The First Office: Crossroads of the World, an art deco office complex in Hollywood, was the site of the Guild’s first headquarters.

This is not the definitive history of the Directors Guild. That would take volumes. What follows in these pages is more a selective history of 70 years, recognition of some of the landmarks and accomplishments along the way. Of course, when any institution turns the ripe old age of 70, there are bound to be a slew of events that have helped define it. No celebration of the DGA would be complete without mention of how the studios (reluctantly) recognized the Guild in 1939, or the merger of the East and West Coast guilds in 1960. But many of the events that helped shape the Guild are not of the headline variety, but an ongoing process, such as the DGA’s long-term fight for diversity or its early and lasting support for independent film. What we hope to reflect in these pages is the range and scope of the Guild’s history, some of its achievements, and some of the people who have helped make it successful. What you have in front of you are pieces of the whole, a record of the growth, evolution and humanity of this great institution.

ADs Join the Guild: Hollywood Reporter trade paper from the period.

Joseph C. Youngerman, who would later serve the Guild as national executive secretary, was an assistant director on dozens of films in the 1930s and ’40s. He remembered one instance in 1927 in which he didn’t get to sleep for seven days while on location in Sonora, Mexico. ADs and UPMs were used to those kinds of grueling hours, little recognition and low pay. But the process of admitting ADs and UPMs into the newly formed Screen Directors Guild was not an easy one. In 1937, attorneys for the studios told the Guild that they would not negotiate if those so-called “less creatively skilled” personnel were included in the SDG. But the Guild prevailed, and the SDG Agreement of 1939 established minimum wages and working conditions for ADs belonging to the Guild. Early on, ADs were called junior members of the Guild, while directors were called senior members; the two groups would later be represented by the Directors Council and the AD/UPM Council. In 1960, associate directors, stage managers and production assistants working in live and taped television would join the Guild alongside directors with the merger of the Screen Directors Guild and the Radio and Television Directors Guild to form the Directors Guild of America. Unit production managers would form their own guild but eventually merged with the DGA in 1964.

Studios Recognize the Guild: Telegram announcing the accomplishment.

Pioneer: Frank Capra presents D.W. Griffith with the Guild’s first Honorary Life Membership in 1938. (left to right) John Ford, Guild Legal Counsel Mabel Walker Willebrandt, Rouben Mamoulian, Griffith, Sam Wood, W.S. Van Dyke, Capra, Leo McCarey and George Marshall.

The Screen Directors Guild (SDG) was gaining momentum in the late 1930s, but the studios still wouldn’t recognize it as a bargaining unit. In an interview with Variety on the occasion of the Guild’s 50th anniversary, Frank Capra recalled that he changed the studios’ attitude with a power play that reverberated throughout Hollywood. At the time, Capra was serving as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Joseph Schenk, then president of 20th Century Fox, was head of the Association of Motion Picture Producers (AMPP), and refused to recognize the SDG as a bargaining agent. To force his hand, Capra threatened not only to resign as Academy president, but also to instigate an industry-wide boycott of the Academy Awards, which was just a week away. The moguls also counted on the awards for their publicity value. At that time, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was still deciding on the Guild’s case. Capra’s threat, along with the studios’ increasing awareness that the pending decision of the NLRB was going to go against them, resulted in Schenk caving in. The AMPP head told Capra that the studios would meet his demands and the SDG finally received blanket studio recognition on Feb. 18, 1939. As a coincidental bonus, Capra’s You Can’t Take It with You won Best Picture and he was named Best Director at that year’s Academy Awards.

First Lady: Dorothy Arzner becomes the Guild's first female member in 1938.

“Women’s dramatic sense is invaluable to the motion picture industry,” said Dorothy Arzner, whose contributions include being the first female member of the DGA. A typist, screenwriter, editor and ultimately director, Arzner is also believed to have developed the boom mic, enabling actors to move and speak more easily in early talkies. As a director who was at one time under contract to Paramount, Arzner is best known for directing such strong personalities as Clara Bow, Claudette Colbert, Katharine Hepburn and Joan Crawford in films like Honor Among Lovers (1931) and Christopher Strong (1933). She eschewed meandering shots or anything that would distract from her clarity of vision or devotion to detail. “Maintain conscious control of your medium—nothing random,” was her philosophy. She later taught at the Pasadena Playhouse and UCLA, where she inspired filmmakers including Francis Ford Coppola.

