Boxcar Homes in The Grapes of Wrath

Boxcar Homes: The Novel and the Play

A Textual Comparison

Near the climax of the the play, the Fourth Narrator (played by Nicole Torres) in Frank Galati’s The Grapes of Wrath describes boxcar homes that migrant farm workers lived in. Nicole asked me for more information about these boxcar homes. I checked the text of Steinbeck’s novel against that of Galati’s play, and discovered that the wording is nearly identical. Chapter 28 begins as follows:

THE boxcars, twelve of them, stood end to end on a little flat beside the stream. There were two rows of six each, the wheels removed. Up to the big sliding doors slatted planks ran for cat-walks. They made good houses, water-tight and draftless, room for twenty-four families, one family in each end of each car. No windows, but the wide doors stood open. In some of the cars a canvas hung down in the center of the car, while in others only the position of the door made the boundary.

The Joads had one end of an end car. Some previous occu­pant had fitted up an oil can with a stovepipe, had made a hole in the wall for the stovepipe. Even with the wide door open, it was dark in the ends of the car. Ma hung the tarpau­lin across the middle of the car.

“It’s nice,” she said. “It’s almost nicer than anything we had ‘cept the gov’ment camp.”

The Fourth Narrator from Galati’s script narrates as follows:

The boxcars, twelve of them, stood end to end on a little flat beside the stream. There were two rows of six each, the wheels removed. Up the big sliding doors slatted planks ran for cat-walks. They made good houses, water-tight and draftless, room for twenty-four families, one family in each end of each car. No windows, but the wide doors stood open. (The rusted side of a boxcar is revealed. The trough of water is open. Pa is standing in the open doorway. Ma and Uncle John are seated nearby. The fourth narrator moves out of sight.)

MA.  It’s nice. It’s almost nicer than anything we had.

Boxcar Homes: Photographs

The Library of Congress American Memory Collection America from the Great Depression to WWII: Black and White Photographs from the FSA-OWI, 1935-1945, shows some of the boxcar homes in photographs from the period. Some served as overnight stopping points, while others became temporary and even permanent residences.

Just Passing Through: Boxcar Interior

Photo by Jack Delano. July 1940. Migratory agricultural worker asleep in boxcar. Camden, North Carolina. Library of Congress Reproduction No. LC-USF34-040809-D (b&w film neg.)

 Settling in to Temporary Boxcar Homes: Exterior Shots

Photo by Russell Lee. February 1937. Boxcar home of flood refugees near Cache, Illinois. About fourteen were living in this car. Library of Congress Reproduction No. LC-USF34-010249-E (b&w film nitrate neg.)

Photo by Marion Post Wolcott. September 1938. Old boxcars often converted into homes along highway between Charleston and Gauley Bridge, West Virginia. Library of Congress Reproduction No. LC-USF33-030258-M5 (b&w film nitrate neg.)

The Long Haul: “Permanent” Boxcar Housing

Photo by Arthur Rothstein. June 1939. Boxcar home for sugar beet workers. Treasure County, Montana. Library of Congress Reproduction No. LC-USF34-027559-D (b&w film neg.)

Photo by Russell Lee. November 1940. Home of married couple working on Earl Fruit Company ranch. Kern County, California. These houses have been made from boxcars. Library of Congress Reproduction No. LC-USF34-038026-D (b&w film neg.)

The Grapes of Wrath: Dramaturgical Notes

Program Notes by the Dramaturg, Stephanie M. Roach

Adapted by Frank Galati from John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel of the same name, the Tony Award winning The Grapes of Wrath debuted in 1988 at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. The novel won the 1940 Pulitzer Prize, and in 1962, Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, “for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception” (Nobelprize.org, 2011).

These very qualities are brought to life in the challenges faced by the Joad family. They are imperfect and doomed, as they meet death, abandonment, and hunger on the road west. Yet, their ultimate triumph—their humanity—comes from within, as each character is forced to dig deep in order to grow and define who they are as they come face to face with the systematic, dehumanizing social, economic, and political forces that overwhelm them. Countless similar stories are found in every jalopy on the road to the Promised Land, California.

