Actors' Equity Association Photographs
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Abstract
Actors' Equity Association (AEA, "Equity"), the premiere theatrical performers' labor union in the United States, was founded in New York City in 1913, as the first of the American actors' unions. Its jurisdiction covers both actors and stage managers in the professional theater. The collection contains approximately 110 black and white photographs (and one negative), ranging in size from 3x5 to 8x10 inches. Although it encompasses a miscellany that includes images of AEA offices, AEA meetings, actors and actresses, and theaters, very little of Equity's early history is represented.
Historical Note
Actors' Equity Association (AEA, Equity), the premiere theatrical performers' labor union in the United States, was founded in New York City in 1913 as the first of the American actors' unions. In July 1919, the American Federation of Labor (later to be the AFL-CIO) granted a charter to Equity as an autonomous branch of the newly-formed Associated Actors and Artists of America. One month later, Equity called the first actors' strike in the history of the American theater.
Today Equity's jurisdiction covers both actors and stage managers in the professional theater. It is governed by a council of delegates elected by its membership. Its headquarters are in New York City; it also maintains branches in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Orlando, Florida.
Sources:
For further historical information on the Actors' Equity Association and to review the scope and contents of its records, see Guide to Records of the Actors' Equity Association(Wagner #11). See also About Equity -- A Handbook(New York: Actors' Equity Association), and the Actors' Equity Association website: http://www.actorsequity.org/home.html.
Arrangement
Files are arranged alphabetically by topic within series, except for Series III (People) and IV (Theaters), which are arranged alphabetically by name.
This collection is organized into five series:
Missing Title
- I. Actors' Equity Association
- II. Events
- III. People
- IV. Theaters
- V. Miscellaneous.
Scope and Content Note
The collection contains approximately 110 black and white photographs (and one negative), ranging in size from 3x5 to 8x10 inches; it encompasses a miscellany that includes images of Actors' Equity Association (AEA) offices, AEA meetings, actors and actresses, and theaters. Other than a 1919 production photograph of Brandon Tynan performing in "Equity" (a play created as a benefit during the organization's first strike), very little early AEA history is represented. Most of the images of theaters were evidently shot to document bad working conditions, so many of them show stage-door entrances littered with garbage and interiors with crumbling walls and defective plumbing, rather than glamorous facades. Notable images include a picket line by the Oriental Actors Guild in 1968, and Equity members, circa the early 1960s, gathered at the AEA New York City office's "Equity Lounge" to look for work and avail themselves of other member services. Only a few of the individual actors and actresses identified (in portraits or in production photographs) are prominent. They include: Ethel Barrymore; Ralph Bellamy; Jeanette Conner; John Cornell; William H. Crane; Butho Davenport; Paul Dullzell; Philip Loeb; Alan Howland; Harrison Hoy; Colin Keith; George Pierce; Elaine Klaw Roesen; Blythe Sherwood; Marguerite Sylva; and Cyril Vane.
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People
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Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright (and related rights to publicity and privacy) to materials in this collection, created by Actors' Equity Association, was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder.
Preferred Citation
Published citations should take the following form:
Identification of item, date; Collection name; Collection number; box number; folder number;
Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012, New York University Libraries.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by the Actors' Equity Association in 1982 and separated from the Actors' Equity Association Records (WAG 011). The accession number associated with this gift is 1982.003.
