Treasures of the Area Studies Collections: Reconsidering Primary Sources and Collections

Gollivud: Amerikanskii kino-gorod

Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Among Yale’s plentiful holdings on Soviet life, there is a significant amount of material relating to Soviet theater and filmmaking, dating back to its earliest development. In the early Soviet period, directors, writers, and other artists paid attention to cinematic developments in the West and cultivated interest in the great stars of the era, including the comedians Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, the famed dramatic actresses Lillian Gish and Gloria Swanson, and many others. One Soviet writer interested in American cinema was Alisa Rosenbaum, later known as Ayn Rand. This pamphlet, titled Hollywood: the American movie city, was published the same year Rand relocated to the United States and embarked on a screenwriting career. Though she would become much more well-known for her novels and Objectivist philosophy, she remained an active presence in the world of Hollywood as, among other things, a member of the anti-Communist Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals.

Public

https://collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/16188784