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Finding Aid for the Hollywood Studio Strike Collection, 1944-1985 bulk 1944-1948
226
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Title: Hollywood Studio Strike Collection,
Date (inclusive): 1944-1985 bulk 1944-1948
Collection number: 226
Extent:
4 boxes (2 linear ft.)
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) 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 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 Screen Publicists Guild, 1945.
- Gift of Gene Mailes, 1960-85.
[Identification of item], Hollywood Studio Strike Collection (Collection 226). Department of Special Collections, Charles
E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
1720489
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).
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).
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Mailes, Gene.
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Moving Picture Machine Operators of the United States and Canada.
United States--National Labor Relations Board.
Motion picture industry--Employees--Labor unions--United States--Archival resources.
Strikes and lockouts--Motion picture industry--California--Los Angeles--Archival resources.
Audiotapes.
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.