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91 Q4 2017 / CINEMONTAGE individuals to its 21-member board, while the Screen Actors Guild introduced its loyalty oath for officers in January 1949. IATSE followed a different route, not explored in Hollywood Divided. Roy Brewer, IATSE West Coast Representative from 1945 to 1953, oversaw what were called "clearances." Brewer worked through the Motion Picture Industry Council, of which he was a founder, and could clear IA members who appeared on studio black- or graylists. MPIC was formed by 10 groups that included producers, guilds and unions. Its mandate was to promote better public relations for the industry, and it supported lobbying against censorship, trade barriers (Great Britain planned to encourage the development of its film industry by imposing a steep tax on American movies) and charges of anti-Americanism. The council announced the following goals in March 1949: • Bring the "Communist problem" in Hollywood to the attention of all studio executives, • Publicize the efforts of the industry to purge itself of "subversives," • "Clear" repentant Communists for employment, and • Criticize all House Un-American Committee witnesses who refused to cooperate with the committee. If they agreed to write letters explaining their political affiliations, and to apologize for them, and if Brewer felt the individuals were sincere, he would send the letters on to the appropriate people (per Larry Ceplair, co-author of The Inquisition in Hollywood: Politics in the Film Community, 1930-1960). The Screen Actors Guild, under presidents Robert Montgomery, George Murphy and Ronald Reagan, took a similar route. For the Motion Picture Editors Guild, this tactic seems to have been largely successful in keeping members employed. Few appeared on the black- or graylists, perhaps because they were not as politically active as writers, actors or directors, or perhaps because post-production people were less visible targets. An exception was blacklisted, New York-based Carl Lerner — a charter member of the East Coast Editors Guild, IATSE Local 771 — but there was little political hay to be made from accusing even the best editors of the day. The second chairman of MPIC was DeMille, then at the peak of his second round of immense Hollywood power. He is the most contemptuous character in Brianton's story, except for FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover, to whom DeMille reported for years, offering "information concerning the activities of Guild members whom he believes may be Communist Party members or Communist Party sympathizers." There were various, often shifting factions within the SDG. One was led by 69-year- old arch-conservative DeMille, who had railed against "unionism" at the Guild's first organizational meeting 14 years earlier. Although never guild president, he gained control based on his very long record of film successes, by getting like-minded members elected to the board, and through the sheer force of his personality. Hollywood Divided is a work of important scholarship, yet it is plainspoken in a way that might have pleased even Ford, a man not much known for being approving. He was only one of the many SDG members who met for seven hours that October evening at CUT / PRINT Cecil B. DeMille.