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VOICE ONE:
I’m Mary Tillotson.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLEIN AMERICA. Today, we begin a two-part story about songwriter andsinger Woody Guthrie. He wrote songs about common people and socialissues in the nineteen-thirties. His music influenced many people.
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VOICE ONE:
Imagine you are in America in the nineteen-thirties. A trainpasses through the countryside. It is night time. And the only soundthat can be heard is the long, lonely whistle coming from thetrain’s engine.
Inside the train’s boxcars are groups of men sitting or lying onthe floors. The men are dirty, and their clothing is torn. In oneboxcar, a short man with long, curly brown hair is playing a guitarand singing. His name is Woody Guthrie. He is singing a song aboutmen who look for work as they travel from town to town.
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VOICE TWO:
Woodrow Wilson Guthrie was born in nineteen-twelve in theAmerican state of Oklahoma. The Guthrie family lived in a smallfarming town called Okemah. Woody’s father, Charles, was abusinessman who bought and sold land. Woody’s mother, Nora, was aschool teacher. She also liked to play the piano and sing. WhenWoody was young, his mother sang him songs she had learned as agirl. These songs told stories about love and death and difficulttimes.
VOICE ONE:
Woody’s early years were happy ones. But his life began to changewhen he was only ten years old. One day, his sister, Clara, spilledoil on her dress and accidentally set herself on fire. She died thenext day. Woody never forgot her death.
As time passed, Woody’s mother began acting strangely. She lostcontrol over her actions and speech. Many people thought she wasinsane. Because of this, the Guthrie family became more private asthey attempted to hide Nora’s problems.
The loss of his daughter and his wife’s suffering ruined CharlesGuthrie. He began drinking alcohol. His business soon failed. TheGuthrie family left Okemah and lived in several towns in Oklahomaand Texas. Young Woody often had to work instead of attending schoolbecause his family was poor.
VOICE TWO:
The first musical instrument Woody learned to play was theharmonica. He learned to play the harmonica by watching an old manplay the instrument. Woody learned how to play the guitar bywatching his father’s brother play. In the nineteen-twenties, Woodywas living in the town of Pampa, Texas. Pampa was known as a “boomtown” because it had grown quickly after oil was discovered nearby.
On weekends, Woody joined other young men to play music at dancesin the town. Years later, Woody described what singing meant to him:
“When you sing a song, it reaches out and enters people’s ears.It makes them jump up and down, and sing it with you. The best partabout singing is that you can sing what you think. You can tell allkinds of stories in a song, and put your ideas across to anotherperson.”
VOICE ONE:
Woody liked to communicate with other people through his music.Yet he did not like to say much about himself. One reason for thiswas that he did not want people to know that his mother was in ahospital for insane people. Nora Guthrie suffered from Huntington’sChorea, a disease that destroys the brain and nervous system. Woodyknew that someday he also might develop the disease.
He was seventeen years old when his mother died, innineteen-twenty-nine. That was the year when the economy of theUnited States began to slow down. Over the next several years, manyAmericans lost their jobs. The period became known as the GreatDepression.
In Pampa, the oil fields dried up. Farms in many areas failedbecause little or no rain fell for several years. The land became sodry that wind easily blew away the top soil. These areas of Texas,Oklahoma and other states became known as the Dust Bowl.
VOICE TWO:
Like many other people, Woody Guthrie left Pampa to travel aroundTexas and the Southwest looking for work. He often made trips bytrain. But because he had no money, he would jump on the train’sboxcars and ride for free. This was often dangerous, because guardson the train would throw the men off or arrest them. However, Woodyfound this life exciting. One of the first songs he wrote was aboutleaving home and fleeing the Dust Bowl.
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VOICE ONE:
Woody Guthrie married Mary Jennings in nineteen-thirty-three.They had three children. Three years later, Woody left his familyand traveled to California. He met many kinds of people during histravels. He also learned songs from many different parts of thecountry. Yet what affected him most was the suffering he saw. Hesaid, “When I saw hard-working people suffering under debts,sickness and worries, I knew there was plenty to make up songsabout.”
VOICE TWO:
In California, Woody earned money by playing his guitar andsinging. Later, he began performing on a radio program with afriend, Maxine Crissman. She was called Lefty Lou. They had one ofthe most popular radio programs in Los Angeles. They sang songsWoody had written about social issues. His best songs were about thetroubles Americans faced during the Depression. This song is aboutthe dangers of coal mining. It is called “The Dying Miner.”
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VOICE ONE:
In nineteen-thirty-eight, Woody Guthrie left the radio program totravel around California. He found that conditions had become worsefor many people who had lost their land and fled the Dust Bowl.
Most of these “Dust Bowl refugees” could only find seasonal farmwork like gathering fruit from trees. Farm owners did not pay theseworkers much money. The workers lived in camps that were often dirtyand had no running water. Hunger and sickness were widespread. Thepeople in the camps seemed to have lost all hope of improving theirlives. Woody wrote a song about them called “Dust Bowl Refugees.”
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VOICE TWO:
The oppression and bad conditions in the workers’ camps madeWoody Guthrie angry. He began helping labor organizers establishunions to help the workers. Next week, we tell about how he traveledto New York City and became a well-known musician.
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VOICE ONE:
This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. Itwas produced by Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was AudriusRegis. I’m Mary Tillotson.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLEIN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.