All language subtitles for Woody.Guthrie.and.the.Ghost.of.Tom.Joad.Today.2026.1080p.PBS.WEB-DL.AAC.2.0.H.264-ATH_[eng]

female narrator: October 1936,
the seventh year of the Great

Depression in America.

That month, a 34 year old
novelist in Northern California

writes a series of articles for
a San Francisco newspaper

published under the heading
"The
Harvest Gypsies."

Its subject, the terrible
working and living conditions

for migrant farm workers in
California.

Many of them had recently fled
poverty, the Dust Bowl, and the

loss of their farms in the
Midwest and Texas, and now
faced

police violence and arrests.

♪ But the rustler-- ♪♪

narrator: A few months
later, one of those struggling

to survive in the heartland of
America, a 25 year old
part-time

musician, headed west for the
first time.

♪♪♪

narrator: Soon these two
very different men would meet

and become fierce allies in the
campaign to ease the suffering

of the migrants.

♪ Tom Joad got out of the
old McAlester Pen-- ♪♪

narrator: John Steinbeck
would pen one of the great

American novels, "The Grapes of
Wrath," soon to be a

classic movie.

Woodrow Wilson Guthrie, known
to
everyone as Woody, would write

and record countless songs that
express our highest ideals and

continue to inspire
Americans today.

♪♪♪

♪ I'm sitting down here
in the campfire light, ♪

♪ searching for the
ghost of Tom Joad. ♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

narrator: Woody Guthrie
was born in 1912 in Okema,

Oklahoma to a prosperous family
haunted by tragedy.

His sister died in a fire.

Later, his father was badly
burned in a fire likely set by

Woody's mother, who was soon
committed to an insane asylum,
a

victim of Huntington's disease,
which would later claim her
son.

Woody's father, Charles
Guthrie,
a businessman, supported the Ku

Klux Klan and may have
witnessed
the lynching of a local black

mother and her son.

Falling deeply in debt, Charles
moved to Pampa, Texas and sent

for Woody to join him.

Woody started playing in what
were known as hillbilly bands,

often adding jokes like his
idol
Will Rogers.

♪ Here's what all
of the people there say. ♪

♪ Well, it's so long. ♪

♪ It's been good
to know you. ♪

♪ So long. ♪

♪ It's been good
to know you. ♪♪

narrator: Economic
conditions in the

Depression worsened.

An apocalyptic dust storm hit
Pampa and other towns on April

14, 1935, which came to be
known
as Black Sunday.

Woody was not yet writing
songs,
but he would immortalize that

day a few years later.

Dust Bowl refugees by the tens
of thousands had already hit
the

road from Oklahoma, Arkansas,
Texas, and other states after

hearing that jobs were
plentiful
on rich farmland in California.

Woody would soon join them
hitching west, guitar in hand.

Woody Guthrie: These people
just
got up and they bundled up
their

little belongings.

They throwed in one or two
little things they thought

they'd need.

They couldn't take it all
because they didn't have room

and they didn't have car,
didn't
have gasoline, didn't have the

money, but anyway, they had
heard about the land of

California, where you sleep
outdoors at night, where you

work all day in the
big fruit orchards.

You make enough to live on and
get by on and live decent on,

and you work hard, work honest.

♪♪♪

narrator: John Steinbeck
was born in 1902 in the farming

community of Salinas south of
San Francisco.

After attending Stanford for a
spell he moved to nearby

Pacific Grove.

Often living in poverty, he
began writing fiction with

little success.

Then in 1935 his novel
"Tortilla
Flat" drew wide attention.

He moved with his wife to Los
Gatos and wrote a novel "In

Dubious Battle," which focused
on a violent strike by fruit

workers in California's Central
Valley, and another titled "Of

Mice and Men."

Knowing of his sympathy for
farm
workers, the editor of the San

Francisco news asked Steinbeck
to investigate their plight for

a series on the newly arrived
migrants.

♪♪♪

narrator: A photographer
working for the Federal Farm

Security Administration named
Dorothea Lange would provide

photos from up and down
the Central Valley.

♪ Traveled a hot,
dusty road. ♪

♪ Out of your dust bowl and
westward we rolled, ♪

♪ and your desert was hot and
your mountains was cold. ♪♪

♪♪♪

narrator: Steinbeck,
touring the region in an old

bakery truck, stopped at one of
the state's federally funded

camps for refugees near
Bakersfield outside the town of

Arvin, known as the Weedpatch
Camp, and there he met its
savvy

and dedicated manager Tom
Collins, and they formed a

crucial friendship.

