Medea E. Lamberti-Sanchez
I saw Newsies, the movie, for the first time in 1993, after my dance teacher, Sandee, decided to use the song "
Carrying the Banner
" in her dance production number that focused on the story of the newsboy strike of 1899. I loved it!! I was excited to see the movie and was attracted to the lyrics of the songs, not knowing much of the particular background of the events. That particular year, I did a tap solo in dancing school and asked my teacher if I can dance to the song "
King of New York
." My dance teacher agreed and she choreographed the dance for me. The song represented the children's win in the newspaper fight against the two newspaper giants, Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. The children were the brave, courageous heroes, who stood for what they believed in. This performance piece prompted younger audiences, like me, to ask about the newsboy strike. That is exactly what I did: I conducted my own mini research about the strike and learned some pretty interesting things about life in turn of the century America and child labor.
I did not know much about the newsboy strike of 1899 nor did I know a lot about the issue of child labor, it was only after I performed the dance routine and listened to the lyrics of the songs, that I went out and researched the issue on my own. I looked up newsboys, strikes, and even the president, Theodore Roosevelt, to find out how much of the information Sandee based her performance piece on, was similar to the historical event. Although Sandee included colorful costumes and energetic dance routines to tell the story of the newsboys, she maintained closeness to the actual dress of the boys during this time period and used specific song lyrics to represent the event.
There were also similarities and differences between the dance routine, the movie, and the historical event which I was eager to look into, not only because of the performance piece, but for my own knowledge of the social issues that these kids in New York were fighting for. I learned that the movie fictionalized characters that were not a major part of the original newsboy leaders like a vaudeville singer, Margaret, and Denton, the newspaper writer, and I also learned that the value of the money that the newspapers sold for was inflated to a tenth of a cent more than the original price.
It wasn't until ten years later that I became interested in this topic once again. I researched the topic again recently through informational articles, photographs, speeches made by Child Labor activists, and fictional accounts in children's literature to enrich my earlier research done many years ago. I researched photographs of children in their crusade against child labor from photographer, Lewis Hines, and read informational articles about children in Indonesia who worked for pennies instead of going to school.
The dance routine symbolized the struggles that the children in the story overcame as well as an attempt to make her audience aware that this issue is still apparent in different parts of the world like Indonesia, Pakistan, and our own United States. Her idea was that through music, costumes, and dance, the performance piece would show the past and the present struggles of the children who survived in a world where money was scarce, home was not an option, and bathing in a bucket was a normal occurrence.
