Monday, Aug. 26, 1929
Unlucky Strike
Who shot the arrow that killed the cock-robin strike of Actors' Equity in Hollywood? "I" admits Actress Ethel Barrymore. "Ethel Barrymore!" cries President Frank Gillmore of Equity. The evening after President Gillmore's meeting at which Equity members in Hollywood adopted a resolution requiring cinema producers to employ casts at least 80% Equity (TIME, Aug. 19), Miss Barrymore denounced Mr. Gillmore's tactics as "futile" and left town. Tickled, the producers sat tight. Vexed, President Gillmore called off the strike, left for New York, flayed Actress Barrymore more for speaking out of turn "during the heat of the conflict." He called it a "personal grudge," promised to renew next month his fight to unionize the cinema industry.