Douglas declared herself opposed to Communist aggression abroad, saying, “The Cold War launched by Communist imperialists has been a costly, nerve-racking and distasteful affair.”ĭifficulties dogged her Senate campaign, in which her opponents dubbed her “the pink lady.” A group of USC students, in what was later described as a fraternity initiation prank, sprayed her with seltzer water and threw hay at her as she spoke on campus. It was a campaign in which her voting record - including opposition to a $150,000 appropriation for HUAC and to subversive activities control bill requiring registration of Communists - was used as evidence of her alleged leftist sympathies.īut Mrs. She was one of only 17 representatives who voted against contempt citations for the “Hollywood Ten,” writers and entertainers who, to her “personal regret,” refused to answer questions about their alleged Communist Party membership before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Douglas encountered her most vehement criticism. Her appointment to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where she served for three terms, put her in the spotlight on post-war international issues, although it was on domestic matters that Mrs. Douglas won a close race, and by the time of her swearing-in in 1945, she and blond Connecticut Republican representative Clare Booth Luce were being called the “congressional glamour girls.” She did not live in the district, and although that was not then a condition of candidacy, one opponent called her “a political gypsy who is trying to push her tent into the 14th District.” Douglas was chosen in 1944 as the Democratic nominee for Congress in Los Angeles’ 14th District amid “carpetbagging” charges. Roosevelt shortly before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Mrs. Douglas, whose newcomer status and social and economic beliefs caused concern and disgruntlement among some of Southern California’s Democratic women.Īppointed as a civil defense volunteer by President Franklin D. They are working every street, alley and boulevard.” As early as that 1940 campaign, charges of “reputed leftist support” began to be leveled at Mrs. Asked at the time if she had a message for the state’s Democrats, she said “Yes, - do not underestimate our opponents. Within a few months, she was selected as a Democratic national committeewoman from California, working for the party ticket in the November elections against the GOP presidential candidate Wendell Willkie. Douglas took up political cudgels, testifying in mid-1940 before the Assembly subcommittee about the housing problems of migrant workers during the Depression. Personally I’ve never been afraid of anything - at least I can’t think of anything right now.” Douglas said then, “She ruled her kingdom by terror and she herself was fear-ridden. Together they went to Hollywood to star in “She,” the 1935 film about the fantastic goddess-queen of the H. While she was performing in “Tonight or Never” in 1930, she met Douglas, whom she married in 1931.
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