“Mr. Lasner, we’re not here to discuss my social—”
“Just Milt’s, huh? I thought maybe the two of you had talked. You were the guest of honor. The point was to meet you. But there were a lot of people. Sometimes it’s like that, you don’t get to talk. At least this time it wasn’t a fund-raiser, unless you were raising funds I didn’t know about,” Lasner said playfully, the scene his now, as if the tables themselves had changed places.
“Mr. Lasner,” Minot said stiffly, “can we get back to—”
“I was just making a point. You said you can tell a lot, who people know, but, see, we can’t really tell anything about you by the fact that you and Milt were both there.”
“Your point being?”
“So Hal and Milt were at the Fund party. Does it mean anything, they were both there?”
“Those were very different occasions,” Minot said, defensive now.
“I’ll bet. I’ve been to Milt’s parties. You’re lucky, you get cream cheese on a Ritz cracker.”
Everyone laughed, even Schaeffer, a little color now in his cheeks. Minot waited it out.
“Mr. Lasner.”
“I’m just saying, we don’t even know if they talked. You just said they were there, is all.”
Minot stared at him, trying to close down the volley with silence. “Because if you don’t know anything more than that, there’s no reason to bring it up, is there? It’s just like you and Milt at the house.”
Minot covered his microphone and said something to the other committee members, a quarterback running through plays.
“Mr. Lasner, I’m not going to debate this with you. The event we were discussing is part of a much larger web of association.”
“What, like that letter in the paper?”
“Among other things.”
“I was wondering about that. I wanted to ask you—”
“Mr. Lasner, we’re asking the questions here.”
“I’m sitting here all morning, I don’t even get one?” he said, facing away from Minot to the rest of the committee, one of whom leaned over and whispered to Minot.
“Ask me what, Mr. Lasner?”
“That letter in the paper, for the European Relief Fund. You say Milt signed it. And Hal. Gus Pollock.”
“That’s correct.”
“And you think that means something.”
“Red Channels has listed the Fund as a suspected Communist front organization.”
“What’s Red Channels?”
“It’s a publication that— Mr. Lasner, this is all beside the point.”
“Not to me. Who are they to accuse me—”
“Nobody’s accusing you of anything.”
“No? You’re pretty quick telling us Hal signed that letter. So they’re all in it together, Hal and Milt and— But you don’t say who else signed it. Take a look. Jack Warner, I remember. Selznick for sure. Even Mayer, I think, but I can’t swear to that. I know they asked. How? Because I signed it, too. And gave them money. Is that why you got me down here? With a subpoena. Under oath. Because I gave money to save some Jews before they were killed? Are you calling me a Communist, too?” All the cameras had now swiveled toward him, the entire room pitched forward, waiting. “Who’s Red Channels? Bring them here, so we can take a look. Let them call me that to my face.” His voice kept rising, then dropped. “Or is that what you’re doing? Calling me a Communist?”
“Mr. Lasner, this isn’t getting us anywhere.”
“No? Where are we going? I thought you got me down here to tell me there were Commies in the industry. Making trouble. And all you’ve got is Milt giving parties? Who’s paying for all this, by the way?” He threw his arm out, expansive. “You got a budget on this thing or do the taxpayers just keep forking it over till you dig something up? All right, I’m under oath?” He raised his hand. “I am not a Communist. I don’t even know any Communists. Milt wants to think it’s a paradise over there in Minsk, let him, I don’t care. I make pictures, that’s all.”
“That tell the American people what to think,” Minot leaped in, visibly angry now, finally drawn out of public politeness. “Nobody here has accused you of anything except possibly a political naïveté so profound—”
“Naïveté, what’s that?”
Minot stopped, flummoxed. “Innocence,” he said. “A political innocence, or indifference, that allows people, clever people, to exploit—”
“Now you’re calling me stupid?”