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THESIS TITLE: Identity and Division: Hollywood's Social and Cultural Transformation of the Los Angeles Jewish Community, 1910-1930

AUTHOR: Maxim Gantman

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Identity and Division: Hollywood’s Social and Cultural Transformation of the Los Angeles Jewish Community, 1910-1930

Maxim Gantman

Abstract

“Identity and Division” examines the individual choices made by prominent Hollywood

Jews in negotiating the demands of their very secular industry, the largely anti-Semitic surrounding culture, and the nature of their Jewish identity. It analyzes their interactions within the non-Jewish community, such as in the social clubs they attended or other social activities they participated in. It reviews how the secular community viewed these Hollywood Jews, as well as looks at the rise of new establishments as a result of the rise of an anti-Semitic cultural reaction. Even while most tried to hide their Jewish past, the personal choices made by Louis B

Mayer, Samuel Goldwyn, the Warner brothers, Lewis Milestone, Alla Nazimova, and Sonya

Levien shaped a kind of Jewishness. Hollywood was not Jewish, but the industry was an empire made by Jews—something that became clear when the rise of anti-Semitism in the 1930s forced

Hollywood Jews to confront what their identity meant to the broader culture. Thus, it is important to analyze how and why certain choices were made by Hollywood Jews, and how those choices affected the Los Angeles Jewish community and the community at large.

This project also includes a website that focuses on images and maps the journeys of

Louis B Mayer, Samuel Goldwyn, the Warner brothers, Lewis Milestone, Alla Nazimova, and

Sonya Levien, giving a visual aid in understanding the difficulties this group went through.

(Hollywood Jews: Transformation of the Los Angeles Jewish Community Website

(http://scalar.calstate.edu/hollywood-jews-transformation-of-the-los-angeles-jewish- 2 community).) It includes a brief description of Mayer, Goldwyn, the Warners, Jolson, Nazimova,

Milestone, and and Levien as well as a background description of the Russian Empire pogroms.

The website also contains several documentary shorts for each person mentioned above encompassing the 50-page article along with photographs and music providing a more visually and emotionally connected experience. The sources include films created, photographs taken between the 1900 and 1930s, and transcripts of interviews. 3

Table of Contents

Abstract ...... 1 Introduction ...... 3 Immigration and The Los Angeles Jewish Community ...... 9 Early Los Angeles Jews ...... 11 Beginnings of the Los Angeles Jewish Community ...... 13 Lower East Side and the Move to “the Garden of Eden” ...... 18 The Nearly Forgotten Talent of the Hollywood Film Industry...... 26 The Temples, Social Clubs, and the Transformation of Los Angeles’s Jewish Community ...... 32 Conclusion ...... 48 Primary Sources ...... 53 Secondary Sources ...... 57

Introduction

Located at 3663 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, modeled on Rome’s

Pantheon, the Wilshire Boulevard Temple stands as a reminder of a time when Hollywood emerged as the leader in the film industry under the guidance of Hollywood moguls such as

Louis B. Mayer, Samuel Goldwyn, and the Warner Brothers. 1 Eighty-seven years ago, several of these moguls, along with others like Irving Thalberg and Carl Laemmle, not only financed the temple but also provided craftsmen from their studios to build it in the style of movie theaters.

The Wilshire Boulevard Temple, overlooking Koreatown, stands about one hundred forty feet tall. Byzantine-Moorish in style with a copper dome roof, this monumental building is entered through three towering wooden archway doors. Once inside, the temple is divided by one-

1 Susan Stamberg, Best Seat In The House of Worship: The Temple Hollywood Built, NPR Morning Edition, NPR Morning Edition (http://www.npr.org/2014/07/31/336569529/best-seat-in-the-house-of-worship-the-temple-hollywood-built) (July 31, 2014)

4 hundred-foot-wide columns. As one enters the main room, murals funded by Jack, Harry, and

Abraham Warner unfold like a film strip, encircling the congregants clockwise, heading east to west along the three hundred twenty feet of wall. The murals tell the story of the Jewish people from the times of “Abraham to their arrival in the New World.”2 The Warner Brothers provided funds as well as the services of their artist, Hugo Ballin, to paint these murals. Ballin, interestingly enough, was brought to Los Angeles from New York by Samuel Goldwyn.

Surrounded by the Warner Murals and the stained-glass windows funded by Louis B. Mayer, the

Gothic-like setting is intended to overwhelm the soul. The three stained-glassed windows keeping an eye on the congregation from the eastern and western walls represent the twelve tribes of Israel, and the three large lunettes on the northern, eastern, and western walls vibrantly depict the Days of Creation, Psalmists and Prophets, and the Messianic Age. “In this manner,” according to Temple historians, “the congregation is surrounded by their history, their traditions, and their deepest held beliefs.”3 Just as in a theater, the floor is raked, the aisles go down to a raised “stage,” and every seat permits an unobstructed view of the “stage,” where Rabbis and

Cantors perform the ceremonies and where the Holy Ark rests along with the Temple’s Torahs.4

There is no bad seat in this house. Created by a thriving Los Angeles Jewish Community with the funding and vision of Hollywood Moguls, the temple opened its doors in June of 1929, welcoming these moguls as some of their first members.5 The temple stands as a reminder of a time when Hollywood Jews negotiated between the demands of their very secular industry, the

2 Thomas Teicholz and Tom Bonner. Wilshire Boulevard Temple: Renovation. Our History as Part of the Fabric of Los Angeles. N.p.: Oro Editions, 2014, 19. 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid, 18. 5 Hollywood moguls such as the Warner Brothers and Louis B. Myer provided funding for the temple, which at the time of its opening was known as Bnai B’rith. It became known as the Wilshire Boulevard Temple on Nov 30, 1937. "Our History." Our History - Wilshire Boulevard Temple. Accessed April 19, 2018. Our History - Wilshire Boulevard Temple (https://www.wbtla.org/pages/the-temple-pages/our-history). 5

nature of their Jewish identity, and the largely anti-Semitic surrounding culture.

Hollywood moguls such as Louis B. Mayer, Samuel Goldwyn, and the Warner brothers

and other Hollywood Jews such as actor Al Jolson, actress Alla Nazimova, screenwriter Sonya

Levien, and director Lewis Milestone, shaped by their journey and individual choices, negotiated

their way during the rise of anti-Semitism. While some tried to hide their Jewishness, others

seemed to embrace it. None, however, could escape their Jewish identity. As these Hollywood

Jews established themselves, they became targets for anti-Semitic groups and individuals, as did

Hollywood itself and its surrounding neighborhoods.6

Although much has been written about Jews and the Hollywood film industry, much of

this literature has focused on Los Angeles Jewishness as if it was monolithic. But, there were

significant differences in the journey and the past of these Jewish Americans who became

involved in the film industry, and these differences dramatically affected the development of the

Hollywood Film industry and the Los Angeles Jewish community. This thesis examines the

individual choices made by Hollywood Jews, and what they say about the relationship between

Hollywood and Jewishness. Most had changed their names, in attempt to Americanize themselves. Louis B. Mayer began to claim that his birthdate was July 4th, while Samuel

Goldwyn converted to Catholicism. Alla Nazimova continued to claim she was not Jewish, even

after finding out she was. Most, however, could not escape their origins. They were Jewish by

birth, and most kept some form of Jewish traditions alive. Shaped by the experience of movie

making, the Jewish community in Los Angeles could not help but be affected by the crucial role

of Jews in a unique industry.

6 Ursula Vils. “The Struggle to Keep Los Feliz Center Alive." Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File), Aug 08, 1976. The Struggle to Keep Los Felize Center Alive. In 1936, Jewish residents of Los Feliz faced an undercurrent of anti-Semitism. 6

In 2016 Hollywood celebrated its 100-year anniversary two years ago, a new interest sprung up surrounding Hollywood’s past. Newspapers ran editorials regarding Hollywood’s beginnings and gave acknowledgment to the Hollywood moguls who helped shape it, yet they lacked detailed information on how these Hollywood moguls transformed the area and how they changed the Los Angeles Jewish community. The celebration also avoided mentioning other important figures to the development of the Los Angeles Jewish community such as Al Jolson,

Lewis Milestone, Alla Nazimova, and Sonya Levien. Not only did reporters fail to provide information regarding the formation of Hollywood and the Los Angeles Jewish Community, historians themselves have neglected to talk about the lesser-known Jewish figures, people other than moguls, of the Hollywood industry. Most historical narratives regarding the formation of

Hollywood focus on the moguls or the studios the moguls represented.

Some works do focus on the Western European Jewish immigrants of Los Angeles and how they developed the Los Angeles Jewish Community. History of the Jews of Los Angeles written by Max Vorspan and Lloyd P. Gartner analyzes how Western European Jews became successful and gained prestigious positions in politics, or as bankers, chief of police, among others. These same Jews created social and political clubs and enjoyed their elite status, until the influx of the Eastern European Jews begun flooding the city as a result of the Pogroms around

1905. When Los Angeles was incorporated as a city in 1850, a census revealed that there were eight Jews out of the total population of around 1,600. By 1900 the Jewish population totaled

2,500, while the Los Angeles population rose to over 100,000 and by 1920 the Jewish population ballooned to 40,000 out of 576,000 total inhabitants. By the time the Hollywood industry was in full swing in 1930, the Jews had numbered 70,000 out of 1.2 million of Los Angeles residents.

The narrative also provides an understanding of the dynamic cultural differences between the 7

Western European Jews and the Eastern European Jews, and how these differences played out in the formation of the Los Angeles Jewish Community.7

While History of the Jews of Los Angeles provides an excellent source of information for

the background of the development of the Jewish community, it mostly neglects to mention the

Hollywood moguls, actors, actresses, and directors as individuals who helped transform the Los

Angeles Jewish Community. The best-known work that covers the importance of Jews in

Hollywood is Neal Gabler’s, An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood. The book focuses on the Hollywood Jews struggles and perseverance in creating the Hollywood

industry, but its focus on the most prominent figures and neglects considering other Jewish

immigrants such as directors, actors, and actresses who had a hand in not only transforming the

Jewish community but in changing the industry as well. Gabler also points out that most

Hollywood Jews rejected their Jewish past while embracing the secular culture, arguing that

what these Hollywood Jews wanted most of all was to be accepted by the non-Jews. While parts of this are true, what Gabler glosses over is that these Hollywood Jews were not able to escape from the Jewish past. Most did embrace the secular culture but still kept their Jewishness. Some like Louis B. Mayer and the Warners attended temple or ate some kosher food during the holidays. Others such as Lewis Milestone occasionally participated in Sabbath, while screenwriter Sonya Levien put her skills to work expressing her Judaism through her writing.

This attempt at secularizing while keeping some Judaism alive created a rift among the Jews in

7 This same concept appears in Stern, Norton B. The Jews of Los Angeles: Urban Pioneers. Los Angeles, CA: Southern California Jewish Historical Society, 1981, centering on the establishment of the Jewish community between the 1840s and the 1890s. The narrative helps establish the notion that before Hollywood had its beginnings, there was already a Jewish community in full development in Los Angeles, one that was slowly growing but for the most part had gone unnoticed by its residents. Another work, Karen S. Wilson. Jews in the Los Angeles Mosaic. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2013, provides a wider look at how Jews influenced and helped develop Los Angeles, through the development of the studios, Jewish bakeries, unions, political parties, music, and the Jewish community in Boyle Heights. 8

Los Angeles community, and it highlighted an important point: Hollywood Jews were ostracized

by Western European and Eastern European Jews in Los Angeles, and therefore industry’s

Jewish leaders should not be considered part of a united Jewish Community.

While author Kenneth H. Marcus largely avoids discussing the Jewish community as

united in his Schoenberg and Hollywood Modernism, which discusses Hollywood Jewish

community as a whole, even he emphasizes on the differences between the Western European

Jews and the Eastern European Jews only in the most general terms. Marcus explains that the

Los Angeles Jewish community was not united, and that ‘divisions existed due to class, country of origin, and religious affiliation.”8 The author also points to geographical divisions between wealthier Jews living on the Westside around Wilshire Blvd, West Adams, and Hollywood and the poorer Jews, who were from Russia and Eastern Europe, living on the Eastside, mostly in

Boyle Heights.9 The author makes the mistake of grouping all Eastern European Jews together.

