WaPo: How Nixon Subverted Hollywood Into Supporting the GOP. (Wait—What?)
03/02/2018
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From the Washington Post:

Hollywood has always been political. And it hasn’t always been liberal.

By Kathryn Cramer Brownell March 2 at 3:15 PM

Kathryn Cramer Brownell, an editor at Made by History, is assistant professor of history at Purdue University and author of “Showbiz Politics: Hollywood in American Political Life.”

Like other awards shows this year, the Academy Awards on Sunday night will undoubtedly be a political event. And conservatives will scold entertainers for it. …

But historically, conservatives have benefited just as much as liberals, if not more, in deploying the platforms and practices of the entertainment industry for political gain. …

In the past, Hollywood figures could get away with more diversity of opinion. Considering the 1939 movie “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” The star (Jimmy Stewart), director (Frank Capra), and mogul (Harry Cohn) were all Republicans, while the screenwriter (Sidney Buchman) was a Stalinist.

But by the 1960s or so, Hollywood had settled into its current political monoculture.

But it was Richard Nixon who cemented the Republican-Hollywood connection.
Oh boy …
Nixon recognized that voters were also fans and that performances — like the one at which Sammy Davis Jr. famously (or infamously, depending on your perspective) hugged him — were a way to reach young voters in particular.

Who can forget Sammy’s reminder to vote for Nixon from the stage during his epochal set at Woodstock?

[Comment at Unz.com]

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