Mr. TAVENNER. Do you know whether or not the Communist Party at that time advocated or supported a plan by which Communist Party members should give their full time to the work of the Workers' Alliance group, and at the same time be supported by relief? Did you have any experience of that character?

Mr. HECHT. No; I am sorry, I haven't.

Mr. TAVENNER. Now, at the end of 5 months, do I understand you were assigned to another group of the Communist Party?

Mr. HECHT. That's correct. I was assigned to another group that met near Broadway on West 46th Street, I believe. This was a group that was composed to a great extent of secretarial workers, not people connected with the theater, although there may have been some secretaries who were connected with the different offices.

Mr. TAVENNER. How did you happen to be assigned to that particular group?

Mr. HECHT. Well, I wasn't happy with the group that I was working with in Brooklyn. One of the things that disturbed me very much was the shifting support for candidate for office in Brooklyn. The Communists had been supporting him for some time and they suddenly decided to shift their support to the other candidate. This seemed to me to be the rashest kind of opportunism and bothered me very much. I was also disturbed by things that disturbed many other people that belonged to the Communist Party, lack of democracy. In addition to that, I was looking for work in New York and on Broadway, and this seemed to be a much better place for me to be assigned to the group. Both factors were important in my changing. I would think that the first was more important than the latter.

Mr. TAVENNER. How long did you remain with this second group? Mr. HECHT. About 3 months.

Mr. TAVENNER. And that began at about what date and ended about when?

Mr. HECHT. That began in 1936 and ended, oh, I should say about the beginning of 1937.

Mr. TAVENNER. Will you give us the names, please, of any persons whom you can now recall who were members of that group of the Communist Party?

Mr. HECHT. I can recall of the second group, I can recall a girl named Sylvia Siegel.

Mr. TAVENNER. Will you spell that?

Mr. HECHT. I only know the phonetic spelling, S-i-e-g-e-l.

Mr. TAVENNER. All right.

Mr. HECHT. Who was the secretary in charge of the group. I also remember another accountant. I remember an accountant, another person whose name was Arren. He had charge of the financial affairs. (Representative Kit Clardy left the hearing room at this point, 2:05 p. m.)

Mr. TAVENNER. What was the cause of the severance of your connections with that particular group after being with it 3 months? Mr. HECHT. I started working in the Federal Theater.

Mr. TAVENNER. Before I ask you about that, how many persons were in that group of white-collar workers or secretaries, which was the second group to which you were assigned?

Mr. HECHT. Eight or ten.

Mr. TAVENNER. You say you joined what organization-the Federal

Mr. HECHT. I was employed by the Federal Theater.

Mr. TAVENNER. You were employed by the Federal Theater?

Mr. HECHT. In 1937.

Mr. TAVENNER. In what capacity were you employed?

Mr. HECHT. I was in charge of a unit there, a show, a musical revue. Mr. TAVENNER. Was that a WPA project?

Mr. HECHT. Yes, sir.

Mr. TAVENNER. When you say you were "in charge of a unit," will you explain that a little more fully, please?

Mr. HECHT. This was a musical revue. It was necessary to compile songs, sketches, lyrics, something similar to what Mr. Dare spoke about. However, I had started organizing it from the start. I got a number of writers to work on the songs, sketches, music, dancing, costumes, et cetera, and also we had to secure a cast. These people were recruited from roles in the Federal Theater.

Mr. TAVENNER. I did not hear the last part.

Mr. HECHT. I said these people came from the Federal Theater. Is it difficult to hear me?

Mr. TAVENNER. I can hear you now. How long did you occupy that type of a position with the Federal Theater?

Mr. HECHT. I was there until 1939, when I left to go back to Hollywood.

Mr. TAVENNER. Was there any particular show that you worked on while employed by the Federal Theater?

Mr. HECHT. Yes; there was a revue called Sing For Your Supper. Mr. TAVENNER. Sing for Your Supper?

Mr. HECHT. Yes, sir.

Mr. TAVENNER. How long did it take to produce that show?

Mr. HECHT. About 2 years.

Mr. TAVENNER. Why was it necessary to take that much time to produce it?

