As Americans flocked to the movies, the guardians of American culture grew worried about their diminishing influence on American art, education, and the American identity itself. Meanwhile, Hollywood studio heads were eager to stabilize their industry, solidify their place in society, and expand their new and tenuous hold on American popular culture. Peter Decherney reveals the symbiotic relationship that developed between the film industry and America's stewards of high culture. Formed during Hollywood's Golden Age (1915-1960), this unlikely partnership ultimately insured prominent places in American culture for both the movies and elite cultural institutions. As the book delves into the ties between Hollywood and various cultural institutions, an intriguing cast of characters emerges, including the poet Vachel Lindsay, Hollywood producer Adolph Zukor, Hollywood flak and censor extraordinaire Will Hays, philanthropist-turned-politician Nelson Rockefeller, and the Museum of Modern Art's film curator Iris Barry. Decherney considers how Columbia University's film studies program helped integrate Jewish students into American culture while also professionalizing screenwriting. Other chapters examine how MOMA's film department fought fascism and communism, the promotion of movie connoisseurship at Harvard and other universities, and the National Endowment for the Arts' support of Hollywood film. Amid ethnic diversity, the rise of mass entertainment, world war, and the global spread of American culture, Hollywood and cultural institutions worked together to provide a coherent, though shifting, American identity.