SNAP SHOTS

...Shubert made several motions to change the old contract and in some instances these were carried...

...red ink was prophetically blotting out many protective clauses the authors had incorporated but could not enforce: find, lastly, new economic conditions had come into the theatre which were crying for adjustment in fairness w> the managers themselves...

...Conferences were demanded by others...

...We waived the pledges on his word, and moved he be chairman of the meeting...

...DONT USE "uncommon" when you mean ftunoammonly.B Bread is not "uncommon cheap," but "uncommonly* bo...

...dangerous and unjust trade habits were bidding fair to become precedents...

...DONT SAY "He spoke in no unmistakable tones...

...It was moved to present this new Agreement to the Managers...

...At this time we had increased our pledged members to 190...

...The number of snakes destroyed totalled 41,004, rewards being paid for their destruction also...

...1), 152 managers have signed with us...

...in the musical comedy group, for example, there are ;>0 composers...

...Brady and Mr...

...The Final Agreement was drafted by Mr...

...ers (paying a nominal fee and without vote...

...and, many of the stations are discovering that devotion of their "time" to advertising is promoting a decidedly disgruntled clientele among the receivers...

...Twenty-one managers signed this at once...

...SNAP SHOTS : By George Middleton THE MOST important single development in the business relations of the theater during the last year was the reorganization of the "Dramatists' Guild of the Authors' League of America...

...It went into effect April 11, 1926...

...The nine resolutions, read by George Kelly, were unanimously adopted...

...But we gained the recognition of "The Dramatist's Shop" and all we had been instructed to stand for...

...Before the situation became acute wo had 185 members in the GuQd—a loose crgarirzatkm, mainly social...

...None of the authors, of course, can submit plays or do business with Mr...

...Richman was instructed to appoint a contract committee to draw up a Basic Agreement...

...There are a large number of members who are in the Society of Composers, which cooperated generously with us throughout...

...Lee Shubert...

...To date (Feb...

...the Actors' Equity Association had accomplished through organization—and I know of no author Who today doesn't regret our lack of concerted sympathy for Equity when "Equity Shop" was flist advocated—still our individual members did not have the symbol necessary to emotionalize them into a cohesive group...

...Fortunately, the death rate from such causes is decreasing...

...The final draft of our first agreement was made by Mr...

...The entrance of the movies into production, and the possession of copies of certain contracts being consummated with managers at our expense, was the occasion we needed...

...The day will come when the motor car will outdo the tiger in keeping up India's mortality rates...

...And the authors were left free for other action, which was definitely mapped out, should the conference fail to agree...

...Brady had personally pledged would stand by the conference report if agreed on, has signed, except Mr...

...These facts are stated as an indication of the growth and solidification into a firm organization which has taken plac ¦ in one year...

...We were all thoroughly alarmed at these implications...

...We needed a new Minimum Basic Agreement below which no author, in justice to his fellow-authors as well as for his own protection, should be allowed to go...

...Radio Legislation ALTHOUGH the pending legislation in the Congress may eliminate a considerable number of broadcasting stations, it is probable that experience will finish a larger number...

...Brady, who united opposing factions for this one occasion, this guarantee was obtained by us...

...The Indian campaign for safety and rewards paid in the form of bounties caused the reporting of the killing of 21,605 animals, during the past year, including nearly two thousand tigers...

...Ho spoke in unmistakable tones" is correct, because it presents a single negative in the sentence rather than two...

...It was decided to make no outside affiliations, for the time being, though the way had been prepared should such action be later deemed advisable...

...After a few preliminary meetings, under the leadership of Arthur Richman, our President, to 1?hom we owe much of our ultimate success, $ver 30 of tlie leading authors, through the courtesy and with the sympathetic co-operation of Equity, met at Equity Headquarters...

...A committee was appointed: "to consider the abuses and report to the signers for their ratification what measures should be deemed advisable to cure them...

...The %spirit with which thus has been carrieii out by all our members is sufficient indication of the integrity of our intention to keep this GuHd one that can and will speak for us alway with the same dignity and authority we hope it has already been able to employ...

...an organization that could speak for as with dignity and authority...

...Last year, the figures were 1,974 from the former and 19,508 from the latter cause...

...Hays and Mr...

...the death, too, of the old Producing Managers' Association made the contract we had formed with them a museum piece...

...Plays being produced by him this year are under old contracts, records of which we have...

...We feel it is not merely born of a mood of reform...

...The Minimum Basic Agreement finally arrived at is not perfect...

...Bickerton and unanimously adopt...

...ADAGE popularly used, but often misquoted: "Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today" was "Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today," as Ben Franklin wrote ft in "Poor Richard's Almanac...

...The average receiver will stand for a song from Pekin, sung in Chinese, but he is apt to "cut it out," right away, when an advertisement starts in on the ether...

...Sub-committees visited certain friendly managers, motion picture heads and agents, the latter being especially generous in their assistance...

