Jewish American Heritage Month: Creating Hollywood
1928: From the Digital Collections of the LA Public Library. See below for full description.
Last weekend, I presented an abridged overview of Jewish American contributions to American pop culture. I’m going to share some of that information over the next two weeks in blog posts. Today, I’m featuring some of the creators of Hollywood, popular music — including Christmas carols, and musicals.
Let’s first consider the incredible Jewish contributions towards the development of movies. First, we must mention Carl Laemmle, who took on Thomas Edison’s attempt at monopolizing the motion picture camera business and won.
There were two key aspects of immigrant Jews getting involved in films. First, it was perceived as a low class commodity that wouldn’t last long. The earliest pictures were short, silent films that played in Nickolodeon theatres. Working in another industry, a Jewish businessman might buy a theatre and then another with profits from the first. He would then become interested in better quality prints for his theatres to give himself an advantage over competitors. Ultimately, with money from distribution and exhibition of films, the guy would dip his toe into the production side of the equation. While Jewish actors quickly created stage names to take them from ethnic vaudeville to mainstream success, most businessmen kept their Jewish names and often incorporated those names into their company names.
Amusing Jews Episode 82: Carl Laemlle’s Universal Studios Legacy with Film Historian Antonio Carlotta:
Universal Studios soon lost its most important producer, when Louis B. Mayer poached Irving Thalberg to become vice president of his movie studio, which soon became Metro Goldwyn Mayer. The familiar lion at the beginning of MGM movies started because they shared a lot with a bevy of circus animals who were available to be featured in films produced by any company. This history is told by LA Times film critic Kenneth Turan in Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg: The Whole Equation.
The following video provides an overview of Jewish contributions to the creation of Hollywood, though it de-emphasizes their importance in the creation of Hollywood in order to remind people that it is untrue that Jews are completely in charge of the industry.
Another fascinating duo of Jewish producers are the Schenck brothers. Michael Benson and Craig Singer wrote a fascinating account of these forgotten men, Moguls: The Lives and Times of Hollywood Film Pioneers Nicholas and Joseph Schenck. Moving forward in history, Benson wrote another book on hidden Jewish American history, Gangsters vs. Nazis: How Jewish Mobsters Battled Nazis in WW2 Era America.
In related history, Carl Laemmle was a German Jewish immigrant. He spent the 1930s obtaining work visas for Jewish family members, friends, and some strangers — working diligently to get as many people out of the murderous focus of the Nazis as possible. He unfortunately died before the United States government took up the cause of challenging Nazis. And unfortunately, the 1920s U.S. anti-Jewish immigration laws were never repealed, which meant that most European Jews were slaughtered by their neighbors.
In episode 100 of Amusing Jews, Benson discusses the Schenck brothers with my colleague, Rabbi Joey Angel-Field and my professor, Cantor Dr. Jonathan Friedman. (Friedman is a former dean and professor of AJRCA and Angel-Field and I were ordained in the same graduating class.)
I haven’t read this book yet, but I am fascinated that in 1989, Neal Gabler authored a book titled An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood.
In case you’re wondering why May is Jewish American Heritage Month, it is the month when the first Jewish community settled in the United States, a group of Sefardic Jews who had been forced out of Spain / Portugal when they refused to convert to Christianity. Though, that was probably not the first time a Jew stepped foot on our soil. There was a Jew in the ill-fated Roanoke Colony and another singular Jew before this group landed. It is important to know that the earliest Jewish settlers were Sefardic, that is, from Spain / Portugal. In the late 1800s, German Jews started arriving with some wealth (see Lehman Brothers) and they were followed by poorer Eastern European Jews.
Full description of photo from the LA Public Library archive: “Photo shows a distinguished group of filmland notables at a welcome party honoring Marion Davies, famous star just returned from a three-month trip abroad. Standing, left to right, Lorraine Eddy, Matt Moore, Aileen Pringle, Louis B. Mayer, Gloria Swanson, Harry D'Arrast, Miss Davies, Louella O. Parsons, Ricardo Cortez, Charlie Chaplin, Norma Shearer, Irving G. Thalberg, Harold Lloyd and Robert Z. Leonard. Seated in foreground are Harry Crocker, left, and William Haines. The French room of the Ambassador was transformed into likeness of a Parisian cafe for the surprise party greeting Miss Davies.”