Open AccessTargeting Alien Filmmakers in 1930s Hollywood
Author(s) -
Joss Winn
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
kinema
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2562-5764
pISSN - 1192-6252
DOI - 10.15353/kinema.vi.1215
Subject(s) - hollywood , alien , publicity , government (linguistics) , immigration , spell , illegal immigrants , political science , visitor pattern , front (military) , media studies , advertising , law , history , sociology , politics , engineering , art history , business , citizenship , mechanical engineering , linguistics , philosophy , programming language , anthropology , computer science
TARGETING ALIEN FILMMAKERS IN 1930s HOLLYWOOD On January 28, 1933, the US government made its first strike in a much heralded drive to rid Hollywood of alien filmmakers. A special assistant to Secretary of Labour William Doak forecast "a wholesale exodus of foreign film talent" would begin.(1) The news made front-page headlines across the country as government agents interrogated Australian-born screenwriter John Farrow and other Hollywood filmmakers.(2) Labour Department special agents and local police arrested Farrow as he danced with South American actress Mona Maris at a fashionable Los Angeles hotel.(3) His crime, according to the immigration special agents, was that he overstayed his legal visitor permit. This study investigates the government's campaign against alien filmmakers in the early 1930s and finds that government promises to deport hordes of foreign workers were never serious, but were instead a project intended for publicity, both to show Americans...