Trivia for
Norma Rae (1979) More at IMDbPro »

• The movie is based on a true life union organizing campaign at J.P. Stevens Mill. The real life Norma Rae is named Crystal Lee Sutton. It took 10 years to get a union contract at J.P. Stevens after the workers won the election.
  
  
• Director Cameo: [Martin Ritt] as a disgruntled factory worker.
  
  
• Sally Field and 'Bridges, Beau' researched their roles by working in a factory.
  
  
• Many of the extras in the film were students from Auburn University, eight miles from Opelika, Alabama.
  
  
• Marsha Mason, Jane Fonda and Jill Clayburgh all passed on the title role.
  
  
• In the scene where Norma Rae is fightng against being put into the police car, Sally Field struggled so hard that she actually broke the rib of an actor playing one of the policemen.
  
  
• Faye Dunaway turned down the chance to play Norma Rae and instead made The Champ (1979).
  
  
• Norma Rae's married name, Webster, means "weaver of cloth."
  
  
• On September 11, 2009, Crystal Lee Sutton - the real-life model for Norma Rae Webster - died in Burlington, N.C. at the age of 68.
  
  

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