Most of the cast trained in dance and martial arts for ten weeks before filming commenced. Originally intended as a drama, not a musical. Although many newspaper moguls of the time hosted Christmas dinners and other holiday events for their newsboys, after the Newsboys Strike, Joseph Pulitzer even went as far as to host weekend events in vaudeville houses, the period equivalent of "Kids' night at the movies". Most of the newsies depicted in the film are based on real people fr ...[Read Story ]