Martin Gang

Martin Gang ( – ) was a noted American lawyer considered a "pioneer in entertainment law". He was a founding partner in 1931 of the Hollywood law firm Gang, Kopp and Tyre (now known as Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman), and remained with the firm until his death.

During the McCarthy era, Gang became famous for helping numerous entertainment industry professionals clear themselves with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), and thereby avoid the Hollywood blacklist. His legal strategy of fully cooperating with the Committee, and advising his clients to "name names", made Gang a polarizing figure.

Early life and education Gang's parents, Adolph Gang and Fannie Kopper, were Eastern European Jews who immigrated to the United States in the 1890s. After graduating from Harvard, he spent part of the 1920s studying economics in Weimar Germany, and received a PhD from Heidelberg University.

Gang started to become nationally known during the late 1940s when the United States Congress and The Hollywood Reporter magazine were alleging links between the Communist Party (CPUSA) and Hollywood. In 1946, he filed a lawsuit on behalf of actress Myrna Loy against The Reporter for calling her "part of the Communist fifth column". Eventually, The Reporter had to issue a front-page retraction. In October 1950, he represented a faction of the Screen Directors Guild—including William Wyler, Billy Wilder, Joseph Losey, John Huston, and Fred Zinneman—who joined with the Guild's president Joseph L. Mankiewicz in resisting efforts by another faction (led by Cecil B. DeMille, Frank Capra and Leo McCarey) to impose a loyalty oath on all Guild members.

House Un-American Activities Committee In early 1951, Gang began to defend show business professionals targeted by the HUAC as Communists, Communist sympathizers, or "fellow travelers". Non-cooperation with the Committee meant blacklisting and potential imprisonment for contempt of Congress. Victor Navasky writes:

In Gang's first attempt to clear a client with the HUAC, he defended actor Sterling Hayden who had briefly been a CPUSA member in 1946. Hayden testified before the Committee in Washington, D.C. on April 10, 1951. Following Gang's advice, Hayden denounced his decision to join the CPUSA as "the stupidest and most ignorant thing I have ever done in my life." He proceeded to name several former associates as Communists. In response to a query from Congressman Clyde Doyle, the actor praised the HUAC's mission and said his appearance that day "could serve a very useful purpose." Hayden was thanked by the Committee and permitted to return to work.

Gang repeated this same HUAC defense strategy with Lee J. Cobb, Roland Kibbee, Abe Burrows, Lloyd Bridges, Silvia Richards, Richard Collins, and David Raksin, among others. Raksin recalled being counselled by Gang: "'If you don't talk, those bastards will put you in jail.' Gang told me, 'Don't hide anything; they know all about you.'" In the case of outspoken liberals such as Burt Lancaster and John Houseman, Gang met privately with the HUAC to clear the actors without their needing to testify.

As a result of his determined efforts and his willingness to recommend "naming names" as a justifiable option, Gang was credited with being the most frequent "clearance" lawyer in the entertainment industry: "Gang wound up representing more informers than any other Hollywood lawyerby his own estimate, some twenty movie people and thirty more in other professions. His justification was simple: he was helping worthy but misguided people stay out of prison and keep their jobs." In a scene at an HUAC hearing, Graff advises his hesitating client David Merrill, who is having qualms about informing: "They want the names, David, that's why we're here. C'mon, you can't beat these bastards. You keep this up and they'll tear your head off."

During the rise of Nazi Germany, Gang rescued several of his Jewish family members in Vienna, Austria from arrest and certain death. His exploits were later chronicled in the 2010 documentary film Auf Wiedersehen: 'Til We Meet Again.