The photograph above was taken outside the Academy Awards in Los Angeles on April 3, 1978. Members of the Jewish Defense League were protesting Vanessa Redgrave, who had funded and appeared in the documentary The Palestinian. The JDL burned an effigy of Redgrave outside the ceremony. The photograph is by Associated Press photographer Doug Pizac.
I started looking into this because I was researching the controversy around Redgrave and the film. Contemporary reporting is pretty clear about why the JDL was protesting her: four days before the Oscars, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that the JDL had announced a demonstration against Redgrave’s nomination, with anger specifically focused on her involvement with The Palestinian and her support for the Palestinian cause.
Then it gets considerably more interesting.
On June 15, 1978, at about 4:26 a.m., a bomb exploded outside the Doheny Plaza Theater in Los Angeles, where The Palestinian was scheduled to open later that day. The opening was postponed for one night. The film was screened at the same theater the following evening.
A member of the Jewish Defense League was subsequently convicted of bombing the theater.
The ADL’s own historical chronology of the JDL records this:
August 30, 1978: a JDL member convicted of bombing the Los Angeles theater was sent to the California Youth Authority for a three-month psychological examination.
December 7, 1978: the same JDL member was sentenced to up to four years in the California Youth Authority, with credit for almost six months already spent in custody.
Here is what has sent me down the rabbit hole:
Who was he?
The ADL names plenty of people throughout its JDL chronology. Yet in both entries concerning this convicted bomber, he is simply described as “a JDL member.” Other summaries I’ve found do the same thing.
At first I assumed the California Youth Authority meant he must have been a juvenile and his identity was therefore protected. But that explanation isn’t automatically sufficient. The CYA also received offenders sentenced through adult courts during this period.
So I’m not claiming somebody “erased” his identity. I genuinely don’t know what explains it.
But we have:
A politically motivated bombing of an American movie theater.
A target directly connected to a major Hollywood controversy.
A conviction.
A sentence of up to four years.
And, so far, no name.
That seems unusual enough to investigate.
If anyone has access to Los Angeles Times, Herald Examiner, Beverly Hills court records, California Youth Authority records or other June–December 1978 local archives, I’d be very interested in anything identifying the convicted bomber.
Maybe there is an utterly mundane explanation. Maybe he was a minor. Maybe contemporary local coverage names him and the later histories simply omitted it.
But I’d rather find the primary record than guess.
Sources:
ADL: The Jewish Defense League chronology
JTA, March 30 1978: Demonstrations at Oscar Ceremonies Scheduled over Redgrave Nomination
[New York Times, June 16 1978: Theater for Redgrave Film Bombed]()
Posted by stammerton
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**SS:** I came across this while researching Vanessa Redgrave, the 1978 Oscars protest and her documentary The Palestinian. A JDL member was convicted of bombing the Los Angeles theater where the film was due to open and later received a sentence of up to four years, yet the sources I’ve found repeatedly identify him only as “a JDL member.” I’m posting this to see whether anyone can locate contemporary court or newspaper records that actually name him.