Early cinema musicians and orchestras on strike: from Chicago to Rio de Janeiro (1903-1914)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-7976.2021.e74792Abstract
This article proposes a social history of early cinema to analyze a phenomenon that shook the first years of world cinema: strikes by musicians and cinema orchestras in the cities of Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo. The particularity of the strike caused an uproar on the part of employers, police, journalists and public authorities, leaving traces, mainly, in newspapers and specialized magazines. Investigative journalists, art critics and the press in general reflected on the conflicts, strategies, and agreements of those implied in the strikes, in addition to leaving the impressions of the contemporary people who watched the phenomenon as observers. We seek to examine the contexts of cinematographers to understand the world of musicians in cities; the mediating role of associations for the protection and
regulation of musical work; and the reasons for strikes in the three cities investigated. We were able to identify a global dynamic in which the collective organization of musicians and orchestras was a strategy widely used over a period of one decade against bosses and cinema companies that were accelerating precarious working conditions, expressed in the low wages received.
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