Henry Morgan (comedian) - Briefly Blacklisted

Briefly Blacklisted

Morgan was briefly blacklisted after his name appeared in the infamous anti-Communist pamphlet, Red Channels. That he was any kind of Communist sympathizer was a dubious proposition at best; Nachman noted Morgan's listing sprang from his former wife's leftist affiliations, and Morgan himself confirmed it in his memoir:

All her information came from friends whose conversation leaned sharply away from their relatively high incomes, which, apparently, they found to be embarrassing in a world that harbored poor people. Their chosen method of being helpful was to attend meetings at one another's homes and discuss the problems of the hungry hordes after dinner. I am not trying to be amusing; it's what they really did. A Party member was usually invited to lead the discussions. I was apolitical. To some, that meant that I was either stupid or "inner-directed"—which meant according to them that I didn't care about my fellow man. What I really didn't care about was the four or five of her friends who later became known as the Hollywood Ten.

Morgan revealed in his memoir that one of his cousins had been a Communist Party member until the Hitler-Stalin Pact caused him to break with the Party, and that this cousin had told investigators Morgan hadn't been a Party member. This cousin, Morgan continued, had decided to cooperate heavily with investigators "when he learned that his agent, a Party member, had refused to accept assignments for him; his doctor, another Red, knowing of (his) bad heart, had recommended that he play tennis. The Party tried to rape him. It was enough to ruin his faith, it was. He decided to kill them, that was all." Morgan himself was cleared soon enough, and he resumed his broadcasting career.