1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year

431 Pages·4.493 MB·English

by  Thomas S. Hischak

1939
AUGUST 15—JUDY GARLAND TRIUMPHS IN THE WIZARD OF OZ. Sixteen-
year-old Garland had been featured in six films before she played Dorothy in The
Wizard of Oz, but the singer-actress didn’t become a full-fledged screen star until
this 1939 film classic. MGM gave her prominent billing in this poster, one of three
that were designed for the first release of the movie. Paramount Pictures / Photofest
© Paramount Pictures
1939
Hollywood’s
greatest Year
Thomas S. Hischak
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hischak, Thomas S. author.
Title: 1939 : Hollywood’s greatest year / Thomas S. Hischak.
Other titles: Nineteen thirty-nine
Description: Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, 2017. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016048453 (print) | LCCN 2017007081 (ebook) | ISBN
9781442278042 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781442278059 (electronic)
Subjects: LCSH: Motion pictures—United States—History—20th century.
Classification: LCC PN1993.5.U6 H545 2017 (print) | LCC PN1993.5.U6 (ebook) |
DDC 791.4309730904—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016048453
™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
For Bob Spitzer

•
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
INTRODUCTION: A CHRONICLE OF A
REMARKABLE YEAR xi
PROLOGUE: NEW YEAR’S EVE, 1938 xv
JANUARY 1
FEBRUARY 27
MARCH 53
APRIL 85
MAY 111
JUNE 137
JULY 161
AUGUST 185
SEPTEMBER 217
OCTOBER 247
NOVEMBER 283
DECEMBER 315
vii
CONTENTS
EPILOGUE: NEW YEAR’S DAY, 1940 347
APPENDIX A: INTERNATIONAL FILMS 349
APPENDIX B: CARTOON AND LIVE-ACTION
SHORTS 353
APPENDIX C: ACADEMY AWARDS 355
BIBLIOGRAPHY 363
INDEX 373
ABOUT THE AUTHOR 411
viii
•
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wish to thank Dr. Robert Spitzer, chair of the Political Science Depart-
ment at the State University of New York College at Cortland for his
careful reading of the manuscript and his corrections and comments on his-
torical information. Thank you also to Cathy Hischak for her proofreading
of the manuscript. At Rowman & Littlefield, I wish to acknowledge the fine
work by my editor, Stephen Ryan, and managing editor, Jessica McCleary.
ix