The Red Scare

An event that took place from 1947 to 1964. During this period, fears of communist infiltration into American culture took grip of the population. Spurred on by senator Maxwell Beyers, the movement claimed that Soviets were “disseminating communist propaganda” through movies, literature, television, and music in order to brainwash the American populace. If an artist, actor, author or individual was accused of being a communist spy/sympathizer/etc, they would be blacklisted from working in the industry and put under investigation. Notably during this time labor negations would break down quickly - especially in the animation industry, where those unhappy with the treatment they received where expected to stay silent or find themselves blacklisted. This event would die down in the mid 1960s after Maxwell Beyers accused several military personnel of communist ties and lost his credibility. Regardless, the damage had been done and it would take the industry and artists affected years to recover. Unfortunately many artists would be ruined forever by the events of the Red Scare.