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ACTORS EQUITY ASSOCIATION 205
ness to arbitrate any of the rules contained in the Equity Contract before an independent umpire, and to abide by the award, if the producers would do likewise.
The producers ignored both the letter and the contract. At the time of Equity's announcement, producers in general were using the Standard Form Artists Contract which had been instituted by joint action between producers and actors shortly after Equity's first attempt to unionize actors appearing in motion pictures. This form covered all contracts between actors and producers, including contracts made for one picture, for a number of pictures per year, and for definite periods of time, and various miscellaneous agreements. Definite time contracts usually covered stock or featured players and a majority of the stars whose services were engaged on an optional basis for a specified number of years. The usual optional period was for six months, at the end of which time it was the producer's privilege to continue or terminate the contract. Optional periods often called for predetermined salary increases for the players involved. Unless signed for a specific amount per picture, all contracted players were paid on a weekly salary basis.
There were several essential differences between the Equity Contract and the Standard Form Artists Contract. The Equity Contract specified that Equity Shop would be required; that is, all members of a cast who spoke a line or who did work of an individual character had to be members of the association. Equity was not a closed union; in order to become a member, however, an applicant was required to present a bona fide assignment made on an Equity Contract.
The Equity Contract was a term contract, while the Standard Form Artists Contract was an open one. The former called for a definite term of employment, which, unless otherwise designated in the contract, was four weeks. Under the Standard Form Artists Contract, unless a longer period was definitely specified, a player was assured of a minimum of one week's work and of work thereafter until the completion of the photographing of the character he played. In some cases this feature was beneficial to the actors involved, especially when production continued for a considerable length of time and other more profitable work was not available. In many cases, however, when the standard contract did not establish definite termination dates, actors were