A Merry Twinkle in Stalin's Eye: Eric Johnston, Hollywood, and Eastern Europe

By combining analyses of primary documents held at American and Russian archives and contemporaneous trade and popular press coverage, this essay demonstrates that the MPPDA recruited Eric Johnston as its new president in 1945 because it believed he was ideally equipped to facilitate Hollywood's post-war entry into Eastern Europe, particularly the Soviet market. It argues that the MPPDA planned to dominate Eastern European markets while preventing the Soviet film industry from expanding its operations into Western Europe, and identifies the steps that were taken within the American film industry in order to facilitate its economic objectives in Eastern Europe. It focuses on Johnston's first-hand knowledge of Soviet political and economic systems and his connections to high-level Soviet Communists and business elites and examines the ways in which Johnston's public personae promised to provide a shield with which to defend Hollywood against accusations of anti-American activity and reckless profiteering.