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130-744: The English term is most often associated with the Living Newspapers produced by the Federal Theatre Project . Part of the federally funded arts program established under the Works Progress Administration in the United States of the 1930s, the Federal Theatre Project wrote and presented a number of Living Newspapers on social issues of the day, including Triple-A Plowed Under , Injunction Granted , One-Third of

260-498: A Nation , Power, and Spirochete. Controversy over the political ideology of the Living Newspapers contributed to the disbanding of the Federal Theatre Project in 1939, and a number of Living Newspapers already written or in development were never performed, including several that addressed race issues. ... the [Living Newspaper] seeks to dramatize a new struggle – the search of the average American today for knowledge about his country and his world; to dramatize his struggle to turn

390-595: A Nation , about housing conditions in New York; Power , about energy from the consumer's point of view; and Triple A Plowed Under , on farming problems in America. Another that was criticized, on the history of medicine, was not completed. Dramas criticized by Congress were American Holiday , about a small-town murder trial; Around the Corner , a Depression-era comedy; Chalk Dust , about an urban high school; Class of '29 ,

520-577: A Time , and Paul de Kruif 's Men Against Death were both honored by the National Committee for Education by Radio. In March 1939, at the invitation of the BBC, Flanagan broadcast the story of the Federal Theatre Project to Britain. Asked to expand the program to encompass the entire WPA, the radio division produced No Help Wanted , a dramatization by William N. Robson with music by Leith Stevens . The Times called it "the best broadcast ever sent us from

650-494: A boxing match; and a clown (played by actor Norman Lloyd ) served as master-of-ceremonies for the entire production, according to Cosgrove. Injunction Granted drew massive criticism and closed early. Losey soon left the Unit and the FTP, though Flanagan offered to give him another chance. Here is a play that has no hero, or heroine, that has no great figure or fanciful character ... here is

780-681: A call for action from the watching audience. Second, the FTP's Living Newspapers tended to break from realistic stage conventions in favor of non-naturalistic, experimental dramaturgy and stage design. "Techniques Available to the Living Newspaper Dramatist," a guide compiled by the Federal Theatre Project in 1938, lists many of the elements that became characteristic of the Living Newspaper. These included quick scene and set changes; flexibility of stage space, using many levels, rolling and hand-carried scenery, and scrims to establish

910-754: A city ordinance to prevent labor meetings in public places and stop the distribution of literature pertaining to the CIO's cause. District and circuit courts ruled in favor of the CIO. Hague appealed to the United States Supreme Court , which held in 1939 that Hague's ban on political meetings violated the First Amendment right to freedom of assembly. The UAW was able to capitalize on its stunning victory over GM by winning recognition at Chrysler and smaller manufacturers. It then focused its organizing efforts on Ford, sometimes battling company security forces as at

1040-528: A disembodied voice which commented on and narrated the action; shadows; image projections; elaborate sound design, with sound effects and music; abrupt blackouts and scene changes; and other non-realistic devices to keep the audiences' attention and support the message of the play. A minor Living Newspaper, Events of 1935, followed Triple-A Plowed Under . A collage of scenes from many 1935 news events, ranging from celebrity gossip to major legal cases, 1935 ran for only 34 performances. Cosgrove identifies it as

1170-525: A female President who works for peace. Negro Theatre Unit productions that drew criticism were The Case of Philip Lawrence , a portrait of life in Harlem; Did Adam Sin? , a review of black folklore with music; and Haiti , a play about Toussaint Louverture . Also criticized for their content were the dance dramas Candide , from Voltaire; How Long Brethren , featuring songs by future Guggenheim Fellowship recipient Lawrence Gellert ; and Trojan Incident ,

1300-524: A massive rearmament program after Germany defeated France in spring 1940, and factory employment soared. The UAW finally organized Ford in 1941. The SWOC, now known as the United Steel Workers of America , won recognition in Little Steel in 1941 through a combination of strikes and National Labor Relations Board elections in the same year. In addition, after the west coast longshoremen organized in

1430-474: A modest wage increase and a grievance process . CIO unions signed multiyear contracts, often complicated and long, with GM, U.S. Steel, and other corporations in order to minimize strikes and also make sure employers took care of the work process. The CIO also won several significant legal battles. Hague v. Committee for Industrial Organization 307 U.S. 496 (1939), arose out of events late in 1937. Jersey City, New Jersey Mayor Frank "Boss" Hague had used

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1560-426: A multitude of locations without elaborate constructed sets; projection of settings, statistics, and film; shadowplay; sound effects and full musical scores; the use of a loudspeaker to narrate and comment on the action; and abrupt blackouts and harsh spotlights. The guide also suggests the use of puppetry , modern dance , and pantomime . In terms of dramatic construction, the guide urges writers and designers to keep

1690-584: A national basis, while restraining local unions from striking, also tended to accelerate the trend toward bureaucracy within the larger CIO unions. Some, such as the Steelworkers, had always been centralized organizations in which authority for major decisions resided at the top. The UAW, by contrast, had always been a more grassroots organization, but it also started to try to rein in its maverick local leadership during these years. The CIO also had to confront deep racial divides in its own membership, particularly in

1820-430: A nationwide syphilis-education and -prevention campaign. The Living Newspaper is a dramatization of a problem – composed in greater or lesser extent of many news events, all bearing on the one subject and interlarded with typical but non-factual representations of the effect of these news events on the people to whom the problem is of great importance. Though definitions of the Living Newspaper and its purpose, both within

1950-518: A number of AFL affiliates who now sought to organize industrial workers. The competition was particularly sharp in the aircraft industry, where the UAW went head-to-head against the International Association of Machinists , originally a craft union of railroad workers and skilled trade employees. The AFL organizing drives proved even more successful, and they gained new members as fast or faster than

2080-418: A number of company unions at U.S. Steel and elsewhere, but did not attempt the sort of daring strike that the UAW had pulled off against GM. Instead, Lewis was able to extract a collective bargaining agreement from U.S. Steel, which had previously been an implacable enemy of unions, by pointing to the chaos and loss of business that GM had suffered by fighting the UAW. The agreement provided for union recognition,

