Newly elected
Guild President
Reagan in 1947.
REMEMBERING
RONALD REAGAN:
The SAG Years
A
His first appearance in
Screen Actor magazine as
a Board alternate in 1941.
Screen Actors Guild President
1947–1952 and 1959–1960
An Historic Perspective By Guild Historian Valerie Yaros
Agree or disagree with his politics, Ronald Reagan
was one of the most controversial and beloved
American presidents of modern times. While his years
as California governor and U.S. president are widely
documented, the fact that he began his political career
as a self-described “bleeding heart liberal” and leader
of the Hollywood labor movement are less well-known.
Yet his early years at Screen Actors Guild are a
defining chapter in the evolution of one of the most
influential world leaders of the 20th century.
Ronald Reagan served as Screen Actors Guild president during complicated, difficult times for working
actors. The advent of television was transforming
28 | Screen Actor Summer 2004
labor politics in our industry, raising critical questions about fair compensation. Runaway production
was a growing concern. Jurisdictional boundaries
between various unions were in question. In fact,
many of the issues the Guild still wrestles with today
first emerged in SAG’s Reagan era.
Guild archives include a treasure trove of minutes,
notes, letters and photographs chronicling the earliest
days of President Reagan’s political career, all of which
combine to tell a fascinating story. President Reagan
attended his first Guild board meeting in 1941. Six years
later, he was the president of our union. Given that service in World War II interrupted his participation for nearly
five years, his rise within the Guild was meteoric.
In September 1946, he was elected 3rd Vice
President. Six months later, he was SAG’s president,
after distinguishing himself as Guild spokesman during violent strikes by the Conference of Studio Unions,
in which the future president received numerous
death threats, was forced to carry a gun and was even
assigned a Warner Bros. security detail.
After the resignation of Robert Montgomery as Guild
president, Reagan was nominated by board member
Gene Kelly to succeed Montgomery and became SAG's
new president on March 10, 1947. Just 36 at the time,
Reagan immediately swung into action leading the
Guild’s first full contract negotiations since 1937. The
talks included focus on a growing new technology—
television—which would become the Guild’s most
complex jurisdictional issue.
Two months into the 1947 negotiations, Reagan fell so
ill with pneumonia he nearly died. The anti-labor TaftHartley Act, which allowed for the temporary hiring of
non-union workers, also passed during this time period
and required significant Guild attention. By November,
Reagan’s devotion to the union took a personal toll.
Actress Jane Wyman soon divorced him, citing his union
work as a key reason for the demise of their marriage.
Over the next four years, Reagan focused on winning SAG jurisdiction over filmed television productions (the Guild never pursued live television). During
these years, “runaway production” also became a
growing concern, prompting Reagan’s first visit to the
White House to speak with President Harry Truman
about the issue.
By 1952, Reagan had succeeded in bringing filmed
television under SAG’s jurisdiction. In March, he married fellow board member Nancy Davis and declined
renomination for the Guild presidency that fall. Instead,
he was re-elected to the board of directors.
But seven years later, his fellow actors—again facing
the prospect of a contentious strike—re-elected
Reagan Guild president in order to head negotiations
on post-1948 residuals on feature films, which the
major studios had sold for TV showings while refusing
to pay a penny to the actors. The Guild struck on
March 7, 1960. When the dust settled, the post-1948
residuals proved unattainable, a compromise that bitterly disappointed many actors of that era. However,
residuals on movies that began filming after January
31, 1960, were secured, and these negotiations also
secured $2.65 million from producers to create the
Guild’s first Pension and Welfare Plan.
Reagan resigned the Guild presidency in June,
1960, followed soon thereafter by Nancy’s resignation
from the Board. At the Guild’s annual meeting that
year, he was presented with a marble desk set
inscribed “To Ronald Reagan, whose unselfish leadership and devotion to the welfare of his fellow actors
have gained for him the affection and esteem of all in
the Screen Actors Guild.”
Over time, of course, President Reagan’s politics
made him an increasingly controversial figure in
Hollywood. He never overcame, for example, persistent allegations of involvement with entertainment
industry blacklisting. And, as U.S. President, his firing of striking air traffic controllers stunned and disappointed many of his old union colleagues, who ultimately denied him a SAG Lifetime Achievement Award
because of that decision.
Regardless of his increasing conservatism, however,
history will show that his early leadership in Hollywood
produced significant, lasting gains for working actors
newly emerging from the thumb of the studio system
and facing the advent of the era of television.
Remarked SAG President Melissa Gilbert upon the
news of his passing, “while President Reagan’s politics
grew conservative over the years and, at times, at odds
with the nation’s labor movement, there can be no
question that he devoted years of his life to advancing
the wages, benefits and working conditions of his fellow actors. He leaves behind an enduring legacy to this
industry, as he does to the country as a whole.”
Above, left: As Warner Bros. contract player.
Above, right: The former Guild president beams as wife Nancy
examines the inscribed black and gold desk set, presented to
him by the Board of Directors on November 21, 1960, in appreciation of his devotion to the Guild.
Left: Roy Brewer, IATSE; Kenneth Thomson, Guild founder;
Reagan and Richard Walsh, IATSE president at the White
House discussing runaway production in April 1949.
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