March 22, 2022

"Jews built Hollywood. So why is their history erased from the Academy’s new museum?"

That was the headline in The Forward, last fall, quoted in "After Criticism, Film Museum Will Highlight Hollywood’s Jewish History/The new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, which tried to present an inclusive history of film, overlooked the role Jewish immigrants played in creating the industry" in the NYT. 

“We want to ensure that we are taking an honest, inclusive and diverse look at our history, that we create a safe space for complicated, hard conversations,” the museum’s director, Bill Kramer, said the day after the museum opened as he welcomed guests to a panel discussion titled “Creating a More Inclusive Museum.”

But one group was conspicuously absent in this initial celebration of diversity and inclusivity: the Jewish immigrants — white men all — who were central to founding the Hollywood studio system. Through dozens of exhibits and rooms, there is barely a mention of Harry and Jack Warner, Adolph Zukor, Samuel Goldwyn or Louis B. Mayer, to list just a few of the best-known names from Hollywood’s history....

Some historians said the omission appeared to be the latest example of Hollywood’s strained relationship with its Jewish history. “You have to understand that Hollywood in its very inception was formed out of a fear that its founders — and those who maintained the industry — would be identified as Jews,” said Neal Gabler, the author of “An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood,” a book about the Jewish studio heads. “It’s almost fitting that a museum devoted to the history of Hollywood would incorporate in its very evolution this fear and sensitivity.”

I think the omission was based on a real concern that calling attention to the participation of Jews in the industry would feed anti-Semitism and could very well be perceived as anti-Semitic. The achievement of this group is so strong and so long-standing that it is downplayed, not celebrated. The conventions of present-day inclusiveness were designed to hearten — and appease — groups that have not done well in the past. If you emphasize that Jews were the studio heads, won't you look as though you are blaming Jews for the exclusion you are dedicated to stressing? 

The NYT article doesn't address this obvious problem. I'd say it pushes the insight farther from the reader's view in the third sentence: "But one group was conspicuously absent in this initial celebration of diversity and inclusivity: the Jewish immigrants — white men all — who were central to founding the Hollywood studio system."

White men all! 

ADDED: It was only last month that Whoopi Goldberg got scathed for saying Jews are white.

ALSO: Will the museum's tribute to Jewish studio heads include Harvey Weinstein?

105 comments:

gilbar said...

well aren't Jews like Women? You know a group that USED TO BE Important; but now are trash
The Only (THE ONLY!) groups that Matter Now, are People of Color (and Transfolk; obviously!)

rhhardin said...

Jews have a high average verbal IQ and so the best wind up in charge of communications businesses. It's nothing about Jewishness itself.

hawkeyedjb said...

honest, inclusive, diverse, safe space, complicated, hard conversations...

Buzzword Bingo! After only one paragraph.

rhhardin said...

Weinstein's films were mostly good stuff. There's nothing more reassuring than A Weinstein Company in the lead-in to a newly purchased DVD. They seem to have left him out of the studio head list.

Dave Begley said...

Now I know why I can’t sell “Frankenstein, Part II. Not only am I a white male, but a Jesuit-educated Catholic to boot!

Seriously, one of my best characters is a closeted sea captain who saves the Creature at sea. I later use a footnote in Justice Kennedy’s SSM case.

I’m so brilliant, but completely unrecognized, unloved and misunderstood.

RideSpaceMountain said...

"Jewish immigrants - white men all...."

I love how the left are the ones tearing down the historical Jewish flip-flopping regarding their ethnicity, removing their ability to play both sides of the fence how it suits them.

Congratulations. You're getting what you always wanted. Whiter every year.

Lloyd W. Robertson said...

One of the problems with trying to correct for past injustices. If every group that has suffered discrimination and worse deserves compensation, who will you be compensating? Jews in the West since 1945 are not really an impoverished group. Canada gave reparations to people of Japanese ancestry, and again this was not an impoverished group. Sikhs in Canada have done spectacularly well in recent years. Through the golden years of Hollywood (which I assume are over to a great extent) it was surely more true that Jews dominated show business and the professions than it ever was before WW II that they dominated the banks and so on. I just read a book on the Holocaust that reminds us that the popular stereotype was that Jews dominated both capitalism and Communism. You tell us we're not welcome in the mainstream, whatever that is; fine, we'll do as well as we can just outside the mainstream, but always communicating back to the mainstream.

Birches said...

The legend of Frankenstein Part II grows...

West TX Intermediate Crude said...

"Honest, inclusive, and diverse."
Pick any two.

BUMBLE BEE said...