2210-618: A play about you. With the censorship of Ethiopia and the negative reaction to Injunction Granted, the Living Newspaper Unit had twice attracted criticism from the government that funded it. In order to continue as a federal program, it became more retrospect and less politically radical in its choice of topics but did not give up its dedication to reportage on major social issues and calls for social change. Its first production following Injunction Granted demonstrated this new emphasis. Opening early in 1937, Power clearly supported

2340-574: A single plant into a number of different crafts represented by separate organizations, each with its own agenda, would weaken the workers' bargaining power and leave the majority, who had few traditional craft skills, completely unrepresented. While the AFL had always included a number of industrial unions, such as the United Mine Workers and the Brewery Workers , the most dogmatic craft unionists had

2470-402: A slighting comment about a rubber worker who was delivering an organizing report. Lewis responded that Hutcheson's comment was "small potatoes," and the 6-foot-3-inch (1.91 m) Hutcheson replied, "I was raised on small potatoes, that is why I am so small." After some more words, during which Hutcheson called Lewis a "vile name", Lewis punched Hutcheson. The two men collapsed a table and fell on

2600-612: A stronghold on power within the federation by the 1930s. They used that power to quash any drive toward industrial organizing. Industrial unionism became even more fierce in the 1930s, when the Great Depression in the United States caused large membership drops in some unions, such as the United Mine Workers and the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union . A number of labor leaders, particularly John L. Lewis of

2730-779: A sufficient number of unemployed people in the theatre profession. The project in Alabama was closed in January 1937 when its personnel were transferred to a new unit in Georgia. Only one event was presented in Arkansas. Units created in Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin were closed in 1936; projects in Indiana, Nebraska, Rhode Island and Texas were discontinued in 1937; and the Iowa project was closed in 1938. Many of

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2860-500: A translation of Euripides with a prologue from Homer. Help Yourself , a satire on high-pressure business tactics, was among the comedies criticized by Congress. Others were Machine Age , about mass production; On the Rocks by George Bernard Shaw ; and The Tailor Becomes a Storekeeper . Children's plays singled out were Mother Goose Goes to Town , and Revolt of the Beavers , which

2990-500: A variety of devices (such as lantern slides, songs, newspaper readings, and film segments) to present news and propaganda to the illiterate. As the form matured in Russia, workers' groups put on highly regionalized Living Newspapers, treating issues of public interest and concern. Zhivaya Gazeta (the Russian term for "Living Newspaper") reached its peak from 1923 to 1928; Hallie Flanagan visited

3120-441: A very realistic set to display the filth and dangers of a tenant slum, but retained the episodic format and multimedia (sound, film, and image) displays that characterized the form. The production received praise from critics and may have helped push through housing legislation. It eventually opened in major cities throughout the country. Despite its rising success and less radical tone, the tide of government opinion turned against

3250-485: A visit to Moscow, replaced him. Triple-A Plowed Under dramatized the plight of Dust Bowl farmers and suggested that farmers and workers unite to cut out the "middlemen" – dealers and other commercial interests. The "Triple-A" in the title came from the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933, which the play criticized. Like other Living Newspapers to follow, it employed the "Voice of the Living Newspaper,"

3380-667: A white project manager in Dallas was fired for attempting to segregate black and white theater technicians on a railroad car. Additionally, the white assistant director of the project was pulled because "he was unable to work amicably" with the black artists. The FTP overtly sought out relationships with the African American community including Carter Woodson of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History , as well as Walter White of

3510-671: A year the Federal Theatre Project employed 15,000 men and women, paying them $ 23.86 a week while the Actors Equity Association's minimum was $ 40.00. These men and women would only do six performances a week and have only four hours per day to rehearse. During its nearly four years of existence 30 million people attended FTP productions in more than 200 theaters nationwide — renting many that had been shuttered — as well as parks, schools, churches, clubs, factories, hospitals and closed-off streets. Its productions totaled approximately 1,200, not including its radio programs. Because

3640-591: The New York American called a "pleasing fantasy for children". The musical Sing for Your Supper also met with Congressional criticism, although its patriotic finale, " Ballad for Americans ", was chosen as the theme song of the 1940 Republican National Convention. A fictionalized view of the Federal Theatre Project is presented in the 1999 film Cradle Will Rock , in which Cherry Jones portrays Hallie Flanagan. Congress of Industrial Organizations The Congress of Industrial Organizations ( CIO )

3770-703: The Battle of the Overpass on May 26, 1937. At the same time, the UAW was in danger of being torn apart by internal political rivalries. Homer Martin , the first president of the UAW, expelled a number of the union organizers who had led the Flint sit-down strike and other early drives on charges that they were communists . In some cases, such as Wyndham Mortimer , Bob Travis and Henry Kraus , those charges may have been true; in other cases, such as Victor Reuther and Roy Reuther , they were probably not. Those expulsions were reversed at

3900-638: The Catholic Radical Alliance . The steelmakers offered workers the same wage increases that U.S. Steel had offered. In the Memorial Day Massacre on May 30, 1937, Chicago police opened fire on a group of strikers who had attempted to picket at Republic Steel, killing ten and seriously wounding dozens. A month and a half later police in Massillon, Ohio fired on a crowd of unionists, resulting in three deaths. The CIO became more comfortable with

4030-524: The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), a major, militant workers' association. It aroused government concern during rehearsal; and Hallie Flanagan urged Losey to re-write parts of the script, but the play made it to the stage largely unaltered. The piece ran on over-the-top satire and explicit bias: Heinz was introduced holding a giant pickle; Dean Jennings of the Newspaper Guild trounced Hearst in

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4160-430: The Great Depression , people with little money for entertainment found an entire evening of entertainment at the movies for 25 cents, while commercial theatre charged $ 1.10 to $ 2.20 admission to cover the cost of theater rental, advertising and fees to performers and union technicians. Unemployed directors, actors, designers, musicians and stage crew took any kind of work they were able to find, whatever it paid, and charity

