Founding Fathers

An A&E TV special examines the lives
of the Jewish movie moguls who created Hollywood.

Special to The Jewish News

I is not every company whose
nuts-and-bolts operations focus
on fantasies. But in Hollywood,
manufacturers make memories
for the multitudes of film fans who
watch their work.
And at the head of the line, from
the beginning, have been Jews.
"Hollywoodism: Jews, Movies and the
American Dream," which debuts on
the A&E network 9 p.m. Sunday,
March 22, is a documentary with a
dash of romanticism and daring,
detailing as it does the efforts of
Eastern European Jewish immigrants
who arrived on these shores and found
gold not on the streets but on the sil-
ver screen.
Using Neil Gabler's An Empire of

Their Own: How the Jews Invented
Hollywood (1985) as its frame of refer-

ence, the A&E project tells the history

Michael Elkin is entertainment editor

of the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent.

of this nation through the viewfinder
of the movie makers.
For Gabler, whose Hollywood
Empire was the start of his own in lit-
erature — his acclaimed Winched:

Jews faced in trying to stake a claim in
America. "It's been unspoken for a
very long time."
Even in the early silent movies,
before Jews took control, Jewish
images were stereotypes of greedy,
grubby mercenaries. Yet also left
unsaid for so long was the horror of
self-inflicted hate. Anti-Semitism, like
charity, sometimes began at home.

Gossip Power and the Culture of
Celebrity was a National Book Critics

Circle Award nominee — "Dream" is
a dream come true.
Gabler's multiple award-winning
Empire — voted by
the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences as one of
the 100 most impor-
tant books on the
business — showed a
true picture of
Hollywood's roots,
when the only ones
rooting for Jews' suc-
cess were their fami-
lies.
"I'm pleased with
the documentary
because this is an issue Jack Warner, third from left, visits with Wilfrid Hyde-
left unspoken," he says White, Rex Harrison and Mona Washbourne on the set of
of the social tsuris
"My Fair Lady" in 1963.

Photo courtesy of MPTV

MICHAEL ELKIN

"The reason I wrote the book in
the first place," says Gabler, "was to
understand American culture."
The author sees his work as a road
bridging past and future, building on
what has come before. "I see my work
as dealing with architects of the
American consciousness," notes the
Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the
University of Michigan, whose teach-
ing credentials include stints at his
alma mater and at Penn State
University.
"This film enables people to under-
stand the value formation of our
country."
As an indicator of society, film is
invaluable. "It is the most influential
medium of the 20th century — more
than television," says Gabler.
_ In taking a look at the men who
founded the industry, the picture is
not always a pretty one. "No question
about it, there was a lot of anti-
Semitism" among film's founding
Jewish fathers.
"These guys were not pluralistic.
It's not like they arrived at this coun-

Jews, Movies and the American Dream'

MORRIE WARSHAWSKI
Special to The Jewish News

e can't predict what the
future will bring. But,
if we have a vision, we
can help shape the
future into what we'd like it to
become.
Once upon a time there was a
country cAlled America that was just
one more country among many oth-
ers. Then, through the concerted
efforts of some visionary men,
America became a dreamland where
everyone wanted to live, raise their
children and make their fortunes. A
land of white picket fences and

Morrie Warshawski writes about

culture and the arts from his home in
St. Louis.

3/20
1998

86

unlimited opportunities, where the
lone underdog could overcome
incredible odds through hard work
and persistence tinged with just a bit
of luck.
The lively new two-hour docu-
mentary, "Hollywoodism: Jews,
Movies and the American Dream,"
co-produced by Associated Producers
of the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation with A&E, does an
excellent job of tracing the roots of
the American myth directly to a
group of Jewish immigrants who
became Hollywood moguls.
The film is no substitute for the
fine detail of Neal Gabler's research
and prose in An Empire of Their

Own: Plow the Jews Invented
Hollywood, but in some ways its

impact far exceeds what is possible

with the written word.
Director Sirncha Jacobovici makes
liberal use of clips from many famous
Hollywood films, archival footage
and interviews to drive home the
salient poi nts of Gabler's thesis -- the
greatirony
i
of an Amercan
i dream
shaped by. Jewish immigrants who
created movies starring gentiles in
plots with thinly veiled Jewish
themes. - •
Jacobov ia concentrates on a small
cast of cl- ia.racters: Adolph Zukor,
Carl Laemmle, Harry and Jack
Warner, Louis B. Mayer, William Fox
and Harry Cohn. These men, who
were born within a 500-mile radius
in Eastern Europe, ended up living in
California only 15 miles from one
another.
The film spends some time exam-

-

ining Jewish shtetl life at the turn of
the century to give a sense of the
extreme poverty and fear of pogroms
that made families flee either to
Palestine or the United States.
Yet, once in America they found
themselves excluded from honorable
professions. It is no accident that the
future movie moguls all came from a
background in sales (furs, gloves, dia-
monds) and began their careers mak-
ing small films in New York City,
In 1908 Thomas Edison put a halt
to these upstarts by creating the
Producers Trust monopoly that
excluded Jews. New York's loss
became California's gain. When Carl
Laemmle moved west he created his
own town, Universal City, replete
with its own police force.
He and his colleagues created

,