What Lucille Ball, Orson Welles Had in Common

The House Un-American Activities Committee began nine days of hearings to investigate the presence of communism in Hollywood on Oct. 20, 1947.

It marked the beginning of the so-called Second Red Scare, which became better known as McCarthyism, because of the prevalence of Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy.

The era continued for roughly a decade, ending with McCarthy's death in 1957. He had already fallen from favor after a report from Edward R. Murrow in 1954 chastised McCarthy, and the subsequent Watkins Committee recommended McCarthy be censured.