Hollywood History
Hollywood’s First Amendment Crusaders Are Back
This Trumpian moment recalls the industry's infamous blacklist era. Fittingly, Jane Fonda has resurrected the Committee for the First Amendment.
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Threats, Anxiety and Power Struggles: How Hollywood Tangles With the FCC
Broadcast protocols established nearly a century ago might seem to be a classic instance of technological-cultural lag — but they can also be weaponized by the feds.
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The Bid to Oust Performers Like Jimmy Kimmel Has Been in the Works for Four Decades
Don't be tricked by the Trumpian moment  — what's happening now is just the latest move in a very long and ongoing right-wing game.
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The Ed Sullivan Theater After Colbert: Last Days of a Late Night Icon
With 'The Late Show' leaving and no new occupant announced, the future of Broadway's most storied talk show stage is suddenly up in the air.
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When Fox Made the Wrong Bets — and Wound Up In a Hostile Takeover
A Hollywood M&A lesson from 100 years ago, when William J. Fox stumbled and ended up merging with 20th Century.
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Where Doubles Dare: The 100-Year Road to Recognition for Hollywood Stunt Performers
The best stunt design category at the Academy Awards in 2028 has been a long time coming for a role that had been little acknowledged and filled with occupational hazards.
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The Best Stunts of All Time, Over Nearly 100 Years of the Oscars
A year-by-year "what if" filling in a century-long gap of Academy Awards recognition for noteworthy stunt artistry and design in Hollywood movies.
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The Twilight of Movie Tycoons On Screen
Once described as a hard sell at the box office, Hollywood slowly warmed to 'The Studio'-esque insider stories. Yet the boss has remained an elusive, mainly tangential character.
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Blockbusters to Bust: A Cautionary Tale for Swaggering Hollywood Indie Studios
Carolco Pictures paved the way for unapologetically big movies that defined the '80s and early '90s — even as its excesses led to bankruptcy.
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The Rise and Fall of Technicolor in Hollywood’s Golden Age
The exquisitely exacting and expensive process (three to four times more costly than reliable black and white) was a major gamble — and win — for the nascent entertainment industry. Then came the copy cats.
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Folk, Pop and Agit-Prop: Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger After ‘A Complete Unknown’
Seeger was shaped by the 1930s, Baez by the 1960s, and both, like Dylan, had a moment of decision that defined their allegiances. Â Â
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The Blacklisting of a Great Artist: Paul Robeson’s Exile From Hollywood
A preeminent artist-activist of the mid-twentieth century, his banishment by the studios lasted longer than any other performer of the blacklist era — twenty-five years, ending only with his death.Â
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