#philip loeb

[oldshowbiz]

Philip Loeb was the most famous of the McCarthy era suicides

[gregorygalloway]

Lee J. Cobb was accused of being a Communist in 1951 by actor Larry Parks in testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee (Parks was blacklisted after naming names and went into the construction business). Cobb refused to testify before HUAC for 2 years, but finally on 2 June 1953 he appeared before the committee and provided the names of 20 suspected Communists, including Sam Jaffe and Philip Loeb, who were blacklisted but had never been Communists (Loeb, deprived of work, committed suicide in 1955).

Cobb justified his naming names in order to keep working, “I was pretty much worn down. I had no money. I couldn't borrow. I had the expenses of taking care of the children.” Although at the end of his testimony, Cobb endorsed HUAC’s “duty to investigate Communists” and called it a “privilege” to appear before the committee.

Arthur Miller, who refused to name names to HUAC, recalled about the experience: "I could not help thinking of Lee Cobb, my first Willy Loman [in Miller’s original 1949 production of Death of a Salesman, directed by Elia Kazan], as more a pathetic victim than a villain, a big blundering actor who simply wanted to act, had never put in for heroism, and was one of the best proofs I knew of the Committee's pointless brutality toward artists.”

While Cobb’s testimony denied 20 people the opportunity of work, he, of course, continued to be employed after his testimony, notably appearing in On the Waterfront in 1954, directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg, both of whom also named names before HUAC.

[oldshowbiz]

Blacklisted Showfolk, 1951.

[oldshowbiz]

Actor Philip Loeb was involved in the Communist campaign to integrate major league baseball. As a result, he was one of the first television personalities to be blacklisted in the McCarthy era. He eventually committed suicide.

[oldshowbiz]

1945 - The Tragedy of Philip Loeb

[39adamstrand]

On 1 September 1955, blacklisted actor and director Philip Loeb took a room at the Taft Hotel in Manhattan and ended his life with an overdose of sleeping pills.

Loeb was at the height of his popularity in 1950, starring in The Goldbergs on TV, when a report on the “Communist Influence in Radio and Television” named Loeb as a Communist, a charge he denied. General Foods, the sponsor of the show, demanded that Loeb be fired.

In April 1952, director Elia Kazan named Loeb as a communist in his testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Loeb was blacklisted and unable to find work.

Loeb was not a communist (a fact the FBI released after Loeb's death), but he was a strong union advocate, and fought to get rehearsal pay and better salaries for all actors (the Actor's Equity conference room is named in honor of Loeb and has a humanitarian award named after him.)

Loeb was the sole provider for his family, including a son with mental health issues, and Loeb became increasingly depressed about his ability to care for his family. He had last worked in 1953 and was falling deeper in debt.

During his forced unemployment, Loeb lived for a time with his friend Zero Mostel (also blacklisted), who would later portray the character of Hecky Brown, loosely based on Loeb, in The Front (1976), starring Woody Allen and directed by Martin Ritt (blacklisted in 1952) and written by Loeb’s friend Walter Bernstein (blacklisted from 1951-1959).