A look at labor disputes -- milestones, movies and moves that changed the world

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.star-telegram.com/408/story/415783.html

Posted on Thu, Jan. 17, 2008

By Lisa Davis
Special to the Star-Telegram

Thanks to the Writers Guild of America strike, we may have lost the Golden Globes, but we made up for it in "strike beards." (Who knew David Letterman could pass for Santa?) While we wait for the return of our regular TV programming, here's a look at the colorful and violent history of strikes, both onscreen and off.


AP ARCHIVES
Charlton Heston waves to fans while picketing in 1980.


Best writerly picket signs

Some of our favorite picket signs from the current writers strike. (Leave it to frustrated writers to get creative.)

1. "We write. They wrong."

2. (Blank) (No words. Get it?)

3. "We want dollars for downloads (and a Shatner cameo in Star Trek XI)."

4. "Do you want all reality all the time?"

5. "A writer's a writer no matter how small."

6. "Will strike for churros."

7. "They'll get my pencil when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers."

8.The Simpsons' writers carried signs featuring the evil Mr. Burns picketing for the opposition.

9. The Ugly Betty writers decorated their signs with mod flowers and butterflies.

10. One scribe carried a series of signs imagining famous actors without their writers, including Rhett Butler's "Frankly, lady, who cares?" and Dirty Harry's "Go ahead. Make me shoot you."

Major moments in Hollywood strikes

1941: Walt Disney animators go on strike. At one point, Disney himself jumps out of his car to wrestle with a leader of the picket line.

1945-47: Three industrywide strikes become known as the "War of Hollywood." It got ugliest on Oct. 5, 1945, -- dubbed "Hollywood Black Friday" -- when thousands of pickets faced off with studio security and police in front of Warner Bros. Tear gas and fire hoses were brought out. Some 40 people were injured.

1960: The Screen Actors Guild -- headed by Ronald Reagan -- goes on strike for six weeks. Sympathies must have changed, as in later years, Reagan fired 12,000 air-traffic controllers for going on strike.

1980: During another actors strike, the Emmys aired with none of the 52 acting nominees attending. Well, except for one. Powers Boothe. He won the Emmy for drama special in an upset.

1987: The Directors Guild of America mounts its one and only strike. It lasts for three hours on the East Coast, mere minutes on the West Coast.

1988: A 22-week writers strike scuttles much of fall TV. Johnny Carson crosses the picket line before making his own deal with his writers.

2000: Actors go on strike against commercial producers. Elizabeth Hurley makes an Estee Lauder commercial and unwittingly becomes a scab. TV actors wear gold ribbons to the Emmys in solidarity.

FULL story at link.