Misplaced Pages

#419580

60-564: In 1936, the CPUSA allegedly ordered Otto Katz to raise funds and to found the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League (HANL). To kick off his work, Katz held a hundred-dollar-a-plate fundraising dinner, which was attended by, among others, Irving Thalberg , Jack L. Warner , David O. Selznick , and Samuel Goldwyn . John Joseph Cantwell , Archbishop of Los Angeles, was on hand to bless the proceedings. Actress and artist Gloria Stuart

120-524: A German , Otilie Schulhof. The family moved to Prague where the family business continued to thrive and then moved to, the industrial centre, Pilsen . After classical studies in Prague , where Otto revealed a gift for languages (he fluently spoke five: German , Czech , English , French and Russian ), he joined the prestigious Imperial Export Academy , which prepared young men for top jobs in international trade, in 1913 where he became fascinated with

180-564: A hot-summer Mediterranean climate ( Köppen : Csa ) or dry-summer subtropical climate . Winters are typically mild and with light rain, but there are still plenty of warm, sunny days in the winter, as well. Summers are hot, sunny and dry, with virtually no rain falling between April and October; while summer days can be warm, they are considerably cooler than in the San Fernando Valley . Spring and fall are generally warm, sunny, and pleasant. Santa Ana winds typically occur during

240-593: A campaign for the area to secede from Los Angeles and become a separate municipality. In June of that year, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors placed secession referendums for both Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley on the ballot. To pass, they required the approval of a majority of voters in the proposed new municipality as well as a majority of voters in all of Los Angeles. In the November election, both measures failed by wide margins in

300-478: A novel of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque , in order to "'glorify' Hitler". The HANL was one of the first groups targeted by HUAC when it was taken over by Conservative Democratic Congressman Martin Dies , who said that the group was "under the control of the communists". In summer 1940, Los Angeles County District Attorney Buron Fitts convened a grand jury to investigate "a Communist objective to overthrow

360-857: A speech, as did Eddie Cantor who, perhaps having had let his passion get the better of him, claimed that Nazi agents had tried to prevent his attendance. Dorothy Parker spoke as well. The HANL published a weekly newspaper, the Hollywood Anti-Nazi News , beginning in October 1936 and another journal, Hollywood Now . By 1937, the League was running two radio programs on Los Angeles station KFWB , mostly scripted by Donald Stewart and Herbert Biberman. It had local sections in Silver Lake , Hollywood , Beverly Hills , and other neighborhoods around Los Angeles County. Among these other activities,

420-885: A successful manufacturer , the father of the young Otto, was part of the thriving Jewish community in Jistebnice . Leopold Katz, an uncle of Otto's, was a historian and lawyer famous for having discovered the Jistebnice Hymnal , a collection of Hussite psalms calling for reform . "Leopold became a patron of the Czech Academy of Arts and Sciences and prominent leader of the Czech Jewish movement .". The mother of Otto, Františka Piskerová, died prematurely in 1900 after giving birth to three sons (Leopold, named after his uncle , in 1891, Robert in 1893 and Otto) and their father Edmund subsequently married

480-417: Is 112 °F (44 °C) on June 26, 1990, and the all-time record low temperature is 24 °F (−4 °C) on both December 8, 1978, and December 23, 1990. The 2000 U.S. census counted 77,818 residents in the 3.51-square-mile (9.1 km ) Hollywood neighborhood—an average of 22,193 people per square mile (8,569 people/km ), the seventh- densest neighborhood in all of Los Angeles County . In 2008

540-431: Is a neighborhood and district in the central region of Los Angeles County, California , mostly within the city of Los Angeles . Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Sony Pictures , Walt Disney Studios , Paramount Pictures , Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures , are located in or near Hollywood. Hollywood

