NEWSIES

New York, 1899 — In New York, the streets are full of thousands of homeless and orphaned children selling newspapers to make some money. Often from poor immigrant families, these news boys and girls are essential to newspaper distribution, and the stories inked on the pages of these papers are their livelihood—the bigger the story, the more papers they sell. It is a daily struggle, but you won’t hear a newsie complain . . . until newspaper titan Joseph Pulitzer decides to raise the price of the New York World newspaper the newsies purchase by ten cents.

The newsies can barely afford to purchase their papers as it is. They buy their papers at 50 cents per hundred and then sell each paper for one cent, taking home 50 cents profit. But the thought of losin that additional 10 cents leaves the newsies with no other choice but to organize a protest.

Led by the charismatic Jack “Cowboy” Kelly, the protesters are confronted by police and strikebreakers and in the chaos some of the newsies are beaten up and hauled off to jail. This initial strike might have been shut down, but it is only the beginning.