Leonard
Bernstein was
born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, on 25th August, 1918. He attended
Harvard University and the Curtis Institute
of Music (1939-41) before studying under Fritz Reiner and Serge Koussevitzky.
After working as assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic
he became conductor of New York City Center (1945-47). He also wrote
the music for Fancy
Free
(1943) and On
the Town
(1944).
After
the Second World War the House
of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) began to investigate
people with left-wing views in the entertainment industry. In June,
1950, three former FBI agents and a right-wing
television producer, Vincent Harnett,
published Red Channels, a pamphlet
listing the names of 151 writers, directors and performers who they
claimed had been members of subversive organizations before the Second
World War but had not so far been blacklisted. The names had been
compiled from FBI files and a detailed analysis
of the Daily Worker, a newspaper
published by the American Communist Party.
A free copy of Red Channels
was sent to those involved in employing people in the entertainment
industry. All those people named in the pamphlet were blacklisted
until they appeared in front of the House of
Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and convinced its members
they had completely renounced their radical past.
Bernstein was one of those named but he continued to be commissioned
to write the music for films including On
the Waterfront (1954), West
Side Story (1961), To Kill a Mockingbird
(1962) and Terms of Endearment (1983).
Leonard Bernstein
died in New York
on 14th October, 1990.
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