newsies 1992 scenepacks edit musicals movie kidblink blink blush ….more.more Show less Five thousand young newsies listened as their 18-year-old strike leader, Louis “Kid Blink” Baletti, stepped up to address the crowd. Blink — so called because he wore an eyepatch — rallied the newsies with an impassioned speech. At the rally at New Irving Hall on July 25th, 1899, several newsies gave speeches to the thousands of newsboys who came out to support the cause. Below are several transcripts of those speeches. Kid Blink (one of the two newsies who inspired the role of Jack Kelly in the musical): The leader of the strike was a one-eyed young man named Louis Balletti, nicknamed Kid Blink , who spoke with a heavy Brooklyn accent that was often phonetically transcribed when he was quoted by newspapers. On July 26, David Simon and Kid Blink were accused of accepting a bribe of $400 ($11,000 in today’s money) to return to selling the World and Journal. The two were tried in a pseudo-court before a jury of other strikers lead by Race Track Higgins. The events of the 1899 strike later inspired the 1992 Disney film Newsies, including a character named Kid Blink (who wears an eye patch), but in this version of the story, the leader of the strike was a fictional character named Jack Kelly. The initial leaders of the Newsboys' strike, writes Faces of the Past, were 18-year-old Louis Kid Blink Baletti and 21-year-old David Simons. Kid Blink is a Manhattan newsboy in the 1992 movie musical Newsies and some versions of the stage musical adaption. Blink has a short temper and strong emotions. When the newsies' price of newspapers goes up to 60 cents per hundred, Kid Blink reacts with anger and is quick to latch onto the idea. However, the Newsboys did not back down and stood their ground. Until, Pulitzer and Hearst finally backed down and gave the Newsboys what they wanted. Therefore, Kid Blink went down in history as one of the most amazing, and most shockingly powerful kids in history. Newsboys refused to handle the “yellow kid” dailies from Wall Street to Harlem, Brooklyn to the Bronx, and in the Staten Island towns of Clifton, Stapleton, and Tomkinsville.