To appreciate the new exhibit opening this Sunday at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, titled “Hollywoodland: Jewish Founders and the Making of a Movie Capital,” one must know something about its backstory. Jacob Gurvis writes:
The exhibit’s debut comes two-and-a-half years after the museum’s opening, which sparked controversy among supporters and visitors for not including the industry’s Jewish beginnings.
[One segment of the exhibit], titled “Studio Origins,” is a long series of panels detailing the history of Hollywood’s studio system, spotlighting the eight studios known as “the majors” and their Jewish founders. In addition to archival documents, images of early studio lots, movie posters, and behind-the scenes images from film sets, the displays mention each founder’s Jewish background.
The Warner Bros. display highlights Harry and Jack Warner’s “early stance against Nazism when polls and public discourse still conveyed this was an unpopular position in the United States.” In the Universal installment, there is a 1938 letter written by the studio founder Carl Laemmle, in which he emphasizes his concern for European Jewry. Laemmle would help hundreds flee Nazi Germany.
Read more on Jewish Telegraphic Agency: https://www.jta.org/2024/05/17/culture/las-academy-museum-initially-excluded-hollywoods-jewish-origins-a-new-exhibit-on-jewish-film-pioneers-fixes-that