Breaking the Barrier: Assistant Director Francisco "Chico" Day (above with actor Marlon Brando) becomes the Guild's first Mexican-American member in 1937.

“I think that the greatest secret of being a good assistant director is personality—being able to get along with people, love people, and be on the alert all the time,” said legendary assistant director Francisco “Chico” Day. He was a natural at assisting directors, as he memorably did for Cecil B. DeMille on his 1956 production for The Ten Commandments. Interviewing for that job he said: “You know, Mr. DeMille, I want you to know that I’m not afraid of you—and I’m used to working under fire.” The acclaimed director shot back: “Young man, at least that’s a step forward.” Day, the Guild’s first Mexican-American member, was active in helping the next generation of ADs and hosted many seminars for assistant directors/unit production managers. He was awarded the Frank Capra Achievement Award in 1981 for his dedication to AD/UPMs.

First Awards: Variety headlines announce the first DGA Awards

First Winners: (left to right) George Stevens receiving a plaque for “Outstanding Service,” Darryl F. Zanuck accepting for Anatole Litvak, Guild President George Marshall, Fred Zinnemann and Joseph Mankiewicz, who won the Guild’s first annual Achievement Award.

This has to be a family affair, free from prejudice and unhampered by outside influence. You yourselves are to be the judges and the jury because no person is better qualified to pass upon the creative ability of the director than the directors themselves.” So said Screen Directors Guild President George Marshall as he announced in August 1948 that the Guild would hold its own awards show. The first Screen Directors Guild Best Director Award was presented to Joseph Mankiewicz for A Letter to Three Wives in May 1949. For the first year or two, the honor was bestowed on a quarterly basis, with the recipient of the most votes—Mankiewicz in that first year—receiving an annual award at a ceremony. At that time, the Motion Picture Academy wanted the guilds to abandon their awards in lieu of submitting nominees to the Academy Awards. “But no, everybody wanted their own and that was unacceptable,” said longtime SDG and DGA President George Sidney, who chaired the committee that launched the SDG Awards. The quarterly awards were soon dropped, but bigger changes were looming. The advent of television provided a particular challenge. “We didn’t know what to do about TV because a lot of members didn’t have television,” according to Sidney. “‘I’m going to spend $800 to watch wrestling?’ So when we would nominate different TV shows, the members would come to the Directors Guild and watch them because a lot of people didn’t have televisions. As they left the theater, they voted.”

In the Army Now: Colonel Frank Capra and Commander John Ford helping the war effort in 1941.

To Frank Capra, it was a film that “fired no gun, dropped no bombs. But as a psychological weapon aimed at destroying the will to resist, it was just as lethal.” That propaganda film, Triumph of the Will, by German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, chronicled the Nazi Party’s rise and inspired Capra to respond in similarly forceful fashion on behalf of the U.S. war effort during World War II. Capra was not alone, as several prominent Hollywood directors, including John Ford, William Wyler, George Stevens and John Huston, joined him in making films and documentaries on behalf of the U.S. Army Signals Corps. Capra’s series of seven films, Why We Fight, motivated the troops and rallied those on the home front, and at the same time helped revolutionize the art of documentary filmmaking. Capra cleverly used the Axis Powers’ propaganda footage against them by cutting it into his films, with a decidedly opposite message. Ford, already a film legend, was equally eager to enlist his skills in the war effort and even sustained battlefield injuries during production of The Battle of Midway, which won an Oscar for best documentary in 1943. His film of the Pearl Harbor invasion, December 7th, won for best short subject documentary the following year. Wyler also spent much of the war documenting battles, including bombing raids in France and Germany in Memphis Belle. Let There Be Light, Huston’s final entry in a trilogy of government films, chronicled the treatment and rehabilitation of U.S. soldiers in a psychiatric hospital, and is still considered one of the most forceful anti-war films.

