One World, Big Screen: Hollywood, the Allies, and World War II

379 Pages·2012·5.82 MB·English

by  M. Todd Bennett

 ,
 

 ,
 
,
 , 
  
.  
THE
UNIVERSITY OF
NORTH CAROLINA
PRESS Chapel Hill
© 2012 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Designed by Richard Hendel
Set in Utopia and Aller types
by Tseng Information Systems, Inc.
Manufactured in the United States of America
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence
and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for
Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.
The University of North Carolina Press has been a member of
the Green Press Initiative since 2003.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Bennett, M. Todd.
One world, big screen : Hollywood, the Allies, and World War II /
M. Todd Bennett.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978- 0- 8078- 3574- 6 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. World War, 1939–
1945—Motion pictures and the war. 2. Motion pictures—United
States—History—20th century. 3. Motion pictures—Political
aspects—United States—History—20th century. I. Title.
D743.23.B46 2012
791.43′6584053—dc23
2012011965
Portions of this work have appeared previously, in somewhat
different form, as “Culture, Power, and Mission to Moscow: Film
and Soviet- American Relations during World War II,” Journal
of American History 88 (September 2001): 489–518, and “The
Celluloid War: State and Studio in Anglo- American Propaganda
Film- Making, 1939–1941,” International History Review 24
(March 2002): 64–102, and are reprinted here with permission.
Filmstrip on title page and chapter openers courtesy of
iStockphoto/Thinkstock.
16 15 14 13 12(cid:22)5 4 3 2 1

Acknowledgments, ix
Abbreviations, xiii
Introduction, 1
 The “Magic Bullet”: Hollywood, Washington,
and the Moviegoing Public, 24
 “Pro- British- American War Preachers”:
Internationalism at the Movies, 1939–1941, 53
 One World, Big Screen: The United Nations
and American Horizons, 89
 Kissing Cousins: How Anglo- American
Relations Became “Special,” 136
 Courting Uncle Joe: The Theatrics of
Soviet- American Matrimony, 169
 Negotiating the Color Divide: Race and
U.S. Paternalism toward China, 217
Conclusion, 256
Notes, 275
Selected Bibliography, 321
Index, 343

A moment made for the media: the Big Three fi rst meet at 1943’s Tehran
Conference to solidify the United Nations, 2
Franklin Roosevelt illustrates Allied strategy during a 1942 Fireside Chat
as Americans follow along at home, 97
Humphrey Bogart stars in Sahara (1943), Columbia’s dramatization of
Allied inclusivity, 110
Offi ce of Facts and Figures poster portraying China as America’s friend
in the fi ght for freedom, 1942, 114
Offi ce of War Information poster championing the United Nations,
1943, 115
Britons cheer American soldiers parading through London’s Trafalgar
Square on United Nations Day, 1943, 120
United Nations Information Organization poster upholding collective
security, 131
The Allied family is besieged in Mrs. Miniver (1942), winner of the Best
Picture Oscar, 138
The reunion of an American GI and his British war bride in New York
City, 1945, 151
U.S. Army staff sergeant Samuel Rochester and his “adopted” mother,
Mrs. Norman Rawlence, of Bremerton, England, join hands at
the American Red Cross Club’s Mother’s Day Tea Dance, London,
1943, 152
Peter (David Niven) and June (Kim Hunter) Carter are an Anglo-
American couple happily reunited in A Matter of Life and Death
(1946), 156
“Uncle Joe” Stalin (Manart Kippen) explains Soviet foreign policy to U.S.
ambassador Joseph Davies (Walter Huston) in Mission to Moscow
(1943), 179
Aspiring Soviet musician Nadya Stepanova (Susan Peters) meets
American conductor John Meredith (Robert Taylor), beginning an
international romance in Song of Russia (1943), 201
Detective Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) does his bit for the Allies in
Charlie Chan in the Secret Service (1944), 218
Acting as a surrogate father, an American soldier stationed in China
wipes a local child’s face, 225
Gene Tierney in yellowface as Haoli Young, the Eurasian object of the
affection of Johnny Williams (George Montgomery) in China Girl
(1942), 242
Father Francis Chisholm (Gregory Peck) heals a Chinese boy with
modern Western medicine in The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), 254
Allied cameramen and photographers cover the Soviet- American linkup
at the Elbe River, 1945, 258
Victorious American and Soviet soldiers locked in fraternal embrace,
1945, 259
A jubilant GI and a matronly Briton celebrating V- E day in London,
1945, 260
Newsreel cameras roll as China’s delegation signs the United Nations
Charter at the San Francisco Conference, 1945, 262
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
In various forms, this manuscript has been my almost constant compan-
ion for more than fi fteen years. Together, we have traveled far on a circu-
itous route leading from Lubbock, Texas, to Washington, D.C., with stops
in such places as Moscow, London, and Athens (Georgia, that is). On our
geographical and intellectual journey, the book and I have encountered
many people who enriched us, and it is my great pleasure to acknowl-
edge them.
The ideas behind this work took shape during my graduate student
years. Texas Tech University’s Jim Harper fi rst encouraged my interest
in culture and foreign relations (baseball, too, but that is another story).
Professors Joe King and George Flynn nourished the study, as did my fel-
low graduate students, particularly Joe Brown and Les Cullen. Few de-
serve more credit than William W. Stueck Jr., my dissertation adviser at
the University of Georgia. Bill gave me an opportunity and pushed me to
make the most of it, and I can always count on him to be in my corner.
More could not be expected of an adviser. Committee members Lester
Langley, Laura Mason, David Roberts, and especially Bryant Simon,
who broadened my understanding of the world beyond the dissertation,
offered invaluable suggestions. I was fortunate to fi nd an outstanding
community of scholars among the graduate students in Athens, including
Brad Coleman, Brian Etheridge, Tao Peng, Jonathan Sarris, Evan Ward,
and Karin Zipf.
I have had the good fortune of holding several postgraduate appoint-
ments, and colleagues at each institution have nurtured both me and this
project. Richard Davies took a visiting junior scholar under his wing at the
University of Nevada–Reno. Tyler Anbinder and Dorothea Dietrich ex-
tended opportunities to teach at The George Washington University and
The Corcoran College of Art and Design, respectively. The U.S. Depart-
ment of State’s Offi ce of the Historian serves as a leading center for the
study of the history of American foreign relations, and I thank my former
coworkers there for seven years of intellectual stimulation. Evan Dawley,
the late Peter Kraemer, David Nickles, Joe Wicentowski, and Alex Wieland
directly contributed to this book. Edward C. Keefer and Louis Smith re-
ceive special recognition for mentoring so many of us so well. I am grate-
ful for the ongoing support of my colleagues in East Carolina University’s
Department of History, chaired by Gerry Prokopowicz.
ix