John Ridley Quotes
Fact is, awards shows were never really about recognizing achievement. They were a publicity ploy cooked up in the late 1920s by MGM topper Louie Mayer and his newly formed Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences which was itself, back in the day, nothing but a front organization to discourage unionizing.
Ridley, John. Opinion Piece. HuffPost, 2009.
Entertainment vehicles have always been seen by politicians as potential vehicles for shaping of public opinion.
In 1892 President Harrison and the Republicans were trying to win a second term and were embarrassed by a bloody strike and riot at the Homestead steel works. Frick, the Homestead General Manager, was visited by a Republican emissary suggesting that Frick recognize the union and reduce the public embarrassment.. The Republicans lost to Grover Cleveland and the Democrats.
This quotation was reprinted and widely distributed by the CIO in its 1936 organizing drive of the Ford Motor Company
Sinclair was a writer who had written about some of the worst scandals in American politics, leaned toward socialized democracy, and decided to run as a reform candidate in California where he lived. He won the Democratic primary easily even though he had no money, political experience, or backing. He terrified the Republicans who ran one of the dirtiest campaigns in American History to defeat him spending more money than in any election up to then including the Presidential elections. Rogers, who did not usually support individual politicians, made fun of them all, but he thought that Sinclair would be a good political leader. Sinclair lost, but it was close.
The act gave unions rights of organization which they had not had before in America, but few critics ever characterized it in the over the top rhetoric which was characteristic of Nixon in his early political years.
John Ridley IV (born 1965) is an American screenwriter, television director, novelist, and showrunner, known for 12 Years a Slave, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He is also the creator and showrunner of the anthology series American Crime. His most recent work is the documentary film Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.