The DGA Foundation: Cover from Annual DGA Golf and Tennis Tournament brochure

The DGA Foundation has fulfilled its mission of handling hardship cases with compassion and discretion since its inception on June 7, 1945 as the DGA Educational and Benevolent Foundation. “Its purpose was to help a person borrow a few dollars to help out between jobs, to help someone who couldn’t pay his telephone bill, or to help a guy who didn’t have a decent set of clothes to go to an interview,” said former DGA National Executive Secretary Joe Youngerman. The foundation was conceived by the Guild’s legal counsel, Mabel Walker Willebrandt, who believed it should operate independently of the Guild to ensure the anonymity of those receiving assistance. Director Leo McCarey got things going with a $25,000 donation from his earnings on two hit features, Going My Way and The Bells of St. Mary’s. Under the plan, members could receive no-interest, short-term loans. The foundation’s founding officers were McCarey, Joseph Mankiewicz, Frank Capra, Tay Garnett and John Farrow. Through the years, the foundation has been chaired by McCarey (1945-49), Mankiewicz (1949-50), Capra (1950-52), Robert Butler (1952-79), Delbert Mann (1979-1983), Howard W. Koch (1983-2001), Mann (2001-2004), Jack Shea (2004-2005) and John Rich (2005-present). From its inception, the foundation has remained especially supportive of the Motion Picture and Television Fund, which has included gifts to the Motion Picture Country Home and Hospital, and funds to build more hospital rooms, expand assisted-living facilities and support the MPTV Fund Health Care Center. Since 2000, the foundation has also been the sole underwriter for conservation and preservation of the DGA-Motion Picture Industry Conservation Collection at UCLA. This collection maintains more than 800 new prints of feature films directed by DGA members, ensuring that their work is preserved for future generations. But the primary mission of the foundation continues to be in assisting members in times of financial crisis. Donations from DGA members continue to sustain the foundation, along with proceeds from the annual Howard W. Koch Memorial DGA Golf and Tennis Tournaments.

Click here for more information about the DGA Foundation

Last Laugh: DGA Board member John Rich directing Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore in The Dick Van Dyke Show.

John Rich began making an impact in the Guild the first time he attended a meeting in 1953 of what was then the Screen Directors Guild. He had the temerity to point out that of the illustrious members—including Frank Capra, George Stevens, William Wyler and Alfred Hitchcock—who had convened to elect a board of directors, none had ever worked in television. The next day, he received a phone call from National Executive Secretary Joe Youngerman, telling him he’d been appointed an alternate member of the new board.

“They must have thought it was better to have the camel inside the tent, pissing out, than outside the tent, pissing in,” surmises Rich with a laugh, more than 50 years later.

Since that day he has been active in the Guild and a board member for most of that time. He began pushing for a merger with the New York-based Radio and Television Directors Guild, on the supposition that a new invention called videotape was destined to have a major impact. When Rich’s proposition was put on the ballot, the membership endorsed it, and the merged guilds were renamed the Directors Guild of America.

In those early days, the air at board meetings was thick with clouds of pipe and cigar smoke, Rich recalls, to the point that he had no choice but to take up smoking himself. “The order of the day was cigars, the more expensive the better,” he reports, remembering John Ford in particular as a man who could afford to indulge in the finest Havana product. “Today, it’s smoke-free, thank God,” he remarks, having given up tobacco many years ago himself.

Over the years, he has held many important offices on the National Board, including secretary (1958-1959), treasurer (1965-1967) and multiple turns as vice president. He continues to serve in key leadership positions as chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Directors Guild of America-Producer Pension Plan, and as chairman of the Directors Guild Foundation.

The product of a blue-collar upbringing in Queens, New York, Rich worked his way into show business through radio and live television, and seemed perpetually tuned in to the shape of things to come. This was no sixth sense, he declares, but merely that “I was in a hurry to get things done.”

