Academy Museum Deletes ‘Predator,’ ‘Tyrant’ and ‘Frugal Approach’ From Jewish Founders Exhibit | Exclusive

The organization promised to address concerns “immediately” on Monday

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles (Credit: Getty Images)
Adam Chitwood, TheGrill 2023
and
Sharon Waxman

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on Wednesday enacted changes to its exhibit about the Jewish founders of Hollywood, removing words like “predator” and “tyrant” to describe industry pioneers just two days after vowing to “immediately” address outcry from many who deemed the exhibit antisemitic.

Panels in the exhibit were swapped out with new text.

A description of Hollywood’s Golden Age as a period of “oppressive control” has been removed on the Studio Origins panel, while a bio for Universal’s Carl Laemmle has removed a reference to “nepotism” as earning him his moniker “Uncle Carl.”

On the Warner Bros. panel, a “frugal approach” has been replaced by “smaller budgets” and the description of Jack Warner as a “womanizer” has been removed.

Adam Chitwood, TheGrill 2023

Adam Chitwood

Adam joined TheWrap in 2021 after working for over a decade at Collider, where he spent five years as Managing Editor after previously serving as Deputy Editor at the entertainment website. He helped build and manage the site’s content strategy, streaming recommendations library and even dabbled in awards season coverage while also overseeing day-to-day operations…
Sharon Waxman

Sharon Waxman

Sharon Waxman, is the founder, CEO and Editor in Chief of TheWrap. She is an award-winning journalist and best-selling author, and was a Hollywood correspondent for The New York Times. Twitter: @sharonwaxman

Comments

One response to “Academy Museum Deletes ‘Predator,’ ‘Tyrant’ and ‘Frugal Approach’ From Jewish Founders Exhibit | Exclusive”

  1. Debra Levine Avatar
    Debra Levine

    The swapping-out of adjectives gives new meaning to the expression, “ethnic cleansing.” It also hearkens writing by committee, viz, the Comintern. It is pathetic to see the parsing of adjectives. Why can’t Museum people just back off? I feel more oppressed by the Museum’s insistence on conveying value judgments about the morality or sex life or frugality (er … “smaller budgets”) of the Hollywood founders than did anyone who worked for the “tyrant and predator” (er … the “reputed” “authoritarian”) Harry Cohn. The founders of Hollywood basically worked miracles, devoting their lives to forging an industry with new technologies, creating wealth in our city, giving people JOBS, appealing to audiences of ALL COLORS, dear people, ALL colors, and leaving behind something of VALUE. No one cares how some anonymous “curator” judges the people they are tasked with celebrating, now, obviously with a gun to their heads. If those behind the “Founders” fiasco do not understand how to “celebrate” the pioneers of motion pictures, just refer to the prior shows on Spike Lee and John Waters.

    And by the way, how do Spike Lee and John Waters feel about this? I would truly like to know, having traipsed through the sycophancy on view in their shows.

    Reply

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