and Charles Laughton, who were already in the United States, refused to submit to pressure and remained as resident aliens throughout the war, filing for citizenship much later. Another method of naturalization open to Hollywood personalities, as to other immigrant groups, was through military service. Any alien in the armed services could file a petition without previously having filed a declaration or having spent the required number of years residing in the United States. 12 Among the Hollywood personalities studied, one filed a military petition-Jack Pickford, an actor and the brother of Mary Pickford. 13 A few Hollywood personalities completed petitions but were denied citizenship or were naturalized but later had their citizenship rescinded. Examples are screenwriter Laszlo Benedek, Stewart Granger, Maria Korda (actress and former wife of director Alexander Korda), George Sanders, and Maurice Tourneur. Petitions for these individuals bear a notation such as "lost citizenship," "failed to establish permanent residence," or "failed to establish good moral character," but no additional information is provided. The impact of immigrants upon Hollywood and its American dream machine cannot be overstated. This study of Hollywood's immigrants is only a beginning. There are sources yet unchecked, facts still hidden, and conclusions not yet drawn. Further study is encouraged, as is the utilization of naturalization records in the Regional Archives System for other types of research. For not only the famous are worthy of our attention. Whether they came to this nation with jobs or fame assured, or only with dreams of freedom and opportunity-naturalized citizens of every race, culture, occupation, and social position have vitally enriched American life. NOTES Diane S. Nixon is the director of the National ArchivesPacific Southwest Region (Laguna Niguel, CA). The author expresses her appreciation to the members of her staff and the volunteers who located and retrieved the records cited in this study. 'Richard Corliss, "Magic Shadows from a Melting Pot," Time (July 8, 1985): 92. 2Ibid. See also John Baxter, Hollywood Exiles (1976), pp. 1-2. 3 Patricia Erens, The Jew in American Cinema (1984), pp. 52-54, 75-77. See also Baxter, Hollywood Exiles, pp. 13– 16, and Louis D. Giannetti, Masters of the American Cinema (1981), p. 14. "Even the most successful canine film star was an "immigrant"! The original Rin Tin Tin was born in Germany in 1918. "Giannetti, Masters of the American Cinema, pp. 141, 154, 158. "Joel W. Finler, The Movie Directors Story (1985), pp. 168-169. 7Sheridan Morley, Tales from the Hollywood Raj: The Brit ish, the Movies, and Tinseltown (1983), p. 201. Ibid., pp. 65-66. "See Petitions for Naturalization, 1887-1960, Declarations of Intention, 1887-1976, Naturalization Index Cards, 1915-76, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (Los Angeles) (USDC-CC), Records of District Courts of the United States, Record Group 21, National Archives-Pacific Southwest Region, Laguna Niguel, CA (hereafter, records in the National Archives will be cited as RG, NA-[region]). 10 Naturalization Index Cards, 1915-76, RG 21, NAPacific Southwest. The 225 names were compiled following a study of Liz-Ann Bawden, Oxford Companion to Film (1976) and Leslie Halliwell, Filmgoer's Companion, 6th ed. (1977). 11Morley, Tales from the Hollywood Raj, pp. 164–176. See also Baxter, Hollywood Exiles, pp. 203-204. 12 John J. Newman, American Naturalization Processes and Procedures, 1790-1985 (1985), pp. 15-16. 13 Jack Pickford, Petition 443M, Military Petitions for Naturalization, 1918-46, USDC-CC, RG 21, NA-Pacific Southwest. Charles Laughton, like Alfred Hitchcock, stayed a resident alien throughout World War II despite pressure from British opinion. Elsa Lanchester, another Hollywood immigrant, is also mentioned in the declaration. A Question of Citizenship F By Phillip E. Lothyan National Archives - Pacific Northwest Region or many patrons of the National Archives, naturalization records evoke questions of transactions rather than policies.1 Few seem to be aware of our society's historical assumptions about citizenship, originally reserved in 1790 for free white persons of good character. It is not yet common knowledge among family historians that other than a few thousand Native Americans, most minorities were unable to acquire U.S. citizenship until after the Civil War or that Asians were precluded from citizenship as late as the Korean war. Researchers may be dissipating their resources looking for records that do not exist and overlooking civil or equity cases. involving naturalization matters, some of which reached the United States Supreme Court. Many of these cases were difficult to decide, and the courts had to review not only statutes and precedents but also conflicting scholarship in history, ethnology, and philology. These enriched case files should be of great interest to family historians researching the history of a group as background on an individual. Blacks were the first minority group to obtain U.S. citizenship en masse, but only after a civil war, an act of Congress, and a constitutional amendment (the fourteenth) had been passed. For a time, citizenship for other minorities was considered, but by 1870 the tide of public opinion had turned, and Congress chose not to make similar grants of citizenship to Asians and Native Americans.3 Indeed, in 1875 Congress hastily corrected an 1874 editorial oversight that would have admitted Asians to citizenship, and in 1882 it passed the first of several acts that excluded certain classes of Chinese from immigrating to the United States. By 1884 the Supreme Court had followed the congressional lead and placed Native American citizenship beyond the reach of the Fourteenth Amendment in Elk v. Wilkins. Native American citizenship would only henceforth be available through the workings of the Dawes Act of 1887, which required acculturation to white society. There was not a general grant of citizenship until 1924.5 Asians would have to wait until 1943 for a similar opportunity, when Congress quieted potent Japanese propaganda by rescinding the current Chinese exclusion acts. Other Asians had to wait until Cold War hostilities on the Pacific Rim prompted the passage of the McCarranWalter Immigration Act of 1952.6 Article 111. Il est réservé aux habi Article 111. The inhabitants of the ce lans du territoire cédé le choix ded territory, according to their de garder leur nationalité choice, reserving their natinal et de rentrer en Russie dans allegiance, may return to Russia l'espace de trois ans; mais - within three years; but if they S'ils préfèrent rester dans le should prefer to remain in the territoire cède ils seront admis, ceded territory, they, with theesà l'exception toutefois des tri-ception of uncivilized native bus sauvages, à jouir de tous tribes, shall be admitted to the les droits, avantages et immu enjoyment of all the rights, nités des citoyens des Etats - advantages and immunities of Unis et ils seront maintenus citizens of the United Sates, and et protégés dans le plein exer shall be maintained and protec cice de leur liberté, droit de ted in the free enjoyment of their proprieté et religion. Lestri- liberty property and religion. saurages seront assuje . The uncivilized tribes will be ties aux lois et réglemens que subject to such laws and regules Etats-Unis pourront a-lations as the United States may dopter, de tems en teins, à from time to time, adopt in rel'égard des tribus aborigines gard to aboriginal tribes of de ce pays. that country. bus Though Article III of the Alaska treaty granted citizenship to those who chose to stay under U.S. dominion, it specifically excepted "uncivilized native tribes." These people were to be subject to the same laws and regulations as applied to Native Americans on continental reservations. |