Possessed of an agile mind and a natural authority, he rose quickly in the directing ranks. By 1961, he was working with Sheldon Leonard and Carl Reiner staging The Dick Van Dyke Show before a live audience. He enjoyed a long tenure as the sole director of the acclaimed comedy, as he did later on the groundbreaking All in the Family, directing the pilot and every episode for the first four seasons.

Rich Man: DGA Board member John Rich reports activities of the DGA Foundation at the annual meeting in 2006.

Among the most satisfying accomplishments of his long service to the Guild has been the flourishing of the DGA-Producer Pension Plan, which he helped negotiate as a founding member in 1960. “I’m very happy that the plan has done so well and has helped so many,” he remarks. “We were very careful to make rules to help the younger members.”

Currently engaged in promoting his memoir, Warm Up the Snake, a wry and entertaining account of a life in show business—including engaging tales of how key Guild victories came about—Rich reflects that, in the end, he got more than he gave from his devotion to the Guild. He was recognized for his 50 years of service in 2003 with a DGA Honorary Life Membership.

“It required an awful lot of time to be on the negotiating committees, but it was also very useful,” he concludes. “Men like Capra, Youngerman and George Sidney negotiated with great strength and courage, and I learned from them. It’s not something you can pick up overnight, but I sat quietly for a couple of years watching the masters.”

At one point as co-chair, Rich was able to rescue a stalled negotiation over an important contract provision—the right of network directors to participate in New York casting sessions—when he backed ABC negotiator Dick Freund against a wall over his careless remark that, “We at ABC reserve the right to be bad.” Rich threatened to repeat the statement to ABC shareholders the next day at their annual meeting, and the talks got back on track.

—Amy Dawes

The First Benefits Plan: Certificate to the first pension plan board ot trustees.

The DGA-Producer Pension Plan was born out of the Hollywood labor strife of the late 1950s over the reuse of films on television. The Screen Actors and Writers Guild were on strike over the residuals issue, and the DGA was preparing to negotiate, when Republic Pictures broke a 12-year moratorium on exhibiting films on television without negotiating a residual payment to the Guilds. Sensing that other studios could follow suit, DGA National Executive Secretary Joe Youngerman came up with an ingenious solution. He proposed giving up residual rights to films from the past 12 years, from 1948 until the present, valued at $100 million, in a trade-off: “We’ll give back 12 years of film in exchange for a new pension plan for directors and their assistants.”

George Stevens, Frank Capra, George Sidney, John Rich and Youngerman pitched the idea to the presidents of the major studios, who accepted it. Before that, directors had been covered by the Motion Picture Industry Plan, but their benefits were based only on the hours they spent on the set, not the time spent in pre- or post-production. The new pension plans were a major achievement for the Guild and showed great foresight, finally giving members a meaningful retirement plan.

The DGA-Producer Health Plan was added in 1969, filling another crucial gap in the benefits available to Guild members. As it was structured, the pension plan benefits all members of the directorial team. A share of residuals also goes to the plans. The plans are a separate trust administered independently from the Guild and overseen by trustees split equally between representatives of the Guild and the signatory companies.

As Sheldon Leonard recalled, “Getting the pension plan started was the biggest obstacle. After that, it was a downhill run. In order to get it started, we had to get the employers in this industry to agree to make a very substantial contribution. Once started, however, we were able to keep pace with the growth of the Guild.”

And grow it has. The plans have combined assets of about $2.1 billion and contributions from employers rose to nearly $140 million last year. From this, the plans have been able to pay out more than $1.2 billion over the past 10 years, including about $159 million in 2005, or about $13.25 million per month to their participants.

Click here for more information about the DGA-Producer Pension and Health Plans

The Lady Also Directs: Ida Lupino becomes the second woman director member of the DGA.

