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The most famous person Grand Junction can lay claim to is Dalton Trumbo.
The writer, who got his start working for the Grand Junction High School Orange and Black newspaper and the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, went on to be one of Hollywood’s most renowned screenwriters in the middle part of the 20th century.
He penned “Johnny Got His Gun,” “The Brave One” and “Spartacus,” to name a few.
He’ll forever be remembered as a leader of the Hollywood 10, a group of prominent screenwriters and directors arrested for contempt of Congress during Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s crusade against Communism in the 1950s.
No one, absolutely no one, from this region acquired the name recognition and celebrity-status of Dalton Trumbo.
Which is why what’s unfolded the past two years is fitting.
A local group of folks got together and raised funds to reprint the fictional book that Trumbo based on his hometown of Grand Junction.
They also held a celebration in honor of what would have been Trumbo’s 100th birthday last December.
The City of Grand Junction and Mesa County declared Dec. 9 “Dalton Trumbo Day” in honor of its most famous son.
Now, appropriately, work has begun to construct a statue in Trumbo’s honor somewhere downtown.
The Downtown Development Authority is the fiscal agent, the Grand Junction Arts Commission chipped in $10,000 and the City of Grand Junction chipped in a $5,000 in-kind donation.
Each entity should be commended for their contribution.
When you see and experience the local buzz, you realize folks have finally gotten past that ridiculous Red Scare era of a previous generation — back when Sen. McCarthy led the witchhunt to seek out communists and communist sympathizers.
Suspected communists in all walks of life were aggressively investigated for their alleged involvement with the party. Lives were ruined.
Trumbo was banned from writing Hollywood screenplays.
Back then, you’d probably read in newspapers about how he was an “unabashed member of the American communist party and an unapologetic supporter of 20th century’s most cold-blooded mass murder, Joe Stalin.”
The fear McCarthy instilled through the nation was pretty intense.
But that was back then, right?
Wrong.
The previous words weren’t lifted from the pages of some old 1950s newspaper playing into McCarthy’s scare tactics.
The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel editorial board used those words last Sunday in ridiculing the work of local volunteers and entities pushing for Trumbo’s recognition.
I was under the impression McCarthyism died long ago with the senator of the same name — laughed off as the joke the Red Scare was — until I read the Sentinel’s editorial.
Apparently, I was wrong.
The writer, who got his start working for the Grand Junction High School Orange and Black newspaper and the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, went on to be one of Hollywood’s most renowned screenwriters in the middle part of the 20th century.
He penned “Johnny Got His Gun,” “The Brave One” and “Spartacus,” to name a few.
He’ll forever be remembered as a leader of the Hollywood 10, a group of prominent screenwriters and directors arrested for contempt of Congress during Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s crusade against Communism in the 1950s.
No one, absolutely no one, from this region acquired the name recognition and celebrity-status of Dalton Trumbo.
Which is why what’s unfolded the past two years is fitting.
A local group of folks got together and raised funds to reprint the fictional book that Trumbo based on his hometown of Grand Junction.
They also held a celebration in honor of what would have been Trumbo’s 100th birthday last December.
The City of Grand Junction and Mesa County declared Dec. 9 “Dalton Trumbo Day” in honor of its most famous son.
Now, appropriately, work has begun to construct a statue in Trumbo’s honor somewhere downtown.
The Downtown Development Authority is the fiscal agent, the Grand Junction Arts Commission chipped in $10,000 and the City of Grand Junction chipped in a $5,000 in-kind donation.
Each entity should be commended for their contribution.
When you see and experience the local buzz, you realize folks have finally gotten past that ridiculous Red Scare era of a previous generation — back when Sen. McCarthy led the witchhunt to seek out communists and communist sympathizers.
Suspected communists in all walks of life were aggressively investigated for their alleged involvement with the party. Lives were ruined.
Trumbo was banned from writing Hollywood screenplays.
Back then, you’d probably read in newspapers about how he was an “unabashed member of the American communist party and an unapologetic supporter of 20th century’s most cold-blooded mass murder, Joe Stalin.”
The fear McCarthy instilled through the nation was pretty intense.
But that was back then, right?
Wrong.
The previous words weren’t lifted from the pages of some old 1950s newspaper playing into McCarthy’s scare tactics.
The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel editorial board used those words last Sunday in ridiculing the work of local volunteers and entities pushing for Trumbo’s recognition.
I was under the impression McCarthyism died long ago with the senator of the same name — laughed off as the joke the Red Scare was — until I read the Sentinel’s editorial.
Apparently, I was wrong.
