The Broadcast 41

At the dawn of the Cold War era, forty-one women working in American radio and television were placed on a media blacklist and forced from their industry. The ostensible reason: so-called Communist influence. But in truth these women-among them Dorothy Parker, Lena Horne, and Gypsy Rose Lee-were, by nature of their diversity and ambition, a threat to the traditional portrayal of the American family on the airwaves. This book describes what American radio and television lost when these women were blacklisted, documenting their aspirations and achievements. Through original archival research and access to FBI blacklist documents, 'The Broadcast 41' details the blacklisted women's attempts in the 1930s and 1940s to depict America as diverse, complicated, and inclusive.