I had a course way back when called the "History of the Movies". Prof went into the Jewish aspect in depth. The trades, the union movement and more. LOTS of "laundry". Long history of anti-capitalism socialist themes expressed in the film industry. Just like today.

Sebastian said...

"I think the omission was based on a real concern that calling attention to the participation of Jews in the industry would feed anti-Semitism and could very well be perceived as anti-Semitic."

Perceived by leftists bent on cultivating such perceptions.

"The achievement of this group is so strong and so long-standing that it is downplayed, not celebrated."

A striking sentence, no? Applicable in many contexts, as the prog culture war advances.

"If you emphasize that Jews were the studio heads, won't you look as though you are blaming Jews for the exclusion you are dedicated to stressing?"

You would, in the eyes of leftists trying pass retroactive judgment on anyone and anything to fit their morality tales.

Blair said...

Back in the '90s there was this great TV show about the movie industry called Action. The lead character, a producer named Peter Dragon, had a fantastic quote on the subject:

"To those who say the Jews control Hollywood, I have one response: Shhh! You're pissing off the Jews!"

gilbar said...

the Jewish immigrants — white men all — who were central to founding the Hollywood studio system

There You GO! Only People of Color matter now. And These Days, Jews are considered white!
What in the World is Next? Will we start thinking of Italian dago wops as "white"?
Then Who? The Irish? Chinese?

Temujin said...

Jews, like Hispanics, can be minorities when it works for the leftists causes, or they can be 'white' when they need to be censored or cancelled.

On the other hand, if you want to exclude Jews for being white, you'll need to go on down the line and exclude them all, including Jesus, which could prove inconvenient for some. I mean, if we're removing statues of old white men...

Jews historically have been pushed toward industries/businesses where they were either 'allowed' to participate or where they found no barriers yet. Hollywood is just one of those areas. And Jews have always loved comedy, writing, the arts. We can't help it. Every one of us thinks we're the next Mel Brooks, or Groucho Marx, or Jon Stewart, Gilda Radner, Jerry Seinfeld, Joan Rivers, Gary Shandling, Larry David, Woody Allen, Billy Crystal, Don Rickles, Sid Caesar, Lenny Bruce, Jack Benny, Mort Sahl, Jerry Lewis, Fanny Brice, Lewis Black, Danny Kaye, Phil Silvers, Bob Saget, Milton Berle, Harvey Korman, Carl Reiner, Jerry Stiller, Gene Wilder. You get the picture. We can't help it. Beside, WASPs over the years just aren't that funny.

It is funny to watch Hollywood tie itself up into knots to avoid the reality of their own history. Funny, but not surprising. I could not live as a progressive. There are not enough therapists or shamans in my area.

MadisonMan said...

Norm MacDonald had a great bit on Weekend Update about Marlon Brando going before Jewish Leaders to apologize for intimating that Jews ran Hollywood. Of course, the punchline was that Brando could then work again.

Howard said...

I'm trying to keep emotion out of this. Even though this is an important issue to me, and I have very strong feelings on the subject.

Sally327 said...

Nothing that can't be solved with a horse head in someone's bed.

Is there something about being Jewish that explains why these men got involved in the studio business?

howdydoody said...

Agree with Gilbar. I work at a law firm that was founded by Jews and was historically considered a Jewish firm in a very progressive city. Most of the partners were Jews (very smart graduates of top law schools who could not get a job with the white shoe WASP firms). The partners were very liberal but proud of their Jewishness, and the firm was closed on the Jewish high holidays. Fast forward to 2022: no Jews in positions of leadership, Jewish history of the firm has been airbrushed, and hiring is totally focused on women, BIPOC and LGQBT, Juneteenth is more important than Yom Kippur.

gilbar said...

rhhardin makes me take off my snark, when he said...
Jews have a high average verbal IQ and so the best wind up in charge of communications businesses. It's nothing about Jewishness itself.

really? REALLY? you think that the fact that you Have to be able to both Read and Recite, in order to have your Bar Mitzvah; has NOTHING to do with their high verbal IQ?
REALLY? Not a LOT of illiterate Children of the Law

Bob Boyd said...

So why is their history erased from the Academy’s new museum?

Fear of what Karen will say. Turns out the vaunted collective is that kid from The Twilight Zone who will wish you into the corn for anything or nothing.

Lurker21 said...

Were the moguls really known for their verbal IQ's? It was more business experience and the willingness to take the risks in a new industry. It is noteworthy that they were drawn to a very expressive new business, though. Was that because of some verbal ability or affinity with expressive activity, or because they were excluded from more mainstream industries, or because of the similarity of the movie business to other businesses that Jews had been successful in?

