Folksinger and labor activist Joe Glazer was born in New York City in 1918. As a child he often sang in synagogues, and inspired by Hollywood's singing cowboys he bought a guitar from the Sears Roebuck catalog, taking his first lesson through the Works Progress Administration program. Though his Polish-born father was a member of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, politics were never a subject at home, and Glazer was not directly exposed to labor activism until he arrived at Brooklyn College in 1936.