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84-541: The musicians travelled between shows across the American Southwest in 17 vintage train cars from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. The outdoor concert locations, sometimes attracting over 10,000 fans, are often a stone's throw from the train. The bands eat, sleep and engage in impromptu jam sessions on the train between stops, giving them a chance to collaborate. On stage at night, they often join in on each other's sets, sometimes bringing around 30 musicians up to create

168-468: A television series . (Also, Marc Blitzstein 's papers show that Guthrie made some contributions to four CIO episodes (dated June 20, June 27, August 1, August 15, 1948) of Labor for Victory. ) While Labor for Victory was a milestone in theory as a national platform, in practice it proved less so. Only 35 of 104 NBC affiliates carried the show. Episodes included the announcement that the show represented "twelve million organized men and women, united in

252-546: A Grammy Award in 2013. The film is currently available on iTunes and DVD/Blu-ray Disc. Railroad Revival Tour bands Mumford & Sons, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and Old Crow Medicine Show closed the show together at every stop with "This Train Is Bound for Glory." The 2012 tour was slated to include performances by Willie Nelson , Band of Horses , Jamey Johnson , and John Reilly and Friends. The tour

336-613: A benefit hosted by the John Steinbeck Committee to Aid Farm Workers, to raise money for migrant workers. There he met the folk singer Pete Seeger , and the two men became good friends. Seeger accompanied Guthrie back to Texas to meet other members of the Guthrie family. He recalled an awkward conversation with Mary Guthrie's mother, in which she asked for Seeger's help to persuade Guthrie to treat her daughter better. From April 1940, Guthrie and Seeger lived together in

420-780: A car accident in California in 1973 at the age of 19. After the divorce, Guthrie's second wife, Marjorie, re-entered his life and cared for him until his death. Increasingly unable to control his muscles, Guthrie was hospitalized at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in Morris County, New Jersey, from 1956 to 1961; at Brooklyn State Hospital (now Kingsboro Psychiatric Center) in East Flatbush until 1966; and finally at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens Village , New York, until his death in 1967. Marjorie and

504-582: A column for the communist newspaper People's World from May 1939 to January 1940. Throughout his life, Guthrie was associated with United States communist groups, although he apparently did not belong to any. With the outbreak of World War II and the Molotov–Ribbentrop non-aggression pact the Soviet Union had signed with Germany in 1939, the anti-Stalin owners of KFVD radio were not comfortable with Guthrie's political leanings after he wrote

588-631: A daughter, Melora Marshall, who was an actress, from another marriage. Although he and Ware divorced in 1954, they remained close for the rest of their lives. In 1932, Geer met Harry Hay at the Tony Pastor Theatre where Geer was working as an actor. They soon became lovers. Geer and Hay participated in a milk strike in Los Angeles. Later in the year, they performed in support of the 1934 West Coast waterfront strike where they witnessed police firing on strikers and killing two. Geer

672-661: A dedicated activist touring government work camps of the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s with folk singers such as Burl Ives and Woody Guthrie (whom he introduced to the People's World and the Daily Worker ). In 1956, Guthrie and Geer released an album together on Folkways Records , titled Bound for Glory: Songs and Stories of Woody Guthrie. In his biography, Harry Hay described Geer's activism and their activities while organizing for

756-635: A mine in the Mediterranean Sea , killing one person aboard, but the ship sailed to Bizerte , Tunisia under her own power. His last ship, Sea Porpoise , took troops from the United States to England and France for the D-Day invasion. Guthrie was aboard when the ship was torpedoed off Utah Beach by the German submarine U-390 on July 5, 1944, injuring 12 of the crew. Guthrie was unhurt and

840-874: A political figure, they minimized Guthrie's role. The Department of the Interior hired him for one month to write songs about the Columbia River and the construction of the federal dams for the documentary's soundtrack. Guthrie toured the Columbia River and the Pacific Northwest. Guthrie said he "couldn't believe it, it's a paradise", which appeared to inspire him creatively. In one month Guthrie wrote 26 songs, including three of his most famous: " Roll On, Columbia, Roll On ", " Pastures of Plenty ", and " Grand Coulee Dam ". The surviving songs were released as Columbia River Songs . The film "Columbia"