The Arvin camp, unlike sites
managed by farm owners, local

officials, and police, provided
relatively safe and sanitary

conditions with decent food,
Saturday night dances, and a

camp council elected by the
residents.

male announcer: Here, the
migrant and his family,

fortunate enough to find
shelter
on US property, can maintain

their self-respect while
seeking
market for their labor.

narrator: But there were
only two federal camps in the

state, the exceptions to the
grim conditions Steinbeck found

elsewhere, which he would
describe over six days in the

newspaper in October with
Dorothea Lange's photographs.

Woody Guthrie on his first trip
west experienced the full

tragedy of the refugees for the
first time, their cars breaking

down on Route 66, sleeping in
the dirt along the side of the

road, or riding filthy box
cars.

Woody: They called us Dust Bowl
refugees, but then there's more

than one kind of a refugee.

There's refugees that take
refuge under railroad bridges,

and there's refugees that take
refuge in public office.

narrator: His first
visit to California did not

go well.

He loved the lush landscape,
but felt sickened by the local

citizens' hatred of outsiders.

Local police had set up what
were known as bum blockades at

border crossings, aiming to
keep
out as many migrants as
possible

unless they carried a
fair amount of cash.

Woody had just started writing
original songs, and one of the

first warned refugees
about the bum blockade.

Woody: Yeah, that's the manner
of having the money.

That's it.

They don't ask you where you
got
it, how you got it, who you got

it off of, or nothing else.

Just so you got the do re mi
boy, that's the main thing.

You can gamble for it, lie for
it, steal for it, bum for it,

beg for it.

Do anything else in the
world for it.

You can even chase people out
of their house and home for it.

I made up a little song
about that.

Call it the "Do Re Mi,"
and this is--.

male: How does it--.

Woody: Show you how it goes
here.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪ Lots of folks back east,
they say, is leaving home ♪

♪ every day and beating the
hot old dusty way ♪

♪ to the California line. ♪

♪ Cross the desert sands
they roll, trying to get ♪

♪ out of the old dust bowl. ♪

♪ They think they're going
to a sugar bowl, ♪

♪ but here's what
they find. ♪

♪ The police at the port
of entry say, ♪

♪ "You're number
15,000 for today." ♪

♪ Oh, if you ain't got
the do re mi, friend, ♪

♪ if you ain't got
the do re mi, ♪

♪ you better go back to
beautiful Texas, ♪

♪ Oklahoma, Kansas,
Georgia, Tennessee. ♪

♪ California is a Garden
of Eden, ♪

♪ a paradise to live in
or see, ♪

♪ but believe it or not,
you won't find it so hot ♪

♪ if you ain't got
the do re mi. ♪♪

♪♪♪

narrator: After a visit
back home Woody left his wife

Mary and daughter Gwyn in Texas
and returned to Los Angeles.

male announcer: We behold the
great modern city of Los

Angeles, one of the fastest
growing cities in the world.

In less than half a century the
population of this young

metropolis and its associated
communities comprising Los

Angeles County has increased
from 50,000 to about 2 1/4

million inhabitants, so that
today the formerly obscure

little Mexican pueblo has
become
the fifth largest city in the

United States.

narrator: Woody washed
dishes and played for pennies
in

skid row bars while living in
flophouses.

Soon he was hired by the
liberal
owner of radio station KFVD to

sing traditional songs with his
cousin Jack Guthrie.

The Guthrie's promoted their
concert with a popular local

group known as the Beverly
Hillbillies.

When another regular spot
opened
at the radio station, Woody

invited a young singer named
Maxine Chrissman to share the

bill, calling the show "Woody
and Lefty Lou."

It was an immediate hit, and
fan
mail from homesick Dust Bowl

refugees poured in.

By then John Steinbeck's fame
had grown, and movie rights for

his new novel "Of Mice and Men"
were quickly sold.

"Of Mice and Men" explored the
lives of two migrant ranch
hands

in California, based on
Steinbeck's own experience as

a teenager.

Steinbeck also adapted it for
the theater with an opening on

Broadway set for the end of the
year.

Still, he grew obsessed with
the
notion of writing what he
called

a big book, a novel deepening
his focus on

California migrants.

So he again turned to the
manager of the federal
Weedpatch

camp, Tom Collins.

Collins started sending
Steinbeck some of the official

reports that he submitted each
week to federal officials

in Washington.

