Inside Elmer

In Chicago, Elmer the Elephant is a pretty important TV personality. Elmer is a sort of Howdah Doody, but he is also only a bag of cloth until somebody gets inside to manipulate him into action. He was doing all right, too, until NBC decided to insert an actor in Elmer instead of a stagehand. The stagehands charged that NBC was unfair. Says William Rodriguez, attorney for Local 2, International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees: "For 100 years the stagehands have done the type of thing that is represented by Elmer the Elephant . . . And now these folks [The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists] come along . . ."

The disputants turned to the National Labor Relations Board for a ruling (TIME, May 3). Last week came the decision: NBC is perfectly within its rights to assign an actor to Elmer, and violates no NLRB statutes.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.