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The Screen Writers Guild was an organization of Hollywood screenplay authors, formed as a union in 1933. A rival organisation, Screen Playwrights, Inc., was established by the film studios and producers, but after an appeal to the
National Labor Relations Board The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States that enforces United States labor law, U.S. labor law in relation to collect ...
and a vote by eligible screenwriters, the Screenwriters Guild won out as the sole representative body. Its house publication was ''The Screen Writer''. In 1954, it became two different organizations:
Writers Guild of America, West The Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) is a labor union representing film, television, radio, and new media writers. It was formed in 1954 from five organizations representing writers, including the Screen Writers Guild. It has around 20,000 m ...
and the
Writers Guild of America, East The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) is a trade union, labor union representing writers in film, television, radio, news, and online media. The WGAE and the Writers Guild of America West (WGAW), though independent entities, jointly brand the ...
.


Background and establishment

Screenwriters' earliest attempts at organizing date back to the 1910s, when film scenarists participated in The Authors League of America (now the
Authors Guild The Authors Guild is the United States' oldest and largest professional organization for writers and provides advocacy on issues of free expression and copyright protection. Since its founding in 1912 as the Authors League of America, it has coun ...
). However, screenwriters soon identified a need to form their own organization, since they had different work products and challenges than literary writers. Another attempt at representation was the Photoplay Authors’ League, founded in 1914 in Los Angeles, but it disbanded after two years. In Summer 1920, twelve writers announced the formation of the Screen Writers Guild. They published an open letter in '' Variety'', defining six objectives of the organization, and inviting all industry writers to apply for membership. Members had to derive income from some form of film writing, and to receive nominations from two existing members. In 1921, The Guild also formed a social arm, The Writers' Club. The club purchased a mansion at 6700 Sunset Boulevard and converted it to a clubhouse, * * which became a gathering place for SWG members. The Writers held numerous dinners,
WAMPAS Baby Stars The WAMPAS Baby Stars was a promotional campaign sponsored by the United States Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers, which honored 13 (15 in 1932) young actresses each year whom they believed to be on the threshold of movie stardom. ...
Candidates Parades, parties, and presentations of one-act plays through the mid-1930s. Starting in 1927, several historic trends caused the SWG's organizing and representation efforts to become nearly inactive.
Louis B. Mayer Louis Burt Mayer (; born Lazar Meir; July 12, 1884Mayer maintained that he was born in Minsk on July 4, 1885. According to Scott Eyman, the reasons may have been: * Mayer's father gave different dates for his birthplace at different times, so ...
founded the
Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., with the stated goal of adva ...
as a means of bypassing union negotiations. Warner Brothers released the first commercial sound film, ''
The Jazz Singer ''The Jazz Singer'' is a 1927 American part-talkie musical drama film directed by Alan Crosland and produced by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is the first feature-length motion picture with both synchronized recorded music and lip-synchronous ...
'', bringing fundamental changes to screenwriting. And the Great Depression began taking a toll on all aspects of filmmaking economics. In 1933, ten writers met to discuss revitalizing the SWG as union under the protection of laws governing unions under consideration by
Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
and eventually embodied in the Wagner Act of 1935. They included Donald Ogden Stewart,
Charles Brackett Charles William Brackett (November 26, 1892 – March 9, 1969) was an American screenwriter and film producer. He collaborated with Billy Wilder on sixteen films. Life and career Brackett was born in Saratoga Springs, New York, the son of ...
,
John Bright John Bright (16 November 1811 – 27 March 1889) was a British Radical and Liberal statesman, one of the greatest orators of his generation and a promoter of free trade policies. A Quaker, Bright is most famous for battling the Corn La ...
, Philip Dunne,
Dorothy Parker Dorothy Parker (née Rothschild; August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American poet and writer of fiction, plays and screenplays based in New York; she was known for her caustic wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles. Parker ros ...
and Howard J. Green; the union's first president. Others active in the 1930s included
Lillian Hellman Lillian Florence Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984) was an American playwright, Prose, prose writer, Memoir, memoirist, and screenwriter known for her success on Broadway as well as her communist views and political activism. She was black ...
,
Dashiell Hammett Samuel Dashiell Hammett ( ; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the characters he created are Sam Spade ('' The Ma ...
,
Ogden Nash Frederic Ogden Nash (August 19, 1902 – May 19, 1971) was an American poet well known for his Light poetry, light verse, of which he wrote more than 500 pieces. With his unconventional rhyme, rhyming schemes, he was declared by ''The New York T ...
,
Frances Goodrich Frances Goodrich (December 21, 1890 – January 29, 1984) was an American actress, dramatist, and screenwriter, best known for her collaborations with her partner and husband Albert Hackett. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama with her hu ...
,
Albert Hackett Albert Maurice Hackett (February 16, 1900 – March 16, 1995) was an American actor, dramatist and screenwriter most noted for his collaborations with his partner and wife Frances Goodrich. Their film work includes the first three instalments in ...
, and
Maurice Rapf Maurice Harry Rapf (May 19, 1914 – April 15, 2003) was an American screenwriter and professor of film studies. His work includes the screenplays for early Disney live-action features ''Song of the South'' (1946) and '' So Dear to My Heart'' (19 ...
.
John Howard Lawson John Howard Lawson (September 25, 1894 – August 11, 1977) was an American playwright, screenwriter, arts critic, and cultural historian. After enjoying a relatively successful career writing plays that were staged on and off Broadway in the 192 ...
was also a co-founder, who was also a key player in resurrecting it in 1937.
Gladys Lehman Gladys Lehman (née Collins; 1892–1993) was a prolific American screenwriter who had a long career in Hollywood. Biography Lehman was born in Gates, Oregon, in 1892 to James Collins and Lois Gates. She was the eldest of the couple's four c ...
became the organization's first official
amanuensis An amanuensis ( ) ( ) or scribe is a person employed to write or type what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another. It may also be a person who signs a document on behalf of another under the latter's authority. In some aca ...
and secretary, as no one else wanted the job. She continued as a screenwriter until 1953 and
House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative United States Congressional committee, committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 19 ...
(HUAC).Martinson, 127-8; Wright, 116 SWG sought to establish criteria for crediting authors for creating or contributing to a screenplay, known as "screen credits."Martinson, 127-8; Wright, 116 Its house publication was ''The Screen Writer''.


