Hollywoodism: How The Jews Invented Hollywood (1998)

foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Applause] [Music] these images conceal memories [Music] with Hollywood's familiar stories lies a hidden history of persecution and murder which haunted a small group of men not American Cowboys but Jewish immigrants this is the story of the founders of Hollywood the story of the idea that became their America a dollars [Music] a certain word democracy what is America to me [Music] a flower modern America first saw light on a Hollywood screen it was largely the product of six movie studios established in the 1920s and run for over 30 years by a group of Jewish immigrants they had strikingly similar backgrounds all Races and religions that's America [Music] all of these men who founded Hollywood were born within a 500 mile radius of one another and all of them wound up roughly within 15 miles of one another in Los Angeles one could say that the American dream was really born in Eastern Europe foreign foreign [Music] [Applause] well here we are this is the Warner Studio gee I've never been so thrilled in all my life Harry Warner who with three of his brothers brought sound to the motion picture was born in Poland I was Jack Warner youngest of the Warner Clan and then the senior member of the federal famed Brothers also from Poland was Samuel Goldwyn born goldfish although Goldwin never ran a major Studio he was perhaps the biggest and best known of the independent Hollywood producers Universal founder Carl Lemley came from a small town in Germany Louis V Mayer who gave us the glory years of the MGM Studio was born in a Russian Jewish village William Fox and Paramount Adolf Zucker were both born in Hungary Fox's Studio merged with 20th century pictures to form 20th Century Fox [Music] pictures known as the father of the feature-length film spent his childhood in this Jewish village [Music] destination prior to the 20th century most eastern European Jews were forced to live in poor Villages called Shettles without a Homeland they lived a marginal existence at the sufferance of the Russian Tsar [Music] Rabbi may I ask you a question certainly labish is there a proper blessing for the Tsar a blessing for the tsar of course may God bless and keep the Tsar far away from us [Music] in these Villages religion and life were intertwined everyone spoke Yiddish the Germanic language of the state these towns were alive with Yiddish songs storytelling theater and humor that would eventually find their way to America this Rich cultural life insulated the shettle Jews from their misery and the often hostile reality around them Hallelujah [Music] foreign the Hollywood movie Moguls and their parents came from a place which was like a colossal pressure cooker the the pale of settlement in the Russian Empire was the only place where Jews could live legally under the Czar they had a very marginal existence lived in poor Villages there was a tremendous degree of overpopulation people were constantly migrating around this this area it really was the equivalent of a sort of huge Indian Reservation not only were people poor but there were very few things that they could do to earn a livelihood their neighbors were often violent there were tremendous constraints on Jewish life and also a real sense of vulnerability [Music] without warning death could come crashing down on the defenseless status reminding the Jews that as a people they were permanent Outsiders vulnerable and Powerless before the turn of the century hundreds of thousands died in pilgrims massacres of Jews suddenly neighbors kept running out of the foot of their house yelling the hologram process they broke down the date and they came out on Horseback on foot wielding Shores and my oldest brother and my father each grabbed one of those clubs and they went out swinging fortunately they came back but there are a few people killed this is the pogrom and I lived through it this is where the founders of Hollywood came from this is what they were fleeing and why they came to America these harrowing experiences are reflected in many Hollywood films again and again images of the rampaging oppressor of the slaughter of the innocent and of homes laid waste by fire make their way into American movies [Music] [Applause] [Music] settled Jews in the late 1800s life was a series of rapes and murders many decided not to wait for a Cavalry that would never come [Music] for the Jews of Eastern Europe there were three ways to flee the first was to stay where you were and participate in some Marxist or socialist movement where you could become part of a labor organization that would in turn create a great regime a socialist regime in which Jews could be accepted as equals a very small minority began to dream about Palestine very small numbers of people became zionists you needed a great deal of ideological dexterity to talk yourself into getting on a boat and going to Palestine at the turn of the century the vast majority of Jews two million out of two and a half million who left Eastern Europe to find their dream went to America the smart money was on America it was the simple place where you could imagine the dream of Jews having both opportunity for tolerance and also Economic Security [Music] for Jews this was a migration forever they had no positive views of uh life in the old world many immigrants in fact talked about the last moment in Russia where they turn around and spit in a way we might even say that they actually became American or they began the process of Americanization at the moment when they decided to leave because they knew that there was no going back foreign among these immigrants were the future founders of the studios they came with little money and few belongings but they brought with them a new vision of America Hollywood was a dream dreamed by Jews who were fleeing a nightmare when they landed in America the Jews expected to find a place where the little guy could make it to the top [Music] instead they found a Protestant Elite whose mission was to educate the immigrants and keep them in their place the dream with which the Jews came to America was very quickly frustrated they couldn't get into Financial Services they could work for slave wages they couldn't live in the good neighborhoods they could live in tenement slums and it didn't take long before a great number of them began to once again fantasize about what it would really mean to realize the original Dream [Music] many of the future Moguls had fathers who failed to adjust in the new world at a very early age they became the family Breadwinners they developed an unrelenting desire to make it to succeed in the America that existed somewhere beyond the Jewish ghettos [Music] thank you Jews couldn't be in banking they were shut out of that there were quota systems to get into Harvard and almost any medical school or whatever any business or profession that was thought to be honorable was in some way or other excluded to Jews so that they went into businesses that were in a sense outside of this system of dominance Hollywood's future Founders quickly distinguished themselves as Risk Takers and innovators Adolf Zucker made his first Fortune with the invention of a fox stole with a clasp inside the fox's mouth the first Moguls tended to come from various aspects of the sales business Dry Goods sales Lemley was a Clothier Goldman was a glove salesman Adolf zukor infers a Lewis sells Nick in the diamond business and as they approached the motion picture industry they approached it not from an engineering point of view not from technology or Machinery but from how they can distribute a product you really can't stress too much how pervasively Jewish the movie industry was in New York before World War One not that the Jews were making movies or acting in movies but there probably would not have been a an extended Jewish Family in New York at that time who did not have some relatives involved in some aspect of the movie industry which was really a mom-and-pop industry of storefront theaters in not very elegant neighborhoods my dad was president of Paramount for almost 30 years the way