Schmuel Gelbfisz, Lazar Meir and the Wonsal brothers are not names that immediately come to mind when thinking about Hollywood legends, but Samuel Goldwyn, Louis B. Mayer and the Warner brothers are. These monumental Hollywood figures changed their given Jewish names to ones they thought would be more palatable to Americans in the early 20th century in hopes of increasing their chances of success.
While their studios had tremendous accomplishments, creating some of the best films of all time, these men’s birth names are not widely known. The Academy Museum is aiming to change that. A new exhibition titled “Hollywoodland: Jewish Founders and the Making of a Movie Capital,” which opens Sunday to the public, explores the stories of the Jewish filmmakers and studio founders who helped cement the Los Angeles area as the world capital of entertainment.
It will be the museum’s first permanent exhibition. “We want people to come away with a richer understanding of how this city is so intertwined with this industry and also a deeper understanding of why this is specifically a Jewish immigrant story,” said Dara Jaffe, an associate curator at the Academy Museum, who spearheaded the exhibition. The immersive exhibition traces the development of the major Hollywood studios and the golden age of film in the early 20th century through the perspective of Jewish immigrants who were at the heart of the industry’s establishment.
Since it opened in 2021, the Academy Museum has been.