The ACTUAL Blacklist CBS used in the early '50s

[Ultimajock]

http://thekisseloffcollection.com/wordpress/KC/?p=236

...Mark Evanier linked to this item on http://newsfromme.com his blog. One of the illustrations there is the ACTUAL PHYSICAL BLACKLIST that Dr. Frank Stanton, then the President of CBS' radio and television networks, distributed around CBS. (Interesting that Ben Grauer is on the list; Ben was an NBC staffer at the time, and didn't work a CBS show -- the Guy Lombardo New Years Eve broadcasts -- until the '70s.) Scary stuff, even 55+ years later...

 

[mleach]

Very interesting list !! Noticed that both Will Geer and Howard Duff were on the list considering that Geer would later on be a star on The Waltons and as for Duff, within a few years after this list he would appear on Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz's Desilu Playhouse...ON CBS !!!

Everytime I think of the word "blacklist", reminds me of a certain program director who I worked with at a radio station in Virginia back in the early-mid 90's. He had his own personal "blacklist", people who he would not hire for any position for any reason even though his "reasons" were nothing short of pure insanity. Case in point..in 1992 a woman sent my station a tape and a resume. What we heard on that tape blew us away !! Us that is except for our PD. He didn't like her because he felt she was too close to another program director whom he had a personal dislike towards so as a result she ended up on his blacklist. To hide that fact he called this woman some ugly names and said she would totally "suck on the air and would never amount to anything".

Whatever become of this woman? Well some years later she would land a gig as this little tiny radio station nobody had ever heard of called "WPLJ" in some little town called "New York City". And she is still there today. Christine Richie !! And the PD in question is no longer in radio...geee I wonder why? :

 

[dustintv]

Look at the first name under the music section: Burl Ives!! Hilarious given that CBS has just aired the Rankin-Bass Rudolph special just this past week just like they have every year.

 

[Silkie]

I was just getting ready to say that Burl Ives was first on the music list. Artie Shaw and Leonard Bernstein are on there as well. Some pretty big names got on the blacklist.

Norman Mailer, Arthur Miller
Check out the guest stars who were blacklisted.

 

[azumanga]

I was just getting ready to say that Burl Ives was first on the music list. Artie Shaw and Leonard Bernstein are on there as well.

In the 1960s, Bernstein would host a series of Young People's Concerts -- on CBS.

 

[Silkie]

I was just getting ready to say that Burl Ives was first on the music list. Artie Shaw and Leonard Bernstein are on there as well.

In the 1960s, Bernstein would host a series of Young People's Concerts -- on CBS.

And then there is the television network itself in modern times that, in my opinion, might fit right on that list today.

 

[wbhist]

Also on that list: Martin Gabel. Who went on to become the most prolific guest panelist in the 1950-67 run of CBS's What's My Line? (After late 1956, alas.)

 

[4dude]

Quite interesting!

 

[NoWayNoCC]

Reminds me of what the Bush regime did to the Dixie Chicks.

 

[LKellerIII]

Reminds me of what the Bush regime did to the Dixie Chicks.

I don't think I've ever defended the Bush administration before (ugh!), but I don't think you can blame Bush/Cheney et al for the blacklisting of the Dixie Chicks...though they probably encouraged it. The 'Chicks' original core audience consisted of people who live in conservative middle America where people elect conservative Republicans. It's not a stretch to believe that their denouncement of the war made people angry. Country stations and local politicians in those media markets got a lot of mileage out of the whole affair, and the flag-waving that went with it. I doubt they needed any encouragement.

There was an anti-backlash in a lot of big cities, including here in the liberal SF Bay Area during that period. Dixie Chicks music started showing up on Light Rock and "World Class" Rock stations...much of their stuff is cross-over-pop friendly anyway. Their cover of Fleetwood Mac's Landslide was a major hit for them just a few months after the "blacklisting."

So the Dixie Chicks probably suffered some lost revenue for awhile (especially at concerts) in the short-run, but I think they bounced back quickly...and made themselves look courageous at the same time. It also didn't hurt their image that the Iraq War was bungled so badly after that, either

 

[landtuna]

I agree with Lkeller but was hesitant to reply due to previous political admonishment by the board mods.

I was on a cross-country trip with my then-Marine son (who was a big DC fan). Naturally we listened to radio along the way (I-10 east then I-85/I-81 north) and heard station after station (particularily across Texas) dissing the Chicks. My son got so enraged he actually tossed his DC CD's out the window (a dumb move on his part but hey, he's the Marine). It seemed to me the Chicks were taking heat from the country music fans. I don't remember hearing anything from the administration or their radio pundits although picturing Cheney blubber-mouthing the Chicks ala Limbaugh brings a chuckle.

 

[Silkie]

I agree with Lkeller but was hesitant to reply due to previous political admonishment by the board mods.

I was on a cross-country trip with my then-Marine son (who was a big DC fan). Naturally we listened to radio along the way (I-10 east then I-85/I-81 north) and heard station after station (particularily across Texas) dissing the Chicks. My son got so enraged he actually tossed his DC CD's out the window (a dumb move on his part but hey, he's the Marine). It seemed to me the Chicks were taking heat from the country music fans. I don't remember hearing anything from the administration or their radio pundits although picturing Cheney blubber-mouthing the Chicks ala Limbaugh brings a chuckle.

You are by no means alone in being admonished by the board mods, which in itself may tell a story. I never liked the Dixie Chicks, before or after their political debacle.

 

[newsmark]

The Dixie Chicks were already big enough to survive such a blacklist.

There are some big names on the Counterattack blacklist, too. But there are some really small names. You gotta wonder how many of those people lost their careers are never became big names because of the list.

