Evening star., 1922-11-26

LTHOUGH nearly every CLASS OF
~ workers seems to have its
~ grievances, it surprised many
people the other day when
Frank Gilmore, executive secretary
OF the Actors Equity Association.
complained to Will Hays about the
treatment of motion picture actors
by their employers. For the popular
impression has been that of all work.
ers motion picture players not only
are the best paid, but have the easiest
jobs. That movie actors have a class
conscience" is well known. but that
they had long list Of grievances is
something the layman never even
dreamed of.
However, their request for reforms
is not a mere plea for better working
conditions. 1t is almost a demand.
and both Will Hays, who is the su-
preme arbiter of the motion picture
industry, and Jesse Lasky, who is one
Of the most powerful magnates in the
industry, have already put their heads
together to see what can be done
about 1t.
OF course, individual motion picture
actors have often made complaints
about their treatment at the hands of
the big producers, but this is the first
time that an organized body Of film
players has put forth Its grievances
and demanded better deal.
AS the f1lm players are we'll organ
ized. and especially as the Actors
Equity Association is affiliated with
tho Aoericop Fed ro t{on ~ J,ahor
the movie magnates cannot dismiss
these charges with a contemptuous
laugh. The film going public. how
ever. can sit back and laugh-or cry
at the sad predicament of the gelatin
set. Some film fans, Of course, will
probably sympathize deeply with
them. But the average layman, un-
less ! am very much mistaken, will
get good chuckle out of their
unique tribulations, for the grievances
Of film players have little to do with
salaries and untoward working con.
ditions, but a whole lot to do with
the mental attitude of their employ,
ers.
In tact, the very first grievance that
is set forth in the Actors Equity AS
socia tion's bill of particulars is that
producers and directors do not con-
slider business appointments with
movie actors as definite business en-
gagements. Film players are often
kept waiting from thirty minutes to
several hours simply because their
employers don't take them seriously.
The attitude Of the producers, 1t
seems, may be summed up in the ex-
preston, Whats time to an actor?"
The gelatin set doesn't like that.
They want to be taken seriously, and
when Handsome Harold Huckleberry
has an appointment with Able Wog-
glebaum at p.m., he wants to be ad
mitted to his office at that time and
not told to come around tomorrow.
THE film players assert that the
l. attaches of most of the studios
and Offices have a needless insulting
demeanor" toward them. Il quote
from the list of grievances which was
forwarded to Mr.. Hays.) The actors
say that even the gatemen and tele-
phone operators at the studios act as
il there was a definite program to
humiliate them.
The grievance presents real prob
lem, for how Will Hays can make
$1O-a-week Office boys and even $1s-
a-week telephone operators take $3.50
and even $500 a week actors seri-
ously is beyond comprehension. Fir
ing the office boys and telephone
do no
new ones who have to be hired will
have the same attitude. Mr.. Lasky
and the other magnates may make
their employees, even their gatemen,
act as If they regarded actors as their
equals, but they won't be able to
change their mental attitude toward
fillum folk.
Even great gelatin stars who have
their own companies. stars like Doug
las Fairbanks and Chaplin. cannot get
their employees to take them seriously.
The workers around any studio re-
gard film actors much as stage hands
regard actors on the spoken stage.
They (the members of the profession)
are looked upon as an inferior breed
of people, who do little more than
yawn and take bows Ask any
stage hand what he thinks of the
highest paid star on Broadway. and
he'll tell you that. A telephone girl
at the Fairbanks studio, who was
fred for being "fresh," summed up
the whole situation when she told the
star to his face: Thank heaven, I'm
not a movie actor
So Mr.. Hays has a real problem on
his hands.
If these were the only grievances of
the film folk it would be bad enough,
but there are any number of others.
The actors complain that they are
often humiliated to find themselves
as supplicants before uniformed and
even illiterate casting directors. They
assert that too often they are judged
by the cut of their clothes and not by
their histrionic ability. In short, they
demand dignified treatment as artists.
To right this grievance the entire
moving picture industry would have
to be given a housecleaning. for the
percentage of illiteracy among direc-
tors is amazingly high. And as long
as there are more actors than there
are jobs, those players who are "be-
tween pictures as "at liberty" is
called in the Aim world, are naturally
In the position Of supplicants. But it
is a we'll known fact that the really
good actors are not placed in that
position. 1t is the bum actor, like the
bum show, that usually has bad
season.
r X X
THE complaint of the players that
i fight scenes, automobile wrecks