Hollywood's Overseas Campaign: The North Atlantic Movie Trade, 1920–1950

by Ian C. Jarvie

Hollywood's Overseas Cammpaign is a history of how the American film industry succeeded in dominating the film markets of Canada and Great Britain in the period 1920-1950. Written in three parts, the book shows how well organized and effective the American industry was overseas, addressing Hollywood operations in Canada and various unsuccessful official attempts to curb them, and in Great Britain where legislation was enacted to control them, achieving some but by no means complete success. The study deals with the complexity of the situation in the United States, where the film industry coped with internal divisions, hostile pressure groups, and ambivalent administrations and shows that the secret of success is in the mastery of organization and supply.

496 pages, Paperback

First published August 28, 1992

About the author

also published as: Ian Jarvie; I.C. Jarvie
full name: Ian Charles Jarvie

Reviews

[Malcolm Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a detailed look at the relationship between Hollywood, Canada and the UK. It has a lot of very interesting detail particularly about UK film acts and the imposition of Ad Valorem duty.The problem is that it is very dryly written, and some of the book,particularly involving the machinations of the MPAA are rather dull and a chore to get through.I am assuming that the author went to the National Archives at Kew.If so he might have a note in Ranks file that in 1949 Rank wanted to buy the RKO theatres from Howard Hughes but the Treasury blocked the transaction. What a missed opportunity.

[Tor Glanc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rich with primary sources! Big section on cinema during the Interwar period. I would recommend this for research papers.