Delta Kappa Alpha

Delta Kappa Alpha
ΔΚA
Founded	March 15, 1936; 88 years ago (1936-03-15) University of Southern California, (Los Angeles, California)
Type	Professional
Emphasis	Cinema
Scope	International
Mission statement	Delta Kappa Alpha is a coeducational cinema fraternity which seeks to foster creative growth, to establish meaningful relationships, and to develop and utilize our talents in order to improve ourselves as collaborative artists and contribute to the proliferation of cinematic awareness with the community at large.
Motto	Truth in Illusion
Colors	Cardinal   Gold
Symbol	Film stock
Mascot	Dragon

Delta Kappa Alpha (ΔΚA) is a co-educational professional fraternity founded in 1936, at the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California.

According to USC's cinema website, "Recognized by the School of Cinematic Arts as the official professional cinema fraternity at the University of Southern California, DKA engages the community through philanthropic, social, and professional events. The goal of this co-ed fraternity is to establish meaningful relationships and camaraderie between students highly committed and interested in the film industry and in the cinematic arts."^[1]

This section details primarily the Alpha (USC) chapter of Delta Kappa Alpha, as its history is the most well documented.

Delta Kappa Alpha was founded in 1936, at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California, originally as a group for cinematographers. Soon the Alpha chapter encompassed all undergraduate divisions at the School of Cinematic Arts, including Film & TV Production, Critical Studies, Writing for Screen & Television, Animation & Digital Arts, and most recently Interactive Entertainment. ^[2]

The Alpha chapter had considerable influence in its first incarnation from 1936 until the mid-1980's. The fraternity had its own office within the School of Cinematic Arts building, equivalent to the current Student Production Office in today's SCA complex.

The fraternity also held annual banquets to honor notable contributors to the cinematic arts. Film legends such as Alfred Hitchcock and Fred Astaire were inducted into the fraternity as honorary members. ^[3] Hollywood heavyweights such as Sophia Loren, George Cukor, and Judy Garland were known to attend these events. ^[4]

The fraternity was in its heyday in the 1960's and 1970's, when Dirty Dozen members George Lucas and Howard Kazanjian were among its members. There were 5 national chapters with a membership of 1500 in 1965.^[5] However, by the mid 1980's the Alpha chapter as well as other chapters in the United States and South America had disbanded.^[6] There are rumors that the fraternity was asked to be shut down due to its increasing influence on campus and in the Hollywood industry, but it is more likely that dwindling membership and funding caused the USC chapter to close. ^[7] Why all chapters went inactive is unknown. Despite no longer being on campus, USC still held a "DKA film series" of screenings from 1982 until the late 2000's at the Norris Cinema Theater on campus, drawing hour-long lines every Friday. ^{[8] [9]}

In the spring of 2009 ^[10], a group of students at USC re-chartered the Alpha chapter, and has since grown to be the largest undergraduate student group at the School of Cinematic Arts^[11], again encompassing all divisions of undergraduate study and bringing guests such as Alan Myerson^[12], John Landis^[13], and John C. McGinley (on behalf of Spread the Word to End the Word)^[14] to campus as part of its DKA Speaker Series.

Epsilon chapter San Francisco State University began forming in 2010 with 20 members.^[15] The Epsilon chapter's UNAI committee produced the official introduction video to the United Nations Academic Impact program, which premiered at the UN on November 19, 2010. ^[16] The chapter has also worked with Italian neorealist filmmaker Carlo Lizzani in Italy. ^[17]

• Alpha chapter, University of Southern California, est. 1936
• Epsilon chapter, San Francisco State University, est. 2010

Each chapter elects an Executive Council consisting of a President, Vice President, Secretary, Programming, Publicity, Pledgemaster, Cinematic Affairs, Treasurer. Working with the Executive Council is the Sergeant-at-Arms.

Other officer positions include Film Committee, Casting Files, Showrunner, Banquet, Historian, Social, Philanthropy, Sunshine, Alumni, Design, Webmaster, Interchapter, Recruitment, and Professional chairs. ^[18]

• USC Alma and Alfred Hitchcock Professor for the Study of American Film Drew Casper
• Director George Lucas^[19][20]
• Producer Howard Kazanjian^[19][20]
• Steve Bloom^[19]
• Editor Arthur Schneider^[21]
• Chuck Jones^[22]

Delta Kappa Alpha had an annual banquets in January/February which honored figures in the Cinema industry and presented them with honorary membership in the fraternity. Honorees include:

• 1953 Arthur Charles Miller^[23]
• 1957 William A. Seiter^[24]
• 1957 (November) Gene Kelly^[25]
• 1958 Cecil B. Demille^[26]
• 1959 George Cukor^[26]
• 1961 Greer Garson and Kirk Douglas^[27]
• 1963 (25th anniversary) Mary Pickford and Harold Lloyd^[28]
• 1964 Gloria Swanson, Adolph Zukor, Jack Lemmon, Charles Brackett, and Billy Wilder^[29][30]
• 1965 Rosalind Russell, Norman Taurog and Robert Wise^[5]
• 1966 Lucille Ball, Gregory Peck and Hal Wallis^[31]
• 1967 Irene Dunne and Jack Oakie^[32]
• 1968 Mae West, Mervyn LeRoy and James Stewart^[33]
• 1970 Julie Andrews and Norman Jewison^[34]
• 1972 Edith Head, Alfred Hitchcock, Walter Matthau and Sidney P. Solow, president of Consolidated Film Industries^[35]
• 1973 Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Daniel Taradash and Lester Novros^[36]
• 1974 Barbara Stanwyck, Johnny Green and William Castle^[37]
• 1975 Fred Astaire and Stanley Donen^[38]
• 1976 Glenn Ford^[39]
• 1977 Albert Whitlock^[40]
• 1978 Disney's Nine Old Men^[41] and Neil Simon ^[42]
• 1979 Russ Meyer^[43]

• Delta Kappa Alpha, USC (Alpha)
• Delta Kappa Alpha, SFSU (Beta)
• USC School of Cinematic Arts