The Power and the Glitter

This probing, sobering history of the Hollywood-Washington connection begins with the film moguls of the '20s, almost all immigrant Jews, typified by Louis B. Mayer, whose friendship with Herbert Hoover gave Mayer proof that he had ``arrived.'' During the FDR days, although the studio bosses, mostly Republican, were not partisans of the administration, individual stars championed the president. Some film folk became so politically active that they joined the Popular Front or Communist Party, but the repercussions of the McCarthy '50s cooled political enthusiasm in Hollywood--until JFK's presidency. And in our TV era with more politicians journeying to Hollywood for campaign funds and endorsements, movie stars have become ``an ineradicable part of the political world.'' This analysis by the political correspondent of the Los Angeles Times documents that ``Seventy years of interaction have demonstrated that an enormous assortment of psychological, ideological and even business considerations bring together the capitals of glamour and power.'' (Jan.)