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In 1960, the crumbling infrastructure of the Hollywood studio system was shaken by a one-two strike launched by two essential branches of its workforce — the writers and the actors. Since neither job was yet considered on the cusp of obsolescence, management was forced to negotiate with labor and reach an accommodation. Both sides had incentives to make a deal that shared the wealth and kept the shop floor running. In the end — and this might be the sad difference between 1960 and 2023 — they saw each other as collaborators rather than mortal enemies.

The reason for the “double strike” by the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild was, of course, television, the technological menace that had transformed the business but not the fine print in the employment contracts. Both sets of artists wanted a bigger cut of the post-1948 feature films that had been sold to TV and a solid...