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SCREEN WRITERS GUILD, INC.
1655 NO. CHEROKEE AVE., HOLLYWOOD 28, CALIFORNIA AFFILIATED WITH AUTHORS' LEAGUE OF AMERICA, INC.
OFFICERS & EXECUTIVE BOARD, THE SCREEN WRITERS' GUILD: PRESIDENT: SHERIDAN GIBNEY; 1ST VICE-PRESIDENT, GEORGE SEATON; 2ND VICE-PRESIDENT, F. HUGH HERBERT; 3RD VICE-PRESIDENT, DWIGHT TAYLOR; SECRETARY, ARTHUR SHEEKMAN; TREASURER, HARRY TUGEND. EXECUTIVE BOARD: ROBERT ARDREY, ART ARTHUR, CLAUDE BINYON, CHARLES BRACKETT, FRANK CAVETT, OLIVE COOPER, VALENTINE DAVIES, RICHARD ENGLISH, EVERETT FREEMAN, PAUL GANGELIN, ALBERT HACKETT, ARTHUR KOBER, MILTON KRIMS, ERNEST PASCAL, LEONARD SPIGELGASS. COUNSEL, MORRIS E. COHN. EXECUTIVE
SECRETARY, ALICE PENNEMAN.
D I T O R I A
UNLIKE other large industries, ours offers little ultimate security for the mass of experienced professionals which it has taken some trouble to qualify. Too much of the element of chance is permitted to influence the market value of writers, directors, players, cameramen and similar specialists. A man's proven ability to produce entertainment essentials, the fruit of long study and training in motion pictures, is too frequently victimized by that old chestnut, "You're only as good as your last picture." The less recent the picture, the lower the estimate — and many war veterans have been completely forgotten. With employment conditions as they are, the opportunity for screen writers to achieve current samples of their craft is receding.
This prodigal waste of manpower, which existed even in good times, should be faced with a sense of realism. Railing against the industry and contending that it owes its members a living is no solution to the immediate problem of how to weather existing conditions. The divorcement action or increased production next year to meet the needs of television will not improve our situation tomorrow morning.
A number of screen writers are returning to their former endeavors as novelists, short story writers and playwrights. Considerable original screen material is being written with one mimeographing office reporting that 80 per cent of its work is on original screenplays while it was only IS per cent a year ago. Writers, the majority of them still anxious to pursue a career in the industry, are certainly not idle while waiting for studio employment. But what other practical and realistic steps can be taken to create paying work for the experienced screen writer? This magazine opens its pages for such discussion.
The Screen Writer, May, 1948 17