4290-488: The Guggenheim Foundation , Flanagan was chosen to lead the Federal Theatre Project by WPA head Harry Hopkins . Flanagan and Hopkins had been classmates at Grinnell College . Roosevelt and Hopkins selected her despite considerable pressure to choose someone from the commercial theatre industry; they believed the project should be led by someone with academic credentials and a national perspective. Flanagan had

4420-722: The ILGWU , Thomas McMahon , head of the United Textile Workers ; John Sheridan of the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Union ; Harvey Fremming, of the Oil Workers Union ; and Max Zaritsky , of the Hatters, Cap and Millinery Workers . They discussed the formation of a new group within the AFL to carry on the fight for industrial organizing. The creation of the Committee for Industrial Organization

4550-585: The NAACP . One of the existing stipulations from the Works Progress Administration for employment in the FTP was prior professional theater experience. However, when encountered with 40 young jobless black playwrights, national director Hallie Flanagan waived the WPA requirement in the interest of providing a platform and training ground for new young playwrights. During a national conference Flanagan proposed that

4680-621: The National Maritime Union , made up of sailors based on the east coast, and the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers . The AFL continued to fight the CIO, forcing the NLRB to allow skilled trades employees in large industrial facilities the option to choose, in what came to be called "Globe elections," between representation by the CIO or separate representation by AFL craft unions. The CIO now also faced competition, moreover, from

4810-765: The President Roosevelt's administration. He broke with Roosevelt over foreign policy and endorsed Wendell Willkie for president in 1940. Lewis promised to drop his CIO role if Roosevelt was reelected. Murray was elected to replace him shortly after Roosevelt won the election. Roosevelt won reelection in a landslide in 1936, and by a closer margin in 1940. Labor unions gave strong support in 1940, compared to very strong support in 1936. The Gallup Poll showed CIO voters declined from 85% in 1935 to 79% in 1940. AFL voters went from 80% to 71%. Other union members went from 74% to 57%. Blue collar workers who were not union members went 72% to 64%. The Roosevelt administration launched

4940-671: The Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany , the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact , which would later be broken by the Nazis . Many Communists in Western parties repudiated this action and resigned their party membership in protest. American Communists took the public position of being opposed to the war against Germany. The Mine Workers led by Lewis, with a strong pro-Soviet presence, opposed Roosevelt's reelection in 1940 and left

5070-534: The Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) signed a collective bargaining agreement with U.S. Steel . Those two victories, however, came about very differently. The CIO's initial strategy was to focus its efforts in the steel industry and then build from there. The UAW, however, did not wait for the CIO to lead it. Instead, having built up a membership of roughly 25,000 workers by gathering in federal unions and some locals from rival unions in

5200-466: The U.S. Supreme Court for killing the Agricultural Adjustment Act . These politically themed plays quickly drew criticism from members of Congress . Although the undisguised political invective in the Living Newspaper productions sparked controversy, they also proved popular with audiences. As an art form, the Living Newspaper is perhaps the Federal Theatre's most well-known work. Problems with

5330-571: The strike led by Harry Bridges in 1934 split from the International Longshoremen's Association in 1937 to form the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union , the ILWU joined the CIO. Bridges became the most powerful force within the CIO in California and the west. The Transport Workers Union of America , originally representing the subway workers in New York, also joined, as did

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5460-517: The "least successful" of all the Living Newspapers. Though Triple-A had clearly criticized government decisions and supported the laborer over the "merchant," the Unit's third Living Newspaper, also directed by Losey, explicitly supported workers' organizations and angered members of the federal government. Injunction Granted, which opened four months after the close of Triple-A , lampooned big business men such as H. J. Heinz and newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst and called for unions to join

5590-514: The 1934 Toledo Auto-Lite strike , which was led by the American Workers Party . Victorious industrial unions with militant leaderships were the catalyst that brought about the rise of the CIO. The AFL authorized organizing drives in the automobile, rubber, and steel industries at its convention in 1934 but gave little financial support or effective leadership to those unions. The AFL's timidity succeeded only in making it less credible among

5720-625: The 21st century. A good example of a theatre company performing in the style of the Living Newspaper is the progressive DC Theatre Collective whose piece, The Tea Party Project, was performed in Washington DC in July 2010. Though the New York Living Newspaper Unit produced most of the major Living Newspapers, other units in cities throughout the U.S. produced or planned Living Newspapers. In most cases, these productions were local runs of

5850-649: The AFL to organize workers in mass production industries along industrial union lines. The CIO failed to change AFL policy from within. On September 10, 1936, the AFL suspended all 10 CIO unions (two more CIO unions had joined the AFL during the previous year). In 1938, these unions formed the Congress of Industrial Organizations as a rival labor federation. Section 504 of the Taft–Hartley Act of 1947 required union leaders to swear that they were not Communists, which some CIO leaders refused to do; they were expelled. In 1955,

5980-417: The AFL unions. The CIO supported Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal coalition , and membership in it was open to African Americans . CIO members voted for Roosevelt overwhelmingly. Both the CIO and its rival the AFL grew rapidly during the Great Depression . The rivalry for dominance was bitter and sometimes it was violent. In its statement of purpose, the CIO said that it had formed to encourage

6110-418: The AFL; in 1933, it proposed to use them to organize workers on an industrial basis. The AFL did not, however, promise to allow the unions to maintain a separate identity indefinitely. That meant the unions might be broken up later to distribute their members among the craft unions that claimed jurisdiction over their work. The AFL, in fact, dissolved hundreds of federal unions in late 1934 and early 1935. While

6240-592: The African American Dance Unit featuring Nigerian artists displaced by the Ethiopian Crisis . These projects employed over 1,000 black actors and directors. The Negro Actors' Guild of America incorporated on October 1, 1936 in the state of New York. The ten Articles for the Certificate of Incorporation addressed the welfare, appreciation and development of black artists. The Federal Theatre Project

