Hollywood Studio Strike collection, 1944-1985, bulk 1944-1948

Printable guide [HTML]
Request items

Summary

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).
Extent:
2.0 linear feet (4 boxes) and 1.5 linear feet (1 unprocessed flat box)
Language:
Materials are in English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Hollywood Studio Strike Collection (Collection 226). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Background

Scope and content:

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.

Biographical / historical:

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.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Screen Publicists Guild, 1945. Gift of Gene Mailes, 1960-85.
Processing information:

Processed by Manuscripts Division staff, October 1968.

Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.

We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form located on our website: Report Problematic Content and Description in UCLA's library collections and archives.

Arrangement:

Arranged in the following series:

  1. Correspondence and ephemera.
  2. National Labor Relations Board materials and union newspapers.
  3. Copy of IATSE proceedings, audio tape of Gene Mailes' reminiscences of proceedings, and printed materials (1945-85).

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.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.

Terms of access:

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.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Hollywood Studio Strike Collection (Collection 226). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Location of this collection:
A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
Contact:
(310) 825-4988
AskLSC@library.ucla.edu
Website