Hollywood studio nominal contracts secured German exile visas and incomes

Evidence

A colony of German immigrants had formed in and around Hollywood. Most had come because of Hollywoodactors, writers and musicians who were working in the film industry, or hoping to. By giving nominal contracts to a whole series of writersto Heinrich Mann, for instancefilm companies such as MGM and Warner Brothers had made it possible for them to get visas and have a secure income, at least to begin with. For many of them, it was a case of `expulsion into paradise’. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1211

Categorization

• SHARE: The detail that MGM and Warner gave ‘nominal contracts’ to German writers specifically to get them US visas is a nicely specific institutional fact worth sending to anyone interested in exile history.
• QUESTION: How did nominal-contract immigration actually work legally, and what fraction of these arrivers were real film workers versus writers-extraneous-to-cinema?
• XREF: connects to: German émigré colonies in Hollywood recreated the Weimar literary world in exile — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1212; The Hollywood film industry drew émigré composers to Los Angeles. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1213

Broader Connections

• The Hollywood film industry drew émigré composers to Los Angeles. #expands (0.80) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1213