6370-712: The Americas". The Federal Dance Project (FDP) was a short-lived entity that was ultimately absorbed into the Federal Theater Project. Dancer Helen Tamiris was the central figure of the FDP, which existed as an independent entity from January 1936 until October 1937. In May 1938, Martin Dies Jr ., director of The House Committee on Un-American Activities specifically targeted the WPA's Federal Theatre Project. Assailing Flanagan's professional character and political affiliations,

6500-785: The CIO in 1942. After June 1941, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union, the Communists became fervent supporters of the war and sought to end wildcat strikes that might hurt war production. The CIO, and in particular the UAW, supported a wartime no-strike pledge that aimed to eliminate not only major strikes for new contracts, but also the innumerable small strikes called by shop stewards and local union leadership to protest particular grievances. That pledge did not, however, actually eliminate all wartime strikes; in fact, there were nearly as many strikes in 1944 as there had been in 1937. But those strikes tended to be far shorter and far less tumultuous than

6630-584: The CIO rejoined the AFL, forming the new entity known as the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO). The CIO was born out of a fundamental dispute within the United States labor movement over whether and how to organize industrial workers. The eight union chiefs who founded the CIO were not happy with how the AFL was unwilling to work with America's manufacturing combines. Those who favored craft unionism believed

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6760-415: The CIO, however, only increased the stature of the CIO and Lewis in the eyes of the industrial workers who were keen on organizing and were disillusioned with the AFL's ineffective performance. Lewis continued to denounce the AFL's policies, and the CIO offered organizing support to workers in the rubber industry who went on strike and formed the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) in defiance of all of

6890-522: The CIO. The unemployment problem ended in the United States with the beginning of World War II, as stepped-up wartime production created millions of new jobs, and the draft pulled young men out. The war mobilization also changed the CIO's relationship with both employers and the national government. Having failed to ally with capitalist countries against fascism in the eves of the World War II , in August 1939

7020-517: The Communist-led unions that had attempted to organize the industry earlier in the 1930s - to sign up members. Lewis was not particularly concerned with the political beliefs of his organizers, so long as he controlled the organization; as he once famously remarked, when asked about the "reds" on the SWOC staff, "Who gets the bird? The hunter or the dog?". The SWOC signed up thousands of members and absorbed

7150-439: The Democratic Party. It rejected proposals for the creation of an independent labor party, apart from the small left-wing American Labor Party in New York. The CIO began its own newspaper. It featured articles that were written by big journalists, cartoons, and other political stories. The newspaper had spread to 40% of the CIO's members and had different stories for different areas. The CIO found organizing textile workers in

7280-456: The Depression years as seen through young college graduates; Created Equal , a review of American life since colonial times; It Can't Happen Here , Sinclair Lewis 's parable of democracy and dictatorship; No More Peace , Ernst Toller 's satire on dictatorships; Professor Mamlock , about Nazi persecution of Jews; Prologue to Glory , about the early life of Abraham Lincoln; The Sun and I , about Joseph in Egypt; and Woman of Destiny , about

7410-420: The FTP in protest. Left with no script and the pressing need to provide its performers with a play, the Unit drew up another Living Newspaper, Triple-A Plowed Under , within a matter of weeks. Morale had dropped after the cancellation of Ethiopia , and the original director of Triple-A Plowed Under left in frustration; Joseph Losey , known for his support of the Communist Party and recently returned from

7540-453: The FTP into a federation of regional theaters that created relevant art, encouraged experimentation in new forms and techniques, and made it possible for millions of Americans to see live theatre for the first time. Although The Federal Theatre project consumed only 0.5% of the allocated budget from the WPA and was widely considered a commercial and critical success, the project became a source of heated political contention. Congress responded to

7670-406: The FTP. The New York Living Newspaper Unit (which performed at the Biltmore Theatre ) came from this meeting. Allied with the American Newspaper Guild , this first and most active of the Living Newspaper Units employed out-of-work journalists and theatre professionals of all types, providing hourly wages for many reporters and entertainers left unemployed by the Depression . The research staff of

7800-439: The Federal Theatre Project and Congress intensified when the State Department objected to the first Living Newspaper, Ethiopia , about Haile Selassie and his nation's struggles against Benito Mussolini 's invading Italian forces . The U.S. government soon mandated that the FTP, a government agency, could not depict foreign heads of state on the stage for fear of diplomatic backlash. Playwright and director Elmer Rice , head of

7930-490: The Federal Theatre Project and at large, varied, certain characteristics united all of the FTP's Living Newspaper productions. First, a Living Newspaper's content always centered on some current event or issue affecting the United States working class at large – whether it be the spread of syphilis , slum housing conditions, or the search for affordable electrical power. Teams of research workers, many of whom were out-of-work journalists, carried out extensive research to provide

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8060-402: The Federal Theatre Project is the reemployment of theatre workers now on public relief rolls: actors, directors, playwrights, designers, vaudeville artists, stage technicians, and other workers in the theatre field. The far reaching purpose is the establishment of theatres so vital to community life that they will continue to function after the program of this Federal Project is completed. Within

8190-471: The Federal Theatre Project – and the Living Newspapers in particular – in 1938. Established in this year, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) began an investigation of the FTP, focusing on its alleged Communist sympathies and anti-American propagandism . Flanagan defended the FTP and the Living Newspapers, holding that the program had presented propaganda, yes, but "... propaganda for democracy, propaganda for better housing," not propaganda against

8320-426: The Federal Theatre Project. The others included 32 revivals or stock productions; seven plays that were initiated by community groups; five that were never produced by the project; two works of Americana; two classics; one children's play; one Italian translation; and one Yiddish play. The Living Newspapers productions that drew criticism were Injunction Granted , a history of American labor relations; One-Third of

