The Un-seated

Fade in:

Clint Eastwood shuffles to the rostrum. Acknowledges the love. Looks down at an empty chair. He speaks-

"I know what you are thinking. You are thinking, what’s a movie tradesman doing out here? You know they are all left wingers out there, left of Lenin. At least that is what people think. That is not really the case. There are a lot of conservative people, a lot of moderate people, Republicans, Democrats, in Hollywood. It is just that the conservative people by the nature of the word itself play closer to the vest. They do not go around hot dogging it."

(APPLAUSE)

I remember another occasion this one during an oscar telecast when Lt Callahan took a patriotic stand and denounced some protesters or made some surly comment about lefty types or what he perceived to be ill-mannered Amercian-haters who were using the oscar show to put forth their own political agenda or publicly proclaiming a deep dislike or something - heaven and earth why can't I remember ! anyway I'm sure it wasn't as classy as talking to an empty "presidential" chair and insinuating a crass and indelicate President as ol' Clint did at the the recent GOP Convention to the thunderous applause and whoops of the assembled yahoos; but it needn't be so modest as to non-hot-dogging conservative Hollywood citizens of which he proudly claims to be - playing it close to the vest as he says in keeping with a long Hollywood tradition of putting Amercia first in all dealings with ideas and people the quiet conservatives think of as foreign, Un-Amercian, communistic even but never hot-dogging it, unless it is as members banded together to confront the threat of any left-meaning dialogue or sentiment as the MOTION PICTURE ALLIANCE FOR THE PRESERVATION OF AMERCIAN IDEALS formed in early 1944, during the war against fascism of all things with the stated purpose thus presented: 

"In our special field of motion pictures, we resent the growing impression that this industry is made up of, and dominated by, Communists, radicals and crack-pots...We pledge to fight, with every means at our organized command, any effort of any group or individual, to divert the loyalty of the screen from the free Amercia that gave it birth."; 

and fight and lie and smear a lot of good and loyal Amercians in Hollywoodland during the years soon after the war, inviting the HUAC to come and drag out the bad and sinful communists from their midst, never the nazis however, I have always thought this odd considering the communists were at least our wartime allies, no? and of course there were all types of political groups in Hollywood then reflecting various viewpoints and sympathies but it is always the image of Adolphe Menjou, a founding member of this group of patriots, swathed in cigarette smoke, impeccably dressed, informing the distinguished committee that he knew "many people who acted like communists"on a film snippet that always plays when they relate the sorry tale of this time and the lives ruined and lost because the Conservative Patriots of Hollywood were "hot-dogging" it along with their fellow close-vest compatriots from Washington; even back then I doubt that anybody even on that rank congressional committee and those fanatic members of that Motion Picture Alliance, including Walt Disney and John Wayne AND AYN RAND (see previous post) of all people, thought any of their enemies were -as Clint says- "left of Lenin" as the present Republican Party of which Clint, who obviously approves, is to the right of Palin - I mean the group - because as Clint reminds us Conservatives are like this by their very nature- was only too happy to provide many of the now-called Friendly Witnesses for the committee to hot-dog in front of the cameras and they brought along some of their allies like Ronald Reagan and Gary Cooper (Coop was actually a member); another member was a guy named Morrie Ryskind who was a Pulitzer Prize winner and a comedy writer of stellar rep- among many things he wrote the book for the Gershwin musical "Of Thee I Sing" and - to my shock and awe - he wrote for the Marx Brothers, unfortunately not Karl, "A Night At The Opera" which by the way was directed by Sam Wood, who was THE founder of this Right-Wing mob; Wood's daughter years later would trace her father's hatred and obsession with communists to not winning the best Director Oscar for "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" ( pg. 210 The Inquisition in Hollywood by Larry Ceplair and Steven Englund ) and his inaugural address to his fellow Amercians reads like the latest Republican stump speech: " The Amercian motion picture industry is, and will continue to be, held by Amercians for the Amercian people,  in the interests of Amercia and dedicated to the preservation and continuance of the Amercian scene and the Amercian way of life."-  Mr. Chips remembered each and every schoolboy  whom he taught Latin verbs to in a teaching career that spanned at least 40 or 50 years - but it seems Conservative Hollywood actors either never knew or have just conveniently forgotten that they never "played it too close to the vest" because it never was in their nature to begin with and lets face it - they were lousy actors anyway.

Clint steps back from the microphone - waves to the enthusiastic mob, waves to the chair-

 Fade to black.

Scene shifts three weeks hence :

somewhere in Texas a patriot makes a statement

And the neighbors don't seem to mind.