Gloria Stuart, known to later moviegoers as “Old Rose” in James Cameron’s Titanic (1997) was recruited to Guild membership on the set of  Universal’s I Like it That Way in October of 1933 likely, as she later recalled, by founding member Lucile Webster Gleason.  Stuart is pictured on the film’s set with Guild founding member Noel Madison, a fellow cast member and  active union organizer. Vintage still in SAG-AFTRA Special Collections.

1930s Organizing Hollywood-style — as seen in the Archives and Special Collections of SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists).  Horror Film Icons and others recruit actors to join the fledgling Screen Actors Guild.

Kenneth Thomson & Jetta Goudal in White Gold (1927).

The urgent letter is dated November 6, 1933:

“I have just been informed that Fay Wray is on Stage 12 at Universal and that she wants to join the Guild.  So do your stuff.  Also, Nils Asther is reported as ready to sign.”

That’s organizing! The writer was actor Kenneth Thomson, in whose home the Screen Actors Guild had been “birthed” a few months earlier and the recipient was actor Arthur Vinton, also working at Universal. Both Wray, the blonde star of King Kong, released that April, and Asther, a Swede whose screen career began in silent films, joined the Guild. But it would take another 3 ½ years of organizing members until the Screen Actors Guild would win its first contract with motion picture producers.

As dramatic and exhilarating as it sounds  – actors surreptitiously recruiting actors in movie studios – it was risky business for working performers who were not wealthy or powerful stars, and who depended on acting jobs to survive – particularly in the midst of what came to be called the Great Depression. Kenneth Thomson, who also supported his wife and mother, was one of the latter. Before the first meeting at his home to discuss organizing the Guild in March of 1933 and after disastrous pay cuts at the movie studios, Thomson became so broke that he wrote a letter to a wealthy friend in San Francisco, Noel Sullivan, asking for a loan. This letter is part of the Noel Sullivan Papers at UC Berkeley.

From The Screen Guilds’ Magazine, August 1935, p. 7  

Financially insecure though he currently was, the courageous Thomson was a relentless organizer who soon set his sights on recruiting Boris Karloff of Frankenstein fame. In 1960, Karloff recalled:

So far as I am concerned, it all started at a Hollywood Cricket Club dance at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel [on May 28] 1933.  Every year at the start of the cricket season, we used to stage something of the sort to promote interest in the club and raise funds for the season just beginning.  For some extraordinary reason, Ken Thomson was there.  As he is not too well known for his prowess as a cricketer, I supposed he had been lured there in the hope of knocking him over for a small financial contribution to the cause of cricket – to be rewarded, of course, with a fancy card proclaiming him to be a non-playing associate, non-voting, dues-paying member of the Hollywood Cricket Club.

Anyhow, as the evening advanced, and I was circumnavigating the floor in my customary slow and stately manner, Ken dropped anchor alongside me and muttered in my ear the magic words ‘Would you be interested in an autonomous organization for film actors with an affiliation with Actors’ Equity?’  Hastily scrambling off my unfortunate partner’s foot, I practically yelled ‘How…when…where?’  At which he hissed, ‘Next Thursday, 8:00 P.M., my house…don’t park too close to the house,’ and practically vanished in a puff of smoke…his pocketbook intact, I trust.

Karloff’s fellow horror icon, Béla Lugosi of Dracula fame, served on the Guild’s Advisory Board. An experienced union organizer, in Hungary in late 1918 he created the Free Organization of Theatrical Employees, expanding it soon after into the National Trade Union of Actors.  Among his Hollywood union activities, as documented in his member file, was organizing cast members of Universal’s The Raven, in which he and Karloff co-starred.

Karloff’s member file holds handwritten evidence of  his organizing activities. This one to Kenneth Thomson, while organizing the cast of Universal’s The Invisible Ray, was written September 22, 1935.

Scanned and cropped from original letter to Kenneth Thomson in Bela Lugosi's Screen Actors Guild member file, SAG-AFTRA Archives, Communications and Marketing Department, Los Angeles.