he got into the business was quite wonderful my grandmother who raised eight children in two rooms above a fish and produce market in a Jewish ghetto in Chicago called Maxwell Street she became rushing and said Bonnie Bonnie you have to come here quickly I have the most wonderful business and she was going on and on and she got him on a trolley car and took him to a kind of storefront Nickelodeon theater and on the way there she told him that this was the greatest business in the world because the people paid the money before they got the goods Sam ran the projector and Abe fed the film through it Harry collected the money and Jack's assignment he was see Jack was only like 13 12 or 13 at the time but he was he was singing foreign [Music] he was used to chase the audience out of the uh theater after the show was over because a lot of times they'd want to stay that's the turn of the century movies reflected the vision of America shared by Thomas Edison and the other men who invented the film industry most of these old start Protestants saw film as an amusement for the working classes the films presented negative images of hook-nosed Jews blacks and others they championed an idea of America where the white upper classes ruled and immigrants knew their place take one movie just one movie uh biographs the fights of Nations the Jews meet on the street and a policeman comes up to run off one of them who's peddling neckties one of the other Jews pulls out money hands to the policeman as a bride to let his friends sell the neckties there is a thread connected to the money so as the cop walks away smugly the money pops out of his pocket back into the juice pocket they're Petty Merchants they Jabber and they corrupt cops it's all so perfect the blacks they're in a saloon and a fight ensues in which a huge razor is pulled so that blacks dance they fight over women and they fight with razors then two scotsmen fight nobly with courage and dignity then it cuts to the end and the ethnic groups that are thought to be Noble come out into a kind of tap blue John bull comes out and shakes hands with everybody Johnny rib from the Confederacy comes out and takes about the Scotsman comes out and takes about and finally Uncle Sam comes out and takes a bow no Jews no blacks in effect immigration has happened but until the immigrants and the blacks learn what it's like to be old stock they're not really in it yet the highest artistic achievement of pre-jewish American Cinema was the box office hit Birth of a Nation by D.W Griffith the explicitly racist story glorified the Klu Klux Klan and played on white America's fear of racial intermixing [Applause] these films reflected popular American values of their era ironically they were being shown in Jewish run theaters to audiences of Jews and other immigrants [Music] independently of each other the Warner Brothers zukor Goldwyn Lasky and Lemley began exhibiting the short films produced by the Edison men they upgraded their theaters and sought ways to attract the middle class here they drew on their Jewish experience the Jewish tradition has placed an enormous value on high culture on learning and the finest expressions of music and and art at the same time the experience of being on the margins meant that your identity was integrally tied to the maintenance of popular culture Collective Norms at the lowest common denominator and that combination of a commitment to high culture on the one hand and an appreciation of low culture or popular culture on the other was the perfect preparation Adolf Zucker turning to to a Sarah Bernhardt for a popular film I think is a case in point Adolf Zucker believed that to attract the middle class one had to change not just the theaters the films bypassing Edison imported from France this film featuring a famous stage actress he premiered it in a Broadway Theater not wanting to depend on Europeans for Quality films Carl Lemley and the other Jewish exhibitors began producing their own films Edison decided that the Jews had overstepped their bones to shut them out in 1908 he organized the producer's trust that declared a monopoly on Film Production in America seven years later Edison's trust would lose its Monopoly in the courts but in 1912 to escape Edison and the goons he sent to enforce his control of the industry the future Moguls headed west to the orange groves of California here they found immediate success thank you now why did they move to California I believe that they went there because California was a raw social environment and although there was a social system in place it was nowhere near as sophisticated and nowhere near as entrenched as the social hierarchy in Boston or New York or even Chicago where these Moguls came from so coming to California they realized that they could create their own social environment they could create an empire of Their Own not only on screen but within their own lives and their own social environment and that's precisely what they did in 1915 Carl Lemley had decided to open a very large Plant in the Valley North of Hollywood which they called Universal City and they got themselves a postal designation for Universal City with its own mayor and its own police force a gigantic facility that includes all Necessities for Designing films building sets photographing them editing them costuming them writing the scripts housing the executives all under one piece of property which he would people with his relatives very famously brought over from laupine Germany and they were very pleased that this was you know the first movie making city in the world among the movie Industries 30 000 employees are men and women from nearly 300 trades and professions following Lemley by 1920 Harry Cohen zukor Goldwyn Fox and mayor had set up their own Studios golden stettles where each was clearly in charge [Music] if you have the slightest doubt be man enough to step aside and let the go-gatherers go ahead I will not have Critters or lazy men working for Universal that's straight from the shoulder isn't it they were tough they had to be tough they came up from the ghettos and most of them they had to survive in a business that was Cut Throat and if they didn't cut throats first their own would be done so only the tough survived and these guys were ruthless they used women they treated Stars brutally sometimes but they had redeeming qualities too I mean they were sentimental my God Louis V Mayer would cry at the drop of a handkerchief and they were most of all showmen and they loved movies they lived for movies and that's a greatness that does not exist today I'd been here about a week on the lot in 1937 and Adolf Zucker who was head of Paramount sent me to Columbia to deliver a message to Harry Cohen who was the head of Columbia Pictures and he's sitting at his desk which is elevated about six inches off the floor and he's on the phone other hand extended he's getting a manicure a Barb is cutting his hair and he's getting his shoeshine now that's something to go and see a man on the phone head of a studio manicure shoe shine and a haircut all at the same time and I said man this is Hollywood let me Adam good trip my name is Jack lipnick I run the stump and I'm from New York myself Vince if you want to go all the way back the writer is King here at Capitol pictures you don't believe me take a look at your paycheck at the end of every week that's what we think of the writer so what kind of pictures does he like Mr Fink hasn't given a preference Mr lipnick so how about it bud well uh to be honest I I don't go to the picture as much Mr lipnick that's okay that's okay that's okay that's just fine you probably walked in here thinking that was going to be a handicap thinking that we wanted people who knew something about the media maybe even thinking there was all kinds of technical mumbo jumbo to learn with that wrong we're only interested in one thing can you tell a storyboard can you make us laugh can you make us cry can you make us want to break out enjoy a song is that more than one thing okay the point is I run this dump and I don't know to detective mumbo jumbo why do I run it it's like a horse since God