There's uncertainty about just what a museum is expected to do. Should it try to represent the "whole truth" or just concentrate on presenting part of the truth as well as it can? It's a question that goes beyond museums. Are writers or commenters required to grasp for the whole or can they simply contribute their own view to the conversation?

Howard said...

David Begley:. You are both beating a dead horse while preaching to the choir.

The reason your script is going nowhere is that there's a million people completing against you. You shouldn't blame politics, blame yourself. Burn all copies and write something new. Then destroy that and start anew. Rinse, repeat at least ten times and then shop your work. Remember Edison: Perspiration not inspiration.

Browndog said...

I suspect Althouse is right in her analysis. However, let's not overlook two very destruction principles at play-

Self-censorship.

Marxist principle that states success can only come by way of oppression.

Amexpat said...

Will the museum's tribute to Jewish studio heads include Harvey Weinstein?

The could display one of his casting couches.

Howard said...

Hollywood is the most competitive free market capitalism industry and all you weak ass Putin cucks call it Marxist. Ironic much?

Jersey Fled said...

It's always about virtue signaling.

You don't get as many virtue points for Jews as you do for LGBQTXYZ's.

Michael said...


“We want to ensure that we are taking an honest, inclusive and diverse look at our history, that we create a safe space for complicated, hard conversations,” the museum’s director, Bill Kramer,

Why do people insist on talking like robots with this CorproateSpeak?

glam1931 said...

What is often left out of the story is that most of the Jews who built the studios started out as exhibitors, owners of nickelodeons at the turn of the century, when Thomas Edison controlled the production and distribution of films in the US with his camera patents. Carl Laemmle, founder of Universal Pictures (who rescued many Jews from Germany as the Nazis came to power) moved the production industry from the East Coast to Hollywood by 1915, followed quickly by Jesse Lasky (Paramount), William Fox (20th Century Fox), the Warner Bros., and Marcus Lowe and Louis B. Mayer (MGM), breaking Edison's stranglehold on the business. All Jewish entrepreneurs who really got into production to provide product for their theatre chains. In less than 15 years they completely build Hollywood as we came to know it.
- Archie h. Waugh

Amadeus 48 said...

There is a big point here that is ignored. To quote Theodore Roosevelt:

"... We represent many different race strains. Our ancestors came from many different Old World nationalities. It will spell ruin to this nation if these nationalities remain separated from one another instead of being assimilated to the new and larger American life.

"The children and our children’s children of all of us have to live here in this land together. Our children’s children will intermarry, one another, your children’s children, friends, and mine. Even if they wished, they could not remain citizens of foreign countries….The effort to keep our citizenship divided against itself by the use of the hyphen and along the lines of national origin is certain to breed a spirit of bitterness and prejudice and dislike between great bodies of our citizens."

The great majority of the American people practice assimilation every day. Let's keep it up, and relegate to the trash bin the politicians and academics who would divide us along lines that are vestigial and ancestral.

E pluribus unum.

James K said...


"And Jews have always loved comedy, writing, the arts. We can't help it."

Homer: He's talking funny-talk!
Lisa: No Dad, that's Hebrew! Krusty must be Jewish.
Homer: A Jewish entertainer??? Get out of here!

Michael said...

And not just any Jews but Ashkenazi Jews, that European subset of highly successful academic, business and legal minds. Over the centuries, various campaigns born of envy drove many of the Ashkenazi Jews to flee Europe for North America.

Today 5-6 million Americans can trace their ancestry to Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants. In our open culture and economy, Ashkenazi Jews are enormously successful. Their mark on our country is outsized....Hollywood included.

About 80% of the major breakthroughs leading to the atomic bomb were discovered by Ashkenazi Jews.

n.n said...

Diversity [dogma], Inequity, and Exclusion (DIE). Diversity [dogma] (i.e. color judgment, class-based bigotry) denies individual dignity, individual conscience, intrinsic value, is a bitterly held belief of the Pro-Choice religion subscribed to by the Progressive Church, Synagogue, Mosque, Cult, Corporation, Clinic, etc., normalizes color blocs (e.g. "people of color"), color quotas (e.g. too many People of Asia), and affirmative discrimination (e.g. "Jew privilege"), which has traditionally been the provenance of far-left regimes (e.g. neo-NAZI, [anti]fascist, communist, sex chauvinist, wicked solution).

That said, diversity of individuals, minority of one. #HateLovesAbortion

Amadeus 48 said...

Sorry, Howard. I don't know any weak ass Putin cucks. Everyone I know thinks he is a brutal thug. What are you talking about?

