good it's

to do to go back that far.

Look, maybe our guy was denied security clearance because the FBI thought he was

some kind of a pinko. But why did you take this part?

Hey, it's because the Ebley brothers aren't your style. Doesn't mean you can

duck an assignment. Now stop being weird about this. Come on.

Good morning, gentlemen.

Morning. Well.

My niece reads Dr.

Valentine's straight talk.

I bet she does. Most kids do. I can see why.

He has such a natural, down -to -earth way of writing about these things,

especially for young people.

I thought today's piece was particularly direct and informative.

So did I, as far as it goes.

Anyway, Mrs. Pinchot, about this Jed Crosley thing.

He's our main long -term investigative reporter.

If it's a matter of rehiring, I'm all for it. He does good work.

It's not that simple, Mrs. Pinchot. His contract is up, as you know, and the

Denver Post has made him an offer.

What kind of offer? We don't know the details.

We do know that their people saw him when they were out here, and he went

to Denver for two days last month.

We've offered him a 10 % increase.

I don't think he'd be considering the Denver job if their offer wasn't better

than that.

With a 15 % increase, we might be competitive.

Wait a minute.

Isn't Jed Crosley married to one of Millie Bronson's daughters?

I think you may be right.

Who's Millie Bronson? Well, you would have no reason to know this, but Millie

Bronson was the treasure of my dormitory when I was in college and a force to be

reckoned with even then.

Any daughter of Millie Bronson is not going to give up 20 years of social

climbing here to move to Denver.

Our offer is safe.

I sure hate to lose a good man.

If I know anything, I know the Bronson girls, Mr. Brown.

Trust me.

Oh, great.

Here's Stanfield getting married.

I can't believe that little mink collar on her suit.

Oh, here's one of them getting into one of those cars. What were they called?

An Edfield. A man owned an Edfield. That's reason enough for him not getting

important scientific post.

Oh, these clips really don't show much.

Yeah, but this file does have entries from the early 50s. Mostly deleted, of

course. We're just going to have to keep plowing through.

You know, Donovan's having some people over for the title fight. He asked me to

come.

Said I should bring someone.

Wait a minute.

Are you actually asking me to show up with you at a social function outside of

work?

I didn't know how to get out of it.

Well, thanks.

No, no, no, that's not what I meant.

You're off the hook. I can't make it.

My father's coming in town, and I'd like to be with him.

In fact, why don't you come meet him?

Well, eventually.

Well, he doesn't get to L .A. much.

I would like it if you could come.

If you don't mind missing the fights.

I hate the fights.

Good.

You squeeze anything out of that file?

Oh, yeah. The FBI was real interested in our physicists in the 50s.

But it's the most censored part of the record.

A piece all like this. March 1, 1951. Conversation with F .J. Obler.

Delete. They didn't even say what F .J. Obler was.

Frank Obler.

What do you mean? There was Frank Obler.

Our Frank Obler?

His middle initial is J.

He worked for a paper up in the Bay Area in the early 50s.

That's when Stanfield was up there at Berkeley.

Well, Frank came down here when I called Bulletin Food.

Probably a different guy.

Just a thought.

This could be a very good break.

Joe, what are you going to do?

I'm going to ask Frank if he's with F .J. Oakland and ask him about Banfield.

Joe, if he was hassled by the FBI, maybe this is something he doesn't want to

talk about.

Well, if he doesn't want to talk about it, he can tell us.

I can find out. Wait a minute. Don't just go charging up to him yet, okay?

I mean, it's been 30 years. He's not going anyplace. I just want to think

this for a while, okay?

We heard from Jed Crosley today.

Was I right?

You called it.

His wife won't leave L .A. Ah, I knew it.

She and Jed just split up.

He's glad of the excuse to move and can use the raise, so he's taking the Denver

job.

Well, I'm sorry.

So am I.

This disturbance could have been avoided if I'd been consulted earlier. We told

you as soon as we heard Jed might be leaving. I mean before that.

What could you have done before that? I could have told Jed not to marry a

Bronson.

Is that a record or is someone playing?

That's my father.

I'm the one who's working, and I have to get the door. Come in, kid.

Daddy.

Abigail.

Hey.

