Understanding the Business of Entertainment

Chapter 8Unions, Agents and Managers

Studios are not the only important players in Hollywood. Entertainment unions significantly shape the business landscape, and agents and managers often exercise enormous business clout. Since people reading this book may one day find themselves in a union or working with one or want to be an agent or manager or be represented by one, we’ll now look at these groups and how they operate.

Entertainment Unions

Introduction

During the depths of the Great Depression Congress passed and President Franklin Roosevelt signed two laws making it easier for workers to unionize—the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 and the National Labor Relations Act of 1935. At precisely the same time, out in Hollywood, small ...