They were filled with critical
facts along with anecdotes and

direct quotes, often humorous,
from some of the camp
residents.

♪♪♪

narrator: In October Steinbeck
set off with Collins in the old

bakery truck for a monthlong
investigation throughout the

Central Valley.

Conditions in the camps were
worsening, but he believed,
"The

new migrants from the Dust Bowl
are here to stay.

All they want is a piece
of land,"

he wrote to his agent,
mincing no words.

male: "I must go over into the
interior valleys.

There are about 5,000 families
starving to death over there,

and not just hungry, but
actually starving.

The government is trying to
feed
them and get medical attention

to them, but the fascist group
of utilities and banks and huge

growers are sabotaging the
thing
all along the line.

In one tent there are 20 people
quarantined for smallpox, and 2

of the women are to have babies
in that tent this week.

I must get down there and see
if
I can't do something to help

knock these murderers
on their heads.

They think that if these people
are allowed to live in camps

with proper sanitary facilities
they will organize, and that is

the bugbear of the large
landowner and the

corporation farmer.

The states and counties will
give them nothing because they

are outsiders, but the crops of
any part of the state could not

be harvested
without these outsiders.

I'm pretty mad about it."

♪♪♪

narrator: Receiving a
regular paycheck for once,
Woody

sent for his wife and family
to join him in LA.

It's likely that John Steinbeck
learned about Woody and his

visits to migrant camps, and
may
have listened to him on

the radio.

By that summer however, Woody's
singing partner Lefty Lou was

ailing, and she quit the
popular
show.

Woody took a life altering
break
as well.

His boss at the radio station,
Frank Burke, also owned a

liberal newspaper
called "The Light."

He asked Woody to travel around
the state observing conditions

for the migrants and write
articles that would aid the

Democratic candidate for
governor Colbert Olson.

As he bummed around, Woody, a
former sign painter back in

Texas, also sketched some
lively
political cartoons.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

narrator: Much of his
traveling this time would be on

freight trains.

Woody called it hoboing.

He slept on trains with the
so-called box car tourist and
in

tents and under bridges.

Woody: I ain't got no home.

I'm just roaming 'round, just a
wandering worker to go from
town

to town.

The police make it hard
wherever
I may go, and I ain't got no

home in this world anymore.

narrator: Some of his
fellow travelers recognized his

name or voice from the radio.

Like John Steinbeck, Woody was
appalled by what he found.

Soon he would write a song that
reflected his anger.

Returning to the radio station,
Guthrie launched a new program

called "Woody the Lone Wolf."

John Steinbeck, still preparing
to write what he called his big

book, continued his own
research.

In the spring Southern
California was hit with record

rain, causing the worst
flooding
in memory.

Steinbeck witnessed deplorable
conditions at migrant camps
near

Visalia, where he found water a
foot deep in tents, no food,
and

no escape.

With Tom Collins he worked day
and night for almost two weeks

to aid the flood victims,
sometimes dropping in the mud

from exhaustion.

♪♪♪

narrator: Steinbeck believed
that anger was healthy,

as it would drive
his next novel.

To get it all down while it was
fresh he decided to write

hundreds of pages in a rush at
his home in Los Gatos, starting

in June with the goal of
completing it by November.

♪♪♪

narrator: Tom Collins
continued to send frequent

reports from the field and from
the Weedpatch camp.

Collins would be portrayed in
the novel in the character of

Jim Raleigh, the kindly manager
of a federal camp.

Steinbeck, as usual, wrote the
chapters in longhand in his
tiny

office, the pages then edited
and typed by his wife Carol,
who

also handled all the domestic
and financial chores.

He named the okie family at the
center of his story the Joads.

Steinbeck for the first time
would also keep a daily journal

on his writing of a novel,
often
accompanied by jazz or
classical

music playing over his
expensive
sound system.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

narrator: On September 3
he noted that his wife

had suggested a
title for the novel,

"The Grapes of Wrath,"
from the lyrics in the

famous anthem "The Battle Hymn
of the Republic."

He called it, "A wonderful and
marvelous title because the
book

is also a kind of march
and in our own

revolutionary tradition."

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

narrator: Down in Los
Angeles Woody Guthrie continued

his popular radio show.

One day at the station he met
Ed
Robin, who hosted a program
with

a far left slant.

He invited Woody to perform at
political meetings, some

sponsored by the increasingly
popular Communist Party.

Woody was not a party member,
though he liked to joke that

some of his songs were, "So
left
wing I had to write them with
my

left hand."

