*Spoiler Alert*

Mrs. Bellanca did not win New York’s 8th district seat in the House of Representatives in the 1938 elections.

But she did gain the nomination of not only the American Labor Party, which she helped found, but also the City Fusion Party, the Progressive Party, and the Republican Party - strange bedfellows indeed. Mrs. Bellanca was one of the most significant female labor leaders of the 20th century, and her loss in the 1938 congressional election does nothing to lessen her achievements - she became a Vice President of one of America’s major trade unions, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, at the young age of 21, and twice served the federal government in the Department of Labor during times of great need, once during the depression and again during the war.

While history does not record her voice at this event, it does record the pitched, passionate voice of his honor Fiorello La Guardia, which may be heard again here. Aside from his effusive praise of the woman of honor and his endorsement of her fellow candidates, Salvatore DeMatteo, Edmund Palmieri, and Louis Walburn, we get to hear knowing laughter at the odd pejorative “Pinochle Politician” (we get it, sure, but it feels like there is a more specific reference here, a bon mot that landed a deeper blow then than now), as well as an example of La Guardia checking down a heckler, a boisterous supporter of Governor Lehman.

It is fortunate that this stump speech was captured, even if not in full - there is a brief gap between the two halves of La Guardia’s speech, and Mrs. Bellanca’s contribution is sadly missing. Still, the extant portions of the evening tell us a little more about a perhaps underconsidered figure in the history of the American labor movement.

Audio courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives WNYC Collection.