924-710: A pro-union standpoint. The film was denounced as "subversive", consequently it faced difficulties during production and in distribution. In 1951, Geer founded the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga, California , with his wife, actress Herta Ware . He combined his acting and botanical careers at the Theatricum, cultivating every plant mentioned in Shakespeare 's plays. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, he played several seasons at

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1008-432: A rare and rowdy performance. The organic American roots feeling of the tour also prompts participating musicians to honor U.S. railway history, like Mumford & Sons' tribute to Woody Guthrie in 2011. The tour included performances by Mumford & Sons , Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros , and Old Crow Medicine Show . A documentary, called Big Easy Express , directed by Emmett Malloy premiered at SXSW 2012 and won

1092-474: A rare first-hand account of Guthrie during his Merchant Marine service, at one point describing how Guthrie referred to his guitar as a "Hoping Machine. But later during duty aboard the troop ship, Guthrie built an actual "Hoping Machine" made of cloth, whirligigs and discarded metal attached to a railing at the stern, aimed at lifting the soldiers' spirits. In 1945, the government decided that Guthrie's association with communism excluded him from further service in

1176-476: A real working class person and not an intellectual". Guthrie contributed songwriting and authenticity in much the same capacity for Pete Seeger's post-Almanac Singers project People's Songs , a newsletter and booking organization for labor singers, founded in 1945. Guthrie was a prolific writer, penning thousands of pages of unpublished poems and prose, many written while living in New York City. After

1260-556: A recording session with Alan Lomax, Lomax suggested Guthrie write an autobiography. Lomax thought Guthrie's descriptions of growing up were some of the best accounts he had read of American childhood. During this time, Guthrie met Marjorie Mazia (the professional name of Marjorie Greenblatt), a dancer in New York who would become his second wife. Mazia was an instructor at the Martha Graham Dance School , where she

1344-533: A small vacation house in Solana Beach, California , where his front and back yards were cultivated as vegetable gardens rather than lawns. Geer died of respiratory failure at the age of 76 on April 22, 1978 in Los Angeles . As he was dying, his family sang folk songs written by him and Woody Guthrie and recited poems by Robert Frost at his bedside. His remains were cremated and his ashes are buried at

1428-530: A song praising the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and the Soviet invasion of Poland . He left the station, ending up in New York, where he wrote and recorded his 1940 album Dust Bowl Ballads , based on his experiences during the 1930s, which earned him the nickname the "Dust Bowl Troubadour". In February 1940, he wrote his most famous song, " This Land Is Your Land ". He said it was a response to what he felt

1512-511: A student and dropped out of high school in his senior year before graduation, his teachers described him as bright. He was an avid reader on a wide range of topics. In 1929, Guthrie's father sent for Woody to join him in Texas, but little changed for the aspiring musician. Guthrie, then 18, was reluctant to attend high school classes in Pampa; he spent most of his time learning songs by busking on

1596-419: A total of 174 times from May 1939 to January 1940. "Woody Sez" was not explicitly political, but it covered current events as observed by Guthrie. He wrote the columns in an exaggerated hillbilly dialect and usually included a small comic. These columns were published posthumously as a collection after Guthrie's death. Steve Earle said of Guthrie, "I don't think of Woody Guthrie as a political writer. He

1680-656: A word Pete and Woody had picked up in their cross-country travels. The singers eventually outgrew the space and moved into the cooperative Almanac House in Greenwich Village . Initially, Guthrie helped write and sing what the Almanac Singers termed "peace" songs while the Nazi–Soviet Pact was in effect. After Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union, the group wrote anti-fascist songs. The members of

1764-501: Is told in the artist's down-home dialect. The Library Journal complained about the "too careful reproduction of illiterate speech". However, Clifton Fadiman, reviewing the book in The New Yorker , remarked that "Someday people are going to wake up to the fact that Woody Guthrie and the ten thousand songs that leap and tumble off the strings of his music box are a national possession, like Yellowstone and Yosemite , and part of

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1848-665: The American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Connecticut . He created a second Shakespeare Garden on the theater's grounds. By that time, he was working sporadically again on Broadway . In 1964, he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for 110 in the Shade . In 1967 he performed a soliloquy as the prosecutor delivering the closing argument against the two murderers in

