Although the use of pseudonyms and fronting was popular, many of these individuals simply left the country to continue their careers. Some flourished in the United Kingdom where television and film work was plentiful. Others reverted to doing stage work in places like New York where theater owners were indifferent to the Hollywood attitudes.
By 1960, the inevitable passage of time and the seriousness of the "Red Scare" was weakening and when Otto Preminger hired Dalton Trumbo to write the script for "Exodus", the effect of the blacklist weakened. Kirk Douglas followed close behind by giving full writing credit also to Trumbo for "Spartacus". At the same time President elect Kennedy crossed American Legion picket lines to see the Douglas movie and by 1965 Ring Lardner, Jr. was given credit for writing "The Cincinnati Kid". In 1997 the writer’s guild agreed to change the credits of twenty-three movies made during the blacklist years to reflect the actual screenwriter’s names.