IATSE-2nd2018_web

ALFRED W. DI TOLLA — PIVOTAL LEADERSHIP
Alfred W. Di Tolla helmed the IATSE during eight of its most pivotal years, from 1986 through 1994.
During this time, which included IATSE’s Centennial, he made organizing a top priority and oversaw a membership
increase from 60,000 members to 76,000 members. He encouraged more effective communications
and made major investments in educating and training Alliance members. He spearheaded the historic
NABET merger. And he negotiated fair contracts with superior pension and health and welfare benefits.
President Di Tolla began his career as a Charter Member of the Broadcasting Studio Employees Local
782, which he later merged into Radio and Television Sound Effects/Broadcasting Studio Employees Local
844. He became a working member of Local One in 1955, and was a proud member of that Local until his untimely passing in 1994.
In 1974, Di Tolla was appointed an IATSE International Representative, a position he held for four years. He was then appointed
Assistant to the President, a position he held until he was elected International President by the General Executive Board in 1986,
succeeding Walter F. Diehl. He was re-elected at the next three conventions in 1988, 1990, and 1993.
Throughout his time in office, President Di Tolla had the support of IATSE members because his pledge to represent the best
interests of his IA sisters and brothers was always at the forefront.
Above all, President Di Tolla built for the future, and created the platform enabling his successors to take IATSE to new heights.
His leadership, along with his strength and personal integrity kept the IA in a position of respect and prominence in the trade union
movement and the entertainment industry.
The movies began to focus on what was best about the
medium, producing films that incorporated sound, color, and
composition in ways that could not be achieved by television.
Alliance members who had worked all their lives in the
movie industry found themselves working in television, as new
companies bought old film studios to make TV films. Among
these were Revue, which bought the old Republic studio, and
Desilu, which bought RKO.
Decades later, it became common to see feature films that
are less than a year old on television. Then it became common to
rent them on videotape or DVD. And today, many movies can be
live streamed the day they open.
This practice helped studios make money, given the prospect
of additional revenue when the movies are long gone from
the theaters, enabling the production of more movies and
generating more work for IATSE studio mechanics. However,
it had an adverse impact on IA projectionists, since it has eliminated
movie houses which played fourth or fifth-run films, as
well as those that catered to revivals of past blockbusters.
THE RENAISSANCE OF THE MOVIES
In the 1960s and 1970s, the movies underwent a renaissance.
Films like Bonnie and Clyde introduced a new kind of anti-hero
to the cinema, as well as a new realism that required much more
complex make-up, costuming, props and set design.
Alliance camera operators and cinematographers found
themselves asked to supply a whole range of effects, from slow
motion to freeze frames and jump cutting. Some movies (The
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