Hey, Larry.

I love you.

Oh, my.

Everybody, this is Joe Rossi, my daddy.

Pleasure.

Dotty Hill, make yourself comfortable. I've got to finish burning the roast.

And Larry Hill.

Pleased to meet you.

My granddaughter, Jenny, Mr. Rossi.

We've got some sort of an emergency here. My oldest granddaughter has a

lady for an English teacher.

Their assignment is to analyze Macbeth.

Could you analyze Macbeth in the seventh grade? I couldn't analyze Macbeth now.

I'll be right there, Jenny.

Why can't they work on Peter Pan?

I only played the part for four years.

Macbeth, not Peter Pan.

Abby, get Joe something to drink and fix your father a refill of his favorite.

Okay.

A beer, right?

Yeah. Daddy?

Apple juice, I guess.

Of course.

I always have a ton of apple juice on ice when I stay here. Because they know

you really love it.

I don't.

About 30 years ago, they got the idea that I did, so I've got to go along with

it. I know. Everybody thinks I love orange soda. I don't love it.

I like it.

Sometimes.

Right.

Let's sit down.

you did on the Sonny Goodwin Jazz Quartet.

Oh. Really fine.

Thank you.

Uh, the St. Louis papers pick it up?

Abigail sent it to me.

She just sent me the interview you did for that hospital administrator.

Oh.

Oh, you really raked him over the coals.

I just write what I see.

You didn't much like what you saw, did you?

I'm glad you don't review folk music for the Trib. I couldn't review folk music.

I don't know much about it.

Neither does the guy the Trib's got doing it.

She sends me his stuff, too.

Where does Abby send you my articles?

She wanted me to know what you were like.

She wanted to show me how smart this fellow is that she likes so much.

Explain something.

Yeah. Your dad works as a house painter. He plays the guitar, and he sings

great, and he's here to do a concert.

The Folk Otter Concert at the Lemon Tree.

And Larry, Larry?

Larry Hill.

Yeah. He was once an actor, but I've never heard of him. And now he teaches

photography.

Well, you would have heard of Lawrence Hill if he'd kept acting.

And folk singing people do know Daddy.

This is his first concert here in 30 years. But before that, he was really

catching on.

Before what?

Before Larry and Daddy were blacklisted.

Lou Grant will continue in a moment here on A &E.

Read about it here. There you go, sir. It's important.

Thank you. We're talking about the parents and the children. Thank you.

you, sir. Read it. Don't read the tributes. Keep moving, folks.

Morning. Please keep the sidewalk.

Don't read the tributes. Read about it here. We're talking about the children.

There you go, sir. Thank you. Read it. It's important.

You see what reading that Dr. Collins did to her?

That happened for reading? Oh, he told her to just go out and sleep with

That's what happens when you do that.

Do you work here? Oh, yeah, I do. I'd love to stop and chat, but I'm late as

is. Can you give us the names of some editors?

Just names of editors?

Yeah. Well, editors.

Well, Ben Bradley, Barry White.

Oh, I've never heard of it. Are they important guys? Oh, yeah.

What about the name of somebody really big?

Really big?

Horace Greeley.

Thanks, Brian. You sure you don't want me to make another coffee run? I'm fine.

Okay,

the reason we wanted to holler with you guys right away is to head this thing

off before it becomes a major problem. Which it may already be.

Has advertising lost any revenues because of this protest?

Well, not yet. Not this quickly.

That's what I mean.

We tried to look down the road, the first bend in it, and, well, Brian, you

the checking.

These people are well organized, not fringy at all. They're upstanding,

-of -the -community types.

And they've already contacted Merck's building supply, Janssen's markets, and

some of the bigger department stores.

What is it they want?

To remove Dr.

Valentine's column from the Tribune. We're getting a huge increase in mail

this column, too. So we thought we'd get with you guys and figure out a

response. We're being tested here, and we need to find a way to meet the

challenge. I'm glad to hear an advertising man talk that way.

Do you have a proposal?

Well, that's where I wanted to hear your thoughts.

Let me ask you something.

Is Dr. Valentine that good?

I mean, do we really need to have him? That's your way to meet the challenge?

dump the doctor?

