The Eagles' yellow card story

During the last half of the nineteenth century hundreds of fraternal organizations were formed in Canada and the United States, and most of them failed or were merged into other fraternals fairly quickly. So how did the Fraternal Order of Eagles do so well?

Founded in 1898, new lodges called aeries and new memberships soared: by 1911 there more than 1,000 aeries, more than a million members at a time when it had, as most fraternals did, men-only memberships. It was the fastest-growing fraternal organization in history.

Sure, the feel-good accounts about a commitment to equality, more open membership requirements and an early commitment to charity all contributed.

John Considine, left, and John Cort, right
 were among theatrical pioneers
 who founded the FOE.

But the short answer is that the Eagles came along at the right time, in the right place, and was founded by the right people; the show business industry was in the midst of unprecedented upheaval; and a great many jobs were at stake.

The FOE was one of the last attempts to form a fraternal organization, in 1898 Seattle Washington, by a group of theatre owners. They included two of the greatest show business pioneers: John Cort, who would become the owner of more independent legitimate theatres (assigned seating, no liquor) than anyone in history; and John Considine, co-founder of one of the largest vaudeville circuits in America, the Sullivan-Considine circuit, the first to offer top-level entertainers contracts for 26 weeks of continuous work from one town to the next.

The founders first called it The Order of Good Things. They wanted a place where theatre people could socialize among themselves, resolve constant labour disputes and business rivalries, and do some good for their community.

The Eagles founders started the fraternity in 1898 for theatre people to socialize among themselves, to settle labour disputes and business rivalries, and to do some good for the community.

The railway had just come to Seattle, transforming the city from a sleepy lumber town that had shipped most of its output by sea to San Francisco. The railway also made possible the choice of Seattle as the departure and return point for the many dreamers and schemers who joined the Yukon Gold Rush, the biggest and longest-lasting scramble for gold in history.

Seattle boomed, equipping would-be gold miners heading north and buying their gold when they returned. Most importantly for the Eagles founders, they also entertained legions of single men with get-rich-quick dreams, (sometimes) lots of money and no family responsibilities.

Crews of railway navvies were laying new track everywhere, transforming a continent used to travel only by ship, stagecoach, by wagon or on horseback. One of the biggest changes came to the entertainment industry.

All entertainment then, of course, was live entertainment. The talent would travel from town to town, find a local producer to put on a show and hire local people as stage hands, to build props and sets, to make costumes and whatever else was required for the show. The railway changed all that. Now entire shows – sets, props, costumes and instruments, along with the entire talent and support staffs could show up good to go.

So who got the work – the local people who made their living supporting shows when they came to town or the out-of-town crews down at the railway station? The conflict prompted formation of a new union, the National Association of Theatrical and Stage Employes (that’s how they spelled it), soon to be renamed the International Association of Theatrical and Stage Employes, or IATSE, when Canadian locals were admitted. Early Locals in New York and Chicago at first tried a local-hire-only approach, a losing battle when so much was to be gained shipping everything by rail.

The new Northwest District of the union, based in Seattle, had a better idea. There was this new fraternal organization where the producers mingled with show business people and support staff. They approached men like Cort and Considine with a proposal: we’ll do all the hiring here at the aerie, whether local or out of town, and guarantee fully-staffed shows for their entire runs, saving you labour strife and critical staff shortages.

There's a history behind the Eagles membership card
being yellow in colour.

By using the local aerie as a hiring hall (something the union couldn’t afford to set up itself), the union had a ready pool of members while the producers as Eagles leaders got a powerful incentive for show people to join the FOE to get those jobs.

Named after the FOE’s yellow membership cards, it was called the yellow card system, and the shows so organized were called yellow card shows (as they are to this day).

The union-fraternity partnership caused membership in the FOE to soar. New aeries were launched throughout the American northwest and in southern British Columbia, and then followed the railways. Aeries were numbered in order of their charter dates. Aerie 1 was (and is) in downtown Seattle, Aerie 6 in Vancouver BC. Aerie 10 in Rossland BC and Aerie 23 at Winnipeg’s railhead (both still operating) followed. Even Ontario chartered two aeries in 1904, in Sault Ste Marie and Toronto, though both failed the first time.

By 1911 the Fraternal Order of Eagles had its million members in 1,000 aeries. The yellow card system worked well for all concerned. IATSE became (and remains) one of the most successful unions in history. By 1913 IATSE members voted in international convention in Ottawa to adopt the yellow card system everywhere. And IATSE was now successful enough to have its own hiring halls, bypassing the Eagles altogether.

But the Fraternal Order of Eagles was now firmly established even without IATSE.