Hollywood Histadrut : Moshe, Yetta and W.H Holden

 

Banquet in Honor of General President Hugo Ernst of the Hotel, Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union of America.

Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles, California

May 15, 1950

The images above and below were within one photo album found at an

opportunity shop on Wiltshire Boulevard in Los Angeles in August of 1999.

They represent a time frame between 1946 to 1953. Some photographs were

marked with their date, others not. As much as possible I have sequenced

them based on their respective years.

1946.1 Hebrew Master Bakers for Histadrut	1946.2 Institute of Jewish Education. 317 South Vermont.
1947.1 Office operations of the Histadrut	1948.1 November 15,1948. Pioneer Women Histadrut Chairmen.at 317S.Vermont

The photographs show quite simply a series of meetings, speeches and the

general headquarters of the Histadrut organisation in los Angeles, with one

exception of an image taken in New York.

1948.2	1948.3 January 3oth, 1948 -Landsmanchaften Division of Histadruth Campaign--at dinner for $75,000 quota.--Louis L. Silverberg, Chr., Moshe Berman, --Moshe Cohen, Director, H.J. Bilkis and Mrs.M.Porter
1949.1 March 1st, 1949. Funds for Histadrut.	1949.2 1949. H.Lipney. GL.2743

The Histadrut stands for (Hahistadrut Hakalit shel Ha'ovdim Ha'ivriyim

Be'eretz Yisrael- The General federation of Hebrew Workers in the land of

Israel). The Israel trade Union federation, founded in 1920.

1950.1 Feb.1950.Trades & Prof.Division of Histadrut	1950.2 Nov.1950
1950.3 1950	1950.4 Rally. January 12th, 1950. Dr Joseph Burslier

My searches on the Internet have not yielded much more information about the

group and their activities within the Los Angeles locale. I could neither

find any biographical information on some of the key protagonists such as

Moshe Cohen, though no doubt they are archived in some crypt far away from

net availability. What can be deduced from the photographs is that he was

the Executive secretary and his role was probably to generate funds for the

expansion and continuence of the Histadrut membership.

1950.5 January 12th, 1950. Histadrut rally. Park Manor	1950.6 Histadrut Action Commitee
1950.7 r-z---haborim	1950.8 Guest Speaker standing up. Mae Kagan.P.2

The inclusion of WH Holden(1) is not to infer that he was a member of the

Histadrut or had any motive in his alliance for that evening's photograph.

But rather to offer an image of that often unseen intersection of the

visible personality the 'Hollywood star' as a spectral portal into the

background of Hollywood's larger political processes.

1952.1 Workmen's circle.Histadrut Division. 1952-1953	1952.2 B'nai Brith Messenger reads --Israel Cabinet Crisis
1952.3 1952	1952.4 Moshe Cohen

1952.5	1953.1 1953
1953.2 June, 1953. NYC Officers & Staff Workers	1953.3 Moshe Cohen

1954.1 February 17th, 1954	Unknown
Unknown	Unknown

1. William Holden was an actor known for his great masculine charisma. An actor that gained the apex of his star in the 50's. From the outset he was an overnight success with his first role aptly titled 'Golden Boy' in 1939. But it was in 1950 that Holden secured his stardom in such challenging roles as 'Born Yesterday' and 'Sunset Boulevard'(2). It was for the latter that he received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. 2. 'Sunset Boulevard' was made at the height of Hollywood's Anti Communist witch hunts and is considered a critique of the destructive influences of the new Hollywood and the studio system by showing the decline of old Hollywood legends many years after the coming of sound.