Schmuel Gelbfisz, Lazar Meir and the Wonsal brothers are not names that immediately come to mind when thinking of Hollywood legends, but Samuel Goldwyn, Louis B. Mayer and the Warner brothers do.
These monumental Hollywood figures changed their Jewish names to ones they thought would be more acceptable to Americans in the early 20th century in hopes of increasing their chances of success. While their studios had enormous achievements and created some of the greatest films of all time, the birth names of these men are not well known.
The Academy Museum aims to change that.
A new exhibit titled “Hollywoodland: Jewish Founders and the Making of a Film Capital,” opening to the public Sunday, explores the stories of the filmmakers and Jewish studio founders who helped cement the Los Angeles area as the world capital. of entertainment. It will be the museum's first permanent exhibition.
“We want people to get a richer understanding of how this city is so intertwined with this industry and also a deeper understanding of why this is specifically a Jewish immigrant story,” said Dara Jaffe, associate curator at the Academy Museum. , who headed the exhibition.
The immersive exhibition traces the development of major Hollywood studios and the golden age of cinema in the early 20th century through the perspective of Jewish immigrants who were at the heart of the establishment of the industry.
Since its inauguration in 2021, the Academy Museum has been hounded by criticism for barely highlighting or recognizing the predominantly Jewish group of filmmakers who developed the industry. The Eastern European Jewish immigrants who laid the foundation for Hollywood and their first-generation American Jewish children did not appear in the museum's ambitious exhibitions that emphasized and celebrated the work of groups often marginalized in Hollywood.
Jaffe said the museum had always planned to eventually include the stories of the Jewish founders in its exhibits, but he also understands criticism of the lack of representation at the time of the museum's opening. He said he welcomed feedback as he curated the exhibit to ensure it was something that filmmakers and Jewish communities felt accurately represented history.
“We think it's central to who we are as a film museum, to represent this industry, and it's central to who we are as a film museum in Los Angeles,” Jaffe said. “For us it is important that every visitor who comes can learn about this story of the founding of Hollywood and the directors of the Jewish studios.”
The exhibition weaves the stories of a developing Los Angeles and film industry with the lives of Jewish immigrants and the first generation of American Jews who founded and built Hollywood as we know it.
(Joshua White / JWPictures / Academy Museum)
With the exhibition opening in the midst of American Jewish Heritage Month and during a time of growing antisemitismJaffe said he wants visitors to leave the exhibition with a deeper understanding of the relationship between the Jewish people and film, and to understand that the history of that relationship is not “fodder for further anti-Semitism.”
“There have been so many times in the last two years where I wished this exhibit was already open so I could point to it and say, 'Please come learn more,'” Jaffe said. “It's a relief that it's finally open.”
Author and film critic Neal Gabler, who wrote 1988's “An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood,” served as an advisor to the exhibit and will speak at the opening night event. In the widely cited book, Gabler wrote that Jews often faced barriers to entry in other industries, and entertainment was a field in which they saw an opportunity to develop their own business.
Gabler wrote in his introduction that Jews created “their idealized America on screen”—with strong families led by courageous parents, ardent patriotism, and resilience—and in doing so, American values became defined by their work.
Two sections of the three distinct parts of the exhibition highlight these Jewish founders and their respective studios (Universal, Fox (later 20th Century-Fox), Paramount, United Artists and Warner Bros., to name a few) and how they constructed the idea of the American dream.
The “Studio Origins” section features multimedia screens detailing the founding of each of the “majors,” as they were often called, and delves into the stories of their respective founders. It also explores how the studio system operated from the late 1920s to the late 1940s, when the eight major studios dominated production and often signed long-term contracts with actors and filmmakers.
The exhibition includes a short documentary about the lives of the studio's founders and their experiences of immigration and anti-Semitism.
(Joshua White / JWPictures / Academy Museum)
An original short documentary titled “From Shtetl to the Studio: The Jewish History of Hollywood,” focuses on the immigration stories of the founders and the challenges they faced while building Hollywood. It details how experiencing anti-Semitism and oppression affected their careers. Ben Mankiewicz, host of Turner Classic Movies and grandson of “Citizen Kane” co-writer Herman J. Mankiewicz, narrates the documentary, which features archival footage and video clips.
The exhibit also includes an animated table and projections to illustrate how Los Angeles evolved alongside the growing film industry. The immersive screen maps the city from 1902, when the first dedicated movie theater was built in Los Angeles, to 1929, the year of the first Academy Awards. Jaffe said he wanted to make sure the exhibit “organically balanced” the stories of the founders and the city.
“Hollywood is both a place and an idea. There is the geographic city of Los Angeles and Hollywood as a mythological symbol,” Jaffe said. “There was film in Los Angeles before the Jewish founders established the studio system, but it was really the studio system that transformed Los Angeles into the idea of the mythological symbol of Hollywood.”