600-794: Is part of the ongoing rebirth of Hollywood. The Art Deco-style studio complex, completed in 1938, was once the Hollywood headquarters for CBS . It became home to a new generation of broadcasters when cable television networks MTV , Comedy Central , BET and Spike TV consolidated their offices there in 2014 as part of a $ 420 million office, residential and retail complex. Since 2000, Hollywood has been increasingly gentrified due to revitalization by private enterprise and public planners. Over 1,200 hotel rooms have been added in Hollywood area between 2001 and 2016. Four thousand new apartments and over thirty low to mid-rise development projects were approved in 2019. In 2002, some Hollywood voters began

660-676: Is responsible for police services. The Hollywood police station is at 1358 N. Wilcox Avenue. Los Angeles Fire Department operates four fire stations, 27, 41, 52, and 82 in the area. The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services operates the Hollywood-Wilshire Health Center in Hollywood. The United States Postal Service operates the Hollywood Post Office , the Hollywood Pavilion Post Office, and

SECTION 10

#1732772800420

720-553: The Comintern to oppose Nazism. The HANL changed its name, first to the "Hollywood League for Democratic Action" and finally, in concert with a number of other formerly anti-Nazi front groups, to the American Peace Mobilization . Otto Katz Otto Katz (27 May 1895 – 3 December 1952), also known as André Simone amongst other aliases , was a Czech agent. He was one of the most influential agents of

780-532: The Prague authorities encouraged them to settle in Berlin in 1921. Despite the birth of a daughter Petra, the marriage was strained by the frenzy of the German capital in the 1920s. Through a meeting in 1924 with Babette Gross, the sister of Margarete Buber-Neumann , Otto Katz met Willi Münzenberg , Babette's husband. Münzenberg saw Otto Katz's potential and included within his group the young dandy eager to serve

840-625: The Redl case. He did not finish his studies and was sent by his father for military training. During World War I , he refused to become an officer because of socialist sympathies developed in Vienna. Mobilized, injured on Christmas night in 1914, he deserted twice and spent several months under fortress-arrest. Demobilized in January 1919, Otto was employed at Pössneck in Thuringia before joining

900-536: The vineyards , barley fields, and citrus groves. A single-track streetcar line ran down the middle of Prospect Avenue from it, but service was infrequent and the trip took two hours. The old citrus fruit-packing house was converted into a livery stable , improving transportation for the inhabitants of Hollywood. The Hollywood Hotel was opened in 1902 by Whitley, president of the Los Pacific Boulevard and Development Company. Having finally acquired

960-613: The "Meva", a metallurgical company in Prague. The young Otto's marked preference was for literature, theatre, pretty actresses and all the cultural life of Prague which was very active at that time. He frequented fashionable cafés such as the Arco and the Continental, where he rubbed shoulders with the young intelligentsia who spoke only of social or artistic revolution. Helped by a regularly paid allowance by his father, Otto frequented

1020-428: The 1920s, Hollywood was the fifth-largest industry in the nation. By the 1930s, Hollywood studios became fully vertically integrated , as production, distribution and exhibition was controlled by these companies, enabling Hollywood to produce 600 films per year. Hollywood became known as Tinseltown and the "dream factory" because of the glittering image of the movie industry. A large sign reading HOLLYWOODLAND

1080-458: The 53.8% of the residents who were born abroad, a figure that was considered high for the city as a whole. The median household income in 2008 was $ 33,694, considered low for Los Angeles. The average household size of 2.1 people was also lower than the city norm. Renters occupied 92.4% of the housing units, and home- or apartment owners the rest. The percentages of never-married men (55.1%), never-married women (39.8%) and widows (9.6%) were among

1140-461: The CPUSA. The League claimed a membership of 5000, although Leo Rosten thought that this figure was exaggerated. By 1937, the board of directors of the HANL included Jack Warner and Carl Laemmle , as well as the head of the Hollywood division of the CPUSA, John Howard Lawson . The famous members of the League, whose names appeared on its letterhead and in its publications, didn't have much to do with

1200-693: The Communist party by selling them on the idea that the party, being an international organization, was the only agency in position to effectually combat the influence of Hitlerism and afford protection to the Jews". After the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was signed in August 1939, guaranteeing neutrality between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, communist-backed organizations were no longer allowed by

