Jurisdictional disputes in the motion-picture Industry : hearings before a special subcommittee of the Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives, Eightieth Congress, first-session, pursuant to H. Res. 111 (1948)

MOTION-PICTURE JURISDICTIONAL DISPUTES 2007 "3. Has no machinery by which officers can be recalled if proven unworthy. "4. Appoints business agents over the heads of members. "What good is a raise if you have joined an organization which will not permit you to withdraw if you disagree with its tops? "Do you think Willie Bioff is iu this business to help you? "Where there is no democracy, there cau be no safety." Daily Variet}^, November 24, 1939, headline : Law Catches LTp With Bioff — Cops Hunt Willie as Panderer The law has caught up with Willie Bioff. A pandering conviction which Billie boasted had been fixed may send him back to Chicago to serve out a 6 months' sentence in the house of correction. (Websters Dictionary gives the following definition of a panderer: "A gobetween in love intrigues; a pimp; a procurer or procuress: a minister to the evil designs or passions of others.") Variety, November 25, 1939, a signed editorial by Arthur Ungar: The "Keedle" Kries Willie the "Keedle" Bioff is trying to put Hollywood in the throes of a general strike. That would be Willie's crowning achievement. It would satisfy his sadistic desire. Willie is blaming everyone he can think of for the sudden reawakening of the State of Illinois which found that the "Weeping Kid" did not complete his 6 months' stretch in the Bridewell. He is trying to bring ijeople to his own level by attempting to jeopardize the earning power of thousands of workers in Hollywood with a strike threat. These are the same workers to whom he refers to card men, not unionists. Tliey are threatened with having their living jerked away from them without the right to vote on the matter. Now, this is from Variety of December 1, 1939, a signed editorial by Arthur Ungar : Thugs and I'ictures News of Willie "The Keedle" Binff's strangle hold on Hollywood studio labor is spreading around the country. And the newspapers do not think so well of it. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, in its issue of Tuesday, November 28, under the caption of "Thugs and Motion Pictures," said editorially : "The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, of which St. Louis No. 1 racketeer, Jolin Nick, is first vice president, has won, at least temporarily, its fight for a 10-percent wage increase for 23,000 studio workers in Hollywood. "As to the merit of the union's demands, it is difficult to pass judgment : certainly the union makes the strongest possible statement of its case when it say, 'Befoi'e any readjustment is allowed to diminish the earning power of the studio workmen, the salaries of those receiving $2,000 a week and upward should be carefully scrutinized.' "But the victory of the international alliance in this case, as well as its previous triumphs over the CIO in tlie fight over which would organize labor in Hollywood, has been one of considerable cost. Willie Bioff, the personal representative and right-hand man of President Browne of the alliance, has been exposed as a former Chicago panderer and gunman, and as the recipient of a $100,000 'loan' from a prominent producer during the course of the maneuvering between the AFL and the CIO for dominance in Hollywood." Here is a sisjned editorial of Arthur Ungar on December 5, 1939, entitled "Willie's Weak Heart." Willie Bioff is desperate in his endeavor to remain in California. "The Keedle" is pressuring heavy to induce labor f)rganizations to wire Governor Henry E. Hornei to tell the Illinois Governor what a great man Willie is and that the most unfair thing that could be done would be to have him serve his term of close to 6 months for the pandering conviction, and thus pay his debt to society. Willie knows tliat laboi-, its rank and file, has no use for a panderer. Willie also knows that if he liad a vote taken of the unions into which he nuiscled as to