1932-597: The Communist Party USA . In his later years, Geer was best known for his role as Grandpa Zebulon "Zeb" Walton in the TV series The Waltons from 1972 until his death in 1978. Geer was born in Frankfort, Indiana , the son of Katherine (née Aughe), a teacher, and Roy Aaron Ghere, a postal worker. His father left the family when he was 11 years old. Will was deeply influenced by his grandfather, who taught him

2016-729: The Dust Bowl period, was included on Mojo magazine's list of 100 Records That Changed The World, and many of his recorded songs are archived in the Library of Congress . Songwriters who have acknowledged Guthrie as a major influence on their work include Steve Earle , Bob Dylan , Lou Reed , Phil Ochs , Johnny Cash , Bruce Springsteen , Donovan , Robert Hunter , Harry Chapin , John Mellencamp , Pete Seeger , Andy Irvine , Joe Strummer , Billy Bragg , Jerry Garcia , Bob Weir , Jeff Tweedy , Tom Paxton , Brian Fallon , Sean Bonnette , and Sixto Rodríguez . He frequently performed with

2100-403: The Dust Bowl 's brutal weather. He could not get it published. It was published posthumously in 2013, by Harper , under actor Johnny Depp 's publishing imprint, Infinitum Nihil . Guthrie was also a prolific sketcher and painter, his images ranging from simple, impressionistic images to free and characterful drawings, typically of the people in his songs. In 1949, Guthrie's music was used in

2184-511: The Library of Congress —as well as an album, Dust Bowl Ballads , for Victor Records in Camden, New Jersey . In February 1940, he wrote his most famous song, " This Land Is Your Land ", as a response to what he felt was an overplaying of Irving Berlin 's " God Bless America " on the radio. Guthrie thought the lyrics were unrealistic and complacent. He adapted the melody from an old gospel song, "Oh My Loving Brother", which had been adapted by

2268-431: The anti-communist political climate. As his health worsened, he met and married his third wife, Anneke van Kirk. They had a child, Lorina Lynn. The couple moved to Fruit Cove, Florida , where they briefly lived. They lived in a bus on land called Beluthahatchee , owned by his friend Stetson Kennedy . Guthrie's arm was hurt in an accident when gasoline used to start the campfire exploded. Although he regained movement in

2352-573: The neighborhood of Lents , on the promise of a job. Gunther von Fritsch was directing a documentary about the Bonneville Power Administration 's construction of the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River , and needed a narrator. Alan Lomax had recommended Guthrie to narrate the film and sing songs onscreen. The original project was expected to take 12 months, but as filmmakers became worried about casting such

2436-507: The Almanac Singers and residents of the Almanac House were a loosely defined group of musicians, though the core members included Guthrie, Pete Seeger , Millard Lampell and Lee Hays . In keeping with common utopian ideals, meals, chores and rent at the Almanac House were shared. The Sunday hootenannies were good opportunities to collect donation money for rent. Songs written in the Almanac House had shared songwriting credits among all

2520-660: The Greenwich Village loft of sculptor Harold Ambellan and his fiancée. Guthrie had some success in New York at this time as a guest on CBS 's radio program Back Where I Come From and used his influence to get a spot on the show for his friend Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter . Ledbetter's Tenth Street apartment was a gathering spot for the musician circle in New York at the time, and Guthrie and Ledbetter were good friends, as they had busked together at bars in Harlem. In November 1941, Seeger introduced Guthrie to his friend

2604-599: The Humphrey-Weidman Studio Theatre in New York City. Guthrie provided live music for the performance, which featured Maslow and her New Dance Group. Two-and-a-half years later, Maslow brought Folksay to early television under the direction of Leo Hurwitz. The same group performed the ballet live in front of CBS TV cameras. The 30-minute broadcast aired on WCBW, the pioneer CBS television station in New York City (now WCBS-TV ), from 8:15–8:45 pm ET on November 24, 1944. Featured were Maslow and