damn it Showmanship and also I hope them told you this I am bigger and Mina and louder than any other [ __ ] in this town did you telling that Luke and I don't mean my dick is bigger than yours it's not a sexual thing although you're right here no more about that coffee Jack Warner is considered a primitive uh uh told terrible jokes uh and yet that studio produced a legacy of tremendous films from The Jazz Singer to Casablanca to My Fair Lady so he must have been doing something right there's a very romantic notion that Hollywood movies were made by artists the director and the writer and to a certain extent the Stars actually made these movies those were the real artists and these guys were only businessmen I would place the artistic sensibility not with the director but with the studio head and for those who say oh this is ridiculous I would say from beginning to end the executive had the primary input into the picture and supervised every aspect of production over and above the fact that Beyond any individual picture it was the executive who created the entire Studio apparatus every producer who worked there every director who worked there every writer who worked there and every Star who worked there was part of the larger system that was created by the Hollywood Jews I'm not sure that there was an quote American Dream before the Jews came to Hollywood and invented it what you had was a Westward Movement and you had the idea of freedom but you didn't have what we have today which is a popular culture that creates uh dreams that's a Dream Factory once the studios were in place the Jewish Moguls produced hundreds of feature-length films each year movies that presented America with a new vision of itself a vision that was very different from that of the established filmmakers of the Edison Trust [Music] brighten up that corner don't wear a long face it's never in time they got to put their hopes and aspirations and mythologies about what a perfect life would be like which is something I think people probably spend a long time thinking about when they have a very imperfect life with a great deal of persecution disempowerment you know what would the system be if we could make it up and show it to you I want to make that come to life for every boy in this land yes and all light it up like that too you see you see boys forget what their country means by just reading the land of the free and history books and I get to be man they forget even more Liberty's too precious a thing to be buried in books Miss Saunders men should hold it up in front of them every single day of their lives and say I'm free thinking to speak my ancestors couldn't I can and my children the Jewish determination to survive was repackaged as the will of all common people to go on I know that's what makes us tough Rich fellas come up they die and their kids ain't no good and they die out but we keep a coming we're the people that live I can't wipe us out they can't lick us we'll go on forever paw because we're the people [Music] unlike Edison the Moguls celebrated the working class while extolling middle class values [Music] what's this all about created a fantasy version of their own lives they created an America where families were strong the flight from persecution had destroyed their own families the movies showed the family as indomitable and treated mothers with reverence [Music] The Immigrant Jews also appealed to the aspirations of Youth another group of perennial Outsiders forced to prove itself George Washington was just a kid when he chopped down then but if they locked him up for that where'd this country be they call us babes foreign [Music] theirs was a mythical America a world of boundless optimism Happy Endings and Homespun truths this was a world of clapboard houses with broad Verandas and white picket fences gleaming streets and shops with friendly picture windows [Music] Hollywood's America was made up of citizens who were industrious religious wholesome and decent and although they were of different classes and ethnicities they were knitted together by a larger almost spiritual sense of family the Moguls created the images the icons and the visual forms that we identify with the American way of life they created their own America an America which is not the real America it's their own version of the real America But ultimately this Shadow America becomes so popular and so widely disseminated that its images and its values come to Devour the real America and so the the grand irony of all of Hollywood is that Americans come to Define themselves by the shadow America that was created by Eastern European Jewish immigrants who weren't admitted to the precincts of the real America [Music] Somewhere Over the Rainbow [Music] once and a lullaby [Music] [Music] the dreams that you dare to dream really do [Music] someday I wish upon a star and wake up where the clouds are far behind me where troubles melt like lemon drops away above the chimney tops that's where you [Music] [Applause] are the rainbow [Music] [Applause] [Music] in the 1920s and 30s movie houses became temples of the new Hollywood religion Jewish values made kitsch 75 of all Americans went to the movies at least once a week this kind of movie going was religious because it had to do with worship it had to do with the screen being larger than you were and you being in awe of what you were looking at and feeling a certain reverence for it and so there was maybe you could say a bogus spirituality but it was a spirituality still that was believed in star Norma Shearer legendary producer Irving thalberg and the most famous of screen lovers Greta Garbo and John Gilbert actors became the gods and goddesses of the new American religion it's frenzied friendship frantic fandom here she comes the star and where there are new Gods there must be new idols so the studio heads began a movie Guild with a lofty title of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences it was mayor's brilliant idea to create the Oscars where the movie Moguls could honor themselves by giving each other Awards [Music] in this way they went from being a group of immigrant Jews to award-winning American Producers thank you Mr Jesso I'm proud to be the recipient of this award and proud to be the head of a studio [Music] in their own lives the Hollywood Jews subscribed to the religion of their own making [Music] they were the quintessential little guys who had made it to the top they threw parties on their yachts they dressed in TaylorMade suits they lived in the kind of houses that Aristocrats were supposed to live in and when they were not admitted to the Gentile country clubs they rebuilt this one Hillcrest bigger and better than all the rest foreign [Music] [Music] s divorced their Jewish First Wives and married gentiles younger more socially acceptable women [Music] the whole notion that Hollywood pins itself on is intermarriage the whole idea of inter-ethnic romance now why do they do that first of all because love is a very democratic ideal it knows no borders it knows not riches it knows not tradition it knows simply the matters of the heart in addition to that when a Jew can marry a non-jew particularly part of the establishment culture that's really a wonderful indication of how far up into society Jews have come this is where our producer lives not just any producer but one of the most famous of them all Samuel Goldwyn high up on one of Beverly's Hills good morning well here is Mr and Mrs Samuel Goldwin and do you mind if I call you Francis not that very much uh Sam I understand that while you're the boss in the studio that there's uh this is the boss here it's her house isn't it every bit of it let's talk to Francis then how long have you lived here oh it's so long uh 25 26 years uh Sam how'd you happen to pick this Hilltop site out because of the view she picked it up and you bought it she liked it the ideas to have her like it's all that's necessary for me it's it's fun to live in Beverly isn't it we like Beverly very much and we're delighted you're both citizens of our town [Music] when Jews came to America it wasn't the only Mayflower wasps who seemed to embody