Mr. HECHT. Well, it was a very large show. There were many people in the show who went back to private industry, particularly people who were important to the show.

In addition to that, their appropriations were constantly being cut in the Federal Theater, and we would have to cut the cast and rearrange numbers and rearrange the show, and that was the reason it took so long.

Mr. TAVENNER. Was the play finally produced?

Mr. HECHT. Yes; it was. It was produced in April, I believe, 1939. Mr. TAVENNER. Did it meet with reasonable success?

Mr. HECHT. I would think so. Not a great success, but I think it met with reasonable success.

Mr. TAVENNER. How many persons were in the cast?

Mr. HECHT. About 200.

Mr. TAVENNER. Now, will you define just exactly what your duties were with regard to the persons in that cast and the production of the play?

Mr. HECHT. I was in charge of it.

(Representative Morgan M. Moulder left the hearing room at this point, 2: 10 p. m.)

Mr. HECHT. There was a dance director, one for the modern dance group and one for jazz dance group. There were sketches to be rehearsed and people to rehearse them. Countless numbers of people who were to be in the show, and I had charge of the entire business. Mr. TAVENNER. That meant it was your responsibility to hire and fire members of the cast?

Mr. HECHT. Well, it was not my sole responsibility. I was not entirely in charge of that, but I had something to do with it certainly. Mr. TAVENNER. You had a very heavy responsibility with regard to the personnel?

Mr. HECHT. Yes.

Mr. TAVENNER. I assume from your statement you did.

Mr. HECHT. Yes, I did.

Mr. TAVENNER. Were you a member of the Communist Party while you held that position?

Mr. HECHT. Yes; I was.

Mr. TAVENNER. What group of the Communist Party did you belong to at the time that you were employed by the Federal Theater? Mr. HECHT. I belonged to a group that was concerned with this particular show.

Mr. TAVENNER. You mean to say that there was a Communist Party cell or group established within the cast which produced this play? Mr. HECHT. Well, there was the cast, there were the workers. I said there were 200 in the cast. I should say from the time we started the show until the show went on there might have been 500 people connected with it.

Mr. TAVENNER. But probably about 200 at any one time; is that correct?

Mr. HECHT. That is correct.

(Representative Kit Clardy reentered the hearing room at this point, 2: 13 p. m.)

Mr. TAVENNER. How many persons composed this group or cell of the Communist Party, within the Federal Theater?

Mr. HECHT. About 40.

Mr. TAVENNER. How many?

Mr. HECHT. Fortv.

Mr. TAVENNER. Forty. Now, were there other plays being produced at the same time that you were producing Sing for Your Supper?

Mr. HECHT. Oh, yes; many of them.

Mr. TAVENNER. Do you know anything about Communist Party groups or cells within the cast which were involved in the production of other plays?

Mr. HECHT. No; I do not.

Mr. TAVENNER. Now, will you tell the committee just what the objective was of the group of Communists that had been organized within the Federal Theater, at least within your project, the one that was producing Sing for Your Supper?

Mr. HECHT. Well, they had the immediate objective of keeping their jobs, trying to influence the content of the show to some extent, and they had the larger objectives which all Communist Party members have of following the party line, of reading literature, of doing certain neighborhood work.

Mr. TAVENNER. Well now; with regard to the objective that you said all Communist Party groups have, in following the Communist Party line, do you recall in what way that manifested itself?

Mr. HECHT. Well, there was constant pressure to keep up the appropriations for the Federal Theater and the WPA. There were certain groups organized to go to Washington and there was

Mr. TAVENNER. You are speaking now of groups of Communist Party members?

Mr. HECHT. That is right. There was a great deal of picketing, for one reason or another. I can't remember much else. It seems to me there probably was something more, but I didn't spend a great deal of time at these meetings. I went to them approximately once a month or once in 3 weeks, and I had no other connection with it. than that.

Mr. TAVENNER. Well, did you have any official connection with this group? I mean did you you hold any position at any time?

Mr. HECHT. I was what you would call in charge of literature, the literature director for a while. I sold the pamphlets to people. I took up subscriptions for the Daily Worker. I did all the various things connected with distributing and disseminating literature.

