Those Wonderful, Terrible Years George Heller and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists by Harvey, Rita Morley - 1996

Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois Univ. Pr. New. 1996. Softcover. NEW - STILL IN PUBLISHERS WRAPS. This spirited biography of George Heller serves as an accessible inside history of the Golden Age of radio and TV through its glory days and its era of shame - McCarthyism and political blacklisting. In this book, Rita Morley Harvey tells the story of the charismatic, controversial Heller and the national union of radio and television artists from its inception in the 1930s to the Golden Age of television and the McCarthy era. Always prominent in Harvey's account of what happened to the union, its members, and to Heller and his friends are the shadows cast by the radical right in government and those willing to help in its dirty work. The story of AFTRA begins during the Great Depression, a time of great trust and camaraderie as well as tremendous hardship. In the 1950s the Golden Age of television, the radio and television industry was beset by Joseph R. McCarthy and all he came to represent. Harvey insists that this was a "time of stunning consequence in the lives of George Heller and his friends, in the lives of hundreds of others too, all good, decent citizens and much-admired radio and TV performers. " 272 pages. 6" x 9 /14 .