MARSHA HUNT
"Things Turn Out Best for the People who
Make the Best out of the Way Things Turn Out" -- Art Linkletter

Marsha Hunt, 92, actress, social activist, humanitarian, loving wife, aunt, author, songwriter, record producer, great American. Yet, not a name the general public would know in the news today. Marsha Hunt was one of the first ‘Celebrity Activists’, coupling a generous spirit and pioneering nature into raising money and awareness. Her initial cause was alleviating hunger and oppression, today she continues to work to end world hunger, muscular dystrophy, homelessness and many other causes she feels deserve attention.

Her career began in May 1935, when a 17-year-old Marsha Hunt was on top of the world. As a John Robert Powers model in New York, she had a dream of becoming an actress that was about to come true.

She came to the West Coast and discovered four studios clamoring to sign her to a contract. She decided on Paramount Pictures. Dubbed the “youngest character actress in America.” Marsha began her career as a leading lady with a salary of $250 a week.

In 1939, she switched to MGM, Hollywood’s most successful studio, where she continued to flourish, making 24 pictures on the Culver City lot over a seven-year period.

With her soldier husband overseas, Marsha became more involved in the war effort. In addition to making eight warrelated films, she worked every Saturday night at the Hollywood Canteen, dancing and signing autographs for some five thousand soldiers.

She raised money on war bond tours, visited and performed for the wounded at military camps and hospitals, and trained as a volunteer ambulance driver. She is most proud of the fact that she sang and danced for soldiers during a six-week USO tour of the Arctic.

November 25, 1947, the heads of the major studios and several independent producer organizations met at the Waldorf Astoria to address the issue of communist infiltration in motion pictures.

In a historic proclamation known as the Waldorf Statement, the studio heads and producers voted unanimously to refuse employment to the Hollywood Ten as well as to any Communist working in the motion picture industry. What was known in Hollywood unofficially became official: the Hollywood Blacklist was now a reality.

Acting on their conscience, a group of actors in support of the ostracized associates, flew to Washington. They did not believe there would be dire consequences for their actions. Instead, they believed that standing up for their fellow artists would hasten the end of the hearings and prevent the possibility of further action to limit free speech in the entertainment industry.

Marsha is one of a handful alive today who were on that Washington-bound plane, and who can attest to what really happened. On June 22, 1950, Marsha was one of the 151 performers listed in Red Channels, a booklet published by the rightwing journal Counterattack.

Marsha was wrongly accused of being a Communist sympathizer for her support of and participation in projects involving persons who were among those called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).

However, her career came to a quiet halt. There were no subpoenas, but after 54 films in 17 years, the job offers stopped coming. With no work on the horizon, she took a trip. The focus of Marsha’s life changed after she and her husband Robert went on a trip around the world in 1955.

For the first time in her life, she witnessed abject poverty in countries like India and Pakistan. Spending most of her adult life on a sound stage, she had no idea that this kind of poverty and despair was going on in the world.

She came back to the States, vowing to learn all she could about how she could help alleviate the pain and suffering she witnessed. Thus began the education of Marsha Hunt, “planet patriot” and citizen of the world.

Marsha spent 25 years as a board member of the United Nations Association, dealing with their specialized agencies. In 1960, 15 years after the end of World War II, 25 million uprooted people remained stateless, jobless, and homeless. Marsha and Robert researched, wrote, and produced an hourlong documentary named “A Call from the Stars”.

Marsha enlisted 14 of her prominent celebrity friends to appear in the nationally televised special. The special raised awareness and donations for the U.S. Committee for Refugees, on whose board she then served for over 20 years. In the late 1960s, Marsha sat on the board of the American Freedom from Hunger organization. While on the board, she helped to organize the very first walk-a-thon in the United States. It was a 33-mile walk to fight hunger in Fargo, North Dakota.

From 1983 to 2001, Marsha was the honorary mayor of Sherman Oaks. As a founder of the Valley Mayor’s Fund and a board member of the Valley Interfaith Council, she was instrumental in opening a much-needed homeless shelter in North Hollywood and the Woman’s Care Cottage, a center for battered women and children.

Marsha rose above her career turn and with quiet dignity and determination, she spent the next 50-plus years making a difference in the world.

Using Art Linkletter’s words, ‘She is making the best out of the way things turned out!’. Marsha Hunt, a well-loved actress who lit up the screen in such classics as Pride and Prejudice, None Shall Escape, and Raw Deal during Hollywood’s Golden Age. If you are unfamiliar with her work; rent one of the movies or buy her book.

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