Marty on Forgiveness for Elia Kazan

Re “Elia Kazan: Can ‘Naming Names’ Be the One Unforgivable Sin?” Opinion, Jan. 26:

I was Elia Kazan’s secretary when he directed “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” “Pinky” and “Gentleman’s Agreement” at 20th Century Fox. Kazan enjoyed the well-deserved admiration and respect of all who worked with him. I was shocked and sad when he named names at the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings. What he did was wrong. But, with four young children and at the height of his career, the certain knowledge that he’d be blacklisted if he remained silent was just too much for him to handle.

I don’t condone what Kazan did, but feel many others carry a greater load of blame: the studios that lacked the guts to stand together and refuse to blacklist, the members of Congress, the Supreme Court, the administration and the American people who failed to speak up loudly against the tyranny of McCarthy’s HUAC. Marty’s plea to “forgive” or “forget” Kazan’s role during this terrible era deserves serious thought.

HELEN K. TAUBKIN

Los Angeles

* If an actor of modest accomplishments, serving as the president of the Screen Actors Guild, could encourage the witch-hunting of his contemporaries and the subsequent blacklisting of many of them and still be elected as president of the U.S., surely the American Film Institute and the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. could forgive Kazan his past transgressions and recognize him for his monumental artistic contributions.

BAILLIE KRIVEL

Rancho Mirage

* Kazan did more than hand over to the committee the names of eight members of his Group Theatre to be blacklisted. He became infamous because of full-page ads he took in the N.Y Times and Variety to make sure that his self-abasing confessions would be seen by everybody in show business. The following day Kazan signed a contract with 20th Century Fox. Kazan’s opportunity in the film industry to add to his lifetime achievements, such as “On the Waterfront,” came at the expense of friends he named.

Unlike film star Sterling Hayden, who named me before the committee, Kazan has remained silent. In his autobiography, “Wanderer,” Hayden wrote to his psychiatrist: “If it hadn’t been for you, I wouldn’t have turned stoolie for Hoover. I don’t think you have the foggiest notion of the contempt I have had for myself since I did that.” All of which makes forgiveness in Hayden’s case easy to come by.

Marty should understand that there is a great deal of difference between immorality committed for monetary gain--Judas Iscariot’s 30 pieces of silver--and that of the whistle-blower who loses his job.

ROBERT LEES

Los Angeles