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To the Editor:
Mr. Bierstedt's rather violent review of my Hollywood, The Dream Factory in the February 1951 American Sociological Review (pp. 124-125) is a phenomenon which evokes certain questions. Is it not rather unusual for a sociological reviewer to take both his cue and his general and specific points of view, even to quoting a headline and first paragraph, from a trade paper devoted to the interests of the industry which has been studied? The book is a critical analysis of the social system of Hollywood and certainly no one would expect an editor of Variety or any other entertainment trade paper to have either knowledge of, or interest in, the concept of social system as used by anthropologists and sociologists. Nor would one expect any trade paper to be particularly objective about a book which analyzed the power structure of its industry.
Why was Mr. Bierstedt unable to understand-or perhaps the question should be rephrased, why did he not mention in his review the major premise of the book, namely, that the social system of Hollywood influences the nature of the movies it produces and the many implications developed from this premise.? The premise is clearly stated in the first paragraph of the Introduction and the implications discussed in every chapter. It would be possible to differ from the premise and its implications, or to think that the author had not given conclusive data on them. It seems to me that no serious sociological reviewer should have completely ignored both premise and implications. They were sufficiently clear to a large number of newspaper reviewers (outside of the trade papers) for their comment.
Mr. Bierstedt likewise followed the contention of the Variety review that the author regards the power structure as unique to Hollywood and he says this "shows an unusual innocence of the facts of life." Mr. Bierstedt shows an unusual innocence of the facts in the book which he reviews. The Hollywood power structure is concerned primarily with the conflict between business and art, and in the first chapter is the following paragraph:
The conflict between business and art in Hollywood is a reflection of the conflict within our culture, but is more sharply focused there than elsewhere. It is not inherent or necessary in the production of movies, but rather a point of view culturally determined and exaggerated there.
(p. 29)
In Chapter IV, "Front Office," the point is made:
Among the crucial problems of modem democracy are those which center around power, as it functions in both economic and political areas of living. (p. 82)
Comparisons are made with the power structure in other industries, in colleges, in the pre-Civil War South, as well as among the Australian aborigines. The last chapter, "Hollywood and the U.S.A." (pp. 307-332), is mainly devoted to showing that Hollywood and its power structure are not unique and an attempt was made to relate them to certain general trends in modem culture, one of which is the totalitarian view of man. Mr. Bierstedt says this requires an explanation. It certainly does, and can be found in considerable detail in the last chapter and running through the book. It is, however, not to be found in the Variety review. The reviewer again missed the point, which is made over and over again throughout the book, that the Hollywood power structure affects the content and quality of movies, while the power structure of the steel industry does not in the same way affect the quality of steel.
Furthermore, Mr. Bierstedt writes, "Most
of her information comes from the pages of Variety and
the New York Times. These are her principal, and almost
exclusive, sources." This is likewise the contention of the
Variety review with which Mr. Bierstedt is in such complete
agreement. Now, it would, indeed, be remiss for any student of
Hollywood and its product to ignore trade and any other papers
which gave data concerning it, and it would
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be easy for either the Variety reviewer or Mr. Bierstedt to catch these references since they are all documented in footnotes. But, one would expect a sociological reviewer to also recognize the results of 900 interviews and other sources such as the files of the Motion Picture Production Association on the implementation of the Code of Production. (Chapter III, "Taboos," is based mainly on these files.) All these sources are described in a section on Method in the Introduction, including the types of Informants, how they were secured, and methods in interviewing. Does the reviewer not know that the anthropologist generalizes from the accumulated results of many interviews and then selects the most typical data as examples? Actually, a serious reviewer with a knowledge of sociological and anthropological field work methods might have made some interesting comments on differences in interview methods and interpretation of data.
The rest of the review is mostly concerned with Mr. Bierstedt's objections to nine items, consisting of analogies with primitive peoples, taken from different parts of the book. It is likely that a reviewer could find, in almost any book, nine sentences or items to which he objects. It is Mr. Bierstedt's privilege not to like the particular sentences he quotes, and not to like anthropology in general. However, as a reviewer, it should have been his responsibility to have mentioned and discussed the major thesis of the book. This Mr. Bierstedt never does and none of the nine items has any connection with it.
In view of all the above, it might be relevant to inquire whether it is not an effrontery for Mr. Bierstedt to talk so glibly in the name of "American social science"?
Queens College HORTENSE POWDERMAKER
American Sociological Review, vol. 16, 1951