America to them American blacks were quintessential Americans I mean that was one of the things that made America America the the presence of uh of of black people and the the indigenous African-American culture was of tremendous interest I mean the music the dancing the popular Styles and so on Hollywood Jews may have wanted to marry into White America but when it came to music Jewish composers looked to Black America Harold Arlen the son of a liturgical singer or Cantor became one of the foremost popularizers of the Blues [Music] together [Music] all the time Jews served as Messengers in essence of Black Culture they took it they consumed it they integrated into their own cultural repertoire and then introduced it to White America that was essentially willing to listen to Jews and uh to partake of what Jews had to offer in a way that they never would from blacks first on Broadway and later in the Hollywood musical this was the way Jewish music often sounded [Music] back [Music] in writing lyrics they turned to their Jewish immigrant concerns people needing to belong somewhere needing some kind of redemption through America the Jews took these themes but instead of putting them to Jewish music they borrowed black forms that they saw as authentically American in a sense they wrote music in blackface [Applause] [Music] and he saved me love for one more from the beginning though they indulged in stereotypes the Hollywood Moguls took a different view of African Americans than that of The pre-jewish filmmakers Birth of a Nation had played on the white fear of the mixing of the races in dramatic contrast in the film Showboat the white male lead literally internalizes the blood of his black wife I know what I'm doing it won't hurt much about it [Music] [Applause] thank you the Hollywood Jews wanted to be accepted as Americans their films advocated assimilation not just for Jews but for everyone they believe that if you were prepared to pay the price and shed your identity then America should be prepared to accept you I understand that you have a miscegenation case on board a case of a negro Woman married to a white man a criminal offense in this state no no such thing on board this boat the name of the white man is Steve Baker the name of the negris name of the [ __ ] is Julie Dozier you wouldn't call a man a white man that had negro blood in him would you no I wouldn't not in Mississippi one drop of negro blood makes you a negro in these parts well I got more in a drop of negro blood in me and that's a fact trouble man in Hollywood Jews trying to pass as Gentiles made films about blacks passing as whites in pinky we see just how precarious that strategy is for the outsider things can turn in an instant what about her man now she even so much as thought of threatening we want to know about it or if she give you anywhere empty shut up girl oh excuse me sir but why are you two white men ma'am and huh she's nothing but a low-down colored girl I tried to steal my American money you heard what you said he's got to slap her down unless it's true yes it's true my grandmother's Mrs dicey Johnson this is dicey Jonathan Tyler slap them both times why I think I'll be crying now yo you ain't going anywhere you're getting that car you mean I'm under arrest what do you think how more charges are you holding you heard what I said get in that car what are the things that made American films so exportable is that anyone anywhere could identify with so many of the themes of American movies one of which was the idea of the outsider which was a Jewish theme Jews being Outsiders making films about Outsiders you see this even in monster pictures I mean King Kong there was a film about you know an outsider uh and yet it's the monster if you want to call King Kong that with whom the audience sympathizes [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Hollywood every Outsider could be transformed into an Insider [Music] even in appearance Carl Lemley was an outsider he resembled an elf not surprisingly Universal's films often championed marginal beings who were persecuted like the Jews of Europe at Warner Brothers the Jewish sensibility expressed Itself by an identification with the little guy prize Fighters and the losers the loners and the gangsters at Harry kones Columbia the emphasis was not on the outsider but on the Common Man hear the street smart Clark Gable lectures the upper classes represented by Claudette Colbert you're in a gym and all you can think of is your money it never failed does it ever hear of the word humility no you wouldn't I guess it never occurred to you to just say Please Mr I'm in trouble will you help me now let it bring you down off your high horse for a minute let me tell you something maybe it'll take a load off your mind you don't have to worry about me I'm not interested in your money or your problem you King Wesley your father you're all a lot of bully to me zucker's Paramount didn't put down the bridge instead the studio whisked audiences into a once inaccessible Universe of sophistication and luxury [Music] when it came to class for the masses nobody outdid Louis vimera's MGM foreign glittered with quality and style reflecting the vision of the man at the helm Mr Mayor was very persuasive it's about the only word I could use and so he stand there and he watched what was going on and they say no just wait a minute stop that he says that's not the way to do it I'll show you how it should be done and he'd really go through the thing very well it was everybody and they never knew when he was going to walk in on them they were very very leery of them the directors because they never knew when Louis was going to walk down there and say no that's not the way it was see he was a perfectionist he knew what he wanted and Money Was No Object at Metro golden mayor Christ meant nothing it was to be the best in creating the great movie musical Hollywood adapted the Broadway musical an original American art form almost wholly created by fellow immigrant Jews the music and lyrics were often based on classic stories reinterpreted from a Jewish perspective almost all of the writing pairs that have come to epitomize Broadway have been Jewish whether it's learner and low and Rogers and Hammerstein Jerome Kern almost all of them have been Jewish with the possible with the exception I think of Cole Porter really here and if you look at their plays none of them with the exception of Fiddler on the Roof are about overtly Jewish themes but all of them are about overtly Jewish concerns so take a a play like my fair lady that's really about fitting in again the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plane I I think she's got it by George has got it by George he's got it now once again where does it rain she's an immigrant into that culture that upper middle class culture she needs to learn how to talk something immigrants are very concerned with she needs to know how to dress she needs to know the codes and conventions of society [Music] Irving Berlin did more than any composer to americanize Jewish aspirations hey I'm going to murder the bugler someday they're going to find him there to understand Berlin is to understand the Hollywood mughals another counter-san he started life in the midst of pogroms oh wow [Music] foreign Berlin was a Russian immigrant who would go on to write the quintessential American songs the kind of Cyrano de Bergerac in the foreground is Fred Astaire the embodiment of American aristocracy full of grace and upperclassmanship step out this evening in Top Hat why time putting on the top hat tying up my white tile brushing off my toes I'm I'm dude enough my shirt front and putting in the shirt studs polishing my nails I'm stepping out my dear to breathe an atmosphere that simply reeks with classes and I trust that you'll excuse my dust when I step on the gas the background the person writing the music and the lyrics is this little Jewish guy for over 60 years he tried to reinvent himself in the process he infused life into a whole new American ideal in the White House President Eisenhower signs a bill authorizing a gold medal for composer Irving Berlin