Frank Nelson - Actors Union Pioneer

[Roman]

Most of us remember Frank Nelson from his wonderful appearances on the Jack Benny Program, I Love Lucy, and other classic radio and television shows. But there was another side to this man that many may not be aware. Frank Nelson was one of the driving forces and key leaders of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA).

AFTRA is a national labor union that today represents over 70,000 performers, journalists and other artists working in the entertainment and news media. Back in the 1930s when radio was at its height, most performers, other than a few stars, received relatively minimal pay and no, or practically no, fringe benefits such as pensions and health insurance. Frank Nelson, along with a handful of others, was instrumental in the organization of a union to represent radio performers which eventually became AFTRA. Frank Nelson later served as the union's national president and was its senior pension and welfare trustee from the plan's inception until his death.

June Foray, a fellow AFTRA leader, described Frank Nelson as follows:

"Obviously, Frank Nelson was a unique man, a versatile actor and one helluva union man. We neophytes just beginning our professions were familiar with and in awe of the "Yeeeessss?" man on the Benny show, but when we worked with him on dramatic shows, another revelation insinuated itself - his serious acting was as expert as his comedy. But it was his persona, his integrity, his infectious personality that intrigued his friends and confreres. However, ours was a peripheral acquaintance until my election to the Board of AFTRA, where I was impressed and astonished by his penetrating, facile mind (the envy of the most legal of eagles), with the passionate tenacity of a pit bull. His brilliance, coupled with his cognition of an actor's financial and health problems, compelled him to become a consumed, driven man, dogged in his persistence to see his program endorsed by a many-times intransigent board. Every actor who has been ill, who has retired, who found the need to borrow money from the union can thank one Frank Nelson for that financial relief from anxiety. Future actors who benefit from his personal sacrifices and selflessness will have suffered a monumental loss from not knowing personally the man who fought to achieve their comfort and dignity."

At the time of Nelson's death in 1986, AFTRA eulogized him as a "towering presence within AFTRA since the union's inception, and the man who successfully introduced a mandate on the floor of the 1954 AFTRA Convention to establish the first pension and welfare plan for freelance performers in the broadcasting industry."

Even today, the Frank Nelson Sick & Benefit Fund provides emergency financial aid and other resources to AFTRA members.

While anyone who has listened to the Jack Benny Program will certainly appreciate his great radio voice and comedic talent, I think it is fair to say that Frank Nelson's greatest contribution was to his fellow performers as a key founder and leader of AFTRA.

[shimp scrampi]

Great post, Roman. The Benny gang are so familiar and endeared to us in their on-stage roles, it is terrific to be reminded of what incredible, accomplished people so many of them were off-stage.