These days , Hollywood has a reputation for being politically broad . But you ’d be surprised how many conservatives there are in Hollywood . Or , perchance you would n’t , if you remember that Hollywood is just like any other major industry in the US . But what about the secluded Republicans of the 1950s ?
you may belike name a few Hollywood conservatives of midcentury like John Wayne , Jimmy Stewart or Gary Cooper . But I recently fare across an interesting document that shows who in Hollywood give money to the presidential safari of Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon in 1952 . And a few might storm you .
This preceding summer I run low to the Warner Bros. archive at the University of Southern - California to do some research on my long full term project examining all the movies that the US President of the United States havewatched while in post . When I was there , I add up across some captivating document in a file from studio apartment head Jack Warner . Warner was a Republican and helped engineer all kinds of fundraising events in Hollywood for Conservative causes . One of the papers in particular caught my eye .
Dated November 29 , 1952 , the papers is a simple tally of who in Hollywood give money to a group called the Entertainment Industry Joint Committee For Eisenhower - Nixon . Since it was after the election ( which Eisenhower win , of class ) this was plausibly a document but kept for tax use .
A very abbreviated leaning of contributor , compiled from the 200 or so on the full list , come out below . For a fleck of reference , $ 1,000 in 1952 roughly translate to $ 9,100 today when conform for inflation .
Even if you somehow knew that every unmarried somebody on this list was a Republican ( and I for sure did n’t ) , it ’s still interesting to see the difference in how much hoi polloi yield . Samuel Goldwyn , for instance , was a big spender who donated $ 5,000 . Noted buttoned-down Bob Hope was a bit more meager . He donate just $ 20 to help oneself Ike get elected .
Do you distinguish any contributor that you did n’t know were Republicans ? Does anything else surprise you from this list ?
Earl C. Anthony , donate $ 1,000 — President of the National Association of Broadcasters
Fred Astaire , donate $ 500 — actor have intercourse for musicals like Top Hat ( 1935 )
Gene Autry , donate $ 500 — radio , motion-picture show , and TV star live as the “ Singing Cowboy ”
Irwin Allen , donated $ 20 — Director and producer who create films like The Poseidon Adventure as well as TV shows like fall back in Space and Land of the Giants
Charles Brackett , donated $ 2,500 — manufacturer and author who produced and co - wrote films like Sunset Boulevard ( 1950 ) with Billy Wilder
Harry Brand , donated $ 1,000 — 20th Century Fox press agent , accredit with helping create the part of stars like Shirley Temple and Marilyn Monroe
Harry Cohn , donate $ 1,000 — President of Columbia Pictures
Gary Cooper , donate $ 500 — thespian well screw for films like High Noon ( 1952 ) and Sergeant York ( 1942 )
Bing Crosby , donate $ 500 — singer and worker
Frank Capra , donate $ 100 — manager of films like Mr. Smith become to Washington ( 1939 ) and It ’s A terrific Life ( 1946 )
Cecil B. DeMille , donated $ 500 — manager of films like Cleopatra ( 1934 ) and The Ten Commandments ( 1956 )
John Ford , donated $ 250 — director known for Westerns like The Searchers ( 1956 ) with John Wayne and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance ( 1962 ) with Jimmy Stewart .
Samuel Goldwyn , donate $ 5,000 — producer and film executive
Bob Hope , donated $ 20 — comic and actor who would became famous to some generations simply for his hot USO shows nurse American troops abroad
Edith Head , donated $ 10 — costume designer of the 1940s and L who worked on everything from treble Indemnity ( 1944 ) to Roman Holiday ( 1954 ) . She was also renowned for her work with Alfred Hitchcock .
Jerry Lewis , donated $ 20 — comic who catch his scratch line on receiving set and TV with Dean Martin
Louis B. Mayer , donate $ 3,000 — cofounder of the MGM movie studio apartment
Leo McCarey , donate $ 1,000 — director and author , famous for his funniness like Duck Soup ( 1933 ) and The Awful Truth ( 1937 )
Milton Rackmil , donated $ 1,000 — president of Universal Pictures
Joseph M. Schenck , donated $ 2,000 — a founder of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and chair of 20th Century Fox
Jack Warner , donate $ 5,000 — studio apartment administrator , founder of Warner Bros.
Ann Warner , donate $ 5,000 — married woman of studio administrator Jack Warner
Lew Wasserman , donate $ 1,500 — talent agentive role and studio apartment executive director
John Wayne , donated $ 1,000 — actor best do it for his Westerns and warfare movies like The Searchers ( 1956 ) , The Longest Day ( 1962 ) , and True Grit ( 1969 )
Hal Wallis , donate $ 700 — producer for Warner Bros. , best known for movies like Casablanca ( 1942 ) , The Fountainhead ( 1949 ) , Gunfight at the O.K. Corral ( 1957 ) , and True Grit ( 1969 )
Clifton Webb , donated $ 500 — actor best sleep together for office in Laura ( 1944 ) and The Razor ’s Edge ( 1946 )
Herbert Yates , donated $ 2,500 — founder of Republic Pictures
Virginia Fox Zanuck , donated $ 2,500 — silent film actress of the 1920s who conjoin studio administrator Darryl F. Zanuck
Eugene Zukor , donate $ 70 — studio executive and Word of Paramount father Adolph Zukor
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