Editing Screen Actors Guild (section)

=== Early years ===
In 1925, the [[Masquers Club]] was formed by actors discontented with the grueling work hours at the [[Studio system|Hollywood studios]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.masquersclub.org/index.html|title=The Masquers Club official site|access-date=2006-02-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060114194203/http://www.masquersclub.org/index.html|archive-date=2006-01-14|url-status=live}}</ref> This was one of the major concerns which led to the creation of the Screen Actors Guild in 1933. Another was that the [[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]], which at that time arbitrated between the producers and actors on contract disputes, had a membership policy which was by invitation only.

A meeting in March 1933 of six actors ([[Berton Churchill]], Charles Miller, [[Grant Mitchell (actor)|Grant Mitchell]], [[Ralph Morgan]], Alden Gay, and Kenneth Thomson) led to the guild's foundation. Three months later, three of the six and eighteen others became the guild's first officers and board of directors: Ralph Morgan (its first president), Alden Gay, [[Kenneth Thomson (actor)|Kenneth Thomson]], [[Alan Mowbray]] (who personally funded the organization when it was first founded), [[Leon Ames (actor)|Leon Ames]], [[Tyler Brooke]], [[Clay Clement]], [[James Gleason]], [[Lucile Gleason|Lucile Webster Gleason]], [[Boris Karloff]], [[Claude King (actor)|Claude King]], [[Noel Madison]], Reginald Mason, [[Bradley Page]], [[Willard Robertson]], [[Ivan Simpson]], [[C. Aubrey Smith]], [[Charles Starrett]], [[Richard Tucker (actor)|Richard Tucker]], Arthur Vinton, [[Morgan Wallace]], and [[Lyle Talbot]].

Many high-profile actors refused to join SAG initially. This changed when the producers made an agreement amongst themselves not to bid competitively for talent. A pivotal meeting, at the home of [[Frank Morgan]] (Ralph's brother, who played the title role in ''[[The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)|The Wizard of Oz]]''), was what gave SAG its critical mass. Prompted by [[Eddie Cantor]]'s insistence, at that meeting, that any response to that producer's agreement help all actors, not just the already established ones, it took only three weeks for SAG membership to go from around 80 members to more than 4,000. Cantor's participation was critical, particularly because of his friendship with the recently elected President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]. After several years and the passage of the [[National Labor Relations Act]], the producers agreed to negotiate with SAG in 1937.

Actors known for their early support of SAG (besides the founders) include [[Bette Davis]], [[Edward Arnold (actor)|Edward Arnold]], [[Humphrey Bogart]], [[James Cagney]], [[Dudley Digges (actor)|Dudley Digges]], [[Porter Hall]], [[Paul Harvey (actor)|Paul Harvey]], [[Jean Hersholt]], [[Russell Hicks (actor)|Russell Hicks]], [[Murray Kinnell]], [[Gene Lockhart]], [[Bela Lugosi]], [[David Manners]], [[Fredric March]], [[Adolphe Menjou]], [[Chester Morris]], [[Jean Muir (actress)|Jean Muir]], [[George Murphy]], [[Erin O'Brien-Moore]], [[Irving Pichel]], [[Dick Powell]], [[Edward G. Robinson]], [[Edwin Stanley]], [[Gloria Stuart]], [[Lyle Talbot]], [[Franchot Tone]], [[Warren William]], and [[Robert Young (actor)|Robert Young]].