Why was Hearst's threat to reveal the Jews in the industry so intimidating? So they're all Jews, possible refugees from Germany, who cares?
shareBack in the day, there was a pretty major stigma on being a Jew in a position of power. Jews would reutinely change their names to "blend in" (this practice is often still done today).
shareDo you know your history??? There was A LOT of anti-semitism at that time in America.
shareCheck out "Gentleman's Agreement" and "Crossfire" if you want to see the amount of anti-Semitism in the 40's.
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The funny thing is that those lies are still alive today. A lot of people, especially in the Hollywood industry, make racist remarks against Jews, while under the impression, that they control the movie business.
And all that fear, is based on slander and lies originating from the 1930's and 1940's.
"Why are we walking like this?"
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...and sadly, not only people IN the industry. If you look at the imdb boards of some movies, you'll see a disturbing amount of anti-semitic remarks. Sad stuff, that.
Stupidity is the basic building block of the universe.~Frank Zappa
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These men took a chance on a fledgling medium and created the film industry -- but they had to hide who they were. It's not right.
What was Sam Goldwyn's original name? I typed "Goldfish" but it didn't sound right.
Coordinates 0/0/0/0 is God's kitchen
What was Sam Goldwyn's original name? I typed "Goldfish" but it didn't sound right.
Sam Goldwyn, a Polish Jew, was given the Yiddish name Szmul Gelbfisz at birth. The English translation is Samuel Goldfish.
All the universe or nothingness. Which shall it be, Passworthy? Which shall it be?
"Why was Hearst's threat to reveal the Jews in the industry so intimidating? So they're all Jews, possible refugees from Germany, who cares?"
The so-called "blacklist" was of studio employees (directors, screenwriters, craft union members, cinematographers, etc.) who supported communism and socialism and tried - sometimes successfully - to insert their propaganda into movies. Having fled Europe and Russia to escape socialism and communism, studio heads weren't stupid enough to allow socialist and communist propaganda inserted into products that the studios had to pay for - in full. One of the studio heads of the time called authors and screenwriters, "monkeys with Underwoods".
"...who cares?"
People around the world who today enjoy the classic Hollywood movies of the 1930s and 1940s care a lot.
E pluribus unum
The blacklist era of Hollywood rose in the 50s. This movie takes place in the 30s-40s. The fear of being outed had a lot less to do with communist/socialist sympathies and more to do with plain old anti Semitism.
shareHe wasn’t going to reveal that they were Jews. That fact was already known. What Hearst planned was to constantly bombard Americans with anti-Semitic slurs against the studio heads and negative images of jewish people, in order to turn Americans against the film industry.
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