The industrial revolution in the United States promised an income to many immigrants. Although it meant fourteen hour workdays under less than ideal conditions, it afforded many desperate people with a way to help their families survive. A shirtwaist sewing factory employed many people, primarily women, but also young boys and girls, too. Directed by Roy Campolongo, The Triangle Fire is above all the story of dedicated, hardworking people trying to forge better lives for themselves and their families. From the "shirtwaist kings," Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, who were the owners of the factory, to the dozens of human beings who spent most of their lives within the factory walls, Campolongo weaves a tale of social and financial pressures and what they may do to human lives. Using archival still photos as well as historical narrative, Campolongo relates this important chapter in the history of North American industrialization.
The Triangle Fire Relates a Damning View of Unregulated Industrialization
Blanck and Harris employed primarily Eastern European, southern Italian, and Jewish immigrants in their factory. With no labor laws to protect the workers, they were charged for any mistakes they made and had to undergo daily inspections to see if they were stealing any of the goods. There was no minimum wage and no worker safety laws. Yet Campolongo's film also looks at the pressure on the factory owners, who had to compete with other establishments at a time that the shirtwaist, long in fashion, was beginning to wane. They had to deal with social pressures, too, including changes in attitudes toward women's suffrage and an increasing demand for workers' rights. And they had to try to survive in a competitive industry with ever-increasing costs for supplies.
An Era of Change for Women, Labor, and Reform Portrayed by Roy Campolongo
The significance of the Triangle Fire cannot be denied. The image of women plummeting from a burning building, with firemen unable to aid them, left bodies three deep on the ground. It was a call for change at the precipice of a new age. How would human beings navigate a life lived in factories? The struggle of workers was "outlined in blood on the sideway" of New York, with other workers - the firemen- holding nets with bleeding hands, trying to save a life. Fifty-three people jumped or fell from the Asch building where the fire broke out; nineteen feel in the elevator shaft, and twenty fell from the collapsing fire escape. Fifty people burned to death. Some were as young as fourteen years of age. The tragedy gave impetus to a movement for worker safety and fair labor practices in the early twentieth century.
54 minutes
Barbara DeGrande - Barbara DeGrande is a writer, film critic, and blogger, with years of experience as a program developer. She has a Bachelor of Arts in ...
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