Finks

Finks is playwright Joe Gilford’s fictionalized account of his parents, Jack Gilford and Madeline Lee Gilford, and their real life experience of the blacklist. It is a tale of a scoundrel time, a time of paranoia, loyalty and betrayal, show business and show trials, told from the life of two young entertainers who, at the birth of their careers, had to confront the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). This play is about names, the naming of names, career-determining choices and finks.

He was the gentle man with the kind face we knew from the Cracker Jack commercials, but in the early 1950s, when on the verge of stardom and his own TV series, somebody spoke his name. She was a TV and radio actress until somebody spoke her name. Both played roles they never thought they’d play in one the darkest times in American history when they were given top billing by finks.