The Producing Managers' Association (PMA) was a coalition of theatrical managers established on April 23, 1919.
Formed in an effort to reduce conflicts between producers and theater managers and share common interests, it became the main vehicle for negotiation with the
Actors' Equity Association
The Actors' Equity Association (AEA), commonly called Actors' Equity or simply Equity, is an American trade union, labor union representing those who work in Theatre, live theatrical performance. Performers appearing in live stage productions w ...
(Equity) and
Actors' Fidelity League (Fidelity) during the 1919 actors' strike.
Formation
By 1919 the former
Theatrical Syndicate
Starting in 1896, the Theatrical Syndicate was an organization in the United States that controlled the majority of bookings in the country's leading theatrical attractions. The six-man group was in charge of theatres and bookings. The Syndicate's ...
had dissolved and its coalition, the United Managers Protective Association (UMPA) had been reduced to just the
Klaw and Erlanger theatres.
The UMPA had signed an agreement with Equity which would come up for renewal in 1919.
The remaining independent theater producers were in disarray, competing among each other and poaching stars while facing common problems of censorship, taxation, ticket speculation, and the impending negotiations with Equity.
John Golden
John Lionel Golden (June 27, 1874 – June 17, 1955) was an American actor, songwriter, author, and theatrical producer. As a songwriter, he is best-known as lyricist for " Poor Butterfly" (1916). He produced many Broadway shows and four film ...
first floated the idea of a producer's organization to a group who were vacationing in
Palm Beach, Florida
Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. Located on a barrier island in east-central Palm Beach County, the town is separated from West Palm Beach, Florida, West Palm Beach and Lake Worth Beach, Florida, ...
.
He wanted to set up a forum so the producers could share ideas, and wanted stop the rival organizations poaching each other's stars.
Golden organized a lunch at the
Claridge Hotel in
Atlantic City, New Jersey
Atlantic City, sometimes referred to by its initials A.C., is a Jersey Shore seaside resort city (New Jersey), city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, Atlantic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.
Atlantic City comprises the second half of ...
, attended by about forty managers.
Attendees included Golden's fellow producers
Fred Zimmerman,
Archibald Selwyn,
Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.,
Winchell Smith
Winchell Smith (5 April 1871 – 10 June 1933) was an American playwright, known for big hit works such as ''Brewster's Millions'' (1906) and '' Lightnin' '' (1918). Many of his plays were made into movies. He spent freely but left a large fortun ...
and
L. Lawrence Weber.
The PMA was launched by unanimous agreement.
Activities
Given the temperaments of the producers, meetings were often stormy.
At one session
David Belasco
David Belasco (July 25, 1853 – May 14, 1931) was an American theatrical producer, impresario, director, and playwright. He was the first writer to adapt the short story ''Madame Butterfly'' for the stage. He launched the theatrical career of ...
banged so hard on the table that he split his hand and needed medical aid.
On 2 May 1919
Charles Coburn, a former actor and now a manager, invited members of Equity to meet the managers for lunch at the Claridge. The mood of the lunch meeting quickly turned to anger, with the managers adamant that they would not let Equity establish a closed shop.
Over the summer the AEA came under increasing pressure to make a deal with the managers from actors who had no other guarantee of employment.
However, the strike was launched in August 1919, closing selective shows.
After a month, after 37 productions had been closed and 16 openings had been stopped, the strike was settled on 6 September 1919.
The managers signed a five-year contract in which they recognized Equity and promised better conditions.
1924 Equity-PMA agreement renewal
The 1919 agreement between Equity and the PMA was due to expire on June 1, 1924.
The PMA itself was undergoing a
schism
A schism ( , , or, less commonly, ) is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, suc ...
between the production managers and the theatre owners. The
Shubert family
The Shubert family was responsible for the establishment of Broadway theatre, Broadway theaters in New York City's Theater District, Manhattan, Theater District, as the hub of the theatre industry in the United States. Through the The Shubert Org ...
, who owned 70% of theatres in Manhattan, had no interest in production.
Lee Shubert
Lee Shubert (born Levi Schubart; March 25, 1871 – December 25, 1953) was a Lithuanian-born American theatre owner/operator and producer. He was the eldest of three brothers of the notable Shubert family.
Biography
Born to a Jewish family, th ...
brokered an agreement with Equity called the 80-20 compromise.
This agreement allowed one Fidelity or independent actor for every four Equity actors in a cast, thus giving lip service to the ideal of the
open shop
An open shop is a place of employment at which one is not required to join or financially support a union ( closed shop) as a condition of hiring or continued employment.
Open shop vs closed shop
The major difference between an open and closed ...
.
Equity acquiesced to this since every non-Equity performer so employed would have to pay an amount equal to annual Equity dues into a special fund. In addition, Fidelity would have to agree to close its rolls; all future would-be actors must join Equity. The agreement would be for ten years, during which Equity pledged to accept any new actors whom the producers cast.
To bring the agreement into effect, Lee Shubert and his allies within the PMA planned to force a vote to dissolve that coalition and create a new one called the Managers' Protective Association (MPA).
The new Equity agreement would then be with the MPA, bypassing any PMA holdouts. However, Shubert's faction was shy of the votes needed to force the dissolution. Thus the PMA continued with reduced membership, while Shubert and his allies seceded from it and set up the MPA.
Those producers remaining in the PMA would now either be forced to adopt the Equity shop (a euphemism for the closed shop that Equity had first imposed on independent producers in 1921), or join the MPA. To forestall this new agreement, the PMA filed a plea with the
New York Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the superior court in the Judiciary of New York. It is vested with unlimited civil and criminal jurisdiction, although in many counties outside New York City it acts primarily as a court of civil ju ...
for an injunction against Equity and the MPA.
Supreme Court Justice McCook denied the plea, which ruling was upheld by the
New York Court of Appeals
The New York Court of Appeals is the supreme court, highest court in the Judiciary of New York (state), Unified Court System of the New York (state), State of New York. It consists of seven judges: the Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeal ...
on June 27, 1924.
References
Citations
Sources
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Theatrical organizations in the United States
Organizations established in 1919