Of course, that's your decision. I was just asking as a non -editorial person.

Do you read him? I don't usually. I just looked at the last column when all the

ruckus started.

All that stuff about female sexuality seemed pretty old hat.

I think it might not be familiar to everyone.

Well, I guess not to kids.

Which is exactly why the column is so important.

It explains matters in an honest, An unembarrassed way.

And he doesn't advocate teenage sex either, as those people downstairs seem

think. Do we have to run every column, though? I mean, some are more

controversial than others. We keep the guy, but duck the problem pieces.

Can I give you a full answer to that proposal so you'll understand it? Yeah.

Look, Charlie, we have a situation here. I am not going to start censoring these

columns, Mike.

Okay. But a parents' group in Dayton did get the column dropped from the paper

there entirely.

So we better do something.

I get paid to tell you that.

These people are not just going to go away.

Mike.

My fireworks regulation piece is in. Fourth in a series.

Thank you.

In which superior investigative skills are demonstrated. What have you got?

The kind of skills needed to fill Crosley's job when it opens up.

I know everybody in the city rooms after.

And you might be thinking to yourself, Newman's recently married and Newman

might not want assignments that will take her to...

Alaska or wherever for four months.

Well, just so you know, Newman is interested.

Fine.

Everything okay at home?

I'm going to throw my hat in the ring.

For the investigative job, Lance? I just want to be considered, okay?

I know I haven't been at this long, but what I lack in experience, I make up in

gumption and grit.

This position does not require punch and doggies.

Will you consider me?

We'll consider everybody who's interested.

If it comes down to me or Billy, though, give it to her.

A mayor's talk Wednesday night is now going to be a major policy address.

Yours unless Wednesday night is still when you're unavailable.

It is, but that's all right.

What's Wednesday night?

School. You teach? I take class.

I believe in that.

Keep learning.

We should all take one or two classes in something every year. Where do you take

them? Third grade math.

It's for my teaching credential.

You planning on leaving us?

Oh, no, but I've almost got it, so why not finish?

Thank you.

To have, just in case.

In case what?

Anything.

Excuse me.

What are you studying third grade?

Fractions. You know, how do you divide a pizza among seven people?

How do you divide a pizza among seven people?

Frank, how's it going?

Oh, hi, Abby.

Fine. Want to join Lou, Billy, and me? We have room.

Well, I'm really through.

That's very sweet of you. I would have enjoyed the company.

Just thought I'd ask.

You know, we always seem to have lunch with the people we work with most.

That's true, isn't it? Yeah.

Well, another time, maybe.

Okay. I'd like that.

We'll do it.

Good.

Sorry.

It's okay. I gave me a chance to lobby Lou for the investigative job.

I mean, how come you haven't applied?

You're about the only one not to.

I would have thought that's just what you were headed for.

I don't know.

No time, really.

Time for school, but not this.

It just didn't occur to me.

I'll think about it.

We just don't have it.

Well, what now?

Well, you know what I think we ought to do.

Talk to Frank over.

Why not?

Well, I just figured that if the FBI were asking him questions in the early

well, there's a good chance it was because they were hounding him. Just

they hounded my father and his friends.

And it's an area I'm real sensitive about, that's all. Look, if he seems

uncomfortable, we'll back off. Anyway, what choice do we have?

All right, come on.

Frank? Abby.

How about next Thursday for life? Oh, great.

But this is something else.

We thought maybe you could help us with a story, Frank. Yeah, feel free to say

no. Tell me what it's about.

What do you know about Taylor Stanfield?

Who? He was a physicist who was denied security clearance to head a radiation

lab back in the 50s.

We looked in his FBI file. Did you know him, Frank?

Never heard of him.

The file indicates they talked to an F .J. Obler. We thought maybe it was you.

I'd like to help. I've never talked to an FBI person in my life.

You are Frank J. Obler, though.

Yeah. And you did live in the Bay Area.

Mm -hmm.

I wish I could help.

Is there anything else?

No.

No? Thanks, Frank.

Well, we must have the wrong guy.

Yeah. Must be tons of F .J. Oblers who lived in the Bay Area in 1952.

Rossi! Just a man I wanted to see.

What about?

Got a couple of tickets for the basketball playoffs.

