# Why wasn't more anti-Semitism directed toward Hollywood in the bad old days? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 14, 2014, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wasnt-more-anti-semitism-directed-toward-hollywood-in-the-bad-old-days/707201 "2014-12-14T12:53:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wasnt-more-anti-semitism-directed-toward-hollywood-in-the-bad-old-days/707201/21 "2014-12-15T14:29:09Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > The difference between; > _Jewish people run Hollywood_ > and > _Jews run Hollywood_ > is both subtle and profound. > > CMC fnord! Thank you. This is perfect. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wasnt-more-anti-semitism-directed-toward-hollywood-in-the-bad-old-days/707201/22 "2014-12-15T16:17:35Z")
Well, even though most of the studio heads in Hollywood’s Golden Age were Jewish, they generally put out movies that Christians could easily embrace. All those movies in which Spencer Tracy and Bing Crosby played idealistic, heroic Catholic priests? They were green-lighted by Jewish studio execs. Those Biblical epics that Christgian movie-goers loved? All green-lighted by Jewish studio bosses. Chrisitanity got great press in movies produced by Jews! Why would anyone complain? Even IF most Americans knew that Jews like Harry Cohn, Jack Warner, Louis B. Mayer and Sam Goldwyn were running Hollywood (and I’m not at all sure they did), Hollywood in the old days was generally making wholesome, pro-Christian entertainment. Remember that _ **Gentlemen’s Agreement** _, one of the ONLY movies of the Forties to address antisemitism, was put out by 20th Century Fox’s Darryl Zanuck, one of the few Hollywood bigwigs who WASN’T Jewish. The Jewish VIPs oif Hollywood weren’t trying to push any kind of Jewish agenda. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wasnt-more-anti-semitism-directed-toward-hollywood-in-the-bad-old-days/707201/23 "2014-12-15T16:20:32Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#): > > But isn’t it true? (That Jewish people run Hollywood thing, not that it is used to spread lies.) Of course it’s true- it’s just considered impolite to notice. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wasnt-more-anti-semitism-directed-toward-hollywood-in-the-bad-old-days/707201/24 "2014-12-15T18:15:21Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Well, even though most of the studio heads in Hollywood’s Golden Age were Jewish, they generally put out movies that Christians could easily embrace. > > All those movies in which Spencer Tracy and Bing Crosby played idealistic, heroic Catholic priests? They were green-lighted by Jewish studio execs. > > Those Biblical epics that Christgian movie-goers loved? All green-lighted by Jewish studio bosses. > > Chrisitanity got great press in movies produced by Jews! Why would anyone complain? Even IF most Americans knew that Jews like Harry Cohn, Jack Warner, Louis B. Mayer and Sam Goldwyn were running Hollywood (and I’m not at all sure they did), Hollywood in the old days was generally making wholesome, pro-Christian entertainment. Which brings to mind the old joke about religion in Hollywood amounted to Jews telling Protestants to be good Catholics. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wasnt-more-anti-semitism-directed-toward-hollywood-in-the-bad-old-days/707201/25 "2014-12-15T18:25:16Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I meant back in the day - today, of course, it’s common knowledge. But in the 1930’s, unless you recognized “Goldwyn” as a Jewish name … If you did recognize it, then Shmuel Gelbfisch did a bad job of choosing his new name. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wasnt-more-anti-semitism-directed-toward-hollywood-in-the-bad-old-days/707201/26 "2014-12-16T06:16:21Z")
> [@marshmallow](#): > > The idea that Jews run Hollywood to brainwash white people is such a common conspiracy theory (along with their control over Wall Street) that I’d be surprised if someone reached adulthood without being exposed to it. I suppose it’s possible nowadays where everyone creates their own media bubble, but you’d have to miss out on a lot of old movies and books that discuss that trope. Or never be exposed to white nationalist/KKK rhetoric, or read anything about racial separatism, and so on. I’d figure eventually young people on the internet would hear enough about how terrible Stormfront or /pol/ are to visit out of sheer curiosity. I was exposed to it eventually, of course, but I remember thinking that antisemitism was a historical problem back when I was a kid. I’d only heard about it in connection with Nazis, and I guess I assumed that, after their defeat, it was over. I also naively assumed no one was actually racist anymore, despite living really close to a town where two rival Klans are set up. I probably ran into racists all the time, but thought you’d have to be an idiot to be racist. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wasnt-more-anti-semitism-directed-toward-hollywood-in-the-bad-old-days/707201/27 "2014-12-16T06:18:53Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > If you did recognize it, then Shmuel Gelbfisch did a bad job of choosing his new name. 🙂 For some reason, I associate names starting with “Gold” as being Jewish. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Prize](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@Sir\_Prize](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Prize)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wasnt-more-anti-semitism-directed-toward-hollywood-in-the-bad-old-days/707201/28 "2014-12-16T11:11:23Z")
Father Coughlin had a radio talk show in the 1930s that was very popular and antisemitic although his target was Jewish bankers, not Hollywood. It was US entry into WWII that put a damper on public antisemitism. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wasnt-more-anti-semitism-directed-toward-hollywood-in-the-bad-old-days/707201/29 "2014-12-16T16:08:01Z")
I was going to summarize a crazy Tom Swift from 1928, but a Google search found someone here at the Dope had already done it…someone in this thread actually. Hi NDP! [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=11212915&postcount=13](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=11212915&postcount=13) [QUOTE=American Heritage] The murderous Greenbaum of Tom Swift and His Talking Pictures became mentally ill after losing his fortune and tried to blow Tom up with a bomb. It was later explained that Greenbaum recovered fully when he made another fortune on a wise investment. Greenbaum’s employers were the heads of motion-picture and theatrical interests anxious to keep Tom’s talking-picture machine (a kind of color TV set with a fifty-inch screen) off the market at any cost. After the bomb plot failed, they kidnapped Tom and confronted him, wearing masks, but “from two or three little signs Tom had an idea that some of these men were wealthy Jews.” Among these little signs was the fact that although the room was in partial darkness, one of them (referred to as “the fat Jew”) refused to turn the lights up because it would cost money. [/QUOTE] Man, kids’ lit ain’t what it used to be. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wasnt-more-anti-semitism-directed-toward-hollywood-in-the-bad-old-days/707201/30 "2014-12-16T17:52:56Z")
I once read an article about _Citizen Kane_ that claimed when the Hearst newspapers were trying to stop the movie’s release, they threatened to “reveal” that all of Hollywood was controlled by Jews. While Hearst was reasonably successful in getting the film buried for years, it’s hard to tell whether that particular tactic was effective. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wasnt-more-anti-semitism-directed-toward-hollywood-in-the-bad-old-days/707201.md?page=1)