Now he aimed to put his
emerging
political beliefs into action,

and he quickly became a popular
figure at fundraisers and union

organizing rallies.

He printed a business card
billing himself as, "Th'

dustiest of th' dustbowlers."

One of his new songs hailed
notorious Oklahoma outlaw
Pretty

Boy Floyd, pictured by Woody,
of
course, as a kind of modern day

Robin Hood.

♪ Yes, as through
this world I've wandered ♪

♪ I've seen lots
of funny men. ♪

♪ Some will rob you
with a six-gun, ♪

♪ and some with a
fountain pen. ♪♪

narrator: Through Ed
Robin he also started writing

daily reports in the style of
Will Rogers, with deliberate

folksy misspellings, and his
own
cartoons for the local
communist

newspaper under the banner
"Woody Sez."

♪♪♪

narrator: Robin introduced him
to actor Will Geer,

who had just appeared
in Steinbeck's

"Of Mice and Men"
on Broadway.

Geer, later famous for movie
roles and his Grandpa Walton on

"The Waltons" TV series,
invited
Woody to Hollywood parties
where

he met John Garfield
and other stars.

Will Geer also introduced him
to
John Steinbeck at the Garden of

Allah, where the writer was
staying in LA.

By then Steinbeck's new novel
"The Grapes of Wrath" had been

hailed as a masterpiece and
topped every bestseller list.

The renowned literary critic
Malcolm Cowley said it belonged

to the category of, "great
angry
books like 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'

that have roused a people to
fight against intolerable

wrongs," but it also sparked
wide criticism and controversy.

Steinbeck warned his editor,
"The fascist crowd will try to

sabotage this book because it
is
revolutionary.

They will try to give it the
Communist angle."

Movie rights were sold to 20th
Century Fox for an

unprecedented $100,000.

One of Hollywood's greatest
directors, John Ford, would

translate the story to the
screen.

Tom Collins was hired as an
expert advisor.

Chosen as a music consultant,
Woody Guthrie.

♪♪♪

narrator: Still, attacks
on the novel continued.

Some objected to the profanity
or the too frank depiction of

the migrants' living
conditions.

Books were burned in a few
places or banned from schools.

It was kept off library shelves
in San Francisco.

Leaders of the agribusiness
industry led the charge,

often aided by the press.

The powerful group known as the
Associated Farmers claims

Steinbeck's account was wildly
exaggerated.

It was no wonder
they were upset.

Steinbeck in his novel
had written.

male: "There is a crime here
that goes beyond denunciation.

There is a sorrow here that
weeping cannot symbolize.

There is a failure here that
topples all our successes.

And the children dying of
hunger
must die because profit cannot

be taken from an orange.

And the coroners must fill in
the certificates that they died

of malnutrition because
food must rot if not sold

at a profit.

And in the eyes of the hungry
there is a growing wrath.

In the souls of people the
grapes of wrath are filling and

growing heavy, growing
heavy for the vintage."

narrator: With "Grapes
of Wrath" still a runaway

bestseller, Woody Guthrie's
image as a Dust Bowl refugee

made him even more in demand
for
benefits and political
meetings.

♪♪♪

♪ Picked up a hammer
in his little right hand. ♪

♪ Said "Hammer be the
death of me. ♪

♪ Hammer be the death
of me. ♪

♪ Hammer be the death
of me." ♪♪

narrator: Woody's new
friend Will Geer reintroduced

him to John Steinbeck at a
hotel
in Hollywood.

They took a stroll to a nearby
newsstand where the writer

bought both a right-wing Hearst
newspaper and the Communist

"Daily Worker."

Woody was impressed by
Steinbeck's desire to consider

all viewpoints.

Steinbeck was co-writing
without
credit a film titled

"The Fight for Life."

His friend Pare Lorentz had
received federal funding to
make

a movie drama that would
encourage poor women to seek

medical help for childbirth.

Lorentz was famous for his
recent documentary

"The Plow That Broke the
Plains"

on misguided farm practices
that created the Dust Bowl.

Now Lorentz asked Geer to
co-star in his movie, and Geer

suggested Woody for
a small role.

An added bonus for the
director,
both Geer's and Woody's wives

were pregnant and could play
expectant mothers in the film.

Woody's role would amount to
one
street scene with his guitar

part dubbed later.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

narrator: With filming done
Woody performed at migrant

camps in California, sometimes
in the company of Will Geer or

John Steinbeck.

By now he was writing songs at
a
feverish clip.

