Gilded Age or Golden Era
or
Both
In US history, the former was a period (1870s) of gross materialism and blatant political corruption.
The latter was a period (1940s-1950s) of rampant fear mongering and gross repression.
It was an era that was “paired a volatile political environment” and “created a world in which the political beliefs or personal lives of filmmakers and actors could be weaponized to silence them.” Or, stated differently, powers at the helm used the mechanism of government as a weapon to silence art and artists.
For example, Elwell reports, the film "Citizen Kane" of that era “was openly booed at the 1942 Academy Awards”; and backlash to the film’s satirical rendering of “the powerful William Randolph Hearst” included “a vast campaign to destroy the film and its co-writer, director, and lead actor Orson Welles.”
In Hollywood’s GOLDEN AGE
Mina Elwell writes of Hollywood’s “Golden Age”
It was an era that was “paired a volatile political environment” and “created a world in which the political beliefs or personal lives of filmmakers and actors could be weaponized to silence them.” Or, stated differently, powers at the helm used the mechanism of government as a weapon to silence art and artists.
For example, Elwell reports, the film "Citizen Kane" of that era “was openly booed at the 1942 Academy Awards”; and backlash to the film’s satirical rendering of “the powerful William Randolph Hearst” included “a vast campaign to destroy the film and its co-writer, director, and lead actor Orson Welles.”
In Hollywood’s GOLDEN AGE
“Sexual violence was incredibly pervasive ….”“Rape was a constant threat for women working in Hollywood” and“Sexual harassment was the norm.”
“Behind the glamorous facade…, Hollywood could be cruel and violent.” Elwell, Mina “Hollywood's Blacklist Era: The Dark Side Of 1940s Entertainment May 1, 2023, Grunge https://www.grunge.com/1273485/hollywoods-blacklist-era-dark-side-1940s-entertainment/
David Walsh comments on the Forty-seventh's golden
In the lead up to the 2025 academy awards assembly, David Walsh noted that US President Trump had “declared a new cultural ‘Golden Age’ (in the performing arts) by
- Putting himself in charge of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts…
- Naming a group of “has-beens and imbeciles” (Walsh’s adjectives) his special ambassadors to the film and television industry”; and
- Declaring his “Golden Age” duo: Golden Age Hollywood-Golden Age USA.
“These are billionaire executives,” Walsh writes. And to them, all is “business.” “Business is business.”
As Walsh sees it, the masterminds now laying siege in Federal Washington have their sights [their mandate, they seem to say] on
As Walsh sees it, the masterminds now laying siege in Federal Washington have their sights [their mandate, they seem to say] on
“Full-scale repression of immigrants”“Attacks on the democratic rights” of the whole US populationDecimation of “public health and public education”Undoing “any hindrance” perceived by the “oligarchs in charge” to be “restrictive” to or “inefficient” in the “accumulation of corporate profit and personal wealth” andUnbridled “preparations for new, more calamitous wars.”
Enabling their mission will be fully funded on demand and fully weaponized “military, CIA, FBI and every other agency of repression.”
In view of present-day conditions threatening life and liberty at home and abroad, Walsh calls to mind the principles of the film industry and performing arts; and issues what might be described as a call to action on behalf of humanity.
“Filmmaking was never simply a money-making operation,” Walsh writes. And today there is a pressing “need to live up to the best, democratic, radical traditions of American filmmaking” — “not its worst, most self-involved, trivial and nationalistic.”While “it is true that art cannot save the world, or even itself; … art and the artists have unique responsibilities. … They are beholden to suffering humanity to see that their work does not serve merely as a toy for their own diversion or that of the…” ruling faction or upper class.
“In the history of filmmaking…, the greatest figures have oriented themselves toward the sufferings, hopes and struggles of broad layers of the population. Film and television are not a technical-organizational undertaking, an empty machine for showing off one’s skill; but a critical means of communicating important truths about life and reality.” Walsh, David February 27, 2025 “Trump, Musk and fascism, the film industry and the Academy Awards” https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/02/27/ztlv-f27.html
As we move forward in the current era, we might reflect on history, US History, and on thoughts emanating from sources and voices
outside particular the pods and chambers of echoes.
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PROLIFIC SOUTHERN-BORN AMERICAN WRITER DR. CAROLYN LADELLE BENNETT focuses on People, Press, Politics USA; Domestic and Foreign Affairs (no copyright claimed in direct quotes and individual image)
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