Hollywood Spectator (1938)

Hollywood Spectator Page Nine Film Guilds and Writers Guild Y LETTER to Dudley Nichols, president of the Screen Writers’ Guild, was a request to him to write for this issue of the Spectator a general article on the work of the organization he so ably and ener¬ getically heads. He replies in the form of a letter to me, a really brilliant letter, as you will agree when you read it. — W.B. EAR Welford: Your invitation to clear the fog about the Screen Writers’ Guild is both generous and timely, and I am glad to make a statement on behalf of the mem¬ bership, even though there is no time to consult either members or the Executive Board and I may rashly commit myself on some point of policy in which everyone will not concur. We are a demo¬ cratic lot and, thank heaven, extremely vocal, never hesitating to bash down an opponent with our shil¬ lelaghs, which are as good as an admission card to any meeting. Hence many an outsider has mistaken one of our mild arguments for a massacre. Hence, secondly, if I am cracked down on at the next mem¬ bership meeting, the responsibility rests on you. Nev¬ ertheless, thirdly, I believe my views will represent the generality of opinion and policy within the Guild. Fog Is Not Real . . . OW about that fog: It isn’t real. It is good, oldfashioned stage fog which drifts in upon 1655 North Cherokee almost invariably from the direction of a studio. A lot of the fog is red. It is most pecu¬ liar. Nick Harris reports that he can find no pro¬ ducers’ fingerprints on the fog-guns. The executives are as innocent as newborn babes. The most indus¬ trious fog-gunners, he finds, are certain writers who are too busy pumping away to get much writing done, and they love their toys so much they even take them home at night or to company union offices. Harris further reports that some of these chaps, really fine fellows, pump away in all honesty and loyalty, with the simple faith that they are drilling for the day when their fog-guns will be filled with mustard gas and aimed at Stalin, after he lands on the Maine coast and marches on Los Angeles. And the pro¬ ducers, as I said, are blameless. After all, stage fog is useful. Certain “shots” could not be made with¬ out a layer of fog to conceal the studio wall in the background. Enlightened Self-Interest . . . CTU ALLY what is the Screen Writers’ Guild? Nothing more than a group of able men and women who have joined together for mutual and en¬ lightened self-interest. That is as bluntly honest a statement as I can make. Observe that I say “en¬ lightened” self-interest. That means I must work Their Objectives for the good of my own producer as well as for my¬ self, and just as hard. I must work for the good of the industry as a whole as well as for myself, and just as hard. Harder in fact. For if the industry, and the producers in whose hands lie the power and responsibility to guide and run it, do not prosper, neither will the writer nor any other worker who is a part of its gigantic whole. Enlightened self-interest means that every writer must work in the interest of his craft and in the interest of every other worthy writer as well as for himself. As respect for film¬ writing increases, so does the self-respect of the filmwriter grow, and the quality of his writing is en¬ hanced. Interests Are Mutual . . . ND for enlightened self-interest, the writer must respect and work in the interest of the director and the actor as well as for himself. It has a big meaning, enlightened self-interest. It is one of the most powerful of human motives. And if you root deep enough you will find it cannot tolerate dishon¬ esty, greed, disloyalty or any other evil. But neither can it tolerate being flummoxed, squeezed, taken ad¬ vantage of. It doesn’t want a wage cut plopped upon it without proof that it is enlightened self-interest, and that takes a lot of proving. For instance, an office memorandum of Mr. Zanuck’s was recently given wide publicity, and it did not get outside the studio without intention. It called for harder work and drastic economies, which are highly proper at this time. But in calling for reduced writing costs Mr. Zanuck mentioned as money-makers In Old Chicago and Happy Landing, and unless I am badly mistaken, each had a script cost so low it would make the average producer dance for joy. My information may not be correct, but if it is, the script cost of Happy Landing was about one per cent of what it should gross. And if Mr. Zanuck cast forth this memorandum as a straw in the wind to indicate an eventual salary cut, he will find no small group ready to be stampeded into acceptance, as in the old days before the Guild, but a group of self-respecting peo¬ ple who are willing to cooperate if the necessity is evidenced, but must first take the matter back to their Guild for full consideration. Has Other Principles . . . NLIGHTENED self-interest is certainly one plank of the Guild. There are other principles, but most of them could be embodied in that one. We re¬ spect our employers, we want to work hard and loy¬ ally for them, we want them to make good pictures and profitable pictures, for all that is to our ad¬ vantage. It is high time they realized that we want to be friends with them as well as workers for them. Writers are not fools. They know they are essential to picture making, as essential as directors and actors. In one sense they are more essential, in that they are the first shift without which nothing can begin.