Hollywood Spectator (1938)

Page Ten April 16, 1938 Some directors are also writers, but it is seldom pos¬ sible to have sufficient energy to write and direct simultaneously. And if one of these few, exception¬ ally gifted men sits down first to write his script, then he is a writer at that time, like any of us. There is no quarrel between writers, directors and actors. They understand each other. And there should never be any quarrel between these groups and the producers. Point of View Not Narrow . . . F THE Guild aspired to obtain any improper pow¬ er or wield any selfish influence over the industry, it would not long endure. Nor would it deserve to endure. It does not exist for any class of writer. It numbers those who are up and those who are down, those who are coming up and those who are going down, and it must serve all impartially. We realize that in an industry in which energies are used at high tension, there must be a continual flux of talent, new blood coming in as the old dries up. A closed shop would choke this vital flow. Guild shop, which I am sure we shall sooner or later obtain, gives mutual protection without checking the flow. Has Had Its Troubles . . . HE best guarantee of the Guild’s good faith in these matters is its own history. However it has been kicked around it was no foundling. It had many good fathers, the ablest and most honorable of Hol¬ lywood writers, though I cannot say much for its mother, which was the fifty per cent cut. Certainly we had fights in the Guild. We made mistakes. Who hasn’t, with the best of intentions? We had little knowledge then and no experience of organization. From the first we sought recognition and decent bar¬ gaining relations. We were mistrusted by the pro¬ ducers, perhaps naturally enough. On short sight an employer prefers to have unorganized employes. It takes long sight to see the advantages of intelligently organized groups, disciplining themselves and deter¬ mined to deal fairly for the common good. We tried hard for recognition, but it never came. Never a nod. When the NRA came along, the producers were obliged to sit down with our committee, but the nod was even then not up and down but sidewise, until the NRA went with the wind. Union with Authors' League . . . STUBBORN refusal of recognition drove the Guild on towards its next logical move — to unite with the Authors’ League and form a single national organization of writers in all fields. That was a col¬ ossal job. It meant reorganization of the well-estab¬ lished League and adoption of a new constitution that would embrace all writers — dramatists, novel¬ ists and screen writers. Difficult as it was, the job was finally accomplished. The League with its thou¬ sands of members was reorganized and a new consti¬ tution voted. Then something happened. The phrase control of material” was unfortunately used in the Screen Guild magazine as one of the aims of the merger. The producers roused from their tents over¬ night with spears and bucklers. To them the phrase meant that the Guild proposed to corner the world market on story material. What was actually meant, and it was not entirely the fault of the producers that they were able to construe the phrase mistakenly, was that the League would be able to back up the demand of one of its member guilds for simple recognition. Guild Has a Set-Back . . . LL screen writers know what happened publicly, how working writers were summoned sternly to executive offices and warned in no veiled terms what would happen if they voted for the merger with the League, how the Guild collapsed overnight in conse¬ quence. But only a handful can know what happen¬ ed privately. While the dying Guild was burning like the phoenix, a rival organization leapt into be¬ ing, received the mystic handshake and in a very short time had not only been recognized by the pro¬ ducers but had negotiated a contract for its members. Their Stand Sincere . . . HESE writers, it was said, were the gentlemen of the business, the conservatives, the men who could be trusted. In all fairness let me state my opinion that some of them sincerely believed their accusations against the merger of Guild and League. Whether there was any basis of justice in their claims will never be known because the all-embracing constitu¬ tion of the new League was never tried, not on the West Coast at any rate. It worked excellently in the East for the Dramatists’ Guild and nationally for the Authors’ Guild. But the Screen Writers’ Guild, though it never died, languished. With so few mem¬ bers there was no chance to test the working merits of the new set-up. The old charge of radicalism was also raised. Then Came Wagner Act . . . T WAS the Wagner Act that revived the phoenix. Overnight it rose full-fledged. And the members of the Guild determined that this time the old accu¬ sation of “control by the East” and “no autonomy” would not be raised. The Council of the League granted temporary autonomy while the Guild set about the gigantic task of once more amending the constitution. It was difficult because novelists and dramatists and radio writers found it hard to under¬ stand why, after years of negotiating for national unity, we now desired a looser connection with the League. But it was finally accomplished, and today the Guild stands separate and self-governing and yet is firmly interlocked with dramatists, authors and radio writers when it comes to problems of mutual interest, or where the interests of one group can be injured by the invasion of another group into the same field of writing. We of the Guild feel that our slate is clean. We feel that we have fought a clean fight and won. Now we await the decision of the National Labor Relations Board, and whether or not we are granted the election for sole bargaining power which we have asked, we know the Guild is here to stay. We cannot be defeated save by our own mis