Host Oona Chaplin tells the story of the decades-long campaign to eradicate communism in Hollywood. This is the campaign that ultimately drove her grandfather, Charlie Chaplin, and many others out of Tinseltown. Hollywood Exiles is a story of charm, duplicity, and political intrigue that resonates to this day. This is the story of how Tinseltown became an ideological battleground. The cost of the battle was enormous: reputations, careers, and families were torn apart by the campaign to drive communists out of the film industry. It all started with Charlie Chaplin. He was one of the early targets of the FBI's efforts against left-wing influence in Hollywood. This led to him being removed from Hollywood's Walk of Fame and eventually kicked out of the United States. Oona's Chaplin, from her J. Edgar personal obsession with her Hoover grandfather from the 1920s onwards, to the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings and the “Hollywood Blacklist” We guide listeners through the events that actually happened. Among those affected by the Red Scares were Hollywood writer Dalton Trumbo's daughter (who was forced to write under a false name and never won an Oscar) and an exiled writer whose career and family were torn apart. There are also stories about the descendants of actors. . On sale Monday, January 22, 2024.
