The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

From the ‘Golden Age of Hollywood’ to the Bulls–t Age of Wokeness: A Brief History

Posted on | May 28, 2023 | Comments Off on From the ‘Golden Age of Hollywood’ to the Bulls–t Age of Wokeness: A Brief History

You may not recognize that long-legged young bathing beauty, but she was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars back in the day when the movie business was run by men who knew how to make money by producing movies that people actually wanted to watch. Strangely enough, while many today would scoff at the old-fashioned capitalist greed that motivated Hollywood producers in mid-20th-century America, many of the movies they made were artistically superior to anything produced by the soi disant “progressive” filmmakers of our own era, including the 1947 classic in which our long-legged bathing beauty starred.

Today’s ultra-woke studios have no original ideas, and specialize instead in ripping off old movies, remaking beloved classics and turning them into merde. How could they ruin Indiana Jones? That franchise was solid gold, and yet they found a way to turn it into crap. And they performed a similar feat with The Little Mermaid, turning a beloved children’s cartoon into a live-action box office disaster. A major part of what’s gone wrong in 21st-century Hollywood is that they’ve become obsessed with “representation” of various political causes (e.g., cramming gay and transgender themes into every project) and “diversity” in casting.

Movie moguls back in the day didn’t give a damn about such things. What they wanted was money, and the way to make money from movies was to give the people what they wanted — including sexy dames, like that long-legged beauty pictured up top (about whom some of you guys may be having concupiscent urges, despite the fact she’s been dead for more than 20 years, you sick freaks). Like the movie moguls of the Golden Age, this blog operates with an understanding of human nature, famously expressed by Rule 5: “Everybody loves a pretty girl.” You will never go broke selling cheesecake, and this principle of commerce was understood by such men as Howard Hughes, the Elon Musk of his age.

Aviation pioneer and movie mogul Howard Hughes

In June 1942, Hughes spotted a model in the pages of Life magazine. She was just 17 years old, but Hughes believed he could make her a movie star — and he wasn’t wrong. This is something most people don’t understand about the Golden Age of Hollywood. Back then, it was understood that beauty was the essential quality for any actress. The studios would put a pretty girl under contract and give her acting lessons, speech lessons, dancing lessons, singing lessons, etc. You can teach those things, whereas beauty — well, you either have it or you don’t, and thus it was that Howard Hughes took one look at that long-legged teenager modeling in Life magazine and said to himself, “She’s gonna be a star!”

Hughes hired the girl, and sent her to RKO Studios for “development.” Not long after arriving in Hollywood, she attracted the attention of a famous jazz singer more than 20 years her senior and, after a whirlwind romance, they were married when the future RKO star was just 19. They soon divorced, however, but by 1945, she starred in four movies, did another three films in 1946, and then in 1947, made her breakthrough as the femme fatale in the film noir classic Out of the Past.

Yes, it’s Jane Greer we’re talking about — and you, dear reader, got this far in the story because you just had to know, “Who is that dame with the long legs?” Because I know a thing or two about human nature. Set the hook, then reel ’em in — get the reader interested in the story, and they’ll stay until the final credits roll. And what could be more calculated to arouse reader interest than Jane Greer’s long legs?

This, in essence, is why the Golden Age of Hollywood is so vastly superior to the woke bullshit of movies nowadays. In the old days, with profit as their motive, the moguls of Hollywood tried to produce movies that appealed to the ordinary sentiments of ordinary people, obviously including ordinary guys who liked to see a good-looking dame.

Jane Greer (and her legs) in ‘Out of the Past’

Was there any political “cause” advanced by a movie like Out of the Past? Was there some kind of uplifting message in the movie? Not at all. As the mogul Sam Goldwyn allegedly said, “If you want to send a message, call Western Union.” The movie business was about selling tickets, baby, and what better way to sell tickets than a sinister love triangle with a couple of tough guys falling for a deadly dame like Jane Greer?

And isn’t it strange how, in trying to make movies for profit, Hollywood in the Golden Age almost accidentally produced great art?

Out of the Past is considered one of the greatest of all films noir. Robert Ottoson hailed the film as “the ne plus ultra of forties film noir.”

If the conservatives who run Hillsdale College ever decide to start a film school, I hope they’ll take note of this lesson.



 

 

Category: History, Hollywood, Movies

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