Senate Investigation into Motion Picture War Propaganda

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The Senate Investigation into Motion Picture War Propaganda was a 1941 investigation by a group of

United States Senators which set out to find evidence that the United States movie industry was agitating for the United States to join World War II on the side of the Allies.[1]

Background

During the 1930s, Hollywood produced few films about the

A Yank in the RAF (1941) were openly critical of Germany, which alarmed American isolationists.[2] Several of those films would be discussed during the hearings. However, only five percent of Hollywood films in 1940 dealt with Nazism at all.[3]

Investigation

On 1 August 1941, US Senator

Saint Louis, Missouri, to an audience of 2,600 supporters and charged that Hollywood studios had become "the most gigantic engines of propaganda in existence."[4] During the speech, he read a list of names of men who he said controlled the film industry. Critics noted that the list consisted mostly of Jewish names, which gave rise to perceptions of antisemitism.[5]

The investigation was to be authorized by Senate Resolution 152, drafted by

Homer T. Bone (Washington) and Ernest McFarland (Arizona), and the Republicans Charles W. Tobey (New Hampshire) and C. Wayland Brooks (Illinois). All except McFarland had declared their support for isolationism.[8][9] The industry hired Wendell Willkie, a pro-interventionist Republican and unsuccessful candidate in the 1940 United States presidential election, to represent it.[10]

Hearings commenced on 9 September,

cross-examine or to summon witnesses for the defense. Instead, McFarland cross-examined Nye, pressing him to define "propaganda" and specify what he wanted the Senate to do to combat it.[12]

The hearings ended on 26 September. By late September, the investigation had run out of funds. Additional funds were never likely to be approved as the

Franklin Roosevelt.[13]

Reception

The investigation received widespread mostly-critical press coverage while it was ongoing.

United States' entry into the war. Unlike the 1947 and 1952 investigations by the House Un-American Activities Committee into Hollywood figures, it did not define the targets' careers.[18]

References

  1. ^ Yogerst 2020, synopsis.
  2. ^ Moser 2001, p. 731.
  3. ^ Yogerst 2020, excerpt.
  4. ^ McMillan 1988, p. 277.
  5. ^ Moser 2001, p. 745.
  6. ^ McMillan 1988, pp. 278–279.
  7. ^ Moser 2001, p. 742.
  8. ^ McMillan 1988, p. 279.
  9. ^ Moser 2001, p. 741.
  10. ^ Moser 2001, pp. 741–742.
  11. ^ Moser 2001, p. 743.
  12. ^ McMillan 1988, p. 282.
  13. ^ Moser 2001, pp. 746–747.
  14. ^ Yogerst 2020, p. 175.
  15. ^ Moser 2001, pp. 744–745.
  16. ^ Moser 2001, p. 746.
  17. ^ Moser 2001, p. 733.
  18. ^ Yogerst 2020, pp. 175–176.

Sources

  • Moser, John E. (2001). "'Gigantic Engines of Propaganda': The 1941 Senate Investigation of Hollywood". The Historian. 63 (4): 731–751.
    S2CID 144780011
    .
  • McMillan, James E. (1988). "McFarland and the Movies: The 1941 Senate Motion Picture Hearings". The Journal of Arizona History. 29 (3): 277–302.
    JSTOR 41859880
    .
  • Yogerst, Chris (2020). Hollywood Hates Hitler!: Jew-Baiting, Anti-Nazism, and the Senate Investigation into Warmongering in Motion Pictures. University Press of Mississippi.
    ISBN 978-1-4968-2977-1
    .

External links
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