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2688-599: The Labor for Victory program popular enough for an indefinite run, using labor news, name speakers and interviews with workmen. Labor partisanship, they promise, is out." Writers for Labor for Victory included: Peter Lyon, a progressive journalist; Millard Lampell (born Allan Sloane), later an American movie and television screenwriter; and Morton Wishengrad, who worked for the AFL. For entertainment on CIO episodes, De Caux asked singer and songwriter Woody Guthrie to contribute to

2772-679: The Merchant Marine; he was drafted into the U.S. Army . While he was on furlough from the Army, Guthrie married Marjorie. After his discharge, they moved into a house on Mermaid Avenue in Coney Island and over time had four children: daughters Cathy and Nora ; and sons Arlo and Joady. Cathy died as a result of a fire at the age of four, and Guthrie suffered a serious depression from his grief. Arlo and Joady followed in their father's footsteps as singer-songwriters. When his family

2856-473: The New Dance Group, which included among others Jane Dudley, Pearl Primus, and William Bales. Woody Guthrie and fellow folk singer Tony Kraber played guitar, sang songs, and read text from The People, Yes . The program received positive reviews and was performed on television over WCBW a second time in early 1945. In May 1941, after a brief stay in Los Angeles, Guthrie moved to Portland, Oregon , in

2940-600: The United States in 1934. After Hay was increasingly political, Geer introduced him to the party. Geer became a reader of the People's World , a West Coast Communist newspaper. He maintained a garden at his vacation house, called Geer-Gore Gardens, in Nichols, Connecticut . He was often there and attended the local Fourth of July fireworks celebrations, sometimes wearing a black top hat or straw hat and always his trademark denim overalls with only one suspender hooked. He had

3024-738: The United States was the best use of his talents. Labor for Victory: In April 1942, Time magazine reported that the AFL (American Federation of Labor) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) had agreed to a joint radio production, called Labor for Victory . NBC agreed to run the weekly segment as a "public service". The AFL and CIO presidents William Green and Philip Murray agreed to let their press chiefs, Philip Pearl and Len De Caux , narrate on alternate weeks. The show ran on NBC radio on Saturdays 10:15–10:30 pm, starting on April 25, 1942. Time wrote, "De Caux and Pearl hope to make

3108-422: The age of 23 as the result of an automobile accident. The daughters both died of Huntington's disease at the age of 41, in the 1970s. Evidently the disease had been passed on from their father, although Guthrie himself was diagnosed with the condition later in life, in 1952, when he was 43 years old. Guthrie and Mary divorced in 1940. Mary Esther Jennings Guthrie Bailey Boyle remarried, had another child, and died at

3192-424: The age of 97 in California. Guthrie married twice more, to Marjorie Greenblatt (1945–1953), and Anneke van Kirk (1953–1956), having a total of eight children. During the Dust Bowl period, Guthrie joined the thousands of Okies and others who migrated to California to look for work, leaving his wife and children in Texas. Many of his songs are concerned with the conditions faced by working-class people. During

3276-591: The arm, he was never able to play the guitar again. In 1954, the couple returned to New York, living in the Beach Haven apartment complex owned and operated by Fred Trump in Gravesend, Brooklyn ; Guthrie composed there the song " Old Man Trump ". Shortly after, Anneke filed for divorce, a result of the strain of caring for Guthrie. Anneke left New York after arranging for friends to adopt Lorina Lynn. Lorina had no further contact with her birth parents. She died in

3360-537: The best stuff this country has to show the world." This book was the inspiration for the movie Bound for Glory , starring David Carradine , which won the 1976 Academy Award for Original Music Score for Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Adaptation Score, and the National Board of Review Award for Best Actor , among other accolades. In 1944, Guthrie met Moses "Moe" Asch of Folkways Records , for whom he first recorded "This Land Is Your Land". Over

3444-666: The botanical names of the plants in Indiana, his native state. Will began to be a botanist ; he received a master's degree in botany at the University of Chicago . He was also a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. Anglicizing his name, Will Geer began his acting career touring in tent shows and on riverboats . He worked on several social commentaries for documentaries, including narrating Sheldon Dick 's Men and Dust about silicosis among miners. He created