Everyone I know also knows that Ukraine is a very complicated place that has been a sink of corruption for the last 20 years. The NYT has written exhaustively about corruption in Ukraine--they even fessed up that Hunter Biden got a lot for a little and maybe the Big Guy got 10% of everything. Maybe NYT and Putin are right that Ukraine is corrupt. Many offspring of the Best People certainly got fat fees for years bringing light and heat to Kiev and points west. But I doubt that Putin and the Russian Army would improve things.

Let's apply those critical thinking skills, Howard.

RideSpaceMountain said...

@Jersey Fled

"You don't get as many virtue points for Jews as you do for LGBQTXYZ's."

Huge numbers of Jews are LGBQTXYZ's. Saw something something from ADL years and years ago saying it was as high as 30%. Jews always characterize themselves as being highly neurotic, so it figures.

effinayright said...

You would, in the eyes of leftists trying pass retroactive judgment on anyone and anything to fit their morality tales.
************

Just as a fer instance, the lefties who are trying to cancel Yuri Gagarin, a genuine World Historical Figure for being the first person to orbit the Earth, because he was a Russian.

(But not Valentina Tereshkovna, the first woman to do so.)

https://clarion.causeaction.com/2022/03/19/why-on-earth-did-space-foundation-just-cancel-yuri-gagarin/

Meade said...

Great TR quote Amadeus48

n.n said...

Why do people insist on talking like robots with this CorproateSpeak?

Because they sincerely believe it. Because semantic games and empathetic appeals are profitable means to normalize people to take a knee (i.e. break) by Choice or by force, which is desirable in single/central/monopolistic regimes to sustain their progress.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

The Newspaper of record on Ukraine:

Flashback:
Ukraine's Unyielding Corruption

The good news is the Biden family got a nice slice of corrupt Ukrainian energy company payola. Big guy.

n.n said...

why-on-earth-did-space-foundation-just-cancel-yuri-gagarin

He belonged to the diversity class that was inclusive of white skin color, male sex, masculine gender, and the Union of Soviet Social Republics. Cancel protocol was, for instance, the way they responded to the native population and collateral damage that attempted to mitigate the progress of a tribal conflict between Xhosa and Zulu that threatened to destabilize a modern republic a la Arab Spring, Slavic Spring, etc.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

Howard likes his BS leftist talking points. Maddow approved. NBC Colbert delivered.

Good boy.

Dave Begley said...

Howard:

Writing a script - even adapted from a good novel - is a very hard thing. It is harder than writing a Nebraska Supreme Court brief and that was a tough task! In my last brief I did happen to work in Shakespeare. But if I lose this case, it won't matter.

Amadeus48.

An exceptional quote from TR. Really more better and more important than the "man in the arena" quote.

n.n said...

The NYT has written exhaustively about corruption in Ukraine--they even fessed up that Hunter Biden got a lot for a little and maybe the Big Guy got 10% of everything.

After 8 years, 32... 33 trimesters, following the Slavic Spring, the regime in Kiev has failed to offer reconciliation and remediation for disenfranchisement, restoration of essential services, and an end to the military and paramilitary violence directed toward Ukrainian people of Jewish, Russian, gypsy, etc. identity. That, and the operation of biohazardous labs with American support a la Wuhan, and probable other illicit activities, and VP Harris voicing support for NATO expansion, likely broke the camel's back.

Drago said...

Howard: "Hollywood is the most competitive free market capitalism industry and all you weak ass Putin cucks call it Marxist. Ironic much?"

You can always tell when Howard's beloved leftists have gone off the rails. Howard ramps up the projection and distractions and non-sequitors.

In Howard's defense he's also not that bright.

n.n said...

Speaking of diversity, inequity, and exclusion (DIE), Americans... uh people of yellow... people of Asia, recently won a court case against universities that exercise liberal license to indulge diversity [dogma] in order to carry out affirmative discrimination. Here's to mitigating progress (i.e. unqualified, monotonic process/change). Fe... baby steps.

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
n.n said...

the museum's tribute to Jewish studio heads include Harvey Weinstein?

And his #MeToo companions, including Oprah, and less prominent people... persons. A model of Ghislaine Maxwell and too close associations (e.g. husbands, sons, daughters) that aborted that short-lived social justice movement.

Iman said...

What are they, chopped livah!?!?

farmgirl said...

One of my best friends in HS was Jewish- most gifted person I knew. His improvised music- esp piano- always brought tears to my eyes: just beautiful. He really, really liked me, but I couldn’t see myself w/him b/c he was so exceptional. My loss. He married a Jewish girl. Who is also exceptional. Their daughter graduated not too long ago from Yale.

I am honored to have been a friend of his.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

The new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, which tried to present an inclusive history of film, overlooked the role Jewish immigrants played in creating the industry" in the NYT.