While there were plenty of Eastern European Jews that settled in Boyle Heights, Eastern

European Jews such as Louis B. Mayer, Samuel Goldwyn, Warner brothers, Al Jolson, Alla

Nazimova, Lewis Milestone, and Sonya Levien settled elsewhere.

Other historical works do tell the basic history of the studio or the individuals involved in it. Generally, though, authors of these persons and studio biographies miss out connecting the immigration journey and the journey to Los Angeles and the experiences of their subjects to the development of the Jewish local community, even when discussing well-known Hollywood moguls such as Louis B. Mayer, Samuel Goldwyn, and Warner brothers along with stars such as

Al Jolson and Alla Nazimova, or technical crew such as Lewis Milestone and Sonya Levien.

Historical Research is also lacking on the lives outside the movies of Al Jolson, Alla Nazimova,

8Kenneth H Marcus. Schoenberg and Hollywood Modernism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016, 163. 9 Ibid. 9

Lewis Milestone, and Sonya Levien, four icons that represent the beginnings of the Hollywood film industry. I hope to add to that historical work, as well as provide a new fresh look at the

Hollywood film industry pointing out the way they were regarded by the outside culture, and

how Judaism shaped their external lives in a largely anti-Semitic surrounding culture. While

united by their immigration experience, and their involvement in the development of the

Hollywood film industry, their Jewishness caused tension and conflict within the Los Angeles

community. The Jews might have built an empire of their own, but the process to establish the

Los Angeles Jewish Community was a difficult one, filled with anti-Semitism, from outside the

community, and class divisions from within, divisions that could be seen through by which social clubs one attended.

Immigration and The Los Angeles Jewish Community

The development of the Los Angeles Jewish community was deeply affected by the immigration process. For that reason, this study begins in the Russian Empire. The pogroms in the Russian Empire caused the influx of Russian-Jewish immigrants into the United States around the 1900s. Russian-Jewish immigrants left a country that oppressed them, entered the

United States through New York’s port of entry and looked forward to establishing a new life for themselves. Through a serious of events, these immigrants found their way into California and thus developed the Hollywood film industry. If it was not for this influx of Russian-Jewish immigrants, studios such MGM or Warner Brothers would not only have a different beginning but might not have existed at all. Al Jolson might have never had a chance to star in the first talkie of the Hollywood film industry, The Jazz Singer, and the silent movie era might have lost one of its most talented actresses, writers, and directors, Alla Nazimova. These Jewish immigrants from the Russian empire left their homes as Lazar Meir, Szmuel Gelbfisz, Asa 10

Yoelson, Miriam Edez Adelaida Leventon, Leib Milstein, Sara Opesken and became known to

us as Louis B. Mayer, Samuel Goldwyn, Al Jolson, Alla Nazimova, Lewis Milestone, and Sonya

Levien. Although not all the Warner brothers were born in the Russian empire; if they had

remained, they would have been known as the Wonsal brothers. By the time these immigrants

entered the United States, their names and in some cases, even their dates of births were altered.

Some did it for ease of assimilation into the American culture, others were misunderstood when

arriving at the port of entry and were registered under whatever name came to mind of the port

officials. Whatever the reason behind the changes, the name change indicated a fresh start, an

escape from the pogroms and the violent anti-Semitism being built up in Eastern Europe.10

Though they escaped the pogroms, unfortunately they could not escape anti-Semitism.

Most kept practicing some form of Judaism and found ways to share their experience through

films. Others, like Samuel Goldwyn, clamored for more power, trying to stay ahead of other

Hollywood moguls but staying away from his Jewish past. However, even as some like Goldwyn

attempted to escape their immigrant Jewish background, their history and identity had an

enormous impact on their decisions as the leading members of the Hollywood studio community

as well as the Los Angeles Jewish community. Actresses such as Alla Nazimova just like movie

mogul Samuel Goldwyn seemed to stay away from practicing any form of Judaism, but the

nature of Judaism and Jewish identity makes removing the culture itself hard to do. While some

continued to practice some aspects of Judaism, others appeared to assimilate farther from their

Jewish roots. As will be seen, a combination of past experiences, personal choices and desire to

be accepted in the Los Angeles community influenced the decision to either practice Judaism

religiously or culturally or to leave that part of themselves in the past. Even those that tried to

10 David Vital. A People Apart: The Jews in Europe, 1789-1939. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. 11

leave their Jewishness behind, were only able to do so religiously. To the Los Angles non-Jewish

community, being culturally Jewish was enough to brand even the non-practicing Jews as Jews.

They were Jewish not based on their beliefs, but based on the geographical areas they came

from, their names, and some of their cultural practices.

Early Los Angeles Jews

In the early 1800s, German Jews, like many other Western European Jews who arrived in

America, came as peddlers, but within time they assimilated into the American culture, some became store owners, others became bankers.11 Along with the assimilation, while most kept

their Judaism, some changes occurred. Not only did men and women sit together during worship,

which for many practicing Jews went against religious laws, but signs of Christian influence

appeared in the temples that were built. Temples included organs, color, and stain glass windows.12

While many of these newly arrived Jews settled in cities like New York City or Chicago,

some ventured out West into Los Angeles.13 As more Western European Jews arrived in Los

Angeles, they established themselves as owners of wholesale grocery businesses, dry good stores, and merchants.14 Among these business people, were businesses operated by Jewish

women. Flora Cohn, a sole trader, Mrs. Goldstein operated a private boarding house, and then in

1875 Mrs. Goldstein along with Ephraim Greenbaum and his wife, operated the White House

11 The Jewish Americans. Produced by David Grubin. By Liev Schreiber. Arlington, VA: Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), 2008. DVD. 12 Ibid. 13 An April 4, 1850 census of Los Angeles County showed eight men with recognizably Jewish names. Allegedly, two of the Jews were from Poland (Eastern European) and six from Germany (Western European). 14 Vorspan, Max and Lloyd P. Gartner. History of the Jews of Los Angeles. San Marino, CA: The Huntington Library, 1970, 8-9. 12

Hotel.15 The Jewish men of Los Angeles also participated in politics. In 1850, M. L. Goodman

became a member of the first city council, and Arnold Jacobi joined the city council in 1853.16

Maurice Kramer had been elected as Treasurer of Los Angeles County in 1859, becoming a

County Supervisor in 1865, part of the city council in 1868, and then a city clerk.17 Los Angeles

Jews mostly, of German descent, were also agricultural producers, wine producers, owners of

small mining activities, involved in real estate ventures, and banking.18

If Western Europeans Jews fled from suffering in Europe to America to find solace, then why did they treat Eastern European Jews with such disdain when the latter began arriving? To understand the difference between the Western European Jews who had already arrived, and who settled into the American culture, and most of the Eastern European Jews who had yet to immigrate, a deeper look is needed into their lives, their living conditions, and their understanding of Judaism. Harris Newmark in his autobiography, Sixty Years in Southern

California, 1853-1913: Containing the Reminiscences of Harris Newmark, describes his journey to Los Angeles which included a stay at a hotel and paying for a first-class service on the Star

King. While the trip itself was long and daunting,19 the mere fact that Newmark could afford

such a trip showed that he came from a well to do family. When Harris Newmark arrived in Los

Angeles in 1853, he first tried peddling, but according to his account, he was not very good at it.

Instead, Newmark began to work as a clerk and could pay thirty dollars a month just for lodging

alone.20 Newmark also stated that he learned Spanish before he learned English, and provided

15 Vorspan, 35 16 Ibid, 17. 17 Ibid, 18. 18 Ibid, 36; Isais Hellman came to Los Angeles from Germany in 1859 with nothing, but built and became owner of the Farmers and Merchants Bank in Los Angeles, the Nevada Bank in San Francisco, and would eventually become Wells Fargo Bank. 19 The trip to New York alone, took 49 days, food had spoiled, and the ship drifted to its destination. 20 Newmark, 27. 13

some information regarding Western European Jews marrying Native Americans and

Mexicans.21 These and other circumstances indicated that arriving in small numbers, before

Anglo-American California had established itself, the Western European Jews like Harris

Newmark and a handful Eastern European Jews Americanized themselves quickly.

Beginnings of the Los Angeles Jewish Community

However, this generation of Los Angeles Jews did keep one main Jewish tradition alive,

gemilut chasadim, meaning the giving of love and kindness. It is one of the main pillars of

Judaism, and it shows through in the many of the relief organizations created by Western

European Jews. Joseph Newmark, the father of Harris Newmark, helped form the Hebrew

Benevolent Society in 1854 by having meetings in his home every Sunday. The society took care

of the sick, was responsible for performing proper Jewish funeral rituals, looked after the Jewish

cemetery,22 acted as a fraternal social club, and as a synagogue during the High Holy Days.23 In

1861, the first congregation was created, Congregation Beth El, consisting of around twenty to thirty mostly Polish Jews. 24 However, it did not last long and is hardly ever mentioned in subsequent historical writings. A year later, the first permanent congregation was created,

Congregation B’nai B’rith, mostly made of German Jews, electing Joseph Newmark as their

president25 and Abraham W. Edelman as the Rabbi.26 In the following years the Ladies Hebrew

Benevolent Society, the Hebrew Consumptive Relief Association, the Jewish Orphans’ Home of

21 Ibid, 89-90. 22 Newmark, 122. 23Norton B Stern, The Jews of Los Angeles: Urban Pioneers. Los Angeles, CA: Southern California Jewish Historical Society, 1981, 9. 24 Vorspan, 54. 25 Phil Blazer and Shelley Portnoy. Wrestling with the Angels: A History of Jewish Los Angeles. Sherman Oaks, CA: Blazer Communications, 2006, 41. 26 According to Harris Newmark, this first permanent congregation was Orthodox, 314. 14

Southern California, the Kaspare Cohn Hospital, and the Temple Sewing Circle were created for

the benefit of the needy. These organizations helped all the needy, not just Jews, with the leading

Los Angeles, Jewish families at the helm.27

A member of one of the leading families, Joseph Newmark, uncle of Harris Newmark

became responsible for conducting religious services which included prayers during the High

Holy days and burial services. Newmark held these services in various locations around town. In

1862, Congregation B’nai Brith received its charter to begin the founding of the synagogue

officially. During its formative years, Congregation B’nai Brith remained an Orthodox temple, however, years later with the Reform movement on the rise, that would change. The first building of this congregation stood on Fort Street next to the old Los Angeles’s City Hall.28 Built

with Gothic architecture, founded in 1873, the first building was described by Max Vorspan and

Lloyd P. Gartner, authors of History of the Jews of Los Angeles as having “two massive

buttresses surmounted by ornamental stone, with carved spire and a five-pointed star set in a

circle fronted the building” overlooking Los Angeles,29 the “sanctuary seated 365 persons,” and

the reported building cost ranged from $20,000 to $56,000.30 The congregations first rabbi,

Rabbi Abraham Wolf Edelman, also known as the “gentle Jewish padre” was born in Warsaw,

Poland in 1832.31 The rabbi moved around several U.S. cities before ending up in Los Angeles in

27 “Los Angeles Historic Resources Survey, Context: Jewish History.” SurveyLA Citywide Historic Context Statement. Los Angeles. CA. December 2016. Accessed March 13, 2017. Los Angeles Historic Resources Survey, Context: Jewish History (http://preservation.lacity.org/sites/default/files/LosAngelesJewishHistoryContext_0.pdf) Newmarks, Cohns, Schlesingers, and the Marshutzs were well known names around Los Angeles. Newmarks can be traced back to original Jewish settlers of Los Angeles, as well as Cohns. Jacob Schlesinger was president of the Hebrew Benevolent Society. His home became Kaspare Cohn Hospital in 1902. Siegfried G. Marshutz was the Congregation B'nai B'rith Vice-President when it was located on 9th and Hope. 28 Newmark, 314. 29 Vorspan, 59. 30 Ibid. 31 A. W. Voorsanger and Martin A. Meyer, Western Jewry: An Account of the Achievements of the Jews and Judaism in California, Including Eulogies and Biographies; “The Jews in California”, 87. Rabbi Edelman spoke Spanish well and as a result could communicate very well with the Los Angeles Community. When Rabbi Edelman retired, he kept helping the needy. 15

1862. By 1880, B’nai B’rith Congregation was becoming more and more reformed, and there

was still less than five hundred Jews in Los Angeles, most whom came from Western Europe.32

Rabbi Edelman would resign in 1886 when the local Jewry decided to institute even more liberal

rituals.33 By 1900, under the direction of Rabbi Sigmund Hecht, Congregation B’nai Brith would

triple in size.34 Following in 1906, the Los Angeles Jewish community founded the Sinai

Congregation. Its first meeting was held in the home of Joseph L. Jonas at 222 W. Pico Street.35

Other leading families helped to form social clubs. The Los Angeles Social Club was

established in 1870. Most of the first officers in the club were Jewish.36 Harris Newmark and the

Hellmans were members of this club. However, depression in the 1870s put an end to this club.

