Hollywood's Union-Busting Drive And The Birth Of The Oscars

It all started with a house바카라�a beach house. By the spring of 1926, Louis B Mayer had made it. As the co-founder of Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), he had buried his impoverished childhood in Russia and New Brunswick, where he wheeled a cart that said 바카라�Junk Dealer바카라�, to head a film studio that had, according to its motto, 바카라�more stars than바카라� those 바카라�in heaven바카라�. Coasting on a weekly salary of $2,500 (a recent bump from $1,000), he wanted more: a vacation home for his family on the Santa Monica beach. 

He could have taken the conventional route바카라�hiring architects, carpenters, and electricians from the existing pool of contractual labour바카라�but that바카라�d take time. Mayer was a man of the movies; he owned not just the business of mythmaking but time itself. 바카라�When we need a set at the studio, we build it overnight,바카라� his daughter Irene recounts in The Grove Book of Hollywood. 바카라�When we need a big village, we build it in weeks. Don바카라�t be at the mercy of those contractors. Don바카라�t start with the architects. I will talk to the people at the studio.바카라� Mayer had decided. The studio labour would build the house바카라�in six weeks. 

But he ran into a problem: film studios바카라� labourers. Spread across five unions, who had struck in 1918, they were about to ink a contract with nine Hollywood giants바카라�called the Studio Basic Agreement (SBA)바카라�which protected their rights and made them expensive. Mayer, as a result, hired few skilled studio employees and outsourced cheap labour. He did get his mansion in six weeks, but the workers바카라� unionisation, driving up the costs, had made him worried. What if the contagion of standardised contracts infected his 바카라�talent바카라�? The actors, the screenwriters, the directors, the technicians. (In fact, theatre performers, forming the Actors바카라� Equity Association in 1913, had tried to unite their screen brethren five years ago.) What if they all rallied together for better pay, pensions, health benefits바카라�maybe even profits? 

Mayer had to squash dissent even before it arose. His organisation would both settle labour disputes, between the studios and the talent, and restore Hollywood바카라�s pride, which had been rocked by a series of recent scandals, including Charlie Chaplin impregnating his 16-year-old fellow actor, Lita Grey, and his 바카라�perverted sexual desires바카라� leaking into the press. 

So on January 1, 1927바카라�less than five weeks after the SBA바카라�Mayer called three influential figures for a meeting at his Santa Monica mansion. 바카라�It was no coincidence that two of them were his minions,바카라� writes Anthony Holden in Behind the Oscar, referring to MGM바카라�s leading actor, Conrad Nigel, and director Fred Niblo, whose latest, Ben Hur (1925), had been a box-office smash. Also present was Fred Beetson, the chief of the Association of Motion Picture Producers, which had formed a trust last year to stretch the studios바카라� monopoly. Over dinner, Mayer shared his plans of a 바카라�mutually beneficial바카라� organisation that would serve the interests of disparate groups in Hollywood. His guests promptly spread the word among their 바카라�important friends바카라�. 

Ten days later, led by Mayer, 36 Hollywood professionals assembled at the Ambassador Hotel, in Los Angeles, creating the International Motion Pictures of Arts and Sciences. At the meeting, he 바카라�harangued his guests바카라�, writes Nancy Lynn Schwartz in The Hollywood바카라�s Writers바카라� Wars, 바카라�convincing them that an organisation such as the Academy would be far preferable to any craft organisation antagonistic towards the producers.바카라� Its prime criterion for members바카라�anyone who
had 바카라�contributed in a distinguished way to the arts and sciences of the Motion Picture Production바카라�바카라�was 바카라�vague enough바카라�, she adds, to 바카라�assure him that he could keep out whomever he wanted바카라�. 

