One of the earliest supporters of the Right to Work cause was Hollywood producer Cecil B. DeMille. Over 60 years ago, Cecil B. DeMille took a courageous stand (pdf, page 4) against the forced dues demands of American Federation of Radio Artists union officials, resulting in his being fired from his $100,000 per year job and banned for life from working in radio and television.

For the rest of his illustrious life, DeMille fought tirelessly for the Right to Work principle and against the brute forces of union boss tyranny.  DeMille used his talents to film public appeals on behalf of the Right to Work.  In 1948, DeMille even spoke before Congress in favor of Right to Work legislation (as this recent article from Mises.org reminds us):

The Declaration of Independence specified “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” as inalienable rights. The Constitution goes further. The Bill of Rights mentions freedom of speech, press, assembly, worship, and other rights which the state may not invade.

But neither the Declaration nor the Constitution pretends to exhaust the list of man’s God-given and inalienable rights.

One of the most fundamental of those rights is the right to work. I submit that the time has come for Congress to declare it to be the public policy of the United States that every individual should have the right to work, when he pleases, where he pleases, for himself or for whoever wants to hire him — and that the full protection of the government should be put behind this right to work.

Need I point out how basic the right to work is? It is the same as the right to life, for it is by work that men live. Deny the right to work, and you have cut off the right to life.

…

What privilege — I would prefer to say what right — could be more essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness than the right of a man to earn bread for himself and his family — the right to work?

Yet in practice, as this committee knows, the right to work has been violated in a multitude of instances, of which my own case — denial of the right to work because I refused to pay a political assessment to a union — is only one.

What is the reason for this strange inconsistency — for the fact that a clearly established constitutional right has been and can be challenged with impunity?

One reason may be that the courts have never been given a clear mandate by federal law to protect the right to work absolutely and at all events. In fact, nowhere in federal statute law is the positive right to work stated in unqualified terms.

…

[Romanian communist and foreign minister] Ana Pauker will not allow my pictures to be seen on the screens of Rumania because I disagree with her politically.

The American Federation of Radio Artists will not allow my voice to be heard over the microphones of America because I would not pay a political assessment.

I see a pattern there — a pattern that can mean slavery for free men everywhere if it is not broken.

Other Hollywood notables who have given public endorsements of the Right to Work principle include singer Pat Boone and the late Charlton Heston, who served as the president of the Screen Actors Guild union from 1965 to 1971.

And despite Hollywood’s forced union advocates’ continuing support for union boss coercion and intimidation, courageous Hollywood entertainers, crew members, and other entertainment industry professionals continue the principled fight of DeMille, Boone, and Heston to this day.