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Hollywood Studio Strike collection
LSC.0226
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Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: Hollywood Studio Strike collection
Identifier/Call Number: LSC.0226
Physical Description:
2.0 linear feet
(4 boxes)
Physical Description:
1.5 linear feet
(1 unprocessed flat box)
Date (inclusive): 1944-1985
Date (bulk): 1944-1948
Abstract: The Hollywood studio strike began on March 12, 1945 when the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU) went on strike to protest the
studios' delay in granting a contract renewal for interior decorators despite opposition from the larger, more established
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Moving Picture Operators of the United States and Canada (IATSE).
The collection consists of materials dealing with the studio strike of 1945 and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage
Employees and Moving Picture Machine Operators of the United States and Canada (IATSE).
Physical Location: Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright
and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
- Gift of Screen Publicists Guild, 1945.
- Gift of Gene Mailes, 1960-85.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
9917204893606533
[Identification of item], Hollywood Studio Strike Collection (Collection 226). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E.
Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Processed by Manuscripts Division staff, October 1968.
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The Hollywood studio strike began on March 12, 1945 when the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU) went on strike to protest the
studios' delay in granting a contract renewal for interior decorators despite opposition from the larger, more established
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Moving Picture Operators of the United States and Canada (IATSE).
The collection consists of materials dealing with the studio strike of 1945 and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage
Employees and Moving Picture Machine Operators of the United States and Canada (IATSE).
Biographica Note from original paper finding aid:
The Hollywood studio strike began on March 12, 1945 when the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU), consisting of nine unions and nearly ten thousand workers led by Herbert Sorrell, went on strike to protest the studios' delay in granting a contract renewal for interior decorators despite opposition from the larger, more established International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Moving Picture Operators of the United States and Canada (IATSE). In early October 1945, CSU concentrated its pickets at Warner Brothers; a series of fights ensued and police, studio guards, and IATSE forced the strikers to retreat. At the end of October, the National Labor Relations Board ruled in favor of CSU, and the studios and IATSE gave way. In early 1946, CSU tried to negotiate a new wage contract with the studios, but disagreements lead to another strike in the summer of 1946. IASTE sent their employees to keep the studios open, provoking more armed clashes. The Screen Actors Guild and 24 other Hollywood unions denounced the strike as a jurisdictional dispute, affirming their right to cross the picket lines. CSU's failure to close the studios led to a vote in October 1947 by the painters union which broke the strike; CSU disintegrated and faded away.
The Hollywood studio strike began on March 12, 1945 when the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU), consisting of nine unions and nearly ten thousand workers led by Herbert Sorrell, went on strike to protest the studios' delay in granting a contract renewal for interior decorators despite opposition from the larger, more established International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Moving Picture Operators of the United States and Canada (IATSE). In early October 1945, CSU concentrated its pickets at Warner Brothers; a series of fights ensued and police, studio guards, and IATSE forced the strikers to retreat. At the end of October, the National Labor Relations Board ruled in favor of CSU, and the studios and IATSE gave way. In early 1946, CSU tried to negotiate a new wage contract with the studios, but disagreements lead to another strike in the summer of 1946. IASTE sent their employees to keep the studios open, provoking more armed clashes. The Screen Actors Guild and 24 other Hollywood unions denounced the strike as a jurisdictional dispute, affirming their right to cross the picket lines. CSU's failure to close the studios led to a vote in October 1947 by the painters union which broke the strike; CSU disintegrated and faded away.
Collection consists of materials dealing with the Hollywood studio strike of 1945 and the International Alliance of Theatrical
Stage Employees and Moving Picture Machine Operators of the United States and Canada (IATSE). Includes newspaper clippings
from the
Hollywood Sun and the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU) news, mimeographed statements to union members, correspondence, ephemera, and a
copy of the IATSE proceedings with taped reminiscences of Gene Mailes.
Arranged in the following series:
- Correspondence and ephemera.
- National Labor Relations Board materials and union newspapers.
- Copy of IATSE proceedings, audio tape of Gene Mailes' reminiscences of proceedings, and printed materials (1945-85).
You Don't Choose Your Friends: the Memoirs of Herbert Knott Sorrell [oral history transcript] / Herbert Knott Sorrell, interviewee.
UCLA Oral History Department interview, 1963. Available at UCLA Library Special Collections.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Audiotapes.
Strikes and lockouts -- Motion picture industry -- California -- Los Angeles -- Archives.
Motion picture industry -- Employees -- Labor unions -- United States -- Archives.
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Moving Picture Machine Operators of the United States and Canada.
Mailes, Gene
United States--National Labor Relations Board.