HUAC's best known hearing was its 1948 investigation into communism in the film industry. The Hollywood Ten, composed of nine scriptwriters and one director, were charged with contempt of congress and sentenced to prison time. The playwright Bertolt Brecht had appeared as the eleventh unfriendlywitness, but no one could understand his German accent, and the HUAC chairman, J. Parnell Thomas, opining--"Hey, nobody who smokes cheap cigars like I do can be one of those dirty, filthy, lying, Pinko Commie Revolutionaries"--thanked him and let him go. And as Brecht himself said, "Vouldn't I haf to haf actually zold a zcript to Hollyvood to be conzidered a Hollyvood zcriptwriter? Unt eferyvon knowz my girlfriendz do my writink!" Many other artists expressed contempt for congress at the time but we