Screen Guilds Magazine (May 1936)

MAY, 1936 THE SCREEN WRITERS' GUILD 15 • Screen Writer s 9 Amalgamate Become Part Of Authors’ League Of America At Special Session May 8; Board Rescinds Article 12 The voting of an amalgamation with the Authors’ League of America as well as the suggestion that the Executive Board immediately rescind Article XII were the features of a special meeting Friday evening, May 8, at the Hollywood Athletic Club. The assembly consisted of active members Committee Meets Silence In Effort To Reach Producers Acting upon instructions re¬ ceived from the membership at the Annual Meeting, May 2, 1936, the Executive Board appointed Ernest Pascal, Samson Raphaelson and Seton I. Miller as a committee to contact producers in an effort to negotiate a Fair Minimum Basic Agreement for writers. This com¬ mittee immediately dispatched a letter to all major producers re¬ questing a discussion of the mat¬ ter. The producers, despite the protestation that their only desire was for harmony in the industry, completely ignored the communi¬ cation. Even more eloquent than their silence was a speedy move to form another organization of writ¬ ers, the so-called Mankiewicz group. Mankiewicz and his group al¬ ready are stating they have a deal with producers. We leave it to the judgment of intelligent mem¬ bers as to the value of such a "deal". That the organization is or is not producer inspired is im¬ material, but we do point out the similarity of this tactic with the third rule suggested by E. F. Albee in 1919 to smash the legitimate actors' union: "Organize a rival association headed by as many prominent players as can be gotten together quickly." (See the article on page 3 of this issue.) High Price of Voting For the privilege of being a member three days, a writer at 20th Century-Fox paid The Screen Writers' Guild more than $100 (active initiation fee and first quarter dues). This man joined the organization as an active member one day before the Annual Meeting. He voted at the meeting and resigned the next day. Reports On Ryskind Contract Clarified Varying reports have been spread around Hollywood and printed in the trade press regard¬ ing the contract Morrie Ryskind signed with Universal. The facts on this matter are as follows: Mr. Ryskind was offered a long term writer-director-producer con¬ tract which he refused, because of his obligation to the Guild which at that time had not rescinded Article XII. After due considera¬ tion, the studio rewrote the con¬ tract limiting the period of Mr. Ryskind's obligation as a writer under the deal to May 2, 1938. Table of Membership The membership of The Screen Writers' Guild, a Cali¬ fornia corporation, at the time of going to press (May 10) is as follows: Active Members ..350 Associate Members -...480 Active members are those who have been employed in screen writing in a motion pic¬ ture studio for 3 or more months Associate members consist of those not on the active lists, and directors, producers, actors, etc. who have at one time or another written for the screen, or have authored any type of original material. The total membership of the Guild has been decreased by 1 1 3 in the past month due to resignations, etc. Of this lat¬ ter group, 72 are active mem¬ bers while 41 are associate members. Executives, Board Unanimously Elected At Annual Meeting By a unanimous vote of the more than 300 active members of The Screen Writers' Guild who at¬ tended the annual meeting May 2, 1936, the ticket proposed by the nominating committee was elected for the coming year. Ernest Pas¬ cal was re-elected president, John Grey, re-elected Treasurer, and Seton I. Miller and E. E. Paramore, Jr., were elected vice-president and secretary respectively. Seven members of the retiring Executive Board were re-elected which included the four officers mentioned above and Sidney Buch- man, Edwin Justus Mayer and Wells Root. Other new Executive Board members are Ralph Block, Lester Cole, Mary C. McCall, Jr., Dorothy Parker, Samson Raphael¬ son, Robert Riskin and Donald Ogden Stewort. Miss Parker and Mr. Stewart were appointed to fill the terms of Patterson McNutt and James Kevin McGuinness, who, after being elected to the Executive Board □t the annual meeting, resigned. Another member to fill the vacan¬ cy left by the resignation of Bert Kalmar will be appointed in the near future. 165 Members In SWG of League At press time, more than 165 members of The Screen Writers' Guild, a California Corporation, had made appli¬ cation for membership in the Screen Writers' Guild of the Authors' League of America. of The Screen Writers' Guild who had not resigned, whose dues were paid up as of January 1 and who were working in studios. All such members were informed to attend the session by telegrams dispatch¬ ed early in the day. The reason that only paid up active members working in studios were invited to this informal, non- legal meeting was that the Ex¬ ecutive Board felt that these loyal members had been fighting in the front line trenches against daily coercion and intimidation by pro¬ ducers and their opinion was de¬ sirable in order to guide the ac¬ tion of the Board as to how the Screen Writers' Guild should beat an orderly, strategic retreat in case the powerful weapon of Article XII was abandoned. It was the sentiment of this meeting that it was a futile and romantic gesture to continue to bind the loyal members to Article XII while the disloyal members and those who had resigned would be in a position to sneak in and take the jobs of the loyal group. It was the further sentiment of the meeting to keep The Screen Writers' Guild, a California cor¬ poration, intact but to urge all members to make immediate ap¬ plication for membership in The Screen Writers' Guild of the Auth¬ ors' League of America. Thus, instead of voting amalgamation with the Authors' League en masse, members would enter this powerful body individually. Of the ninety-two actives pres¬ ent at this meeting, about sixty were already members of the Authors' League of America. Thirty people who were not as yet mem¬ bers of this organization signed applications to join after the meet¬ ing. Every person present at the meeting who already was a mem¬ ber of the Authors' League signed a new application in order to con¬ firm the application previously made. Immediately at the conclusion of the session, the following wire was sent to all members of the organization : THE EXECUTIVE BOARD OF THE SCREEN WRITERS' GUILD LAST NIGHT FRIDAY RESCIND¬ ED ARTICLE XII THEREBY RE¬ LEASING YOU FROM ANY FUR¬ THER OBLIGATION TO REFUSE CONTRACTS EXTENDING BE¬ YOND MAY SECOND NINETEEN THIRTY EIGHT STOP THE BOARD AT A MEETING OF PAID UP ACTIVE MEMBERS VOTED TO ACCOMPLISH AMALGAMA¬ TION WITH THE AUTHORS LEAGUE AT ONCE AND THE BOARD RECOMMENDS TO ALL LOYAL MEMBERS IMMEDIATE APPLICATION BY THEM FOR MEMBERSHIP IN THE AUTHORS' LEAGUE SCREEN GUILD STOP APPLICATIONS ARE BEING MAILED TO YOU. THE ECECUTIVE BOARD SCREEN WRITERS' GUILD. An application blank is printed on this page and you are urged to apply for membership in the Screen Writers' Guild of the Auth¬ ors' League of America at once. Application For Membership in The Authors’ League of America The undersigned hereby applies for membership in The Authors' League of America, Inc. and agrees to abide by its Constitution and By-Laws. If the under¬ signed is already a member of The Authors' League of America, Inc. this application shall ratify such present membership. Dated at Los Angeles. THE SCREEN WRITERS’ GUILD