Industrial recruiters pinned hopes on Upton Sinclair (!)

On this day in 1934: In an unlikely industrial recruitment session at the Sir Walter Hotel in Raleigh, Chamber of Commerce officials from across the state discuss what to do if (in the words of The News & Observer) Upton Sinclair, the Big Bad Wolf of California politics, chases the Three Little Pigs and the rest of the movie people out of Hollywood.”

Novelist Sinclair’s socialistic gubernatorial campaign does indeed have the moguls in a swivet, but his big lead vanishes — in large part because of Hollywood’s ahead-of-its-time newsreel propaganda — and North Carolina will have to wait half a century to welcome its [recently shrunken] moviemaking colony.

 

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