Unfortunately, as the Los Angeles Jewish Community grew, so did anti-Semitism. Los Angeles’

Jews began feeling ostracized from resorts, organizations, and social clubs. Harris Newmark recalled those past days as a time when those type of clubs were “organized in the early era of sympathy, tolerance, and good feeling, when the individual was appreciated at his true worth and before the advent of men whose bigotry has sown intolerance and discord and has a made a mockery of both religion and professional ideals.”37 As a solution, some of the leading families

created their own organizations and social clubs. The Concordia Club, established in 1891, stated

its purpose was to provide the “social and mental culture” of its members.38 Its membership,

however, was limited to 100 persons from prominent Los Angeles Jewish families, who all

32 Blazer, 96. 33 Newmark, 314. Several other rabbis would take the pulpit. Rabbi Dr. Emanuel Schreiber in 1870 following with Rabbi Blum and Rabbi Solomon. Rabbi Hecht in 1899 and Rabbi Edgar F Magnin as a junior rabbi in 1916. Information from Voorsanger, 62. 34 Ibid, 191. Rabbi Hechtwas born in Hungary in 1849. He was a member of the Los Angeles Public Library, Board Administrator of funds at Free Loan Society and Treasurer of the Relief Fund for Jewish War Sufferers. 35 Ibid, 63. The building stood on Valencia street, where it was directed by Rabbi Myers and Rabbi Farber. This congregation also contained a religious school. 36 Vorspan, 65. 37 Ibid. 38 Blazer, 115. 16

happened to be of Western European descent. It appeared to Jewish immigrants from Western

Europe that the increase of the anti-Semitism in America had been a direct result of the increase

in Eastern European Jewish immigration. While German Jewish immigrants were viewed as

more civilized, cultured, and educated, by the dominant culture in Los Angeles, their Eastern

European counterparts were viewed as the opposite.39 The German Jews could easily

Americanize themselves if the need arose, unlike those from Eastern Europe. These new arrivals

were poorer, less educated, and more religiously devout. By the time of the mass migration of

Eastern European Jews began, Western European Jews had already become part of American

culture and forgotten about how they or their ancestors arrived to America. They were not only

established in America but feared that the new arrivals would bring unwanted attention.

These new arrivals coming from Eastern Europe were escaping the Pale of Settlement,40

an area designated as the Jewish quarters, where Jews lived in Jewish communities called shtetls.

Laws prevented most Jews from leaving the area, getting an education, or even trading outside of

the Pale. While some historians point out that majority of Eastern European Jews left the Pale of

Settlement due to economic reasons, others maintain that it was the Pogroms41 where Jews were beaten, raped, and murdered that prompted the survivors to flee. Joseph Boyarsky, the author of

The Life and Suffering of the Jew in Russia42, provides evidence that both sides were correct in

assessing why Jews left the Pale. According to the author, “any Jew living within the Pale can

better his condition by moving to another city within the Pale, as much as a sick man can get

39 Ibid, 110. 40 Vital. Pale of Settlement included areas within the Russian Empire of Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, among many others. The area served as a territory where the Jewish population was required to live in and work in from around 1791 to 1917, the year of the Russian Revolution. 41 An organized massacre of Jews in Russia or eastern Europe. 42 Joseph Boyarsky. The life and suffering of the Jew in Russia: a historical review of Russia's advancement beginning with the year 987 A.D. to the close of the nineteenth century; a description of the special laws enacted against the Jews, and reasons thereof. Los Angeles, CA: Citizen Print Shop, 1912. 17

well from a contagious disease by turning over in bed from one side to the other.”43 The Jews

that remained in the Pale suffered under the Pogroms. Pogroms were violent, where many Jewish

stores and homes were destroyed. While some people spent a few months in jail for their

participation in the Pogroms, the Jews were the ones that were blamed for the uprising and the

violence.44 Violent acts against the Jews were plenty, from Warsaw, Poland where a riot damaged Jewish properties,45 to Lodz, Poland, where during a factory strike, workers killed three

Jews, while one hundred forty Polish workers were shot by the strike-breaking police in May of

1892.46 In a Russian and Ukrainian riot in Iuzovka (Yuzovka), one hundred and eight Jewish-

owned shops along with a local synagogue were burned that same year.47 In 1905, there were

fifty pogroms between January and mid-October.48 It was these circumstances that lead the

Eastern European Jews to flee the land that they knew. Most Jews had to sneak out of the Pale since getting caught outside of the Pale without papers for most meant some punishment if not death. Those that did make it out had to travel in the steerage of ships since that was all they could afford. Most that came to America landed in New York, going through Ellis Island, others took ships to Canada, and then crossed over into America.

Once these new arrivals settled in America, they would realize that anti-Semitism existed here as well. Some chose to culturally assimilate quickly and let go of their Old-World traditions, while others chose to keep some or all of their traditions intact. What might have been unexpected was the hatred that came from other Jews as well, especially from Western European

Jews, who had assimilated into the American culture and looked at these new arrivals with

43 Ibid, 97. 44 Ibid, 153. 45 Jonathan L Dekel-Chen, David Gaunt, Natan M. Meir, and Israel Bartal, eds. Anti-Jewish violence: rethinking the pogrom in East European history, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2011, 22. 46 Ibid. 47 Ibid. 48 Ibid, 95. 18

disgust.49 These new arrivals would need to figure out how to reconcile their ancient Jewish

traditions, which set them apart, versus the longing to create new lives for themselves as

Americans.50

Lower East Side and the Move to “the Garden of Eden”

Eastern European Jews that arrived in New York City were not looking to reconcile with

their ancient traditions. This group of Jewish immigrants formed an American shtetl in the

Lower East Side, where they all lived, worked, and did business, mostly as peddlers. By 1905,

around 500,000 Jews were living in the Lower East Side among other non-Jewish immigrants

such as Italians, Germans, and the Irish.51 Shops, restaurants, and temples sprung up around the neighborhood. The overcrowded Lower East Side became a breeding place for hatred, sometimes fueled by the Western European Jewry. The Old-World ideals of Eastern European Jews clashed with the New World ideals of the Western European Jews. According to Stephen Birmingham, the author of The Rest of Us: The Rise of America’s Eastern European Jews, the newly arrived

Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe were “poor, hungry, ill-clothed, and in some cases illiterate.”52 To the Western European Jews, these new arrivals represented a threat to their

acceptance by the non-Jewish community. This group of Jews felt they belonged to a progressive civilization, unlike the new arrivals who as Birmingham states represented “a piece of Oriental antiquity.”53 In 1916, the Federation of Jewish Farmers of America named a special committee

whose sole purpose was to solve the Jewish problem, by distributing Jewish immigrants who

50 The Jewish Americans, DVD. 51 Ibid. 52 Stephen Birmingham. The Rest of Us: The Rise of America’s Eastern European Jews. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1999, ix. 53 Ibid, 24. 19

arrived after the war, so they would not settle in densely populated communities, such as the

Lower East Side.54 Somehow the community thrived, and while some of the immigrants

incorporated American practices others kept to their traditional ways.

The overcrowding on the East Coast, however, did not stop, which caused some to move

further out west searching for a better and healthier life, to an area which promised to be not only

the Garden of Eden but the land of more opportunity. Sonya Levien, a future Hollywood

screenwriter, lived many years in the Lower Eastside. In 1909, Levien graduated from the New

York University Law School and applied to the New York State Bar.55 However, shortly after

that, Sonya Levien became a writer instead. Levien wrote short humor pieces for Life magazine, worked as a secretary for a novelist, several editor positions of popular magazines, as an education secretary at the National Board of Censorship of Motion Pictures, and head of the education department at The People’s Institute.56 Levien also edited and published works by F.

Scott Fitzgerald, Herbert Hoover, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Maxim Gorky, Anzia Yezeriska, among many others.57 By 1921, Famous Players-Lasky offered Levien a five- year contract.

Sonya Levien would have a lucrative career in Hollywood, earning a salary more than three times of her husband’s, who was also part of the industry at the time.58

Moguls such as Louis B. Mayer also moved to Los Angeles seeking new opportunities,

an uncongested movie industry, better weather conditions, and some were trying to escape the

grasp of the Edison Trust. Mayer’s journey to Los Angeles included leasing an old burlesque

54 “Committee is Named for Jewish Problem.” Los Angeles Times (1886-1922), Dec 02, 1916. Committee is Named for Jewish Problem . 55 Alan Robert Ginsberg. The Salome Ensemble: Rose Pastor Stokes, Anzia Yezierska, Sonya Levien, and Jetta Goudal. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2016, 125. 56 The People’s Institute was formed in 1897. “It was a community organization that assisted immigrants and Americans of all ethnicities in the ways of civic engagement through education and exchange of ideas.” Ginsberg, 128-129. 57 Ibid, 132. 58 Ibid, 144, 147. 20

house with 600 seats, known as the Gem in Haverhill, Massachusetts in 1907 and by 1911, the

future mogul moved up to be a manager of a newly opened 1600 seat theater known as the

Colonial. In 1918, Louis B. Mayer created his first feature film, Virtuous Wives and by the time

Mayer planned his second feature film, California was in his sights. About five years later

Samuel Goldwyn found the Samuel Goldwyn Production in Los Angeles. Goldwyn’s journey differed from Mayer in some ways. Serendipitously, Samuel Goldwyn taking an alternate route home one night stumbled into the Herald Square Theater.59 This serendipitous event led to

Goldwyn along with the Cecil B. DeMille, Oscar Apfel, and Jesse L. Lasky forming the Jesse L.

Lasky Feature Play Company. The Squaw Man, the company’s first film, filmed by Cecil B

DeMille in a rented barn located at 2100 Highland Avenue in Los Angeles brought in $244,700.

