Page 124 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2026 Skladateljska društva nekoč in danes.../Composers’ Societies Past and Present...

Skladateljska društva nekoč in danes | Composers’ Societies Past and Present
to appear in composers’ contracts well into the 1950s. Hugo Friedhofer, for
24
instance, encountered this unfavourable clause – “the little blockbuster” in
Friedhofer’s words – in a 1952 contract with Twentieth Century Fox, which
prompted him to call for stronger SCA collective efforts, led by the busi-
nesses leading freelance composers:
[…] I believe it is essential to call a meeting of SCA members (strictly
unofficial, however) who comprise the upper echelon of the free-lance
group, in order to determine what our course of action is going to be.
Most certainly, a unilateral course of action on the part of men like Her-
rmann, Raksin, North, Amfitheatroff [sic], Buttolph, Waxman, Stevens,
Murray and your humble servant, might possibly serve as a slight deter-
rent in this matter. On the other hand, it might put us all on Skid Row,
and frankly, that might be preferable, since I’ve no doubt at all we’d be
meeting up with nicer people! 25
Friedhofer’s suggestion indicates that, despite the often-addressed
‘miserable’ circumstances of composers working for Hollywood, by the end
of the studio era renowned freelance composers – organised in societies
such as the SCA – were regarded as having at least some agency in contrac-
tual matters. What remained problematic, however, was the legal distinc-
tion between labour and creative work. The division and regularisation of
labour in the film industry was explicitly promoted by unions such as the
AFM, which regularly published guidelines for “Motion Picture Work” to
standardise working practices, working hours and wages for AFM mem-
bers in Hollywood’s film industry. The AFM guidelines from 1946 state
that “Motion picture recording musicians” were required to take ten min-
utes rest per hour “away from the stand”. The rate for a single recording ses-
sion (three hours or less) per musician in 1946 was USD 39.90; overtime be-
fore midnight cost the production company USD 3.33 every fifteen minutes,
and after midnight the amount rose to USD 4.99. The AFM ensured that
26
musical workers in the film industry – including conducting film compos-
ers – were paid according to the time they worked.
The SCA wished to place film music composition on a legal footing
similar to that of “musical time workers”, as demonstrated by an annotat-
ed version of AFM conditions preserved in the SCA files. To accomplish

24 See: Copy of letter from Hugo Friedhofer to Adolph Deutsch, 6 February 1952 [MHL,
SCA Collection, Folder 31. Contract Committee].
25 Ibid.
26 See: AFM, Wage Scales, 8 [MHL, SCA Collection, Folder 9. American Federation of
Musicians].

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