Michael Everett

Shawnee Mission East High School

Class of 1959

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First Name	Michael
Last Name	Everett
Graduation Year	Class of 1959
Gender	Male
City	N/A
State/Province	CA
Country	United States
Occupation	Motion picture gaffer, retired
Married	No
Favorite School Memory	The last week when we sang "this last time we stand as one" and "We are the seniors, we are so fine. We are the class of fifty-nine."
About Me	I lived 11 years in DC. Got involved with the civil rights movement in 1960. Was in the lunch counter sit-ins, then got involved with the nuclear disarmament movement which segued into the anti-war movement which occupied me for about 8 years while I worked in bars. In '69 I decided to have a career in movies started out as a production assistant while still in DC. In '73 I went to California to break into the biz. I practically starved the first year or two, but there were plenty of others our age who had drifted West and when one got a job, he'd hire his friends. In '78 a miracle happened. A court order opened up the union and we all got our cards. The money and benefits were great and there was way more work than I needed or wanted. That was Hollywood's Golden Age and whenever I think of it, above all I remember laughing and laughing -- it was just such a wacky job in a wacky place with wacky people. All that ended in the '90's with runaway jobs going to Canada and elsewhere. I became the early point man to bring those jobs back and wrote the slogan "Bring Hollywood Home" which was misused by many. In '99 I went to the WTO meeting in Seattle to press my case but it didn't have a chance in the tear gas and explosions. That same year I was hired as a lobbyist on the campaign to keep China out of the WTO. Around that time we figured out how we could bring the jobs back from overseas. We could file a trade remedy with Commerce which would trigger an investigation, WTO action, and hopefully a resolution. We had top DC trade lawyers and we needed $300K to make it happen. Our union opposed us, and others were afraid of the studios, but after a couple of years we'd put together the $300K and submitted the petition. After 30 days they rejected it saying it was too complicated. Under Obama we might get it passed now but it's too late as about half our states have adopted Canada's practice of paying subsidies to the producers for bringing films to their states and there's no recourse to stop the practice. Right now I'm in the last 6 months of my third three year term as a Board member of my local. My union which is happy to ship our jobs overseas, which wrote letters to my last employer requesting that I be fired, and which distributed a "wanted" flier with my photo on it inviting members to kill me (in veiled terms), and in which my local's business agent earns $175K obviously hates me and my fellow dissidents for being democracy advocates. So I've decided not to run for reelection and come January I'll be done with it all. I feel sorry for the...(read more)