From the Lower East Side to Hollywood

"The contribution by Jews to American popular culture is widely acknowledged yet scarcely documented. This is the first comprehensive investigation of the formative Jewish influence upon the rise and development of American popular culture, drawing upon extensive oral histories with several generations of Jewish artists, little-utilized Yiddish scholarship, and the author's own connections with today's comic-strip artists. Buhle shows how the rich legacy of Yiddish prepared would-be artists to absorb the cultures of their surrounding environments, seeing the world through the eyes of others, and producing the talent required for theater, films, television, popular music and comics."--Jacket.

First sentence: We no longer live in the era of unabashed mainstream (or elite) anti-Semitism where ethnic vaudeville humor refers to neighborhood shylocks collecting insurance by setting fire to their small businesses, or where Catholic film censors and congressional conservatives point darkly to "Hebrew influences" among the entertainment industry's leaders and employees.

Year

2004

Language

English

Publisher

Verso

Editions

1

Pages

224

ISBN

9781859845981

Data source: Wikidata