Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture (Film and Culture)

Conventional wisdom holds that television was a co-conspirator in the repressions of Cold War America, that it was a facilitator to the blacklist and handmaiden to McCarthyism. But Thomas Doherty argues that, through the influence of television, America actually became a more open and tolerant place. Although many books have been written about this period, Cold War, Cool Medium is the only one to examine it through the lens of television programming. To the unjaded viewership of Cold War America, the television set was not a harbinger of intellectual degradation and moral decay, but a thrilling new household appliance capable of bringing the wonders of the world directly into the home. The "cool medium" permeated the lives of every American, quickly becoming one of the most powerful cultural forces of the twentieth century. While television has frequently been blamed for spurring the rise of Senator Joseph McCarthy, it was also the national stage upon which America witnessed -- and ultimately welcomed -- his downfall. In this provocative and nuanced cultural history, Doherty chronicles some of the most fascinating and ideologically charged episodes in television history: the warm-hearted Jewish sitcom The Goldbergs; the subversive threat from I Love Lucy; the sermons of Fulton J. Sheen on Life Is Worth Living; the anticommunist series I Led 3 Lives; the legendary jousts between Edward R. Murrow and Joseph McCarthy on See It Now; and the hypnotic, 188-hour political spectacle that was the Army-McCarthy hearings. By rerunning the programs, freezing the frames, and reading between the lines, Cold War, Cool Medium paints a picture of Cold War America that belies many black-and-white clichés. Doherty not only details how the blacklist operated within the television industry but also how the shows themselves struggled to defy it, arguing that television was preprogrammed to reinforce the very freedoms that McCarthyism attempted to curtail.

Though conventional wisdom claims that television is a co-conspirator in the repressions of Cold War America, Doherty argues that during the Cold War, through television, America actually became a more tolerant place. He examines television programming and contemporary commentary of the late 1940s to the mid-1950s -- everything from See It Now to I Love Lucy, from Red Channels to the writings of Walter Winchell and Hedda Hopper. By rerunning the programs, freezing the frames, and reading between the lines, Doherty paints a picture of Cold War America that belies many black and white cliches.

Publishers Weekly

Television was a provocative medium almost from its inception. It brought the horrors of McCarthyism into American homes-some claimed it abetted the effort-but it also allowed viewers an opportunity to see ethnic minorities (The Goldbergs) and watch political debate (Meet the Press). Ultimately, it aided the decline of anti-communist hysteria. Television became an artery as vital to the pulse of American life as the refrigerator, writes Doherty, Brandeis University film studies chair. He simultaneously explores TV's wonders and skillfully exposes the power of pressure groups on the new medium, which acted out the psychosis that dominated the 1950s. Relying on thorough and enlightening research, Doherty notes the ironies, anti-Semitism and class prejudices that underlined Sen. Joe McCarthy's ascension on the heels of HUAC, the House Committee on Un-American Activities. TV and the blacklist were the weapons of choice for McCarthy-styled politicians, whose ambitions and paranoia assaulted the decencies and legalities America held dear. In its embryonic stages, TV needed to fill airtime, hence, Doherty reports, commitment to free expression and open access was self-interest. Americans saw the Hollywood Ten testify, but they also saw African-American performers on The Ed Sullivan Show, solid dramas on Playhouse 90 and the first presidential press conference. Television brought Bishop Fulton J. Sheen's Life Is Worth Living into living rooms, tethering Catholics to Americanism. Edward R. Murrow's See It Now, coupled with McCarthy's disastrous attacks on the army and rumors of homosexuality, contributed to his downfall. Doherty chronicles the medium and its players with style and scholarship, breaking his subject down by theme and focusing on particular programs throughout. (Nov.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Cover......Page 1 Title Page......Page 4 Copyright Page......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 Preface and Acknowledgments......Page 8 1. Video Rising......Page 14 A Television Genealogy......Page 16 Red and Other Menaces......Page 19 McCarthy: Man, Ism, and Television......Page 26 2. The Gestalt of the Blacklist......Page 32 The Blacklist Backstory......Page 33 Pressure Groups and Pressure Points......Page 37 Institutional Practices......Page 47 The Goldbergs: The Case of Philip Loeb......Page 50 I Love Lucy: The Redhead and the Blacklist......Page 62 4. Hypersensitivity: The Codes of Television Censorship......Page 73 Faye Emerson’s Breasts, Among Other Controversies......Page 77 Amos ’n’ Andy: Blacks in Your Living Room......Page 83 5. Forums of the Air......Page 94 Egghead Sundays......Page 96 Direct Address......Page 103 The Ike-onoscope......Page 109 6. Roman Circuses and Spanish Inquisitions......Page 118 “Kefauver Fever”: The Kefauver Crime Committee Hearings of 1951......Page 120 HUAC-TV......Page 129 Wringing the Neck of Reed Harris: The McCarthy Committee’s Voice of America Hearings (1953)......Page 139 7. Country and God......Page 147 I Led 3 Lives: “Watch Yourself, Philbrick!”......Page 153 Religious Broadcasting......Page 162 Life Is Worth Living: Starring Bishop Fulton J. Sheen......Page 166 8. Edward R. Murrow Slays the Dragon of Joseph McCarthy......Page 174 TV’s Number One Glamour Boy......Page 176 Murrow Versus McCarthy......Page 181 The “Good Tuesday” Homily......Page 185 To Be Person-to-Personed......Page 190 “A Humble, Poverty Stricken Negress”: Annie Lee Moss Before the McCarthy Committee......Page 193 McCarthy Gets Equal Time......Page 197 9. The Army-McCarthy Hearings (April 22–June 17, 1954)......Page 202 Backstory and Dramatis Personae......Page 203 Gavel-to-Gavel Coverage......Page 208 Climax: “Have You Left No Sense of Decency?”......Page 217 Denouement: Reviews and Postmortems......Page 223 10. Pixies: Homosexuality, Anticommunism, and Television......Page 228 Red Fades to Pink......Page 232 Airing the Cohn-Schine Affair......Page 237 11. The End of the Blacklist......Page 244 The Defenders: The Blacklist on Trial......Page 253 Point of Order!: The Army-McCarthy Hearings, the Movie......Page 257 12. Exhuming McCarthyism: The Paranoid Style in American Television......Page 262 Notes......Page 274 Index......Page 306 Doherty (American studies, Brandeis U.) examines the cultural history of the United States of the McCarthy period through the window of the television screen. Although the treatment of the House Un-American Activities Committee's anti-communist witch hunts television and the television industry are the central focus of the discussion, Doherty also explores tangentially related issues of religion, race, and homosexuality. He argues that television subtly acted as a resistant force to the forces of conformity and intimidation represented by Senator Joe McCarthy. Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Before fiber-optic cable and satellite dishes served up a buffet of triple-digit narrowcasting, before videocassette recorders and camcorders put the means of replay and production in the hands of the people, before even the ruthless network troika of NBC, CBS, and ABC acquired dominion over prime-time programming, American television was a different kind of creature comfort.