You and Abby want them?

One me and Abby.

I thought you were dating.

Here, you want the tickets?

Want one of them?

That'd be great, thanks. Well, uh, here, can you use them both?

Well, uh, yeah.

Oh, boy, another group saving the dolphins.

They always get the $15 for me if they have dolphins.

How late are we?

Oh, late. You're right, I'll check the mail later.

I thought I had my blue sweater over here.

Check the closet.

I'm checking the closet.

Now check the lower left -hand drawer in my desk. I made that one your drawer.

Got it.

You know,

we have a strange relationship.

Yeah, I know. I should have a couple of drawers.

No.

I'm not talking about that.

I'm talking about people not knowing what to make of us.

We're always pretending we're not together.

I know. I just don't like a big thing about it.

Is it because of race?

Abby, come on.

Is it? No, of course not.

It's just that... I don't know.

When you... It just feels awkward when you're seeing someone you work with.

Everybody knows about it, you know?

Yeah, I guess so.

Like, um...

Me and Humphreys.

How about you and Humphreys?

When we dated.

I didn't know you dated Humphreys.

You see?

How long were you seeing him?

Oh, about four minutes.

Months ago.

Months ago, before we started going out.

No, after we started going out.

Before we started going out a lot.

You ready?

You know something?

We never talk about rape.

What about it?

How do you feel about black people?

I like some and not others.

How do you feel about white people?

I like some and not others.

Some better than others.

Well, I'm glad we had this discussion.

Yeah, so am I.

Maybe we can do it again sometime. Can we get going? Oh.

Yeah.

I'm riding on that new river train I'm riding on that

new river train It's the same old train that brought me

here Soon gonna carry me away

Well, something like that.

I only have two days to get it right.

So, what's been doing with you two?

Well, I'm having lunch with someone on Thursday who I think may have gone

through the blacklist.

Have you heard of Frank Obler?

Franklin J. Obler? A reporter in the 50s?

Yeah. He's still a reporter. Works on the Tribune. Nice guy.

And I know who you mean.

I think he used to work up in the Bay Area.

Then he came down here to write about the entertainment industry.

He went to a lot of parties, knew a lot of people.

They were going to call him before the House Committee on American Activities,

and then they didn't.

We were pretty sure he talked to the FBI in secret and informed on his friends.

He was a fink.

Lou Grant will continue in a moment here on A &E.

This is the way the blacklist worked.

The committee of the House of Representatives or the Senate or the

would hold hearings.

People would be subpoenaed.

Some refused to testify.

Those who did would say before the hearing or in secret that

someone was seen at a Communist Party meeting or was associating with well

-known communists or was a member of a front organization.

or an organization associated with or thought to be a front organization.

And then the person who was named was called to testify.

And if he didn't cooperate with the committee and name other people, then he

wouldn't be able to work in the entertainment industry.

These weren't trials, Joe. They were legislative hearings.

The people who were blacklisted weren't convicted of any crime in a court of

law. But they were punished by their colleagues who wouldn't hire them. So

idea of these hearings was what? To get communists out of the entertainment

industry? In a way, Dot and I don't agree on this.

Go ahead, dear.

Political careers could be made in those days by being tough on communism. It

was a Cold War.

I think there was so much concentration on Hollywood because when the committees

went after celebrities, it got them attention.

It's true. They didn't get any big headlines until they came out here.

Then there were hot stuff.

But you see it differently.

Well, I do think that some people, particularly less informed folks,

that by having people who accepted the principles of communism working in the

movie business, for example, that subliminal communist messages would get

the movies and somehow contaminate the audience and convert people into the

communist way of thinking.

But isn't that insulting the audience?

Yes, that's what they did.

Well, of course, but you have to consider the times.

Not to mention the fact that people have a right to their own ideas, popular or

not. Actually, that's the principle we were trying to uphold.

We did uphold it. But you were ruined.

Oh, no, no, no, no. My career as an actor came to an abrupt stop.

But I wasn't ruined.

No. We lived through it.

I'm still here. All of these people, the political leaders who exploited the

situation, the Hollywood producers and executives who went along with it, the

informers, they were all caught up in something bigger than themselves.

