How Conservative Hollywood Became a Liberal
Town
by
Marcus Hawkins
While
it may seem as though Hollywood has always been liberal, it hasn’t. Very few
people today realize that at one point in the development of American cinema,
conservatives ruled the movie-making industry.
Santa Monica College Professor Larry Ceplair, co-author
of "The Inquisition in Hollywood," wrote that during the ‘20s and
‘30s, most studio heads were conservative Republicans who spent millions of
dollars to block union and guild organizing. Likewise, the International
Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the Moving Picture Machine Operators,
and the Screen Actors Guild were all headed by conservatives, as well.
Scandals
and Censorship
In
the early 1920s, a series of scandals rocked Hollywood. According to authors
Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell, silent film star Mary Pickford divorced
her first husband in 1921 so that she could marry the attractive Douglas
Fairbanks. Later that year, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle was accused (but later
acquitted) of raping and murdering a young actress during a wild party. In
1922, after director William Desmond Taylor was found murdered, the public
learned of his lurid love affairs with some of Hollywood’s best-known
actresses. The final straw came in 1923, when Wallace Reid, a ruggedly handsome
actor, died of a morphine overdose.
In
themselves, these incidents were a cause for sensation but taken together,
studio bosses worried they would be accused of promoting immorality and
self-indulgence. As it was, a number of protest groups had successfully lobbied
Washington and the federal government was looking to impose censorship
guidelines on the studios. Rather than losing control of their product and face
the involvement of the government, the Motion Picture Producers and
Distributors of American (MPPDA) hired Warren Harding’s Republican postmaster
general, Will Hays, to address the problem.
The
Hays Code
In
their book, Thompson and Bordwell say Hays appealed to the studios to remove
objectionable content from their films and in 1927, he gave them a list of
material to avoid, called the “Don’ts and Be Carefuls” list. It covered most
sexual immorality and the depiction of criminal activity. Nevertheless, by the
early 1930s, many of the items on Hays’ list were being ignored and with
Democrats controlling Washington, it seemed more likely than ever that a
censorship law would be implemented. In 1933, Hays pushed the film industry to
adopt the Production Code, which explicitly forbids depictions of crime
methodology, sexual perversion. Films that abide by the code received a seal of
approval. Although the “Hays Code,” as it came to be known helped the industry
avoid stiffer censorship at the national level, it began to erode in the late
40s and early ‘50s.
The
House Un-American Activities Committee
Although
it was not considered un-American to sympathize with the Soviets during the
1930s or during World War II, when they were American allies, it was considered
un-American when the war was over. In 1947, Hollywood intellectuals who had
been sympathetic to the communist cause during those early years found
themselves being investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee
(HUAC) and questioned about their “communist activities.” Ceplair points out
that the conservative Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American
Ideals provided the committee with names of so-called "subversives."
Members of the alliance testified before the committee as "friendly”
witnesses. Other “friendlies,” such as Jack Warner of Warner Bros. and actors
Gary Cooper, Ronald Reagan, and Robert Taylor either fingered others as
“communists” or expressed concern over liberal content in their scripts.
After
a four-year suspension of the committee ended in 1952, former communists and
Soviet sympathizers such as actors Sterling Hayden and Edward G. Robinson kept
themselves out of trouble by naming others. Most of the people named were
script-writers. Ten of them, who testified as “unfriendly” witnesses became
known as the “Hollywood Ten” and were blacklisted – effectively ending their
careers. Ceplair notes that following the hearings, guilds, and unions purged
liberals, radicals, and leftists from their ranks, and over the next 10 years,
the outrage slowly began to dissipate.
Liberalism
Seeps Into Hollywood
Due
in part to a backlash against abuses perpetrated by the House Un-American
Activities Committee, and in part to a landmark Supreme Court ruling in 1952
declaring films to be a form of free speech, Hollywood began to slowly
liberalize. By 1962, the Production Code was virtually toothless. The newly
formed Motion Picture Association of America implemented a rating system, which
still stands today.
In
1969, following the release of Easy Rider, directed by
liberal-turned-conservative Dennis Hopper, counter-culture films began to
appear in significant numbers. By the mid-1970s, older directors were retiring,
and a new generation of filmmakers was emerging. By the late 1970s, Hollywood
was very openly and specifically liberal. After making his last film in 1965,
Hollywood director John Ford saw the writing on the wall. “Hollywood now is run
by Wall St. and Madison Ave., who demand ‘Sex and Violence,’” author Tag
Gallagher quotes him as writing in his book, “This is against my conscience and
religion.”
Hollywood
Today
Things
are not much different today. In a 1992 letter to the New York Times,
screenwriter and playwright Jonathan R. Reynolds lament that “… Hollywood today
is as fascistic toward conservatives as the 1940s and '50s were liberals … And
that goes for the movies and television shows produced.”
It
goes beyond Hollywood, too, Reynolds argues. Even the New York theater
community is rampant with liberalism. “Any
play that suggests that racism is a two-way street or that socialism is
degrading simply won't be produced,” Reynolds writes. “I defy you to name any
plays produced in the last 10 years that intelligently espouse conservative
ideas. Make that 20 years.”
The
lesson Hollywood still has not learned, he says, is that repression of ideas,
regardless of political persuasion, “should not be rampant in the arts.” The
enemy is repression itself.