Isolationists Push Back
Isolationists Push Back
MPPDA president Will Hays observed that only a small number of films dealt with the conflict in Europe. While critics of Hollywood would soon refer to film primarily as a means of amusement, Hays defined films as “a medium of information, education, and entertainment.” Anti-Hollywood sentiment was amplified in a pamphlet written by G. Allison Phelps. An American’s History of Hollywood opens with the claim that Hollywood is largely informed by its many Russian immigrant employees, and, therefore, is an industry led by communists. Phelps’ evidence, without listing specific productions, was that “the Hollywood leaders, in selecting ‘literature’ from which to produce pictures, reached far back into Russia to bring forth the embryo of atheism, the oriental germ of eroticism, [and] the seeds of lust and hatred.” The summer of 1941 saw two competing events in Los Angeles that would serve as a primer for coming debates. Two rallies were held at the Hollywood Bowl, one isolationist rally featuring Charles Lindbergh and an interventionist rally featuring Wendell Willkie.
Keywords: Isolationist, Interventionist, G. Allison Phelps, Charles Lindbergh, Wendell Willkie
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