"The Jazz Singer" and Hollywood Empire (1927) w/ Walt Hickey
This Day in Esoteric Political History
Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia
4.6 • 982 Ratings
🗓️ 22 October 2023
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It’s October 22nd. This day in 1927, Americans are flocking to the theaters to watch “The Jazz Singer,” the first major “talkie” film.
Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Walt Hickey to discuss how Hollywood became a major economic and political force in the aftermath of WWI, and how it the soft power of American entertainment started to shape the world.
Walt’s new book is “You Are What You Watch” — preorder it now and get a free poster!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia. |
| 0:07.0 | My name is Jody Avergan. |
| 0:09.0 | This day, October 1927, let's go to the movies, and in particular a new kind of movie that is |
| 0:18.2 | sweeping the nation, the talkie, moving pictures but now with sound. |
| 0:23.0 | The jazz singer is the first major talkie |
| 0:25.0 | and it is out in this moment a total sensation |
| 0:28.0 | and it is turning Hollywood into an absolute economic juggernaut. |
| 0:32.0 | And it's also transforming Hollywood into a political juggernaut. And it's also transforming Hollywood into a |
| 0:34.3 | political juggernaut because the rise of the film industry and America's |
| 0:37.9 | leading role in that rise came right alongside America's ascendancy as a global power. |
| 0:43.4 | So much so that around this same time, the Prince of Wales and others in the United Kingdom |
| 0:48.0 | were sounding the alarm that the film industry was kind of an existential threat to the British Empire as they fell behind the |
| 0:55.0 | United States. |
| 0:56.0 | So let's talk about how Hollywood fueled American Empire and the rise of the soft power of |
| 1:00.6 | mass entertainment. |
| 1:02.1 | Here, as always, |
| 1:03.1 | Nikola Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley. |
| 1:06.0 | Hello there. |
| 1:07.0 | Hello Jody. |
| 1:08.0 | Hey there. |
| 1:09.0 | And our special guest for this episode, we're so excited to have him on the one and only Walt Icky my former |
| 1:13.9 | colleague at 538 now works on the data desk at insider writes this brilliant |
... |
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