Some were cynical or small -minded or ignorant.

Most were just frightened.

How can you be so generous to them?

They were all bastards.

Billy's piece on the Dr. Valentine controversy does a good job of showing

the parents feel.

They really believe that reading what he writes can be harmful to their

children. I won't let my kid read them.

You're kidding. Why?

I just think he isn't ready. I think that, uh...

Reading about sex would confuse him.

I mean, he's going to find out there's something called sex whether you mention

it to him or not.

Dr. Valentine does talk straight to these kids about things that confuse

sure helped me explain things to Mary.

I think a lot of adults read him.

Well, not me.

I don't know what the fuss is about.

I mean, this is pretty dry stuff.

Although a big deal is often made about simultaneous orgasm, it should be

remembered there is no right way to have sex.

Mutual simultaneous orgasm might be enjoyable, but it is not a requirement

satisfying experience.

Now, that is not exactly the devil and Miss Cindy.

Why are you blushing?

I'm telling you, it'll upset my kid to read that. The column is controversial.

That's what makes this a good piece. And if we don't go page one with this

story, it looks like we're downplaying the heat we're getting on this.

And if we give it a good position, it looks like we think it's a big deal

because it's happening to us.

It's not just happening to us, though.

Column is syndicated nationally. We heard about what happened at Dayton.

I think the story makes sense, page one, if we go beyond Billy's piece.

We should check the reaction around the country, get response from

psychiatrists, teachers, and so on.

That's going to take a lot of troops if you want it fast.

I want it fast.

Okay.

The syndicate that handles Valentine's column says that they've had some

cancellations. See what response the other papers have been getting. Rossi,

you're the east.

Lance, the south and midwest.

Billy, the west.

Frank and Abby, you'll be going through the mail. The trip has been getting

about Dr.

Valentine's straight talk. This is for deadline.

Deadline. Right.

I'm going to say right, chief. I can feel my ball.

Lou, I still have a lot of contacts in the midwest. Maybe Lance and I can

switch. No, it's fine.

Do we really need two people going through the mail?

Yes, Abby. Get going.

Rain or shine, it's the mailman.

Put them there, Leon. Thank you.

Well, I guess just grab a bunch and get started.

Sort them into pro and con.

We don't have to do that exercise, Frank. We don't have time.

We'll just pull the most outrageous stuff on both sides.

We need to know the trend.

Tell me what we need to know, Frank.

We need to get this done fast.

We'll waste time if we're not organized.

And you're going to decide how to organize it?

Look, we're supposed to be working on the same side here. Are we?

Okay. You take half and do them your way.

I'll take half and do them my way. If it's screwed up... You've got the

You do it.

What's going on? We have to talk.

What is it? I can't work with that guy.

You know I'm not difficult.

You know I get along with people, but I can't work with him. Why?

He's just not my type, okay?

I need more than that.

He's a creep. I don't want to be around him.

Is this a racial thing?

Has Frank said something because... No, no.

Frank Obler is a very experienced reporter and I think a very nice man.

Maybe you don't know him very well.

What do you mean?

Forget it.

I am not going to forget it, Abby. If there's a problem in my city room, I'm

going to find out about it. The problem is...

Do you remember that Obler turned up in that FBI file?

Yeah. Well, he's an informer. An FBI stoolie. He saved his skin by naming

He was a friendly witness?

Worse. He was a secret witness.

He went through the charades without even facing the people he accused. The

is slime.

The blacklist was before your time.

My father was blacklisted.

I was seven years old when it happened.

I grew up watching a talented musician paint houses because he couldn't work in

his chosen field.

I'm sorry.

It's all behind us now.

My father's gonna play here for the first time in 30 years.

He's part of a concert of some folk singers who were popular in the 50s and

There's an ad for it in the Tribune.

Price McCann.

That's my father.

You know, he doesn't know this, but...

But I saw a letter he got this week from someone who saw the ad.

It was a sick letter.

It was full of stuff like, I don't want to see your disgusting rat commie face

or hear your miserable pinko commie songs.

I want to see you hung from a tree and dead.

It went on for two sides of a page full of hate and vile.

That wasn't a long time ago, Lou.

That was this week.

Like over a boy.

