I'm not much for musicals. I can enjoy a decent musical experience such as 'West Side Story' or 'Fiddler on the Roof', but the snob in me (and on the surface) rebels against the routine 'showstopper' solos and endless ensmeble scenes. And Andrew lloyd Webber? Forget about it.
Recently, however, an old friend of my grandfather's stopped by for a visit. Despite being 86 years old and a having suffered a recent collision with a motorcycle, Jim was still raring to go, having dropped by DC for the September 24th anti-war march. His love of political leftism, however, was only outweighed by his love to express it in song and verse, as evidenced by his voluminous collection of Gilbert & Sullivan tapes as well as volumes and volumes of song parodies; two of which he had written himself. Disappointed to find me still at school, he left me a tape with a semi-random collection of Tom Lehrer, old comedy routines, bits and pieces from socially-conscious singing grous, and significant excerpts from a show called 'Pins & Needles'.
Premiering in 1937 with music and lyrics by Louis Schaffer and Harold Rome, 'Pins & Needles' was less a straight musical than a series of sketches satirizing the politcal climate of the day, with the main focus being on the state of the labor movement, problems of class and capitalism, and the rise of fascism.
The show was cast with all union performers from the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and rehearsed for a full year (they had, after all, full-time jobs) before it opened at the Labor Stage (formally the famed Princess Theater). The show played only on weekends, its cast and crew keeping their full-time employment as pressers, dressmakers and cutters. It ran for 1,108 performances.
The show opens with an always-topical ditty (sweetly sung by a young Barbara Streisand):
Sing me a song with social significance
or you can sing til you're blue.
Let meaning shine
from every line
or I won't love you.
Other numbers include Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, and Chamberlain singing 'Four Little Angels of Peace' and a Park Avenue matron crooning 'It's not Cricket to Picket', in which she scolds the striking workers for their lack of manners and vulgar preoccupation with being able to feed and clothe themselves. Probably my favorite, though, is 'Bertha, the Class-Conscious Sewing Machine Girl; or, It's Better With a Union Man'. In which the aforementioned Bertha falls in with a leering non-union cad (who was thoroughly bad) only to discover that, as one can only expect from a non-union man, he's a polygamist. The theatergoers are thus reminded:
It's better with a union man
It's better with a union man
You'll live to regret
if you ever forget
This motto pro-let-ar-i-an!
So always be upon your guard
Demand to see a union card.
You'll never go wrong if you follow this plan
It's better with a union man!
Now, if I actually belonged to some kind of union this might work.
4 comments:
I love it.And I am fascinated by how much more broad the political discussion was in those times.I had a debate with some guys where I introduced myself as a socialist and they were shocked that such a creature should still be allowed to exist.They could only argue within the confines of a very narrowed narrative (liberal vs conservative) and couldnt defend capitalism because they had no idea there could be anything else. I am working on a play about the labor movement in Butte at the turn of the century and am thinking maybe it could be a musical, thanks for the idea.
It's better with a union man
It's better with a union man
You'll live to regret
if you ever forget
This motto pro-let-ar-i-an!
So always be upon your guard
Demand to see a union card.
You'll never go wrong if you follow this plan
It's better with a union man!
Now, if I actually belonged to some kind of union this might work.
Maybe...but not with the Smiling Neocon.
Interestingly enough, I myself am I union man. The grocery store I work for requires that employees join some sort of foodworker's union.
Fancy that.
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