The film was a hit. Goldwyn left the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company, and partnered with

Broadway producers Edgar and Archibald Selwyn, creating Goldwyn Pictures, based out of Fort

Lee, New Jersey and eventually made his way out west. 60

The Warners also made their way out west eventually. Sometime between 1900-1903

Sam was offered and able to purchase a Kinetoscope, in need of repair, along with the Great

Train Robbery film, and some tickets for $950.61 After fixing the Kinetoscope, Sam along with

Abe Warner jumped into the Nickelodeon business. By 1908, the brothers had created the

Duquesne Amusement Supply Company, supplying films to theaters, earning around $2500 per

week.62 In 1910, pressured by the Edison Trust, the Warners sold the family business to the

59 Known as Samuel Goldfish at the time. 60 Leaving Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company was a personal matter for Goldfish. Samuel Goldfish had been married to Blanche Lasky for a few years, then in 1915 they divorced. Not long after, Samuel Goldfish changed his name to Samuel Goldwyn. 61 Cork Millner and Jack Warner Jr. The Brothers Warner: The Intimate Story of Hollywood Studio Family Dynasty. Rocklin, CA: University Press of Kentucky, 1994, 26. 62 Millner, 42. Sam and Abe work in Pittsburgh, Harry operated the New Castle Theater, until they decided to sell it in 1908, while Jack remained home in Youngstown, Ohio. 21

General Film Company for $10,000 in cash, $12,000 in preferred stock, and payments over a

four-year period for a total of $52,000. Two years later, the Warners joined forces with

filmmaker Carl Laemmle's Independent Motion Picture Company. Warners finally separated

from Carl Laemmle's Independent Motion Picture Company, sending Jack to establish a film

exchange in San Francisco and to have Sam do the same in Los Angeles.63

As the Moguls moved to Los Angeles, directors, actors, and actresses followed. Actress

Alla Nazimova moved to New York City in 1905, where she met the Shubert brothers. The

Shuberts were the most well-known theatrical managers and producers on Broadway and were

impressed by Nazimova. The actress’s first performance for the Shuberts was in 1906. From

1906 until 1916, Nazimova continue to tour in Washington, New Orleans, Toronto, among other

areas. Alla Nazimova’s career in the movie industry began in 1916 when Lewis J. Selznick

offered the actress $30,000 to star in War Brides with a “bonus of $1000 for each day production

went over its thirty-day schedule.”64 For the second foray into the movie industry, Nazimova

traveled to New Orleans in 1917, signing a five-year contract with Metro Pictures. The following year, Nazimova traveled to Los Angeles to work on a third picture in the newly found film career.65

Nazimova was not the only one switching between working for the Shuberts and starring in films. Al Jolson, after building a lucrative career in theater, would join Hollywood as well. By

1913, Jolson was one of the highest paid theater performers, signing a five-year contract which included a $10,000 bonus, a salary of one thousand dollars per week, for thirty-five weeks per year, as well as “ten percent of profits on the shows that he appeared in.”66 Theater alone,

63 Ibid, 54-55. 64 Gavin Lambert. Nazimova: A Biography. New York: Alfred A. Kmopf, Inc, 1997, 179. 65 Ibid, 197. 66 Goldman, 74. 22

however, was not enough for Jolson. By the time Al Jolson was approached by the Warners to

star in The Jazz Singer, Jolson thought he was at the pinnacle of his career. The Warners offered

Jolson $25,000 to star in the film, “a third down in cash, and the rest in installments of $6,250

per week.”67

The Warners would also eventually hire Lewis Milestone as a film director. Milestone

enlisted in the army during World War I and served as an assistant director on training films while being stationed in Washington D.C around 1917.68 In 1919, Milestone was discharged by

the army, became a U.S. citizen, and moved to Hollywood, working as an assistant cutter for a

variety of film studios throughout 1920.69

Those who moved to Los Angeles did so for various reasons including the weather and

the open space. Los Angeles was an ideal place for not only investments such as real estate, but

also work, leisure, and of course cinema.70 To many, Southern California, with its insignificant winter and long dry summers, combined with easy access to beaches,71 became the Garden of

Eden. A Los Angeles newspaper took it even a step further by stating, “Los Angeles, is indeed a

beautiful city, nestled in among the foot hills like a bird in its nest. Beautiful sunshine all the days, week in and week out, and thousands of every variety of fragrant flowers, together with the soft pure air, combine to make this far off land a very Garden of Eden.”72 As a result, Los

Angeles’s population increased in the 1880s, and people flocked to Southern California to enjoy

67 Ibid, 148. 68 Joel Greenberg, “Transcript of Milestone interviews," 1971. American Film Institute-Louis B Mayer Foundation Oral History Project. Lewis Milestone Papers, Box 25, Folder 328, Special Collections, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Lewis Milestone was actually Lewis Milstein. 69 Ibid. 70Mark Shiel. Hollywood Cinema and the Real Los Angeles. London: Reaktion Books, 2012. 71 David Charles Sloane, ed. Planning Los Angeles. Chicago: American Planning Association, 2012, 45, from Kenneth C. Topping, the author of LA’s Love-Hate Relationship with Nature. 72 Los Angeles Star, p. 5, Column 7, October 10, 1884. 23

its healthy environment,73 and a place where flowers seem to bloom all year round.74 Climate,

however, was not the only reason behind the mass migration to Southern California, real estate promoters capitalized on the situation as well, encouraging families and individuals to purchase land out west. To help real estate promoters and the tourist industry, authors such as Charles

Nordhoff promoted California as the land to seek for health, pleasure, and residence, portraying

California as the “first tropical land, which our race has thoroughly mastered.”75 Prosperous

homes and farmsteads appeared throughout the state’s open space.76 Even the drawings of

California’s natural environment serve as a selling point for the author, to show the beauty, the

wonder, and magnificence of California.

Los Angeles had the type of land that immigrants and migrants were looking for; land

that seemed to them to be free, undeveloped, and unused. For the first Jewish immigrants that

would arrive, the small Los Angeles Jewish community that already existed was a blessing. The

first large wave of the immigrants coming from Western Europe were able to build off the

community that was already there. The wave of immigrants that came from Eastern Europe also

benefited from the already established Los Angeles Jewish community, even though a friction

developed between the two groups. Their lives however differed greatly. Whether they were individuals looking to make a better life for themselves, or they were trying to escape or pushed out of the overpopulated cities like New York or Philadelphia, migrants and immigrants found new opportunities in Los Angeles, building up the movie, the financial, the real estate, and the

73 William Francis Deverell, and Greg Hise, ed. Land of Sunshine: An Environmental History of Metropolitan Los Angeles. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005, 79. 74 Benjamin Cummings Truman. Semi-tropical California: its climate, healthfulness, productiveness, and scenery… San Francisco: A.L. Bancroft, 1874. Though Truman stated that about Los Angeles, others such as Charles Nordhoff gave the same type of descriptions for all of Southern California. 75 Nordhoff, Charles. California, for health, pleasure, and residence: a book for travellers and settlers. London: Harper & Bros., 1882, 9. 76 Ibid, 11. 24

transportation industry. Louis B. Mayer arrived in Los Angeles planning his second feature film

in 1918. Movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn (known as Samuel Goldfish at the time) also arrived in

the Los Angeles area in 1918, purchasing Ince/Triangle Studios located in Culver City. By 1920,

Goldwyn Pictures owned the Culver City studio and was renting two New York studios.

Goldwyn’s start in the film industry mimicked Mayer’s beginning. Pushed by economic and governmental forces out of his control, Samuel Goldfish left the life of a salesman.77 Just as

Samuel Goldwyn and Louis B Mayer appeared in Los Angeles in 1918, so did the Warner

brothers. Unlike Goldwyn and Mayer, the Warner brothers struggled even-to establish

themselves as Hollywood Moguls let alone as equals to other studio rivals. In 1912, the Warners

would join others as they migrated to California, sending Sam to open an exchange office in Los

Angeles, Jack in San Francisco, while Harry and Abe opened one in New York.78 In 1918, the

Warners set up their first studio among a group of small studios known as Poverty Row, and by

1923 with hard work and perseverance, the Warner Bros Picture Incorporated was born. The

road to success was paved with hardship for the Warners. Not only were they ostracized for

being Jewish by companies such as Western Electric who were anti-Semitic, but they also were looked at as the bottom feeders by other well-off movie moguls such as Louis B. Mayer and

Samuel Goldwyn.79 The successful moguls did not want to share their success with individuals

they viewed as outsiders, especially outsiders who kept their Jewish traditions and were not

worried about flaunting them. The Warners did have some luck in meeting Motley Flint, an

77 Berg, A. Scott. Goldwyn: A Biography. New York: Riverhead Books, 1998, 28. On April 7, 1913, Congressman Oscar W. Underwood, of Alabama, introduced in the House of Representatives H.R. 10 —a comprehensive bill to reduce tariff duties, promoting the importation of foreign goods 78 Sperling, p, 53-54. That same year an anti-trust suit filed by the Justice Department against the Motion Pictures Patent Company, would bring down the trust, and would provide the freedom the Warners and other future studio heads would need to operate and be successful in the competitive film industry market. 79 Issue with Western Electric was resolved through lawyers and a settlement. 25

executive with the Security Bank of Los Angeles on a trip to New York.80 Flint became the

saving grace for the Warners, loaning them millions of dollars to help the moguls establish a

niche in the Hollywood movie industry.81

During a time of increased anti-Semitism in the Los Angeles banking industry, the help

was much needed, though the millions of dollars would not help the Warners gain respect from

the other moguls. The Warners would still be considered “second-class citizens within the

Hollywood community,” until the arrival of sound in films.82 While the first talkie was The Jazz

Singer, the first film to have sound and music was Don Juan, and that is the film that catapulted

the Warners to their new status in the Hollywood film industry. What makes their second-class status even more interesting is that by the early 1930s after their rise in the Hollywood movie industry, Jack and Harry Warner became the first studio heads to support the Hollywood Anti-

Nazi League.83 The Warners remained not only committed to their Judaism, but to passing on

Jewish themes through their films.84

What most were not expecting was the growth of national anti-Semitism. As the

Hollywood film industry grew, so did the “wave of vicious anti-Semitism,” according to

80 Millner, 71. 81 Ibid, 72, 77. 82 Gabler, 138. 83 Founded in Los Angeles in 1936. Its purpose was to organize members of the Hollywood film industry to oppose fascism and Nazism. Samuel Goldwyn would join the league as well, along with other Hollywood Jews. However, the membership would contain non-Jewish members as well. It would not take long before the group was marked as being Communist and run by Communists, and lasted until about 1939, when it would have to change its name. 84 David Thomson. Warner Bros: The Making of an American Movie Studio. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017, 22, 33. Though this has everything to do with Harry Warner, who according to Thompson and Gabler was a devout Jew following in his father’s footsteps (see Gabler, 123.) Sam and Jack Warner were not religious and were interested in following religious traditions. Jack married Irma Solomon, a Western European Jew of German descent and named his son after himself, which was against Eastern European Jewish customs, but acceptable under Western European Jewish traditions. Irma also belonged to a Christian Science group (see Gabler, 148.) This would eventually drive a wedge between Harry and Jack Warner. Sam Warner married Lina Buquette in 1926, a Catholic. As Thomson pointed out, “The Warner brothers lived at a moment when the world was suddenly aroused by the questions of what it meant to be Jewish,” (see Thomson, 9.) The one thing that Sam and Jack could not escape was their Jewish culture, even as they “longed to transcend Jewishness,” (Thomson, 6.) Harry remained religious, while Jack remained culturally Jewish. According to Gabler, “Jack Warner demanded that his Jewish employees donate a percentage of their salary to the United Jewish Welfare Fund,” (see Gabler, 289.) 26

Birmingham, stemming from evangelicals who viewed that movies needed to be liberated from

“the hands of the devil and the 500 un-Christian Jews,” and their un-American ideals.85

Hollywood Jews may have been far from their birthplace, that however did not stop the anti-

Semitism from arriving in Los Angeles.

In 1909, there were five Jewish attorneys in the city. Just as in other circumstances and

other industries, Jews were ostracized and prevented from becoming partners in any of the

firms.86 Edwin and Joseph Loeb found a solution by forming their own law firm Loeb & Loeb in

1911. Edwin and Joseph were grandsons of Harris Newmark, a name that was deeply connected

to the origin of the Jewish Community in Los Angeles. Loeb & Loeb represented many clients

which included the Kaspare Cohn Hospital. Edwin also took care of their movie studios.

Beginning in 1914 Loeb & Loeb represented Samuel Goldwyn Productions, Metro Goldwyn

Mayer, and Warner Bros, among other Hollywood studios and stars.87 Edwin not only helped set

up MGM studios but also became a close friend to Hollywood Jews, at times even enjoying a

card game with them. 88

The Nearly Forgotten Talent of the Hollywood Film Industry

The experience of Lewis Milestone, Al Jolson, Alla Nazimova, and Sonya Levien’s move to Los Angeles differed in many ways from the moguls. While these individuals struggled to be successful as well, their success depended on the mogul’s success and vice versa. While their journeys from the old country shared some similarities, for some the struggles they faced when

85 Neal Gabler. An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood. New York: Anchor Books, 1989, 2. 86 Ibid. 87 Molly Selvin. “The Loeb Firm and the Origins of Entertainment Law Practice in Los Angeles, 1908–1940.” California Legal History Vol. 10 (2015): 136. The Loeb Firm and the Origins of Entertainment Law Practice in Los Angeles, 1908–1940 (https://www.cschs.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Legal-Hist-v.-10-Loeb-Firm.pdf) 88 Ibid, 149. 27

they reached Los Angeles were quite different. Even though relatively non-observant, they were all affected by their Jewish backgrounds. The same division that existed between the Western

European Jews and Eastern European Jews on the Lower East Side appeared in Los Angeles, as

the new surge of Eastern European Jews arrived. This new group would have to prove their

worth in the newly developing Jewish community. The Hollywood Jews would become the third

group of Jews in Los Angeles. Not affluent enough to be accepted by the Western Europeans

Jews and not religious enough to be accepted by the Eastern European Jews, the Hollywood Jews

would create their niche, and at the same time help expand the Los Angeles Jewish Community.