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3528-610: The children visited Guthrie at Greystone every Sunday. They answered fan mail and the children played on the hospital grounds. Eventually, a longtime fan of Guthrie invited the family to his nearby home for the Sunday visits. This lasted until Guthrie was moved to the Brooklyn State Hospital, which was closer to Howard Beach , New York, where Marjorie and the children then lived. Will Geer Will Geer (born William Aughe Ghere ; March 9, 1902 – April 22, 1978)

3612-578: The communist circles in Southern California. Notwithstanding Guthrie's later claim that "the best thing that I did in 1936 was to sign up with the Communist Party ", he was never a member of the party. He was noted as a fellow traveler —an outsider who agreed with the platform of the party while avoiding party discipline. Guthrie wrote a column for the communist newspaper, People's World . The column, titled "Woody Sez", appeared

3696-525: The country group the Carter Family for their song "Little Darling Pal Of Mine". Guthrie signed the manuscript with the comment, "All you can write is what you see." Although the song was written in 1940, it was four years before he recorded it for Moses Asch in April 1944. Sheet music was produced and given to schools by Howie Richmond sometime later. In March 1940, Guthrie was invited to play at

3780-629: The documentary film Columbia River , which explored government dams and hydroelectric projects on the river. Guthrie had been commissioned by the US Bonneville Power Administration in 1941 to write songs for the project, but it had been postponed by World War II. The years immediately after the war when he lived on Mermaid Avenue were among Guthrie's most productive as a writer. His extensive writings from this time were archived and maintained by Marjorie and later his estate, mostly handled by his daughter Nora. Several of

3864-493: The film In Cold Blood . In 1972, he played the part of Bear Claw in Jeremiah Johnson . In 1972, he was cast as Zebulon Walton, the family patriarch on The Waltons, a role he took over from Edgar Bergen . Bergen played the character in the TV movie upon which the series was based. He won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for The Waltons in 1975. When Geer died shortly after completing

3948-473: The high resolve to rid the world of Fascism in 1942". Speakers included Donald E. Montgomery , then "consumer's counselor" at the U.S. Department of Agriculture . Merchant Marine: Guthrie lobbied the United States Army to accept him as a USO performer instead of conscripting him as a soldier in the draft. When Guthrie's attempts failed, his friends Cisco Houston and Jim Longhi persuaded

4032-448: The homes of family friends. Guthrie had a natural affinity for music, learning old ballads and traditional English and Scottish songs from the parents of friends. Guthrie befriended an African-American shoeshine boy named George, who played blues on his harmonica. After listening to George play, Guthrie bought his own harmonica and began playing along with him. He used to busk for money and food. Although Guthrie did not do well as

4116-638: The late 1930s on a songbook distributed to listeners of his Los Angeles radio show Woody and Lefty Lou , who wanted the words to his recordings. While at KFVD, Guthrie met newscaster Ed Robbin. Robbin was impressed with a song Guthrie wrote about political activist Thomas Mooney , wrongly convicted in a case that was a cause célèbre of the time. Robbin, who became Guthrie's political mentor, introduced Guthrie to socialists and Communists in Southern California, including Will Geer. (He introduced Guthrie to writer John Steinbeck.) Robbin remained Guthrie's lifelong friend, and helped Guthrie book benefit performances in

4200-433: The latter part of that decade in Los Angeles , he achieved fame with radio partner Maxine "Lefty Lou" Crissman as a broadcast performer of commercial hillbilly music and traditional folk music. Guthrie was making enough money to send for his family to join him from Texas. While appearing on the radio station KFVD , owned by a populist-minded New Deal Democrat, Frank W. Burke , Guthrie began to write and perform some of

4284-455: The loss of his family's home in Okemah a month after it was completed. When Guthrie was seven, his sister Clara died after setting her clothes on fire during an argument with her mother, and, later, in 1927, their father was severely burned in a fire at home. Guthrie's mother, Nora, was afflicted with Huntington's disease , although the family did not know this at the time. What they could see

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4368-584: The manuscripts also contain writing by a young Arlo and the other Guthrie children. During this time Ramblin' Jack Elliott studied extensively under Guthrie, visiting his home and observing how he wrote and performed. Elliott, like Bob Dylan later, idolized Guthrie. He was inspired by the singer's idiomatic performance style and repertoire. Because of the decline caused by Guthrie's progressive Huntington's disease , Arlo Guthrie and Bob Dylan both later said that they had learned much of Guthrie's performance style from Elliott. When asked about this, Elliott said, "I

