Editing Woody Guthrie (section)

===World War II years===
Guthrie believed performing his anti-fascist songs and poems in the United States was the best use of his talents.

<!-- Commented out: [[File:NBC Red Network.png|thumb|right|[[NBC Red Network]] logo]] -->
====Labor for Victory====
In April 1942, ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine reported that the [[American Federation of Labor|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 (U.S. labor leader)|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&nbsp;pm, starting on April 25, 1942. ''Time'' wrote, "De Caux and Pearl hope to make 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."<ref>
{{cite magazine
| title = Radio: Labor Goes on Air
| magazine = Time magazine
| url = https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,790387,00.html
| date = April 20, 1942
| access-date = July 27, 2017}}</ref><ref name="NBC">
{{cite book
| first = Michele
| last = Hilmes
| title = NBC: America's Network
| publisher = University of California Press
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=rovD3dy-vDoC
| page = 73
| place = Berkeley
| date = 2007
| access-date = July 27, 2017| isbn = 9780520250819
}}</ref> 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.<ref>
{{cite book
| editor-first = Christopher H.
| editor-last = Sterling
| title = Biographical Dictionary of Radio
| publisher = Routledge
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=XDB5mn0OMXoC
| page = 293
| date = May 13, 2013
| access-date = July 27, 2017| isbn = 978-1136993763
}}</ref><ref>{{cite book
| editor-first = Christopher H.
| editor-last = Sterling
| editor-first2 = Cary
| editor-last2 = O'Dell
| title = The Concise Dictionary of America Radio
| publisher = Routledge
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=dmmLAgAAQBA
| page = 563
| date = April 12, 2010
| access-date = July 27, 2017
}}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

For entertainment on CIO episodes, De Caux asked singer and songwriter Woody Guthrie to contribute to the show. "Personally, I would like to see a phonograph record made of your 'Girl in the Red, White, and Blue.{{' "}}<ref name=":1">
{{cite book
| editor-first = John S.
| editor-last = Partington
| title = The Life, Music and Thought of Woody Guthrie: A Critical Appraisal
| publisher = Routledge
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=QNIYDQAAQBAJ
| date = September 17, 2016
| access-date = July 27, 2017| isbn = 9781317025443
}}</ref> The title appears in at least one collection of Guthrie records.<ref>{{cite web
| title = Woodie Guthrie: American Radical Patriot
| publisher = WoodieGuthrie.org
| url = http://www.woodyguthrie.org/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TWGS&Product_Code=WGARP&Category_Code=
| access-date = July 27, 2017
| archive-date = January 11, 2018
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180111224247/http://www.woodyguthrie.org/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TWGS&Product_Code=WGARP&Category_Code=
| url-status = dead
}}</ref> 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'').<ref>
{{cite journal
 |last=Jackson
 |first=Mark
 |date=2001
 |title=In Search of Woody Guthrie at the Library of Congress
 |journal=Folklife Center News
 |url=https://www.loc.gov/folklife/news/pdf/FCNxxiii2.pdf
 |volume=23
 |pages=7–9
 |access-date = August 2, 2017}}</ref><ref>
{{cite book
| first = R. Serge
| last = Denisoff
| title = Folk Consciousness: People's Music and American Communism
| publisher = Simon Fraser University
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=_xDaAAAAMAAJ
| page = 241
| date = 1968
| access-date = July 27, 2017}}</ref><ref>
{{cite book
| editor-first  = Robert
| editor-last   = Santelli
| editor-first2 = Emily
| editor-last2  = Davidson
| title         = Hard Travelin': The Life and Legacy of Woody Guthrie
| publisher     = Wesleyan University Press
| url           = https://books.google.com/books?id=CJIp65eNkCUC
| page          = 241
| date          = 1999
| access-date   = July 27, 2017| isbn = 9780819563910
}}</ref> On August 29, 1942, he performed "The Farmer-Labor Train", with lyrics he had written to 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.)<ref>
{{cite book
| first = Bill
| last = Nowlin
| title = Woody Guthrie: American Radical Patriot
| publisher = Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc.
| page = 170
| date = 2013
}}</ref><ref>
{{cite web
| title = Farmer-Labor Train
| publisher = Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc.
| url = http://woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/Farmer-Labor_Train.htm
| access-date = September 5, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
| title = Woody Guthrie American Radical Patriot, 2013
| publisher = Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc.
| url = http://www.woodyguthrie.org/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TWGS&Product_Code=WGARP&Category_Code=
| access-date = September 5, 2017
| archive-date = January 11, 2018
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180111224247/http://www.woodyguthrie.org/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TWGS&Product_Code=WGARP&Category_Code=
| url-status = dead
}}</ref> 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 a [[We the People (U.S. TV series)|television series]].<ref>
{{cite book
| first = Will
| last = Kaufman
| title = Woody Guthrie, American Radical
| publisher = University of Illinois Press
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=uQop2edOXrkC
| page = 84