To complicate the Los Angeles Jewish Community further, additional divisions also existed

within the Hollywood Jews, especially between the moguls and the talent, the writers, and the

film crew.

In 1919, Lewis Milestone became a U.S. citizen and moved to Hollywood, working as an

assistant film cutter for a variety of studios throughout 1920. By 1921, Lewis Milestone moved

up to director's assistant on The Foolish Age and by 1925 Milestone had his directing debut

working for the Warner Brothers on The Seven Sinners. Unlike the Moguls, Milestone faced a

different form of discrimination, one more based on class status stemming from the Western

European Jews. Some of the wealthiest Jews from this group opened up their own Country Club,

named Hillcrest, as a response to the many clubs that did not allow Jews membership. Even if

Milestone wanted to join the Hillcrest club in the 1920s, he would have been denied access due

to his social status. Hollywood Jews were all considered second-class citizens when it came to

social clubs. The view would change when it came to Hollywood moguls, but the Hollywood

talent which included actors and directors would remain second-class citizens well into the early

1930s, when Hillcrest began accepting Hollywood Jews as members. The same split that 28

appeared between the temples also appeared in social clubs—a split based more on class status

than a religious obligation.

Aside from Lewis Milestone, the Warners had another talent, Al Jolson, working for

them during the late 1920s. Jolson’s Hollywood career was kick-started with the release of The

Jazz Singer, as the first talkie that signaled the beginning of the end of the Silent Film era. By the

time Al Jolson was approached by the Warners to star in The Jazz Singer in 1927, Jolson had thought he was at the pinnacle point of his entertainment career as a stage performer. The

Warners offered Jolson $25,000 to star in the film, “a third down in cash, and the rest in installments of $6,250 per week.”89 Aside from the movie being the first talkie, the Warners were taking another major gamble by allowing a Jewish actor, the son of a cantor, to play the role of a Jewish entertainer, who also happened to be the son of a cantor. Anti-Semitism was still on the rise, and yet this did not stop the Warners. While most historians argue that moguls stayed away from producing films with Jewish themes, the Warners were an exception, The Jazz Singer contained Jewish themes. In October of 1927, right before the premiere in New York at the

Warner theater, Hebrew melodies were heard by its audience, “ranging from the sorrowful songs of the ghetto to the gayety of the kasatchka dances.”90 This was music that most never heard of

unless one found oneself in Lower East Side. It is unclear if the same music was played during

its premiere in Los Angeles. However, the film itself became a huge success for the Warners,

placing them on equal footing with other moguls such as Louis B. Mayer and Samuel Goldwyn.

Even though anti-Semitism was on the rise, the Warners somehow found their way around it.

The Jazz Singer earned the Warners three million dollars. Al Jolson was signed for another

picture, and a year later after The Jazz Singer’s release, Jolson would star in another film, The

89 Ibid, 148. 90 Robert Oberfirst. Al Jolson, You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet. San Diego: A.S. Barnes, 1980, 197. 29

Singing Fool, reportedly being paid $500,000.91

Al Jolson may have been categorized as “The World’s Greatest Entertainer,” however the

Warner brothers had another great talent working for them, but behind the scenes. A year before

the release of the first talkie, a screenwriter, by the name Sonya Levien worked on writing her first silent comedy, Why Girls Go Back Home. Throughout her life, Levien earned around seventy eight on screen film credits and two on screen television credits, working for various studios.92 In 1918, Levien began selling some of the stories she wrote to filmmakers, and 1919,

Levien received her first on-screen credit for Who Will Marry Me, produced by Bluebird

Photoplays, a subsidiary at the time of Universal Pictures.93 Then in 1921, Famous Players-

Lasky offered Levien a lucrative five-year contract with a salary of $24,000 per year including an increase of $5,000 a year.94 While Levien took the deal, it did not take long for this

screenwriter to break her contract. Missing her husband and her infant son, Levien went back to

New York a year later. Three years later, Sonya Levien moved to Hollywood once again, though

this time with her husband, Carl Hovey, and their two kids. Throughout her Hollywood career,

Levien remained behind the scenes, avoiding any political affiliations. Most likely learning a

lesson from her father’s past, who was arrested in Lithuania for his political affiliation when she was young. Levien kept her life private, leaving little trace of her thoughts, feelings, or interactions with people. No physical proof exists that Sonya Levien faced any anti-Semitism in

Hollywood. However, once again it may be assumed that the screenwriter had to at least encounter it over the radio or in a newspaper, such as The Dearborn Independent, a weekly

91 Ibid, 153. 92 Not all film studios gave on screen credits to Levien outright. Some she had to fight for, others gave in as time passed. 93 Ginsberg, 141. 94 Ibid, 144. 30

newspaper that was established in 1901.

The anti-Semitic work of Henry Ford, for example, appeared in The Dearborn

Independent, blaming Jews for many of the economic and societal issues in the United States.95

The paper was published by Henry Ford between 1919 to 1927, reached nearly 900,000 people

in its circulation by 1925. However, Henry Ford was not the only one using mass media to

communicate anti-Semitic propaganda in the United States. Father Charles Coughlin, a Roman

Catholic priest, earned a spot on the CBS radio network doing sermons, reaching an estimated

forty million people. Father Coughlin, however, brought much controversy to CBS with his anti-

Semitic sermons, so CBS did not renew the priest's contract. It was too late, Coughlin became

too popular, arranging broadcasts on more than thirty stations nationwide. Even if Sonya Levien,

somehow avoided the anti-Semitism in print or on the radio, there is no doubt that she was aware

of it, being an Eastern European coming from the Lower East Side of New York to Hollywood.

Levien was not the only Jewish American woman (of Eastern European descent) to find

herself a success in Hollywood. Jewish women experience differed from the men. Not only did

they face the same hatred that Jewish men faced, they also faced a society where women were

considered at the bottom of the social ladder. Despite of this, some became successful. When

Alla Nazimova rose to success in Hollywood, she became the highest paid silent film actress.

Alla Nazimova’s career in the movie industry began in 1916 when Lewis J. Selznick offered the

actress $30,000 to star in War Brides with a “bonus of $1000 for each day production went over

its thirty-day schedule.”96 For her second debut in the movie industry, Nazimova traveled to New

95 Gabler, 277. “It is genius of that race to create problems of a moral character in whatever business they achieve a majority.” Hollywood Jews became a majority in the business because options to be in any other industry where they could move up for slim to none. Nickelodeons and the studio systems were already looked at as the lowest form of entertainment. It was only with their success, “they” became a problem. 96 Gavin Lambert. Nazimova: A Biography. New York: Alfred A. Kmopf, Inc, 1997, 179. 31

Orleans in 1917, signing a five-year contract with Metro Pictures. The contract included a salary

of $13,000 per week, and provided Nazimova the “right to approve the director, the script, and

the leading man.”97 The following year, Nazimova traveled to Los Angeles to work on a third

picture in her newly found film career.98 Nazimova, however, had already made a name for herself on Broadway and touring through Europe and in the U.S., so her quick rise in the film industry was not a surprise. Unlike the other movie industry talents mentioned, Nazimova’s experience with anti-Semitism differed. For part of her life, the actress did not even know she was Jewish. Nazimova’s father hid their Jewish identity, ensuring that Nazimova would receive more opportunities than other Jews living in the Pale. However, even without accepting her

Jewish identity, Nazimova was no stranger to receiving threats. In 1910, a man who described

himself as Dr. Michael McCarthy began sending threatening letters to the actress. Enough letters

came that a District Attorney and the New York police became involved.99 Even after Nazimova

discovered her Jewish past, the actress did not embrace it. Nazimova pushed Judaism aside,

claiming that her family converted to Russian Orthodoxy or that she had been baptized as a

"Greek Catholic" when she was younger. In a 1931 letter, addressed to one of her friends, Miss

Leona Scott, Nazimova made it clear that she no longer had any faith now, no belief in any religious doctrine, and considered prayers an insult.100 Even though, Nazimova moved away

from Judaism, she was nonetheless impacted by it, otherwise she would not have gone to such

lengths to hide it. From the time the actress landed in New York City in 1905, Nazimova kept

97 Lambert, 190. 98 Ibid, 197. 99 Direct Wire to, The Times. “Alla Nazimova is Now Scared.” Los Angeles Times (1886-1922), Apr 29, 1910. Alla Nazimova is Now Scared. This happened about five years after Nazimova immigrated to the U.S. The article did disclose the full letters. It’s not really known whether this was just someone who was obsessed with the actress, or if it had anything to do with her Jewish identity, since she tried to steer clear of Judaism. 100 Nazimova. Nazimova Collection. Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms001040. (Accessed October 18, 2017.) 32

finding ways to survive and places to perform. The actress’ downfall is not attributed to the rise

of talkies, but the personal life she led, in openly gay relationships. These future stars, writers,

directors, and moguls arrived in Los Angeles mostly around the same years, but their experiences

within the Los Angeles Jewish Community differed. Facing a rise in anti-Semitism, the

Hollywood Jews had to find ways of navigating through Los Angeles. The task was not an easy

one since there was divineness among the Los Angeles Jewish Community.

Somehow, despite the rise of anti-Semitism, a Los Angeles Jewish Community thrived

and grew as result of their involvement. The Los Angeles Jewish Community was the result of

progress that Western European Jews made in Southern California; however, it was transformed

significantly by the arrival of the Eastern European Jews, and the development of the Hollywood

Jews.

The Temples, Social Clubs, and the Transformation of Los Angeles’s Jewish Community

Founded by thirty-two Jewish families, most of German descent, the B'nai B'rith Temple

of Los Angeles stood tall at Ninth and Hope street in 1862. By 1899, the congregation grew to

267 members and appointed Rabbi Sigmund Hecht as its leader, signaling the temple’s support

of the American Reform movement. Fifteen years later, Rabbi Edgar F. Magnin joined the

temple as an assistant to Rabbi Hecht and helped the temple grow to 329 members by 1917. “It

was the pre-Zionist period when Hebrew had virtually disappeared from the service, when Bar

Mitzvah had been replaced by Confirmation, and a ‘sermon’ consisted of a review of a current

book or the sharing of a poem.”101 Between the years of 1923 and 1924, three Hollywood Jewish

101 Biographies. Edgar F. Magnin. Oral History Memoir. 1974. Box 18, Folder 1. Western States Jewish History Archive, 1800-2004. UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections, Manuscripts Division. Los Angeles, Introduction. 33

Moguls attended the B’nai B’rith Temple, Louis B. Mayer, Harry Warner, and Jack L. Warner,

along with actor Adolph Marx, known in the Hollywood industry as Harpo Marx.102 Harpo Marx

was an American Jewish comedic actor, a descendant of Western European Jews, and therefore

stands as an outlier, since majority actors nor actresses did not attend this temple.103 No other

Hollywood Jews appeared in the Year Book One pamphlet, and for a good reason. A division

existed between the moguls and the rest of the people in the movie industry. Actors, actresses, directors, and screenwriters’ salaries might have been higher paid than most other professions, but they were not making more than the moguls, and therefore did not occupy the same social space or status. These moguls could afford to attend the Wilshire Boulevard Temple. Based on its atmosphere and size, it is obvious that the Wilshire Boulevard Temple cost more to build than the Temple Israel of Hollywood, where some Hollywood Jews had attended.

While some may argue that location may have been a key factor in deciding which temple these moguls attended. That may have been the case in 1923,104 but not the case by 1927,

when the Temple Israel of Hollywood opened up at 1904 Argyle Avenue, about a two miles

from Louis B. Mayer’s home, located at 1834 N. Kenmore Avenue.105 In 1923, Louis B.

Mayer’s residence was located about six and a half miles away from the B’nai B’rith Temple.