4452-474: The members, although in the case of " Union Maid ", members would later state that Guthrie wrote the song, ensuring that his children would receive residuals. In the Almanac House, Guthrie added authenticity to their work, since he was a "real" working class Oklahoman. "There was the heart of America personified in Woody ... And for a New York Left that was primarily Jewish, first or second generation American, and

4536-575: The message " This machine kills fascists " displayed on his guitar. Guthrie was brought up by middle-class parents in Okemah, Oklahoma . He married at 19, but with the advent of the dust storms that marked the Dust Bowl period, he left his wife and three children to join the thousands of Okies who were migrating to California looking for employment. He worked at Los Angeles radio station KFVD , achieving some fame from playing hillbilly music , made friends with Will Geer and John Steinbeck , and wrote

4620-544: The next few years, he recorded " Worried Man Blues ", along with hundreds of other songs . These recordings would later be released by Folkways and Stinson Records, which had joint distribution rights. The Folkways recordings are available (through the Smithsonian Institution online shop); the most complete series of these sessions, culled from dates with Asch, is titled The Asch Recordings . Guthrie believed performing his anti-fascist songs and poems in

4704-530: The poet Charles Olson , then a junior editor at the fledgling magazine Common Ground . The meeting led to Guthrie writing the article "Ear Players" in the Spring 1942 issue of the magazine. The article marked Guthrie's debut as a published writer in the mainstream media. In September 1940, Guthrie was invited by the Model Tobacco Company to host their radio program Pipe Smoking Time . Guthrie

4788-419: The protest songs that he eventually released on his album Dust Bowl Ballads . This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright #154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin' it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don't give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that's all we wanted to do. —Written by Guthrie in

4872-602: The radio soap opera Bright Horizon . Geer was blacklisted in the early 1950s for refusing to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities . As a result, he appeared in very few films over the next decade. Among those was Salt of the Earth (1954). He starred in it; it was produced, directed, and written by blacklisted Hollywood personnel. It told the story of a miners' strike in New Mexico from

4956-573: The role of Mr. Mister in Marc Blitzstein 's 1937 The Cradle Will Rock , played Candy in John Steinbeck 's theatrical adaptation of his novella Of Mice and Men and appeared in numerous plays and revues throughout the 1940s. From 1948 to 1951, he appeared in more than a dozen movies including Winchester '73 (as Wyatt Earp ), Broken Arrow and Comanche Territory , all in 1950; as well as Bright Victory (1951). He became

5040-539: The seventh broadcast, claiming he had begun to feel the show was too restrictive when he was told what to sing. Disgruntled with New York, Guthrie packed up Mary and his children in a new car and headed west to California. Choreographer Sophie Maslow developed Folksay as an elaborate mix of modern dance and ballet, which combined folk songs by Woody Guthrie with text from Carl Sandburg 's 1936 book-length poem The People, Yes . The premiere took place in March 1942 at

5124-554: The ship stayed afloat; Sea Porpoise returned to England, where she was repaired at Newcastle . In July 1944, she returned to the United States. Guthrie was an active supporter of the National Maritime Union , one of many unions for wartime American merchant sailors. Guthrie wrote songs about his experience in the Merchant Marine but was never satisfied with them. Longhi later wrote about Guthrie's marine experiences in his book Woody, Cisco and Me . The book offers

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5208-630: The show. "Personally, I would like to see a phonograph record made of your 'Girl in the Red, White, and Blue. ' " The title appears in at least one collection of Guthrie records. Guthrie consented and performed solo two or three times on this program (among several other WWII radio shows, including Answering You , Labor for Victory , Jazz in America , and We the People ). On August 29, 1942, he performed "The Farmer-Labor Train", with lyrics he had written to

5292-575: The singer to join the U.S. Merchant Marine in June 1943. He made several voyages aboard merchant ships SS William B. Travis , SS William Floyd , and SS Sea Porpoise , while they traveled in convoys during the Battle of the Atlantic . He served as a mess man and dishwasher, and frequently sang for the crew and troops to buoy their spirits on transatlantic voyages. His first ship, William B. Travis , hit

