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Jack: am I right, Joe?

Joe: I've sent for the police

Jack: ...but am I right?

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"I think this movie's gonna be a real good hit."

-Arvie Lowe Jr

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TV Interview for Newsies (1992)

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"One for all, and all for one!"

124 years ago today, the newsies of New York started their strike against The World and The Journal!! To celebrate I made my own version of the front page picture<33

Here's which newsie is which!

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today's warmup

my Instagram || linktree

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May I please request some sleepy Javey art? Like maybe one falls asleep on the other’s shoulder and there’s a lot of blushing involved-?

classic zzz sketch ! enjoy !

instagram || linktree

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“Are you okay?”

Some good old family doodles I found! Also pain. But we can ignore that one. One of my favorite parts of Newsies was always the family dynamics. As much as I love tormenting my favorite characters forever, I also like drawing them happily ^^

sometimes. sometimes.

intro | first | second post in this collection

⭑ linktree ⭑

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Hey, I'm a huge fan of thinking of Crutchie as Jewish. But do you have a citation for the historical Crutch Morris being Jewish. Or are you basing this on Marty Belafsky?

Based on history! We don’t have one exacting citation, but a common hypothesis based on the pieces of citable information we do have.

The most conclusive simply being the fact that the overwhelming majority of people named Morris, a very Jewish name originating from Moshe, are themselves; especially given the time and place in history, when 40% of newsies who answered the 1901 NYC census were Jewish and there weren’t abundant legal or marital ways for a man’s name to be changed in the usa like there are today. Could this have been a false name like Jack Kelly or Blink? Of course, (though I doubt he would have recorded a false name when he was an elected official of the newsboy union) so, as with all other information, this has to be taken with a grain of salt.

We also have one photograph that is commonly associated to be Crutch Morris that many past historians have made the presumption from:

[im going to edit this to add the picture give me a few minutes sorry]

This photo is commonly MIS-ASSOCIATED with Louis Hines’ work documenting New York’s working children in the 1930s. THIS IS INCORRECT. It appears nowhere in his published work. So much as a reverse image search tells us this is actually an undated photograph from the New York Historical Society Archive. @newsieshistory (their presence here is greatly missed) was able to match up the windows in the background to those on the Duane Street Newsboy Lodging House (the actual lodge house the one in the film is based on, where Kid Blink, Crutch Morris, Dutch[y] Johnson, [Swifty] the Rake, Bumlets, Snoddy, Pie Eater, Snipeshooter, among others really lived according to both articles on the strike and nyc census records), while it was operating as a newsboy lodge house, sometime c. 1890-1920. This could be another newsie that lived there during those years meeting the description of Crutch from the rally article, but its as close to a known photo as exists.

I am certain there is more, but I’m currently in the process of moving my historical documents out of google drive to fight the ai so I do not currently have access to my archive, I will attempt to add more tomorrow.

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What info do you have about snoddy swifty and itey?

I have some!

Snoddy (played by Robert Feeney, who is very nice and recognized me when we met in person which I will NEVER be over) is a one of the most background newsies.

He dresses really nicely, and is just so classically handsome. He often wears those sleeve protectors around his elbows.

Also it's pronounced like "Snooty" according to Kenny Ortega.

He often gets paired with Specs, Dutchy, or Pie Eater

Here's some pictures courtesy of @buncha-angry-kids-with-no-money :

And @lousy-old-shrimp:

Other:

Swifty:

Swifty is played by Kevin Stea, and his full name is Swifty the Rake. In the 1890s, that was slang for someone who steals aka "rakes" what they can get.

(We also have Kevin Stea to thank for Blood Drips, it was his camera they filmed it on. Same with the behind the scenes footage on youtube)

Swifty is a great artist, by the painting him and Crutchy have in Seize the Day.

He often gets paired with Pie Eater.

Itey:

Itey was played by Dominic Maldonado.

He's mostly known for always messing with his suspenders, and nibbling on them. He shares a bunk with Snitch and is often paired with him because of it.

Also because they are often around each other, including behind the scenes!

Also there is very little rhyme or reason for the old newsies art I have. I just used to save ANYTHING I came across so I've got a lot of gems lol

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Character Profile: Katherine

Real Name: Katherine Pulitzer

Nickname and Meaning: Katherine Plumber (pen name, so that people don’t immediately recognize her as one of the richest people in America)

Age: Unsure. However, as she is a love interest to Jack, it can be assumed she isn’t significantly older or younger than him. 16- 19.

Gender: Katherine is always played by a woman.

Family: Joseph Pulitzer (father). She probably has other family, but we don’t hear anything about them.

