“Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?” was the $64,000 question asked by the notorious House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Between the late 1940s and 1950s, the Second Red Scare was an era marked by great fear that Communism was on the rise in the United States. Led by Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy , government officials accused hundreds of Americans of being members of the Communist Party or being sympathetic to the cause. Most of the people accused of treason and/or subversion were union workers, government employees, prominent intellectuals, and Hollywood artists.

Among those in the last category, actors, musicians, and writers accused of Communism had their careers derailed and, in some cases, even ruined after being named in the anti-Communist, right-wing publication Red Channels .…