Lugosi’s Hungarian accent and unforgettable Dracula of stage and screen unfortunately led to typecasting, reduced film roles and financial decline, which are reflected in letters in his Screen Actors Guild member file. A 1930 theatrical casting directory in SAG-AFTRA’s Special Collections shows Lugosi’s attempts while a stage actor in America to show his versatility – even as Jesus -- in addition to his Broadway Dracula.

Vintage headshot of Richard W. Tucker, SAG-AFTRA Special Collections.

At a Guild strike meeting on March 13, 1960, actor Ernesto Morinelli recalled the repercussions to non-stars like himself organizing on the set at Warner Bros., by revealing: “I am one of those guys that got thrown out of the studio, making propaganda for the Guild in a picture named ‘Anthony Adverse.’” By contrast the star of the film, Fredric March, recruited one of his co-stars for membership — Gale Sondergaard, and neither performer was “thrown off” the lot for it.

So why did actors take the personal and financial risk to organize – unionize – their fellow motion picture actors and seek a contract and bargaining leverage with the studios? Ample material on the subject – correspondence, board minutes, member files, interviews, Guild magazines and newsletters – is treasured in the Archives and Special Collections of SAG-AFTRA, formed in 2012 from the merger of Screen Actors Guild (founded 1933) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (founded 1937).

Abusive working conditions in motion pictures, including long work days followed by meager rest periods, were common by 1933 and worsened with the advent of talking pictures in the late 1920s. 

Those lucky enough to become “stars” could finally dictate their own reasonable daily hours and working conditions, but an altruistic spirit burned within many of them to help those for whom this was not an option. Maureen O’Sullivan recalled one of her worst pre-Guild experiences to an interviewer in 1994. She described working on a film as a 20 year old actress:

In May of 1932, I worked for an independent company.  And that film was called The Silver Lining…And it was absolutely hell to make. We worked, let me see, I would have an 8 o’clock call, which would mean you’d have to be there 6:30 or so.  And we worked until – until you dropped.  Maybe ‘til 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning. And then we’d have an early call again.  And it was so awful.  Of course, I was very young then.  But I couldn’t stand it.  And I started to cry. The producer had been at Fox [and I said to him] I can’t do it.  I really can’t. I’m too tired to sleep and I have maybe two, three hours’ sleep and I have to come back and get to work again.  And he said ‘If you don’t pull yourself together, I will see that you never work again.

So under the threat of that, I worked.

O’Sullivan would join the Guild in 1935 when actors Edward Arnold and Halliwell Hobbes were organizing the cast of Twentieth Century Pictures’ Cardinal Richelieu, starring Guild member George Arliss. Fellow cast member Murray Kinnell, a member of the Guild’s advisory board who was playing the “Duke of Lorraine,” passed her signed membership application along to Kenneth Thomson.

The final straw leading to the Guild’s formation and incorporation in 1933 was pay cuts announced by the Association of Motion Picture Producers in March of that year. It was a studio response to the “Bank Holiday” declaration of newly-inaugurated president Franklin Roosevelt, in the wake of bank failures across America.

In 1941 Ralph Morgan, a brother of actor Frank Morgan (who would become famed as the “Wizard of Oz” in 1939) recalled the Guild’s ’33 creation at Kenneth Thomson’s house:

Two or three cars drew up to 6424 Ivarene street in Hollywood on a [March] evening in 1933.  Four actors went into the house to discuss with two more actors an old idea with a new vitality.  The idea was organization.  It had just been given new vitality by the shock of a drastic, blanket salary cut affecting contract and freelance motion picture actors.  That hurt.  It hurt particularly in those days just after the bank closings when no one in the industry knew what was going to happen, but all agreed that, whatever it was, it would be bad.  The little group in the Ivarene street house talked of forming an independent, self-governing organization of motion picture actors.  They wanted such an organization to gain fair economic conditions for actors -- and something more.  They agreed that there was a need for better understanding and cooperation among the producing, talent, and craft groups of the motion picture industry.  Hours of discussion went by.  Was the idea of organizing motion picture actors sound?  The group agreed it was.  Was the time right?  It seemed to be.  Would the majority of actors be willing to work together, fight together and sacrifice – if need be – individual interests in favor of group interests? When that discussion started on that momentous evening, I don’t think I would be exaggerating to say that a verbal shot was fired that was to be heard around the world.