“If Hollywood is to remain on the top of the film world, I know one thing for sure—there must be more experimentation with out-of-the-way film subjects,” declared Ida Lupino, the DGA’s second female director member and one of its most prolific. In her day, she “tackled subjects that were pretty daring at the time—unwed mothers, under the table payoffs in amateur tennis, a hitchhiker’s cross-country crime spree, bigamy and polio.” In the early 1950s, this was no small feat, especially under the constant scrutiny of the Production Code Administration. A pioneer of independent, low-budget films, she later made the transition to television, directing episodes for 56 different series. On the set, she preferred being called “mother” and avoided ordering her crew around. “I’d say, ‘Darlings, mother has a problem. I’d love to do this. Can you do it? It sounds kooky, but I want to do it. Now can you do it for me?’ And they do it—they just do it.” Her director’s chair read: “Mother of all of us.”

Hail to the Chief: Former SDG and DGA President George Sidney.

“It was a mandate from the membership to me, a demand saying ‘build the theater,’” said former Screen Directors Guild and DGA President George Sidney of his early years in office in the 1950s. “They didn’t want to know how to build it, or where to build it, or why to build it, or how to pay for it. They just gave me this order to build it.” And with the help of National Executive Secretary Joe Youngerman, Sidney and the other Guild leaders put aside some initiation money and bought a piece of land at 7950 Sunset Blvd. that would eventually become the Guild’s first headquarters. But the 1950s were a time of financial turmoil: “We were united, but we were broke,” according to Sidney, an honorary life member who also won the Robert B. Aldrich Achievement Award for service to the Guild and the Presidents Award for his terms as president with the SDG (1951-1959) and DGA (1961-1967). “In those days when we would have a board of directors meeting, everybody paid for their coffee or tea or food.” Sidney was also instrumental in the construction of the DGA’s current headquarters as well as in acquiring the building that houses the New York office.

In our program, the desire is to give, in effect, a course that endeavors to equip the man with all the basic knowledge of the job, the intricacies of all the technical aspects. In this way the new assistant will be better able to serve the director in all his creative needs, and in this way better serve the producing company,” said DGA President George Sidney in 1965 about the formation of the Assistant Director Training Program. He was confident that the ADTP would prepare the next generation of workers, and the past four decades have proven him right. The program recently marked its 40th anniversary as a partnership between the Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. It has graduated more than 500 trainees from the separately administered programs on the West Coast and East Coast. Trainees undergo 400 days of on-the-job work experience, rotating between several film and television projects for a variety of experience. The ADTP has made it a priority to include a significant percentage of women and minorities. “I’ll always be grateful to the Guild and the training program for reaching across the country and providing me a unique opportunity and a wonderful career I wouldn’t have had otherwise,” said Herb Adelman, a 1977 graduate of the program who later served as a trustee on the program for 10 years.

Click here for more information about the Assistant Directors Training Program

The Merger of the Guilds: The Daily Variety's headline heralds the merger of the Screen Directors Guild and the Radio and Television Directors Guild in 1959.

Finally, when we met with them and sat with them, drank with them, we found out that they weren’t so terrible,” former Screen Directors Guild, and later DGA President George Sidney recalled of early efforts to merge various types of directors guilds into one organization. Suspicion was mutual between the film directors in the Los Angeles-based Screen Directors Guild and those working in live television through the New York-based Radio and Television Directors Guild. “Each side felt that the other was going to try to swallow it up, and impose its will, but in 1960 we became one union,” according to Joe Youngerman, SDG’s executive secretary at the time of the merger.

A merger was first discussed in 1956, but it took two years for Youngerman and his counterpart at RTDG, Newman “Nicky” Burnett, to bring together committees from both sides. Sidney would later half-joke that “we both had something in common—we all hated the producers,” but there were many reasons to combine. For one, there was a large number of directors who belonged to both guilds, paying double dues and giving production companies the opportunity to negotiate two different deals. The RTDG, founded in 1942 as the Radio Directors Guild—later adding television directors by 1948—was in tough financial straits as opposed to the SDG. And directors realized that, despite the different mediums, they shared much in terms of craft and working conditions. They were, as John Rich, who belonged to both guilds, recalled, “directors of people instead of directors of different kinds of equipment.”

