Martin Gang

Martin Gang ((1901-03-12)March 12, 1901 – (1998-01-29)January 29, 1998), was an American lawyer. Gang was a graduate of Harvard and the Boalt Law School.[1] He was known for providing legal aid to victims of the 1940s and 1950s Hollywood blacklist. Gang was also involved in the founding of the American law firm now known as Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman, Inc. (originally Gang, Kopp, and Brown), and remained one of its partners from 1931 to his death.

Legacy

Gang worked to dissolve the Hollywood blacklist from its start in 1947 to its end. In the 1950s, Gang provided legal representation to movie industry workers who cooperated with the House Un-American Activities Committee and was a leading member of the American Jewish Committee. In 1951, Gang represented Gene Autry in a lawsuit against Republic Studios that strengthened actors' independence from their studio employers. Gang's other prominent clients included George Burns, Bob Hope, Olivia de Havilland, Myrna Loy, Lucille Ball, and Frank Sinatra.[2]

He was one of the McCarthy era's most frequent "clearance" lawyers in Hollywood. Gang devised methods of allowing publicly known communist-sympathizers to avoid the studio blacklists. Thus, they were able to continue to work in Hollywood. He counseled his clients in cooperating with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). This included admitting their connection to communism, fully repudiating their former beliefs, and sharing information on former friends, colleagues, and acquaintances who were involved in communist groups. To retain his client's interest in keeping their employment, he resided to counseling them to 'name names'. Gang claimed that he "had a responsibility to [his] client and their lives".[3]

Other parts of Martin Gang's legacy include acting as retainer to a faction of the Screen Directors Guild fighting efforts by another faction to impose a loyalty oath on members in 1950s. Additionally, he rescued members of his extended family living in Vienna, Austria from Hitler's Holocaust. In media, Martin Gang was portrayed in the 1991 movie Guilty by Suspicion and the movie Auf Wiedersehen: ’Til We Meet Again, which documented his aforementioned rescue of his family.

References
  • "Martin Gang", Variety, February 9, 1998
  • Robert Seidenberg (March 10, 1991), "Film: An Actor Relives a Tumultuous Past", The New York Times
  • "Hollywood divided by loyalty pledge issue", The New York Times, October 22, 1950
  • "Autry Also To Sue On TV Movie Sales", The New York Times, October 24, 1951
  1. Obituary
  2. Defending the Blacklist: Martin Gang, a Jewish Hollywood Lawyer
  3. Flenkel, Glenn (February 10, 2017). "Martin Gang". Jewish Book Council. Retrieved October 30, 2020.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.