#newsies fanon

[more-sonorous]

hello newsies fans! so I’ve spoken to a couple folks about writing sprace, but in my research I haven’t really found anything outside of fanon? is there any fanon newsies lore im missing out on? why exactly do we do sprace?

btw im not judging at all— love the ship and the art and the dynamic, just curious as to the origins

[mad-mcd20]

Gonna leave this here for future use

List of newsies resources masterpost:

Hi! So I made out a list of general resources and information I usually use while researching newsies that I thought I would share. If anyone would like to send me any more videos, essays or information of importance to add to this list, do!! Please note, this list is constantly updating.

Newsies scripts

Newsies 1992 script

Newsies stage script & sheet music

Newsies jr. edition script

Newsies 1991 revised script

The original "Hard Promises" script (the original when newsies wasn't going to be a musical. A LOT was changed in the rewrites)

Newsies books, merch and info

Newsies production handbook

Newsies 1992 novelization by Jonathan Fast

Newsies promotional paper (1992) collected and posted by @queenofbrooklyn

The original North American VHS cover of Newsies

Newsies press kit booklet collected and posted by @queenofbrooklyn

2011 Papermill Playhouse Program by @letter-from-the-refuge

2011 Papermill Playhouse audience guide by @letter-from-the-refuge

The Big Bad Book of Newsies by the Bryan Denton Worshipers

A UK version of one of the Newsies theatrical posters, where it was originally released as “The Newsboys” posted by @queenofbrooklyn

Listing of characters

List of Newsies characters (both movie and stage) by @newsiepedia

A list of "who's whosies" from the film made by @letter-from-the-refuge

A guide to the stage characters

A guide to the film characters

Trading cards photos and their bios

Newsies historical research

"Kids on strike!" novel by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Some things we know about the real Kid Blink, part one by @newsieshistory

"Mapping out newsies" essay made by @letter-from-the-refuge

Notes on the Refuge made by @newsiesquare

Newsboys information Google drive made by @newsboys-of-1899

How the Newsboy’s Strike of 1899 Was Reported on in Cities Other Than New York by @musicalhistory

The women of the newsboy strike by @newsboys-of-1899 and The Girlsies by @pioneergirlsie

Jewish Immigration and the Jacobs Family in Turn of the Century New York by @newsiesquare

Names/list of real life newsies found on @newsieshistory blog

"Kid Blink beats The World" picture book by Don Brown

Information about Jack's dime novel by @letter-from-the-refuge

Some great blogs to look at if you want a historical point of view! @newsboys-of-1899 @newsieshistory @newsiesquare @newsiesandhistory-blog

This is just a list of historical essays I find important however if anyone would like me to add anything, please add it/link it!

Interviews with the casts

Masterpost of newsies videos, particularly of the stage cast and tour interviews made by @lizzy88musicalsblog

Newsies Minute (Podcast) Interview with Michael Goorjan (Skittery) which focuses on the behind the scenes spoof horror movie they made, BDHONS

Newsies Minute (Podcast) Interview with Kevin Smets (Ten Pin)

Newsies, The Ultimate Broadway Fan Film on YouTube.

Newsies 1992 interview with Aaron Lohr (Mush), Max Casella (Racetrack), and David Moscow (David Jacobs)

D23's from the vaults: Newsies at Walt Disney studio

Max Casella - "Betting on Racetrack"

Deleted scenes and songs

List of deleted scenes (1992)

Cut songs from Newsies Paper Mill Playhouse production (2011)

"The Truth About The Moon" a cut song for Sarah sang by Dan DeLuca & Joey Barreiro

Carrying the banner deleted scene

Bloopers and observations 1992 Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3

Jack's cut rope trick (1992)

Newsies gag reel

Newsies gag reel (without the age restriction) PT. 1. from @lousy-old-shrimp

David being kicked while selling - deleted scene

Behind the scenes videos

Blood Drips Heavily on Newsies Square on YouTube Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 which is a spoof horror movie made behind the scenes by the cast of newsies 1992

Newsies The Ultimate Broadway Fan Film again, I really recommend this!!