Second Term: After serving as president of the Screen Directors Guild from 1939-1941, Frank Capra returned to be the first president of the Directors Guild of America following the merger.

Still, the early negotiations took place in secret. The leaders did not want to startle the paid staff who might lose their job in a merger, and it was agreed that inactive RTDG members would not be brought into the new Guild or allowed to reactivate, which generated resentment for years after the merger. Several New York RTDG members were instrumental in easing the transition, including then-RDTG National President Michael Kane, George Schaefer, Tom Donovan and Ted Corday. Jack Shea, President of RTDG’s Hollywood local, Sidney and Rich also played leadership roles in the merger and subsequent DGA, whose first president would be Frank Capra.

The merger, which took place on Jan. 1, 1960, nearly collapsed early on due to conflicts between the councils on the two coasts, each of which contained both directors and assistants in all areas. Separating the directors and assistants into separate councils eased much of the East-West friction, Shaefer later recalled. “Growth is the bellwether of any organization, and our Directors Guild knew it had to grow,” Sidney recalled.

Assistant directors covered by IATSE Local 161 in New York were the next to join the new DGA in 1963, thanks to then-IATSE President Richard Walsh. “We proved to Dick Walsh that we could do a much better job, and he, not wanting to just keep numbers in the IA, but wanting to do the best for his membership, surrendered and gave us the members of 161,” according to Sidney.

Unit production managers merged with the DGA in 1964, and in 1965 the Guild added the members of the Screen Directors International Guild, a New York-based group whose members largely directed TV commercials and documentary films.

Reflecting on the various mergers that created the DGA, Schaefer said, “It seems to me that directing is such a difficult job that the miracle of making a show come together should not be limited by geography or by arbitrary restrictions. A director should be a director any place in the country—or the world, for that matter.”

$20 A Day: Former DGA National Vice President Tom Donovan recalls the early days of television.

“I was offered $20 a day to stage manage in the upstart industry called television—$20 a day, on call, with no guarantee of days to be worked,” recalls former Guild National Vice President Tom Donovan. “Joe Papp, a fellow stage manager at the time, described the four steps of promotion at CBS: stage manager, assistant director, director, and out…. Today things are better. Training programs, qualifications requirements, special projects, seminars, symposia, workshops and many other programs undertaken by the DGA have served in great measure to replace that early network proving ground.” As many TV shows moved to the West Coast, Donovan stayed in New York and enjoyed a rewarding career as a director and was named an honorary life member and given the Robert B. Aldrich Achievement Award for his long service to the Guild. With its roots in the Radio and Television Directors Guild, the DGA’s Eastern operation has forged a rich tradition in the TV industry, thanks in part to Tom Donovan’s pioneering work.

The First Residuals: Chart of residuals collected by the DGA from 1995-2005 .

Compensating artists for the use and reuse of their work was first envisioned in Europe before the 20th century and has been a battleground ever since. But unlike their European peers who work in an Authors Rights system, which gives them rights to control and have remuneration for the reuse of their art, directors in America’s Work for Hire system had to rely on collective bargaining to secure residuals.

Residuals are one of the most significant benefits available to members of the DGA, allowing them to benefit financially from a work years after its release. This provides a safety net for lean years throughout a career and a source of income that is supplemental to some members and vital to others. Residuals are also the fundamental source of revenue for the DGA Basic Pension Plan.

The issue of residuals has arisen with each new technological advance, beginning with the advent of radio and coming to a head with television. The DGA and other Hollywood guilds negotiated residuals for domestic reuse of TV programs in the 1950s but ran into resistance when it came to getting paid for feature films shown on the new medium. The issue was so contentious that a 12-year moratorium on exhibiting films on TV was declared in 1948. A residual formula for the reuse of films on free TV was established in 1961, and payment for the foreign reuse of TV programs came in 1968. The reuse of films on pay television and videocassettes, the “supplemental markets,” were first addressed in 1971. Along the way, various other forms of reuse were covered, such as made-for-pay TV, made-for cable, and Internet uses.

