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ACTORS EQUITY ASSOCIATION
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that producers notify Equity regarding the selection of casts and changes therein. It further provided that actors would not be required to undertake dangerous or hazardous work. Moreover, the producer would not be permitted to use any substitute voice for that of an actor except with the actor's written consent.
The president of Equity stated3 that no drastic action would be taken immediately, nor would a general strike be called. Equity players would simply refuse to answer studio calls unless their Equity contracts were signed. Organization of a relief committee to raise subscriptions for the actors who might suffer on account of their loyalty to Equity was announced.
Equity claimed that about 80% of the players who were under studio contract and at least 85% of the stage directors who had been brought to Hollywood from New York were members of its organization. Membership on the West Coast was said to have grown from 1,218 in the fall of 1928 to 2,800 in June, 1929, as a result of the influx of stage players and an " undercover'' drive for new members. The president was reported to have stated that, although all members might not have paid the full amount of their dues, they were, nevertheless, still members of the organization. He also stated that the Council in New York which passed on all resignations was to accept no resignations during the present emergency.
There was no available list of Equity members under contract, but, according to the Motion Picture News:
An authentic tabulation of 11 companies shows the total number of players under term contracts was 277, with no of the stage actors new to pictures signed since January. Detailed by studios, the figures are:
Fox 59 players under contract; 37 from the stage
M-G-M SoParamount 43
Warner 27
First National 19
Pathe 21
United Artists 12
R-K-0 11
Universal 24
Tiffany-Stahl 3
Columbia 3
26
12 n 6 10 2 4 1 o o
There are 167 picture players under contract to producers, these it is estimated all but 50 are Equity members now.4
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3 Variety, June 12, 1929, page 34.
4 Motion Picture News, June 8, 1929, page 1943.