8450-418: The Federal Theatre was created to employ and train people, not to generate revenue, no provision was made for the receipt of money when the project began. At its conclusion, 65 percent of its productions were still presented free of charge. The total cost of the Federal Theatre Project was $ 46 million. "In any consideration of the cost of the Federal Theatre," Flanagan wrote, "it should be borne in mind that

8580-605: The Federal Theatre. Blitzstein, Houseman, Welles and Feder collaborated on the controversial production, The Cradle Will Rock . Living Newspapers were plays written by teams of researchers-turned-playwrights. These men and women clipped articles from newspapers about current events, often hot button issues like farm policy, syphilis (spirochete) infection, the Tennessee Valley Authority , and housing inequity . These newspaper clippings were adapted into plays intended to inform audiences, often with progressive or left-wing themes. Triple-A Plowed Under , for instance, attacked

8710-417: The French Theatre in Los Angeles, the German Theater in New York City, and the Negro Theatre Unit which had several chapters across the country, with its largest office in New York City. The FTP set up 17 so-called Negro Theatre Units (NTU) in cities throughout the United States. The NTU had additional offices in Hartford, Boston, Salem, Newark, and Philadelphia in the East; Seattle, Portland, and Los Angeles in

8840-488: The Living Newspaper Unit quickly compiled their first Living Newspaper, Ethiopia, which went into rehearsal in 1936. It never opened to the public. The federal government issued a censorship order prohibiting the impersonation of heads of state onstage; the order effectively scuttled the production, which dramatized the invasion of Ethiopia by Italy and featured Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and other real-life figures prominently as characters. Elmer Rice withdrew from

8970-426: The Negro Youth Theater— were dedicated to the Harlem community with the intention of developing unknown theatre artists. Both theatre projects were headquartered at the Lafayette Theatre in Harlem, where some 30 plays were presented. The first was Frank H. Wilson 's folk drama, Walk Together Chillun (1936), about the deportation of 100 African-Americans from the South to the North to work for low wages. The second

9100-442: The New York Living Newspapers. Both Power and One-Third of a Nation ran throughout the U.S., with the scripts altered to various degrees to suit local conditions. In Seattle , the mayor declared "Power Week" in honor of the week-long run of Power, recognizing the timeliness of the play's subject matter: With the public Bonneville hydroelectric project on the horizon, private and public power companies were vying for support in

9230-433: The New York Unit, Spirochete followed syphilis from its introduction in Europe in the 15th century through to the social stigma surrounding it in the 1930s. The play pushed for audiences to support the Marriage Test Law of 1937, which required blood tests for syphilis prior to marriage. Spirochete became the second most produced Living Newspaper, after One-Third of a Nation and ran in four other major cities as part of

9360-446: The New York office of the FTP, resigned in protest and was succeeded by his assistant, Philip W. Barber. Numbers following the city of origin indicate the number of additional cities where the play was presented. Capitalizing on the FTP's national network and inherent diversity of artists, the Federal Theatre established specific chapters dedicated to showcasing and celebrating the work of previously under-represented artists. Including

9490-638: The Roosevelt Administration's tentative efforts to remedy racial discrimination in war industries through the Fair Employment Practices Commission . Those unions contrasted their relatively bold attack on the problem with the timidity and racism of the AFL. The CIO unions were less progressive in dealing with sex discrimination in wartime industry, which now employed many more women workers in nontraditional jobs. Some unions who had represented large numbers of women workers before

9620-448: The South very difficult. As in steel, these workers had abundant recent first-hand experience of failed organizing drives and defeated strikes, which resulted in unionists being blacklisted or worse. In addition, the intense antagonism of white workers toward black workers and the conservative political and religious milieu made organizing even harder. Adding to the uncertainties for the CIO

9750-492: The Steelworkers, UE, and Packinghouse Workers struck in January 1946. Murray, as head of both the CIO and the Steelworkers, wanted to avoid a wave of mass strikes in favor of high-level negotiations with employers, with government intervention to balance wage demands with price controls. That project failed when employers showed that they were not willing to accept the wartime status quo, but instead demanded broad management rights clauses to reassert their workplace authority, while

9880-484: The UAW as the exclusive bargaining representative of its employees for a six months period, UAW activists, rather than CIO staff, led the strike. The organizing campaign in the steel industry, by contrast, was a top-down affair. Lewis, who had a particular interest in organizing the steel industry because of its important role in the coal industry where UMW members worked, dispatched hundreds of organizers - many of whom were his past political opponents or radicals drawn from

10010-800: The UAW plants in Detroit where white workers sometimes struck to protest the promotion of black workers to production jobs. It also worked on this issue in shipyards in Alabama, mass transit in Philadelphia, and steel plants in Baltimore. The CIO leadership, particularly those in more left unions such as the Packinghouse Workers, the UAW, the NMU, and the Transport Workers, undertook serious efforts to suppress hate strikes, to educate their membership, and to support

10140-516: The UE had gotten in their negotiations; GM not only did not concede any of its managerial authority, but never even bargained over the UAW's proposals over its pricing policies. These strikes were qualitatively different from those waged over union recognition in the 1930s: employers did not try to hire strikebreakers to replace their employees, while the unions kept a tight lid on picketers to maintain order and decorum even as they completely shut down some of

10270-401: The United Mine Workers, came to the conclusion that their own unions would not survive while the great majority of workers in basic industry remained nonunion. They started to press the AFL to change its policies in this area. The AFL, in fact, responded and added even more new members than the CIO. The AFL had long permitted the formation of "federal" unions, which were affiliated directly with

10400-511: The WPA's Federal Project Number One . Government relief efforts funding theatre through the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and Civil Works Administration in the two preceding years were amateur experiments regarded as charity, not a theatre program. The Federal Theatre Project was a new approach to unemployment in the theatre profession. Only those certified as employable could be offered work, and that work

10530-673: The West; Cleveland, Detroit, Peoria, and Chicago in the Midwest; and Raleigh, Atlanta, Birmingham, and New Orleans in the South. There were additional units in San Francisco, Oklahoma, Durham, Camden, and Buffalo. By the project's conclusion, 22 American cities had served as headquarters for black theater units. The New York Negro Theatre Unit was the most well known. Two of the four federal theaters in New York City—Lafayette Theatre and

