How Casting Director Marian L. Mel Shaped Central Casting and Empowered Women in Hollywood

By 1920, Hollywood was the center of the American motion picture industry. While The Mark of Zorro, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and Robin Hood made millions at the box office, stars like Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford were revered household names that drew thousands to Los Angeles for their chance at stardom.

For many aspiring actors, getting hired as a background actor was their first priority when arriving in Hollywood. Since background work required no experience – just the right look and wardrobe – it was seen as an accessible way to get on set and noticed by a director.

Background work may have been accessible to those new to Hollywood, but getting cast wasn’t easy. Background actors either had to “make the rounds” by walking the eight mile trek from studio to studio with their suitcase full of costumes or sign up with a private casting agency that charged significant fees for providing work opportunities.

Concerned by reports of background actors having difficulty securing work, long hours on set and lack of overtime pay, Will Hays, president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (known today as the Motion Picture Association) ordered a study of working conditions in Hollywood.

Marian L. Mel, a secretary at the Industrial Welfare Commission of California, was sent to Los Angeles to survey background actors in the industry. Mel interviewed background actors, with a focus on women and children, to learn more about working conditions on set. Based on these conversations, Mel recommended a series of changes be made to background employment in Hollywood, including establishing a set number of hours for a standard day’s work, that adequate dressing rooms be provided to background on sets and that background actors be notified before accepting work if the call requires smoke, wet work, or overnight hours.

"The [Industrial Welfare] commission did not touch the moving-picture industry until violation of the eight-hour law for women was called to its attention," Mel told the Los Angeles Times in 1927. "Many unjust conditions were remedied by the commission and the lot of the extra woman in pictures is much better."

After reading Mel’s study, along with a separate report from Mary van Kleeck of the Russell Sage Foundation, Hays formed the Central Casting Corporation on December 4, 1925.

With Central Casting, Hays sought to create an organized and trusted path to background work in compliance with labor regulations. Impressed with Mel’s work on the study, Hays hired her to run Central Casting’s Women’s and Children’s division.

Background casting in the 1920s

By the late 1920s, Central Casting had 17,000 men, women and children registered for background work. With more talent than available roles, Mel was discerning in who she signed up, often interviewing up to 150 women per day. Mel used these interviews to determine if the applicants had special skills or wardrobe that were not represented in Central Casting's current ranks or if their level of skill in dance, singing or acting far exceeded those of the background actors already registered.

In Central Casting’s first five years, the casting staff made around 700 placements a day, with 200 of them being women Mel cast. Placements for children were sporadic, though when productions needed large numbers for big scenes, Mel was known for making it happen. For The Fire Brigade (1926) Mel booked over 250 children for a weeklong shoot and ensured there were enough studio teachers to accommodate the large call. When filming wrapped, Mel told Liberty magazine the children “performed admirably” and “had the time of their lives.”

Central Casting's switchboard and operators (1939)

For Mel and Central Casting’s staff of casting directors, production orders started with a phone call from the studio listing how many background actors were needed for the next day.

Then like clockwork, Central Casting’s switchboard would light up between 4-7pm with background actors calling in looking for work. During these peak hours, an estimated 700 calls were handled by the switchboard operators every hour. The operators would call out the name of the background actor on the phone to the casting directors on the floor. If there was no response, they would tell the background actor to try later. If the casting director wanted to hire the background actor, the call was patched through to their direct line.

Throughout her career, Mel cast many background actors who would go on to have successful acting careers, including Jean Harlow, Sally Eilers and Jane Wyman.

Improving working conditions for women and children in Hollywood

Marian L. Mel was not only known for her work as a casting director, but for her ongoing effort to ensure productions complied with working condition standards. She was often invited to speak at the Women's Club of Hollywood luncheons and at the International Policewomen's Association conferences. Her topics would range from employment of women as background actors to the strides made by women in the entertainment industry.

Many of Mel’s initial recommendations to Hays and the Industrial Welfare Commission were adopted in Hollywood, including requirements around providing women transportation if night work went past the last public bus of the evening, that studios provide adequate medical aid for the amount of background actors working that day and that payment be made by cash or check at the end of the workday.

During her time as the Director of Central Casting’s Women’s and Children’s Division, Mel maintained close ties to the Industrial Welfare Commission of California and the Los Angeles School Board to ensure the children she employed were treated fairly and worked with Will Hays to investigate and remedy claims of unfair working conditions for background actors in Hollywood.