Celluloid Soldiers: The Warner Bros. Campaign Against Nazism

by Michael E. Birdwell

Overview

During the 1930s many Americans avoided thinking about war erupting in Europe, believing it of little relevance to their own lives. Yet, the Warner Bros. film studio embarked on a virtual crusade to alert Americans to the growing menace of Nazism.
Polish-Jewish immigrants Harry and Jack Warner risked both reputation and fortune to inform the American public of the insidious threat Hitler's regime posed throughout the world. Through a score of films produced during the 1930s and early 1940s-including the pivotal Sergeant York-the Warner Bros. studio marshaled its forces to influence the American conscience and push toward intervention in World War II.
Celluloid Soldiers offers a compelling historical look at Warner Bros.'s efforts as the only major studio to promote anti-Nazi activity before the outbreak of the Second World War.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814713389
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	05/01/1999
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 9.21(d)

About the Author

Michael E. Birdwell is an Assistant Professor in History at Tennessee Tech and Curator of Alvin C. York's Papers. His work has been published in Film History, Literature/Film Quarterly, The Columbia Companion to Film, and several other journals.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	ix
	Time Line	xi
	Introduction	1
1	Warner Bros. and the Opening Salvos against Nazism, 1934-1939	5
2	Black Legion: Fascism in the Heartland	35
3	The Road to Confessions of a Nazi Spy and Beyond	57
4	A Change of Heart: Alvin York and the Movie Sergeant York	87
5	Using the Devil's Tool to Do God's Work: Sergeant York, America First, and the Intervention Debate	131
6	Hollywood under the Gun: The Senate Investigation of Propaganda in Motion Pictures	154
7	"This Isn't What We Had in Mind"	172
	Postscript	177
	Notes	179
	Bibliography	225
	Index	259
	About the Author	266

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

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"Birdwell fruitfully charts the film company's laudable and outspoken stance against Nazism amid the politically charged yet divided loyalties of 1930s' Hollywood."

-History (The Journal of the Historical Association),Oct. 2001

"Celluloid Soldiers contributes significantly to our understanding of how Warner Bros. crusaded against fascism from the middle 1930s to Pearl Harbor. Drawing on extensive archival research, Birdwell provides particularly lively discussions of Alvin York's conversion to interventionism during the making of Sergeant York and of the 1941 Nye-Clark Committee investigations of 'premature anti-fascism' in Hollywood."

-Charles Maland,University of Tennessee

"This study of the Warner Bros. Studio in relation to the coming of World War II will be a lasting contribution, not only on the impact of media on our nation's policies—a topic of concern for most thoughtful people—but also for academics in popular culture studies."

-Peter Rollins,Editor-in-Chief, Film & History:An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies

Editorial Reviews

"A compact, compelling, and controversial as a Warner Bros. classic. . . . A strongly executed tour de force."

Journal of American History

"Contributes significantly to our understanding of how Warner Bros. crusaded against fascism from the middle 1930s to Pearl Harbor. Drawing on extensive archival research, Birdwell provides particularly lively discussions of Alvin York's conversion to interventionism during the making of Sergeant York and of the 1941 Nye-Clark Committee investigations of 'premature anti-fascism' in Hollywood."

Charles Maland

"Birdwell fruitfully charts the film company's laudable and outspoken stance against Nazism amid the politically charged yet divided loyalties of 1930s' Hollywood."

Oct. 2001 History (The Journal of the Historical Association)

"This study of the Warner Bros. Studio in relation to the coming of World War II will be a lasting contribution, not only on the impact of media on our nation's policiesa topic of concern for most thoughtful peoplebut also for academics in popular culture studies."

Peter Rollins

”Celluloid Soldiers contributes significantly to our understanding of how Warner Bros. crusaded against fascism from the middle 1930s to Pearl Harbor. Drawing on extensive archival research, Birdwell provides particularly lively discussions of Alvin York's conversion to interventionism during the making of Sergeant York and of the 1941 Nye-Clark Committee investigations of ‘premature anti-fascism' in Hollywood."

-Charles Maland,University of Tennessee

"A compact, compelling, and controversial as a Warner Bros. classic. . . . A strongly executed tour de force."

-Journal of American History

"Birdwell fruitfully charts the film company's laudable and outspoken stance against Nazism amid the politically charged yet divided loyalties of 1930s' Hollywood."

-History (The Journal of the Historical Association),Oct. 2001

"This study of the Warner Bros. Studio in relation to the coming of World War II will be a lasting contribution, not only on the impact of media on our nation's policies—a topic of concern for most thoughtful people—but also for academics in popular culture studies."

-Peter Rollins,Editor-in-Chief, Film & History:An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies

"Contributes significantly to our understanding of how Warner Bros. crusaded against fascism from the middle 1930s to Pearl Harbor. Drawing on extensive archival research, Birdwell provides particularly lively discussions of Alvin York's conversion to interventionism during the making of Sergeant York and of the 1941 Nye-Clark Committee investigations of 'premature anti-fascism' in Hollywood."

-Charles Maland,University of Tennessee

From the Publisher

Birdwell fruitfully charts the film company's laudable and outspoken stance against Nazism amid the politically charged yet divided loyalties of 1930s' Hollywood.

Journal of the Historical Association