In 1988, most of the meetings were held at the Hollywood Palladium. Our debonair executive director Brian Walton would get the crowd whipped into a reliable frenzy. Even in defeat, he gave the St. Crispin’s Day speech from Henry V: “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers…” Standing O!
At the meetings, there was a microphone on one side for those in favor of whatever was being discussed, a microphone on the other for those opposed, and one in the middle for people with something to say that wasn’t exactly pro or con. This being a roomful of writers, no one wanted to take a simple yes or no stance. The middle microphone, or what I came to call the pet peeve microphone, had a line out the door.
This is my pet peeve microphone. My issues with the guild are very narrowly drawn. I want to picket because I want to, not because I have to. I believe freedom of assembly includes the right to not be forced to assemble. I think there’s a difference between striking and picketing, with striking being the more effective of the two. I think my commute from Topanga Canyon should count against my picketing hours. And I think if we don’t get a piece of the internet now, we never will.
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.
Jack Silbert, curator