10660-538: The best friend the theatre as an institution has ever had in this country." We let out these works on the vote of the people. Part of the Works Progress Administration, the Federal Theatre Project was a New Deal program established August 27, 1935, funded under the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 . Of the $ 4.88 billion allocated to the WPA, $ 27 million was approved for the employment of artists , musicians , writers and actors under

10790-604: The bureaucratic leadership of the AFL was unable to win strikes, three victorious strikes suddenly exploded onto the scene in 1934. These were the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934 , the leadership of which included some members of the Trotskyist Communist League of America ; the 1934 West Coast Longshore Strike , the leadership of which included some members of the Communist Party USA ; and

10920-531: The chapter. This argument from McClendon received support from Edna Thomas , Harry Edwards, Carlton Moss , Abraham Hale Jr., Augusta Smith and Dick Campbell . This crusade for equality eventually became a sticking point for the Dies Committee , which pulled funding for the Federal Theater Project, arguing that "racial equality forms a vital part of the Communist dictatorship and practices". Numbers following

11050-494: The city of origin indicate the number of additional cities where the play was presented. Numbers following the city of origin indicate the number of additional cities where the play was presented. Numbers following the city of origin indicate the number of additional cities where the play was presented. These plays were given their first professional production in the United States by the Federal Theatre Project. Titles are shown as they appeared on event programs. Numbers following

11180-759: The city of origin indicate the number of additional cities where the play was presented. The Federal Theatre of the Air began weekly broadcasts March 15, 1936. For three years the radio division of the Federal Theatre Project presented an average of 3,000 programs annually on commercial stations and the NBC, Mutual and CBS networks. The major programs originated in New York; radio divisions were also created in 11 states. Series included Professional Parade , hosted by Fred Niblo ; Experiments in Symphonic Drama , original stories written for classical music; Gilbert and Sullivan Light Opera ,

11310-607: The city. Non-New-York Units also researched and wrote their own Living Newspapers. The Southwest Unit, in California , planned and researched Spanish Grant, on a historical incident in which a series of "speculative land deals" took land from communities, and Land Grant , on the 1848 cession of California to the United States and corrupt land deals that led up to it. Washington's unit planned Timber ; Iowa's Dirt ; and Connecticut's Stars and Bars ; however, none of these regional Living Newspapers ever made it to full production. On

11440-419: The committee heard testimony from former Federal Theatre Project members who were unhappy with their tenure with the project. Flanagan testified that the FTP was pro-American insofar as the work celebrated the constitutional freedoms of speech and expression to address the relevant and pressing concerns of its citizens. Citing the Federal Theatre's call for racial equality, impending war, and further perpetuating

11570-580: The complete works performed by Federal Theatre actors and recordings by D'Oyly Carte ; Ibsen's Plays , performances of 12 major plays; Repertory Theatre of the Air , presenting literary classics; Contemporary Theatre , presenting plays by modern authors; and the interview program, Exploring the Arts and Sciences . The radio division presented a wide range of programs on health and safety, art, music and history. The American Legion sponsored James Truslow Adams 's Epic of America . The children's program, Once Upon

11700-518: The concept of counterpoint in mind when constructing Living Newspapers—alternating quickly between scenes and voices displaying contrasting viewpoints, to comment on the action and keep the audience involved and aware. The developers of the Living Newspapers built upon theatrical forms they had encountered in Bolshevik Russia, Germany, and European workers' theatre. Living-Newspaper-like performances appeared in Bolshevik Russia as early as 1919, using

11830-585: The country and witnessed workers' performances during this period, in 1926. The Blue Blouse theatre groups, which employed satire and demanding acrobatics to bring news to the public, particularly captured Flanagan's attention. The work of Russian theatre artists Vsevolod Meyerhold and Vladimir Mayakovsky , active during this time, also influenced the form, as did the work of German theatre artists Bertolt Brecht and Erwin Piscator . Federal Theatre Project The Federal Theatre Project ( FTP ; 1935–1939)

11960-413: The craft divisions that the AFL had required in past organizing efforts. In 1936, Lee Pressman , affiliated with the far left, became the union's general counsel until 1948. The first major industrial union to be chartered by the CIO, on November 16, 1936, was the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE). The subsequent explosive growth of the UE was instrumental for the survival in

12090-610: The daunting task of building a nationwide theater program to employ thousands of unemployed artists in as little time as possible. The Theatre industry had struggled financially prior to the financial collapse of 1929. By that time it was already threatened with extinction due to the growing popularity of films and radio, but the commercial theatre was reluctant to adapt its practices. Many actors, technicians and stagehands had suffered since 1914 , when movies began to replace stock , vaudeville and other live stage performances nationwide. Sound motion pictures displaced 30,000 musicians. In

12220-528: The decision, Flanagan's stepdaughter, Joanne Bentley quoted an unnamed Congressmen saying "Culture! What the Hell—Let 'em have a pick and shovel!" Members of Congress criticized a total of 81 of the Federal Theatre Project's 830 major titles for their content in public statements, committee hearings, on the floor of the Senate or House, or in testimony before Congressional committees. Only 29 were original productions of

12350-464: The dies necessary to stamp automotive body parts and a companion facility in Cleveland, Ohio , but held on to those sites despite repeated attempts by the police and National Guard to retake them and court orders threatening the union with ruinous fines if it did not call off the strike. While Lewis played a key role in negotiating the one-page agreement that ended the strike with GM's promise to recognize

12480-488: The earlier ones, usually involving small groups of workers over working conditions and other local concerns. The CIO did not, on the other hand, strike over wages during the war. In return for labor's no-strike pledge, the government offered arbitration to determine the wages and other terms of new contracts. Those procedures produced modest wage increases during the first few years of the war, but, over time, not enough to keep up with inflation, particularly when combined with