1260-505: The Hurd ranch and subdivided it, Whitley built the hotel to attract land buyers. Flanking the west side of Highland Avenue , the structure fronted on Prospect Avenue (later Hollywood Boulevard ). Although it was still a dusty, unpaved road, it was regularly graded and graveled. The hotel became internationally known and was the center of the civic and social life and home of movie stars for many years. Whitley's company developed and sold one of

SECTION 20

#1732772800420

1320-533: The Italian dictator Benito Mussolini . Mussolini was visiting Los Angeles in order to study film-making. The morning of his arrival, September 25, 1937, the HANL ran ads in Hollywood trade papers but did not hold protests at the airport. Mussolini stayed with producer Hal Roach during his time in Hollywood. The League also protested Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl 's visit to Hollywood in November 1938. The HANL again took out ads in Hollywood trade papers calling on

1380-631: The Kodak Theatre at the Hollywood & Highland Center mall, is the site of the annual Academy Awards programs. The mall is located where the Hollywood Hotel once stood. After the neighborhood underwent years of serious decline in the 1980s, with crime, drugs and increasing poverty among some residents, many landmarks were threatened with demolition. Columbia Square , at the northwest corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street ,

1440-501: The L.A. sewer system. With annexation, the name of Prospect Avenue was changed to Hollywood Boulevard and all the street numbers in the new district changed. For example, 100 Prospect Avenue, at Vermont Avenue, became 6400 Hollywood Boulevard; and 100 Cahuenga Boulevard, at Hollywood Boulevard, changed to 1700 Cahuenga Boulevard. By 1912, major motion-picture companies had come West to set up production near or in Los Angeles. In

1500-566: The League sponsored a variety of dinners, lectures, and rallies. The HANL also organized boycotts of German products and picketed meetings of the Los Angeles chapter of the German American Bund .  Today–Benito Mussolini confers with Hitler in Berlin, Vittorio Mussolini arrives in Hollywood. He asked for–and received–the privilege of being the first fascist aviator to bomb helpless Ethiopians.  Any one has

1560-506: The Soviet Union under Stalin in Western intellectual and artistic circles during the 1930s and 1940s. He was hanged after he was convicted in the Slánský trial . Known for his many pseudonyms, his seductiveness, his cynicism and versatility, from Paris to Hollywood from Mexico City to London , he participated in all the major Comintern disinformation campaigns in the 1930s, under

1620-737: The Sunset Post Office. Hollywood is included within the Hollywood United Neighborhood Council (HUNC), Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council, and the Hollywood Studio District Neighborhood Council. Neighborhood Councils cast advisory votes on such issues as zoning, planning, and other community issues. The council members are voted in by stakeholders, generally defined as anyone living, working, owning property, or belonging to an organization within

1680-490: The actual operations, though, which were left in the hands of lesser-known CPUSA members.  An anti-Nazi league has established itself in Hollywood which was termed by Vittorio Mussolini returning home from his research trip a "center of political agitation against the Fascist Idea."  According to recent reports, for the time being they want to support needy émigrés before launching an all-out attack, increasing

1740-533: The avant-garde ( Franz Kafka , Max Brod , Franz Werfel ) and led a life of pleasure in 1922 while adhering to the German Communist Party . Thanks to his allowance, he published some poems privately. Rudolf Fuchs, a German Jewish writer, encouraged him to become a writer. He was also close to Egon Kisch with whom he shared communist political views. He met a leftist actress Sonya Bogsová, whom he married but their communist activities monitored by

1800-675: The capital of the film industry in the United States. The mountains, plains and low land prices made Hollywood a good place to establish film studios. Director D. W. Griffith was the first to make a motion picture in Hollywood. His 17-minute short film In Old California (1910) was filmed for the Biograph Company . Although Hollywood banned movie theaters—of which it had none—before annexation that year, Los Angeles had no such restriction. The first studio in Hollywood opened in early 1913, on Formosa Avenue down