Behind the scenes (1992) videos here and here

Newsies backstage Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 on Kevin Stea's Youtube Channel (Swifty the Rake)

Other newsies videos

Newsies Drug PSA VHS Tape

Second released Newsies Trailer

Newsies Broadway Reunion charity stream

92sies vs livesies comparison video

Santa Fe vs Bet On It choreo comparison

"Finding the appeal of Newsies" video essay on YouTube.

"Newsies | Based on a true story" on YouTubube

Newsies websites

My masterpost on newsies fan websites

Link to the infamous newsiesfreak.com (updated as the original URL was changed) and another link just in case things get changed or lost again.

The brief history of newsiesfreak.com by @queenofbrooklyn

Newsies fanlore

Explanation to why people call Spot and Race "Anthony" and "Seán" in fics, art, fanon ect by @letter-from-the-refuge

Screencaps of every frame of the film

How Boots got his name

Understanding "Juck" by @undercover-vampire

The story with Jack's brother by @letter-from-the-refuge

Newsies findings & essays

A transcript of The Banner by @lousy-old-shrimp

Irish Newsies essay made by me (hi!)

Jack Kelly as the canonical My Little Pony character, "Fine Print"

All of my newsies playlists

An article quoting that David and Les' surname is "Baum" in the Papermill Playhouse production

Newsies accounts you should look at!

@ask-newsies

@jackkellystories

@newsiesstocking

@newsiesgiftexchange

[thefandomchaos]

When did we all universally agree that Racetrack’s real name is Antonio? When did we all agree that Spot’s real name is Sean? When did we all agree that Racetrack is Italian even though he has a canon Irish last name? And knowing that; When did we all agree that Spot is either Irish/Hispanic/ or just American? (Both of those and because of the fanon canon names)

Is even funnier when you realize that Ben Cook is a poster American boy (white,blond hair, blue eyes) and Tommy Bracco is Italian American

Update:

• I did not know Max was Italian descendant

• I did not know Race was literally described as Italian

• I have never read to the novel

• I’m horrible with knowing origins of last names

• A lot of my knowledge comes from other posts

• 92’ headcanon for livesies cast- makes things confusing sometimes but we just role with it

• Nobody truly knows where ‘Sean’ came from; (most likely from the Irish last name-)

[ihateswansmorethananything]

Sarah Jacobs is the newsies equivalent of movie Ginny Weasley

[loving-jack-kelly]

i think spot admires jack very deeply and looks up to him a lot but would rather be stabbed to death than ever say that out loud. btw. i think jack respects spot and everything that he's done more than almost anybody else in the world but would rather be set on fire than admit it. also.

[luderailing]

OK RAMBLE TIME COMPLETELY UNORGANIZED + NEWSIES SPOILERS (wait does it even matter?? whatever just go watch it. pls) PROBABLY EDITION

okay oookay so. ideas that r all over the place but I'm working on it (This is sorta me digging up an older idea I changed some things, especially because I had no idea who I intended to be Katherine at first???

anyway it's hungary now. Because who else would wanna break the norm and go be a journalist to aid striking workers more than her.

+,,, in my original idea,, Alfred was Jack and honestly I couldn't bring myself to "recast" because honestly.....who else. And I think Ro should be Davey because I think it's cute if Mol is Les. And Alfred and Mihai's personalities in this context works. for them together. to me.

yea i think it's pretty funny

Honorable mention: Feliks as Race i need 2 draw it yet

[ill-say-anything-i-hafta]

Don't take much to be a dreamer! I asked about the play version of Jack Kelly, and the canonically correct answer is clearly the first one, but somehow more than half of us (imcluding me!) believe fervently in Jack's nickname, his alias, or both. 😂😂

[diorgirl444]

announcement 🎀

maddening news old sports, i’m opening my matchups up from now until the new year so essentially this is my let them eat cake moment <3 (fully aware she never said that)

taglist 💌 : @fairyofthehollow @starstruckwillows @shefollowedthestars @littlelilbun @kellyscowboy @sola-nater @faerieroyal (please let me know if you wanna be added or deleted <3)

