Ring Lardner Jr.

With the death of Ring Lardner Jr. (Nov. 2), the last member of the Hollywood 10, we are about to pass on our last opportunity to come to terms with one of the nastiest skeletons in our closet. The film business--God forbid to say “art”--is about holding up a mirror to daily confront the viewer with his own conscience. That would also imply a certain duty to uphold the same standards.

The biggest assault on Hollywood’s moral mantle was not what happened in the turbulent 1940s when the world went mad with hate, fear and suspicion, it is the fact that for 50 years we failed to come to terms with it, correct the injustices done or even publicly acknowledge them. In fact, we gave a Lifetime Achievement Award to Elia Kazan, whose lifetime achievement also included many ruined careers and who pointedly refused to apologize or even express any regrets about the whole affair. We let him slide.

With Ring Lardner Jr., now they are all dead, and we can pretend that they never existed. Hollywood can get back on the moral high horse or abandon morality altogether as an unsound business practice.

And if history repeats itself? Well, we’ll wing it.

ENDRE HULES

Hollywood