Star Testimonials and Trailers: Mobilizing during World War I

Abstract:Hollywood's war mobilization efforts in support of the Liberty Loan Bond Drives (1917–1918) were critical to shifting government officials' perceptions of the value of commercial cinema as a tool of propaganda and cultural policy during wartime. By tracing the industry's efforts in the bond drives, and the narrative production and distribution of the Liberty Loan propaganda films in particular, this article shows how the patriotic film star testimonial became an expedient ideological mechanism. The propaganda films reinforced perceptions held by some political elites of commercial film as lowbrow as they also signaled a new manner of effectively linking popular culture with state power to promote unified national identity during crisis.