Hollywood in Crisis: Cinema and American Society, 1929-1939

The Stock Market Crash of October 1929 threw American society into complete turmoil. As millions of Americans became unemployed and the standard of living plummeted, a turn onto the road to recovery required a concerted effort of government and private industry resources. Hollywood in Crisis is a detailed study of the American film industry in the 1930s. Specifically, Colin Schindler looks at Hollywood as an agent of Roosevelts New Deal. From escapist musicals to gangster movies and Westerns, even to the radical films of the Warner studios, Schindler illustrates how the studios helped foster feelings of unity and patriotism. Drawing from studio archives and interviews with such prominent figures as Henry Fonda, Frank Capra, and even the leader of the Hollywood Communist Party John Howard Lawson, Schindlers study redefines the way in which this segment of Hollywoods Golden years will be viewed.