SAG-AFTRA Has Historical Archives and Special Collections

On Aug. 30, 2022, SAG-AFTRA Chief Communications & Marketing Officer Pamela Greenwalt gave a 45-minute presentation via Zoom to the L.A. Local Communications Committee on SAG-AFTRA’s extensive historical memorabilia and archives collection, and how any of it might be accessed. Greenwalt was joined by Historian/Archivist Valerie Yaros and National Director, Communications & Marketing Damon Romine. Greenwalt emphasized that the collection is “not a museum or archive,” but a preservation of the day-to-day history and pre-history of the union.

Who Oversees the Collection?

Originally a consultant to Screen Actors Guild, Yaros has overseen the collection for over 26 years. She is a noted Hollywood historian as well, with a B.A. in theater, and a Master of Library Science from the University of Maryland, a former board member and officer of the preservation organization Hollywood Heritage, and has served on the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress since 2005.  

Her 2018 lobbying efforts to have the film Smoke Signals included in the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry paid off; Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden added the film to the Registry that December.

What’s in the Collection?

The collection is a work in progress, stretching from the late 19th century to the present day. It contains:

• Original SAG, AFTRA and SAG-AFTRA national and local/branch publications beginning in 1934.
• AFRA/AFTRA/SAG-AFTRA convention programs, vertical files of legislative and organizing campaign items.
• SAG press releases beginning with 1948.
• Transcripts of meetings and interviews.
• House Committee on Un-American Activities publications.
• Files on the blacklisting years.
• Documents from Ronald Reagan’s union presidency, including an unsigned doodle.
• Autographed drawings and doodles made at 1960s SAG board meetings by Charlton Heston.
• Print photographs, including binders of photos of all Screen Actors Guild and AFTRA national presidents.
• Member files for the first 40 founding members of Screen Actors Guild, including horror legends Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.
• Handwritten/signed letters, strike posters, videocassettes, audio recordings, scrapbooks and much more.

A major historical “find” in the AFTRA archives at the union’s headquarters at 5757 Wilshire was a reel-to-reel audiotape of a KABC broadcast of House Committee on Un-American Activities hearings in Los Angeles in March 1953, believed to be the only such recording in existence. The tape has since been digitized.

In 2008, the union received a donation of the remaining archives of the former Screen Extras Guild, including minutes binders, member records, photographs, newsletters and press releases.

Other items include a bronze bust of AFTRA co-founder George Heller; a full-sized autographed punching bag gifted to then-SAG president William Daniels from the 2000 commercials strike; casting directories for film/theater/radio/stunts from the 1927–2007; bound volumes and loose copies of the Actors’ Equity’s member magazine, 1919–1942; and a wooden cribbage board belonging to SAG’s first president, Ralph Morgan, as well as 15 of his love letters from 1910, when he was a young stage actor.

Also included are early membership cards from the Screen Actors Guild, Screen Extras Guild, AFRA/AFTRA and Actors’ Equity, Screen Players Union, White Rats Actors Union of America and the Associated Actresses of America.

Among the clothing is SAG and AFTRA official merchandise, plus a 1947 suit jacket belonging to Frank Morgan of Wizard of Oz fame, made by the famous Oviatt Tailors in Beverly Hills.

Also in the collection is a mid-century glass ashtray from the Guild’s 1956–1986 national headquarters at 7750 Sunset Blvd., gifted by SAG co-founder Kenneth Thomson’s former secretary, demonstrating how attitudes towards smoking have changed over the years.

New historical facts are always being discovered. Last year, Yaros’ research in historic newspaper databases uncovered the incorporation of the “Stage and Screen Voters League” in 1930, which included two of the original six actors who would meet in 1933 to discuss forming Screen Actors Guild: Charles Miller of Actors’ Equity and Thomson, who would become the Guild’s first executive secretary.

At UC Berkeley, which holds a collection of letters to wealthy San Franciscan Noel Sullivan, Yaros discovered one from Thomson requesting a loan to sustain himself, his wife and his mother in the wake of the March 1933 studio pay cuts, as he began the fight to get the Screen Actors Guild formed — a deed that impacted one’s ability to get hired, as the studios considered organizers to be troublemakers. On another occasion, Yaros spoke by phone with Doris Eaton Travis, a former Ziegfeld Follies of 1919 chorus girl, about the Equity Strike of 1919. As she notes, one can’t collect the history of the union without understanding the history of the entertainment industry.

Yaros’ favorite historical item is page 1 of the Oct. 9, 1950, Board minutes, which states, “President Reagan welcomed Nancy Davis [the future Nancy Reagan] to her first Board meeting,” while Greenwalt’s most cherished item is a photo of the SAG founders, which the union reprinted as a poster for its 75th anniversary.

Bargaining histories and contracts are not part of the collection, but remain with the Contracts Department.

What’s the Source of the Items in the Collection?

The collections are a combination of internal material produced by the past and present unions’ communications department and AFTRA’s L.A. Local, plus purchased and donated individual items and collections. 

For decades, Yaros has scoured eBay and local paper collectibles shows to add to the special collections.

Much was relocated from onsite storage on the second floor at 5757 Wilshire, where it had not been adequately preserved. As the collection has grown over time, storage has become more safe and secure, with the use of locked cabinets, acid-free boxes, a small fire safe and plastic containers providing protection from potential water damage.

The largest historic items at 5757 Wilshire are the original 1956 Screen Actors Guild boardroom table from 7750 Sunset Blvd., now used in the Bella Bruck Room adjacent to the James Cagney Boardroom, and Thomson’s 1956 executive desk, also from 7750 Sunset, which now serves as Yaros’ desk.

Preservation is challenging due to limited space and future storage plans are under review.

How Are the Materials Organized?

All materials are organized by subject, type and size.

The bulk of the collection consists of digital videos, VHS tapes and audio content. There’s a digital asset management system in place for digital video and photos. Decades of press releases that were in binders are in the process of being digitized. Many items, such as current national SAG-AFTRA magazines, are already in digital format, and the rest of the collection is in the queue.

Who Can Access the Collection?

The collection is not open to the public. Infrequently, academics, students, filmmakers, journalists and museums can obtain access for research purposes, and sometimes loans of original items, where appropriate. Reagan biographer Lou Cannon contacted Yaros to fact check information for his book Governor Reagan: His Rise to Power and subsequently made factual corrections to some pages just before it went to print. In 2018, for its exhibit Blacklist: The Hollywood Red Scare, SAG-AFTRA loaned the Jewish Museum of Milwaukee an original 1947 non-communist affidavit, then required of all union officers in order for the union to be qualified for NLRB elections. The affidavit was one of two 1947 originals signed by legendary dancer/actor Gene Kelly, who was then the Guild’s 1st vice president. The blacklist exhibit traveled to Baltimore and will be on view locally in Los Angeles at the Skirball Museum through Sept. 3, 2023.

A large collection of AFTRA’s national and New York Local papers and photographs and a smaller collection of the Screen Actors Guild’s New York Branch were donated decades ago to the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives in the Tamiment Library of New York University.

Verified academics, historians, media and creators may contact the chief communications & marketing officer or historian/archivist for historical information or for permission to review any part of the collection. SAG-AFTRA members may request access to view items in the collection at headquarters, by submitting a request form to Chief Governance and Equity & Inclusion Officer Michelle Bennett, who will review and handle the application, depending on bandwidth capabilities and confidentiality issues.