[kellyscowboy]

i'm gonna start writing stuff for random background newsies and completely make stuff & then die with everything i could come up with

[jack-kellys]

i think the new interpretations probably aren’t actually that glaring, i left the fandom a bit before covid so it small changes might’ve just been more obvious because of rapidly throwing myself back into it. also it’s probably just the people i follow, but the fandom feels a lot better at not getting neck-fucking-deep into fanon, myself included, and i’m just not seeing it with fanfiction eyes anymore ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ hell yes for discussion

even if they WERE glaring (yes i said the opposite abt spot to my other anon but the thing is that both r valid). it’s still only an interpretation. like idk. like

for me it’s less an issue with fanon because i think fanon is what makes this fandom so unique. and in the name of that, the othering of the uk production…. does not make sense. more interpretations of characters we’ve known for years only makes an individual’s interpretation of a character MORE NUANCED. which is also why this production slayed so hard bc there’s so much history and fan history as well.

to be fair i don’t see it in my circle of ppl i follow rly either but yk some people can’t just go and see the uk production so it’s easier to think of something they can’t access as separate or other, and for ppl who’s first intro is the uk production like we been around a long time but it’s all content very different from what they saw live.

basically i kind of think ooc for this fandom is dead in a way because you can kind of justify ur characterization very specifically at this point. like there’s lots of interpretations in fanfic that i literally despise but i can’t Exactly go up and be like ur wrong. like i wish i could but i can’t

[psychicbluebirdmiracle]

Sometimes I forget that basically everything we know about newsies characters comes from fanon and not actually from the shows themselves and its pretty funny when I'm explaining the deep lore behind a newsie to someone only to be like "oh right none of that actually happens in the show they have like maybe one line maybe none" and the person just always looks at me so confused lol

[bumlets-appreciation-blog]

Newsie Names (As Determined By Me)

(Post Deletion Repost)

My personal headcanons for the Newsies' names!

Jack “Cowboy” Kelly: Francis Malcolm Sullivan (canon)

Racetrack: Ed Higgins (historically accurate, I put him as having an Italian mother and Irish father, both Catholic because Race crosses himself during the nun scene)

Crutchy: Elijah Morris (surname is historically accurate, friendly reminder that Crutch Morris was Jewish and so is Crutchy)

Boots: Benjamin Arbus (surname looks like it’s widely accepted fanon, not sure about the first name)

Kid Blink: Louis Baletti (historically accurate, definitely has an Italian father at the least)

Mush: Nicholas Meyers (surname is historically accurate and I’m pretty sure the real Mush was named Nick)

Bumlets: Damian Vasquez/Damián Vásquez (Puerto Rican name, name anglicized after immigration)

Skittery: Roman Kučera (Czech name, @jackcowboyhero came up with this and I just love it so much)

Snoddy: Calvin Angier (also from @jackcowboyhero)

Specs: Leopold Bauer (German name)

Dutchy: Cas Hendriksen (Dutch name, Dutchy was commonly used for Dutch and German immigrants)

Snitch: John Whitfield

Itey: Elio Olivieri (Italian name, Itey was commonly used for Italian immigrants)

Swifty the Rake: Wesley Liu (half white and half Chinese like his actor Kevin Stea)

Pie-Eater: Michael Reeves

Jake the Oyster: Jacob Heaton

Snipeshooter: Gabriel Evans

Flipper: Charles “Charlie” Daley (I’ve officially chosen Flipper as his newsie nickname because it’s more popular and less ridiculous than Crazy Legs, Bumlets still calls him Charlie though)

Tumbler: Andy (another @jackcowboyhero name that I’ve adopted, he uses Kučera when necessary but doesn’t remember his actual last name)

Ten-Pin: Simon Butler

I prefer to be as historically accurate as possible and since most newsies in real life were immigrants or the children of immigrants, I took that into account when naming a lot of the boys. Anglicizing names was common practice for immigrants to better assimilate and since Bumlets’s family had to deal with racism on top of regular immigrant prejudice, his father dropped the accents to make things easier for them. Bumlets will probably add them back when he starts working as something other than a newsie (assistant superintendent at Duane Street is my headcanon). I sort of imprinted on @jackcowboyhero when I first joined the fandom so the names they picked for some of the boys (Skittery, Snoddy, and Tumbler) are very near and dear to my heart. I also tried to take into account the actor’s race/ethnicity as best as I could (Dominic Lucero was Latino, Kevin Stea is biracial, and I think Marty Belafsky is Jewish but the real-life Crutch Morris definitely was) and used information about real-life newsie nicknames to name others like Dutchy and Itey. If anyone has their own headcanons, I’d love to hear them!

[thelemonsofpink]

thinking abt canon newsies details that the characters never escape from, even in fanon. I’ve never read a fic where Jack Kelly has parents, or Katherine gets along with her father, or Davey isn’t battling with other peoples ideas of who he’s supposed to be

just those complex parts of these characters that not even the most hopeful fic writers can take out of them, bc these characters exist as products of their journey.

[more-sonorous]

Hey! Hope everything is alright, we lost power lol- but uhh... Race head cannons? (I am sososo normal 😚) Good morning/day/night! 💜

hi, katz! thankfully the dorms still have power so i'm grateful to be bored out of my mind with internet access loll

race headcanons, let's do it!

his name is edward anthony higgins (which is partially real life canon and partially a nod to fanon) and he despises being called ed or any version of his first name (father's name). he's okay with tony or anthony, though.

i base my race off of livesies and 92sies (with a bit of uksies). his looks lean more towards ben cook and his personality is a mix of mostly max casella and a bit of josh barnett. sarcastic. fast-talking. impish little prankster. sorta mean and rough around the edges. big joker. ugh i just adore tough guy race and will always write him as such.

strong. (you've all seen ben cook's incredible biceps, need i explain?)

i adore the smart race headcanon. dk where it came from but i lovingly adopted it in both canon and modern

albert's his best friend in every universe

he and crutchie and jack are thick as thieves in every universe, caught somewhere between brothers and best friends

specifically canon era

got his nickname from selling out at the tracks in brooklyn, which i think is just plain canon but you can never be sure in this fandom

part irish (father) part english (mother), but he's born on u.s soil.

father is almost definitely 100% involved in gangs like the dead rabbits and the whyos

mother is dead oops

four older half-siblings (oops i think dad got around), two brothers two sisters, doesn't keep in touch with most of them but contacts occasionally as a last resort

manhattan's official second in command, takes over in jack's place when jack ages out. probably is not the next president of the newsboy union, but the next treasurer

related to the last one, the boy is excellent with numbers. very smart but just never had the opportunity to develop those skills. when davey starts school again, he offers to give race arithmetic lessons. when he realizes that race is better at arithmetic than he is, it turns into race helping davey do math homework.

two years younger than jack

became a newsie when he was around ten

misses his mom

knows he's smarter than most of these schmucks, so he's constantly running and winning card games/poker games/betting rings to trick people out of money. it's how he gets his mental stimulation, much to jack's annoyance (how else is he supposed to get extra cash for his expensive habits, jack?)

tobacco addiction oops

specifically modern era

got his nickname from being good at running, unironically. either he did track and field or he picked up the nickname from foster home shenanigans-- i pick my poison based on the au

absolute vape demon to the chagrin of all his friends.

foster system kid! mother is still dead and father was definitely involved in seedy criminal activities, currently in prison

still has all of those older half-siblings but... they do not get along, so his lil ass ended up in foster care at ten years old

misses his mom

still a certified genius when it comes to math and science, but he could care less about whatever else there is. he and davey make great study buddies because they excel where the other falters. they also make good tutors for jack, who needs a little assistance in all subjects that don't involve art or pe

i love making him a dancer in universes where that is financially possible, because here you've got this fast-talking witty tough guy that can whip out ten pirouettes in a row and flip across the room and still get up in your face-- then he still says 'and what about it?' and will beat your ass if you answer wrong

biggest case of gifted kid burnout you ever saw

could compete for valedictorian if he wanted to but he only tries in the subjects he has fun learning about

chronic procrastinator

because of the above, addicted to energy drinks as well. will probably need a kidney stone removed at some point in his life.

