The Big Tomorrow: Hollywood and the Politics of the American Way

In mapping out his bold vision of how Hollywood movies of the 1930s, particularly comedies and musicals, were not mindless escapes from the Depression, but promoted egalitarian visions of democracy, May presents a startling, revisionist history of Hollywood's impact on politics and American culture. A professor of American studies at the University of Minnesota, he explores such questions as whether FDR or Will Rogers was a more influential proponent of the New Deal; how Stepin Fetchit, whose very name has become synonymous with Hollywood racism, helped the status of blacks in the motion picture industry; and how Bob Hope and Bing Crosby's road movies helped move U.S. culture from the progressive ideals of the 1930s to the consumer culture of the 1950s. Prodigiously researched, his study is filled with revealing details--how Rita Hayworth was made literally whiter as she progressed from being a character actor to a star; how Warner Oland's portrayal of Charlie Chan resisted preexisting stereotypes of Asians in Hollywood films; how silent films promoted an idea of an all-white America; and how the introduction of sound allowed the immigrant experience to be more fully represented. May's perceptive readings of a wide range of materials--film scripts, union documents, newspaper reports, movie palace floor plans and war reportage--make for a convincing and important addition to American cultural criticism. (June)