Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1525111
80 SAG-AFTRA | Summer 2024 | sagaftra.org June • Our new Los Angeles representative, Mr. Wedgwood Nowell, reports that Hollywood is a precarious place for actors and actresses seeking work in motion pictures unless the candidate has sufficient money to tide over the stretch until recognition is achieved. This, in the present condition of the film industry, is likely to be a long one. July • Our new members especially have been generous contributors to the emergency [strike] fund. • Newspaper men are not allowed at Equity meetings because of their confidential nature and because there must be no obstacles in the way of members expressing themselves freely. • New York: An alleged attempt to obtain a chorus of long-haired beauties is said to have failed, as only bobbed-haired chorus girls were available. • New York: A recent survey indicates that New York is still the play center of the world. There are nearly 1,200 licensed amusement halls in the city. Of these, 196 classify as theatres in which performers in costume appear. 578 motion picture houses and 705 dance halls complete the roster. August • Will Rogers, of Oklahoma, cowboy comedian of the Ziegfeld Follies, motion picture star and an Equity member is the first actor ever to have been placed in nomination for the presidency of the United States by one of the major parties … A delegate from Arizona … gave Rogers his whole vote on the 68th ballot. • Equity recently succeeded in collecting and turning over to a member a check for $71.33 on a claim which dated back to 1917. September • Control of the motion picture field is shifting into the hands of a small group of producers in much the same way that the legitimate field was being consolidated prior to the formation of the Theatrical Syndicate. • The stunt of recruiting chorus girls by broadcasting an invitation from a radio station has drawn a chorus of protests from mothers, it is recorded. 100 Years Ago at Actors' Equity Equity magazine cover art by 26-year-old Arthur J. Knorr (1898–1966) from bound volume of 1924 Equity magazine in SAG-AFTRA Special Collections. SAG-AFTRA SPECIAL COLLECTIONS x3 T he summer of 1924 was an important one for Actors' Equity Association. Between June and August, it began and won its strike against the Producing Managers Association, closing seven plays. During most of it, Equity Council member Ralph Morgan served as acting president of Equity, nine years before becoming first president of Screen Actors Guild. Excerpts from a bound volume of Equity magazine from that year provide a window into the flavor of 1924: