For Immediate Release Contact: Barbara K. Laskin
April 20, 2004 Doug Stone
(651) 696-6203

Macalester Students Perform in Twin Cities Premiere of
New Musical about United Auto Workers
April 29 - 30, 2004

St. Paul, Minn. - Macalester College presents the Twin Cities premiere of the new labor musical, "Forgotten: Murder at the Ford Rouge." The musical, about the struggle to unionize the largest single manufacturing complex in the United States, the Ford River Rouge Plant, will be performed at 8 p.m., Thursday, April 29, at the United Auto Workers Hall, 2191 Ford Parkway, St. Paul, Minn., and at 8 p.m., Friday, April 30, at the Macalester College Concert Hall, Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center, 1600 Grand Avenue, St. Paul, Minn. Both performances are free and open to the general public.

The Rouge is Ford's flagship plant, where Henry Ford bought 2,000 acres nearly a century ago to implement his vision of streamlining mass production. By the1930s, the Rouge had grown into the world's leading automobile manufacturing center with peak employment of about 120,000 during World War II. Parts and supplies moved within the complex on more than 100 miles of railroad track. The Rouge became the focus of a union struggle in the summer of 1937, and as a result, became a significant part of U.S. labor history.

"Forgotten" tells, through song, the story of the struggle to unionize the biggest factory in the world, the Ford River Rouge Plant, in Dearborn, Mich. in the tumultuous 1930s. It revolves around the story of one "forgotten" man, Lewis Bradford, who went from a minister's pulpit to hosting a radio show about the unemployed called "The Forgotten Man's Hour," while working on the assembly line at the Rouge. Bradford became a union activist and rank-and-file organizer, but as he became more and more visible in the plant, he became singled out for harassment and, then, murder. He died on November 30, 1937, of a fractured skull, which the company doctor attributed to an accidental fall.

Macalester students developed the Twin Cities production of "Forgotten." They took a course, "Telling Labor's Story Through Music," co-taught by Robert Peterson, a member of Macalester's Music Department, and Peter Rachleff, a labor historian and member of Macalester's History Department. The students also met members of United Auto Workers Local 879 and learned about the issues faced by autoworkers today.

The students will be accompanied by a jazz trio.

Composer Steve Jones, a descendant of Bradford, spent years researching this story and composing the music. Bryant's father worked at the Rouge for thirty years and was an active member of Local 600.

Macalester is a private liberal arts college with a full-time enrollment of 1,810 students. Macalester is nationally recognized for its commitment to academic excellence, internationalism, diversity and service to society.
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