Direct residual payments benefit not only directors, but also go to below-the-line members of the Guild for the reuse of films in supplemental markets and for programs made for pay cable television. In addition, residuals generate 60% of the revenue received by the Basic Pension Plan.

The contracts negotiated by the DGA with the major studios and networks have generated stunning rates of residual growth. In the last decade alone, total collected residuals have grown from $109.2 million in 1995 to $246.5 million in 2005. Collecting these residuals involves the coordination of several DGA departments, beginning with Signatories/Report Compliance, which works to make sure a company will pay what’s due for years to come. The Residuals Department processes the money received from production companies and monitors industry compliance with the reuse provisions of DGA contracts, which are enforced by the Legal Department.

The Bill of Creative Rights: A Hollywood Reporter headline tells of the Guild flexing its protective muscle.

From the inception of the DGA, one of the leading goals was to establish a right to a director’s cut, but it took over 20 years to achieve this early objective. Director Elliot Silverstein experienced the need for Guild protection firsthand in 1963 after directing an episode of The Twilight Zone, ironically titled “The Obsolete Man.” “Its editor refused to cut it the way I wanted it cut,” recalled Silverstein. “The only [post-production] right we had in the early ’60s was to make suggestions for improvements in the rough cut to the associate producer.” Silverstein found that other directors were having similar problems, so he and a group of 24 directors met with DGA National Executive Secretary Joe Youngerman to see what could be done. Those sessions gave birth to the Bill of Creative Rights, which included such landmarks as the establishment of the director’s cut, as well as provisions for the director to receive final credit on the main titles. As this represented a substantive change in the way they had always viewed the post-production process, the studios, of course, resisted. To overcome opposition, the Guild submitted a list of 12 directors and said if a director held up post-production, the DGA, at its own expense, would fly in one of those directors to finish the work. The Bill of Creative Rights has since grown into the Creative Rights Handbook, which summarizes the rights of DGA members.

Click here for more information about the Creative Rights Handbook

The Treasure: DGA Secretary Treasurer Sheldon Leonard at his day job.

“In talking about the Directors Guild of America, the significant word is ‘Guild.’ We are not only concerned about wages, hours and working conditions, but we are also concerned about the creative aspects of our work. We religiously protect the director’s right to his first cut, the director’s right to involvement in casting and in revisions, and we therefore do the best we can to maintain the standards of our trade.” Leonard learned these lessons as a director, writer, actor and producer who remained devoted to Guild service throughout much of his 60-year career in Hollywood. He was awarded the Robert B. Aldrich Achievement Award for service and was named an honorary life member. When Leonard was DGA secretary-treasurer, then-President Gene Reynolds called him a treasure: “because he’s the salt of the earth, because he’s wise, courageous, generous, reliable, straight as hell, entertaining and profoundly devoted to our cause.”

The First Rules: Legendary UPM Bob Jeffords, compiler of The Jeffords Rules.

“To help crews perform better; to help them to see themselves better than they are.” That was Bob Jeffords’ goal as a unit production manager. He knew how to inspire crews on such projects as Blazing Saddles, Spencer for Hire, and Murphy Brown. “The challenge is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not a bully,” Jeffords advised. “I find the best crews are not necessarily the best individuals, but people who work well together.” Jeffords was also extremely practical in his desire to help fellow Guild and union employees, culminating in the famous Jeffords Rules, a handy collection of film production rules arranged by subject. Used by the DGA, SAG, IATSE and extras, Jeffords Rules continues to be updated in tribute to his memory. The pocket-sized rulebook helps crew members know the precise protocol for such things as expenses, overtime and safety. A graduate of the DGA-Producer Assistant Director Training Program, Jeffords was a past chairman of the AD/UPM/TC Council and served several terms on the National Board. He was awarded the Frank Capra Achievement Award in 1998.

Three Cheers: The Special Projects Committee celebrates Robert Wise’s 86th birthday in 2000.

