After Kazan talked

Regarding Susan King’s “The Blacklist’s Gray Tones” (Aug. 31): According to the late Larry Adler’s 1985 autobiography, “It Ain’t Necessarily So,” the soon-to-be blacklisted musician had been at Sardi’s in New York with Elia Kazan, and Kazan had been militant in his contempt for the whole business of informing. He had just received his subpoena to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee and he said, “I’ve got 2 million bucks in the bank and nobody can make me talk.” As we know, he did talk.

A few days after Kazan testified, Adler went to see his agent. As he approached the office, Kazan came out of it. He looked awful. Adler said he looked like he had been drinking. When they saw each other, neither of them knew what to say. They must have remembered that evening in Sardi’s. They engaged in small talk and Kazan left the office. When Adler saw his agent, he said, “I just saw Kazan. He looks a mess.” The agent said, “Yeah, he’s had a rough time. They gave him quite a going-over in Washington.” At that moment, Kazan burst into the office, came up to Adler and grabbed his hand in both of his and said, “Larry, it’s up to you. You gotta lick those bastards.” Then Adler said Kazan started to cry, made a great effort, stopped crying, grabbed his hand again, shook it, and ran out of the office.

Steve Barr

Los Angeles