That same year, Harry Warner’s and Jack L Warner’s address was listed in the pamphlet as 5842

Sunset Boulevard,106 and the distance between them to the B’nai B’rith Temple was about six

102 Congregations. Los Angeles-Wilshire Blvd. Year Book One. 1923-1924. Box 66, Folder 4. Western States Jewish History Archive, 1800-2004. UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections, Manuscripts Division. Los Angeles. 103 His address was listed as 2412 E 1st Long Beach. If that was his actual address, then he was over twenty-six miles away from the B’nai B’rith Temple in 1923. Ibid, 44 104 However, other temples already existed by this point. 105 Congregations. Los Angeles-Wilshire Blvd. Year Book One. 1923-1924. Box 66, Folder 4. Western States Jewish History Archive, 1800-2004. UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections, Manuscripts Division. Los Angeles, 44. 106 This was the address for their studios. Jack Warner actually lived on 501 S Spring St, Los Angeles, CA 90013 in the early 1920s, and then at 240 S Gramercy Pl, Los Angeles, CA 90004 according to the census. The Spring St. 34

miles, yet in 1927 the distance between their address to the Temple Israel of Hollywood was

about a mile.107 Another address for Jack L. Warner in the early 1920s, was 501 S Spring

Street.108 The distance from this address to B’nai B’rith Temple is a little over a mile, and it is

reasonable that Jack L. Warner would have attended the closest temple at the time.

In 1929, the new B’nai B’rith Temple building was dedicated. Among its “first members”

were once again movie moguls such as Louis B. Mayer and Jack L. Warner, and actor Adolph

Marx.109 While they attended the same temple, that year, Temple Israel of Hollywood moved to

1738 Ivar Street.110 By the 1930s Jack L. Warner moved to the El Royale apartments on 450

North Rossmore Avenue, and then later to 514 Maple Drive, Beverly Hills. The B’nai B’rith

Temple had changed its name to the Wilshire Boulevard Temple was relocated to 3663 Wilshire

Boulevard.111 The distance from the Jack Warner’s new residence to the temple was now a little

over two miles. Once the Hollywood mogul moved to the Maple Drive address in Beverly Hills,

the distance increased to six miles. Temple Israel of Hollywood was still closer, about five miles

from the Beverly Hills address and a little more than two miles from the El Royale Apartments.

Yet, Jack Warner continued to attend the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, regardless of the distance.

Louis B Mayer according to the 1930 census records, at the age of thirty-four was living at 6615

Franklin Avenue with his family.112 The residence was about a half a mile away from the

address was about a mile away from the B’nai B’rith Temple at the time. However, the Gramercy address was four miles away from the temple, at least until the temple moved to its new address in 1929. 107 Ibid, 49. 108 Fleming, E. J., comp. The Movieland Directory: Nearly 30,000 Addresses of Celebrity Homes, Film Locations and Historical Sites in the Los Angeles Area, 1900-Present. Jefferson, NC: Mcfarland & Company, Inc., 2004, p. 369. The Alexandria Hotel opened in 1906 and is one the oldest remaining structures in Los Angeles. 109 B’Nai B’rith Temple Los Angeles, Dedication Pamphlet copy, June 7, 1929, Wilshire Boulevard Temple. 110 B'nai B'rith Messenger. September 19, 1930. Newspaper. Vol 32, Issue 38, Box 63, Folder 1. Western States Jewish History Archive, 1800-2004. UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections, Manuscripts Division. Los Angeles, 77. 111 In 1937, Rabbi Magnin changed the name of the temple to the Wilshire Boulevard Temple. 112 Fleming, 161. 35

location of Temple Israel of Hollywood, and about five miles away from the Wilshire Boulevard

Temple. However, is not clear whether Louis B. Mayer actually attended the Wilshire Boulevard

Temples, or if he was just a financial backer.

Complicating the story even further was some indication that while Louis B. Mayer contributed to the Wilshire Temple and was listed as one of its members, the mogul would be

found praying elsewhere, at Beth Israel, also known as the Olive Street Shul.113 Beth Israel, an

Orthodox temple, was formed in 1899 as a merger of three congregations. It was dedicated in

1902 at 227 South Olive Street. If Mayer did attend this temple during the High Holy Days, the

mogul would have had to travel over seven miles in 1930 to reach it. But Louis B. Mayer and

Jack L. Warner chose their temples not based on location. Temple Israel of Hollywood was less

prestigious than the Wilshire Boulevard Temple. Historically both were Reform temples. Key

difference was who helped built the temples. Hollywood Moguls helped the Wilshire Boulevard

Temple, while lesser elite Hollywood studio Jews financially helped to build Temple Israel of

Hollywood. Personal preference may have played a role here as well.

Situated about five miles north of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple at 7300 Hollywood

Boulevard is the Temple Israel of Hollywood. Originally located at 1783 Ivar Street in 1930, it

then moved to Hollywood Boulevard in 1948. The Temple members or congregates consisted of

actors such as Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, and George Jessel, along with directors like Edward

Laemmle and film producer Sol Wurtzel.114 Unlike the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, Temple

113 Scott Eyman. Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005, 185. Eyman points out that Louis B. Mayer told Fanny Holzmann that on High Holy Days” he would be downtown at the Orthodox Temple Israel his father liked. There I put on a tallis (a shawl traditionally worn by Jewish men at prayer, though women in modern times have begun to wear them as well, just not in an Orthodox temple) . I stand with the Jews as my people have done for thousands of years—and I feel close to G-d/” 114 Edward Laemmle and his family were German Jews. The name was provided to show that this temple had also a mixture of Western European Jews and Eastern European Jews. While it is true that Edward Laemmle’s brother, Carl Laemmle was in the same league as moguls such as Louis B. Mayer and Samuel Goldwyn, it is also true that Carl Laemmle attended the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, and his brother did not. 36

Israel of Hollywood was less extravagant and took a longer time to find its permanent residence.

While it is difficult to compare the aesthetics of the two temples, it is not too hard to imagine

their difference in appearance based on their funding.115 Before 1930, the temple was split up

into several locations. The Temple House, located in Japanese American actor Sessue

Hayakawa’s home, served as the religious school. A Methodist Church located on Vine and

Lexington Street served as a place for services, while an American Legion Hall, hosted major

plays and productions. Other places such as the Roosevelt Hotel, Masonic Temple, and the Los

Angeles Breakfast club were also used for Temple needs. In 1926, seven men met at the

Hollywood Plaza Hotel to form a new temple.116 While part of the list of founders varies, these

are the names that always appear: Sol Wurtzel, Isadore Bernstein, I.E. Chadwick, Jesse

Goldberg, and Dr. Herman N. Appell (John Stone, Joseph Muller, Edward Laemmle, and Rabbi

Maurice Teshnor seem to be interchangeable.) Five out of the seven were prominent in the

Hollywood film industry, but not as prominent as the founders of the Wilshire Boulevard

Temple.117

As the Los Angeles Jewish community grew, so did the need for a larger temple that could occupy a larger congregation. In 1929, the division still existed within the Hollywood industry, and Louis B. Mayer and Jack L. Warner could still boast about being among names such as the Cohn’s, Newmark’s, and Edelman’s.

Louis B. Mayer’s involvement with the Wilshire Boulevard Temple can be traced back to

the friendship Mayer shared with its Rabbi, Edgar F Magnin. Rabbi Magnin gave moguls, in the

115 Hollywood Moguls along with other prominent members funded the Wilshire Boulevard Temple with $1.5 million, while Temple Israel of Hollywood’s members funded it with $65,000. If the difference in numbers seems significant now, it was significant in the 1920s. 116 B’nai B’rith Messenger, combined with the California Jewish Review, September 3, 1937. 117 B’nai B’rith Messenger, July 9, 1926 mentions that Louis B. Mayer was a board member. However, at other times Louis B. Mayer is also mentioned as honorary board member. Hinting on that Temple Israel of Hollywood made Louis B. Mayer an honorary member for their own benefit and name recognition. 37

words of his biographer “an opportunity to practice a relatively undemanding Judaism, in

pleasing surroundings with a minimum of religious pressures.”118 Not only were the religious

services changed, but Rabbi Magnin put himself in the middle of the moguls by purchasing a

Spanish style home in Beverly Hills.119 Magnin wanted to be a part of that Hollywood world and

made sure to have lunch with Louis B. Mayer a few times a week including coming over for

Sunday brunches in the Mayer’s Santa Monica home.120 Louis B. Mayer along with his sister Ida

Mayer Cummings were also both deeply involved with the Jewish Home for the Aged in the

1930s. Jack L. Warner and Harry Warner also shared a friendship with Rabbi Magnin, though

maybe not as close as Louis B. Mayer was. By the time the new temple opened, Jack L. Warner

had happened to be the only Warner left in Los Angeles.121 Harry Warner along with the family

moved to a twenty-two-acre farm in Mount Vernon, New York122, and Abe Warner and Bessie

Warner bought a large estate in Westchester County, New York.123 Though it cannot be verified

how often Jack Warner attended the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, it is known that he was a

member of the temple. From Poverty Row, the Warner brothers moved up, and Jack Warner could now sit next to moguls such as Louis B. Mayer. It would not be surprising if the main reason for contributing to the temple and becoming a member all had to do with not only proving the other moguls wrong but throwing it back towards part of the Hollywood establishment— showing the others, that they had made a name for themselves. Moguls, such as Louis B. Mayer

118 Biographies. Edgar F. Magnin. Oral History Memoir. 1974. Box 18, Folder 1. Western States Jewish History Archive, 1800-2004. UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections, Manuscripts Division. Los Angeles, 19 119 Ibid. 120 Malca Chall. Rabbi Edgar F. Magnin: Leader and Personality Manuscript. The Bancroft Library: University of California, 1975, 191. 121 Jack L. Warner purchased a fifteen room Spanish Colonial style mansion in Beverly Hills. Eventually adding a pitch-and-pull golf course with two ponds, as well as purchasing three nearby mansions, demolishing them, and adding those lots to the estate. This would also explain why his name only appears on the membership list. 122 Millner, 152. Harry Warner would come back to Hollywood later in the 1930s. 123 Ibid, 154. 38 made it difficult for the Warner’s to rise, so it would not be much of stretch if that were the case.

The Warner’s were also known for not hiding their Jewishness, especially Harry Warner. Two years prior to the opening of the new temple, the Warner’s released the first talkie, The Jazz

Singer, a film starring Al Jolson, a Jewish actor of Eastern European descent, playing Jakie

Rabinowitz, a young Jewish man who pursues a career as a Jazz singer, defying the family’s

Jewish traditions, where both the actor and the fictional character happened to be the sons of a rabbi and a cantor.

While Louis B. Mayer and Jack L. Warner belonged to the Wilshire Boulevard Temple,

Al Jolson attended and performed at a temple located about five miles north, Temple Israel of

Hollywood. The purpose of the Temple seemed to satisfy more the social needs rather than the religious needs of the Los Angeles Jewish Community.124 Around 1927, Temple Israel of

Hollywood stood at 1904 Argyle Avenue, about five minutes walking time away from the

Pantages Theater. The temple’s congregation consisted of two hundred members and an income of $14,000. In 1930, for fundraising needs, the temple began an annual Monster Midnight Show held at the Pantages Theater. Al Jolson happened to be one of the actors who performed on behalf of the temple, in the Monster Midnight Show. 125 Based on how historians describe

Jolson’s personality, this was a perfect fit. Jolson belonged to a temple which requested him to perform, not to a temple where he would be part of the audience watching a sermon or a performance done by the “Rabbi to the Stars,” Rabbi Edgar F. Magnin. Jolson lived for the audience. This was not only a way to help with fundraising but to share his love and passion with the Los Angeles Jewish Community. Could the temple choice have been just based on location?

124 "Our History." Temple Israel of Hollywood: Our History. Accessed March 20, 2018. Temple Israel of Hollywood: Our History (http://www.tioh.org/about-us/191-homepage-content/aboutus/aboutus-history/55-our- history). 125 Goldman, 174. 39

Jolson lived at several addresses during the late 1920s, all with his young wife, Ruby Keeler,

who happened to be a Catholic. One of those was at 4875 Louise Ave in Encino, placing the

actor over thirteen miles away from the Temple Israel of Hollywood and the Pantages Theater,

and over seventeen miles from the Wilshire Boulevard Temple.126 Most likely this was not the

time that Jolson attended Temple Israel of Hollywood, but Jolson could have still performed at

the Pantages Theater for the benefit of the temple, renting a room elsewhere. The other address

from the late 1920s was 7357 Franklin Ave, located about five and a half miles away from the

Wilshire Boulevard Temple, but only a mile and half from the Temple Israel of Hollywood and

the Pantages Theater.127 Jolson chose the closest temple to belong to, one of convenience over

prestige, but it was also a temple that provided what Jolson wanted the most, an audience.

