The Other Good Fight: Hollywood Talent and the Working-Class Movement of the 1930S

The glamour of the silver screen has obscured the Hollywood left's commitment to economic democracy. When Hollywood talent examined the world through the lenses of labor conflict and capitalist production, they began to see themselves as exploited workers, not as privileged middle-class artists. That consciousness of a new class identity propelled them to engage in something more than noblesse oblige or class paternalism. Out of the alchemy of economic upheaval, political ferment, and professional self-interest, Hollywood's creative class provided leadership in a coherent social movement that placed the emancipation of labor at the center of its worldview. Through labor-oriented political activism, they opened vistas on a national organization that could function as an independent instrument of political action. More than just celebrity sponsors of liberal causes, Hollywood activists functioned as public intellectuals for democratic socialism. They pointed toward the possibilities of a progressive movement that united professionals, white-collar workers, and industrial laborers.