LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Olivia De Havilland: Roles
built 656 days ago
As Ms. de Havilland begins to analyze this important period of her life, a clear victory often seems elusive. On the one hand, she and her group failed in their efforts to swing the Citizens' Committee to their side. Nationally, Democrats lost control of the U.S. House that fall in part because they avoided the kind of firmly declared anticommunism Ms. de Havilland advocated and were perceived as being "soft on communism." And, at least in Hollywood, the blacklist is now an honor roll, as critic Hilton Kramer once observed. But there were definite vindications: Ms. de Havilland succeeded at making a communist-controlled organization irrelevant because without her, Reagan and other noncommunists in the forefront it lost its potency. Many in key positions in the organization, such as screenwriters Dalton Trumbo and John Howard Lawson, later publicly confessed to being communists. And, in one authoritative exclamation point for Ms. de Havilland's side, Ronnie made the cover of the Economist in 2004 as "The Man Who Beat Communism."
Source:
As well as a prolific aircraft builder, de Havilland was ... a significant producer of aero engines. This went against usual practice- usually engines are designed and produced by a dedicated company. The successful "Gipsy" and the later developments such as the Gipsy Major were successful and popular power units, being used in nearly all of de Havilland's light designs and several aircraft from other manufacturers. Gipsy engines were relatively unusual by the 1930s/40s because they were in-line engines, at a time when radial or opposed-action engine layouts were more popular. The de Havilland company was also a competitor to Rolls-Royce in the early years of the jet engine development, building the "Goblin" and "Ghost" engines for their jet fighters.
Source:
John Meroney has a wonderful interview with Olivia de Havilland today in the Wall Street Journal. De Havilland opens up about the time she spent mentoring Ronald Reagan in the early struggle against communism in Hollywood. This is a vital piece of Hollywood history and I’m glad John is bringing it to light - and we’re certainly looking forward to John’s forthcoming book about Reagan’s years in Hollywood, and their role in the development of Reagan’s political philosophy.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Roles