“‘Hollywood’ Offers Alternate History, and Glimpses of a Real One.”

Steve Cohan, a Dean’s Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of English, was quoted in the New York Times for the article “‘Hollywood’ Offers Alternate History, and Glimpses of a Real One.” ‘Hollywood’, a new period melodrama on Netflix created by Ryan Murphy’s, “uses real figures from the past to tell an invented history of 1940s Hollywood.” Professor Cohan, who has written many books about the films and musicals of Hollywood, focuses his research on popular culture, queer theory and narrative theory. In the New York Times article Cohan comments specifically on the character Rock Hudson, a Navy aircraft mechanic turned Hollywood star, saying that “he projected an attractive yet unthreatening masculinity.”