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ACTORS EQUITY ASSOCIATION 203
might not be called on for 10 days or two weeks, no other studio or director would employ them during the interval. Furthermore, when such players reported for a so-called retake they frequently found that in reality they were employed to make a whole new sequence.2
Complaints also were made by stage producers who said that numerous actors of the legitimate stage were breaking their stage contracts in order to appear in motion pictures. Such action was denounced by Mr. Gillmore, who pointed out that actors who broke stage contracts were not only unfair to stage producers but also to their fellow Equity members, whose positions were jeopardized by such action. He also cited the cases of several actors who had been suspended from Equity and who had found more profitable employment in motion pictures during their period of suspension, thus defeating the purpose of the penalty. The most effective method of correcting these practices seemed to Mr. Gillmore to be the unionization of players appearing in motion pictures.
While the intentions of Mr. Gillmore and the Equity Council were known quite generally, there was no evidence of activity on the part of motion picture producers to forestall attempted organization, or in any way to strengthen their own position in the event that Equity made a comprehensive drive. Furthermore, there was nothing to indicate that an attempt had been made by Equity to secure better conditions through an appeal to the producers directly, either individually or as a group.
During the first week of June, 1929, members of Equity residing in Los Angeles were notified that on June 5 and thereafter they were to accept only Equity contracts from producers of talking or sound pictures. This action was tantamount to declaring the industry organized. Contracts entered into before June 5, however, were to be observed but were not to be renewed. The Council's resolution upon which notification was based, read in part as follows:
Resolved that on and after the 5th day of June, 1929, Equity members may work only in companies making sound and/ or talking pictures and operated by any producer
(a) When all members of said company or of any company or companies controlled or operated by the producer, who speak
2 See Theatre Guild Magazine, October, 1929.