1860-528: The cause of the Soviet Union. He was tried under the name André Simone in the Slánský trial , convicted and eventually hanged in the Ruzyně Prison at 3am on 3 December 1952. His body was cremated and his ashes were scattered beside a small road near Prague. [REDACTED] Media related to André Simone at Wikimedia Commons Hollywood, Los Angeles This is an accepted version of this page Hollywood , sometimes informally called Tinseltown ,

Hollywood Anti-Nazi League - Misplaced Pages Continue

1920-415: The city estimated that the population had increased to 85,489. The median age for residents was 31, about the city's average. Hollywood was said to be "highly diverse" when compared to the city at large. The ethnic breakdown in 2000 was 42.2% Latino or Hispanic , 41% Non-Hispanic White , 7.1% Asian , 5.2% Black , and 4.5% other. Mexico (21.3%) and Guatemala (13%) were the most common places of birth for

1980-533: The citywide vote. According to the Mapping L.A. project of The Los Angeles Times , Hollywood is flanked by Hollywood Hills to the north, Los Feliz to the northeast, East Hollywood or Virgil Village to the east, Larchmont and Hancock Park to the south, Fairfax to the southwest, West Hollywood to the west, and Hollywood Hills West to the northwest. Street limits of the Hollywood neighborhood are: north, Hollywood Boulevard from La Brea Avenue to

2040-512: The county's highest. There were 2,640 families headed by single parents, about average for Los Angeles. In 2000, there were 2,828 military veterans, or 4.5%, a low rate for the city as a whole. These were the ten neighborhoods or cities in Los Angeles County with the highest population densities, according to the 2000 census, with the population per square mile: In 2022, there were 1,374 homeless individuals in Hollywood. KNX

2100-493: The early 1900s, most motion picture camera and equipment patents were held by Thomas Edison 's Motion Picture Patents Company in New Jersey , which often sued filmmakers to stop their productions. To escape this, filmmakers began moving to Los Angeles, where attempts to enforce Edison's patents were easier to evade. Also, the weather was ideal for filmmaking and there was quick access to various settings. Los Angeles became

2160-597: The early 1950s, the State of California constructed the Hollywood Freeway through the northeast corner of Hollywood. The Capitol Records Building on Vine Street , just north of Hollywood Boulevard, was built in 1956. The Hollywood Walk of Fame was created in 1958 as a tribute to artists and other significant contributors to the entertainment industry. The official opening was on February 8, 1960. The Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District

2220-549: The early residential areas, the Ocean View Tract. Whitley did much to promote the area. He paid thousands of dollars to install electricity and arrange for electric lighting, and he built both a bank and a road into the Cahuenga Pass . The lighting ran for several blocks down Prospect Avenue. Whitley's land was centered on Highland Avenue . His 1918 development, Whitley Heights , was named for him. Hollywood

2280-522: The east boundary of Wattles Garden Park and Franklin Avenue between Bonita and Western avenues; east, Western Avenue ; south, Melrose Avenue , and west, La Brea Avenue or the West Hollywood city line . In 1918, H. J. Whitley commissioned architect A. S. Barnes to design Whitley Heights as a Mediterranean-style village on the hills above Hollywood Boulevard. It became

2340-527: The energy it spent interacting with the League trying to convince them to change their name to the "Hollywood Anti-Nazi Anti-Communist League". Although the HANL was a communist front organization, its membership spanned the entire political spectrum. Stewart, Herbert Biberman , Robert Rossen , Francis Edward Faragoh , and Ring Lardner, Jr. were party members. The HANL had both liberal (e.g. Philip Dunne and Jo Swerling ) and conservative (e.g. Herman J. Mankiewicz and Rupert Hughes ) members who were not in

2400-459: The fall and winter months, although they can occur during any month; Santa Ana winds bring heavy winds, higher temperatures and lower humidity levels, which increases the risk of wildfires , especially in dry years. Smog can sometimes occur during the summer months. May and June can be foggy and cloudy in Hollywood, a phenomenon known by southern California residents as "May Gray" or " June Gloom ". The all-time record high temperature in Hollywood