A lot of people did a lot of strange things in those days.

Weren't you here then, starting at the trip?

I was here for some of it.

It was a pretty shabby episode.

I guess if enough decent people had opposed it early on, it could have been

stopped, but most people were just glad it was missing them.

It wasn't so clear then.

There were people who were begging to be allowed to work who'd been tainted.

Some, you know, embraced the blacklist.

Most just stayed in the sidelines.

And then, of course, there were those who purged themselves by informing.

And some informed behind a cloak of secrecy, like Frank.

Pretty low.

Yeah.

I know how Abby feels.

I don't want to work with him.

Lou Grant will continue in a moment here on A &E.

So then what? So Rosenthal goes up to Lou and attacks the box. He's a little

unsteady.

And he says to Lou, if he doesn't get the investigative job when Crosley goes,

then he'll know what Lou thinks of him. And Lou says he'll tell him what he

thinks of him right now. And Rosenthal says, I'd prefer to wait. Oh, I love it.

So everyone at the paper's applied for the job except you.

Yeah?

How come?

Oh, I just haven't.

Here, help me get the sheet.

I've never gone after a job.

How'd you get hired by the Trib?

They came to me.

They called me up out of the blue because they saw my stuff and liked it.

It wouldn't occur to me to put myself up for a job.

Why?

It's tough for me, okay?

Why?

I don't know.

I know that I'm always grateful just to have work.

I don't want to...

Tamper with the fate so they'll take it all away from me.

Like they did with your dad?

Maybe.

I think of Dr. Valentine, the sex doctor, as, well, sexy.

Could be.

You haven't met him?

Just talked to him on the phone.

He's coming here, so we'll all get a look. Good looking and sexy.

I pictured a sort of a grandfatherly person.

Actually, we know he's kind of young.

But you're right.

Hang loose kind of guy. Probably looks like you, animal.

Yeah, that's what Billy's been saying.

Get the door, will you, Frank?

I need to clear the air.

I heard something about you.

I don't want to go around believing something of his false.

What?

You were an informer during the blacklist period.

Nobody's ever asked me about it that bluntly.

Well... A congressional committee asked me

questions. I answered them. I told them the truth. I made nothing up.

In secret?

Yes.

I wasn't interested in grandstanding.

Didn't want a lot of other people asking me questions.

I did what I had to do, as minimally as possible.

You had to inform on friends?

Those people weren't my friends.

I had at one point as a young person come to believe that some of the

social ideas in communism had some relevance for this country.

I started going to party meetings, doing a lot of reading.

It wasn't long before I found that I didn't like the party types. I didn't

their notion of party discipline.

They were so intense, so dogmatic.

I drifted away from all that.

And then several years later, I suddenly found myself in danger of losing my

ability to work because of those past associations.

I had a family. I didn't want to lose my means of support because people thought

I was a communist when I hated the damn communists and I'd left the party.

So had most of the people who were named.

They were in exactly the same boat.

And they could have said that and been exonerated.

No.

Not unless you gave them the names of other people, and you know it.

The committees weren't doing a legitimate investigation of a threat to

national security.

Well, it wasn't so easy to see it then.

I talked to the FBI and the members of the committee a few hours total.

I didn't say much.

I didn't say who was a communist or who wasn't. Hell, I didn't even know.

I told them that I saw certain people at certain meetings.

It was all true.

Talk to the officials of my government for a couple of hours.

It was the biggest mistake of my life.

All?

I mean, I... I can tell you why I thought I had to do what I

did, but... But even then, a part of me knew it was wrong.

Now it's all over.

The country has rejected the blacklist.

Now it's clear that I would have lost income, probably my job, but I could

done something. I mean, there would have been food on the table.

I just wish that instead of giving my kids a lifestyle, I'd

given them an example to live by.

Damn.

Lou Grant will continue in a moment here on A &E.

The Tribune management have become purveyors of filth. We don't have to go

way.

I'm not going to sneak in the back door of my own newspaper.

Morality is on the defensive in this country.

Everything is turned upside down.

Morality is a dirty word.

If we oppose the immoral point of view, now that's censorship.

But the moral point of view can't be heard.

Oh, she's being heard rather well.