it honors him for writing God Bless America and other patriotic songs for Irving Berlin this marks another milestone in his rise from humble beginnings to a place of highest esteem the world over I don't know if anything could possibly have happened that touches me as deeply as as metal God Bless America isn't just a song that I wrote but it expresses my gratitude for the opportunities and the freedom to write that song and to the country that inspired it thank you very much along with the unofficial anthem of the United States Irving Berlin wrote The American Classics Easter parade and that most Jewish of Yuletide fantasies White Christmas [Music] with every Christmas [Music] Christmas my friends be one [Music] Louis B Mayer not only celebrated Christmas he appropriated America's birthday as his own mayor claimed that he couldn't remember his real birthday so he celebrated it on the 4th of July when I think of Grandpa I think of these amazing events that were held every year that I was privileged to attend patriotism was an important theme in his life and so he selected Independence Day as his birthday and in the studio commissary every Star under contract was not only invited but virtually obliged to show up and these extraordinary events which as I began to become educated and read about European royalty seemed to be in retrospect more and more alike events held by heads of state he wrapped himself in the American flag and said that's me [Music] I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy do all time a real live nephew of my Uncle Sam one on the 4th of July I've got a Yankee Doodle sweetheart she's my Yankee Doodle Joy Yankee Doodle came to London just to ride the ponies I am the [Music] man in Hollywood they joked that the Moguls went from Poland to Polo in just one generation they held Easter egg hunts and Christmas parties some of them sent their children to Catholic schools their efforts to reinvent themselves seemed boundless they even hid their jewishness from their children and grandchildren I didn't know I was Jewish until a certain until I was at least seven I think and I remember we were in Scarsdale and uh I was going to public school and my mother said in case somebody asked you what your religion is you're Jewish and uh I I said okay you know I mean I didn't I don't think I even asked well what's that you know I was brought up by Catholic governesses who took me to the Catholic churches and I learned that I learned their prayers in in French and I wore a cross and did you become Catholic no no it's just that I didn't know anything about the Jewish religion I didn't know it what it was [Music] realized that my father had never told me anecdotes about the old country that I didn't even know what his real name was I didn't know the little village that he came from I knew nothing about his life and it I realized that the name Warner was probably not correct but I thought being polish it might have been Werner to this day I really don't know what our original name was often the first thing to go was the Jewish name the Hollywood Jews were obsessed with erasing anything Jewish in their films their lives and the lives of Their Stars do you know what her name is Esther Victoria Blodgett he will have to do something about that right away see uh Esther Victoria Victoria picky how about Vicky oh I think that's terribly cute let's see Vicky Vicky what Vicky Vicky pronounced Vicky Vicky Siesta has to adjust to Lester Vicky Lester oh I like that say it Vicky Lester say it again Vicky Lester say it again Vicky Lester say it Vicky Lester Vicky Lester Vicky Lester Vicki Lester Vicky last day Theodosia Goodman became theater Barrow Sophia cosso became Sylvia Sydney is Sir danielovich demsky became Kirk Douglas Leo Jacoby became Lee J Cobb Shirley Swift became Shelley Winters Bernard Schwartz became Tony Curtis David Kaminsky became Danny K Edward iskovitz became Eddie Cantor Melvin hesselberg became Melvin Douglas Muni visenfreude the star of the Yiddish theater became Paul Muni Emmanuel Goldenberg became Edward G Robinson the G was a reminder of who he really was nice Jewish girls such as Lily Palmer Julie Holliday and Lauren Bacall or Betty persky helped to define the American Woman not all the Jewish Talent went to Hollywood to assimilate there were over 50 non-hollywood Yiddish films produced in New York before the second world war is [Music] these films were the flip side of the Hollywood movies they parodied Hollywood's optimism the Fred Astaire's top hat gentility [Music] many who could have gone to Hollywood stayed in New York to make films that expressed their Jewish identity [Music] [Applause] these films were shown to an audience which was almost entirely made up of immigrants and sometimes the the children of immigrants and these films by and large had a very very different point of view than Hollywood movies I mean the Yiddish movies were kind of fighting a rear guard action to protect certain forms of Jewish cultural expression against these sort of overwhelming seductive power of the larger American culture in this classic of Yiddish Cinema a great Cantor played by Moshe oyster is drawn into the secular world of Opera [Music] the night of his operatic debut he learns of his son's death unable to perform he returns to a synagogue to lead the high holiday prayers heartbroken he dies hear the attempt to reconcile Jewish and secular worlds ends tragically wait a minute wait a minute you ain't heard nothing yet wait a minute you ain't heard nothing [Music] goodbye Warner Brothers The Jazz Singer was a revolutionary silent film that broke into sound with each musical number here as in the Yiddish film a Cantor son played by Al Jolson who was in real life a cantor's son has to choose between American Fame and Jewish loyalty at first the Canter's son seems to choose Judaism [Music] but in assimilationist Hollywood the story could not end there Hollywood had to have a Hollywood ending [Music] dear dad in his old Jewish ways are dead while the hero and American blackface sings triumphantly with his Gentile girlfriend waiting in the wings me where can you again and again in Hollywood films the old world father is rejected the mother is idealized and the rebellious son sails on to Glory I don't want you to go mom why can't I go someplace and study to be a doctor Jason it takes too long and we haven't any money money well we won't get any richer if I stay here Pop's a failure in your lord Jason don't you dare there's a boat going up the river tomorrow and I'm going to take well I think America turned out to be what my grandfather imagined it to be there was no uh Romanticism involved I mean you can say it was a romantic idea that a poor guy with 19 sewn in his pocket could be could found an industry I mean that's a very romantic idea but it turned out to be true so in a sense he was a realist [Music] feel this was all stiff I sowed a few dollars in the lining in case you need it oh Mom Jason don't feel unkindly toward your father everything he did [Music] please Mom don't cry don't cry Someday I'm coming home with my pockets loaded with money honest I will Mom you'll see [Music] we've got a lot of what it takes to get along we're friends [Music] they had left the old world penniless and in less than 20 years they had become the highest paid Executives in America in fact for almost a decade Mayer was the highest salaried man in the world [Music] at the point they might have concluded that their transformation from Eastern European Jews into Americans was complete but history intervened to remind them of their Origins [Music] it was difficult for the Moguls to entirely abandon their jewishness while the Nazis were persecuting their European kin some of the Hollywood Jews could not ignore these events [Applause] in 1939 A group of stars including John Garfield Edward G Robinson and their spokesman Melvin Douglas risked their Celebrity Status to speak out against Hitler that all economic connections between the United States of America and Nazi Germany be totally seven until such time as Germany is willing to re-enter the family of nations in accordance with the Humane