Academy Museum Vows "Hollywoodland" Rewrite

Installation view, "Hollywoodland: Jewish Founders and the Making of a Movie Capital"

The New York Times is reporting that the Academy Museum will revise its "Hollywoodland" exhibition on the film industry's Jewish founders, which opened only weeks ago. An open letter from an ad hoc group called United Jewish Writers calls the display antisemitic for using words like "tyrant," "oppressive," and "womanizer" in describing early studio heads. The letter says "Hollywoodland" is "the only section of the museum that vilifies those it purports to celebrate." The museum plans to create "an advisory group of experts from leading museums focused on the Jewish community" and rewrite the text panels. 

As I wrote previously, I thought the show struck just about the right balance. Yes, it takes a warts-and-all view of its subjects, but that's how serious biography and history work. Were a museum to do an exhibition on Harvey Weinstein, would it have to exclude anything that might detract from a celebration of Miramax films?

"Antisemitism" is a powerful word. Inevitably, most of those hearing that charge have not seen the exhibition. It is easy for those who haven't seen "Hollywoodland" to conclude it must be a hatchet job. Here then are some "Hollywoodland" text panels I happened to record on my visit. I leave it to you to decide how appropriate the wording is.

"Oppressive" is one of the words criticized in United Jewish Writers' letter. 

How would feel about your boss, if he had an office based on Mussolini's? Critics fault this text panel for calling Cohn a "tyrant and predator." 

It's been charged that "Hollywoodland" blames the Jewish studio heads for stereotypical depictions of minorities that were already common in American entertainment. This panel acknowledges such depictions without laying blame on anyone.

The exhibition's film promises "a complex immigrant story of facing oppression with ingenuity," and it delivers just that.

Trigger warning for From the Shtetl to the Studio