I Was a Communist for the FBI (1952-1953) aired “An Unamerican Activity” on Monday, April 13, 1953 as the 55th of its 78 episodes. This is the first episode of the program we have showcased.
Fully cognizant of the new Red Scare sweeping the United States in the early 1950s, this program sought to bring it home to the American people in a close up and personal way with its tense, high-wire weekly episodes. The program was based on the series of stories by Matt Cvetic (1909-1962) published in the Saturday Evening Post on July 12th, 22nd, and 29th, 1950, a real-life FBI undercover agent who had infiltrated the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) from 1941-1950 and had slowly moved his way up the ranks of his local party cell, where he had influence. Cvetic was a real-life native of Pittsburgh and is where the action takes place. He became a spy in 1941 after being rejected for the Army because he was too short. He then received a “mysterious” call and the rest is history. It is interesting to note that, according to one source: “He met his handler exactly once and never met him again though submitted over 50,000 pages of reports.” In this radio version Cvetic works in the city’s industrial sector among its working class laborers. No one but his priest and FBI superiors know he is a spy, not even his wife and children who despise him, leading to the show’s tag line of “I Walk Alone.” The radio version stars noted film star Dana Andrews (1909-1992, photo above) as Cvetic, though the 1951 film of the same name featured Frank Lovejoy (1912-1962), also a well known and respected actor, as Cvetic, who now works in a steel mill. While the film took some liberties with a few facts it was nevertheless a taut b&w thriller and managed a 1952 Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature of 1951.
To be fair, Cvetic had plenty of detractors. After a while it became an understood given that much of his information had become unreliable, and his appearances at House Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings became fewer and fewer. At one period in time Cvetic was the golden boy who fit right in with the endless coverage of the perceived internal communist threat facing America in the early 1950s. But as these things go, and while there was certainly proof of a measure of it, those who had probable cause to alert America to the growing threat in our midst went too far, and this is the claim some have leveled at the otherwise well-made and eminently watchable film—that it made it appear as if we had communists under every rock. If so, the general premise at the heart of the film (and radio program) is still sound; it being those who hide in our midst in order to destroy us from within (regardless of number), against those who would forever oppose them. So while Matt Cvetic wasn’t perfect, the aid he gave his country over time outweighed any shortcomings he was shown to have, and he comes out on the plus side of the ledger when all is written, said, and done.
Ironically, after the intensely stressful life-threatening danger he faced on a day to day basis for many years before the FBI let him go as an undercover agent, Matt Cvetic (pictured below) died of a heart attack on July 26th, 1962 at the age of 53, while waiting at the L.A. DMV office to take his driver’s exam. Some things never change.
“An Unamerican Activity” finds Cvetic, as usual, on the horns of a dilemma. He must always make sure he does not compromise his delicate position as an undercover agent for the FBI by providing them intelligence as to his communist cell’s plans, without tipping off his commie comrades of his dual role. In this episode, the local ranking cell members are worried that some of their comrades have succumbed to government pressure and will be testifying against them at a forthcoming House Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC) hearing, and that their testimony will expose their names and plans, setting back their cause in a big way and possibly sending a few of them off to prison. Cvetic is called in to discuss the matter with some of the ranking cell members. Some want to kill those who are to testify, making sure what they know will not be passed on in the hearing and made public. For solid reasons (presented in the radio play) Cvetic disses this plan and offers another. Despite serious objections from his fellow comrades he pulls rank and begins laying the groundwork for his own plan–one that not even his FBI contacts are aware of. It’s a gamble he is willing to take and one only he can pull off, one that relies on his intimate personal knowledge of his “friends.” What this scheme is and how it would save his cover (and life) if successful is for the listener to discover, but only by being made aware of “An Unamerican Activity.”
(The linked CD above includes this episode and 15 others on 8 discs, all remastered and restored.)
Play Time: 28:56
