Before we totally leave the subject of Guys and Dolls: I mentioned that Abe Burrows wrote the book for the show and then I received a message from someone who writes me often but never signs his or her name. The message said, "Jo Swerling co-wrote Guys and Dolls and had a great career. Abe Burrows cooperated with HUAC and betrayed writers."
Yes, Burrows testified — twice, I believe — before the House Un-American Activities Committee. I wasn't commenting on him as a human being; just saying that he wrote the book for the show. If my correspondent was objecting to me not giving Swerling credit…okay, so noted. But when one of the producers of Guys and Dolls, Cy Feuer, penned his autobiography, he wrote — and I quote…
…we saw that Swerling was the wrong guy for us. It was basic. Irreconcilable differences. We finally had to fire him, although he insisted that he still receive first billing in the credits for the play and retain some small percentage of the royalties. This in spite of the fact that not one of his words ever appeared in the show.
That's from a book called I've Got the Show Right Here and in it, he says that when Swerling left the show, it didn't even have Nathan Detroit or Adelaide in it. So make of that what you will. I also think that, though he may have done a very bad thing by testifying, Abe Burrows had a pretty good career too.
If we're going to talk about Guys and Dolls and the blacklist, I should probably post the following video of Tom Pedi, a longtime actor who was in the original Broadway production in the role of Harry the Horse. I had the pleasure — and believe me, it was one — of dining a couple times with Tom not long before he died in 1996. He was the cousin of my friend Christine Pedi, who has been mentioned often on this blog. Here's a photo I took of Tom, Christine and my dear buddy Howard Morris at one of those dinners…
Tom was a genuine blacklisted actor as he states in this interview. The actor he mentions, B.S. Pully, was also in the original company of Guys and Dolls, having originated the role of Big Jule. When they made the movie, they hired a lot of actors who did the show on Broadway…and Pully was hired but Tom Pedi was replaced by Sheldon Leonard. Guess why. As you can see in this interview from late in Tom's life, he still had a lot of anger about the blacklist — justifiably…