Highlights Archives
Good Night, and Good Luck: Murrow v. McCarthy
Named after legendary CBS television newsman Edward R. Murrow's signature sign-off, George Clooney's new film, "Good Night, and Good Luck" chronicles the real-life confrontation between Murrow and Red-baiting Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy. Capitalizing on the climate of fear created by the Cold War, and the spread of communism after World War II, McCarthy's crusade to rid the country of communists unleashed a public paranoia that forced into exile everyone from military personnel to actors and writers.
Shot in black and white, the film covers a five-month period from late 1953 to early 1954 during which Murrow combated the McCarthy hysteria with four programs that examined McCarthy's scaremongering tactics on his weekly CBS series, See It Now. A public feud ensued when Senator McCarthy responded to the programs by accusing Murrow of being a communist sympathizer. On March 9, 1954, in a pre-filmed segment, McCarthy appeared on Murrow's show to offer his side of the story, but his wild ranting only served to underscore Murrow's portrayal of his tryannical and unsubstantiated claims. By this time, the public, senators and other government officials had also grown dissatisfied with his reckless accusations, the Senate eventually censuring him for behavior unbefitting his office.
Recently uncovered photos of Murrow reveal a Wisconsin connection beyond his epic clash with the state's most notorious Senator. Society archivists recently found photos of Murrow on a 1957 fishing trip to Northern Wisconsin in records from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The newly discovered Murrow photos, along with Clooney's film, bring to life a period of history richly documented in the various holdings of the Wisconsin Historical Society archives, including numerous period photos of McCarthy.
Established in 1955, the Society's Mass Communications History Collection (MCHC) holds the papers of hundreds of individuals, corporations and professional organizations in journalism, broadcasting, advertising and public relations, documenting the importance of mass media on both the national level and in Wisconsin. Besides the work of pioneering journalists, the Society archives contains other materials on McCarthy and McCarthyism, including sizable state and national anti-McCarthy materials such as papers from Senator William Benton, a leader in the move to censure McCarthy. McCarthy's own papers are in the archives of Marquette University.
Other important McCarthy manuscripts are in the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research (WCFTR), a cooperative effort of the Society and the University of Wisconsin-Madison that maintains more than 300 manuscript collections from outstanding playwrights, television and movie writers, producers, actors, designers, directors, and production companies. The WCFTR has collections related to the hearings on the entertainment industries instituted by the House Un-American Activities Committee, including papers from six of the "Hollywood Ten," screenwriters blacklisted for alleged communist sympathies, and the papers of their lawyers, the Hollywood Democratic Committee. Also of note are interviews, drafts and film footage from Emile De Antonio's 1964 documentary on the Army-McCarthy hearings, Point of Order.
:: Posted October 17, 2005
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