I’m fascinated by politics as much as I am classic film. As a local film historian in my small college town, I teach a variety of courses on Old Hollywood with a healthy dose of history. When Variety published an article today, “Trump Names Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson and Jon Voight as ‘Special Ambassadors’ To ‘Troubled’ Hollywood: They’ll Bring ‘Lost Business’ Back,” it caught my eye. I quickly scanned the short piece and laughed it off as another performative assembly of no-longer-relevant actors over fifty who support the next red wave.

After all, what could these guys do? If they’re rarely on the red carpet these days. They’re not A-list actors/directors anymore. Not studio heads. Not the movers and shakers of the industry, even if they once were Oscar winners. But then I realized this scenario rang of something eerily familiar. Of a time and place when Hollywood came under scrutiny, after the 2nd World War over 70 years ago. It started out as far-right attacks on the fringes of society, then more mainstream. And then it hit Hollywood, and much of the destruction and betrayal came from within. It dawned on me, could we be witnessing the seed of the third Red Scare in Hollywood?

A little history lesson. The first Red Scare (1917 – 1923) was sparked by tensions of world politics, when the far-right feared a rise of politics that leaned left, peaking in 1919 with race riots and organized labor strikes. Note the parallel timing with WWI. The 2nd Red Scare began with the rise of far-right paranoia of the Cold War years that followed the 2nd World War. Extremist politics in the air zeroed in on LGBTQ community first with the “Lavender Scare,” when federal employees were targeted to resign or be outed for their sexuality as the American government condoned a sweeping character assassination, labeling whoever in noncompliance as anti-American communists.

Senator Joseph McCarthy led the charge of communism paranoia into Senate hearings under the HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee) that eventually pressured Hollywood to root out their own. Studio heads and movie stars alike were pressured into naming names. The infamous “Hollywood Ten” endured the HUAC hot seat from 1947 to the summer of 1950, then cited for contempt for refusing to name names and jailed. They and many more were blacklisted with their careers destroyed for years to come. The blacklisting finally ended in 1960. Some screenwriters worked under pseudonyms, some actors worked on Broadway and/or over seas. Studio heads, directors, and producers were told to never hire blacklisted and greylisted actors, directors, and writers. Many never returned to Hollywood again.

It was a very dark period in both American politics and Hollywood. One night in Hollywood, on October 22, 1950 exemplified this. Right wing factions within the SDG (Screen Directors Guild) spear-headed by director Cecil B DeMille were building a secret campaign to oust SDG then-President Joseph L Mankiewicz if he and others didn’t comply with a mandated anti-communism oath, which required officially signing a loyalty card to the United States. In a tense night, it was director John Ford (who had a very complicated history in his political views from liberal ties to the IRA, the Motion Picture Democratic Committee, and Hollywood Ant-Nazi League to his affiliation with the witch-hunting MPA, where his conservative pals John Wayne and Ward Bond supported blacklisting) who surprised the room by shutting it all down with a direct scolding. Ford may have saved the day for Mankiewicz, who was re-elected, and cooled down the fired-up DeMille, but only temporarily for the oath moving forward.

And that’s the thing about history and these political waves of extremism. If we are facing a true and third Red Scare, it could last a long time. The mid-century version lasted from the late 1940s to finally dropping the blacklisting in 1960. It decimated lives, destroyed careers and reputations. More importantly, it turned people against each other. Creative collaborators and colleagues that worked side-by-side for years were turning on each other. For what? A mob frenzy avoiding a political label? A ‘morality’ label? And yes, even back then, it was completely legal to question your government, or call yourself a political party or ideology that may or may not be popular. Which means that the federal government, executed by members of the legislative body, not only didn’t stop it but actually enacted the witch hunt. Stretching the very definitions and boundaries of the Constitution and our rights.

So when I read that the new incoming President of the United States is assigning these personally selected ‘special envoys’ to be [Trump’s] “eyes and ears” to bring back “The Golden Age of Hollywood” because they are loyal to his political views, I know we’ve been here before. Perhaps it shouldn’t be shrugged off as a silly joke. If a handful of actors and directors are being assigned by the highest authority of United States to carry out orders of re-imagining Hollywood, will this a directive spread to studio leadership and be taken seriously? Will studios such as Netflix, Disney, or Paramount comply? What are the consequences if Hollywood doesn’t comply? And what exactly does the Trump vision of the ‘Golden Age of Hollywood’ look like?

Would the Hollywood Ten and subsequent blacklisting have occurred if the studio heads stood up against the pressures of the Red Scare? What if all the Hollywood actors had refused to name names, because the entire industry stood as a united front? What if every single federal employee, no matter their sexual identity, rallied in opposition against the “Lavender Scare” back then? In today’s politics, the fight continues on Capitol Hill to address bathroom bans for trans lawmakers. It’s no secret that we are witnessing a historic shift on the national and world stage, with strong echoes of our past. The question to ask ourselves, will we act as we did before— or will we be courageous enough this time to take a stance?