Some of them attacked racism.

One was inspired by "The Grapes
of Wrath" with a reference to

the novel's preacher Casy,
and he illustrated it with

a drawing.

♪ Have you seen
that vigilante man? ♪

♪ Have you seen
that vigilante man? ♪

♪ Have you seen
that vigilante man? ♪

♪ I've been hearing his
name all over the land. ♪

♪ Preacher Casy was
just a working man, ♪

♪ and he said, "Unite
all you working men." ♪

♪ Killed him in the river. ♪

♪ Some strange man
was that, ♪

♪ a vigilante man. ♪♪

♪♪♪

male announcer: "Grapes of
Wrath."

"The Grapes of Wrath."

"The Grapes of Wrath"
"The Grapes of Wrath"

"Grapes of Wrath."
"Grapes of Wrath."

As sales skyrocket, "The Grapes
of Wrath" becomes the book

of the nation.

Everyone, everywhere joins in
the discussion of its

vital problems.

Due to this unprecedented
popularity producers vie for
the

motion picture rights, and
finally, 20th Century Fox

announces the purchase of
the book and plans for its

immediate production.

A storm of discussion arouses
the nation.

Speculation and rumor are rife
to the effect that no producer

will venture to film this great
dramatic masterpiece of

human hearts.

Darryl F. Zanuck, production
head of 20th Century Fox

Studios, emphatically announces
that "The Grapes of Wrath" will

be made.

All of the resources of this
vast studio are marshaled for

the production.

John Ford, Academy Award
winner,
is given the

directorial assignment.

The cast is carefully chosen to
make John Steinbeck's

unforgettable characters come
to
life.

narrator: Production
began on the movie in late

October, written by Nunneley
Johnson and starring Henry

Fonda, to be completed in five
weeks.

This happened only after Darryl
Zanuck, fearing the film would

be labeled pro-communist,
ordered a private probe to

confirm the human tragedy in
Oklahoma and California.

John Ford later confessed that
he never bothered to read

Steinbeck's novel.

Woody's most obvious
contribution to the film was

providing a song that okies
might have sung around

the campfires.

He picked "Goin Down the Road
Feeling Bad," which would be

sung by Tom Joad's
brother-in-law in the film.

♪ I'm blowing down
this old dusty road. ♪

♪ I'm a-blowing down
this old dusty road. ♪

♪ I'm a-blowing down
this old dusty road, ♪

♪ Lord, Lord, and I ain't
going to be ♪

♪ treated this way. ♪♪

narrator: The movie
would be filmed on location in

Oklahoma, New Mexico, and
Arizona, and on the 20th
Century

Fox studio lot.

Woody claimed that he was
offered a role, but had to turn

it down because of prior
commitments.

He did offer advice to those
working on the movie in visits

to the studio.

This upturn in Woody's fortunes
came to a halt in November when

his patron at the radio station
finally fired him.

Woody had just gotten too
political for his taste.

Now it was time for the
eternally restless Guthrie to

ramble off again.

The plan, deposit his wife Mary
and kids back in Texas and then

join Will Geer, who was
starring
in "Tobacco Road" on Broadway
in

New York City.

John Ford's version of "Grapes
of Wrath" was set for release

near the end of January, little
more than three months after

shooting on the film began.

male announcer: And now at last
"The Grapes of Wrath" is ready

for the screen as the motion
picture captures all the drama,

suspense, action, tears and
laughter of the story that

stirred a nation.

narrator: Would John
Steinbeck approve?

Some of his strongest critiques
of California agribusiness

were deleted.

A year earlier he fought
editors
who wanted to kill the haunting

conclusion to his novel.

A woman, after losing her
stillborn baby, offers a breast

to a starving stranger.

That was nowhere in the movie.

Replaced by an uplifting speech
by Ma Joad.

Pa Joad: Well, maybe, but we
sure taking a beating.

Ma Joad: I know.

That's what makes us tough.

Rich fellows come up and they
die, and their kids ain't no

good and they die out, but we
keep a-coming.

We're the people that live.

They can't wipe us out.

They can't lick us.

We'll go on forever, Pa, 'cause
we're the people.

narrator: Invited to an
early screening, Steinbeck

praised the film.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

narrator: After delivering
his family to Texas

Woody Guthrie caught a bus
heading east.

At nearly every stop he heard
on
the radio or jukebox a song

whose message really
bothered him.

It was Kate Smith's booming
version of Irving Berlin's "God

Bless America."

