Oral Histories
Interview of Hyman R. Faine
Labor lawyer and national executive secretary of the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA). Helped found the UCLA Management in the Arts program.
- Subtitle:
- The Art of Arts Management
- Series:
- Interviews not in a series, part one
- Topic:
- UCLA and University of California HistoryUCLA Faculty
- Biographical Note:
- Labor lawyer and national executive secretary of the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA). Helped found the UCLA Management in the Arts program.
- Interviewee:
- Faine, Hyman R.
- Supporting Documents:
- Records relating to the interview are located in the office of the UCLA Library's Center for Oral History Research.
- Language:
- English
- Copyright:
- Regents of the University of California, UCLA Library.
- Abstract:
- Faine's father immigrates to the United States; family reunited after World War I; attends the Talmudical Academy and the Teachers Institute in New York City; attends City College of New York and Harvard University Law School; Jewish cultural and political identity; political ferment at City College; various forms of Jewish socialism; law school education prepares him for trade union work; brother-in-law Bertram Gross joins the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration; Faine works as a legal clerk; beginnings of the American Federation of Radio Artists (AFRA), the Screen Actors Guild, and other arts-related unions; dispute between American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) and AFRA taken to the United States Supreme Court; Faine unionizes radio stations in Cincinnati; works for AFRA; works for AGMA; collective bargaining for artists and musicians; the Works Progress Administration; government support for the arts after World War II; Faine serves as a member of the War Labor Board; sources of funding for nonprofit arts organizations; AGMA negotiations with the Metropolitan Opera Company; James C. Petrillo's argument that soloists should belong to the American Federation of Musicians; negotiations with the Metropolitan Opera Company; why arts administrators need university training; Faine begins teaching in the Arts Management Program at UCLA; situation Faine encountered at UCLA; funding for Arts Management Program; establishing the internship program; how Faine prepared to teach courses in arts management; his personal relationship with students; Faine's retirement; UCLA administration fails to give adequate funding to the program; students organize their own placement program; fund-raising for the Arts Management Program; faculty in the Arts Management Program; research on arts organizations' needs; Faine's relationship with other faculty at UCLA; the need for new arts management professors; job placement of arts management graduates; developing broader training programs in management to meet more complex needs; increase in arts activities in Southern California; the Music Center of Los Angeles County and other performing arts centers in the Los Angeles area; nonprofit arts as a cultural necessity; Faine is asked to develop a nonprofit management program for the University of Judaism (UJ); conditions at UJ compared to UCLA; how Faine developed the UJ management program; unique challenges at UJ; attending the first graduation of students from UJ program; why nonprofit management training and profit-making management training should be taught separately; reflections on general problems of copyright and ownership for artists; Faine's Zionist activities in the United States and abroad; principles of Zionism and problems in establishing the modern state of Israel; the problem of a homeland for Jews; the potential for the establishment of a Palestinian homeland; the problem of the Orthodox hold on the World Zionist Organization and the parliament of Israel; the schism between Jews in Israel and Jews outside Israel based on Orthodox definition of what a Jew is; Faine's first trip to Israel in 1952 and his active role in the American Committee for Labor Israel; Aliyah and the Zionist agenda; Jonathan Jay Pollard, the feeling of Galut, and the problem of dual loyalty.