Kazan and the blacklist still in dispute

I am the daughter of actor Stanley J. Waxman (deceased), whom Kenneth Turan has never heard of, because my father’s fledgling career ended the minute he refused to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee. Unlike Turan (“In the End, His Creative Works Matter Most,” Sept. 30), I believe that Elia Kazan’s testimony in front of HUAC must be remembered alongside his creative genius.

We cannot afford to forget the hundreds of actors, actresses, writers and directors whose own creative potential was never realized because people like Kazan, unlike my father, did not challenge the committee’s authority to interfere in the rights of citizens to their beliefs and to the expression of those beliefs.

Stephanie Waxman

Venice

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NOWHERE to be found in all of Turan’s hand-wringing over the blacklist era is the thought that perhaps Elia Kazan did the right thing. Would the moral giants of Hollywood be so conflicted had Kazan identified members of a Nazi conspiracy? A quick look at history will reveal that Hitler’s body count is only a tenth of that accomplished by the ideology they still view with such nostalgia.

The memory of Ed Harris and Nick Nolte conspicuously snubbing this man who towered over them, artistically and in every other way, will endure as a monument to the moral confusion that seems to fuel the creative spirit of Hollywood.

Stephen Quinn

Huntington Beach

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WHEN Turan attacks those who refused to applaud Kazan’s Lifetime Achievement Oscar, he’s attacking those who were there. He sounds more than a little McCarthy-ish himself, advocating a world where everyone applauds when they’re told, and the sight of even a few refusing based on a moral principle is a “noxious spectacle.”

I’ve only read about the blacklist in books, but as a writer in the age of Ashcroft and the Patriot Act, it hardly seems like ancient history.

And it seems even less so when one of the most influential critics in the country chooses to not just voice his own opinion but aggressively slander anyone who dares voice dissent.

Whether to forgive Kazan is a personal choice that must be made by those who were there. But none of us should ever forget.

Ryan Moore

Los Angeles

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Yes, we should judge an artist on the body of work he or she leaves behind, but Kazan’s actions before HUAC denied that opportunity to others who took the higher moral road.

We may applaud Kazan’s creative legacy for what was, but we have every right to mourn what might have been but was not, and never will be, by the blacklisted.

Ellen Seiden

Los Angeles

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ISN’T it time to put the extreme left’s obsession with the blacklist to rest? In fact, if you get out more often and see the business today, you might find conditions for a blacklist of another sort. Just try pitching a script written about a conservative issue.

For instance, an honest look at someone who genuinely believes abortion is wrong? Forget it. Someone who actually takes religion seriously? No way.

A story that sincerely wrestles with the viability of a homosexual lifestyle? Out of the question.

Phil Cooke

Burbank