♪ God bless America,
land that I love. ♪

♪ Stand beside her. ♪♪

narrator: Woody had
witnessed too many awful scenes

in recent years to believe that
God had truly blessed America,

and the song seemed to preach
passivity, not fighting for a

better country.

A response started
forming in his mind.

Woody ran out of money when
he reached Pittsburgh.

Hitchhiking to New York he
nearly perished in a blizzard,

but finally made it to Will
Geer's apartment in Midtown

Manhattan in February.

He loved the energy of New York
and started playing on the

streets and in the bars, always
attracting attention.

After a few days with Will Geer
and his wife, Woody took a room

in a cheap hotel near Times
Square called Hanover House.

On February 23 he finally put
down on paper his response to

"God Bless America" that he had
been pondering for weeks.

He called it "God Blessed
America," then crossed that out

and wrote "This Land Was Made
For You and Me."

He also changed Staten Island
to the New York Island.

♪ This land is your land
and this land is my land, ♪

♪ from California
to the New York Island, ♪

♪ from Redwood forest to
the Gulf Stream waters. ♪

♪ This land was made
for you and me. ♪♪

narrator: Woody signed
and dated it at the bottom
along

with the claim, "All you can
write is what you see."

Guthrie continued to play
around
New York from bars to benefits.

He finally got a chance to
watch
"The Grapes of Wrath."

In his newspaper column he
called it, "The best picture I

have ever seen."

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

narrator: The film also
inspired what became one of his

most famous songs, "Tom Joad."

Written in 17 stanzas, it would
be issued by the Victor label
on

two sides of one 78 record
as part one and part two.

It would be the first
six-minute single.

Woody wrote it the day he saw
the movie, staying up all night

with a jug of wine at an
apartment where his new friend

Pete Seeger was staying.

Seeger woke up to find Woody
sleeping on the floor and a
page

with the lyrics stuck
in a typewriter.

Accounts of John Steinbeck's
reaction to the song vary, but

one popular version has him
admitting, "That little fellow

said in six minutes what it
took
me 600 pages to say."

Woody would introduce the new
song over a radio program in
New

York City.

Woody: Here's a song here that
has to do with a book and a

motion picture that come out
here a while back by the name
of

"The Grapes of Wrath" wrote
down
by a man John Steinbeck, who

throwed the pack on his back
and went right out amongst the

people to see just what is
going
on in the United States, and it

just so happened that he hit a
jackpot because he knew what

it--where he was going and he
knew what he was writing

about it.

The name of this is
"The Ballad of Tom Joad."

♪ A deputy sheriff fired
loose at a man. ♪

♪ He shot a
woman in the back, ♪

♪ but before he could
take his aim again ♪

♪ Preacher Casy dropped
him in his tracks. ♪

♪ Preacher Casy dropped him
in his tracks, ♪

♪ and they handcuffed Casy
and they took him to jail. ♪

♪ Then he got away. ♪

♪ Met Tom Joad by the
old river bridge, ♪

♪ and these few words he
did say, Preacher Casy. ♪

♪ These few words
he did say. ♪

♪ "Well, I preached
for the poor ♪

♪ a mighty long time,
preached about the rich ♪

♪ and the poor, but us
working folks ♪

♪ has got to get together. ♪

♪ We ain't got a
chance anymore. ♪

♪ God knows we ain't got
a chance anymore." ♪

♪ Now the deputies come, ♪

♪ and Tom and Casy
run down ♪

♪ where the water
run down, ♪

♪ and a deputy thug
hit Casey with a club ♪

♪ and laid Preacher Casy
on the ground. ♪

♪ Oh boy, ♪

♪ they laid Preacher Casy
on the ground. ♪

♪ Tom Joad, he took
that vigilante's club ♪

♪ brung it
down on his head. ♪

♪ Tommy took flight ♪

♪ in the dark,
rainy night. ♪

♪ Was a preacher
and a deputy ♪

♪ laying dead,
poor boy. ♪

♪ A preacher and a deputy
laying dead. ♪

♪ Tommy run back where
his mama was asleep. ♪

♪ He woke her up
out of bed, ♪

♪ and he kissed goodbye
to the mother ♪

♪ that he loved ♪

♪ and he said what
Preacher Casy said. ♪

♪ Yes, he said what
Preacher Casy said. ♪

♪ "Everybody might be
just one big soul. ♪

♪ Looks that way to me. ♪

♪ Everywhere you look
in the day or the night, ♪

♪ that's where I'm
going to be, Ma. ♪

♪ That's where
I'm going to be. ♪

♪ Wherever little kids
are hungry and cry, ♪

♪ wherever people
ain't free, ♪

♪ wherever men are
fighting for their rights, ♪

♪ that's where
I'm gonna be, Ma. ♪

♪ That's where
I'm gonna be." ♪♪

narrator: Woody explained
that he wrote the song

for people who did not have the
money to buy Steinbeck's novel

or a ticket to the movie.

