UI Press | Sean P. Holmes | Weavers of Dreams, Unite!: Actors' Unionism in Early Twentieth-Century America

Weavers of Dreams, Unite!

Actors' Unionism in Early Twentieth-Century America

Stage actors as workers

Published to coincide with the centenary of the founding of the Actors' Equity Association in 1913, Weavers of Dreams, Unite! explores the history of actors' unionism in the United States from the late nineteenth century to the onset of the Great Depression. Drawing upon hitherto untapped archival resources in New York and Los Angeles, Sean P. Holmes documents how American stage actors used trade unionism to construct for themselves an occupational identity that foregrounded both their artistry and their respectability. In the process, he paints a vivid picture of life on the theatrical shop floor in an era in which economic, cultural, and technological changes were transforming the nature of acting as work.

After tracing the origins of the organizational impulse that animated the American acting community in the early twentieth century, Holmes turns his attention to the formative years of the AEA and the hotly contested decision of actors' leaders to affiliate with the American Federation of Labor. He goes on to offer a compelling and strikingly original analysis of the actors' strike of 1919 that highlights how the men and women of the stage were able to use their commodity status to force their employers to terms. He also considers the long-term implications of the unionization of the theater, arguing that the AEA's peculiarly theatrical brand of occupational unionism was defined by a desire to regulate the behavior of stage performers both on and off the stage and to raise the status of the acting community by cleansing it of its long-standing reputation for immorality. He concludes with a detailed account of the AEA's abortive campaign to extend its jurisdiction to the Hollywood film industry, identifying it as a key moment in the process by which screen actors in the United States declared their independence from the traditions of the stage.

An engaging study that stands at a scholarly intersection where a number of disciplines converge, Weavers of Dreams, Unite! offers important insights into the nature of cultural production in the early twentieth century, the role of class in the construction of cultural hierarchy, and the special problems that unionization posed for workers in the commercial entertainment industry.

"A compelling story that needs to be told. This history of unionization within the theatrical profession provides crucial insights into theater management and the industrialization of the entertainment industry."--Gillian M. Rodger, author of Champagne Charlie and Pretty Jemima: Variety Theater in the Nineteenth Century

"With active and engaging prose, this volume traces the history of the Actors' Equity Association from late-nineteenth century transformations in the theatrical industry. An excellent contribution to theater history, labor studies, American cultural studies, and gender studies."--Kathryn J. Oberdeck, author of The Evangelist and the Impresario: Religion, Entertainment, and Cultural Politics in America, 1884-1914

Sean P. Holmes is deputy head of the School of Arts at Brunel University in London. He teaches in the Film and Television Studies program.

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