Politics & Entertainment Week

The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was established in 1937 with the primary objective of investigating un-American and subversive activities. Translation: Find the Commies.

In September, 1947, HUAC began an investigation into the Hollywood Motion Picture Industry, interviewing 41 cooperative persons who were labeled as "friendly witnesses," including writer Ayn Rand (noted Anti-Commie), studio heads Jack Warner and Louis B. Mayer, and actors Gary Cooper, Robert Montgomery, Ronald Reagan and Robert Taylor.

During their interviews, several people were named as suspected Communists. Eleven were eventually called to testify. Of those eleven, the playwright Bertolt Brecht was the only one to answer any questions on the stand. He testified that he was not a Communist, then immediately returned to [Communist] East Berlin.

The remaining "unfriendly witnesses," who became more widely known as the "Hollywood Ten," included writers Alvah Bessie, Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Ring Lardner Jr., John Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz, Samuel Ornitz, Adrian Scott, and Dalton Trumbo, along with director Edward Dmytryk. In exercising their Fifth Amendment rights, all refused to testify and were held in contempt of court.

Following the hearings, the "Hollywood Ten" were blacklisted by the Hollywood film community.

House Un-American Blues Activity Dream, as one might expect, details these events with the derisive undertone characteristic of Richard Farina.

Not unlike Bob Dylan, Richard's music often carried a political message. However, unlike Bob Dylan, who survived a near-fatal motorcycle accident in July, 1966, Richard Farina was killed in a motorcycle accident in April, 1966.

His wife and musical companion, Mimi Baez Farina (younger sister of Joan Baez) died in July, 2001.