Session: 1234567891011121314151617         Page 180181182183184185186187188189190191192193194195196197198199200201202203204205206207208209210211212213214215216217218219220221222223224225226227228229230231232 of 755

entertainment shows. And the top-rated shows frequently had people who were on the liberal side and therefore came under a certain amount of criticism.

The work of Dan O'Shea was then to screen -- before a program would be produced, would he get a list of names that he would then review and clear before they would be allowed to appear on that program? Do you know how that worked?

If they were programs produced by outsiders, I'm not sure we always knew before the program was actually produced, but we certainly knew the cast of characters and the guests on the program and so forth. I say guests on the program because if you talk about programs that -- the game shows and things of that kind, I've forgotten the title now, the one that John Charles Daly used to do, not “Name That Tune,” what was it? “What's My Line?”

“What's My Line” had pretty much a fixed panel week in and week out, although from time to time there would be a guest panelist on it. And Dan used to have a look at those to make sure that there wasn't somebody that was going to cause us a lot of trouble.

Where did the trouble come from? Not so much from the public as from the public indirectly. There were some self-appointed vigilantes who raised hell not only with us, but went to the advertiser and said, “We're not going to buy your product.” There was a man in Syracuse, the man who did Red Channels, I've even forgotten his name. He ran a supermarket, I guess, in Syracuse or Rochester -- I guess it was Syracuse -- when he told General Foods and so forth he wouldn't stock their products if they continued to sponsor these Communist broadcasts. And the advertising agencies were the middlemen, so to speak. The sponsor didn't want to get into a fight with popular entertainment, so they would turn to their agency and say: Look