The Joad’s hail from Eastern Oklahoma, where the Great Depression and a changing agricultural model have conspired with nature for a perfect storm—a Dust Storm. Over preceding decades, farmers were encouraged to expand operations, incorporating newer, bigger tractors, and in the end, over-plowing. The Dust Bowl began in the height of the Great Depression, when a severe drought, lasting nearly a decade, dried up the land, threatening crops season after season. “Black Blizzards” or “Dust Storms” began as small dust devils, and grew into powerful storms, as the nutrient rich topsoil was lifted up by wind and carried away in a wall of dirt and dust that turned day into night as the sun was blotted out. The worst storm occurred in April 1935, and is known as “Black Sunday.” Crops were destroyed. Homes had to be dug out. Cattle died from breathing in the dirt. Children developed lung conditions. Families lost their livelihood, their homes, and sometimes their faith.

They packed up their families and abandoned their farms because of lost hope or foreclosure. In the largest migration of American history, over 2.5 million people fled the Plains in search of work and food. Many went to California, where they expected to find greener pastures, but were greeted with hostility, injustice and hunger.

More than seventy years later, labor issues remain a hot topic as we struggle to define the needs of our unemployed and underemployed citizens during our present economic recovery.

Grapes of Wrath: Music Notes and News, Vol. 3

Music Notes and News from Dennis Chowenhill

Program Notes

All of the music for this production of The Grapes of Wrath draws from music that would have been familiar to the Dust Bowl “refugees,” echoing their southern music traditions and the voice of Woody Guthrie.

Rural music from the mid 20s through the Depression reflected four musical traditions. Central among these was the ballad tradition, inherited from England, commonly consisting of narratives of loss, death, and alienation, all experiences familiar to the communities that had found themselves isolated in various geographical pockets throughout the South. Another tradition was comprised of Anglo-Celtic dance tunes, maintained primarily by fiddlers who performed lively forms such as jigs and reels which were relatively easy to modify and mold into original tunes. A third tradition was the blues of African-Americans whom whites met in post-Industrial labor-intensive work settings, like railway building and mining. Finally, Protestant hymns were well known to all rural families of the South.

The common practice of bartering for exchanging goods placed musical instruments in the hands of rural families, as did marketers such as the Sears & Roebuck catalog, which provided families not only with a wide variety of farm and household implements but an equally wide range of musical instruments, the most popular of which were guitar, violin, mandolin, autoharp, and harmonica, all of which lent themselves well to the musical traditions of the South. Families thus often made their own music. In addition to this they had regular exposure to radio, from the 1920s through the 1940s.  Radio stations such as KVOO (Tulsa, OK), WOAI (San Antonio, TX), and WLW (Cincinnati, OH), as well as the high wattage American-owned Mexican stations such as XERA, sent their broadcasts throughout the South, often reaching families through battery-run radios. These broadcasts were designed to appeal to the rural South, selling products like all-cure medicines, work clothing, and baking ingredients, and playing the music of The Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, and popular hillbilly bands. By the late 20s, Barn Dance programs were nearly ubiquitous on Southern radio.

By the mid 1930s, as the labor movement gained momentum in response to inhumane work conditions and egregiously unbalanced distribution of wealth, another musical voice emerged, that of the topical singer who applied folk idioms to give expression to the increasingly frustrated working class. Woody Guthrie, himself from Oklahoma, and a witness to these labor conditions and the impact of the Dust Bowl on southern share- and tenant-farmers, became the best known of these “protest” singers.

Music Performed*

The Great Dust Storm; Woody Guthrie (rec. 1940)

Yes, Sir, That’s My Baby; Walter Donaldson, Gus Kahn, 1925

Blowin’ Down the Road; Woody Guthrie (rec. 1940)

Amazing Grace; John Newton, 1779

So Long, Been Good to Know Ya; Woody Guthrie (rec. 1940)

Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground; “Blind” Willie Johnson (rec. 1927)

Wayfaring Stranger; English traditional

Reuben’s Train; unknown origin

Little Pal of Mine; A. P. Carter (rec. 1928)

Chicken Reel; Joseph M. Daly, 1910

Ragtime Annie; Irish traditional

Cowboy Waltz; trad., recorded by W. Guthrie, 1945

What a Friend We Have in Jesus; Charles Crozat Converse, 1868

*in order of first performance of each

Square Dancing, Chicken Reels, and Hug Dancing

Chicken Reel and Square Dance Calls

Here are a couple of recordings showing examples of square dance calls.

