The Overalls Parade, Pt I
THE “OVERALLS MOVEMENT” HITS NYC.
One hundred years ago today … The Overalls Parade, led by denim-clad circus elephants, featured dozens of marchers protesting the high cost of clothing (and thus, by extension, the high cost of living) by donning overalls. The elephants, who yes, wore overalls, were leant by Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.
Bain News Service. Library of Congress.
The messaging was specifically directed at clothing profiteers.
Bain News Service. Library of Congress.
The Evening World. 24 April, 1920, p. 2. Newspapers.com.
There had been some heady press leading up to the parade, which was organized by the “Cheese Club,” a private club comprising media and theater insiders (and to which we will return).
New York Times, 23 April, p. 1.
Overalls “strikes”—which started in the US south earlier that April and arrived in NYC mid-month, became quite a trend. But not so much a trend that the image below is real.
The Evening World, 17 April, 1920. Newspapers.com.
The Evening World used an early version of photoshop skills to imagine J. Pierpont Morgan, Chauncey Depew, and Mayor John Hylan in overalls.
WRITTEN BY JONATHAN GOLDMAN, APRIL 24, 1920
pART II OF OUR OVERALLS PARADE COVERAGE IS HERE.
SEE JONATHAN GOLDMAN’S FULL ESSAY ON THE OVERALLS PARADE IN THE GOTHAM CENTER BLOG HERE.
TAGS: Overalls parade, protests, circus, Cheese Club, Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey, John Hylan, cost of living