Restructuring the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 1927- 1933: Power, Producers and the Promise of Unity

Abstract

This thesis examines two distinctive historical accounts of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, particularly connected to its foundation and its activity relating to worker unionisation in the 1920s and 1930s. The official version, offered by the Academy, begins with its foundation and adoption of a non-profit label in 1927. The account continues to outline its support for film preservation and its celebration of filmmakers through its annual awards show. However, if we turn to archival material – correspondence, newspaper items, and original Academy documentation – we discover an unofficial history. This material reveals that the Academy, from the very beginning, was controlled by producer interests, and that those interests worked to thwart worker unionisation efforts. This thesis argues that the Academy structured itself in specific ways to ensure that power was concentrated at the top of the organisation, with the board of directors. This structure enabled the board to drive the Academy to intervene in matters relating to unionisation. Between 1927 and 1933, the Academy always ensured that the status quo was respected, and real change never occurred. However, I also discover that the Academy needed to structure itself in this tiered system to succeed. At a time of great technological change, when external groups were probing industry morality, the Academy’s structure facilitated collaboration between fragmented motion- picture studios. Reconsidering the Academy’s foundation and paying particular attention to its structure, reveals a contradiction between the Academy’s rhetoric and its actions. I argue that it is out of this contradiction, that we gain a more rigorous understanding of why the Academy needed to centralise its power. Finally, I discover that many of the key elements integral to the early Academy’s tiered power structure, endure into the modern structure of the Academy today.