Ryan Murphy's Hollywood Reimagines History

Ryan Murphy's "Hollywood," is a new Netflix mini-series that aired on May 1st, and tells the story of small cast of characters who are trying to make their dreams come true in Hollywood in the years after World War II. It's not historically accurate, in that it imagines the Hollywood the filmmaker wants to exist, and not the one that actually exists. There isn't really anyway to talk about this show without offering spoilers, so be ware that there will be some in this post.

The first episode introduces us to the characters, and how they're assimilating into the Hollywood system, and at this point, it's the dark, "chew them up and spit them out" Hollywood that was probably close to accurate. Camille, an African American actress who is part of the fictional 'Ace Studios' as a contract actor, is relegated to stereotypical parts, such as maids, and told to act more like "Mammie from Gone with the Wind," despite being the most talented actress within the pool of new actresses. Jack Castello has leading man looks, but in order to make ends meet, he has to become a gigolo. Archie Coleman, a gay African American character is in seemingly the most and least hopeful positions at the beginning, he has written a screenplay and by blind submission it has been picked for production; he also is turning tricks in local porn theaters to survive.

The first episode is bleak, and you'd be forgiven for thinking "oh, in the current 2020 TV landscape, where thinks seem to go from bleak to bleaker, I just don't want to continue this show." Unlike shows like Ozark (I love Ozark, but it's never going to make me feel 'good'), Hollywood starts out bleak so that it can head upward. Through a series of unlikely events, we get to see things fall into place so that all of our downtrodden heroes get their chances, and while there are obstacles, they manage to make it work.

The film that Archie has written, was originally about Peg Entwistle, who infamously jumped off the Hollywoodland sign to her death, but is rewritten to allow it to tell the story of an African American actress, with Camille starring in it. We see the film struggle with the Hays Code, and boycotting in the south, as well as burning crosses, and other threats, but the characters all fight and struggle to get it made and succeed. When it finally gets made there are a few obstacles impeding the film's success, such as studio executives and lawyers trying to undermine the interim studio head who has championed the film. When they finally get to release, they adopt the 'wide release' that we know as a standard for studio films today, but was unheard of back then. The film is a massive hit.

Now, we come to the part that I really wanted to write about, the thing that I really found the most interesting as the show neared its close, was how they used the films financial success, and Academy Awards success, to rewrite history. Leading up to the final episodes, we see a few key appearances by real Hollywood figures. Rock Hudson plays Archie's boyfriend throughout most of the series, Queen Latifah plays Hattie McDaniel, and Anna May Wong appears several times throughout.

Going into the Academy Awards ceremony, Camille meets with Hattie McDaniel who tells her what her own Oscar night had been like, how she wasn't allowed in the main room until the time to announce Supporting Actress came, how the better parts never came, and how there was a feeling of resentment that she never escaped. She tells Camille that she needs to do what she can to not suffer the same indignity. When the ceremony comes, the doorman tries to keep her out despite her having a ticket to a front row seat, she stands her ground, with the rest of the cast and crew behind her, and walks in to take her seat.

Archie, who has been frustrated not only by racial intolerance but having to remain quiet about his sexuality in public, tells the studio head that he plans on bringing Rock Hudson with him as his date. For those who don't know, Hudson was not out to the public until after his death from AIDS in 1985. Everyone is under the impression that Hudson's career will never happen due to his coming out.

Lastly, Anna May Wong, who was one of the best actresses, but never got the chance to play anything other than Asian stereotypes in real life, was given the chance to play a breakout role in "Meg" (the new name since it was no longer about Peg Entwistle), and wins an Academy Award.

The thing that I really loved about them taking this alternative route, was that they gave all three actors more dignified endings than their real lives did. Hattie McDaniel was at the ceremony and treated with the respect by "Meg"'s cast and crew in the green room after Camille's leading actress win. In real life, Hattie McDaniel never lived to see another African American actress win (the next was Whoopi Goldberg in 1990 for "Ghost"), and never saw a Leading Actress win at all (the first and currently only win was Halle Berry in 2001 for "Monster's Ball"). Anna May Wong, wins an Academy Award, and thanks the Academy for giving her the award for a performance that is not playing a stereotype, not playing a role that would have been her only option to receive prior to film. In the epilogue, a year or so after the Academy Awards, we see that Rock Hudson is going to be starring in the first studio backed gay romantic film, which Archie has written, and it's clear they have the full backing of the studio, and the implication is that the film has a chance at success, one that it would not have had at beginning of the show.

The film gives these three actors, who were to some degree kept from full realization of the lives that they would have wanted in real life, that realization, and that dignity. It doesn't show us if they struggled afterwards, or if they were successful, because being treated like a human, as you are isn't a guarantee of success or a solution to all of your problems, and the show draws that line, to ensure we don't think they had fantasy lives for the rest of their time.

One last thing that I would like to talk about, is the film that won the Academy Award in real life, the year that "Meg" supposedly won. The film was "Gentleman's Agreement," starring Gregory Peck. If you're not familiar with the film, it is the story of a reporter who as an experiment for a story, begins telling everyone in his life that he is Jewish. He immediately begins to see the antisemitism that was faced by many Jewish people at the time, much of which they still face today. I think having "Meg" beat out "Gentleman's Agreement," was a good choice, because the goal that "Meg" appears to achieve, and the one that "Gentleman's Agreement" aims to, are the same. There is a speech by Anne Revere, who plays Gregory Peck's mother in the film, in which she says, "Maybe it won't be the American century after all, or the Russian century or the atomic century. Wouldn't it be wonderful if it turned out to be everybody's century when people all over the world—free people— found a way to live together?" It was such a hopeful scene, one that came out 8 years before the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement, 22 years before the Stonewall Riots. It's a speech, that 73 years later hasn't been fully realized, but based on the hope in her voice, you would have thought it would be wrapped up and fixed decades ago.

"Hollywood" in the prologue, has that same hope, but this time, we know it isn't going to come true in real life, it's a bittersweet reminder of how things could, and should have been. It should have been everyone's century, but it wasn't, but in "Hollywood," maybe it was.