Philip Loeb

Philip Loeb (March 28, 1891 – September 1, 1955) was an American actor, director, and author who worked across stage, film, and television. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he made his first appearance in a high school production of Lady Gregory's The Workhouse Ward. Following military service in the Army, he secured a series of minor stage roles and worked as stage manager of The Green Goddess at the Booth Theatre in 1921.

Loeb's theatrical career gained momentum in the 1920s through his association with the newly formed Theatre Guild in New York City. His Broadway career spanned from 1916 to 1952, encompassing 36 productions as a performer and seven as a director. His first Broadway appearance came in 1916 in If I Were King at the Shubert Theatre. Among his credits were the musical Chee-Chee, The Wild Duck, and Wonderful Journey. His involvement with Actors' Equity Association during the 1930s, including work alongside Elia Kazan, a member of the American Communist Party, contributed to later accusations of Communist sympathies. Despite reduced stage activity during that period, he achieved a significant success in 1937–38 with Room Service, which ran for 500 performances at the Cort Theatre. He subsequently co-authored the screenplay for the 1938 film adaptation of Room Service, which starred the Marx Brothers.

In 1948, Loeb originated the role of Jake Goldberg in Me and Molly, Gertrude Berg's Broadway play drawn from her long-running radio program The Goldbergs. The following year he reprised the role in the CBS television adaptation of the series, and he appeared again in the 1950 film version. His portrayal of Jake, the husband to Berg's character Molly Goldberg, made him a recognized presence with television audiences.

Political controversy had followed Loeb for years before the blacklist era. In July 1940, Representative William P. Lambertson of Kansas accused Loeb and seven other members of the Actors' Equity Council — including Sam Jaffe, Emily Marsh, Hiram Sherman, Leroy MacLean, Edith Van Cleve, and Alan Hewitt — of Communist affiliation. Loeb publicly denied the charges and demanded that Lambertson either retract his statements or identify the sources behind them. The Equity Council passed a resolution requesting that a federal body such as the Dies Committee on Un-American Activities formally investigate the accusations, a request that was never fulfilled. Lambertson responded by entering into the Congressional Record his charges along with a pamphlet and two newspaper clippings containing the names of Equity councilors. Loeb and his colleagues again denied the allegations and argued the evidence was insufficient.

In June 1950, Loeb was named as a Communist in Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television. He denied the accusation, but the principal sponsor of The Goldbergs, General Foods, demanded his removal from the cast on grounds of his perceived controversiality. Berg, who owned the property on both radio and television, refused to dismiss him. She and Loeb resisted the sponsor's demand for more than a year before he ultimately resigned, accepting a settlement reported at approximately $40,000. His final acting credit was the 1952 Broadway production of Time Out for Ginger at the Lyceum Theatre, followed by a Chicago production of the same show in 1954.

Blacklisted screenwriter Walter Bernstein, writing in his 1996 memoir Inside Out, described Loeb as deeply depressed in the years following his removal from The Goldbergs. Loeb was the sole financial supporter of a schizophrenic son and faced mounting financial difficulties. Bernstein, whose circle of friends included Zero Mostel, wrote that he never saw Loeb smile even during Mostel's most comedic moments. On September 1, 1955, Loeb died by suicide from an overdose of sleeping pills at the Taft Hotel in midtown Manhattan. No note was found. He was buried at Mount Sinai Cemetery in Philadelphia.

His story informed the character of Hecky Brown in Martin Ritt's 1976 film The Front, starring Woody Allen, with the role played by Zero Mostel and the screenplay written by Walter Bernstein, both of whom had been blacklisted themselves. Loeb's case was also referenced in Philip Roth's 1998 novel I Married a Communist. He had served as an instructor at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, which established an annual scholarship in his name. Actors' Equity also briefly issued a Philip Loeb Humanitarian Award, with recipients including theatrical producer William Ross and actor Iggie Wolfington.