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The 1945 strike that brought Hollywood to a screeching halt

In 1945, two unions were fighting to represent Hollywood's set decorators. One of the unions was extremely large and powerful and was being used as a tool of the mob. Its goal was to exploit its workers by keeping wages low and hours long, in exchange for payouts from the studios. The other was new, radical, and democratically run. There were rumors that its leadership was communist at a time when anti-communist paranoia was running high in Hollywood.