...Little effort has been made to tie up the Continental authors, since every manager, who has signed our Agreement, may have a play adopte I or translated only by one of our members...

...even the timid realized where fur-tbeir encroachments on our inherent rights toright lead, We saw only through group action Could our protest be effective...

...But though the authors had scon w:iat...

...Two years ago, 2,587 persons were killed by wild beasts and 19367 died of snake bite...

...The dramatists naturally stood back of the musical comedy authors and composers, since the question peculiarly affected them...

...Shubort was personally very active, as a member of the conference and when he was not present he was ably represented by both Mr...

...This, the broadcaster, the radio advertiser and the manufacturer of sets are beginning to learn...

...among others it was .specifically instructed by the meeting to include "the Dramatist's Shop," "the author's control of the title of his play" and "that motion picture rights be conserved through the provisions of open competitive market...

...AB the other big musical comedy producers, however, have signed the Agreement feeling it is a fair one...

...This list includes, among others, John Galsworthy, Somerset Maugham, Noel Coward, Michael Arlen, Ian Beith Hay, Ashley Dukes and Dion Titheradge...

...What protection this has already afforded is obvious...

...In this connection it is interesting to note that already 29 musical contracts have been signed...

...Weber...

...Hays, submitted to some of our leading authors not on the committee, and was unanimously accepted, on motion of Owen Davis, and a dozen seconders, by the Guild...

...Further (as was secretly agreed to and may uow be revealed), each signer agreed to forfeit to the others a large sum, as liquidated damages, in the event of any personal breach...

...The official record shows that Mr...

...i:i most cases young authors who have not achieved Broadway production...

...Now ii is a strictly bu*in&R.-group and we have 090 members, of which 50r» arc Regular Members (paying full dues and with a vote), and 325 are Associate Mem...

...that we needed an Organization to prevent our less successful members from being at the mercy of individual bargaining...

...The managers' committee, as well as the playrights', could not accept his interpretation of certain clauses pertaining to radio rights...

...Mainly through the untiring efforts of Mr...

...PRONOUNCE "ambrella" as spelled, with stress on "'breL" The word is not "um-be*w rella," as so often used...

...It was understood that should the two committees together agree upon a New Basic Agreement and should it be ratified, after reference back to our respective groups, it would be binding on all represented...

...Tigers are responsible for the largest number of animal killings...

...Leopards, wolves, bears, elephants and hyenas follow in the order named...

...Every manager on the Conference Committee and every manager whom Mr...

...we made every possible concession the managers asked and many of them today admit it is the best contract they have ever had...

...All present, except one, agreed to be bound by the report "as and if such report shall have been accepted by a majority of the signatories hereto...

...all the dramatists agreed to withdraw plays and sign no contracts with any manager till he had signed our Basic Agreement...

...The Dramatists' Shop, in essence, means that we shall only do business with managers who will agree to do business with us on the terms and conditions mutually arrived at by the joint committee...

...Now Members are joining at the rate of one a day...

...new, fantastic clauses were creeping into contracts to which individuals had to submit to obtain production...

...Brady asked us to meet in joint-conference, a committee representing nearly all the managers, whose pledges he offered to give us in writing...

...ed by both organizations...

...but we refused discussion until we could be assured that the committee of managers who would meet with us-would have power to biud the entire group they represented...

...any manager may sign our Agreement...

...Commercial concerns buying "time" from th« stations are discovering that the advertising doesn't pay...

...As chairman of the contract committee, I personally wrote every dramatist for facts and advice...

...Shubert, much as we regret his unexpected isolation...

...We amassed a large record of contractual abuses...

...Arthur Garfield Hays and Dudley Field Malone liad gratuitously come to our aid, with their legal wisdom, before they were later to become our patient and much consulted counsel...

...an Agreement which would also destroy the unfair competition to which managers of high probity were themselves subjected by others less scrupulous of business niceties...

...As our Agreement compels the author and manager to file contracts with the GuQd we know that( over 119 have already been signed since last Spring...

...we feel it will continue to be the living expression of our intention to 'be represented fairly in all the contingencies of circumstances which may arise in any future readjustments the theatre may face...

...While the committee was in consultation, new signers were obtained, under a similar pledge...

...A close affiliation exists with the British Authors' Society and nearly a dozen of their lending playwrights are also members of our Guild...

...Not only had we made a new Agreement, but it was also necessary to rewrite our Guild constitution...

...No one is barred from entering our Guild...

...But now, delegated by this Agreement, there ia discipline, vested in our contractual relations, to prevent unethical conduct on the part of cither author or manager, and also a power to force respect for the Agreement itself...

...Mortality in India SECURE as we are from the danger of death by wild animals or snakes, it is difficult to realize that in India 21,282 persons were killed by animals and reptiles last year...

...so that when the report was read on January 7, 1926, to the meeting open only to signers, we had nearly 100 united for concerted action...

...Conservative play-wrights of standing had long realized there was no power back of our skeleton Guild...