Square dance calling accompanying “Chicken reel” [MP3].

Walter Harp, square dance calling; Charles Cook, fiddle; Charles Powell, guitar; Bennie Lindsay, guitar; and Junior Lindsay, harmonica.

Recorded by Sidney Robertson Cowell at the HiWay Cafe in Brentwood, California on March 10, 1939.
Library of Congress Call No. AFC 1940/001: AFS 3819 A & B1

Hug ’em in Sebring [MP3]

A square dance tune, played and called. C. W. O’Berry fiddles and sings the refrain to “Sweet Little Girl on Josephine.” Johnny Bill Shoemaker calls. Collected by Carita Doggett Corse and Robert Cornwall.

Duration: 1 minute, 42 seconds; Library of Congress Call No. AFS 3902A:1

Square Dance Images

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve posted a few images of dancers from the 1930s to our Facebook page. Here they are:

Photo by Russell Lee. January 1942. Library of Congress Reproduction No. LC-USF34-071575-D DLC (b&w film neg.)

Photo by Ben Shahn. 1937. Square dance, Skyline Farms, Alabama. Library of Congress Reproduction No. LC-USF33-006281-M1 DLC

“Hug” Dancing

Photo by Russell Lee. October 1938. Street dance, National Rice Festival, Crowley, Louisiana. Library of Congress Reproduction No. LC-USF33-011741-M4 DLC

Grapes of Wrath Look Book

I’m attaching a link to an edited version of the Look Book. It is divided into three sections. At Home with the Joads focuses on farm life and the Dust Bowl. On the Road with the Joads shows images of life on the road. The Joads traveled from Eastern Oklahoma to California, where they stayed on the road, moving from camp to camp, trying to stay in work. California with the Joads focuses on the life of the migrant worker in California. Dov will be bringing in a reference copy of the complete version to rehearsal, so that the images will be available for browsing.

Grapes of Wrath Look Book 2nd edition

West Coast Union Organizers – 1930s

Filipino Union Pioneers

The Filipino Labor Union, founded in 1933, organized the Salinas Lettuce Strike. Filipino union members worked canneries in Alaska and Washington and as farm laborers in Washington, Oregon and California. The Cannery Workers’ and Farm Laborers’ Union motto was “Unity is Strength.” Union founders Virgil S. Duyungan and Aurelio Simon were murdered in 1936 in Seattle due to their involvement in union efforts to remove the contracting system from the salmon canning industry.

For more information visit the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project: Filipino Cannery Unionism Across Three Generations 1930s – 1980s.

The Government Camp song, sung by Mary Campbell and Margaret Treat, both 12 years old. Shafter FSA Camp, 1941.

Music of Government Camps

Farm Security Administration (FSA) Camps, like Weedpatch Camp in John Steinbeck’s the Grapes of Wrath were a far cry from the makeshift road side camps that so many were forced to live in while looking for work. While camps were often low on supplies, and government funding eventually ran out, music helped to bring joy to hard daily life.

Here is an example from the Library of Congress’ American Memory: Voices from the Dust Bowl – The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940-1941.

The Government Camp song, sung by Mary Campbell and Margaret Treat, both 12 years old. Shafter FSA Camp, 1941.