Katherine…:

Is naive, but she’s a fast learner. In the beginning of the musical, Katherine has no idea what the newsies are going through. She thinks Jack is selling papers to pay for art school, (Newsies Live script, page 36) asks the newsies if they “think they have a chance” at winning (implying that they’re striking because they want to, not because they have no choice), (Newsies Live script, page 33) and acts incredibly patronizingly to them after they’re beaten up by strikebreakers. (Newsies Live script, page 47) However, once Specs makes her aware of the realities of life as a homeless child, she immediately gets on board with helping them, even expanding the strike to all underaged and underpaid workers- an action that ends up with the strike settled in the newsies’ favor. (Newsies Live script, page 66) 

Is witty. Obviously, Katherine is sassy, quick to fire back when Jack flirts with her or implies that she’s less than him because she’s a woman. But she’s witty in other ways too. She convinces the skeptical newsies to let her write their story (Newsies Live script, page 34) and beyond that, is an amazingly eloquent speaker and writer. (Newsies Live script, pages 33, 34) She even uses metaphors in her everyday speech, for example “So let’s get drunk, not with liquor, fame works quicker” (much to the newsies chagrin). (Newsies Live script, page 49)

Values hard work. As her father puts it, “I offered Katherine a life of wealth and leisure. Instead, she chose to pursue a career.” (Newsies Live script, page 59) The phrasing implies that not only did Katherine not accept the life of leisure, but she outright denied her father’s money, choosing instead to (mostly) support herself. She also doesn’t give up when the newsies think they’ll never win the strike, instead coming up with ideas to expand the goals and take Pulitzer down. Katherine sides with the newsies because, sexist as they may be, they also had to work hard to overcome obstacles she could never imagine.

Is insecure. When Jack says “Hey, what’s the last news story you wrote?”, implying he doesn’t have faith in her abilities, Katherine gets very defensive and snaps “What’s the last strike you organized?”, a far cry from her usually eloquent speech and writing. (Newsies Live script, page 34) She is especially defensive about being thought of as less because of her gender. Before Something To Believe In, she assumes Jack doesn’t trust her because she’s a girl, and cuts him off before he can defend himself. (Newsies Live script, pages 65, 66) 

May be attracted to women. When we first really meet Katherine, she’s reviewing a burlesque show at Medda’s theatre, a place where men go to see beautiful women with no clothes on. (Newsies Live script, page 21) Later, she sings “this is not some little vaudeville I’m reviewing”. (Newsies Live script, page 37) Vaudeville is the genre of show Ms. Medda’s theatre performs, a combination of comedy and burlesque. The fact that she specifically mentioned vaudeville implies that Katherine frequently reviews such shows, and possibly even seeks them out. She also seems to be annoyed and even surprised at her attraction to Jack. During Something to Believe In, she sings “I thought I knew what love was/ Now I’m learning what is true/ That love will do what it does”. (Newsies Live script, page 67) This line could be her understanding that she doesn’t quite understand her sexuality yet, and that’s okay.

Headcanon Fuel:

Why did Katherine want to be a reporter, specifically?

Why is Katherine so insecure?

What does Katherine see in Jack (besides his pretty face)?

How did Katherine end up valuing hard work if she was raised by Pulitzer?

Was the strike the first time Kath realized how bad things were for the working class? If so, how did she not recognize problems before?

Actors and Physical Appearance:

Kara Lindsay

Liana Hunt

Stephanie Styles

Morgan Keene

Katherine has curly red hair with bangs and a pointed chin. She generally dresses in pink. She is also canonically Jewish. The real Joseph Pulitzer was, and it can be assumed that his daughter would share his religion.

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Some things we know about the real Kid Blink, part one.

I have been (and continue to) piece together some information about the real Kid Blink.

Beforehand, I think it is important to note that newspapers in the late 1800s and early 1900s were not exactly always what we would today consider trustworthy. Reporters back then relied mostly on word-of-mouth, with few other resources to rely on. There was also a certain artistic flare expected from these newspapers. Lies were often reported as truth to gain readership (if you want a good though very-much earlier example, please have a look at the wikipedia article on The Great Moon Hoax).

On top of this, there is no doubt to be had that the newsboys themselves were not always very truthful when reporting about their own lives. One can hardly blame them: they were a group of young men whose daily survival was based upon their own bravado. To most of these boys, lies could be justified. For certain, they knew that to be successful, they had to appear to be in full control of their situations.

That being said, let us start with the first and foremost important (and highly discussed) topic surrounding Kid Blink: his real name.

I believe it to be Louis Baletti.

In 1899, during the strike, Kid Blink (strike titles: Strike Leader, Grand Master Workman or walking delegate) was arrested for disorderly conduct. He had been found to have turned “scab” and was met in the street by a large group of newsboys who were angry at him for accepting bribes from the newspapers.

At the time of his arrest, he was taken to Oak Street Station. In two different articles, he is described as giving the name Louis Ballatt / Dalatt. We see already that even at this time, depending on the paper his name and the spelling differs (though I do consider the “D” in “Dalatt” to be a printing error).