“We want to ensure that we are taking an honest, inclusive and diverse look at our history, that we create a safe space for complicated, hard conversations


So, "inclusive" means "racist", and "honest" means "dishonest".

I guess we should appreciate that they're willing to be so honest about their hate filled racist bigotry and lying

Yancey Ward said...

Scan the lists of movie credits for the producers of the film or show and you will see that that a majority of them are still Jewish.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Howard:
"Hollywood is the most competitive free market capitalism industry and all you weak ass Putin cucks call it Marxist. Ironic much?"

really, Howie?

So, you can tell us about all the pro-US war in Iraq movies that came out in the early 2000s, back when the war was popular, right?
And, you'll tell us that Hollywood didn't make bomb after bomb of anti-war flicks, right?


No? Hollywood went entirely with their politics, and entirely against what the customers wanted?

So much for it being a "competitive free market capitalism industry"

Maynard said...

"... We represent many different race strains. Our ancestors came from many different Old World nationalities. It will spell ruin to this nation if these nationalities remain separated from one another instead of being assimilated to the new and larger American life.

That is what I grew up believing, but our intellectual betters have decreed that assimilation is racist and perpetuates White Supremacy.

Marxists obviously prefer to rule a tribalist society.

hombre said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
hombre said...

Temujin wrote: "Jews, like Hispanics, can be minorities when it works for the leftists causes, or they can be 'white' when they need to be censored or cancelled."

That's it, exactly, even when the leftists are Jews themselves. It's among the dichotomies for leftist Jews. Another is reflected in the lack of support for Israel among Jews in America.

And: "On the other hand, if you want to exclude Jews for being white, you'll need to go on down the line and exclude them all, including Jesus, which could prove inconvenient for some. I mean, if we're removing statues of old white men..."

Not as insightful. For lefties excluding Jesus is not an inconvenience, it is a goal.

RideSpaceMountain said...

@hombre

"That's it, exactly, even when the leftists are Jews themselves."

This guy gets it. Jews think of themselves as minorities when it works to their purposes, or they can be 'white' when it does the same.

This clown-nose-on-clown-nose-off bullshit has been going on for a very very very long time. It's cute that lefties, many of them Jewish, are ending the dichotomy by forcing their own people into the 'white' box, likely to their disadvantage.

Shows over. No one's buying this Semitic side-step anymore.

Rory said...

"Hollywood is the most competitive free market capitalism industry"

The hundred year copyright period is about as big as barriers to entry get.

Jews wrote most of the Christmas popular songs, too.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

"Jews built Hollywood. So why is their history erased from the Academy’s new museum?"

There's a couple of reasons:
1: Showing that a despised and hated minority could still succeed in the 1930s - 1950s, when the hatred for that group was out and open and proud, really destroys the "all black problems are because of systemic racism" story line
2: Most modern practitioners of DIE hate Jews, because they're "white males" who don't have the benefit of being either gay or Muslim
3: The Left is still as virulently anti-Semitic. as all of America was back then, so they just don't want to say anything nice abotu Jews

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Rory said...
Jews wrote most of the Christmas popular songs, too.
But not one of them is even slightly religious. See "White Christmas", for a popular example.
It's about friends, family, and Santa. Not church, God, or baby Jesus

Temujin said...

hombre, you are exactly right. For lefties, excluding Jesus is a goal.

RideSpaceMountain- I don't do a Semitic side-step. There's no show here. I am an unapologetically Libertarian leaning Conservative person. Jews in America are like any other people. If they live in the Northeast or the California, chances are they are liberal. Not all, but most. If they live elsewhere, chances are they could be anything.

Just like Christians.

The difference is that we're a very tiny minority in this country. And the majority of us do live in the Northeast, spouting NE thought, holding NE opinion. Again, not all, but most.

You do seem very pissed off about us, though.

Earnest Prole said...

It was only last month that Whoopi Goldberg got scathed for saying Jews are white.

Whoopi Goldberg was not pilloried for saying Jews were white; she was pilloried because she said the Nazi genocide was “not about race.” As any educated person knows, the Nazis documented their insane racial theories in loving, logorrheic detail; to ignore that those theories led directly to the murder of millions of Jews places you somewhere on a spectrum between willfully obtuse and a Holocaust denier.

Ann Althouse said...

"But not one of them is even slightly religious"... so I only need ONE to prove you wrong?