When I was part of the group I had no greater position than anyone else in the group.

(Representative Morgan M. Moulder reentered the hearing room at this point, 2: 15 p. m.)

Mr. TAVENNER. So that you had a rather small part in the Communist Party activity of the cell, as such, though you held a very important position in that you were the head of the project?

Mr. HECHT. That is true.

Mr. TAVENNER. Now, did the Communist Party endeavor to influence you as the manager-is that the right term to use in your position? Mr. HECHT. Producer, I would say.

Mr. TAVENNER. As producer of this play?

Mr. HECHT. At one time there was great protest among a number of the comrades over the content of the show. There was a dress rehearsal and V. J. Jerome, who was the cultural director of the party, was at this dress rehearsal. The rehearsal was not given for him, but he was there. After the show

Mr. TAVENNER. V. J. Jerome at that time was the cultural director of the Communist Party in this country, was he not?

Mr. HECHT. I believe so. I am not sure that is his actual title, but that describes the position he held.

Mr. TAVENNER. It has appeared in the evidence during the course of this hearing or these hearings that V. J. Jerome was the person sent out from national headquarters to various parts of the country to settle disputes that existed within the party. He was sent here in the very early days of the party to straighten out various difficulties.

Now you are telling us that he appeared at the dress rehearsal of your play, which you have described?

Mr. HECHT. That is right. He settled this one. I remember we had a midnight meeting and he talked to us about the play. He felt that it was good, that while it did not necessarily follow the party line or was as left as a number of the people wanted it to be——

Mr. TAVENNER. When you say "a number of people," what people?

Mr. HECHT. As I said before, there was a group of the people in this unit who had protested about the content of the show. They felt it wasn't sufficiently slanted to the left.

Mr. TAVENNER. Were those persons members of the Communist Party?

Mr. HECHT. Oh, yes; they were.

Mr. TAVENNER. They were.

Mr. HECHT. Yes.

Mr. TAVENNER. So, this dispute raised within your Communist Party cell

Mr. HECHT. That is right.

Mr. TAVENNER (continuing). Where some of them were of the opinion that the propaganda was not pointed enough?

Mr. HECHT. Or sufficiently strong.

Mr. TAVENNER. Or sufficiently strong?

Mr. HECHT. Yes, sir.

Mr. TAVENNER. And V. J. Jerome was called in to settle that dispute; is that what I understand?

Mr. HECHT. That is right.

Mr. TAVENNER. Well, now, just tell us what V. J. Jerome did.

Mr. HECHT. Well, he said he thought that it was a good show. If it was slanted any more it would become sectarian. The content of the show was good and these criticisms were unjust.

Mr. TAVENNER. Then was the show put on in substantially the same form that had been planned?

Mr. HECHT. Yes; it was.

Mr. JACKSON. May I ask a question, Mr. Chairman?

Mr. VELDE. Mr. Jackson.

Mr. JACKSON. Suppose Mr. Jerome had not been in approval, do you believe that his influence would have been sufficient to change the content matter?

Mr. HECHT. Well, we were pretty far gone by that time. I think it might have been.

Mr. JACKSON. You think any suggested changes he might have made would have been incorporated into the production?

Mr. HECHT. I wouldn't say any suggested changes, but I think if he suggested changes they certainly would have been taken into consideration.

Mr. JACKSON. The fact of his presence there would have indicated he was more or less acting in the capacity of censor of the production, would it not?

Mr. HECHT. Yes; I think you would say acting as a judge.

Mr. VELDE. Proceed, Mr. Counsel.

Mr. TAVENNER. Do you recall who took part in the conference with V. J. Jerome on the occasion that you mentioned?

Mr. HECHT. I don't think there was anybody else from the officialfrom the party, any of the higher ups, any of the higher hierarchy.

Mr. TAVENNER. You are of the opinion that there were no persons superior to you that were involved in the Communist Party efforts to control this production; is that it?

Mr. HECHT. I am sorry. I thought you said "Who else appeared with Mr. Jerome?"

Mr. TAVENNER. I did start out the question that way. So let's start

over.