Epic Answers: How to End Poverty in California.

90 years ago, author and former Socialist Upton Sinclair entered the race for Governor of California as a Democrat, hoping to better the lives of common people and the unemployed. Upset at the idea that taxes would be raised on the wealthy and independent film production would assist the unemployed, rich Hollywood moguls colluded to destroy his campaign with the first use of negative advertising in mass media, setting the stage for what we see today in political campaigns.

The motion picture industry had long profited off of Sinclair and his works. In 1914, his muckraking novel “The Jungle” was adapted into a feature film. Director Alice Guy Blache helmed the 1917 film “The Adventurer,” about a young woman trying to honestly survive in a cold and cruel city. In 1920, Director Jack Conway produced “The Moneychangers” for Benjamin B . Hampton Productions. Most importantly, MGM produced the hard hitting melodrama “The Wet Parade” starring Walter Huston, Robert Young, Neil Hamilton, and a young Myrna Loy, detailing two families’ struggles against demon alcohol during Prohibition. Sinclair specifically wrote the book to demonstrate the deep need for Prohibition, reflecting his father’s and two uncles’ struggles with and later deaths due to alcoholism and its effects on his family. Continue reading →