Class Struggle in Hollywood, 1930-1950 : Moguls, Mobsters, (Paperback)

by Gerald Horne (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Walt Disney was famous in Hollywood for creating Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Communists: "Mr. Disney created more communists [than any other studio] with his substandard wage scales and the way he handled his people," claimed the leader of the Conference of Studio Unions, Herb Sorrell. But Disney's policies--which Horne contends were racist, anti-Semitic and sexist as well--were not unique in Hollywood. Tensions between workers and management had long roots: attempts at unionization began as early as 1918 and had ended up in a union lockout in 1921. In 1927, the industry attempted to sidestep the union's power by forming the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which was designed to give the appearance of a surrogate union. In the 1930s, attempts at organizing studio workers by the CSU or other unions were labeled "red." In this maelstrom of political, social and legal bitterness, noted historian Horne (Fire This Time: The Watts Uprising of the 1960s) focuses on the great postwar CSU strike of 1945, which after a studio lockout escalated into a full fledged Cold War culture war, with rabid red-baiting, anti-Semitism and, eventually, violence between striking union workers and scabs, and extensive police brutality. Crafting a taut narrative in elegant prose, Horne is sympathetic with the union's struggles, though his historical overview and blow-by-blow retelling of the strike and lockout never feels biased. Relying on a wealth of primary documents and with an eye for salient details, Horne has unearthed a vitally important and mostly forgotten aspect of Hollywood and labor history.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
This book is destined to be a bombshell in the field and perhaps far beyond the field. Paul Buhle, coauthor of Tender Comrades: A Backstory of the Hollywood Blacklist - "As Hollywood approaches deadline time on the strike front, a book has been published about the extraordinary history of the film world and the often incestuous relationship between studios, unions, and mobsters. It spotlights bloody union battles of the past, when pickets set cars on fire and 'reds' were seen under every studio bed. The strikes in the film industry of the 1940s had a resonance that echoes today. 'At stake was nothing less than control over an industry that was essential in forging people's consciousness,' writes Gerald Horne in Class Struggle in Hollywood 1930-1950."--The Observer 29 April 2001

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Product Details

• Paperback: 335 pages
• Publisher: University of Texas Press (February 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0292731388
• ISBN-13: 978-0292731387
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #408,680 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hollywood's buried history, February 3, 2001

By	Michael Everett (Santa Monica) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazingly, this is the first comprehensive work written on a key event in American labor history -- an event that was headline news in the mid 1940's, and that among many other things set the stage for the passage of Taft-Hartley and propelled Ronald Reagan into politics. While countless historians have left no stone unturned in examining the Hollywood Blacklist, the story of the Hollywood studio strikes has long been relegated to footnotes and chapters in more general works. With this work Gerald Horne has shined a relentless light of painstaking scholarship on what may well be the most neglected event in American labor history. The footnotes alone are worth the price of the book and will no doubt entice many readers to follow these myriad paths deeper into the hidden corners of Hollywood history.

This book belongs on the shelf of anyone interested in Hollywood history, labor history, the Hollywood Blacklist, American radical history, and the history of organized crime in America. It should especially be read by anyone who earns their living as a worker in the film and television industry or is a member of IATSE and wishes to know the true story of their union's dark history.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Needed Light, June 23, 2001

By	Douglas Doepke (Claremont, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Reviewer Everitt's remarks capture the book's essential value. Several points however merit emphasis. First, Horne's book brings out the symbiotic relation between the studios' desire for non-independent company unions, on one hand, and organized crime's desire for corrupt unions, on the other. By taking in one another's washing during the tumultuous events of '45 - '47, these two representatives of private capital maintained an alliance that defeated efforts by the Conference of Studio Unions to emerge as an independent union of movie-making employees. Horne the historian is detailed about this sinister and under-reported alliance. Second, by using abundant primary sources, the author debunks the nurtured image of CSU as a communist-led movement, a scare tactic still in its infancy following the anti-fascist WWII and, as the book shows, a tactic used to increasing effect by the corporate-owned press of the day. Belated communist support for CSU strikers was willfully twisted by these flacks into communist domination. Third, the inability of the CSU to cross racial and gender lines of the day is emphasized. This had the unfortunate effect of reducing potential for attracting outside allies, especially among aggrieved African-Americans and women's groups, though it's hardly surprising that prejudices within the union would reflect those of the larger society from which it sprang. It's fascinating to follow this dark underside of the Hollywood dream factory, though I did find time shifts in the narrative confusing at times. Nonetheless, Horne has focused his word-camera on a worthy and neglected real life drama.