The Temples were not the only places that exhibited a division within the Hollywood

Jewish community. Social clubs presented a perfect opportunity to divide the moguls and the rest

of the Hollywood film industry. The Concordia Club was formed in 1891 by the most prominent

one hundred Los Angeles Jewish families128, as a response to the “social exclusion” from other

social clubs.129 While the club was created to fight anti-Semitism, the members practiced

exclusivity on their own. As a Los Angeles Times article dated Nov 8, 1897, pointed out, “No

person should be admitted as a member of the club whom the average member would refuse to

admit as a guest in the house.”130 The Hollywood Jews would not be welcome, neither would be

any other Eastern European Jews who resided in Los Angeles at the time.131 As Gabler put it.

126 Fleming, 265. 127 Ibid, 162. 128 Gabler, 270 129 Vorspan, Max and Lloyd P. Gartner. History of the Jews of Los Angeles. San Marino, CA: The Huntington Library, 1970, 94. 130 Institutions/Organizations. Concordia Club, Los Angeles, 1897-1930. Box 85, Folder 3. Western States Jewish History Archive, 1800-2004. UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections, Manuscripts Division. Los Angeles. 131 Hollywood Jews included Jews of Western European and Eastern European descent. The members of the 40

“The German-Jewish establishment high-hatted them, excluding them from its organizations and

charitable boards and treating them as if they were some contagion spreading the infection of

overt Judaism.”132 By 1902, the Concordia Club opened a new three-story clubhouse at the

corner of Figueroa Boulevard and 16th Street, an “inner sanctum of high Jewish society,”133

where the well to do threw “parties (even for Christmas), balls, Purim affairs, weddings, and had

the opportunities to where fancy-dress clothes.”134 By the 1920s, the Los Angeles Jews were still

outcasts from other social clubs, restaurants, hotels, among other businesses, and the Concordia

Club “became too old-fashioned” and lost its appeal.135 Clubs such as the Lakeside Country

Club, located next to the Warner Brothers studio in Burbank, the Los Angeles Country Club,

located near Fox studios, and the Santa Monica Beach club, located near Louis B. Mayer’s

home, would not admit Jews as members.136 As a response, the Hillcrest Country Club was

formed by Rabbi Magnin and several Western European Jews families such as Hellmans,

Newmarks, Cohns, and other members of the B’nai B’rith Temple. The club opened in 1920,

located at 10000 Pico Boulevard. At first, just as the Concordia Club, Hollywood Jews and

Eastern European Jews were not allowed membership. In 1920 when the club opened, there were

one-hundred and fifty members,137 and a year later the membership reached one-hundred and

ninety members.138 As the number of members increased, so did the cost of membership, while

in 1921, the initial fee of membership reached $300, the board hoped to increase that fee to

Concordia Club viewed all the Hollywood Jews with the same disdain. 132 Gabler, 271. 133 Vorspan, 94 134 Institutions/Organizations. Concordia Club, Los Angeles, 1897-1930. Box 85, Folder 3 135 Vorspan, 153. 136 Gabler, 273. 137 B'nai B'rith Messenger. October 8, 1920. Newspaper. Box 87, Folder 5. Western States Jewish History Archive, 1800-2004. UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections, Manuscripts Division. Los Angeles. 138 B'nai B'rith Messenger. May 20, 1921. Newspaper. Box 87, Folder 5. Western States Jewish History Archive, 1800-2004. UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections, Manuscripts Division. Los Angeles. 41

$500.139

The Hillcrest Country Club was built colonial style, consisting of ladies dressing quarters,

showers and locker rooms, large lounging room, open fireplace, dining room, sun parlor, and

administrative offices. Passed that was the gentlemen’s grill, three small card rooms, the kitchen,

a veranda, fourteen greens and the entire course.140 By 1926, the country club had created

different membership levels, with 413 members of all classes which included 252 regular

members.141 Even though the club was gaining members, this would all change during the

Depression, when its membership rolls dropped down to 200.142 To stay afloat, the club and its

members had no choice but to find members from the community they had shunned for so many

years. Hollywood Jews such as Louis B Mayer and Jack L. Warner would join the club, which

would provide “sanctuary for their Jewishness.”143 Again, Gabler describes the scene, “It seems

that others along with Mayer, felt more relaxed, and freer to tell jokes, and be among his own

people.”144 Hillcrest provided an opportunity for German Jews and Hollywood Jews to form an

alliance, strengthening the Los Angeles Jewish Community. The club would become a center for

raising funds for Jewish causes, facing anti-Semitism in Europe.

The 1920s also saw other clubs appear, such as the Hollywood Athletic Club in 1924.

While not strictly a Jewish club, it was Hollywood’s movie industry’s answer to the clubs they

were forbidden step into. The nine-story club was founded by Charlie Chaplin, Cecil B. DeMille,

and Rudolph Valentino. Inside the club, there were fifty-four hotel rooms, and in the garden, a

139 Ibid. 140 B'nai B'rith Messenger. March 31, 1922. Newspaper. Box 87, Folder 5. Western States Jewish History Archive, 1800-2004. UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections, Manuscripts Division. Los Angeles. 141 B'nai B'rith Messenger. June 18, 1926. Newspaper. Box 87, Folder 5. Western States Jewish History Archive, 1800-2004. UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections, Manuscripts Division. Los Angeles. 142 Gabler, 275. 143 Al Jolson along with many other comedic actors, would not start attending until 1940s, forming the Hillcrest Round Table, meeting daily at the round table in the Men's Grill area of the Hillcrest Country Club. 144 Gabler, 275. 42

series of bungalows.145 The club was also furnished with “an indoor, Olympic-sized swimming

pool, a full gymnasium with a running track, steam rooms, saunas, restaurant, library, a cigar

lounge, barbershop, a haberdashery, squash courts and various game rooms.” Lewis Milestone

became a member of the Hollywood Athletic Club on December 19th, 1927.146 Even though the

membership rolls consisted of mostly men, women and kids could be a part of the club. On the

1928 Ladies Card membership form, it stated that these cards “may be issued only to the wife,

mother, unmarried sister or unmarried daughter of a member, or to such unmarried women

relatives who are a part of his household,” and on the 1928 Junior Cards membership form it

stated, “may be issued to unmarried sons or daughters of members, under 21 years of age.”147 It

is not clear what kind of membership rights these type of cards provided, but they at least

provided access to the Hollywood Athletic Club. Several other health clubs such as the Los

Angeles Athletic Club and the Santa Monica Athletic Club joined together along with the

Hollywood Athletic Club, forming into a new Los Angeles Athletic Club. Lewis Milestone was a

member of this club in 1929 as well.148

Milestone was also a member of another club in 1928, known as the Masquers, a private

social club for actors. The club was not exclusive only to Jews, but a majority of the members

were Jewish, at least in the club’s early years. The club was formed in 1925 by eight actors, who

wanted a place to promote sociability and practice their art form. The club also began to produce

their own films, explaining, why Lewis Milestone, a film director joined the club, when the

majority of the members were actors. All of these clubs served different members of society,

145 "Hollywood Athletic Club | History." Hollywood Athletic Club History Comments. 2015. Accessed September 16, 2017. Hollywood Athletic Club (http://www.thehollywoodathleticclub.com/history/) 146 Membership -- Hollywood Athletic Club, 1927-1929, Collection 6, Folder 23, Lewis Milestone papers, 1926- 1978, Lewis Milestone papers, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 147 Lewis Milestone papers. 148 Ibid. 43

Concordia for German Jews, Hillcrest for German Jews and Hollywood Jews, Hollywood

Athletic Club for Jewish or non-Jewish actors, actresses, directors, and other film staff, and of

course the Masquers club, specifically meant for actors and actresses of either variety.

Whether it was the temples or the social clubs, both served as a divider among one or

more groups of people, while connecting another. Louis B. Mayer and the Warners chose to be involved with the Wilshire Temple, placing themselves among German Jews. Their personal choices adhered to their personalities, wanting to be part and among the Los Angeles Jewish elites. Samuel Goldwyn, on the other hand, lived a secular life and remained that way through the years. Al Jolson went to the temple that allowed and wanted actors to perform for financial needs. The temples and the clubs up into the 1930s, divided the moguls from the rest of the

Hollywood film industry’s Jews, but it brought them into the same circle as the Western

European Jews, elevating them to the same class level. Hollywood moguls had acquired a new status in the Los Angeles Jewish Community, placing themselves right next to Western European

Jews. This change in the 1930s also came due to the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe and the

United States, uniting parts of the Los Angeles Jewish Community. The need to increase

membership reversed the notion of what type of members the Jewish social clubs would begin

accepting.

Lewis Milestone among other Jews such as Samuel Goldwyn, Alla Nazimova, and Sonya

Levien was not involved religiously nor socially in the Jewish community, but some were

culturally practicing. Milestone while working for Jack Warner, would be invited to Sabbath on

Friday nights by Warner parents.149 While no evidence exists that Milestone was a practicing

149 Greenberg, Joel, "Transcript of Milestone interviews," 1971. American Film Institute-Louis B Mayer Foundation Oral History Project. Lewis Milestone Papers, Box 25, Folder 328, Special Collections, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 44

Jew; there is evidence that Milestone on occasion enjoyed Sabbath, perhaps it was that he simply

could not say no Jack Warner’s parents. Samuel Goldwyn, on the other hand, seemed to run

away from his past. Based on what has been written about the mogul, everything indicates

movement away from any form Judaism, religious or cultural. Other Jews like Sonya Levien

contributed in their own way to the Los Angeles Jewish Community. Levien “claimed to be attracted to the teachings of Orthodox Judaism, however it seems she was more of a secular

Jew.”150 Levien believed in the tzedakah, the Hebrew word for charity, the idea that it was a

Jewish duty to give to charity.151 At the same time the screenwriter also made a compromise

with her parents when she married a Protestant, to declare her kids Jewish. Aside from this, no

proof has been found to establish whether Levien was a religiously practicing Jew. The

screenwriter did teach about the Jewish culture through her writing. The screenwriter brought

Jewish thematically written stories about life on the Lower East Side, first to magazines, then to

Hollywood. While the majority of Levien’s work was fostered around melodrama, the stories

were based on the people in her life and came from Levien’s own experiences.152

On the opposite side of Sonya Levine stood Alla Nazimova. Nazimova stayed away from

her Jewish roots. At a young age, Nazimova was not aware of her Jewish roots, and once it was

known to her, the future silent film actress still had to hide it. A good portion of her theatrical

acting career, Nazimova spent touring. Throughout the tours, Nazimova had to hide her Jewish

roots if she was to appear in various theaters around Russia and parts of Western Europe. Anti-

Semitism had been at an all-time high. While no records exist that point her to following any sort

150Sherry Levy-Reiner, "Sonya Levien", Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia, Jewish Women's Archive, 2009, Retrieved 20 April 2018. Sonya Levien (https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/levien-sonya). 151 Ginsberg, 78. 152Patricia Brett Erens, "Sonya Levien." In Jane Gaines, Radha Vatsal, and Monica Dall’Asta, eds. Women Film Pioneers Project, Center for Digital Research and Scholarship, New York, NY: Columbia University Libraries, 2013. 20 April 2018. Sonya Levien (https://wfpp.cdrs.columbia.edu/pioneer/ccp-sonya-levien/) 45

of Judaism, culturally nor religiously, Alla Nazimova like other Jews would have had a hard time escaping anti-Semitism. Nazimova had a difficult childhood, an abusive father, a mother who left the kids and the abusive husband, and siblings whom she was never able to get close to until the actress rose to fame. Jewish traditions were never taught to her and therefore never seemed important to Nazimova. Even if Nazimova wanted to discover the Jewish traditions, Judaism would have rejected her at the time. As many religions of the time, Judaism was not accepting of the type of life Alla Nazimova was living. The type of gatherings that occurred in the Garden of

Allah, a residential hotel, would not have been appropriate in the eyes of any organized religion at the time. Alla Nazimova just as Samuel Goldwyn, seemed to shun away from their past, mostly their Jewish past.

