highway to heaven

Eda Reiss Merin lived the #actorslife long before that lifestyle was a hashtag. She never saw her name flash across the big screen above a film’s title. She didn’t accumulate vast wealth from residuals. She wasn’t addicted to bling and swag. She never won an Oscar, although she was a long-standing member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and loved voting to honor her peers with golden statuettes. And, IMDb’s careless errors in her bio (for starters, she was never known as Edith, nor was she married to either Richard Shire Strauss or Charles Hirshman) and omission of many of her credits show a lack of respect. But, for 60 plus years, Eda worked steadily as an actress, always making supportive characters memorable and turning cameos into classic gems. As a member of three actors unions — one of which she’d helped to establish — she actively advocated for actors’ rights for fair wages, better working conditions and better representation of women. AWFJ is proud to honor her by presenting EDA Awards in recognition of the outstanding achievements of others in the show business arts and crafts she so loved.

The Alliance of Women Film Journalists’ EDA Awards, presented annually during awards season and at various festivals during the year, are currently in their 14th year, and are well known to the film industry for categories honoring female filmmakers, along with the more general award categories that are presented by the Academy and other movie awards organizations. The EDA Awards are well known, but many industry people — including some who’ve received them — don’t know much about their name. Why EDA? Since December sees AWFJ in full awards season activism, this is a good time to share the EDA story. Hence our December SPOTLIGHT is focused on actress and activist Eda Reiss Merin.