When they were not working or looking for work, or tending to the civil and domestic operations of the camp, the migrants found time to engage in recreational activities. Singing and making music took place both in private living quarters and in public spaces. The music performed by the migrants came from a number of different sources. The majority of pieces belong to the Anglo-Celtic ballad tradition. Songs such as “Barbara Allen“, “The Brown Girl“, “Nine Little Devils“, “Father Rumble“, “Lloyd Bateman “, “Pretty Molly “, and “Little Mohee” all reflect this tradition. Gospel and popular music are other sources from which migrants took their inspiration. The minstrel stage, tin pan alley, early country, and cowboy music were all popular music sources that fed the performers’ repertoires. The works of the Carter Family, Jimmy Rodgers, and Gene Autry were particular favorites of the migrants. Although all the music in this collection gives us a sense of the informants’ cultural milieu, those pieces that document the migrant experience are especially poignant. Songs like Jack Bryant’s “Sunny Cal” and Mary Sullivan’s ballads “A Traveler’s Line” and “Sunny California” all speak of hardship, disappointment, and a deeply cherished wish to return home.

Men in recreation hall at Tulare FSA Camp, Visalia, California, 1940. Photo by Arthur Rothstein, Farm Security Administration.

In addition to songs and instrumental music, the migrants enjoyed dancing and play-party activities (singing games accompanied by dance-like movements). Included in this online presentation are square dance calls, such as “Soldier’s Joy” and “Sally Goodin“, and play-party rhymes like “Skip to My Lou” and “Old Joe Clark.” Newsletters produced by camp residents provided additional details about camp social life and recreational activities.

– Excerpted from The Migrant Experience. Library of Congress. American Memory: Voices from the Dust Bowl – The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940-1941.

Dorothea Lange’s “Migrant Mother” or “Destitute pea pickers in California. Mother of seven children. Age thirty-two.”

Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother.

Photo by Dorothea Lange. Library of Congress Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-fsa-8b29516 (digital file from original neg.)

“Destitute peapickers in California; a 32 year old mother of seven children. February 1936.” (retouched version)

This is one of the “Migrant Mother” photos posted in the link provided by Vince on the Grapes of Wrath Facebook group page. It is such an iconic image, as so many of Dorothea Lange’s are, that I thought I would feature it on the blog.

Thanks Vince!

On the Road With Joads: The Migration West [Slideshow] #ChabotTheater

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Photos by Dorothea Lange.

Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

America from the Great Depression to WWII: Black-and-White Photographs from the FSA-OWI 1935-1945.

Grapes of Wrath: Music Notes and News, Vol. 1 [Videos] #ChabotTheater

Music Notes & News from Dennis…

Stephanie has already posted some music of the 30s that you should listen to in order to familiarize yourself with the era.
I will also be sending her music that I want you to listen to.  When I send music, I will always inform you of features that I would like you to notice.

Today (Thursday, 1/26) I mentioned during rehearsal that I wanted you to hear a contemporary group that performs traditional American music.  What I want you to notice is the sound of the harmonies.  A lot of the music you will be hearing from this era will be sung by solo voices (aside from some commercial music of the era that Stephanie might post), and of course Dust Bowl ballads were done by soloists.  But rural musicians also sang in small groups, applying harmonies they had learned to sing in church.  Listen to this performance, and note the energy, the intensity, and their harmony blend.  Nice stuff.  We might not try anything like this onstage in our performance of GoW, but it will help you to hear this.  (And I haven’t given up the possibility of actually arranging a short piece like this for the performance.)

Old Time Mountain Music

Performed by Pharis Romero, Catherine Black, Oliver Swain, et al. Video via Qristina and Quinn Bachand.

The Carter Family

Here are three songs from the Carter family.  These particular songs are about nostalgia for lost homes.  ANYone living in rural America in the 30s who had access to a radio knew the songs of the Carters, who were extremely popular throughout the South.  Their music is a key part of the “soundtrack” of the era.  A.P. Carter (the male voice you will hear) spent a good deal of his adult life walking throughout the southern states collecting songs, visiting homes, attending country fairs, picking up material anywhere he could.  He would return from each of his trips with a head full of songs and teach them to his wife Sara and his sister-in-law Maybelle.  The instrumental accompaniment the Carters used consisted of guitar and autoharp.

“Don’t Forget This Song” & Interview with Maybelle Carter

The Carter Family. Video via VinylCountryMusic.

“Western Hobo”

The Carter Family. Video via jwbos1388.

“My Little Home In Tennessee, and I Loved You Better Than You Knew”

The Carter Family. Video via VinylCountryMusic.