This could be an error on the part of the reporters, but being as two different sources had no “i” sound at the end of the name, I believe it was Blink himself who gave the name “Ballatt.”

Why would he have done this?

Baletti is most likely an Italian surname. At this time in American History, especially with a mass influx of new Italian immigrants, Italians in general were not well perceived by the general public. No doubt there were loads of Italian newsboys, but it is not unlikely that he (or his family) had decided on a less “Italian” sounding name to make life easier.

Another option is, of course, that he lied to try and help his conviction record. He had most likely already been in some scrapes with the law by this time. However, as Ballatt is close enough to Baletti, I find this explanation less likely.

So, where did I get the name Baletti?

As he grew up, Kid Blink became somewhat of a local figure, being a well known as both one of the best guides in Chinatown (his job as a guide would have been to show middle and upper-class white New Yorkers around Chinatown, mostly showcasing Chinatown as an exotic playground for hedonistic drug-addicts for shock value) as well as the right-hand man to mobster Chuck Connors, who was a Chinatown legend.

He was interviewed in 1907 and 1908 regarding issues in Chinatown, but his name is listed as merely “Kid Blink” at that time.

The name connection comes from an arrest he had in 1905, after he bragging in a number of Chatham Square bars as to his involvement in the murder of a rival mob man, “Eat-‘em-Up-Jack” McManus. His name is spelled Balletti as well as Baletti in articles regarding this event. (He was later found to be merely bragging, which shows that he was quite able of lying to try and make himself look important.)

The last hint is tied together quite nicely, if not sadly, in a 1913 article about Kid Blink being sick with tuberculosis. While his name is not mentioned, his address is. 1 Roosevelt Street.

The 1899 articles about Louis Ballatt’s arrest also list his address: 179 Park Row.

Two different addresses, you say? I thought so at first, too. But I just happen to be in the process of making an interactive 1899 map version of Lower Manhattan on Google Earth. (Using 1899 real estate maps from the New York Public Library.) 

These two addresses are literally in the same place. Technically, there is no 179 Park Row listed on this map, though I placed it right next 177.

What are the odds?

Add to this the fact that there is a death record for a Louis Baletti listed in Manhattan in 1913, only a couple months after the article about his tuberculosis was published, and I consider this a fairly open-and-shut case.

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My list of Newsies fan websites

From classics such as newsiesfreak.com to the official site, this is how many newsies websites I've been able to recently find. Many span from the late 90's to the late 2000's. Unfortunately, Yahoo has deleted many sites and lots of these come from what remains of Angelfire, Geocities and Lycos so may not be in the best shape. I've tried to not include LiveJournal, general webpages or corrupted files but if they're important I'll try to. If any links no longer work please tell me and also note that this list is constantly updating. Thank you and enjoy!

General newsies sites

Newsies Freak (please note that the url has changed for this and simply typing "newsiesfreak.com" will no longer take you to the original site)

Mush's Goil

Disney NEWSIES | The Broadway Musical

Hitched it on a Trolley

The World Will Know

Newsies Millennium

Nobody told the horse

Scabbers

Newsies for life!

The Claire Zone

Marcie and Sarah's Newsies Page.....plus other really cool stuff

Newsies Stuff!

Ragamuffin's Newsie Miscellany

Skittle's Newsies

Angry Kids Store

Newsie-holics

Kitten's Newsies Haven

The Newsies Attic

Racetrack's Newsie Page

About Newsies

maxcasellaiscool

Lodging Houses and Businesses

The Newsies Mailing List

A Profile of Jake, Itey, and Snitch!!

Happy Newsies Minivan

On the grounds of Brookyln

Newsies historical sites

Newsboys of 1899 - History of a Strike

No. 9 Duane Street

The Newsboy Strike of 1899

Newsies fanfiction sites

Jo's Newsies fanfiction (Tumblr won't let me add the link for this right now so I'll leave it here) http://josephina_jacobs.tripod.com/

Grace's "Newsies" Fan Fiction Page!

Seize the Night

Bottle Alley: Newsies Fanfiction

Shamrock's Story Site

Fanfiction 101

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Underage Smokers

The Refuge (archived page)

Sites dedicated to newsies actors

Christian Bale Narod

A Christian Bale fanpage

The Unofficial Michael Goorjan Website

BDHONS sites

Blood Drips on Newsies Square

Daily Space

Newsies/Roundhouse sites

Roundhouse Freaks

Newsies/Roundhouse Trading Post

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hey can someone tell me why this didn’t make it to the final cut

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no matter how many Good Movies™ christian bale is in nothing he does will be better than his performance in Disney’s Newsies (1992)

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If Newsies (1992) has a million fans, I'm one of them.

If Newsies (1992) has 5 fans, I'm one of them.

If Newsies (1992) has 1 fan, that one is me.

If Newsies (1992) has no fans, I'm no longer alive.

If the world is against Newsies (1992) I'm against the entire world.