As World War II wound down in 1945 and the cold war heated up, the skilled trades that made up the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU) began a tumultuous strike at the major Hollywood studies. This turmoil escalated further when the studios retaliated by locking out CSU in 1946. This labour unrest unleashed a fury of Red-baiting that allowed studio moguls to crush the union and seize control of the production process, with far-reaching consequences. This engrossing book probes the motives and actions of all the players to reveal the full story of the CSU strike and the resulting lockout of 1946. The author draws extensively on primary materials and oral histories to document how limited a "threat" the Communist party actually posed in Hollywood, even as studio moguls successfully used the Red scare to undermine union clout, prevent film stars from supporting labour, and prove the moguls' own patriotism. The author also discloses that, unnoticed amid the turmoil, organised crime entrenched itself in management and labour, gaining considerable control over both the "product" and the profits of Hollywood. This research demonstrates that the CSU strike and lockout were a pivotal moment in Hollywood history, with consequences for everything from production values, to the kinds of stories told in films, to permanent shifts in the centres of power.
Gerald Horne is the author of Fire This Time: The Watts Uprising and the 1960s. He is a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Preface Acknowledgments Part 1 Introduction Part 2 Chapter 1: Class versus Class Chapter 2: Reds Part 3 Chapter 3: Mobsters and Stars Chapter 4: Moguls Part 4 Chapter 5: Strike Chapter 6: Lockout Epilogue Notes Index
Examines the impact of organised crime on the film industry
This book is destined to be a bombshell in the field and perhaps far beyond the field. Paul Buhle, coauthor of Tender Comrades: A Backstory of the Hollywood Blacklist - "As Hollywood approaches deadline time on the strike front, a book has been published about the extraordinary history of the film world and the often incestuous relationship between studios, unions, and mobsters. It spotlights bloody union battles of the past, when pickets set cars on fire and 'reds' were seen under every studio bed. The strikes in the film industry of the 1940s had a resonance that echoes today. 'At stake was nothing less than control over an industry that was essential in forging people's consciousness,' writes Gerald Horne in Class Struggle in Hollywood 1930-1950."--The Observer 29 April 2001
