Schwarz organized a "Southern California School of Anti-Communism" that filled the 16,000-seat Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena from 28 August to 1 September 1961. The opening night's most popular speaker was Ronald Reagan. According to Morrie Ryskind, writing in "The Los Angeles Times", "The evening sessions, featuring nationally known speakers, were televised, and those who should know tell me that some three million people listened in nightly. At any rate, I can honestly say that in my 25 years in Los Angeles I have never known a local event that so completely captured the enthusiasm of the city." A subsequent event, the three-hour "Hollywood's Answer to Communism" held at the Hollywood Bowl on 16 October 1961, featured such celebrities as (Roy Rogers, John Wayne, James Stewart) and U.S. Senator Thomas J. Dodd. Television critic John Crosby described it as "a monster three-hour concentration of pure venom on television... in which the patriots suggested again and against that the United States was largely peopled by traitors."