"A Particularly Effective Argument": Land of Liberty (1939) and the Hollywood Image (Crisis)

Abstract

Henry James, American author who lived in an English village, was criticized for ignoring... the most important event of his lifetime - rise of United States of No such broad accusation, of course, can be leveled against our industry[.] Cecil B. DeMille1 Industry has redeemed itself. Review of Land of Liberty (Richmond News Leader)2 On July 15, 1938, an important announcement circulated offices of Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association (MPPDA). It declared that 'Cavalcade of America/ a film panorama of highlights of American history will be prepared by [MPPDA] and will be presented at World's Fair of 1939. 3 Cavalcade, collective effort of American motion picture would tell formative history of United States through assemblage of over 120 Hollywood-produced films.4 venerated authorial hand of Cecil B. DeMiIIe would edit project, while Columbia University history professor James T. Shotwell, self-defined first scholar to recognize power and [pedagogical value] of movies,5 was hired as historical consultant. On June 14, 1939, Cavalcade, whose title had by then been changed to Land of Liberty, premiered in Federal Building of World's Fair for a select audience of invited guests.6 next day, two-and-a-half hour long compilation film was screened twice daily for Fair's general public.7 In 1941, film was re-released theatrically for an America on brink of war.8 Justly regarded as a banner year for American cinema, 1939 witnessed releases of Gone with Wind, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Wizard of Oz, Ninotchka, and Women.9 That year's slate of remarkable productions, however, has diverted critical attention from commotion and trepidation that characterized Hollywood's corporate climate at end of 1930s. American film at time, was in a delicate state both at home and abroad. As Thomas Schatz has pointed out, the domestic market was. ..mired in a late-Depression recovery mode, while, at same time, war in Europe nearly blighted Hollywood's market overseas.10 Hollywood was also experiencing growing legal pressure towards its monopolistic business practices. National Recovery Agency's (NRA) 1939 Report for Code of Fair Competition instigated legal scrutiny of studio policy. That report framed acquisitive capitalism of Hollywood as anathema to cooperative spirit of New Deal America. The film industry functioned within a regime of competition that is symptomatic of natural monopolistic tendency of industry, NRA concluded.11 NRA's verdict precipitated fateful Antitrust Motion Picture Cases, which only intensified ideological tension between Hollywood studios and New Deal ethos. Giuliana Muscio has observed how the scrutiny of studio system... [was a testing ground] on which New Deal measured its economic theories and interpretations, carried out through a series of investigations, committee hearings, and trials culminating in Paramount case.12 growing awareness of Hollywood's cutthroat business strategies compelled industry to transform its public image. This essay demonstrates how Hollywood adopted cooperative rhetoric of New Deal state in order to deflect negative publicity that accompanied mounting legal accusations of unfair competition. Ultimately, Land of Liberty - a film that is nearly forgotten today - came to symbolize populist self-fashioning of Depression-era Hollywood. philosophical ideals of World's Fair - a hybrid of FDR-inspired good will and progressive technological utopianism - shaped formal design and thematic structure of Land of Liberty. Franklin Delano Roosevelt kicked off both Fair and film.13 On opening day, president welcomed eager patrons as they entered Flushing Meadows fairgrounds of Queens, New York. …