 

[Bob1370]

The blacklist itself became such a controversial issue that CBS had to back off from it (some say because Edward R. Murrow threatened to make it a subject of a broadcast). ABC and NBC didn't seem to pay as much attention to it or let it guide its programming back in the day.

As far as the Dixie Chicks, that so-called ban was a bust. It helped them rather than hurt. It was largely a creation of Clear Channel, which was then a company very closely tied to the Bushes through the Mays family, which controlled it. Clear Channel had huge power through its control of 1100 stations back then--it has since shrunk to half its former self, and drifts ever closer to the financial rocks as their stations continue to cheapen their product and lose listeners. As for the Dixie Chicks, the only thing the boycott did was encourage other stations in other formats to discover and play their music, and find out that their work was just as compatible with adult contemporary formats in big cities as it was with country. They got a whole new coterie of fans in major cities and their next album turned out to be their biggest. The door may also have opened for a lot of other modern country acts to cross over to AC, hot AC and even CHR stations--making the careers of Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift possible.

 

[mleach]

The blacklist itself became such a controversial issue that CBS had to back off from it (some say because Edward R. Murrow threatened to make it a subject of a broadcast). ABC and NBC didn't seem to pay as much attention to it or let it guide its programming back in the day.

Maybe not with NBC & ABC but I believe DuMont did pay at least some attention to it. Back in the 80's I can remember watching DC's WTTG-TV channel 5 when Maury Povich ( yes that Maury "You ARE the father" Povich ) did some news special about the early days of WTTG and how some of those who were blacklisted tried to get on at DuMont but DuMont refused to take them. Also many years ago I seem to recall reading in some trivia book I had at the time where an actor was dropped from the cast of Captain Video ( a DuMont show ) because of the "blacklist"..wish I can remember the name of this actor.

 

[LKellerIII]

The blacklist itself became such a controversial issue that CBS had to back off from it (some say because Edward R. Murrow threatened to make it a subject of a broadcast). ABC and NBC didn't seem to pay as much attention to it or let it guide its programming back in the day.

As far as the Dixie Chicks, that so-called ban was a bust. It helped them rather than hurt. It was largely a creation of Clear Channel, which was then a company very closely tied to the Bushes through the Mays family, which controlled it. Clear Channel had huge power through its control of 1100 stations back then--it has since shrunk to half its former self, and drifts ever closer to the financial rocks as their stations continue to cheapen their product and lose listeners. As for the Dixie Chicks, the only thing the boycott did was encourage other stations in other formats to discover and play their music, and find out that their work was just as compatible with adult contemporary formats in big cities as it was with country. They got a whole new coterie of fans in major cities and their next album turned out to be their biggest. The door may also have opened for a lot of other modern country acts to cross over to AC, hot AC and even CHR stations--making the careers of Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift possible.

I agree that the Dixie Chicks ban helped them in the long run, but I think you're overstating the effects on other artitsts. After the ban, I started hearing DC's songs on Light Rock and CHR stations. But those stations were already playing cross-over country hits from artists like LeeAnn Rimes, Shania Twain, and Faith Hill.

This goes back to the Top 40 stations of the 60s and 70s that played songs by Glen Campbell, Ray Price, Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton and many more country artists.

If you look at the country artists that have made it on CHR radio in the last decade, the only consistent factor seems to be that they are almost exclusively all beautiful women...and you have to admit that the Dixie Chicks certainly fit that mold.

 

[firepoint525]

There was an anti-backlash in a lot of big cities, including here in the liberal SF Bay Area during that period. Dixie Chicks music started showing up on Light Rock and "World Class" Rock stations...much of their stuff is cross-over-pop friendly anyway. Their cover of Fleetwood Mac's Landslide was a major hit for them just a few months after the "blacklisting."

Not quite true. "Landslide" hit the charts in November, 2002. Natalie made her "remarks" on March 10, 2003, just after "Landslide" had peaked.

 

[firepoint525]

As far as the Dixie Chicks, that so-called ban was a bust. It helped them rather than hurt. It was largely a creation of Clear Channel, which was then a company very closely tied to the Bushes through the Mays family, which controlled it. Clear Channel had huge power through its control of 1100 stations back then--it has since shrunk to half its former self, and drifts ever closer to the financial rocks as their stations continue to cheapen their product and lose listeners. As for the Dixie Chicks, the only thing the boycott did was encourage other stations in other formats to discover and play their music, and find out that their work was just as compatible with adult contemporary formats in big cities as it was with country. They got a whole new coterie of fans in major cities and their next album turned out to be their biggest. The door may also have opened for a lot of other modern country acts to cross over to AC, hot AC and even CHR stations--making the careers of Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift possible.

Wow, some serious revisionism here!
The truth:
Wide Open Spaces (1998), 11 million
FLY (1999) at least 10 million (went "Diamond")
Home (2002), six million
Taking the Long Way (2006) only two million

I suppose you could argue that the trend in their sales was already downward anyway. :

 

[LKellerIII]

There was an anti-backlash in a lot of big cities, including here in the liberal SF Bay Area during that period. Dixie Chicks music started showing up on Light Rock and "World Class" Rock stations...much of their stuff is cross-over-pop friendly anyway. Their cover of Fleetwood Mac's Landslide was a major hit for them just a few months after the "blacklisting."

Not quite true. "Landslide" hit the charts in November, 2002. Natalie made her "remarks" on March 10, 2003, just after "Landslide" had peaked.

No doubt you are correct, Firepoint. I seem to remember that the CHR and Light Rock stations in the Bay Area didn't start playing Landslide until after the controversy ensued. Perhaps that was the case - or I was just paying more attention because of the controversy.