Question: My mom and I have a disagreement about the movie Cradle Will Rock, and we'd like you to settle it. I say it's based on true events, but Mom says they just added real people to a fictional story to make it seem more authentic. A pint of Ben & Jerry's is riding on the answer. Answer: Actor-turned-filmmaker Tim Robbins' Cradle Will Rock is based on actual events, though it takes liberties with the details. Marc Blitzstein's 1937 anticapitalist operetta The Cradle Will Rock, about the effort to unionize steelworkers, was originally produced as part of the Federal Theatre Project. The Federal Theatre Project (1935-1939), in turn, was part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which was created in 1935 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt
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