principles of international law though Carl Lemley was no longer Studio head at this time he joined the protesters and signed their declaration communism both Lemley and Harry Warner were active in sponsoring Jewish refugees from Europe and in 1939 Warner made this anti-fascist speech to the American Legion try them out make America unsafe for those who seek to tear down what others have built to the generation since 1776 drive them from their secret meeting places destroy their Insidious propaganda machines drive out their funds and their leagues their Clans and black Legions the silver sharks of black shirts and a dirty shirt help keep America for those who believe in America in response to Hollywood's limited anti-fascist stand former U.S ambassador to Britain Joseph P Kennedy flew to Los Angeles at a secret meeting he told the Moguls that American Jews would be blamed if the United States were dragged into war with Germany he warned them to stop agitating against Nazism the Kennedy meeting had its desired effect at the end of the 1930s as the shadows of War are haunting Europe the Jews in Hollywood are very much afraid of warning American audiences of those dangers because it looks as though it's a special Jewish angle it looks parochial it looks limited and therefore it's difficult to make anti-nazi movies in Hollywood because the Jews don't want to stand out the Jewish fear of standing out was expressed through another icon that would make its way to the screen Superman was invented by two Jewish kids in the late 1930s when they're also was a a worldwide upsurge in in very frightening anti-Semitism Superman is discovered like Moses and the bull rushes he's an immigrant from another planet who comes to Earth he has his identity as a as a mild mannered intellectual but really underneath he's the man of steel I think that's a very suggestive Jewish fantasy it's almost as if he's passing all the time while the Jew felt like an alien in America Superman was a real alien this looks like a job for Superman yet incredibly he is the only superhero who manages to keep his identity secret without wearing a mask foreign only Jews could have created a story based on the premise that all one needs is a gentile demeanor to hide in plain sight I bet you recognize him why of course you recognize him it's adenoid Hinkle the fooy of Romania like Superman the Hollywood Moguls were unwilling to risk their Gentile disguise as a result only two anti-nazi films were made before the war Charlie Chaplin financed and made the classic film The Great Dictator chaplain was neither Jewish nor American so he didn't share the fears of the Hollywood Jews Warner Brothers made Confessions of a Nazi Spy only after their Jewish representative in Germany was beaten to death by Hitler's henchmen incredibly this Hollywood film about the dangers of Nazism makes no reference to either Jews or anti-semitism [Music] all this changed on December the 7th 1941 with the attack on the U.S Navy at Pearl Harbor by Hitler's Japanese allies now instead of telling Hollywood to keep quiet the U.S government began pushing them to fulfill their Duty and make Patriotic War movies [Music] yes they're coming here now you can hear the bombs falling on the streets in the homes don't tune me out hang on a while this is a big story and you're part of it it's too late to do anything here now except stand in the dark as if the lights were all out every except in America keep those lights Burning cover them with steel bring them with guns build a canopy of battleships and bombing planes around them hello America it's a wonderful time for the Hollywood shoes I mean here were a group of Jews who had spent their lives seeking legitimacy and seeking to be embraced by America and World War II finally affords them that opportunity to be embraced officially they are now real Patriots will you check with MGM and see if they'll postpone the Hedy Lamar picture so we can use over the bond Drive surely RKO is just okay to carry Grant but here from Paramount later today on Colbert and Dick Powell oh swell double check with foyer and Adam Costello right away yeah the priority on Irene nut has just come through to leave on the 16th fine fine the motion picture industry today is supplying without charge all its newest and best feature films to the U.S war department overseas film division the movies were a tremendous propagandistic tool during this time they set up camps for the soldiers to come back in where movies were shown 24 hours a day because that impressed the soldiers with what they were fighting for it was the beginning of an unprecedented alliance between Washington and Hollywood [Music] I do for the first time Hollywood's message was adopted by the government a democratic State could not send minorities immigrants and the poor to die for an America which excluded them so if the enemies were fascist the American Army had to be portrayed as caring and sharing I want you to feel free to ask questions even embarrassing ones come tell me what suggestions we're going to be more than officers and men in this we're going to be comrades what I eat you will even where I sleep you will sleep I will take you into my confidence whenever it's possible before going into battle we'll have a meeting at which I'll explain our plans and objectives so that each of you can make a more intelligent contribution to the result afterwards we'll have another meeting to criticize the way in in which the operation was conducted we'll fight and endure and win together you would have equal opportunity foxholes if you go back and look at those movies there was always one Jewish character who was never presented as Jewish but he was Cohen or Schwartz from Brooklyn there was always one black character too Wesley Epps private third Engineer Battalion the American Army during the second world war was not integrated except in Hollywood movies and the office of War information was very eager to keep our enemies from making Capital out of any sort of problems in America so they didn't want movies that had any racial tensions of any sort Corporal Jake Feingold fourth Chemical Company you say while six million Jews died in Europe their Kinsmen in Hollywood were churning out patriotic movies to help Galvanize the Allies to defeat Hitler [Music] foreign [Music] Jack Warner really believed that his movies helped to win the war he loved to point out that the chemical ingredients of film were also used to make smokeless gunpowder Mr Warner for his experience and background and the motion picture industry impaled by the finest patriotic motives and on his own initiative pointed out to the arms and services of the United States forces the use that could be made of a motion picture and the effective prosecution of the war despite appearances to the contrary events would soon demonstrate that the Hollywood Jews were still fearful immigrants seeking acceptance from Gentile America shortly after the war the state department organized a tour of a number of Hollywood Executives most of whom were Jewish to visit Europe and see the concentration camps the refund of RKO Mr Bonnie Balaban of Paramount [Music] and Mr Jack Warner being emphatic at the end of the line we have almost no testimony from these Hollywood Jews on their reaction to what they saw we have no idea really of How Deeply it impacted them all we know is that when they returned to the United States one might think that someone there might have been moved to make some film or at least some gesture that would memorialize The Six Million who died and what is interesting is the absence of any such film or any such gesture perhaps it affected them in such a way that like everything else that's filtered through the Hollywood Jewish consciousness they felt they could not they better not express it [Music] at this time only two films on anti-Semitism came out of Hollywood both were made by non-jews you see because they made 50 or 60 pictures a year they always made four or five what they call Prestige pictures I could go to them and say look I've got a thing here that may not make any money but it's a Prestige picture the critics are going to like