The University of Wisconsin Press


Film Studies



The Politics of Glamour
Ideology and Democracy in the Screen Actors Guild
David F. Prindle

"Prindle does a brilliant job of recalling the votes, the infighting, the factions, from the McCarthy period to modern times, from anti-communism to anti-Contraism.  This is the way histories should be: fair-minded, with the wisdom that comes from being a concerned bystander."Book Reader

Rarely are the off-screen lives of actors examined for evidence of deep thinking or good citizenship. Still more rarely do the internal workings of labor unions attract public scrutiny. Nevertheless, as David Prindle shows in his examination of democracy in the Screen Actors Guild, this actors' union has for over 50 years been an arena for idealistic, yet intense and hardboiled political maneuvering.

In The Politics of Glamour, readers become aware of the seriousness and political commitment displayed by people whom the general public has generally admired more for their artistic skills. After reading this account of politics among America's screen royalty, no one could wonder about where Ronald Reagan, a former SAG president, received his political training.

David Prindle was, at the time of publication, associate professor of govenrment at the University of Texas at Austin. His first book Petroleum Politics and the Texas Railroad Commission, received the V.O. Key Jr. Award given by the Southern Political Science Association to the best book on southern politics published in 1981.

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Cover image is of 4 men, Ronald Reagan is among them.

November 1988

LC: 88-040194 PN
288 pp.    6 x 9    illus.

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Paper $21.95 x
ISBN 978-0-299-11814-3
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