DGA Monthly

J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 6 I 3 9 progressed. The Wagner Act, which was passed in 1935, created the National Labor Relations Board and affirmed the right of unions to collective bargaining; previous laws had already banned employers from offering contracts which prohibited employees from unionizing. By that point, the studios were on stronger financial footing than they had been two years earlier — but many in Hollywood still feared another slash in pay. To Director Rouben Mamoulian, money was a symptom of deeper problems. "A lot of Directors were underpaid," he said in another interview conducted for the DGA's 50th anniversary, "and being underpaid also meant that they lacked authority in many fields [where] the Director should have authority." By the end of 1935, Paramount Pictures exacerbated the creative battles by notifying its contract Directors that if they didn't accept the pictures assigned to them, their contracts would be voided. "The idea that moved us was not just to get more salary for the Director and to get Directors more authority," said Mamoulian. "The ultimate purpose was better films." The Directors may have walked away from the Hollywood Roosevelt determined to act, but it took more than two years for them to realize their goal. "The Roosevelt Hotel meeting with the group on the sidewalk cinched the idea, put the idea into effect," said Vidor. "The actual formation was done at my house with the 13 men [and] the $1,300." "Thirteen men and $1,300" — that's the meeting that is now viewed as the moment when the Screen Directors Guild was born. Two days before Christmas, on Monday, December 23, 1935, a group of Directors, most likely numbering around 13, met at Vidor's house, which was located up Coldwater Canyon above Beverly Hills (several years earlier he'd become one of the first to move out of the flats and into the hills). A little more than two weeks later, on January 8, a group of about 15 met once DGA History: A Guild is Born — continued from page 36 THE PITCH: King Vidor's recruiting letter to Ernst Lubitsch. King Vidor William Wallace William Wellman — continued on page 41 CELEBRATING OUR HISTORY

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