2460-549: The film agitation against Germany.  After all they have worked on a film in which Charlie Chaplin caricatures the Führer and hence wanted to ridicule him. From film journal Film-Kurier , January 30, 1939 The League inaugurated its founding with a huge party at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles in October 1936. In attendance were Irving Berlin , and Gale Sondergaard . Los Angeles mayor Frank Shaw gave

Hollywood Anti-Nazi League - Misplaced Pages Continue

2520-553: The first celebrity community. Other areas within Hollywood are Franklin Village , Little Armenia , Spaulding Square , Thai Town , and Yucca Corridor . In 1994, Hollywood, Alabama , and ten other towns named Hollywood successfully fought an attempt by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to trademark the name and force same-named communities to pay royalties to it. Like the rest of Los Angeles , Hollywood has

2580-456: The government and assassinate leading industrialists who refuse to 'play ball.'" A former CPUSA organizer testified to the grand jury that the party had set up the HANL in order to raise funds from wealthy members of the film industry. He testified that "because of Hitler's anti-Semitic program, the Communist party conceived the idea of playing on the fears of the Jewish people and getting them into

2640-543: The industry to "close its doors to all Nazi agents". The admonition was somewhat successful, and Riefenstahl issued a statement about the advertisement saying that she was surprised that the League had attacked her personally and that she was not an agent of the Nazi government. Riefenstahl, interviewed in France after her three-month trip to America, said that she had "received everywhere lustrous reception except Hollywood where she

2700-661: The last broadcasters (television or radio) with Hollywood addresses, but KCET has since sold its studios to the Church of Scientology on Sunset, and plans to move to another location. KNBC moved in 1962 from the former NBC Radio City Studios at the northeast corner of Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street to NBC Studios in Burbank. KTTV moved in 1996 from its former home at Metromedia Square on Sunset Boulevard to West Los Angeles, and KCOP left its home on La Brea Avenue to join KTTV at

2760-545: The leadership of Willi Münzenberg who he eventually usurped after spying on him for the NKVD , if the rumours were to be believed. He became an international spy unconditionally faithful to Stalin , and unlike some of the communist Jewish intellectuals who ran the Comintern at the time, he accepted the German-Soviet Pact and was entrusted with the implementation of secret policies by Stalin 's politburo . He

2820-678: The modern-day Fox Television Center. KCBS-TV and KCAL-TV moved from their longtime home at CBS Columbia Square on Sunset Boulevard to a new facility at CBS Studio Center in Studio City . As a neighborhood within the Los Angeles city limits, Hollywood does not have its own municipal government. A person was appointed by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to serve as an honorary " Mayor of Hollywood " for ceremonial purposes. Johnny Grant held this position from 1980 until his death on January 9, 2008. The Los Angeles Police Department

2880-602: The new town with General Harrison Gray Otis , publisher of the Los Angeles Times , and Ivar Weid, a prominent businessman in the area. Daeida Wilcox , who donated land to help in the development of Hollywood, learned of the name Hollywood from an acquaintance who owned an estate by that name in Illinois. Wilcox is quoted as saying, "I chose the name Hollywood simply because it sounds nice and because I'm superstitious and holly brings good luck." She recommended

2940-502: The right to be in America, but we submit that his presence here is not an occasion for celebration or social fetes. Those who welcome him are opening their arms to a friend of Hitler and an enemy of democracy. HANL advertisement announcing Vittorio Mussolini's arrival in Los Angeles, September 1937 The HANL also publicized visits of prominent fascists to Los Angeles in order to shame their hosts, including Vittorio Mussolini , son of

3000-501: The same name to her husband, Harvey H. Wilcox , who had purchased 120 acres on February 1, 1887. It was not until August 1887 that Wilcox decided to use that name and filed with the Los Angeles County Recorder's office on a deed and parcel map of the property. By 1900, the region had a post office, newspaper, hotel, and two markets. Los Angeles, with a population of 102,479, lay 10 miles (16 km) east through