12610-528: The early days of the CIO. By the end of 1936, the UE had organized the General Electric plant at Schenectady, New York , and the UE went on to organize 358 more local unions with contracts covering over 600,000 workers, at 1375 plants. The CIO met with dramatic initial successes in 1937, with the UAW winning union recognition at General Motors Corporation after a tumultuous forty-four-day sit-down strike , while

12740-399: The factual base for each Living Newspaper. Editors then organized the information and turned it over to writers, who collectively assembled a Living Newspaper from this collage of facts, statistics, newspaper clippings, and anecdotes. Though Hallie Flanagan repeatedly stated that Living Newspapers should be objective and unbiased, most Living Newspaper productions communicated a clear bias and

12870-595: The floor, throwing punches. The incident helped cement Lewis's image in the public eye as someone willing to fight for workers' right to organize. The standard scholarly history by Robert Ziegler provides the historical details. Shortly afterward, Lewis called together Charles Howard, President of the International Typographical Union ; Sidney Hillman , head of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America ; David Dubinsky , President of

13000-408: The forty theatre artists invited to this program developed the first version of a Living Newspaper on tenant housing which grew to become One-Third of a Nation. In its finished form, One-Third of a Nation opened early in 1938 and ran for 237 performances, making it the most successful of the Living Newspapers. The play abandoned some of the experimental nature of the earlier Living Newspapers, using

13130-416: The foundation for the development of a truly creative theatre in the United States with outstanding producing centers in each of those regions which have common interests as a result of geography, language origins, history, tradition, custom, occupations of the people." On October 24, 1935, Flanagan prefaced her instructions on the Federal Theatre's operation with a statement of purpose: The primary aim of

13260-556: The funds were allotted, according to the terms of the Relief Act of 1935, to pay wages to unemployed people. Therefore, when Federal Theatre was criticized for spending money, it was criticized for doing what it was set up to do." The FTP established five regional centers in New York, New York , Boston (Northeast), Chicago (Midwest), Los Angeles (West), and New Orleans (South). The FTP did not operate in every state, since many lacked

13390-501: The government. Despite her defense of the program and President Roosevelt's protests, Congress disbanded the FTP – and with it, the New York Living Newspaper Unit – on July 30, 1939. The end of the FTP and the Unit left many complete and partially developed Living Newspaper scripts unperformed and unfinished. Among these were three by African-American playwrights that dealt with race issues and racism , including Liberty Deferred , by Abram Hill and John Silvera , which followed

13520-417: The great natural and economic forces of our time toward a better life for more people. The Living Newspaper program began very shortly after the establishment of the Federal Theatre Project (FTP). Following her appointment as National Director of the FTP in July 1935, Hallie Flanagan , a professor and playwright at Vassar College , and playwright Elmer Rice set to work planning the organization and focus of

13650-491: The history of slavery in the U.S. and addressed the lynchings of African-Americans in the South . Some historians suggest that Congress shut down the Federal Theatre Project partially to stifle the voices of African-American theatre professionals and criticism of racism in the U.S., or that the FTP delayed production of these plays out of fear of just such a reprisal. The Living Newspaper project has influenced progressive theatre in

13780-623: The industry, the union decided to go after GM, the largest carmaker of them all, by shutting down its nerve center, the production complex in Flint, Michigan . The Flint Sit-Down Strike was a risky and illegal enterprise from the outset: the union was able to share its plans with only a few workers because of the danger that spies employed by GM would alert management in time to stop it, yet needed to be able to mobilize enough to seize physical control of GM's factories. The union, in fact, not only took over several GM factories in Flint, including one that made

13910-461: The largest enterprises in the United States. The CIO's major organizing drive of this era, Operation Dixie , aimed at the textile workers of the American South , was a complete failure. The CIO was reluctant to confront Jim Crow segregation laws. Although the Steelworkers' Southern outpost in the steel industry remained intact, the CIO and the union movement as a whole remained marginalized in

14040-408: The leadership of the Harlem chapter of the FTP be led by an African American artist. Rose McClendon, an established actor at the time, publicly argued against this proposal and instead suggested that initially an established white theater artist take the mantle with the understanding and intention of satisfying the WPA's prior professional theater experience clause and giving way to black artists to lead

14170-603: The most effective way to represent workers was to defend the advantages they had secured through their skills. They focused on the hiring of skilled workers, such as carpenters, lithographers, and railroad engineers in an attempt to maintain as much control as possible over the work their members did by enforcement of work rules, zealous defense of their jurisdiction to certain types of work, control over apprenticeship programs, and exclusion of less-skilled workers from membership. Craft unionists were opposed to organizing workers on an industrial basis, into unions which represented all of

14300-404: The new Truman administration proved unwilling to intervene on labor's side. The UAW took a different tack: rather than involve the federal government, it wanted to bargain directly with GM over management issues, such as the prices it charged for its cars, and went on strike for 113 days over these and other issues. The union eventually settled for the same wage increase that the Steelworkers and

14430-656: The next convention of the UAW in 1939, which expelled Martin instead. He took approximately 20,000 UAW members with him to form a rival union, known for a time as the UAW-AFL. The SWOC encountered equally serious problems: after winning union recognition after a strike against Jones & Laughlin Steel , SWOC's strikes against the rest of "Little Steel", i.e., Bethlehem Steel Corporation , Youngstown Sheet and Tube , National Steel , Inland Steel American Rolling Mills and Republic Steel failed, in spite of support from organizations like

14560-516: The notable artists of the time participated in the Federal Theatre Project, including Susan Glaspell who served as Midwest bureau director. The legacy of the Federal Theatre Project can also be found in beginning the careers of a new generation of theater artists. Arthur Miller , Orson Welles , John Houseman , Martin Ritt , Elia Kazan , Joseph Losey , Marc Blitzstein and Abe Feder are among those who became established, in part, through their work in

