Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1541667
BELOW: The 1937 AFRA L.A. Local charter is on display at the Ken Howard Membership Center at SAG-AFTRA Plaza. ABOVE: The restored SAG charter as it appears today. ABOVE: In 1989, the SAG charter was painstakingly restored by Conservation of Paintings Ltd. Unchartered Territory GOT A HANKERING FOR HISTORY? Every issue of SAG-AFTRA magazine includes a Snapshot article by union historian Valerie Yaros. Flip to the back of this issue to read more about former SAG President Patty Duke, the mother of our new president, Sean Astin. ABOVE: SAG President Ronald Reagan addresses board members in 1952. The SAG charter can be seen hanging on the wall. T wo artifacts that can be viewed by members during business hours at SAG-AFTRA headquarters are the Screen Actors Guild charter, issued in 1935, and the AFRA (American Federation of Radio Artists) Los Angeles Local charter, issued in 1937. Both originating from the Associated Actors and Artistes of America — the federation of trade unions for performing artists established in 1919 that is now a member of the AFL-CIO — the charters are displayed in the Ken Howard Membership Center on the ground floor of SAG-AFTRA Plaza in Los Angeles. Once the subject of an intriguing mystery, the SAG charter had gone missing for decades. The last known photos of it prior to its disappearance were taken Jan. 9, 1952, as SAG President Ronald Reagan addressed a group of board members — including his soon-to-be-wife, Nancy Davis, above. The charter was finally returned thanks to the generosity of then-Creative Artists Agency President Michael Ovitz. A noted art collector, Ovitz purchased the heavily tattered and brittle document, paid for its museum-quality restoration and framing, then returned it to the union in December 1989, proving that when agencies and the union work together, great things are possible! ● 116 SAG-AFTRA | Fall/Winter 2025 | sagaftra.org ALL PHOTOS SAG-AFTRA ARCHIVES & GETTY IMAGES