DGA Monthly

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 5 I 9 This story is a condensed and edited reprint of the DGA Quarterly Winter 2010 article, "The Studios Recognize the Guild" by Amy Dawes. See the full article on www.dga.org. A headline in The Hollywood Reporter announced that the Directors and Producers had taken their battle as far as they could Telegram to King Vidor from the board announcing that the producers had finally agreed to recognize the Guild's demands. (Credit: AMPAS) 24 hours, Capra would release the ultimatum to the press. The line had finally been drawn. "The last thing I wanted to kill was the Academy," Capra said in a 1985 interview. But if that's what it took to achieve recognition for the Directors Guild, he was resolved to do it. Hedging its bets, the Guild leaked to the trade press rumors of a possible strike and of Capra's threat to resign as Academy president. The next morning, Joe Schenck called the SDG office, saying that he and several other studio heads were in Palm Springs, where he said "a sandstorm" was taking place that would delay their return. He sought a day's extension on the time limit. The answer was no. They must have hurried straight back, for Capra soon received a direct call from Schenck saying that the film company heads and their attorneys were meeting in his office at 20th Century Fox at 4 p.m. Would Capra please come to the meeting, alone? When he arrived at the lot, Capra was led into the executive office. Present was the entire executive committee of the Producers Association, including Schenck, Darryl F. Zanuck, Samuel Goldwyn, Harry Cohn, Louis B. Mayer, Jack and Harry Warner, Frank Freeman of Paramount, and Pandro S. Berman and J.R. McDonough of RKO, along with six attorneys. Capra, the great storyteller, described what happened next like this: "Gentlemen," I answered, as pious as Mark Twain's Christian who held four aces, "I am a servant carrying out an order from Hollywood's film Directors: Come back with a signed agreement with the Producers Association by eight o' clock tonight, or we'll boycott the Academy and call a strike. I'm here for an answer, not for more stalling." "Mr. Capra," called out Joe Schenck, "we are not stalling, just procrastinating. Wait in my outside office, please. And maybe we can procrastinate something out of this." Capra retreated to the outer office, where he twisted his hat for the next two hours. At 6 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17, Schenck at last opened the door of his office and handed him a two-page letter of agreement. It was all there: recognition of the SDG as sole bargaining agent, inclusion of the assistant Directors, agreement to an 80 percent Guild shop, and concurrence on conciliation and bargaining procedures. All that remained was to establish minimum editing periods for Directors, and the floor on salaries and working conditions for assistant Directors. The one caveat was that unit managers would be dropped from the Guild after a separate contract for them had been negotiated. Capra then brought the agreement to a waiting SDG board, and as he tells it, they all went out and got "spifflicated." The next day a Western Union telegram went out to King Vidor, founding president of the Guild, at MGM. "Your board has received a letter from the Motion Picture Producers Association, signed by its president Joseph M. Schenck, recognizing our Guild as constituted, and accepting all points in our original program, with the exception of two which they assure us can be brought to a successful conclusion if we grant them three weeks time period. Accepting this as a declaration in good faith, your board has granted this request," it said. It was signed by the SDG board of Directors. The Guild's long struggle had laid the foundation for the Directors' creative rights and for a significant part of the American motion picture business as we know it.

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