As the population grew in Los Angeles, part of it, of course, being the Jewish population, so did the anti-Semitism. Louis B. Mayer felt this anti-Semitism in different corners of his life.

Wanting a better education for his daughters and the need to have his children attend the same school as the other film industry’s children, Mayer fought for their acceptance into the

Hollywood School for Girls, a private coed school which did not accept Jews. Mayer’s daughters were accepted with his persistence. However, most Jews were excluded from the best schools in

Los Angeles. Daughter of Jesse Lasky, Bette Lasky, could not attend Westlake School for Girls and had to attend public school.153 Other schools such as Black-Foxe Military Academy located

in Beverly Hills accepted Jews for admission but seemed to be not accepting of them.154 Beverly

Hills Academy, a private school that already had some Jewish students, had a policy of not

allowing Jews into their school. Anti-Semitism affected all aspects of their lives. Many

153 Gabler, 272. 154 Jack L. Warner’s son attended the school. While there seemed to be no evidence that Warner’s son had a hard time in the school, others who attended a Beverly Hills Military Academy, recalled anti-Semitic behavior. 46

Hollywood Jews were big gamblers, “yet the premier track in Los Angeles, Santa Anita,” just as

other establishments, “had an unspoken policy excluding Jews.”155 Just as everywhere else, Jews

went back to the same solution, they would create a track of their own. Creating their own

establishments, committees, organizations, or companies became the optimal way for Hollywood

Jews, and other Jews in the Los Angeles Jewish Community to operate. As Gabler points out, “to

the Los Angeles gentiles, all Jews, regardless of rank, were suspect and their hands were to be

kept from the levers of power.”156

Jews in Hollywood were excluded from social clubs as well. According to Gabler, “none

of the country clubs accepted Jews,” clubs that were within walking distance of major studios and some near their homes.157 The Los Angeles Country Club was located right next to Fox

Studios, while the Santa Monica Beach Club was located near the homes of Jesse Lasky and

Louis B. Mayer.158 Other social clubs, such as the University Club and California Club did allow

Jewish members. However, they were treated as pariahs. As the Los Angeles Jewish population increased, they became more than a mere pest that clubs had to put up with, and more what they considered to be a Jewish problem.159 Social clubs became another area where Jews were

forbidden. Instead, clubs such as Hillcrest Courtney Club were created. Nevertheless, Hollywood

Jews were still denied entrance in its heyday.160

The discrimination faced by the Hollywood Jews not only came from some of the non-

Jewish community but other Jewish groups as well. Hollywood Jews created an industry that

from its beginnings with the Nickelodeons, a cheaper form of entertainment, had been linked to

155 Gabler, 263. 156 Ibid, 272. 157 Gabler, 273. 158 Ibid, 273. 159 Ibid. 160 This would change after the Depression. 47

the lower class. So not only were they not American enough for one group, not Traditional

enough for the other, but the industry they created was considered not respectable. Mayer and

other moguls were ostracized by what seemed to be most Western European Jews who were well

off. As Rabbi Edgar Magnin stated referring to Hollywood moguls, “They were men who made

all that money and realized they were still a bunch of Goddamned Jews."161 Mayer, in the earlier

years of his Hollywood life, tried to hide his Jewishness, going as far as selecting his birthday to

be on 4th of July. To Mayer, being Americanized as much as possible would mean to be accepted

in a highly Protestant Los Angeles. The mogul would never truly give up his Judaism, only to let

more and more out as the years passed and his success grew. Goldwyn faced the same anti-

Semitism in Hollywood that he faced in the East, where large commercial banks chiefly wanted

to stay away from being involved with the movie industry, especially businesses ran by Jews.

The mogul did find one exception, an Italian Catholic banker named Amadeo Peter Giannini.162

Giannini founded the Bank of Italy in 1904, later to become Bank of America, specializing in

offering loans to small farmers and businessmen, especially Italian immigrants, who suffered a

similar disposition in California as Jews, they were considered outsiders.163 Goldwyn departed from his Jewish roots by marrying a Catholic, and by allowing his son to be named after himself, which went against Jewish traditions. The mogul tried to shed any part of Judaism, at least until the 1930s, but even he faced some form of anti-Semitism. Hollywood Jews were not the only ones ostracized by their own. Eastern European Jews felt the push from Western European Jews.

The divide was so deep, that both groups, Eastern European Jews and Western European Jew,

161 Scott Eyman. Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005, p. 163. 162 Stephen Birmingham. The Rest of Us: The Rise of America’s Eastern European Jews. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1999, 197. 163 Ibid. 48

created their own hospitals, Kaspare Cohn and Mt. Sinai.164

Conclusion

The first Jews who arrived and helped begin Los Angeles could not have imagined how

their community would grow within a short amount of years. More and more Western European

Jews arrived, culturally assimilating among the non-Jews, some joining the local politics, helping create a police force, and others building a small Jewish community. As years passed, and pogroms increased in Eastern Europe, the Eastern European Jews began arriving. The Jews from

Western Europe began to fear that the new arrivals would bring them trouble and that the status

quo would change. The Los Angeles Jews looked down on these new arrivals but wanted to help

them assimilate, creating philanthropy organizations in charge of acculturating the recently

arrived Eastern European Jews. However, most of these new arrivals were not as willing to

assimilate; they wanted to keep the old Jewish traditions and their culture. In the midst of these divisive times, the third group of Jews had risen, the Hollywood Jews. On the outside, the group

would help bridge the divide between Western European Jews, Hollywood Jews, and Eastern

European Jews, without even realizing it. Louis B. Mayer, Samuel Goldwyn, Warner brothers,

Al Jolson, Alla Nazimova, and Lewis Milestone, among others in the Hollywood movie industry, would become the movers and the shakers transforming the Los Angeles Jewish Community socially and culturally.

As the new arrivals, these Hollywood Jews faced criticism, isolation, and in some cases segregation. The Hollywood Jews were not cultured enough for the Western European Jews and were not religious enough for the Eastern European Jews. This type of segregation also caused

164 Gabler, 271. German Jews created Kaspare Cohn and Easter European Jews created Mt. Sinai. 49

friction among Hollywood’s Eastern European Jews, creating a divide between Hollywood

Moguls and actors, actresses, directors, and technical staff within which temple one belonged

and to the type of social clubs they belong to. As the Los Angeles Jewish Community

transformed and grew, so did the Hollywood studio system, one affecting the other and vice

versa. The three groups seemed to be more cohesive by the 1930s possibly because of the rise of

anti-Semitism in Europe. They were facing a new threat, a threat coming out of Europe. The late

1930s and early 1940s seemed like it would be a turning point for the Los Angeles Jewish

Community. Jews of the Hollywood industry who may not have been involved before

philanthropically, became involved now. Others began making films that were more supportive

of Jews. However, the division between the moguls and the talent in the Hollywood movie

industry would grow even further, and take on a new form.

Economic forces that lead to the Great Depression affected the Hollywood movie industry in some unexpected ways. As financial institutions began cutting off access to loans, movie moguls needed to figure out ways to stay afloat. One way was to cut salaries for actors, actresses, screenwriters, and directors. Screenwriters were already suffering under the thumbs of many of the moguls, who would take them off projects at will. Screenwriters did not have any protection. Facing salary cuts, and wanting more credit on films they worked on, screenwriters formed The Screen Writers Guild as a union in 1933. It began as an informal club in 1920 and turned into an organization that fought for the rights of authors of screenplays to establish screen credit standards. The members included Donald Ogden Stewart, Charles Brackett, John Bright,

Philip Dunne, Dorothy Parker, and Sonya Levien among others.

Louis B. Mayer and Jack Warner responded in kind by forming the Screen Playwrights to 50

break up the union and by refusing to hire Guild members.165 The Screen Playwrights forced

writers into the company union. However most of the top screenwriters refused, and the

company union failed. In 1938, the Screenwriters Guild petitioned the National Labor Relations

Board and won their right to unionize.166 Sonya Levien remained with The Screen Writers Guild,

serving as a member of their Awards Committee.167

Screenwriters, however, were not the only ones to unionize. The Screens Actors Guild

began just as The Screen Writers Guild, out of a social club. In 1925, the Masquers Club was

formed by actors who were not dissatisfied with the working conditions at the Hollywood

studios. However, actors were not the only individuals that belonged to the club. Directors such

as Lewis Milestone joined the club as well. While the club continued to operate, forces that led

to the Great Depression continued to impact the actors. The dissatisfaction and cut in salaries

lead a group of six actors, Berton Churchill, Charles Miller, Grant Mitchell, Ralph Morgan,

Alden Gay, and Kenneth Thomson to form The Screen Actors Guild in 1933.168 Fifteen of the

Guild's original twenty-one board of directors and officers were part of the Masquers Club.169

Initially many of the high-profile actors, worried about being ostracized by the studio

moguls, refused to join the Screen Actors Guild. However, before long, more actors came to join

the Guild, as producers agreed to no longer bid competitively for talent. Actors were trapped in

multi-year, exclusive contracts, and were unable to choose films to their liking. Those that tried

to protest were set aside, blacklisted until what the producers would see as them coming to their

165 Deborah Martinson. Lillian Hellman: A Life with Foxes and Scoundrels. New York: Counterpoint, 2005, 127. 166 Martison, 136. 167 "Writers Guild Foundation : On the Shoulders of Giants: Early Guild History." Writers Guild Foundation. Accessed September 17, 2017. Writers Guild Foundation : On the Shoulders of Giants: Early Guild History (https://www.wgfoundation.org/books/on-the-shoulders-of-giants-writers-guild-history/#page/1/mode/1up), 6. Image on page 6, lists Sonya Levien as a member of the Screenwriters Guild Awards Committee in 1934. 168 Douglas Gomery. The Hollywood Studio System: A History. London: BFI, 2008, 190. 169 "SAG History." SAG-AFTRA. 2018. Accessed September 17, 2017. SAG History (https://www.sagaftra.org/history/sag). 51

senses170.

However, the real blacklisting in the Hollywood film industry would come years later

beginning in the 1940s. The majority of the scholarship on this topic maintains that this was not

mere coincidence. The anti-Semitic attitudes of the time linked Judaism to communism. Lewis

Milestone along with other Hollywood Jews would be called to appear before the House of Un-

American Activities Committee. What is known, is that Lewis Milestone was blacklisted among

members who were exceedingly vocal against anti-Semitism.

The anti-Semitism continued along with the division in the Hollywood film industry. The

two temples, the Wilshire Boulevard Temple and the Temple Israel of Hollywood still stand

today, representing the complexities of the Jewish community in Los Angeles and Hollywood.

One temple represented the wealthier side of the Hollywood film industry, and the other smaller

and less prestigious, yet both shared one common Eastern European ancestry. One can easily

find images and information regarding the former B’nai B’rith Congregation, known now as the

Wilshire Boulevard Temple if one knows where and how to look. However, information

regarding the Temple Israel of Hollywood is scarce and so is any old photographs of the temple.

One reason has everything to do with both of their formations. The Wilshire Boulevard Temple

was born out of the B’nai B’rith Congregation, whose history traces back to the beginnings of

Los Angeles and Western European Jewry elite. Whereas, the Temple Israel of Hollywood

beginnings trace back to 1926 and to a Hollywood film industry group that was not as well of as those who helped finance The Wilshire Boulevard Temple. The size and the prestige of the two temples provide another example of the divisiveness that existed between the Hollywood moguls and the talent of the Hollywood film industry. While both temples serve the Los Angeles Jewish

170 "How SAG Was Founded." SAG-AFTRA. 2018. Accessed September 17, 2017. How SAG Was Founded (https://www.sagaftra.org/history/how-sag-was-founded/how-sag-was-founded). 52

Community, one cannot help but to compare the two, their beginnings, and what the two temples represented when the Hollywood Jews searched for their niche in the early days of Los Angeles. 53

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