America Dream in An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews invented Hollywood by Neal Gabler - Book Report/Review Example

Book Review The book d “An empire of their own: How the Jews invented Hollywood” by Neal Gabler is a non fictional book that essentially recounts the lives and Hollywood careers of several prominent Jewish producers. The main thesis of the book is that the American dream is only a Jewish invention that was conjured up to address the insecurities and feelings of alienation that the Jewish immigrants felt in America. The author points it out as a paradox, wherein “the quintessence of what we mean by ‘America’ was founded and for more than thirty years operated by Eastern European Jews who themselves seemed to be anything but the quintessence of America.” (Gabler, 1). IThe book is a study of how the Jews came to dominate Hollywood and this made them the target of anti-Semitism. The author of this book highlights one significant irony associated with Hollywood in its early, glory days. During this period, the film industry was producing and promoting films that were replete with so-called American values; yet the same films were not produced by Americans themselves but by Jewish immigrants. The American dream as promoted in the films could thus be seen to be a set of values and achievements worth attaining; however these values and achievements were in effect, the Jewish idea of what constituted happiness and success rather than actually being the actual values the native American people may have espoused. The author has cited the views of the screenwriter Hy Kraft, who stated: They (the Jews of Hollywood) not only believed in the American dream, rather than see it fail, they tried desperately and successfully to manufacture the evidence for its survival.....and for its existence.” (Gabler, 1). The underlying theme of this book is that the east European Jewish immigrants who became prominent Hollywood producers were actually from fatherless, poor backgrounds and suffered from feelings of alienation in a strange country. Hollywood offered them a means to assimilate into the melting pot of American culture by using the medium of film to promote their version of the American dream. The book describes how the Jews moves very quickly from owning a few nickelodeons to a position where they gained a monopoly over production, distribution and exhibition of films, thereby gaining an almost total control over the kind of content that was shown in the films. The secret of their success lay in their ability to accurately gauge what kind of films would be lucrative in terms of enjoying public approbation. The author is able to highlight his thesis, not only by showing that the very essence of what was touted as “American” values were created by those who were not American, but also by showing that for more than thirty years, the well known studio system in Hollywood which controlled artists and production was supervised by the second generation of Jews, descended from Jewish immigrants. Most of the writers of Hollywood film scripts were Jews; the most powerful talent agencies were run by Jews and most of the legal business of the film industry was carried out by Jewish lawyers. As a result, Jewish control of the film industry was all encompassing. The author then focuses upon the tragedy that ensued as a result of the high levels of control by Jews of the film industry. Since they dominated the industry, they became the target of evangelicals who accused them of pushing their own unwelcome values upon the American people. The author thus underlines the irony underlying his thesis that the very dominance of the Jews in their fierce desire to assimilate into America itself made them the target of anti-Semitism. Hollywood was in truth, the medium wherein Jewish immigrants were trying desperately to assimilate into the American mainstream. The kind of films they made and the values they tried to propagate through those films as being “American” values were a statement of how much they wanted to blend into America. They were conscious of their differences from mainstream Americans and experienced feelings of alienation, hence they made the kind of films which they hoped would identify them as members of the mainstream America. What happened on the contrary was that they were accused of undermining the basic structure of what was American; they were accused of using their status as outsiders to the American moral structure to undermine the values and beliefs that were traditionally American. The tragedy was that while they were being accused of undermining American values, they were in fact desperately trying to assimilate those values and integrate themselves into the American power structure. The author states “Above all things, they wanted to be regarded as Americans, not Jews, they wanted to reinvent themselves here as new men.” (Gabler 9). The net result however, was that their dominance led them to become the targets of anti Semitism. The author has illuminated his thesis brilliantly; with the aid of quotes from insiders and experts, he assesses the status of Jews, their dominance of Hollywood and the manner in which they used this dominance in an effort to invent a new identity for themselves which allowed them to blend into the mainstream and counteract their feelings of alienation as Eastern European immigrants. He points out how the first generation of Jewish immigrants who were the founders of the Hollywood industry, came from backgrounds that were remarkably similar, with almost identical childhood experiences. The single overwhelming feature that united all of them was their united determination to reject everything that their backgrounds stood for – the poverty, the hardship and the restrictions of society, especially because the founders of all the major studios had been victimized in their home countries. The major focus of the author is the background and lives of the top ranking Hollywood Jews – the ones who were the founders of the major studios. But in highlighting the similarity of the destitution in their backgrounds and their determination to escape from it completely, Gabler sheds light on the combined motivation that impelled these men to create an entirely new and different set of values that they characterized as American. Their effort to mingle into the American mainstream through this dominance is well explicated by the author. The tragedy in their becoming victims of anti Semitism is also well described and the author successfully highlights the inherent irony in the most fervent proponents of American values being condemned as those who perverted and distorted them. The strong desire of the Jews to distance themselves from their Jewish backgrounds through their dominance of Hollywood only produces a net result wherein they are further pushed into those hated identities. Their attempts to fashion a new identity for themselves through Hollywood cinema which was as distant as possible from their true identity produced instead the result that their older identity become established even more forcefully, to the extent that it made them the targets of anti-Semitism and racism. The reasons why Hollywood films and the values they espoused was condemned was because “Jews” had produced them. The hated “Jewish” identity was the very reason for the later condemnation of the Jewish monopoly of Hollywood. The effort of the Jews to distance themselves from their identity only served to reinforce their identity and established them as outsiders into America, which subsequently became the reason for their persecution and the rejection of the values espoused by Hollywood, which was the efforts of the Jews to escape their sad backgrounds and create new persona for themselves. The author has thus highlighted this paradox and its inherent irony very well. References: Gabler, Neal, 1989. “An empire of their own: How the Jews invented Hollywood”, Anchor. Read More