5376-535: The sixth season of The Waltons , the death of his character was written into the show's script. His final episode, the last episode of the 1977–1978 season, showed him reuniting with his onscreen wife Esther (played by Ellen Corby ; she had been absent for the entire season due to a stroke). His character was mourned onscreen during the first episode of the 1978–1979 season, titled "The Empty Nest". Geer married actress Herta Ware in 1934; they had three children, Kate Geer, Thad Geer, and actress Ellen Geer . Ware also had

5460-399: The son of Nora Belle (née Sherman) and Charles Edward Guthrie. His parents named him after Woodrow Wilson , then Governor of New Jersey and the Democratic candidate who was elected as President of the United States in fall 1912 . Charles Guthrie was an industrious businessman, owning at one time up to 30 plots of land in Okfuskee County. He was actively involved in Oklahoma politics and

5544-458: The streets and reading in the library at Pampa's city hall. He regularly played at dances with his father's half-brother Jeff Guthrie, a fiddle player. His mother died in 1930 of complications of Huntington's disease while still in the Oklahoma Hospital for the Insane. At age 20, Guthrie met and married his first wife, Oklahoma-born Mary Jennings (1917-2014), in Texas in 1931. They had three children together: Gwendolyn, Sue, and Bill. Bill died at

5628-437: The strike. Geer introduced Guthrie to Pete Seeger at the 'Grapes of Wrath' benefit, which he organized in 1940 for migrant farm workers. Geer acted with the Group Theatre (New York) studying under Harold Clurman , Cheryl Crawford and Lee Strasberg . Geer acted in radio appearing as Mephistopheles ( the devil ) in the 1938 and 1944 productions of Norman Corwin 's The Plot to Overthrow Christmas . Geer also acted in

5712-414: The tune of " Wabash Cannonball ". (In 1948, he reworked the "Wabash Cannonball" melody as "The Wallace-Taylor Train" for the 1948 Progressive National Convention , which nominated former U.S. Vice President Henry A. Wallace for president.) The Almanac Singers (of which Guthrie and Lampell were co-founders) appeared on The Treasury Hour and CBS Radio's We the People . The latter was later produced as

5796-456: Was dementia and muscular degeneration. When Woody was 14, Nora was committed to the Oklahoma Hospital for the Insane. At the time his father Charles was living and working in Pampa, Texas , to repay debts from unsuccessful real estate deals. Woody and his siblings were on their own in Oklahoma; they relied on their eldest brother Roy for support. The 14-year-old Woody Guthrie worked odd jobs around Okemah, begging meals and sometimes sleeping at

5880-429: Was a Catholic , but she reluctantly agreed in December 1943. Following the conclusion of his work in the Northwest, Guthrie corresponded with Pete Seeger about Seeger's newly formed folk-protest group, the Almanac Singers . Guthrie returned to New York with plans to tour the country as a member of the group. The singers originally worked out of a loft in New York City hosting regular concerts called " hootenannies ",

5964-413: Was a committed leftist; Hay later described him as his political mentor. Geer introduced Hay to Los Angeles' leftist community and together they were activists, joining demonstrations for laborers' rights and the unemployed. Once they handcuffed themselves to lampposts outside UCLA and handed out leaflets for the American League Against War and Fascism . Geer became a member of the Communist Party of

6048-481: Was a conservative Democratic candidate for office in the county. Charles Guthrie was reportedly involved in the 1911 lynching of Laura and L. D. Nelson . (Woody Guthrie wrote three songs about the event in the 1960s. He said that his father, Charles, became a member of the Ku Klux Klan during its revival beginning in 1915. ) Three significant fires occurred during Guthrie's early life. In 1909, one fire caused

6132-442: Was a writer who lived in very political times." With the outbreak of World War II and publicity about the non-aggression pact the Soviet Union had signed with Germany in 1939, the owners of KFVD radio did not want its staff "spinning apologia" for the Soviet Union. They fired both Robbin and Guthrie. Without the daily radio show, Guthrie's employment chances declined, and he returned with his family to Pampa, Texas. Although Mary