Another turning point for Woody
came when he performed at a

benefit in New York for the
John
Steinbeck Committee for

Agricultural Workers.

He not only proved to be the
hit
of the evening.

He met other important folk
singers such as Huddie

Ledbetter, better known as
Lead Belly, who became a

close friend.

More importantly, he was
embraced as a folk genius by
one

of the most important
proponents
of roots music in the country,

Alan Lomax.

With his father John Lomax he
had traveled rural America for

years, creating what were known
as field recordings of hundreds

of little known blues, folk,
and
gospel singers such as Lead

Belly and Muddy Waters.

Alan Lomax now headed a music
division at the Library of

Congress known as the Archive
of American Folk Song, and he

immediately invited Woody to
come to Washington.

Lomax recorded hours of Woody
talking about his life and

travels and singing
dozens of songs.

Thanks to Lomax, Woody
performed
as a regular on New York radio

stations and for the first time
on national broadcasts,

including NBC and CBS.

He received a contract to write
a memoir to be titled "Bound

for Glory."

He also recorded his first
album, "Dust Bowl Ballads,"

which drew critical acclaim and
would influence generations of

songwriters, and he wrote
extensive notes for a song book

compiled by Lomax titled "Hard
Hitting Songs For Hard

Hit People."

It featured a preface hailing
Woody written by John
Steinbeck.

male: "Woody is just Woody.

Thousands of people do not know
he has any other name.

He's just a voice and a guitar.

He sings the songs of a people
and I suspect that he is, in a

way, that people.

There is nothing sweet about
Woody, and there is nothing

sweet about the songs he sings.

But there is something more
important for those who

will listen.

There is the will of a people
to
endure and fight

against oppression.

I think we call this the
American Spirit."

narrator: John Steinbeck,
after many years of

writing about California
migrants, turned to other

subjects in novels such as
"Cannery Row" and "East

of Eden."

He would win the Nobel Prize
for
Literature in 1962, with "The

Grapes of Wrath" cited
for special praise.

Woody Guthrie, feeling he was
being asked to compromise some

of his principles, quit his
high
paying radio jobs in New York

and hit the road, sometimes
with young Pete Seeger.

When he returned to California
he once again performed at

migrant camps.

♪ I was born
in South Carolina. ♪

♪ Down to Georgia I did go. ♪

♪ There I met a
very young lady, ♪

♪ and her name I
never did know. ♪♪

narrator: Living in Los
Angeles and penniless, Woody
was

again aided by Alan Lomax,
leading to a job with the

federal government.

Woody traveled to the Pacific
Northwest to write about the

Columbia River Hydroelectric
Project and Grand Coulee Dam,

which helped farmers survive
and
provided thousands of jobs for

migrant workers.

Woody wrote 26 songs in 30
days,
some used in a film, often
still

focusing on the migrants,
including one of his greatest.

♪ We worked in your
orchards of peaches ♪

♪ and prunes, ♪

♪ and we slept on the ground
'neath the light of the moon. ♪

♪ We picked in your cotton,
cut the grapes from your vine ♪

♪ to set on your table,
your light sparkling wine. ♪

♪ Look down in the canyon
and there you will see, ♪

♪ Grand Coulee showers
her blessings on me. ♪

♪ My land I'll defend
with my life if it be, ♪

♪ 'cause my pastures of plenty
must always be free. ♪♪

narrator: When informed
that public money was being
paid

to a left-wing activist, the
FBI
in Washington opened its first

file on Woody Guthrie.

It would expand to
include 447 pages.

Guthrie was even added to the
FBI's so-called security index,

a list that marked alleged
subversives for detention in
the

event of a national emergency.

Returning to New York, Woody
joined Pete Seeger's group The

Almanac Singers and wrote
anti-racist and anti-Nazi songs

such as "All You Fascists
Bound to Lose."

He famously carried a message
on his guitar, "This machine

kills fascists."

Then with his singing partner
Cisco Houston he joined the

Merchant Marine, helping to
supply US forces for the D-Day

invasion, while surviving two
German torpedo strikes.

