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 2327 I haven't shown you all these photographs, but as an indication of the peaceful picketing to which Mr. Sorrell testified, you might just take a look at that photograph showing the Paramount studio. In connection with the Warner Bros, picketing, I have had sent out to me just a few sample photographs which were taken during the course of the 19J:5 strike. I would like to have them made a part of the record. I think you might look at them to give you an indication as to whether these pictures demonstrate so-called peaceful picketing, for the purpose of advertising or whether they demonstrate, on the other hand, the worst kind of lawlessness. Mr. McCann. Off the record. (Discussion off the record.) Mr. Zorn. I would like the record to show, gentlemen, that I have submitted a series of photographs of mass picketing and violence at Warner Bros., and Columbia, both in the '15 and '46 strikes. I want to say there are literally hundreds of similar pictures, but I think that is sufficient to give you a picture, plus these newspaper items and plus some of the injunction papers which I shall read briefly later, to give you an idea that this was not a peaceful strike, and that the mass picket line was not a free speech picket line. I have read into the record before some extracts from the newspapers in connection with the 1945 strike. I would like to come now to a few brief quotations from the newspapers in connection with the 1946 strike. Again I say I could read items of this sort into the record for days, but I do not think it is necessary. I think the important thing is to give you some idea of what happened there, which will completely contradict some of the testimony that has been put in. Now, in the Los Angeles Times of September 27, 1946 — that was the beginning, by the way, of the '46 strike — the main headline reads : "Violence Opens Studio Strike." [Beading:] POLICE JAIL 12 pickets; NONSTKIK'EES PASS LINES; WORK ON PICTURES GOES ON Warring AFL union leaders in tlie motion-picture industry put on a big-scale premiere yesterday as their new strike got under way. There was early violence to mark the latest outburst in the 11-month-old labor trouble which has beset the major film studios. Strike Leader Herbert K. Sorrell told newsmen that there may be men hurt, there may be men killed before this is over, but we're in no mood to be pushed around any more. He forecast that the strike will go on for at least 3 weeks. Early in the morning several thousand pickets threw up human barriers at studio entrances, some barriers temporarily so dense that none could go through them. However, tens of thousands of nonstriking AFL workers went through the picket lines although some of them were badly jostled — none badly enough to require hospitalization. Picture production and business went on, the employers declared, at the seven major studios where picketing took place. OARS TURNED AWAY Lawlessness walked hand-in-hand with pickets at some places, police reported, and 12 pickets were jailed. Some autoists and truckers were stopped and, in instances, turned away. The hood of one passenger car was yanked open and the car's electric wiring ripped out, immobilizing the vehicle. Police charged one picket with trying to start a riot. Mostly the pickets were arrested for disturl)ing the peace, one being chased some distance and finally captui'ed by a flying tackle that downed him on the concrete sidewalk. Some of the pickets at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio in Culver City proclaimed that "We're going easy on you today — but wait until tomorrow."