3060-631: The street from Helen Muir's home. Her father John Muir returned from his tour of Europe and East Africa a few months later and continued work on Yosemite and his book, The Yosemite . The Nestor Film Company was the first studio, established in October 1911 by the New Jersey–based Centaur Film Company in a roadhouse at 6121 Sunset Boulevard (the corner of Gower ). Four major film companies – Paramount , Warner Bros. , RKO , and Columbia – had studios in Hollywood, as did several minor companies and rental studios. In

SECTION 50

#1732772800420

3120-718: Was also involved in the League's founding. Katz formed the HANL under the auspices of the "mother of all front groups". the American League for Peace and Democracy . Katz and his cofounder, Hubertus zu Löwenstein , held an organizational meeting at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles. At the meeting, screenwriter Donald Ogden Stewart and author Dorothy Parker , fellow members of the Algonquin Round Table , were named respectively chairman and honorary chairman by acclamation. The HANL

3180-526: Was erected in the Hollywood Hills in 1923 to advertise real estate developers Woodruff's and Shoults' housing development. In 1949, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce entered a contract with the City of Los Angeles to repair and rebuild the sign. The agreement stipulated that LAND be removed to spell HOLLYWOOD so the sign would now refer to the district, rather than the housing development. During

3240-507: Was incorporated as a municipality in 1903. The northern and eastern parts of the neighborhood were consolidated with the City of Los Angeles in 1910. Soon thereafter a prominent film industry emerged, having developed first on the East Coast. Eventually it became the most recognizable in the world. H. J. Whitley , a real estate developer, arranged to buy the 480-acre (1.9 km ) E.C. Hurd ranch. Whitley shared his plans for

3300-455: Was incorporated as a municipality on November 14, 1903, by a vote of 88 for and 77 against. On January 30, 1904, the voters in Hollywood decided, 113 to 96, to banish the sale of liquor within the city, except for medicinal purposes. Neither hotels nor restaurants were allowed to serve wine or liquor before or after meals. In 1910, the city voted for a merger with Los Angeles in order to secure an adequate water supply and to gain access to

3360-625: Was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. In June 1999, the Hollywood extension of the Los Angeles Metro Rail Red Line subway opened from Downtown Los Angeles to the San Fernando Valley , with stops along Hollywood Boulevard at Western Avenue ( Hollywood/Western Metro station ), Vine Street ( Hollywood/Vine Metro station ), and Highland Avenue ( Hollywood/Highland Metro station ). The Dolby Theatre , which opened in 2001 as

3420-574: Was only received by Walt Disney, but was otherwise boycotted at the instigation of the Anti Nazi League". The League also attempted to convince the studios to produce an anti-Nazi film, but they were hindered in their efforts because the Motion Picture Production Code decreed that movies should be apolitical. They also accused the studios of changing the ending of The Road Back , a film by James Whale based on

3480-469: Was strongly suspected, without conclusive evidence, of involvement as Ramon Mercader 's handler in the assassination of Leon Trotsky , and in the supposed murder of Willi Münzenberg who was found hanged in a French forest. Various purges, liquidations and murders required by Stalin during the Spanish Civil War are also attributed to him. The German -speaking Jewish family of Edmund Katz,

3540-490: Was the first American anti-Nazi organization that was not overtly linked to American Jews, and served "as the focal point of the [film] industry's anti-Nazism" from 1936 through 1939. There was, in fact, friction between the League and other organized Jewish groups in Los Angeles. For instance, The Community Relations Committee, a group which served as a "political instrument of wealthy Los Angeles Jews". seemed, according to screenwriter and League activist Hy Kraft , to use most of

3600-586: Was the last radio station to broadcast from Hollywood before it left CBS Columbia Square for a studio in the Miracle Mile in 2005. On January 22, 1947, the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River , KTLA , began operating in Hollywood. In December of that year, The Public Prosecutor became the first network television series to be filmed in Hollywood. Television stations KTLA and KCET , both on Sunset Boulevard, are

#419580