6216-417: Was an American actor, musician, and social activist who was active in labor organizing and other movements in New York City and Southern California in the 1930s and 1940s. In California he befriended rising singer Woody Guthrie . They both lived in New York City for a time in the 1940s. He was blacklisted in the 1950s by Hollywood after refusing, in testimony before Congress, to name persons who had joined

6300-416: Was assisting Sophie Maslow with her piece Folksay . Based on the folklore and poetry collected by Carl Sandburg , Folksay included the adaptation of some of Guthrie's Dust Bowl Ballads for the dance. Guthrie continued to write songs and began work on his autobiography. The end product, Bound for Glory , was completed with editing assistance by Mazia and was first published by E.P. Dutton in 1943. It

6384-790: Was cancelled for 2012. The tour included performances by Mumford & Sons, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and Old Crow Medicine Show. Woody Guthrie Woodrow Wilson Guthrie ( / ˈ ɡ ʌ θ r i / ; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer-songwriter and composer who was one of the most significant figures in American folk music . His work focused on themes of American socialism and anti-fascism . He inspired several generations both politically and musically with songs such as " This Land Is Your Land ". Guthrie wrote hundreds of country , folk , and children's songs, along with ballads and improvised works. Dust Bowl Ballads , Guthrie's album of songs about

6468-500: Was desperately trying to get Americanized, I think a figure like Woody was of great, great importance," a friend of the group, Irwin Silber , would say. Woody routinely emphasized his working-class image, rejected songs he felt were not in the country blues vein he was familiar with, and rarely contributed to household chores. House member Agnes "Sis" Cunningham , another Okie, would later recall that Woody "loved people to think of him as

6552-421: Was flattered. Dylan learned from me the same way I learned from Woody. Woody didn't teach me. He just said, If you want to learn something, just steal it—that's the way I learned from Lead Belly ." By the late 1940s, Guthrie's health was declining, and his behavior was becoming extremely erratic. He received various diagnoses (including alcoholism and schizophrenia ). In 1952, it was finally determined that he

6636-514: Was happy to return to Texas, Guthrie preferred to accept Will Geer's invitation to New York City and headed east. Arriving in New York, Guthrie, known as "the Oklahoma cowboy", was embraced by its folk music community. For a time, he slept on a couch in Will Geer 's apartment. Guthrie made his first recordings—several hours of conversation and songs recorded by the folklorist Alan Lomax for

6720-462: Was not completed until 1949 (see below). At the conclusion of the month in Oregon and Washington, Guthrie wanted to return to New York. Tired of the continual uprooting, Mary Guthrie told him to go without her and the children. Although Guthrie would see Mary again, once on a tour through Los Angeles with the Almanac Singers, it was essentially the end of their marriage. Divorce was difficult, since Mary

6804-424: Was paid $ 180 a week, an impressive salary in 1940. He was finally making enough money to send regular payments back to Mary. He also brought her and the children to New York, where the family lived briefly in an apartment on Central Park West . The reunion represented Woody's desire to be a better father and husband. He said, "I have to set [ sic ] real hard to think of being a dad." Guthrie quit after

6888-538: Was suffering from Huntington's disease , a genetic disorder inherited from his mother. Believing him to be a danger to their children because of his behavior, Marjorie suggested he return to California without her. They eventually divorced. Upon his return to California, Guthrie lived at the Theatricum Botanicum , a summer-stock type theatre founded and owned by Will Geer . Together with singers and actors who had been blacklisted by HUAC , he waited out

6972-475: Was the overplaying of Irving Berlin 's " God Bless America " on the radio. Guthrie was married three times and fathered eight children. His son Arlo Guthrie became nationally known as a musician. Guthrie died in 1967 from complications of Huntington's disease . His first two daughters also died of the disease. Guthrie was born July 14, 1912, in Okemah , a small town in Okfuskee County, Oklahoma ,

7056-402: Was young, Guthrie wrote and recorded Songs to Grow on for Mother and Child , a collection of children's music , which includes the song "Goodnight Little Arlo (Goodnight Little Darlin')", written when Arlo was about nine years old. During 1947, he wrote House of Earth , an historical novel containing explicit sexual material, about a couple who build a house made of clay and earth to withstand

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