Labor & Employment Law

Writers Guild to Honor Gilroy, Pryor and Television Archives

By James Parks

Frank Gilroy

Frank Gilroy has gained success as a writer in television, film, theater and print. He wrote for almost every show in TV?s so-called Golden Age, including ?Playhouse 90,? ?Omnibus? and ?Studio One.?

His plays include the Pulitzer Prize-winner ?The Subject Was Roses? and the award-winning ?Who?ll Save The Plowboy?? An independent moviemaker, he wrote and directed ?Desperate Characters,? which won a prize at the Berlin Film Festival.

Now his colleagues in the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) will honor him with the union?s Ian McLellan Hunter Award for Lifetime Achievement in Writing. WGAE President Michael Winship praised Gilroy, saying:

Frank Gilroy’s stunning body of work, with its sure and poignant grasp of the human condition, would alone make him a worthy recipient. But in addition he has been a visionary and pioneer, forging a path for all the independent filmmakers and storytellers who have followed him.

Established in 1992 in memory of the late Ian McLellan Hunter, the award is presented to a WGAE member for his or her lifetime body of work as a writer in motion pictures or television. The Hunter award is one of the three top WGAE awards that will be presented at the 63rd annual Writers Guild Awards, Feb. 5 in New York City. For more information, call 212-767-7812 or visit the WGAE website here.

Marianne Pryor

Marianne Pryor, an award-winning writer and editor at ABC Radio network news, will receive the Richard Jablow Award for Devoted Service to the Guild. The award is named for Jablow, who helped found the WGAE, authored its constitution and served as its first counsel.  

Pryor first became involved in the WGAE on the picket line during the news writers’ strike in the 1980s. She has served three terms on the WGAE Council, twice on the negotiating committees for its ABC News contracts and on the committees that selected the Guild?s executive director and new office space.

?Marianne Pryor has been a stalwart of the Writers Guild, East for many years,? Winship said.

 The esteem in which she is held not only here at the union but among her colleagues at ABC News?whose affection and respect for her and all she has done for them in the workplace and at the negotiating table are profound?make her a most worthy recipient of this year’s Jablow Award.

Also, the Television Academy Foundation?s Archive of American Television will receive WGAE?s Evelyn Burkey Award, which recognizes contributions that have brought honor and dignity to writers everywhere. The Archive of American Television is a continuing collection of more than 600 in-depth video interviews with some of TV?s most influential professionals in all fields.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on January 30, 2011 (boomark / email).