it and the the intellectual is going to like it and you're going to get a lot of credit for making this kind of a picture because it has something to say and just as often as not you could talk them into it as long as there weren't too many of them we wanted to make a crossfire which is the first picture ever made about anti-Semitism you know we didn't know whether it's going to make any money or not we didn't know whether anybody would want to listen to a preachment on anti-Semitism or not which is why we made a murder mystery out of it strangely enough none of the three of us the writer the producer in our eye and none of us was Jewish Thomas Finley was killed in 1848 just because he was an Irishman and a Catholic it happened many times maybe that's hard for you to believe Leroy but it's true and last night Joseph Samuels was killed just because he was a Jew do you see any difference Leroy any difference at all hating is always the same always senseless one day it kills Irish Catholics the next day Jews the next day Protestants the next day Quakers it's hard to stop it can end up killing men who wear striped neckties there used to be some mistake because we don't have a free room in the entire Hotel but if you'd like perhaps I can fix you up at the Brewster Hotel down near the station I'm not staying at the Brewster look I'm Jewish and you don't take Jews that's it isn't it I never said that if you don't accept Jews say so don't raise your voice to me Mr Green you speak a little more quietly please do you or don't you Mr Green I'm a very busy man now if you want me to phone for a cab a room at the Brewster I'll do so otherwise otherwise what Gentlemen's Agreement centers on the story of a gentile magazine writer played by Gregory Peck who pretends to be a Jew so he can write an expose on anti-Semitism in America this film was also made by a non-jew Daryl f senik there's a very famous scene in there based on a very famous incident in which supposedly the Jewish Moguls got together and went to zanik whose Studio was producing the film and said we will pay you a million dollars to destroy all the prints of this film this is two incendiary let us handle it and Xanax said no immediately went back to his office and wrote that scene in Mr Green is going to do a series on anti-Semitism for us really again not again for the first time we're going to split It Wide Open do you mind my saying as an old friend I think it's a very bad idea John the worst the most harmful thing you can possibly do now not at all why is it a harmful idea because it'll only Stir It Up more that's why I let it alone we'll hand it in our own way the hush hush way oh I don't care what you call it let it alone you can't write it out of existence we've been fighting it for years we know from experience the less talk there is about it the better sure the Moguls needn't have worried gentleman's agreement was consistent with Hollywood's Ideology Now first of all the Assumption of that film is that anybody can pass for being Jewish even among other Jews and I don't think that assumption is very true in fact when he decides to take on the identity he looks and he has a good friend Dave Goldberg played by John Garfield he looks in the mirror and he says hmm dark hair dark eyes just like Dave hmm no telling characteristics just like Dave and he passes he immediately goes out and he passes it'll work fine Phil the theme is not you should be nice to Jews whoever they are but rather you have to be nice to them because they're just like us and there's a funny story a moss heart wrote about they had screened the film for the people in uh the crew and after it was done one of the members of the crew came up to the heart and he said that was an incredibly inspiring film I really learned a lot and Hart was very proud of this because he had thought he had taught this lesson of Tolerance and he said well what have you learned and he said I should be nice to all Jews because they may turn out to be gentiles blurring the line between Gentile and Jew was precisely what the Moguls wanted in fact some of Hollywood's leading Jews openly espoused assimilation and the literal mixing of Bloods as an American ideal Studios Mr Lewis be mayor an All-American in heart in spirit and in Soul called for the creation of a new human type liberated from the past We Gather here today not as Catholics Protestants or Jews all of the ancient Bloods have contributed to those who meet here today this great country is itself the result of the unity of all of these ancient Bloods we are here as Americans this great radio program sponsored by the motion picture industry is intended to remind us all of the Liberties and privileges with which we are blessed in this country let us now reaffirm the glory of americanism the greatest the freest and the happiest ISM in all the world [Music] calling the house on American Activities Committee to order chairman J Parnell Thomas of New Jersey opens an inquiry into possible communist penetration of the Hollywood film industry the committee is seeking to determine if red party members have reached the screen with subversive propaganda to the Mogul surprise powerful men in Washington saw Hollywood's patriotism as nothing more than thinly disguised communism now at the height of their success the Hollywood Jews watched their dream Fall Apart [Music] while economic factors played a role in their demise it was the house on American Activities Committee HUAC which really brought them down [Music] this committee under its mandate from the House of Representatives has the responsibility of exposing and spotlighting subversive elements wherever they may exist that communist had made such an attempt in Hollywood and with considerable success is already evident with the Advent of the Cold War HUAC began persecuting Hollywood for the populist and pro-soviet films the Roosevelt administration encouraged Hollywood to make during the second World War did you cook this dinner I did but you're a Pianist how can you let her do such work how can I return the question is how can I stop her I would not be happy here on the farm if I did not do my share of the work no but is it necessary that you drive a tractor it is a privilege to drive the tractor the committee is determined that the hearing shall be fair and impartial we have subpoenaed Witnesses representing both sides of the question well we are after are the facts I should like to see what you have first came the mostly Jewish Hollywood Talent who stood up to HUAC are you a member of the Communist Party next you are going to ask what my religious beliefs are and you are going to insist before various members of the industry that since you don't like my religious beliefs I should not work in that industry there became an identification in people's minds with the things that went together intellectuals Jews Russians Communists if you look back at any of the depictions of What communists were all of these things kind of get merged together in the public imagination the chairman of the committee at the time that it initiated its investigation of Hollywood was a vicious anti-semite from Mississippi by the name of John Rankin and Rankin said on the floor of Congress I'm just going to read up an excerpt from from a speech he gave he said communism is the most dangerous influence in the world today I am talking about the communism of Leon Trotsky of course he mentions a Jew that is based upon hatred for Christianity you know that communism remember the communism and Christianity can never live in the same atmosphere communism is older than Christianity this is a revision of history since Karl Marx to most people's knowledge is the is the one who created communism but this communism which is clearly a euphemism for Judaism is older than Christianity it is the curse of the ages it hounded and persecuted the Savior during his Earthly Ministry inspired his crucifixion derided him in his dying Agony and then gambled for his garments at the foot of the cross but we are today in a deadly conflict between those two ideologies and that can be no compromise Mr Right in this country I hope that you're