FBI File: Hollywood and J. Edgar Hoover: Communists in the Motion Picture Industry

J. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972), the first director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, held longstanding interest in the Hollywood film industry as well as deep distrust of anyone on the political left. In August 1942 he ordered the bureau���s Los Angeles office to report on ���Communist Infiltration of the Motion Picture Industry.��� Various FBI reports chronicled the working of major film studios such as MGM, Paramount, RKO, and Warner Brothers, and studio management and labor union power struggles. The FBI's investigation of Hollywood resulted in many thousands of pages and show a growing operation organized in the early 1940s that continued throughout the Cold War.