Editing King Vidor (section)

===Screen Directors Guild===

In the 1930s Vidor became a leading advocate for the formation of the Screen Directors Guild (SDG) and since 1960 called the [[Directors Guild of America]] (DGA), when television directors joined its ranks.

In an effort to enlarge movie director's meager influence in studio production decisions, Vidor personally exhorted a dozen or more leading directors, among them [[Howard Hawks]], [[William Wellman]], [[Ernst Lubitsch]] and [[Lewis Milestone]] to form a union, leading to the incorporation of the SDG in January 1936. By 1938, the collective bargaining unit had grown from a founding membership of 29 to an inclusive union of 600, representing Hollywood directors and assistant directors. The demands under Vidor's tenure at SDG were mild, seeking increased opportunities to examine scripts before filming and to make the initial cut on a movie.<ref>Thomson, 2007: "The Guild was not overreaching in its claims. It sought more time in preproduction, a proper chance to examine a script before filming, and the right to make at least a first cut.</ref>

As the SDG's first president, and a founding member of the anti-Communist group the [[Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals]] Vidor failed to bring the SDG into affiliation with the [[American Federation of Labor]] (AFL) that had already organized actors and screenwriters (deemed a "[[Bolshevik]]" political front by anti-communist critics). Not until 1939 would the directors sign an accord with these sister guilds, under then SDG president [[Frank Capra]].<ref>Durgnat and Simmons, 1988: p. 172<br />Thomson, 2011</ref>