not impuning in any way the American activities of the motion picture Employers in Hollywood I am some of them well I want to tell you right now that there is no group of more American people in the country than are those in Hollywood well I want to tell you some of the things they're doing and I know some of the things they're doing is probably you don't know but I can tell you now you need a house cleaning but it needed very badly the question of Communism is in no way related to the same career which is an attempt to get control of the screen and to invade the basic rights of America [Music] citizens whether they be Protestant or Methodist or Jewish or catholicists foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the president of the United States said that anti-communism was American policy and that scared the [ __ ] out of him because the last thing they wanted to be called was un-American having flirted with the idea of being Americans for so long they began to believe that possibly they were I'm just hopeful like I told you Mr Smith in California that perhaps out of this hearing our Congress now came the Moguls who are out to prove their American patriotism give us a policy how to handle American citizens who don't deserve to be if they are communists to get them out of our place ideology term ideological terms rather termites have burrowed into many American Industries organizations and societies wherever they may be I say let us dig them out and get rid of them my brothers and I will be happy to subscribe generously to A Pest Removal fund we are willing to establish such a fund to ship to Russia the people who don't like our American system of government and prefer the communistic system to ours [Music] because they Endeavor to put certain things into scripts that in my personal opinion is Un-American and I uh my business will see that it doesn't get in as my if it and eventually does it creep in I cut it out [Music] buckled was their their the Cossacks are coming again they were unsure of their status a lot more unsured say than the next generation of who were writers say or directors or actors you know who who born in America and as I was and uh had no no confusion at all about being Americans we were Americans and felt we had all the rights of Americans and uh would fight for them when we could I am against it I am I speak I'm for everything that you said well you agree with that statement I agree wholeheartedly and I and I the statement was a little long and I was a very good statement it's a statement of a real American to appease you act the mokels instituted a blacklist of Studio Talent years before they had fled European anti-Semitism but now in America they became collaborators helping anti-semites rid Hollywood of Jewish intellectuals in effect they had surrendered control of the industry if you look at the main factors in what caused the mogul's decline I think you have to look at them psychologically and not to external factors all these years of commanding these Studios HUAC and other factors demonstrated to them that all the things they had dreamed about all the hopes that they had had all the emotion that they invested into their assimilation were really empty it all seems so simple once live your life do your work as simple as all that you find out it's not that easy nothing comes free one way or another pay for what you are yeah [Music] after hewek the fight went out of the Hollywood Jews they lost their hold on the studios they created foreign like The Wizard of Oz having been exposed as fearful refugees fleeing from themselves they couldn't go on pretending to be moguls there are many here to whom I owe a great Board of thanks and I have appreciation in my heart without their AIDS their loyalty and devotion I would not be standing here taking the bow he lives in 1957 he was fired in 1952 so the last five years of his life were heartbreaking very sad for me as a child to watch paced back and forth again I don't want to extend the lion metaphor excessively but all that energy was now confined to the home I mean that studio was his greater family and he really couldn't bear it and the pain was evident in his face in his physical body language in in the anxiety in his voice in his temper it was just heartbreaking as he approached death Mayer fell back on religion but not Judaism he took religious instruction from Fulton J Sheen the leading exponent of popular Catholicism According to some Mayer was prepared to convert his daughter Irene told him that people would scream with laughter at the news he began to fear that even after death he would be rejected in the end he was buried a Jew Harry cone died a year later his Gentile wife was with him at the end Harry was in on the in the ambulance suffering from a massive heart attack and he had was in pain I you know and he says oh Jesus Jesus Christ because of the pain from this the heart thing so Jones says Harry Harry my Harry you found Christ you know and so she converts them to Catholicism well on the sarcophagus where Harry there's a cross and a star on the sarcophagus and if Harry knew that and knew what Joan did he turned over in his grave [Music] Harry Warner also died in 1958 of a stroke following a bitter argument with his brother Jack spent his last years in the south of France playing the gentleman's game of shamanda fair and paling around with fated members of European royalty he died in 1978 from injuries he received after falling while playing tennis Carl Emily did not live to see HUAC and the end of the studio era he sold out his interests in Universal in 1936. spent his last years close to his grandchildren and died in 1939 Paramount's Adolf zukor the first Mogul lived on becoming a venerated relic of the past his signature and cement and then his hand and Footprints he is the first motion picture executive so honored alongside many screen Immortals to whom he gave their first chance though the imprints of Mr Motion Pictures foreign Horatio alger's American Dream to the end he died in 1976 at the age of 103. and this blessed land we can go as far as we want if we only put into practice Croatia as this deep and Abiding Faith in honesty hard work and decency the Rachel imagine knew that in the United States every man can aspire to the Stars the Moguls are gone but their Vision survives the America of Edison and Rankin is given way to an alien ideology it isn't the communism or Judaism that the Gentile Elite once feared it's americanism as defined by Hollywood the icons endure the little guy fighting the odds the program imagery the desperate desire to survive and the various races assimilating to create the ultimate happy ending I'm not Jewish nobody's perfect a white middle-class president articulating the Jewish experience writ large a new Global religion hollywood-ism perhaps fate that today is the fourth of July and you will once again be fighting for our freedom not from tyranny oppression or persecution but from annihilation we're fighting for our right to live to exist and should we win the day the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday but as the day when the world declared in one voice we will not go quietly Into the Night we will not vanish without a fight we're going to live on we're going to survive today we celebrate our independence day foreign there's a Hollywood ISM today I would go further and say it is what is the ruling ideology of our culture Hollywood culture is the dominant culture it is the fantasy structure that we're all living inside [Music] [Applause] through the night with a life [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh man [Applause] my oh I am no place like home [Music] [Music] lockheim the things I see about me the big things and the small the little corner new stand and the house a mile tall the wedding and the church yard the laughter and the tears the dream that's been a growing for 150 years foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] that's a mess [Music] [Applause] [Music]

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Length: 98min 23sec (5903 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 24 2022