FRIENDS OF BILL

Regarding “Can Bill Still Bank on Hollywood?” (by Robert W. Welkos, Jan. 8):

The relatively small percentage of people that spend their money building the rich pedestals upon which Hollywood stands are not interested in the true infrastructure of the country. These citizens, patrons of movies and rock festivals, have their agenda.

Emerging from the industry economics is a breed of omniscient authority such as Redford, Streep, Streisand, et al. Lovely people. They have their mission. They are convinced that they are correct and point to the slavish accolades and positive comments, not to mention big bucks, that flow back and forth in their presence. But you don’t catch these luminaries (or their dollars) in South-Central, let alone Haiti, Somalia, Bosnia.

A history text that is widely read, “Modern Times” by Paul Johnson, has an enlightening chapter on the arts in Germany during the period between the wars. This might be good reading for the prime movers in the film industry, especially those who routinely cough up the six-figure donations to build a country and influence its so-called managers.

DICK JENNINGS

Bakersfield

The election results were fueled by distrust of a government that voters perceive as elitist and out of touch with ordinary citizens, a pattern that fits Clinton’s high-profile Hollywood fans. He gets his support from an industry that publicly supports civil rights and equality while engaging in rampant discrimination on ethnic and age bases.

Elite supporters can embrace a Democratic platform on the importance of public education while sending their own children to private schools, and they can approve of Democratic redistribution schemes that take money from the struggling middle class and poor while wealthy elites sit at the top of the economic pile.

Democratic-sponsored policies that cause crime and social disintegration are of little interest to those who can afford to segregate themselves from “undesirables” by moving to secluded homes in secluded neighborhoods and hire private security.

Add to this the public perception of an elite Hollywood, distant from the values and mores of those outside its inner circle and upper-level castes, and it is no wonder that Hollywood support of liberal candidates should be welcomed by conservatives as unintentionally helping the conservative cause.

CAROLINE MIRANDA

North Hollywood

In response to the Jan. 8 Calendar and L.A. Times Magazine, which both tried to come to grips with America’s rejection of liberalism, try to follow this--it’s not difficult: Is Hollywood (and The Times) out of touch?

The answer is self-evident. You are angry, you are disillusioned; your tired old formulas and failed solutions have been rejected. The rest of us are energized, our basic faith in democracy restored.

However, if you must continue your intellectual self-flagellation over America’s unrequited affection and respect, at least realize that in so doing, you are surely entertaining us.

TOM LARSON

Woodland Hills

Hollywood Democrats should study their industry history before defecting from Clinton.

In 1946 the Republicans won control of both the House and Senate. Next year, the Republican-controlled House Un-American Activities Committee conducted its hearings; the producers, knuckling under, initiated the blacklist with their Waldorf Declaration, and conservatives imposed political censorship on the film industry, whose worst decade in history followed.

History could repeat itself if the Republican right-wingers have their way.

RICHARD L. OLSEN

Pine Mountain Club

The Democrats should be very grateful to the Republicans’ agenda of lower taxes--just think how their contributions will increase when these rich have more of the money they earn to give to the Democrats.

CATHY M. SMITH

Indian Wells

All of us raising money for the Saxophone Club fund-raising event originally scheduled for December did not have the same experience as the fellow you quoted.

I originally told the Democratic National Committee I thought I could find 10 people to come (I had never done anything like this before). Since the election and since the postponement of the event, I have continued to talk to friends about it. Just the other day two more people committed to the event, bringing my total to 25.

POLIN COHANNE

Los Angeles

Let me see if I get the picture clearly. Robert Taylor, who was a movie star for 35 years and who served as a pilot in the Navy during the Second World War, had his name stripped from a building because he identified some Communist sympathizers?

This at a time when the Soviets were chewing up Eastern Europe? And the people who did this are called liberals? I’d be more inclined to call them fascists.

JOHN FOREMAN

North Hollywood