The Hollywood tale begins in the 1920s.
It was a time when most major studio heads were decidedly on the conservative side of the political aisle.
So how did the entertainment industry veer into the leftist stratosphere it finds itself adrift in today?
Well, the process seemed to begin after some Hollywood-related scandals caused quite a bit of public embarrassment, which prompted the studios to become more proactive in terms of controlling the inner workings of the movie business.
Rather than having to bow to government regulators, the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America hired a former U.S. postmaster general by the name of Will Hays to help develop guardrails for movie production.
In 1933, Hays pushed the film industry to adopt what would come to be known as the Hays Code, which established rules that set boundaries pertaining to onscreen depictions of sex and crime.
Films, and eventually television content, that conformed to the code received a seal of approval upon which the movie-going public could rely, particularly families with children.
Bu then, a pivotal event occurred in the late 1940s, which resulted in a transformation of the industry itself.
Some of the intellectuals around town, who were purportedly sympathetic to communist ideology, were investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee.
The Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals provided to the committee the names of those who were alleged to be communists as well as those who supported communist organizations.
Notable entertainment figures of the time, including Gary Cooper, Ronald Reagan, Robert Taylor, Sterling Hayden, and Edward G. Robinson named names and/or expressed concern about subversive content of screenplays.
Most of the names that were named were those of screenwriters. A select group of blacklisted individuals became known as the "Hollywood Ten."
Hollywood is still burdened with an obsession over the blacklist era.
Movies that deal with the subject are continuously being produced: "Good Night, and Good Luck," "The Front," "Guilty by Suspicion," "Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg," "The Majestic," and two biopics, both titled "Trumbo" based on blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, just to name a few.
At the time of the blacklist and up until the late 1960s, Hollywood was structured along the lines of what came to be called the "studio system."
This top-down model was controlled by five major movie studios known as the Big Five, and three smaller studios known as the Little Three.
The Big Five was comprised of Paramount, Warner Bros., RKO Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and 20th Century Fox.
The Little Three were United Artists, Universal, and Columbia Pictures.
Interestingly, today’s largest and most powerful company, Disney, was not part of either the Big Five or the Little Three.
The studio system, as well as Hollywood’s Golden Era, took a hit both in power and influence as a result of a landmark Supreme Court decision, United States v. Paramount, 334 U.S. 131 (1948), an antitrust case.
Originally filed a decade earlier, the landmark case shocked the entertainment industry with language that called for the complete separation of ownership of movie theaters from film production and distribution, effectively terminating the studio system.
This legal decision, along with the continuing backlash against the blacklist, ended up being the catalyst for Hollywood’s extreme leftward tilt.
The studios opened up to independent filmmakers, and by the early 1960s the Hays Code had been replaced by a rating system that had been implemented by the newly formed Motion Picture Association of America, the same rating system that the industry uses to this day.
A new breed of filmmakers began to produce titles with defiant, rebellious, and anti-conventional themes, such as "Easy Rider," "Midnight Cowboy," and "Carnal Knowledge."
By the late 1970s, its metamorphosis was evident. Hollywood continued over the years to become ever more left-wing, which cultivated the soil from which the unimpeded weeds of wokeness grew.
So here we are stuck with the 96th Academy Awards ceremony that recently aired, which, among other things, had imposed a set of DEI rules for a nominee to qualify for the Best Picture Oscar.
Needless to say, the DEI rules are at a minimum a profound obstacle to the creative process and another truly divisive thorn in our culture’s side.
Veteran actor Richard Dreyfuss gave a candid response to the Academy’s DEI standards, after they had been revealed to the public.
"They make me vomit," Dreyfuss said. "Because this is an art form, it’s also a form of commerce, and it makes money, but it’s an art."
Is life imitating art or art imitating life?
In a woke world, it’s anybody’s guess.
James Hirsen, J.D., M.A., in media psychology, is a New York Times best-selling author, media analyst, and law professor. Visit Newsmax TV Hollywood. Read James Hirsen's Reports — More Here.