What looked like cruelty: animal welfare in Hollywood, 1916-1950

Though animals have been present in motion pictures from the inception of the technology, to date, there has been little scholarship on the history of how animals have been used in motion pictures. This dissertation describes the history of interactions between the major American motion picture studios (metonymically, ""Hollywood"") and animal welfare advocates in the first half of the twentieth century. These interactions culminated in the establishment of the American Humane Association's Western Regional Unit (currently the Film and TV unit) in 1940, which was allied with the Production Code Administration arm of the Motion Pictures Producers and Directors of America and became the official overseers of animal welfare in Hollywood. Drawing primarily on archival sources and contemporaneous media publications, the dissertation presents case studies of the films and incidents most important to the eventual establishment of the Western Regional Unit. In particular, it addresses the realities of animal bodies on camera and behind the scenes, how humane organizations shifted their operational strategies from roundly denouncing the industry to eventually collaborating with it, and how Hollywood responded to these shifts. It aims to historically contextualize the numerous animal welfare debates of the times, to correct common contemporary misconceptions about where, when, and why humane activists protested against certain films or types of films as well as the results of these protests, and to assert the importance of these issues to both film studies and animal studies. Among the specific case studies included are: The American Animal Defense League's 1923-25 protests against the film industry, which resulted in the Motion Picture Producers and Directors of America's decision to adopt an official anticruelty clause; the jungle film cycle of the early sound period; THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE (1936) and JESSE JAMES (1939), two of the best-known film cruelty cases, both of which have always been misunderstood; and an analysis of the establishment of the AHA's Western Regional Office and the tenure of its first director, Richard C. Craven.