“They wanted fair food prices to feed their families…”
“They got a battle that changed the country and made history.”
The Real-Life Events Serving as a Dramatic Historic Fiction Period Thriller Television Series
Boycott
Inspired by the
1902 Kosher Beef Boycott
The World: New York City, Lower East Side, 1902
A Limited TV Series | Inspired by True Events
Co-Female Leads | Significant Female Supporting Cast
Genre: Historical Fiction, Four-Quadrant Period Thriller
Six One-Hour Episodes| Network, Cable, Streaming
LOG-LINE:
In 1902, the women of New York City’s Lower East Side banded together to create the first-ever all-female led Boycott to protest a dramatic increase in the price of beef by the nation’s most powerful monopoly.
SERIES DESCRIPTION:
Boycott is a four-quadrant limited-series historical drama (Five one-hour episodes-written; with limited-series spinoff potential) that portrays the nation’s shocking reaction to the first-ever women-led protest at the turn of the 20th century in New York City’s Lower East Side.
NEVER-BEFORE-TOLD STORY
The 1902 Kosher Beef Boycott is the never-before-told story of how two unremarkable women, armed with fierce spirit and determination, challenge the titans of the Beef Industry, create the template for female-led grass roots social activism and fight religious, secular and familial resistance forever changing business practices in America.
INSPIRED BY TRUE EVENTS
The real-life incidents of the 1902 Kosher Beef Boycott lasted about three weeks, made national headlines, capturing the attention of President Theodore Roosevelt.
The Boycott’s feverish rallies, public agitation, violent protests involving tens of thousands, property destruction and mass arrests spread to cities throughout the country.
The World: Time | Place | Setting
Set in New York City’s Lower East side, circa 1900, this co-female-lead period thriller, supported by a mostly female ensemble cast, is set in motion when the Big Six, the nation’s largest cattle barons, Swift and Armour among them, illegally conspire to increase the price of Kosher Beef.
The price increase infuriated the Jewish community, threatening to prevent Jews from purchasing kosher meat, essential to their community’s cultural tradition and an important part of their diet.
THE FIRST FEMALE-LED SOCIAL ACTIVISM MOVEMENT
The Cattle Barons are met with a surge of unexpected resistance triggering a chain of events in this rapidly unfolding David vs. Goliath, story as two women-Fanny Levy, a mother of six children, and Sarah Edelson, the owner of a small kosher restaurant, forge an unlikely alliance that neither is equipped to undertake. Together, defying all odds, they confront the powerful beef industry, with results no one could have imagined.
Meet The Villains – Co-Conspirators – The Beef Trust
The Big Six were a small cadre of Cattle Barons that controlled half of the nation’s entire meat slaughter and meat packing industry valued at $700 million. They dominated seventy-five percent of the beef industry in New York City.
The Beef Trust used their power to secure unfair rebates helping to reduce their shipping costs with the Railroad Trust – [another monopoly sued in February 1902 by Roosevelt.]
THE AMAZING BROOKLYN BRIDGE
The Brooklyn Bridge at this time was the greatest American engineering and architectural achievement. The brilliance of its structure and connection to Brooklyn represented hope and a determined spirit for all on both sides of the fast-moving river.
It’s no wonder then that the Brooklyn Bridge, for all practical purposes built by a woman – Emily Roebling, the wife of Washington Roebling, serves as an anchor in the Boycott story where its presence looms large in the lives of the characters.
The Cattle Barons, called by the newspapers The Beef Trust, were sued by Theodore Roosevelt’s administration in May, 1902 by Attorney General, Philander Knox.
It was the hubris of the Big Six and their unquenchable thirst for profits that set in motion the events that became the May, 1902 Kosher Beef Boycott.
THEMES – PAST AND PRESENT
FAMILIAR 100 YEARS LATER
This prestige, family-friendly, period-thriller suited for network, cable or streaming platforms, dramatically brings to life societal issues and challenges of the day:
- racism
- bigotry
- patriarchy
- labor issues
- immigration
- discrimination
- male-dominance in the workplace
- women’s subservient role in the home and the workplace
Remarkably, these are all themes at the forefront of contemporary American society.
Fanny and Sarah Set the Historical Stage
Thelma and Louise and Erin Brockovich were breakthrough films for many reasons. Strong, bold, confident women who refused to “give in” and who ultimately stood up for themselves resonated in remarkable ways with audiences. The real-life women behind the 1902 Kosher Beef Boycott portrayed in the television series share the same characteristics of fierce spirit and determination that made these now classic films so compelling — and — SUCCESSFUL!
A BECHDEL BLOCKBUSTER
A FANTASTIC FEMALE-FUELED SERIES
In the spirit of the all-time great female-lead protagonist films, such as Erin Brockovich and Thelma & Louise, in Boycott the courage of two uneducated, underestimated, and seemingly unremarkable women- Fanny Levy and Sarah Edelson-leading every-day lives of tedium and toil more than 100 years ago dared to challenge the status quo, forcing a confrontation with the nation’s most powerful business conglomerates, exemplifies the power of the female spirit to both endure, but ultimately, prevail in the face of insurmountable odds.
It is against this background, and in this context, we see
Fanny Levy and Sarah Edelson initiate a legacy of social activism
powerfully reflected in contemporary America.
Despite all the progress over a century, many of the same themes
and issues Fanny and Sarah faced more than 100 years ago
remain remarkably, sadly, prevalent today.
