Those who write about the 1919 Actors' Strike often cite the lack of rehearsal pay and the absence of any minimum salaries as the crucial issues. They were not. Neither were they remedied once the strike ended in the actors' favor. (Both were instituted in the 1930s, and the first minimum salary was a big fifteen dollars a week.) Equity, in that strike, was fighting for recognition as the actors' union. Indeed, if any issue or issues were addressed by that strike, it was the lack of any pay for extra (i.e. more than eight) performances per week.
Many are aware that shows and plays gave an extra performance if there was a holiday. (If, for example, a legal holiday occurred on Monday, a matinee performance would be given on that day, boosting the total of performances for the week from eight to nine.) Less well known is that, while Sunday performances were not allowed in the eastern part of the United States, they were allowed in the middle and far west. If a show played Chicago, Sunday night performances would be given with no additional money paid the cast. Sunday night performances were likewise allowed (and were likewise given) in the western states and the Pacific Coast--without any additional money paid.
In other words, actors who were paid on the basis of eight performances a week were paid the same money for nine performances a week in the western half of the country. Remember this was when most of the performances a play or show (and, of course, an actor or performer) gave were given on tour. In other words, it often was for something like one-third of all performances of a given show or play.
This was rectified. Actors' Equity Association did a lot of good things. There was, however, more opposition to it, in the early to mid-1920s, than is usually supposed.
Stay tuned.
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