Source: Google Video
Herbert Biberman's 1954 film, Salt of the Earth, has the distinction of being the only film to be blacklisted in the United States. From the Wikipedia article:
Salt of the Earth (1954) is an American drama film written by Michael Wilson, directed by Herbert J. Biberman (husband of Academy Award-winning actress Gale Sondergaard), and produced by Paul Jarrico. All had been blacklisted by the Hollywood establishment due to their involvement in socialist politics.[1]Resources:
The movie became a historical phenomenon and has a cult following due to how the United States establishment (politicians, journalists, studio executives, and other trade unions) dealt with the film. Salt of the Earth is one of the first pictures to advance the feminist social and political point of view.
The film centers around a long and difficult strike led by Mexican-American and Anglo miners against the Empire Zinc Company. The film shows how the miners, the company, and the police, react during the strike. In neorealist style the producers and director used actual miners and their families as actors in the film.
In the Library:
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Booker, M. K. (2007). From box office to ballot box The American political film. Westport, Conn: Praeger.
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Buhle, P., & Wagner, D. (2003). Hide in plain sight: The Hollywood blacklistees in film and television, 1950-2002. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
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Ceplair, L. (2007). The Marxist and the movies A biography of Paul Jarrico. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.
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Joseph, A. (2000). Skilled workers' solidarity The American experience in comparative perspective. Garland reference library of social science, v. 1412. New York: Garland Pub.
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Lichtenstein, N. (2002). State of the Union: A century of American labor. Politics and society in twentieth-century America. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
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Lorence, J. J. (1999). The suppression of Salt of the earth How Hollywood, big labor, and politicians blacklisted a movie in Cold War America. Albuquerque, N.M.: University of New Mexico Press.
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McGilligan, P., & Buhle, P. (1997). Tender comrades: A backstory of the Hollywood blacklist. New York: St. Martin's Press.
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Nicholson, P. Y. (2004). Labor's story in the United States. Labor in crisis. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
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Stepan-Norris, J., & Zeitlin, M. (2003). Left out: Reds and America's industrial unions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
On the Web:
- “Mining Salt of the Earth” - an essay by James J Larence from the Winsconsin Magazine of History [pdf].
- “History makers reflect on Salt of the Earth - ‘Even more relevant now’ - Interview with Anita and Lorenzo Torres, participants in the in Empire Zinc strike on which the film is based; from People's Weekly World.
