Salisbury Stakes: Twentieth Century-Fox, Segregated Cinemas, and the Making of an International Crisis in Colonial Zimbabwe, 1959–1961

Examinations of Hollywood’s influence overseas often center on its film distribution and marketing operations in foreign markets. There is, however, scant research analyzing the influence of the hundreds of cinemas Twentieth Century-Fox, Paramount, MGM, and Warner Bros. operated around the world between 1925 and 2013. This article examines Fox’s ownership of the largest cinema circuit in Africa, its enforcement of racial segregation, and the diplomatic crisis it created for the Eisenhower administration. Focusing on the 1959 opening of the Royal Cinema in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, this article examines how Hollywood’s exhibition practices in Africa undermined the State Department’s public relations mission.