Stephen K. Bannon could become the first person sent to jail for contempt of Congress since the “Hollywood Ten” in 1948.
Contempt of Congress is rarely prosecuted and even more rarely leads to jail time. The last time anyone was sentenced to be locked up for it was during the “Red Scare” of the early Cold War.
The next day, the star witness was 57-year-old character actor Adolph Menjou. “Nattily garbed in a double-breasted brown suit with white chalk stripes,” the mustachioed Menjou told the committee that “Hollywood is honeycombed with Communists who ‘rigidly’ follow the Moscow Party line,” the Associated Press reported.Rep. Richard M. Nixon , a committee member, asked the actor what tests he used to spot a Communist.
When screenwriter John Howard Lawson asked permission to read a statement, Chairman Thomas refused after seeing the first sentence, which according to the New York Times said, “Rational people don’t argue with dirt.” Lawson got into a shouting match with lawmakers and charged the committee with using “Hitler techniques of creating a scare.” When he refused to say whether he was a Communist or to name others, the committee cited him with contempt.
By mid-1950, all 10 men had been sentenced to prison. Eight of them received one-year sentences and a $1,000 fine, equal to about $12,000 today. Dmytryk and Biberman got six months in prison.
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