Thesis

Every night on Broadway, performers rehearse for weeks, receive guaranteed pay, and go home knowing their rights are protected. These protections were hard-won. In the early twentieth century, chorus performers were among the most exploited workers in American theater. They are unpaid for months of rehearsals, responsible for their own costumes, and easily discarded by powerful producers.

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Marie Dressler, a former chorus girl who had risen to Broadway stardom, understood this exploitation personally. When Actors' Equity went on strike in 1919, Dressler did not stand on the sidelines. She organized an entire class of workers who had been excluded from the fight, founding the Chorus Equity Association and leading them onto the picket line. Her actions expanded the labor movement to include Broadway's most invisible workers and permanently transformed the conditions of professional performance in America.