Screen Playwrights Inc. (1938)

The
film studios A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company that makes films. Today, studios are mostly financing and distribution entities. In addition, they may have their own studio facility or facilities; howev ...
responded by refusing to hire Guild members and forming a rival organization called the Screen Playwrights Inc. When the Guild appealed to the
National Labor Relations Board The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States that enforces United States labor law, U.S. labor law in relation to collect ...
(NLRB), the NLRB certified the Guild as the "exclusive bargaining agency" for screenwriters employed by 13 of 18 Hollywood studios, based on elections in 1938 which writers chose the Guild over the Screen Playwrights. At that time, Screen Writers Guild Inc. had 502 members, and Screen Playwrights Inc. had only 132. Screen Writers Guild received 271 out of a possible 342 eligible writers. The film producers acceded to the NLRB ruling in March 1939.


HUAC (1940s)

Beginning in 1940, the Guild came under attack by the House Committee on Un-American Activities for the "radical communist leanings" of many of its members. The attacks escalated in 1947, when more than a dozen writers were called to testify. Screenwriter
Jack Moffitt Jack Moffitt may refer to: * Jack Moffitt (computer scientist), American computer scientist, co-author of Icecast * Jack Moffitt (musician), Australian musician, former member of The Preatures * Jack Moffitt (screenwriter) (1901–1969), Americ ...
, an ardent anti-Communist, who had been a member of Screen Playwrights, Inc. and had been embittered by its demise, testified against many screenwriters, including
Frank Tuttle Frank Wright Tuttle (August 6, 1892 – January 6, 1963) was a Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film director and writer who directed films from 1922 (''The Cradle Buster'') to 1959 (''Island of Lost Women''). Biography Frank Tuttle was ...
, Herbert Biberman, Donald Ogden Stewart, and
John Howard Lawson John Howard Lawson (September 25, 1894 – August 11, 1977) was an American playwright, screenwriter, arts critic, and cultural historian. After enjoying a relatively successful career writing plays that were staged on and off Broadway in the 192 ...
.
Lillian Hellman Lillian Florence Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984) was an American playwright, Prose, prose writer, Memoir, memoirist, and screenwriter known for her success on Broadway as well as her communist views and political activism. She was black ...
responded with an essay in ''The Screen Writer'', the Guild's publication, attacking the Committee for its investigation and the film industry's owners for submitting to the Committee's intimidation. It described the committee's hearings:


Split (1954)

In 1954, the members of the Screen Writers Guild backed the formation of a national union of a broader organization of writers working in motion pictures, television and radio, divided into two geographical bodies:
Writers Guild of America, West The Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) is a labor union representing film, television, radio, and new media writers. It was formed in 1954 from five organizations representing writers, including the Screen Writers Guild. It has around 20,000 m ...
and the
Writers Guild of America, East The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) is a trade union, labor union representing writers in film, television, radio, news, and online media. The WGAE and the Writers Guild of America West (WGAW), though independent entities, jointly brand the ...
.''The New York Times''
"Screen Writers Back New Union," May 21, 1954
accessed December 28, 2011


See also

*
Writers Guild of America The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is the name of two American labor unions representing writers in film, television, radio, and online media: * The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) is headquartered in New York City and is affiliated wit ...


References


Further reading

*Larry Ceplair and Steven Englund, ''The Inquisition in Hollywood: Politics in the Film Community, 1930–1960'' (University of California Press, 1983) *David L. Goodrich, ''The Real Nick and Nora: Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, Writers of Stage and Screen Classics'' (Southern Illinois University Press 2004) *Victor S. Navasky, ''Naming Names'' (Macmillan, 2003) *Nancy Lynn Schwartz, ''The Hollywood Writers' War'' (NY: Knopf, 1982) * Colin Shindler, ''Hollywood in Crisis: Cinema and American Society, 1929–1939'' (Psychology Press, 1996) {{authority control Scriptwriters' trade unions Trade unions established in 1933 Trade unions in the United States American writers' organizations