I thought I found the answer, "Do you hear what I hear?" which was listed in an article I found, but the lyrics, Wikipedia tells me, were by "Noël Regney (born Léon Schlienger, 19 August 1922 – 22 November 2002)... born... in Strasbourg, Alsace, France":

"He grew up Catholic, but later became a Unitarian Universalist. He was drafted into the Nazi army despite being a Frenchman like many other "Malgré-nous". As an Alsatian, he spoke the German dialect Alsatian as fluently as French. It is said that he soon deserted, joined a group of French Resistance fighters, and became a double agent working for the French. He led a party of Nazis into an ambush, was shot in the arm, but survived. Eventually, while touring the United States, accompanying Lucienne Boyer, contemporary of Édith Piaf, he met his first wife pianist/composer Gloria Shayne with whom in 1962, he composed the Christmas song "Do You Hear What I Hear?""

So... not a Jew... and also, it seems, not a Nazi.

John henry said...

Neal Gabler wrote a great book about this a few years ago called "An Empire of their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood"

Very interesting on a number of levels. How the movie industrie was originally in Queens and Brooklyn and Jews were not welcome. So they moved to the (then) boondocks of California.

The cowboy mythology that drove all those western movies was based on the experience of the Jewish movie Moguls in Russia, Poland, Ukraine etc. as kids and their parents. Pogroms, cossacks and so on.

While the movies were made in CA, financing remained in NY, with Jewish financiers

Interesting characters throughout, including the ones Ann mentioned but many more.

Ben Stein also wrote a lengthy article perhaps 20 years ago about Jews in the entertainment industry. Only 3% of the population, he figured 60% of all people in entertainment, movies, music, stage, and the supporting lawyers, financiers and so on are Jewish. I've seen other articles and studies that put it in the same ballpark.

Seems pretty strange to me. Seems like Jews should control this academy and should put their feet down and say "No. You will not erase us!"

John LGBTQBNY Henry

n.n said...

Jews wrote most of the Christmas popular songs, too.
But not one of them is even slightly religious


That's true, Jews do not celebrate Christ-mas. At worst, they implicitly support it through song and dance. At best, they will join with their Christian family, friends, neighbors, and associates to celebrate its religious significance.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

I think the omission was based on a real concern that calling attention to the participation of Jews in the industry would feed anti-Semitism and could very well be perceived as anti-Semitic.

Nope. They hired a bunch of wokesters to set it up and got an opening day exhibit on how Spike Lee invented Hollywood.

wildswan said...

Museums devoted to the achievements of those not allowed to achieve must necessarily be constantly under fire for having any exhibits at all and will not be completely diverse until they are empty echoing rooms. This museum simply recognizes the logical end of the current organizing principle of museums by excluding from the start those who achieved the most. Perhaps the homeless could be invited in to populate the empty rooms as living examples of diverse non-achievement. A small paper card could say: In the old days this room would have celebrated the achievements of a white man and a Zionist but now it is more correctly dedicated to forgetting [name]. Then the name could be blacked out following a protest representing 1/3 of the grade for Poly Sci 101. Then the paper could be torn following a protest representing for 1/3 of the grade documented by Communications 101. Finally the paper could be burned following a cold snap by some homeless drunks.

John henry said...

Artie/Rip Torn: "Do you know who runs Hollywood, Larry"

Larry Sanders/Gary Shandling: "The Jews"?

Artie: "No. The gay Jews run Hollywood"

John LGBTQBNY Henry

West TX Intermediate Crude said...

Interesting factoid:
Every Ashkenazi Jew is a descendant of a population that numbered only 330-350 (in the entire world) around 700 years ago. Based on a genetic study done 2014 and promptly buried or forgotten. There were around 17 million descendants at the peak in 1930 or so before the Holocaust; now up to 10-13 million, some of whom are in Hollywood still.
Only the smart survive.

https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms5835

Skeptical Voter said...

I'm going to reveal my age and long ago reading habits by calling for a shout out for Sammy Glick--the hero/villian of "What Makes Sammy Run". You go Sammy! What a guy!.

And as for the decision to exclude/cover up/ignore the actual individuals who built the studios (and the studio system) I'll add a phrase from songwriter Tom T. Hall's
"She Gave Her Heart To Jethro". Hall wrote, "A man's not writing if he can't relate all the things he sees in his life".

That phrase should be the standard for creating a museum about anything--Hollywood included. Failing to do so means that your museum is meretricious.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Ann Althouse said...
"But not one of them is even slightly religious"... so I only need ONE to prove you wrong?

Yep.

Thanks for bringing up "Do you hear what I hear?" It's a great song, and is finally chasing White Christmas out of my head. :-)

rcocean said...

Basically, anything that doesn't praise Jews to the heavens is antisemitism. Its a nice position to be in.

Michael K said...

The Jewish immigrants understood their audiences and wanted to please them. That's how they were successful. Now, Hollywood makes movies for Chinese, apparently.

rcocean said...