Don't let her upset you. Not at all.

When I was a girl, we knew what it was we were supposed to do and not do.

And there were some things that nice girls just didn't do. And there was a

for those girls that did them.

And there is a name for newspaper publishers who sell their virtue for the

they make off sex columns.

Let's go.

I am the publisher of the Los Angeles Tribune.

Would you care to be explicit about that name to me in person?

Do you approve of what that slavering, sex -mongering, hippie pornographer did

to my daughter? And what is that?

Do you realize that you are responsible for this innocent 16 -year -old girl

getting pregnant?

Isn't that your daughter's responsibility, ma 'am? As well as the

involved.

Isn't it your responsibility to teach her to be responsible?

I am responsible for keeping her away from evil influences, which is what I am

doing here today. The columns which you object to often emphasize a young

person's responsibility in sex.

Oh, I haven't seen that in them.

Have you read them?

Oh, I've read enough of them. I stop when I read things that turn my stomach.

So you're judging hundreds of columns when you haven't really read them.

Well, have you read them?

Yes. Every single one of them?

As a matter of fact, yes.

Oh, sure.

Well, I have.

Oh, I'll bet.

I read them all because I wrote them all.

I'm the slavering hippie pornographer.

Hi.

Hi. I didn't get your message until I got back from lunch, and then we came

right out.

That's fine.

It's Brian Dunn, Dr. Sam Ashton. Nice meeting you, Doctor. And it's Mike

Pearson. Hi. How are you? Here, sit down. Thank you.

Brian, do you want to start?

Um... I ran through our major advertisers, and we've lost Janko's

and Merc's Building Supply, but nobody else.

Yet. Right.

Yet. You know, the Trib made the decision at one time not to run

for X -rated movies, a decision made in favor of taste that cost us ad revenue.

So, would it be so terrible to back off from an X -rated, so to speak, column

and not lose advertising?

Mike, stop trying to solve advertising problems by changing editorial policy.

We're just looking for workable answers.

You're just being lazy.

Now, we decide what to write, you decide how to market it. X -rated or not,

although I object to that characterization of this column.

Mrs. Pinchon, advertising does have a responsibility. Dr. Ashton is a

with considerable expertise in this area.

Dr. Ashton.

What do you think of Dr. Valentine?

What do I think?

Well, gentlemen, I think he's terrific.

And that's enough for me.

Maybe a triple underpaid.

Don't push your luck, Doctor.

No, that's okay.

Oh,

maybe a better.

Very sharp.

See, Abby and I are going to a concert tonight, and we're not going to have

to go over to my apartment or hers to change, so... Oh.

Well, you want to check this out? It might fit into your marina's development

fee.

Sure.

I'm over Abby's a lot. I figured.

Down a second? Sure.

Have you picked a replacement for Crogley yet?

No. I'd like to be considered.

I'd like that job.

Oh, you can't love two.

And still to me be true.

Darling, you can't love two.

I'm riding on that new river train.

I'm riding on that new river train.

It's the same old train that brought me here.

Soon gonna carry me away.

Thank you.

Thank you for your warmth and your support.

As you know, I've been off the charts for a while.

Not because of the blacklist.

Well, it was that for about 20 years.

But then I figured people just didn't think about me. Or if they did, they

thought I wasn't doing this anymore.

They didn't know if I could strum this thing with house paint under my

fingernails.

You know, people ask me if I'm bitter.

If I hate what this country did to me.

Well, folks, this country didn't do anything to me. Some people did it.

And those people are not this country.

You can't let those people make you hate America.

I love this country right now more than I ever have.

And I'm enjoying myself right now.

As the man in the song says... This land is your land.

This land is my land.

From California to the New York Island.

From the Redwood Forest...

To the gulf stream water, this land was made for you and me.

As I went walking that river and highway, I saw above me

that endless skyway. I saw below me that golden...

They're mothers who make a full time of projecting their kids into the big time.

But what really motivates showbiz moms? And are their actions harming their

children? We'll get an insider's view of life in Tinseltown, Sunday, in the A &E

special presentation, Carrie Fisher, The Hollywood Family.

Now, is a veteran cop letting his emotions get in the way of his job?

Join us for Police Story, next on A &E.