Voted best looking picket line of 1919--Actors Equity on strike. |
Two long time interests of this blog—labor history and the performing arts in America—intersect
today. On August 7, 1919 the Actors’ Equity Association launched a bitter 30 day nationwide strike for recognition and improved working conditions.
The stage had always been a challenging
career choice. Although a handful of stars working in major theaters
could make a good living, even become rich, most performers toiled for miserable
wages with no pay for rehearsals
which could last for weeks before a major show was launched and continue during the duration of a show’s run.
They often had to pay for their
own costumes and make-up. Those in
traveling shows usually had to pay
their own train fare and traveling
expenses.
And, of course, there was the basic problem of the ephemeral nature of the jobs—they were hard to come by and fiercely competed for in auditions and if hired an actor worked at
the whim of producers and directors. Labor
unionists considered performers almost impossible
to organize because of this.
But in the first decades of the 20th Century an already tenuous situation was becoming
worse as major producers and theater owners followed the example of production industries and organized themselves into a virtual trust, the Theatrical Syndicate which
tended to fix wages at an even lower
level for journeyman performers and who could end an actor’s career at the snap
of their fingers with a black ball.
In 1910 the National Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, a strong union of stage hands was formed and
was soon able to wring concessions
from producers.
Aging matinee idol Edwin Booth, seen here in 1889, lent his name, prestige, and home to the founding of Actors Equity. |
Inspired
by this development The Players, a handful of
leading actors in New York City
began secretly meeting at Edwin Booth’s mansion to discuss organization. Yes that Edwin Booth, America’s most revered tragedian and brother of Lincoln’s assassin John Wilkes Booth.
That led to a meeting held at the Pabst
Grand Circle Hotel on May 26, 1913 where Actors’ Equity was founded by
112 professional theater actors. They drafted
the association’s constitution and elected Francis Wilson, then a major
star and close friend of Booth,
as President.
Despite the prestige of its founders, Equity grew slowly and had difficulty
in improving conditions. At first a professional organization which included actor/producers like Booth, it
could make little headway against
the power of the Theater Syndicate.
Following the success of the stage
hands, Equity founder Frank Gillmore
led a movement to transform the
organization into a real labor union. Elected Executive
Secretary in 1919, he led Equity into membership
in the American Federation of Labor (AFL) on July 18, 1919.
Actors Equity strike leaders John Cope, John Stewart, Frank Gillmore, and Francis Wilson lead a New York City march. |
Moving quickly, he secured a pledge from the powerful
stage hands union to honor its picket
lines and launched the nationwide
strike weeks later. The strike lasted 30 days, spread to eight cities, closed
37 plays, and prevented the opening
of 16 others. Producers and theater
owners lost millions of dollars.
During the course of the strike Chorus Equity under the leadership of comedienne and future movie star Marie
Dressler was formed and joined the
action after the first 5 days. That prevented producers from trying to put all girl reviews on their
stages to keep the theaters open and
fill the seats.
Over the course of the strike Equity
grew from 3,000 members to more than 14,000, almost all of the working actors in major cities.
The Syndicate, its power permanently broken, had no choice but to recognize the union
and sign a five year agreement to improved conditions of employment. In a tough
year for the union movement in general, it was considered a major victory.
The actors knew a thing or two about publicity and he press. Their well oiled Press Office kept reporters fed with the latest strike news and human interest stories. |
Equity went on to a long and progressive history. It was a leader
in the Civil Rights movement and in demanding
non-discrimination. Unlike its
cousin the Screen Actors’ Guild under
the leadership of Ronald Regan,
Equity refused to co-operate with
the McCarthy Era blacklist of suspected Reds.
It led lobbying for public
funding from the arts which eventually resulted in the creation of the National Endowment of the Arts. It also
led the fight against AIDS, which heavily impacted its membership.
The union’s history has been punctuated
by strikes, especially a bitter walk
out in 1961 that dimmed Broadway lights for 13 days but won the
creation of the Equity-League Pension & Health Trust Funds.
In 1952 Chorus Equity merged with the Actors. Directors
and choreographers split from
the union and set up their own
organization in 1959.
In today’s fractured theater scene with many local and regional theaters, Of
Broadway, Off-off Broadway, and non-profit companies, Equity only retains tight control over
Broadway productions, touring companies,
and a handful of major venues in
other cities. Equity performers are allowed to appear on a limited basis in some non-equity productions, especially top level dinner theater and
regional theater. Actors working in the lively independent theater scene, however, are generally poorly paid and often
work for nothing.
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