Lauren Bacall with her Cocker Spaniel, 1940s.

(Via)

Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not (1944, dir. Howard Hawks).

(Via)

Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart on the set of Key Largo (1948, dir. John Huston).

(Via)

The Big Sleep, 1946, directed by Howard Hawks.

(Via)

In 1947, The House of Un-American Activities Committee was holding investigations into Communist influences in Hollywood.

In October of that year, a number of persons working in the Hollywood film industry were summoned to appear before the House of Un-American Activities Committee.

Of the forty-three people put on the witness list, a total of nineteen declared that they would not give evidence. Eleven of these nineteen were called before the committee. Of these, one, playwright Bertolt Brecht, ultimately chose to answer the committee’s questions. That left ten witnesses who not only refused to testify, but also attempted to read statements decrying the committee’s investigation as unconstitucional. These became known as “Hollywood Ten”.

A group with the main goal of protesting the government targeting of their industry had been created: the Committee for the Defense of the First Amendment. Some of its most famous members were Katharine Hepburn, Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, Lucille Ball, Ira Gershwin, Frank Sinatra, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. 

Bogart and Bacall flew to Washington with other prominent movie figures to give moral support to the “Hollywood Ten” and to protest the HUAC hearings.

But they were no match for the maneuverings of House Committee politicians, including Richard Nixon. By the time the CDF returned home, its members were regarded with suspicion.

(Via 1,2,3,4,5)