14690-507: The other hand, Chicago produced an original Living Newspaper that rivalled the later New York Living Newspapers in its impact and positive reception. In 1938, Arnold Sundgaard 's Spirochete, a Living Newspaper on the history of syphilis , opened in Chicago. Using the image projections, extensive sound design, shadowplay, brief scenes, and "little man" character (here, a patient embodying all syphilis sufferers throughout history) made standard by

14820-483: The play, asking questions and receiving explanations. Power garnered a positive reception, running for 140 performances and then converting to a scaled-down travelling form for outdoors summer performances throughout the city. The next Living Newspaper also met with public and critical success. Over the summer of 1937, Flanagan oversaw the Federal Theatre Project Summer School at Vassar College;

14950-528: The policies of the New Deal and the Works Progress Administration. Power chronicled the search of the public consumer for affordable electric power and held up the Tennessee Valley Authority project as an example of where such power could come from. The play also introduced the "little man" figure to the Living Newspaper – a character who represented the consumer and the public, appearing throughout

15080-438: The production workers in a particular enterprise, rather than in separate units divided along craft lines. The proponents of industrial unionism , on the other hand, generally believed that craft distinctions may have been appropriate in those industries in which craft unions had flourished, such as construction or printing, but they were unworkable in industries such as steel or auto production. In their view, dividing workers in

15210-413: The project's racial integration and accusations of Communist infiltration and cancelled its funding effective June 30, 1939. One month before the project's end, drama critic Brooks Atkinson summarized: "Although the Federal Theatre is far from perfect, it has kept an average of ten thousand people employed on work that has helped to lift the dead weight from the lives of millions of Americans. It has been

15340-413: The rumor that the FTP was a front for radical and communist activities, Congress ended federal funding as of June 30, 1939, immediately putting 8,000 people out of work across the country. Although the overall financial cost of the FTP was minuscule in the grand scheme of the WPA's budget, Congress determined that the average American did not consider theater a viable recipient of their tax dollars. Following

15470-466: The slowness of the arbitration machinery. Yet even though the complaints from union members about the no-strike pledge became louder and more bitter, the CIO did not abandon it. The Mine Workers, by contrast, who did not belong to either the AFL or the CIO for much of the war, engaged in a successful twelve-day strike in 1943. But the CIO unions on the whole grew stronger during the war. The government put pressure on employers to recognize unions to avoid

15600-418: The sort of turbulent struggles over union recognition of the 1930s, while unions were generally able to obtain maintenance of membership clauses, a form of union security , through arbitration and negotiation. Workers also won benefits, such as vacation pay, that had been available only to a few in the past while wage gaps between higher skilled and less skilled workers narrowed. The experience of bargaining on

15730-534: The war, such as the UE and the Food and Tobacco Workers, had fairly good records of fighting discrimination against women; others often saw them as merely wartime replacements for the men in the armed forces. The end of the war meant the end of the no-strike pledge and a wave of strikes as workers sought to make up the ground they had lost, particularly in wages, during the war. The UAW went on strike against GM in November 1945;

15860-583: The workers that it was supposedly trying to organize. That was especially significant in those industries, such as auto and rubber, in which workers had already achieved some organizing success, at great personal risk. The dispute came to a head at the AFL's convention in Atlantic City in 1935. On October 19, the closing day of the convention, William Hutcheson , the President of the United Carpenters , made

15990-533: Was Conjur' Man Dies (1936), a comedy-mystery adapted by Arna Bontemps and Countee Cullen from Rudolph Fisher 's novel. The most popular production was the third, which came to be called the Voodoo Macbeth (1936), director Orson Welles 's adaptation of Shakespeare's play set on a mythical island suggesting the Haitian court of King Henri Christophe . The New York Negro Theatre Unit also oversaw projects from

16120-446: Was a theatre program established during the Great Depression as part of the New Deal to fund live artistic performances and entertainment programs in the United States . It was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administration , created not as a cultural activity but as a relief measure to employ artists, writers, directors, and theater workers. National director Hallie Flanagan shaped

16250-532: Was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. Originally created in 1935 as a committee within the American Federation of Labor (AFL) by John L. Lewis , a leader of the United Mine Workers (UMW), and called the Committee for Industrial Organization . Its name was changed in 1938 when it broke away from the AFL. It focused on organizing unskilled workers, who had been ignored by most of

16380-441: Was announced on November 9, 1935. Whether Lewis then intended to split the AFL over this issue is debatable; at the outset, the CIO presented itself as only a group of unions within the AFL gathered to support industrial unionism, rather than a group opposed to the AFL itself. The AFL leadership, however, treated the CIO as an enemy from the outset by refusing to deal with it and demanding that it dissolve. The AFL's opposition to

16510-489: Was distinguished for its focus on racial injustice. Flanagan expressly ordered her subordinates to follow the WPA policy against racial prejudice. In fact when it came to making decisions on a national level for the project, the Federal Theatre Regulation mandated that "there may be racial representation in all national planning." A specific example of the FTP's adherence to an anti-prejudicial environment came when

16640-473: Was its own internal disarray. The CIO formally established itself as a rival to the AFL on April 13, 1938, renaming itself as the Congress of Industrial Organizations on November 16, 1938. The ILGWU and the Millinery Workers left the CIO to return to the AFL. Lewis feuded with Hillman and Philip Murray , his long-time assistant and head of the SWOC, over both the CIO's own activities and its relations with

16770-485: Was often their only recourse. "This is a tough job we're asking you to do," Hopkins told Flanagan at their first meeting in May 1935. "I don't know why I still hang on to the idea that unemployed actors get just as hungry as anybody else." Hopkins promised "a free, adult, uncensored theatre" — something Flanagan spent the next four years trying to build. She emphasized the development of local and regional theatre, "to lay

16900-419: Was to be within the individual's defined skills and trades. "For the first time in the relief experiments of this country the preservation of the skill of the worker, and hence the preservation of his self-respect, became important," wrote Hallie Flanagan , director of the Federal Theatre Project. A theater professor at Vassar College who had studied the operation of government-sponsored theatre abroad for

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