IRC, almost all the CURRENT Studio heads are White man and Jewish. Except one, a think there's a black woman in charge of one. So, they have something in common with Mayer, Warner Brothers, etc.

The pioneers were talented and Jewish. The current group are just jewish.

rcocean said...

The Jewish immigrants understood their audiences and wanted to please them. That's how they were successful. Now, Hollywood makes movies for Chinese, apparently.

Exactly. Hollwyood is now a global industry and get a majority of its $$ from overseas. Plus, most of the movie goers in the USA are at the low range in terms of education. So, there's little incentive to have well written movies with great characters. You need something that can transend the language barrier: Like sex, violence, explosions, and comic book heroes.

Michael K said...

The cowboy mythology that drove all those western movies was based on the experience of the Jewish movie Moguls in Russia, Poland, Ukraine etc. as kids and their parents. Pogroms, cossacks and so on.

A fraternity brother of mine, an immigrant from Latvia, was into Zorro as a kid. He said all the kids loved Zorro and westerns of that kind. After college he became a fighter pilot. Flew F 104s.

William said...

Sam Goldwyn was not famous for his verbal IQ.....The dirty secret about those studio heads was not that they were Jewish, but rather that they were capitalists and, even worse, patriotic. They went out of their way to destroy the candidacy of Upton Sinclair and look at the way they glamorized that mass murderer Sgt. York. (It's past due time they make a movie that dramatizes Sgt. York's problematic attitude towards Blacks and gays.)...Hollywood always portrays bankers, real estate developers, oil executives and most rich people as corrupt and greedy. I suppose that to some extent they are, but the entertainment industry is certainly in no position to point fingers in that direction. Bernie Madoff and the Enron crew were morally challenged but, so far as I know, they never sexually exploited their underlings. On the other hand, no one in the steno pool looked like Lana Turner.....I'm ambivalent about those first generation studio heads. They created an industry that, for the most part, reflected and shaped the ideals of our nation. Their private lives and personal morals were certainly not edifying but that is probably more due to the nature of the business they were in. Let it be known that Joe Kennedy was a studio head for a time and that he was as much a sleaze as his peers.

rcocean said...

Jews wrote most of the Christmas popular songs, too.
But not one of them is even slightly religious

I don't consider "Rudolph the Red nose Reindeer" or "Let it snow" much of an accomplishment.

Michael K said...

The pioneers were talented and Jewish. The current group are just jewish.

Alan Ladd Jr was a non-Jewish studio head and very successful. He was a college friend and just died this month.

rcocean said...

Interestingly enough Chuck Berry didn't write "Run Rudolph Run" that was Johnny Marks who also wrote "Rocking around the Christmas Tree".

rcocean said...

Another reason for the decline in good movies its part of the overall cultural decline. Most of Hollwyood's good movies in the 30s, 40s, and 50s were based novels and plays. Today, who writes plays? And novels have become a minority taste that very few care about.

So, Hollywood can longer Live off others, it has to create its own content. Result in an endless stream of comic book movies, remakes of other movies, and movies about TV shows.

cassandra lite said...

"If you emphasize that Jews were the studio heads, won't you look as though you are blaming Jews for the exclusion you are dedicated to stressing?"

One hundred percent guaranteed that that's not the reasoning behind this. I know some of these people. They live in George Floyd's restricted snow globe, where nothing is more exclusive than inclusivity.

Narr said...

Peter Hall's chapter on Hollywood in his "Cities in Civilization" is one of his best. Wish I could remember the details . . .

Real American said...

those Jews would likely be surprised to learn that they were actually White.

PM said...

It needs to be fixed - so stupid - Jews were instrumental in Hollywood's rise, output and status for decades. I lived down the street from the museum site when it was a May Co department store. Founded by a...oh nevermind.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

rcocean said...
Michael K said...
The Jewish immigrants understood their audiences and wanted to please them. That's how they were successful. Now, Hollywood makes movies for Chinese, apparently.

Exactly. Hollwyood is now a global industry and get a majority of its $$ from overseas.


What's more driving the issue is that, as William pointed out, the original moguls were patriotic Americans.
The current ones hate America.

For a while, the "comic book movies" were able to get around this. But their success brought them to the attention of the higher ups, and so Superman no longer stands for "the American way".

Because the people now running Hollywood hate America even more than they love money

Amexpat said...

The cowboy mythology that drove all those western movies was based on the experience of the Jewish movie Moguls in Russia, Poland, Ukraine etc. as kids and their parents. Pogroms, cossacks and so on.

My Jewish grandmother was born in Odessa and emigrated to the US as a small child. She recounted watching a parade of cowboys on horses in connection with a rodeo at Madison Square Garden shortly after she arrived. She said her mother was deathly frightened because she thought the cowboys were Cossacks.

rcocean said...

