Episode 10: 'Pins & Needles' - A 1930's Garment Workers' Musical

On the Line: Stories of BC Workers

After a brief summer break, On the Line is back with more BC labour history! In September 1938, the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) brought their theatrical musical hit “Pins and Needles” to Vancouver, BC, where it played to glowing reviews. Among the audience were trades union members of all kinds and noted labour artist Fraser Wilson.

The cast were all ILGWU members from New York garment factories, or as The Province newspaper reviewer called them “just plain, simple, common, ordinary everyday men and women who work hard for their living.” This is their story.
Learn more: https://www.labourheritagecentre.ca/pins-and-needles/
FEATURED MUSIC: Theme song: "Hold the Fort" - Arranged & Performed by Tom Hawken & his band, 1992. Part of the "On to Ottawa" film produced by Sara Diamond.
Songs from the "Pins and Needles" musical featured from Internet Archive: Digital Library under Creative Commons license https://archive.org/
"One Big Union for Two" - performed by Cab Calloway and his Orchestra; by Harold J. Rome
"Sing Me a Song with Social Significance" - performed by Nita Carol and Alan Holt; by Harold J. Rome
"Doing the Reactionary" - performed by the Hudson-Delange Orchestra and Mary McHugh; by Harold J. Rome
VOICEOVERS: "Netty" voiced by Lucie McNeill
"Newspaper quotes 1 & 2" voiced by John Mabbott
RESEARCH: Research and script for this episode by Patricia Wejr & Rod Mickleburgh. Concept based on research by Donna Sacuta, BCLHC Executive Director.
https://www.labourheritagecentre.ca/pins-and-needles/
Cornell University Library: International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union "Pins and Needles" Additional Scrapbooks
Collection Number: 6036/031
"Pins and Needles": A White House Command Performance
Author(s): Harry Merton Goldman
Source: Educational Theatre Journal, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Mar., 1978), pp. 90-101
Published by: Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3206256
Patricia Hews Everett-Kabut, UBC Doctor of Philosophy Thesis, 2016: THE COOPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH FEDERATION AND AMATEUR THEATRICALS IN 1930’S VANCOUVER, BC
The Library of Congress In the Muse Performing Arts Blog by Melissa Capozio Jones: “Sing Me a Song with Social Significance”: Harold Rome and the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, Jan. 2021

Vancouver Sun, Sept. 1938. via Newspapers.com
The Province, Sept. 1938 via Newspapers.com
The New York Times, 1978: TAILOR‐MADE HIT OF THE 30'S by Tom Prideaux

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