Description
Book SynopsisExplores the history of actors' unionism in the United States from the late nineteenth century to the onset of the Great Depression.
Trade Review"The book entertains as much as it educates. . . . a superlative read."--
Journal of American Studies"By tracing the contentious relationship between theatre managers and actors in the early 1900s, examining the performative elements of the actors’ strike in 1919, and investigating the failure of the AEA to claim a stake in Hollywood, Holmes plots an engaging historical analysis that offers thorough detail and compelling examples."--
Journal of American Culture"Sean P. Holmes spins a lively, well-researched yarn about how actors decided to take matters into their own hands, giving birth to the union that survives today: Actors' Equity Association (AEA). . . . a clear and smart study."--
Labour/Le Travail“With his attention to actors as both producers and embodiments of what they produce, the unique gender dynamics of theater as workplace, and the structure of the theater industry, Holmes has done a great job of writing the history of a union that challenges conventional labor history understandings of unionism and extends the scope of American theater history.”--
Journal of American History"Sean P. Holmes has given us a thoughtful, lively, clearly written, and cogently argued book about AEA's early years. . . . This admirable book begins to fill a vacuum in scholarship on the AEA and should inspire more work that accounts for what AEA meant--and means--to the American stage."--
Theatre Survey"The stage has long been recognized as a site of consumption and of battles over the moral order. But Sean P. Holmes reminds us that it was also a workplace. . . . A substantial contribution to the historiography of the Progressive Era and the 1920s."--
H-Net Reviews"A very rich study. . . . For labor educators and union organizers, Holmes' excellent book could be used to begin new conversations about how to connect creativity to labor action."--
Labor Studies Journal"A compelling story that needs to be told. This history of unionization within the theatrical profession provides crucial insights into theater management and the industrialization of the entertainment industry."--Gillian M. Rodger, author of Champagne Charlie and Pretty Jemima: Variety Theater in the Nineteenth Century
"With active and engaging prose, this volume traces the history of the Actors' Equity Association from late-nineteenth century transformations in the theatrical industry. An excellent contribution to theater history, labor studies, American cultural studies, and gender studies."--Kathryn J. Oberdeck, author of The Evangelist and the Impresario: Religion, Entertainment, and Cultural Politics in America, 1884-1914
