Here is Karen Kramer's letter to the New York Post in response to Johnson's column:
How dare you allow columnist Richard Johnson to use Kevin Spacey as a springboard to defame filmmaker Stanley Kramer. Your reporter should take the time to check out the facts before making accusations and revising history. The article quotes Lionel Chetwynd as if he is an authority on High Noon, Kramer and Foreman. Chetwynd is nothing more than a lightweight who uses two dead men who cannot speak or defend themselves to promote his own political agenda. He makes propaganda films for the Conservative party to discredit well-known Democrats. In this case, Stanley Kramer.
These are the facts:
1. The Stanley Kramer Company was founded in the 1940's. Foreman was one of Kramer's six partners.
2. The Stanley Kramer Company signed a contract with Columbia Pictures in 1951 to make fifteen films. They were no longer an independent film company. Columbia financed and distributed their films. There paychecks came from Columbia Pictures, no longer from Stanley Kramer.
3. Harry Cohn was Columbia Pictures' president and a signatory to the 1947 Waldorf Agreement, which prohibited Hollywood studios from employing former communists. Foreman concealed his own years of party membership from Kramer and Company.
4. Legal documents signed by both Kramer and Foreman September 13, 1951, hiring film writer Foreman as High Noon's associate producer, a second in command in position to Stanley Kramer. (I have a copy of these documents.)
5. Foreman was subpoenaed to testify before HUAC. He swore to Stanley and partners that he was not and never had been a communist. When HUAC found Foreman's affiliations with the Communist Party, he was forced to resign from Columbia Pictures. His Associate Producer credit was not acknowledged because he was not there to complete his on-set duties during High Noon production.
6. What do all Blacklisted writers rightfully complain about? Not getting screenwriting credit. Stanley Kramer made sure that Carl Foreman's writing credit remained on-screen when High Noon was released in 1952.
7. Stanley Kramer did not take on-screen producer's credit because Stanley Kramer Company Presents went above the title for the first time with High Noon and stayed that way throughout the duration of his productions at Columbia.
8. Kramer defied the Blacklist in 1958 when he hired two Blacklisted writers, Nedrick Young and Harold Jacob Smith for their screenplay The Defiant Ones, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay that year. He paid more money for their screenplay than had been paid in many years. He brought them on to the lot which was unheard of in those McCarthy Era days. He put them as actors in the film.
9. He hired them again to write Inherit the Wind in 1960. The American Legion criticized Kramer for hiring known Communists.
These are the true facts, and if Stanley Kramer had been worried about what his association with Foreman might do to his own career, he certainly wouldn't have insisted on giving him screen credit on High Noon. Hope you will speak to Mr. Johnson. He doesn't do your publication justice.
Sincerely, Mrs. Stanley Kramer.
How dare you allow columnist Richard Johnson to use Kevin Spacey as a springboard to defame filmmaker Stanley Kramer. Your reporter should take the time to check out the facts before making accusations and revising history. The article quotes Lionel Chetwynd as if he is an authority on High Noon, Kramer and Foreman. Chetwynd is nothing more than a lightweight who uses two dead men who cannot speak or defend themselves to promote his own political agenda. He makes propaganda films for the Conservative party to discredit well-known Democrats. In this case, Stanley Kramer.
These are the facts:
1. The Stanley Kramer Company was founded in the 1940's. Foreman was one of Kramer's six partners.
2. The Stanley Kramer Company signed a contract with Columbia Pictures in 1951 to make fifteen films. They were no longer an independent film company. Columbia financed and distributed their films. There paychecks came from Columbia Pictures, no longer from Stanley Kramer.
3. Harry Cohn was Columbia Pictures' president and a signatory to the 1947 Waldorf Agreement, which prohibited Hollywood studios from employing former communists. Foreman concealed his own years of party membership from Kramer and Company.
4. Legal documents signed by both Kramer and Foreman September 13, 1951, hiring film writer Foreman as High Noon's associate producer, a second in command in position to Stanley Kramer. (I have a copy of these documents.)
5. Foreman was subpoenaed to testify before HUAC. He swore to Stanley and partners that he was not and never had been a communist. When HUAC found Foreman's affiliations with the Communist Party, he was forced to resign from Columbia Pictures. His Associate Producer credit was not acknowledged because he was not there to complete his on-set duties during High Noon production.
6. What do all Blacklisted writers rightfully complain about? Not getting screenwriting credit. Stanley Kramer made sure that Carl Foreman's writing credit remained on-screen when High Noon was released in 1952.
7. Stanley Kramer did not take on-screen producer's credit because Stanley Kramer Company Presents went above the title for the first time with High Noon and stayed that way throughout the duration of his productions at Columbia.
8. Kramer defied the Blacklist in 1958 when he hired two Blacklisted writers, Nedrick Young and Harold Jacob Smith for their screenplay The Defiant Ones, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay that year. He paid more money for their screenplay than had been paid in many years. He brought them on to the lot which was unheard of in those McCarthy Era days. He put them as actors in the film.
9. He hired them again to write Inherit the Wind in 1960. The American Legion criticized Kramer for hiring known Communists.
These are the true facts, and if Stanley Kramer had been worried about what his association with Foreman might do to his own career, he certainly wouldn't have insisted on giving him screen credit on High Noon. Hope you will speak to Mr. Johnson. He doesn't do your publication justice.
Sincerely, Mrs. Stanley Kramer.