THEIR names have been largely forgotten now, but there was a time when they mattered in Hollywood.

The Hollywood Ten, who included Dalton Trumbo, were caught up in a firestorm of controversy when Washington politicians probed communist activities in the film-making capital.

Many politicians had long suspected that communism was flourishing in Hollywood. In the aftermath of the Second World War, communism was viewed with suspicion and hostility by many, with one congressman going so far as to speak of "one of the most dangerous plots ever instigated for the overthrow of this Government has its headquarters in Hollywood ... the greatest hotbed of subversive activities in the United States."

To huge interest from the American public and media, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) began to stage hearings in October 1947. Well-known movie stars such as Gary Cooper and Ronald Reagan gave evidence as 'friendly witnesses'. Reagan at the time was President of the Screen Actors' Guild.

More than 40 directors, producers and screenwriters were subpoenaed.

The Hollywood Committee for the First Amendment, whose number included Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, publicly protested against the hearings on constitutional grounds.

The Hollywood 10, all of them former or current members of the American Communist Party, declined to answer questions from the committee, taking the First Amendment or the Fifth Amendment. They pointedly refused to answer the key question: “Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?”

They 10 were Alvin Bessie, Herbert J.Biberman, Lester Cole, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner Jnr, John Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz, Samuel Ornitz, Robert Adrian Scott and Dalton Trumbo.

They were found to be in contempt of Congress, and were each fined $1,000 and sentenced to a year in federal prison.

“All 10 artists also were fired by a group of studio executives — and the era of the Hollywood blacklist began,” said a recent Hollywood Reporter article on the controversy.

In his 2007 book Ronald Reagan: Fate, Freedom and the Making of History, author John Patrick Diggins said: “The Hollywood Ten and others would spend the rest of their lives insisting that they did not take orders from Moscow, and they may have told the truth … The more intriguing question … is why they supported Communism and the Soviet Union but refused to answer the committee’s questions about their political views. Of course, fear for their career is one obvious answer.”

Diggins makes the point that many people considered Hollywood’s communist controversy “the first American inquisition since the Puritan witch-hunts.”

Russell Leadbetter