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Hollywood Black Friday is the name given, in the history of organized labor in the United States, to October 5, 1945. On that date, a six month strike by the set decorators represented by the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU) boiled over into a bloody riot at the gates of Warner Brothers' studios in Burbank, California. The strikes helped the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 and led to the eventual break up of the CSU and reorganization of the then rival IATSE leadership. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (959x709, 405 KB) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (959x709, 405 KB) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
October 5 is the 278th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (279th in Leap years). ...
Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ...
A union (labor union in American English; trade union, sometimes trades union, in British English; either labour union or trade union in Canadian English) is a group of workers who act collectively to address common issues. ...
October 5 is the 278th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (279th in Leap years). ...
Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ...
A set decorator is in charge of the set dressing on a film set, which includes the furnishings, wallpaper, lighting fixtures, and many of the other objects that will be seen in the film. ...
Black Friday, October 5, 1945 Hollywood Black Friday is the name given, in the history of organized labor in the United States, to October 5, 1945. ...
Warner Bros. ...
Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. ...
The Labor-Management Relations Act, commonly known as the Taft-Hartley Act, is a United States federal law that greatly restricts the activities and power of labor unions. ...
Year 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1947 calendar). ...
The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes, or I.A.T.S.E., (Full name: International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, Its Territories and Canada) is a labor union. ...
Background The Conference of Studio Unions was, at the time, an International union belonging to the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and represented the Carpenters, Painters, Cartoonists and several other crafts working for the Studios in Hollywood. The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America is the largest building trades union in the United States. ...
A movie studio is a controlled environment for the making of a film. ...
Much like American popular music, American cinema has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. ...
Seventy-seven set decorators broke away from IATSE to form the Society of Motion Picture Interior Decorators (SMPID) and negotiated an independent contract with the producers in 1937. The SMPID joined the CSU in 1943 and the CSU represented the SMPID in their contract negotiations. After the producers stalled the negotiations for nine months, IATSE questioned CSU jurisdiction over the Set Decorators which led to a further five month delay as the CSU and IATSE fought over jurisdiction. When the Producers refused to acknowledge an independent arbitrator appointed by the War Labor Board's assessment that the CSU had jurisdiction over the Set Decorators in February 1945, it set the stage for the strike. Year 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...
1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1943 calendar). ...
Capitalizing on labor shortages during Americas entrance into World War I, unions led by Samuel Gompers under the American Federation of Labor organized mass strikes for tangible gain. ...
The Strike An estimate 10,500 CSU workers went on strike in March 1945 and began picketing all the studios resulting in delays of several films including Selznick's epic Duel in the Sun and the Cole Porter story Night and Day. Unfortunately for CSU, the studios had some 130 films on the shelves at the time and were able to comfortably sit out a strike for the time being. Regardless, Disney, Monogram and several independents bargained with CSU while Columbia, Fox, MGM, Paramount, RKO, Universal, and Warner did not. David O. Selznick David Oliver Selznick (May 10, 1902–June 22, 1965), was one of the icon Hollywood producers of the Golden Age. ...
Duel in the Sun is a 1946 Western film which tells the story of a half-Hispanic girl who goes to live with her Anglo relatives, becoming involved in prejudice and forbidden love. ...
DVD Cover of Night and Day Night and Day is a 1946 fictionalised biographical film made by Warner Brothers, based on the life of American composer and songwriter Cole Porter. ...
The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) is one of the largest media and entertainment corporations in the world. ...
Fox Plaza, the company headquarters. ...
MGM logo Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer or MGM, is a large media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of cinema and television programs. ...
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American motion picture production and distribution company, based in Hollywood, California. ...
The classic opening logo of RKO Radio Pictures. ...
The current Universal Studios logo Universal Studios (sometimes called Universal Pictures or, officially, Universal City Studios), a subsidiary of NBC Universal, is one of the major American film studios that has production studios and offices located at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California, an unincorporated area of...
Warner Bros. ...
Despite orders from their leadership and threatened with fines and revocation of their cards, many members of IATSE refused to cross the picket lines or do work normally filled by members of the CSU.
Black Friday By October, money and patience was running low as some 300 strikers gathered at Warner Brothers' main gate on October 5, 1945. Temperatures were abnormally warm for the already hot LA summer. When non-strikers attempted to report for work at 6:00 in the morning, the barricades went up and tensions flared as several scabs attempted to run the strikers down and other cars were stopped and overturned. October 5 is the 278th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (279th in Leap years). ...
Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ...
Scab can refer to the following: The crust covering a healing wound as a result of coagulation. ...
Reinforcements arrived on both sides as the picket increased to some 1,000 people and Glendale and Los Angeles Police came to aid the Burbank Police and Warner Security attempting to maintain the peace. When more scab workers attempted to crash the gate, a general melee ensued as strikebreakers came at the pickets with chains, hammers, pipes, tear gas and night sticks while Warner security rained more tear gas and other objects down from the roofs of the buildings adjoining the entrance. Warner firefighters sprayed the pickets with fire hoses as CSU pickets hunkered down with their own white painted helmets. By the end of the day, some 300 police and sheriffs had been called to the scene and over 40 casualties were reported.
The picketers returned the following Monday with an injunction barring the police from interfering with the strike while Warner retaliated with its own injunction limiting the number of pickets at the gate. Although the violence would continue through the week, national exposure forced the parties back to the bargaining table and resulted in an end to the strike one month later but the CSU victory was a Pyrrhic one, where contentions over wording dictated by an AFL arbitration team would lead to further questioning as to CSU and IATSE jurisdiction on the set. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. ...
The Aftermath After meetings between IATSE and representatives of the studios in early September 1946 guaranteed IATSE workers to fill the positions of existing CSU employees, the studios came up with a plan to force CSU out of the studios once and for all. On September 23, the studios reassigned all the CSU members from construction supervisors, foremen and maintenance men to work as journeymen carpenters on "hot set", a position many of these men hadn't worked in many years and a violation of their job descriptions and cause for a union grievance. September 23 is the 266th day of the year (267th in leap years). ...
These men understandably protested and refused at which point they were given preprepared paychecks for their time and effectively sent home and subsequently locked out. Naturally, the pickets went back up, and the CSU was forced to assume the crushing burden of another strike.
Despite a walk out by members of IATSE 683 film laboratory technicians in solidarity with CSU, open fighting between CSU members and studio security forces and a vote by the Screen Actors Guild to effectively turn their back on CSU hampered the CSU's efforts. This was a strike that the CSU would never recover from, lasting some 13 months before it voted to permit long-unemployed, impoverished members and supporters to cross the picket line and return to work. The CIO also came to the aid of the struggling CSU members and assisted them in finding jobs in other CIO industries. The Screen Actors Guild (S.A.G.) is the labor union representing over 120,000 film actors in the United States. ...
The Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO, was a federation of unions that organized industrial workers in the United States and Canada in 1935-1955. ...
The disorder in Hollywood helped prompt the Taft-Hartley bill which was passed in part with the studios' lobby and accusations of Sorrell's alleged Communist Party membership which prompted Sorrell and CSU's slow descent into obscurity.
References - Gerald Horne; Class Struggle in Hollywood 1930 – 1950 (University of Texas Press, 2001 ISBN 0-292-73137-X)
- George H Dunne; Hollywood Labor Dispute: A Study in Immorality (Conference Publishing Co., 1950 ASIN B0007FXSCU)
2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...
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