By then, now divorced, he had
married Marjorie Mazia, a
dancer

and teacher with the Martha
Graham Dance Company, and he

began a new family in Brooklyn.

Their children would be named
Cathy, Nora, Arlo, and,
inspired

by "The Grapes of Wrath,"
a boy named Jodie.

Near the end of the 1940s
he began to display erratic

behavior and other signs of the
Huntington's chorea disease
that

had killed his mother.

He was just 36 years old.

Woody would write one of his
last great songs in 1948 after

hearing about a plane crash in
California that took the lives

of 28 migrant workers
being deported to Mexico.

♪ Goodby to you, Juan. ♪

♪ Goodbye Rosalita. ♪

♪ Adios mi amigo,
Jesus and Maria. ♪

♪ I don't have a name and I
ride this big airplane. ♪

narrator: He was
outraged that the victims

remained unnamed in media
accounts, and so wrote the

lyrics for the song
called "Deportees."

♪ One more deportee. ♪♪

♪♪♪

narrator: The migrant
crisis in California exposed by

John Steinbeck and Woody
Guthrie
finally eased when military

production for World War II
provided tens of thousands of

jobs for refugees from the
Midwest and Texas.

Meanwhile, driven by the lack
of
jobs, Jim Crow racism, and the

promise of factory work in the
post-war economic boom millions

of black sharecroppers left the
rural South for northern and

western cities in what would be
called The Second

Great Migration.

Now, in California the lowest
paying farm worker positions

were mainly filled by Mexicans
and Filipinos.

Intense union organizing began
in 1952.

The United Farm Workers led
numerous strikes by grape

workers and others.

male announcer: One farmer
looked at this and said,

"We used to own our slaves.

Now we just rent them."

narrator: But conditions
were also rough for farm
workers

across the country.

In his final documentary for
CBS
News, Edward R. Murrow in 1960

created one of the most
important films ever aired on

national TV.

"Harvest of Shame" exposed
terrible living conditions for

migrant workers on both the
East
and West Coasts.

male announcer: This is an
American story that begins in

Florida and ends in New Jersey
and New York State with

the harvest.

It is a 1960 "Grapes of Wrath."

narrator: Today there
are well over 2 million farm

workers in the US, most
of them Hispanic.

Despite their essential role in
the economy they experience low

pay and hazardous working and
living conditions, with an

estimated 40 to 50% lacking
legal status, and they now face

the intense daily threat of
arrest and deportation and the

crippling fear of home and
workplace raids led by ICE

officers who sometimes resemble
Woody Guthrie's so-called

vigilante man.

♪ Well, what is
a vigilante man? ♪

♪ Tell me what
is a vigilante man? ♪

♪ Has he got a gun
and a club in his hand? ♪

♪ Is that a vigilante man? ♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪ Men walking
along the railroad tracks, ♪

♪ going someplace and
there's no going back. ♪

♪ Highway patrol choppers
coming up over the ridge. ♪

♪ Hot soup on a campfire
under the bridge. ♪

♪ Shelter line stretching
round the corner. ♪

♪ Welcome to the
new world order. ♪

♪ Family's sleeping in their
car in the southwest. ♪

♪ No home. ♪

♪ No job. ♪

♪ No peace. ♪

♪ No rest. ♪

♪ Well, the highway is alive
tonight. ♪

♪ But nobody's kidding nobody
about where it goes. ♪

♪ Sitting down here
in the campfire light, ♪

♪ searching for the
ghost of Tom Joad. ♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪ Tom said, ♪

♪ "Mom, wherever there's
a cop beating a guy, ♪

♪ wherever a hungry
newborn baby cries, ♪

♪ where there's a fight
against the ♪

♪ and hatred in the air, look
for me, mom, ♪

♪ I'll be there. ♪

♪ Where there's
somebody fighting ♪

♪ for a place to stand,
or a decent job ♪

♪ or a helping hand,
wherever somebody's ♪

♪ struggling to be free,
look in their eyes, ♪

♪ mom, you'll see me." ♪

♪ Well, the highway is alive
tonight, but nobody's kidding ♪

♪ nobody about it
where it goes. ♪

♪ I'm sitting down here
in the campfire light ♪

♪ with the ghost
of old Tom Joad. ♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪ There was a big high wall
there that tried to stop me. ♪

♪ The sign was painted,
said private property, ♪

♪ but on the backside
it didn't say nothing. ♪

♪ This land was made
for you and me. ♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