Ralph Morgan, soon-to-be first president of the Screen Actors Guild, pictured with Dorothy Appleby in the Fox Films feature Trick for Trick (1933). Vintage still in SAG-AFTRA Special Collections.

On December 27, 1934 a 60-page “Actors Brief” was completed and submitted to the NRA (National Recovery Administration) by Ralph Morgan (first Guild President), Kenneth Thomson (actor and Guild's first executive Secretary), Richard W. Tucker (who had to give the Guild that promissory note in lieu of his first dues payment the year before), Robert Montgomery (movie star and the Guild's 1st VP), Claude King (British actor, SAG board member) and the Guild's legal counsel, Lawrence W. Beilenson.

The SAG-AFTRA Archives has two original copies of the brief which is on fairly brittle acidic paper.  It includes statistics, examples of abuses, particularly excessive working hours, and declares that once sound came in, increased working hours became the norm and this had not ceased.  “Emergencies” were declared constantly as excuse for overwork.

Excerpts reveal the difficulties the actors worked under before Screen Actors Guild won its first contract 2 ½ years later:

"In the year 1934 in the United States of America, to be forced to argue that limitation of working hours is just, is like arguing that two plus two make four.  This is especially so, when we consider that half of the class affected are women."

“Every large industry has submitted [under the NRA] to reasonable regulation of hours of labor.  The motion picture industry should be no different.  In the interest of health alone, the government should insist on this provision."

“Originally, motion pictures were made while the sunlight lasted, and with the setting of the sun, the actor went home.  When kleig lights were perfected, it made it possible to work at night, but in the days of silent pictures, night work was rare.  Then sound burst upon a startled industry.  There were few sound stages, and work went on night and day to utilize the equipment.  Companies worked all night on stages that were not sound proof to avoid noise.  Happily, this period of confusion is now over, and the equipment is adequate.  The practices then inaugurated, however, have continued."

“Common practices in the industry in regard to working hours may be listed as follows:  (1) To work late every Saturday night and often into the early hours of Sunday morning, thus destroying the actor’s day of rest; (2) when a holiday occurs, to work the following Sunday to make up for the holiday; (3) to disregard the twelve-hour rest period, and to allow a period of rest which is often much less; (4) to work as long as sixteen hours."

“When a star attains a sufficient importance to be able to demand terms, he often insists on a contract limitation of hours.  The star quits when his time is up, but the rest of the company then goes on working.  No criticism is intended of the star; the fault lies in working the other actors long hours."

“It seems fairly obvious that these practices, which crept into the business in the rush to make sound pictures, should have gone out with the building of sufficient stages.  Since the industry has not eliminated them in the five years which have elapsed, regulation seems necessary to force their discontinuance."

“The first contention [of producer members of the NRA committee] is that actors do not work excessive hours.  If this is true, there should be no objection to regulation.  Of course, it is not the fact.  The personal experience of every actor member of the committee is against it, and we have consulted many other actors.  All agree that the practices heretofore enumerated are common throughout the business."  

“Our discussions showed that stars and supporting cast were unanimous in agreeing that limitation of working hours was the prime necessity.  During the discussion, one of the major studio delegates said that there were no long working hours at his studio.  One of the actor members of the committee told him that one company had worked a continuous stretch of twenty-two hours at his studio the day before.  He checked the statement and found it to be true.  The star of the picture was fifty-five years old."

“The second contention [of the producer members of the NRA committee] is that if actors do work long hours, it is only in case of emergency.  One is reminded of the classical plea of a defendant charged with stealing chickens.  In the first place, he didn’t steal them, and in the second place he gave them back.  If the word ‘emergency’ were defined by the dictionary as used in the motion picture business, it would mean every day.  During the course of the discussion, one major producer made the statement that fifty percent of the work done in his studio was on an emergency basis."

“The California law has a provision allowing women extras to work overtime in an emergency.  An emergency has existed ever since the law was passed."

“When in any business an emergency constantly exists; the proper designation is bad management.  Moreover, as will be shown in the detailed discussion of the recommendations, under the proposed rules, a company can be worked as long as necessary, if the following rest period is increased accordingly."

