Front Row Rebel

The movie theater brought young and old, rich and poor, and eventually, all races together for a shared journey into a world of imagination. Set against the background of the Jim Crow South, through the Depression and two world wars, Walter Wilby takes on not only taboos of class and race, but the pernicious cartel system of the Big Five studios. Fairness doesn’t come without a fight, and Wilby is willing to take on anyone, from Hollywood to Washington, D.C., to fulfill his dreams. Promoting yet complicating his goals are a host of colorful characters including his sassy, unpredictable wife, Alma; their bold and determined daughter, Bailey; and his exuberant business partner, Mike Kinsey. Along the way, they collide with the likes of Walt Disney, President Roosevelt and Clark Gable. From the silent flickers of the early 1900s to the wide-screen cinema of the 1950s, from Birth of a Nation to Gone with the Wind, this is a front-row view of how cinema and society shaped each other and grew into the billion-dollar industry we know today.