The fundamental irony of Hollywood in the early half of the 20th century is that it was producing movies that portrayed core American values and ideas, yet was run by Jews who themselves did not fit the American ideal their films so aptly depicted. Just as Jews dominated Broadway, they held a virtual monopoly on Hollywood, where these immigrants reinvented American culture despite the fact that they felt that they did not fit in to the American mainstream.

Based on Neal Gabler's best-selling book about movie moguls such as Paramount's Adolph Zucker, MGM's Louis B. Mayer and Universal's Carl Laemmle, this documentary features never-before-seen home movies, extensive clips and interviews with the Jewish studio executives, theater owners, producers, writers, lawyers and talent agents who controlled the American film industry until shortly after WW II.

"The paradox is that the American film industry, which was called 'the quintessence of what we mean by America', was founded and for more than thirty years operated by Eastern European Jews who themselves seemed to be anything but the quintessence of America.... The much-vaunted studio system was supervised by a second generation of Jews, many of whom also regarded themselves are marginal men trying to punch into the American mainstream." – Neal Gabler