“Cradle Will Rock” Defies Government Censorship, Opens in Different Theater
Because of pressure from conservatives in Congress about the left-wing activists associated with the Federal Theater Project, officials in the Roosevelt administration on this day shut down the opening of the musical The Cradle Will Rock at the last minute. An alternative theater was quickly secured, however, and it opened on Broadway on this day.
The Federal Theater Project was one of several arts projects sponsored by the New Deal to provide work for writers and artists in different fields. Many people who became famous in theater and film were associated with the project: Orson Welles, Arthur Miller, Elia Kazan, John Houseman, and others. The Cradle Will Rock was a musical by Marc Blitzstein set in “Steeltown, USA” with a strong pro-labor union theme.
The Federal Theater Project had opened in 1935 and was closed down in 1939, in part because of conservative political pressures, and also because the international crisis in Europe and Asia and the advent of war was reducing unemployment in the U.S.
Several of the people involved with The Cradle Will Rock were called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) during the Cold War. They include Arthur Miller (June 21, 1956) and Elia Kazan (April 10, 1952), who had a falling out because Kazan chose to name names before HUAC while Miller refused to do so.
Learn more about the Federal Theater Project: Barry Witham, The Federal Theater Project: A Case Study (2003)
Read: John H. Houchin, Censorship of the American Theater in the Twentieth Century (2003)
Learn more at the Library of Congress: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fedtp/
See the movie about the censorship: The Cradle Will Rock (1999)