Oon December 7, in 1941, the movie business in America had a massive setback after Japanese planes launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
The act propelled the United States into World War II. This wasn't good for Hollywood, obviously. Movie attendance dropped dramatically, with revenues dipping up to 50 per cent.
Interestingly, this was a temporary setback. According to some estimates, 90 million Americans went to the movies every week during the war. All shows began with a newsreel showing Hitler, Pearl Harbor, or Roosevelt meeting Winston Churchill.
This was followed by a cartoon, and the main attraction -- usually a movie about American heroes fighting the enemy. The stars took on all kinds of life-or-death missions. Even the titles -- Destination Tokyo, Flying Tigers, Objective, Burma!, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo -- were meant to give audiences back home a taste of the war.
That tragedy continues to give the industry fodder was proved a week ago, when filmmaker Ram Gopal Verma made his inexplicable appearance at the Taj in Mumbai just after the terror attacks on the financial capital.
Text: Preetee Brahmbhatt
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