One morning, almost 15 years ago, several dozen members gathered at the Directors Guild for a breakfast presented by the Special Projects Committee that featured Michael Mann in a discussion of pre-production issues. With the recent release of his latest film, The Last of the Mohicans, Mann brought his enthusiasm for the picture—along with a musket used by Daniel Day-Lewis in the film. The musket became the focus of a lively demonstration of the director’s rehearsal process and how he helped the actor to physically inhabit his character.

Not the usual fare over bagels and coffee, perhaps, but as one of the many offerings of the Special Projects Committee, it was definitely part of what puts the “special” in Special Projects. For 30 years, the committee has been providing Guild members with unique opportunities like this to get to know individual directors and their work, and to learn more about the craft.

The first endeavor of its kind among entertainment guilds, the Special Projects Committee was inspired by a three-page letter written to the DGA Western Directors Council in 1975 by Elia Kazan, who believed that a Guild “...has the obligation to inspire its every member to better work.... pass on its traditions, see that they do not die, that the lessons of experience are not ignored, that achievement builds on achievement.”

Accordingly, Guild President Robert Aldrich, who was president at the time, appointed a committee, chaired by the venerable Robert Wise, to explore the matter further. On June 12, 1976, a recommendation to establish a special projects program was unanimously resolved by the DGA National Board.

Celebrations: Ray Bradbury gave an inspiring keynote address at Digital Day in 2005.

By all accounts, there couldn't have been a better choice for chairman than Wise, who selected the committee’s sole staff member, David Shepard, and wielded his considerable influence to get things accomplished. He appointed an operations subcommittee, consisting of Noel Black, Lamont Johnson and Francine Parker. Wise held the post for nearly a quarter-century, retiring in December 2000. Ten years ago, he noted in the DGA Magazine that when it came to his service to the Guild, he was most proud of his Special Projects involvement.

The committee took its mandate from a phrase in Kazan’s letter, “to collect, preserve and share” the directorial experience, says Shepard, who worked with the committee for more than 10 years. “Our original work included oral histories and media educators’ workshops,” Shepard says. The oral histories came about because “you had to do it,” declares Parker. “It was imperative—these were people who did very valuable work. They were directors and assistant directors who cared about the Guild, and who were pioneers.”

The oral histories have given way to the Visual History Program. The Special Projects Committee also continues to organize tributes, incorporating the screening of a director’s film with remarks from creative collaborators. One of the earliest Special Projects events saluted John Cromwell, with George Cukor as panel moderator.

For several years, starting with a session with Howard Hawks in Laguna Beach in 1977, the Committee presented up-close-and-personal weekends spotlighting the work of a single director. The retreats have evolved into one-day intensives held at the DGA headquarters. Last September, Garry Marshall, Jim Burrows, Donald Petrie, Betty Thomas and others talked about directing comedy.

In 2000, Wise was succeeded as chairman by committee member Jeremy Kagan. Kagan had already distinguished himself by initiating events such as Directors Breakfasts and the annual Meet the Nominees Symposia, which present discussions with the nominees for the annual DGA Awards. In developing the symposia, Kagan’s goal was “to provide more opportunities for Guild members to be in conversation with each other.”

Four DGA staffers, led by Special Projects Executive Gina Blumenfeld, now work on ongoing committee programs. Current offerings include new technology seminars and workshops, as well as the Global Cinema Screening Series, co-chaired by Victoria Hochberg and Chuck Workman.

Celebrations: John Huston (right) and Barbra Streisand at a dinner for Akira Kurosawa who received the Guild’s Golden Jubilee Award in 1986.

The annual Digital Day event provides members with presentations and hands-on demonstrations of the latest technological advances. In July 2006, more than 500 members and their guests packed the three DGA theaters and grand lobby in Los Angeles for the fourth Digital Day event and got to review a host of new technology.

“I’ve always been interested in cutting-edge technology and its applications,” notes Digital Day subcommittee chair Randal Kleiser. “What formats should a director consider? What’s the cheapest and best equipment for low-budget projects? In general, what should members know about changes in their craft?”

As the needs of members continue to evolve, so has the work of the Special Projects Committee. As Kagan notes, “When you stop learning, you stop living.”

—Libby Slate