Harvey G. Cohen Universal

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Name: Harvey G. Cohen
City/Place: London
Country: United Kingdom

Life & Work

Bio: Harvey G. Cohen, a cultural and political historian specialising in writing and teaching about the history, business and art of the music and film industries, is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Culture, Media and Creative Industries at King's College London.

Before joining King's College London in September 2006, Harvey Cohen was a Fellow and Resident Scholar at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C., where he completed the research for his book "Duke Ellington's America," which examines Ellington's historical as well as musical significance, and was named one of the best books of the year by the Washington Post.

His 2018 book, "Who's In The Money: The Great Depression Musicals and Hollywood's New Deal" mixes culture, politics and business, focusing on the connections between the Warner Bros Great Depression Musicals and President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal programs in 1933. Harry and Jack Warner were important advocates and fundraisers of Roosevelt during his 1932 campaign, supporting his New Deal legislation in successful musicals like 42nd Street, Gold Diggers of 1933, and Footlight Parade. But while the Warner brothers posed as exemplars of the New Deal in real life and in their movies, they were attempting to reverse Roosevelt's policies within their studio and their industry. Through the manipulation of New Deal legislation, they, along with other studio moguls, sought to curtail workers' rights and salaries instead of bolstering both sides of the labour/management divide as they were supposed to do under NRA regulations, attempting to ensure the economic pain of the Depression fell as much as possible onto artists and craftsmen, not owners or management. With its tales of Hollywood stars and employees fighting to win a fair share of the proceeds of their labor, "Who's In The Money?" makes for an intriguing story of financial survival, political intrigue and backstabbing during the worst of the Great Depression.

Cohen's work has appeared in the Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, the Independent (UK), Metro International (Sweden and Denmark), at Jazz At Lincoln Center, The American Film Institute, Film Forum NYC, London Jazz Festival, the British Film Institute, the Barbican, the Southbank Centre, the Bologna Film Festival, at numerous universities and on many BBC and NPR TV and radio stations and on SkyNews. He is also a musician and songwriter.

Harvey G Cohen's latest book, which has been in the works for years, focuses on a unique, highly researched perspective on a genre and period of African American music, and also will feature a documentary film with 25 new interviews taped throughout the United States. This project has already won funding from the Leverhulme Trust in the UK.