Major Frank Pease was president of the Hollywood Technical Director's Institute, an anti-communist activist organization during 1920s and 1930s. His major claim to fame was his opposition to Sergei Eisenstein’s presence in America while the filmmaker was on contract with Paramount Studios. Due to Pease’s instigation, the Fish Committee (predecessor to the House UnAmerican Activities Council) investigated Eisenstein for contaminating American cinema with Communist propaganda.