Best Teacher

Ronald Reagan and others testifying before HUAC on Communist activities in Hollywood – 1952

Best Teacher

The greatest impact on me may have been by my second-grade teacher, Sister Rosalia, The Dwarf. But it wasn’t a positive experience, so we’ll forget her.

The absolute best teacher I ever had was for Civics in my senior year of high school (1952). He was an avowed Communist but was so well-liked that even in that “red scare” era, he was rehired every year. But only to a one-year contract, just in case.

We watched the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings in class. They were on the Communist takeover of Hollywood, which led to the Black Lists. In the attached screenshot, Ronald Reagan is on camera right. He was the Screen Actors Guild president, his first political job. If you watch the video, you will see a young Richard Nixon, committee counsel, sitting on the Chairman’s left. That’s when I learned to hate the Charleton.

We didn’t get as good a picture as the screenshot because the station broadcasting the hearings was in San Francisco. I went to high school in the Sierra foothills, a hundred miles away. All we saw was snow, but the sound was good. Here’s a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MsNrruo8jI

Zero Mostel, Toby’s father, was blacklisted. The comic Jim Bochu later included part of Zero’s testimony before HUAC in his act, taking most of the lines right out of the Congressional Record.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0PJzVPl92g&t=122s

Patrick