바카라�Although Mayer stressed the democratic nature of the organisation,바카라� explains Holden, 바카라�it didn바카라�t go unnoticed that the room contained a remarkably high percentage of producers바카라�바카라�38.8%. The founding members바카라� distribution told a neat story of power in the Academy: 14 producers, 6 directors, 6 actors, 6 writers, 3 technicians, and a 바카라� lawyer, Mayer바카라�s own, Edwin Loeb (known as the 바카라�father of the motion picture contracts바카라�). This was a union, sure, but of corporations. The Academy 바카라�reassured the producers바카라�, explains Schwartz, who knew about the vociferous demands of the Actors바카라� Equity Association and Dramatists Guild in New York, 바카라�and they congratulated themselves on the creation of an organisation that would keep the industry free from strong talent unions.바카라� 

On May 11, 1927, a week after the Academy got its charter as a legal corporation, it held an inaugural banquet at the Biltmore Hotel. Out of the 300 attendees, 231 signed up as members, paying $100 to the Academy바카라�s first Treasurer, MC Levee. By then, it had also gotten other prime officers: screenwriter Frank Woods, secretary; Niblo, vice-president; silent cinema legend, Douglas Fairbanks (Sr), president. The Academy published a statement of aims on June 20, 1927, whose fifth paragraph contained a self-congratulatory proposal that would become synonymous with Hollywood: 바카라�It will encourage the improvement and advancement of the arts and sciences of the profession by the interchange of constructive ideas and by awards of merits for distinctive achievements.바카라� 

The Academy was tested as soon as it was born. In the same summer, the movie producers, led by Paramount, announced a 10% wage cut for all non-union workers. The Academy supported the move; the writers and actors protested. Even though the Screen Writers바카라� Guild, formed seven years ago, had become dormant by 1927, it 바카라�campaigned against [the salary reduction] with the Actors바카라� Equity Association and threatened to call a strike of the scenarists,바카라� wrote Murray Ross in his 1947 research paper, Labor Relations in Hollywood. On July 6, 1927, 500 writers, actors, and directors held a meeting to discuss the draconian diktat. 

The producers eventually rescinded the cuts, but someone else profited the most from the scuffle: the Academy. Pushing the Guild to the background, it charged ahead to conduct the actual negotiations and 바카라�establish a 바카라�code of practice바카라� entitling the writers to adequate screen credits, separation pay in appropriate circumstances, and elimination of speculative writing,바카라� adds Ross. It also smoothened out the 바카라�writer-producer relations by conciliating many disputes바카라�. 

Around two years later, on May 16, 1929, the Academy held its first awards. Hosted by Fairbanks, it was a muted event lacking glamour, red carpet, and surprise바카라�the winners had been announced three months ago. Simple Chinese lanterns adorned the Blossom Room of the Roosevelt Hotel; the attendees바카라� tables had candles and candy replicas of the statuettes. The awards also aimed to advance another motive of the Academy, 바카라�defining film jobs as skilled industry rather than labour,바카라� according to Peter Decherney바카라�s Hollywood and the Culture Elite. The first ceremony, he argues, had separate awards for the Best Picture (Wings) and the Best Unique and Artistic Picture (Sunrise), 바카라�separating commercial fare from prestige art films바카라�. Similarly, the acting awards recognised a body of work as opposed to one movie바카라�Janet Gaynor won it for Sunrise, Seventh Heaven, and Street Angel바카라�thus separating 바카라�바카라�below the line workers바카라� from the artists who wrote, directed, and acted in films, effectively distinguishing the unionised labours from artists.바카라�

But the suits could only keep their charade till March 1933. In the era of the Great Depression바카라�leading to massive layoffs, pay cuts, and deep distrust of the Academy바카라�the film professionals did ultimately unionise. The Screen Writers바카라� Guild revitalised in 1933, and other associations followed: Screen Actors Guild (formed in 1933), the Screen Directors Guild (1936), and the American Federation of Radio Artists (1937). By the late 바카라�30s, the Academy receded from labour arbitration. 

But Mayer바카라�s 바카라�ingenuity바카라� had to be admired. He not only created a solution to a problem that didn바카라�t exist but, in the coming years, laced it with layers of segregation and glitz. And, like a true callous capitalist, he exploited the very people enriching him바카라�and boasted about it later. 바카라�I found the best way to handle [filmmakers] was to hang medals all over them,바카라� his biographer Scott Eyman quotes him in Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer. 바카라�If I got them cups and awards, they바카라�d kill themselves to produce what I wanted. That바카라�s why the Academy Award was created.바카라