“The third argument is that actors should be willing to work unlimited hours because they are members of a profession.  Doctors, lawyers, writers and painters often work long and irregular hours.  They, however, are masters of their own time and may stop work when they desire.  They govern their own rest periods.  Actors are different in that they do not work alone.  They start and stop on the producer’s orders.  They ask that those orders be so arranged as to give them longer rest periods in case of longer hours."

“What actors object to is the practice of working long hours at a stretch without sufficient rest periods in between.  This adversely affects both their health and their ability to do their best work.  Where a free lance player is hired for a week’s work and is required to work sixteen hours a day during the week, it is no answer to tell him that he has not worked for four weeks prior thereto.  He cannot do himself justice in the part, he hurts the picture, and he hurts his health."

“Nor does it help the free lance player to tell him that on the first day of the picture he only worked four hours, on the second day he only worked six, and on the third day he only worked five, so that on the last three days of the week, he ought to be willing to work fifteen hours every day with no sufficient rest periods in between."

“The human machine is not so constituted.”

After four years’ hard work, on Sunday May 9, 1937, all was apprehension at the Hollywood Legion Stadium where members had gathered to hear whether or not they would be walking out on strike the next day. Instead they learned, the actors had won recognition at last -- “Guild shop” would be confirmed in the first contract. Ralph Morgan, the Guild’s first president, addressed the crowd, opening with a Victor Hugo quote:

‘You can stop, maybe, an army of a million men, but you can’t stop a right idea when its time has come’.  Your idea, and your ideals, have come tonight… I am happier tonight than ever before in our struggle for independence, harmony, and peace in this branch of the profession which we all love so dearly.  The fulfillment of these ideas and ideals is due, almost completely, to your loyalty and your cooperation.  Through me, the Board expresses its deepest and sincerest gratitude to every one of you.  Our duty after this week shall be to protect those ideals and those ideas.  I would like tonight to call this a victory celebration, but I am afraid it would be a little premature.  A fight is never won until the armistice is signed.  But I say this to you, stand by your guns until the victory is won.  There is no use standing by empty guns – stick by your ballots tonight - show your loyalty and show your confidence.

Ralph’s brother Frank Morgan concluded the meeting after comparing this night to the successful Actors’ Equity strike of 1919 and praised the hard work that won victory at last:

...your Board [of Directors] has been sitting almost constantly from the beginning of this week until now, waiting anxiously as the negotiating committee went to and from the producers, interviewing the highest officials.  We have had days and hours of exalted optimism and days and hours of deep gloom.  There is nothing we can lose as long as we have face-to-face across the table with producers, the fine men on our negotiating committee.  I would like to have a rising vote from you for the glorious work of these men, and nobody will give a damn if you cheer.

The Screen Actors Guild’’s 1937 negotiating committee, which negotiated the first Producer-Screen Actors Guild Basic Minimum Contract of 1937.  Left to right:  Franchot Tone, Aubrey Blair, Robert Montgomery, Kenneth Thomson.  From Screen Guild Magazine, June 1937, page 24.

The Guild’s officers when it signed its first contract with the producers.  From Screen Guild Magazine, May 1937, page 6.

Organizing momentum was “in the air” on the heels of the Guild’s victory: Radio artists on both coasts were organizing too, resulting in the creation of the American Federation of Radio Artists (AFRA) three months later in August of 1937. As AFTRA – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (its name beginning in 1952), it would merge in 2012 with the Screen Actors Guild, creating the union today known as SAG-AFTRA.

Sources

“Proceedings of the Special Strike Meeting.  Screen Actors Guild.  March 13, 1960.  Hollywood Palladium,” p. 40

Karloff, Boris: “Oaks From Acorns.” Screen Actor, October-November, 1960.

“The Guild: In the Beginning-an Idea Goes to Work,” by Ralph Morgan & John C. Lee, Screen Actor, September, 1941, pp. 18-19.

Montgomery, Robert, et. al. Report and Argument in Support of Adoption of a Set of Fair Practices Governing Relations Between Producers and Actors Pursuant to Article VB, Part 4A [December 27, 1934]

“Guild Wins!!” Screen Guild Magazine, May 1937, pp. 8, 40.