chews on the silver part of his pencils like the goblin he is

when someone (probably davey) tries to put him onto mechanical pencils, he snaps off the little plastic pocket clip and chews on that instead

augh thank you so much for the ask! i had so much fun answering <3

[fanlore-wiki]

Featured Article: Racetrack Higgins

This week we're dancing our way back to the 1890s and hanging out with the news boys, because our Featured Article is Newsies character Racetrack Higgins!

Racetrack Higgins is a minor character from the movie/musical, but the most popular character in the fandom. Fans have created a great deal of the fanon about the character, including his family, his cultural background, and what his first name may possibly be.

Curious to learn more? Head over to Fanlore!

------

We value every contribution to our shared fandom history. If you’re new to editing Fanlore or wikis in general, visit our New Visitor Portal to get started or ask us questions here!

[we-are-inevitable]

I felt a little bad about ranting in a reblog of your post, but I also didn't want to make my own post because my rant is directly related to what you've been saying and context is important, so I'm just gonna leave this here:

It's honestly baffling to me (as someone who does in fact love javid) how some fans are so adamant that Katherine or Sarah were only put into the story to keep javid from being canon or just so Jack had a girl to snog at the end.

First of all, allow me to introduce you to my precious newsgirl Charlie who was Jack's first love interest in the original script because newsflash: Jack was and always has been written to have a romantic plot with a girl. Not David.

Charlie was cut because her story was too dark for Disney (her aunt was a prostitute and they lived in a brothel) and was replaced by Miss Sarah Jacobs. Again. Not David.

Yes, many of Sarah's scenes were cut from the film, but that does not mean that Sarah wasn't important or that her relationship with Jack was thrown in at the last minute because Newsies was looking gay. Kenny Ortega is a gay man and he did direct the movie but that doesn't mean he didn't care about Sarah and that doesn't give you license to dismiss her. The movie simply didn't care much about romance because it's central message was family. Jack finds family in the newsies and he finds family in the Jacobs and that's his happily ever after. The romance with Sarah was a comparatively minor subplot, but I assure you it's still there.

Fast forward to 2011, Harvey Fierstein quite literally reinvented Newsies to "follow the love story" of Jack and Katherine. His reinterpretation sets up a story of Jack Kelly and Katherine Plumber/Pulitzer who are both looking for something which they ultimately find in each other. And hey! Guess what! They do in fact fall in love, and it's cute, and it isn't at the expense of some great Jack/David love story. Jack and Katherine are the love story. And frankly, I've never really understood how purely musical fans even landed on Jack/Davey in the first place because there's really not much there in the script.

Anyways, people are allowed to ship what they want, but what isn't cool is pretending that the canonical relationships only exist to ruin your ships.

TL;DR Hate on Katherine if you want, but Jack Kelly loves her.

Rant over and have a lovely day :)

HATE ON HER IF YOU WANT BUT JACK KELLY LOVES HER!!

god. thank you for this!! it’s a shame i didn’t see this earlier but everything you’re saying is so correct- jack has been, is, and always will be a loverboy, whether it’s with sarah or katherine or anyone else.

as a javid shipper, i get it; jack and david are an incredible ship, but that doesn’t mean that katherine’s character is supposed to be fully pushed to the side. you can’t rely solely on fanon and saying that katherine’s character exists just as an excuse for javid to not be canon is such a gross take.

also like,, people always say “oh but the romance made no sense! the show would be so much better without the romance!” great! so if it was javid centric in canon, you’d think the romance was unnecessary there, too, right? if you replace kath with davey, you’re still gonna say that the romance was rushed and they had no chemistry, right? because if you’re just seeing the “useless” romance as the romance with a woman- one of the few women in the show- then you’re… gross!

i am a javid shipper through and through but goddamn guys. we gotta start giving kath her flowers. she’s a good character and a good love interest.