Alan Ladd Jr was a non-Jewish studio head and very successful. He was a college friend and just died this month.

Alan Ladd wife's was Jewish. What that makes Alan Ladd jnr is beyond my paygrade.

Lloyd W. Robertson said...

Jerry Seinfeld has said he doesn't like many Jewish jokes, but then he will mention some he likes. A waiter trying to serve a table where all patrons are Jewish: "Is anything satisfactory?" And then variations on a joke; One Gentile businessman greets another: how's business? The reply: Fine, can't complain. Successful Gentile businessman has promised his mother to be at her house for dinner on a specific day. The day arrives, businessman finds himself steadily busier as the day goes. Finally, almost last minute, he calls to tell her he can't make it. "That's fine, dear. I understand."

Is all the kvetching related to seeking both what is justice and what is good for oneself? Is there usually an element of putting on a show? Billy Cristal talking about his uncles when he was a kid: "You call that a heart attack? I was clinically dead!"

Saint Croix said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Saint Croix said...

Were the moguls really known for their verbal IQ's?

ha ha ha ha

n.n said...

Jews are historically People of Tan, with People of Black, People of Yellow, People of Brown, People of Orange, and other diversity classes joining on principle.

n.n said...

I don't consider "Rudolph the Red nose Reindeer" or "Let it snow" much of an accomplishment.

It was a merry and gay way to reach children of all ages and motivate them to play reindeer games per chance to remember, share Christ in mass.

n.n said...

My personal physician is a woman. Diversitists, rabid diversitists, need not apply.

Ted said...

As usual, the antisemites of the world (including certain commenters on this very blog) can't agree if Jews are minorities trying to get away with something by pretending to be white, or white people trying to get away with something by pretending to be minorities.

Saint Croix said...

Harry Cohn: "I have a foolproof device for judging whether a picture is good or bad. If my fanny squirms, it's bad. If my fanny doesn't squirm, it's good."

Saint Croix said...

Cohn also had Mussolini's signed autograph on his desk until World War 2 broke out. Oops.

Stephen St. Onge said...

“We want to ensure that we are taking an honest, inclusive and diverse look at our history, that we create a safe space for complicated, hard conversations,” the museum’s director, Bill Kramer, said the day after the museum opened as he welcomed guests to a panel discussion titled “Creating a More Inclusive Museum.”
_______________________________________________

        He lies.  An honest look at Hollywood history will point out that almost all studio heads were white, male, and Jewish.  They were not “diverse,” and they were not “inclusive.”  No honest look at Hollywood history can get around that.

        What Kramer wants is a place to push propaganda.

Stephen St. Onge said...

Saint Croix said...
Cohn also had Mussolini's signed autograph on his desk until World War 2 broke out. Oops.___________________

        Cohn also copied Mussolini’s office setup.  He saw how well it intimidated people.

gilbar said...

rcocean interestingly said...
Most of Hollwyood's good movies in the 30s, 40s, and 50s were based novels and plays.

And TODAY'S Hollywood movies are remakes of movies that were based on comic books
Explains a LOT

James K said...

Scan the lists of movie credits for the producers of the film or show and you will see that that a majority of them are still Jewish.

And more actors than you might realize. Harrison Ford, Jennifer Connelly, Scarlett Johansson, Amanda Peet, Daniel Day-Lewis, Lisa Bonet, Jake Gyllenhall, Mila Kunis, Paula Abdul, Joaquin Phoenix, Winona Ryder the list goes on (those all have at least Jewish mothers).

Joe Smith said...

Now do the same with a jazz museum that excludes Armstrong, Mingus, Miles Davis, Coltrane, et al, but celebrates Jolson.

The left hates Jews, it's as simple as that...

Jupiter said...

Jews are only white when they want to be. It's anti-semitic to say otherwise.

gpm said...

>>that kid from The Twilight Zone who will wish you into the corn for anything or nothing

aka Quaestor's avatar.

--gpm

Chris Lopes said...

"Now, Hollywood makes movies for Chinese, apparently."

Most of which, the Chinese don't really want to see. The Chinese (like the rest of the world) make their own movies that appeal to their own culture. They don't need Tinseltown and the Hollywood studios are chasing a dragon they will never catch.

Rollo said...

The moguls certainly were feared in Hollywood, but in the wider culture they were often seen as comic figures. Today's culture is apparently too uptight to take that view.

Zev said...

“We want to ensure that we are taking an honest, inclusive and diverse look at our history, that we create a safe space for complicated, hard conversations,”

Buzzword alert. This guy piles them on.