Finding Aid for the Herbert Knott Sorrell Scrapbooks About Los Angeles and the Hollywood Strike, 1945-1947
Processed by Anne Caiger; machine-readable finding aid created by Alight Tsai
UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections
© 2002
Manuscripts Division
Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575
Email: spec-coll@library.ucla.edu
URL: http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/scweb/
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Finding Aid for the Herbert Knott Sorrell Scrapbooks About Los Angeles and the Hollywood Strike, 1945-1947
Collection number: 791
UCLA Library, Department of Special CollectionsManuscripts Division
Los Angeles, CA
- Manuscripts Division
- UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections
- Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library
- Box 951575
- Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575
- Telephone: 310/825-4988 (10:00 a.m. - 4:45 p.m., Pacific Time)
- Email: spec-coll@library.ucla.edu
- URL: http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/scweb/
- Processed by:
- Anne Caiger, 12 May 1977
- Revised by:
- Simon Elliott & Lilace Hatayama, May 1991
- Encoded by:
- Alight Tsai
- Encoding supervision by:
- Caroline Cubé
- Text converted and initial container list EAD tagging by:
- Apex Data Services
- Online finding aid edited by:
- Josh Fiala, March 2003
© 2002 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Title: Herbert Knott Sorrell Scrapbooks About Los Angeles and the Hollywood Strike,
Date (inclusive): 1945-1947
Collection number: 791
Creator:
Sorrell, Herbert Knott, 1897-1974
Extent: 1 box (0.5 linear ft.)
1 oversize box
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Abstract: The Hollywood studio strike began on March 12, 1945 when the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU), 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). 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 led to another strike
in the summer of 1946. IATSE sent their employees to keep the studios open, and 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. The collection consists of scrapbooks,
including clippings, photographs, a book, and ephemera concerning the Hollywood Studio Strike, compiled by H.K. Sorrell, and
material relating to the hearings on the strike conducted in Los Angeles by the Special Subcommittee of the U.S. House of
Representatives' Committee on Education and Labor.
Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library, Department
of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Language:
English.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections. Literary 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.
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Advance notice required for access.
Additional Physical Form Available
A copy of the original version of this online finding aid is available at the UCLA Department of Special Collections for in-house
consultation and may be obtained for a fee. Please contact:
- Public Services Division
- UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections
- Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library
- Box 951575
- Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575
- Telephone: 310/825-4988 (10:00 a.m. - 4:45 p.m., Pacific Time)
- Email: spec-coll@library.ucla.edu
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Gift of Herbert K. Sorrell, 1962.
[Identification of item], Herbert Knott Sorrell Scrapbooks About Los Angeles and the Hollywood Strike (Collection 791). Department
of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
4233804
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 led to another strike in the summer of
1946. IATSE 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 scrapbooks, including clippings, photographs, a book, and ephemera concerning the Hollywood Studio
Strike, 1946-47, compiled by H.K. Sorrell, labor union representative and president of the Conference of Studio Unions. Includes
material relating to the hearings on the strike conducted in Los Angeles by the Special Subcommittee of the U.S. House of
Representatives' Committee on Education and Labor, and Gene Price's book,
The story of the Hollywood film strike in cartoons.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Sorrell, Herbert Knott, 1897-1974--Archives.
Conference of Studio Unions.
Motion picture industry--Employees--Labor unions--United States.
Strikes and lockouts--Motion picture industry--California--Los Angeles.
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
Department of Special Collections, UCLA.
Note
Pearl Rosenfeld drew my attention to 2 empty package wrappers for oversize material in this collection and discrepancies in
the package numbers and catalog cards; card says 4 packages, package labels said 3. A 4th package was found in the stacks,
and the labels corrected, subsequently.
According to the Disposition and oral history work sheets, collection comprised ca. 14 pieces (1 box and 4 oversize volumes.
The oral history transcript mentioned is presumably 300/11, not kept with the collection). Upon a rapid check we found only
the following material for this collection:
Box 1
Kearns House Committee hearings, Wahsington D.C. Febraury 17, 1948.
Physical Description: Scrapbook.
Box 1
The Story of the Hollywood film strike in cartoons. Cartoons by Gene Price, book by Jack Kistner.
Physical Description: In a binder.
Box 2
Scrapbook of clippings, photographs and ephemera.
Physical Description: Loose clippings, some mounted on loose paper pages are different from the scrapbook's, inserted in the back.
Note
The wrappers for packages 2 and 3 are large and possibly contained scrapbooks like Package 1. Packages 1-3 missing (May 1991).
Flat Box 2
5 photos.
Note
This package found unlabeled, labeled 4 by ac (May 12, 1977).