| date = October 1, 2012
| access-date = August 2, 2017| isbn = 9780199977086
}}</ref> (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.''<ref>
{{cite book
| first = Howard
| last = Pollack
| title = Marc Blitzstein: His Life, His Work, His World
| publisher = Oxford University Press
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=uQop2edOXrkC
| place = London, New York
| date = July 31, 2017
| access-date = July 27, 2017| isbn = 9780199977086
}}</ref>) 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.<ref name=NBC /><ref>
{{cite book
| first = Elizabeth A.
| last = Fones-Wolf
| title = Waves of Opposition: Labor and the Struggle for Democratic Radio
| publisher = University of Illinois Press
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=bABsxfphOM8C
| page = 103
| date = 2006
| access-date = July 27, 2017| isbn = 9780252073649
}}</ref><ref>
{{cite book
| first = Nathan
| last = Godfried
| title = WCFL, Chicago's Voice of Labor, 1926-78
| publisher = University of Illinois Press
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=wd_PDZkvS8cC
| page = 210
| date = 1997
| access-date = July 27, 2017| isbn = 9780252065927
}}</ref> Episodes included the announcement that the show represented "twelve million organized men and women, united in 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]].<ref>
{{cite web
| title = Labor for Victory
| publisher = Pandora
| url = https://www.pandora.com/artist/woody-guthrie/american-radical-patriot/labor-for-victory/TR5VhxmjbZXZ39g
| access-date = July 27, 2017}}</ref><ref>
{{cite web
| title = Labor for Victory
| website = Amazon
| url = https://www.amazon.com/Labor-For-Victory/dp/B00FTU97CI
| access-date = July 27, 2017}}</ref><ref>
{{cite web
| title = Labor for Victory
| publisher = SoundCloud
| url = https://soundcloud.com/woody-guthrie-official/labor-for-victory
| access-date = July 27, 2017}}</ref>

====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.{{citation needed|date=June 2017}} When Guthrie's attempts failed, his friends [[Cisco Houston]] and Jim Longhi persuaded the singer to join the [[United States Merchant Marine|U.S. Merchant Marine]] in June 1943.<ref>Klein, ''Woody Guthrie'', pp.&nbsp;277–80,&nbsp;287–91.</ref> He made several voyages aboard merchant ships SS ''William B. Travis'', SS ''William Floyd'', and SS ''Sea Porpoise'', while they traveled in [[convoy]]s 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 a mine in the [[Mediterranean Sea]], killing one person aboard, but the ship sailed to [[Bizerte]], Tunisia under her own power.<ref>Robert Cressman, ''The Official Chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II'', Naval Institute Press (1999), p. 180.</ref>

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 the ship stayed afloat; Sea Porpoise returned to England, where she was repaired at [[Newcastle upon Tyne|Newcastle]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/3285.html|title=Sea Porpoise (American Steam merchant) - Ships hit by German U-boats during WWII - uboat.net|website=uboat.net}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=April 2023}} In July 1944, she returned to the United States.<ref>Ronald D. Cohen, ''Woody Guthrie: Writing America's Songs'', pp. 28–29.</ref>

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''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Longhi |first=Jim |title=Woody, Cisco and Me |year=1997 |publisher=[[Random House]] |isbn=0-252-02276-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/woodyciscomeseam00long }}</ref> The book offers a rare first-hand account of Guthrie during his [[United States Merchant Marine|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 the Merchant Marine; he was drafted into the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]].<ref>Klein, ''Woody Guthrie'', pp.&nbsp;302–03.</ref>

While he was on [[Wiktionary:furlough|furlough]] from the Army, Guthrie married Marjorie.<ref>Klein, ''Woody Guthrie'', p.&nbsp;312.</ref> After his discharge, they moved into a house on Mermaid Avenue in [[Coney Island]] and over time had four children: daughters Cathy and [[Nora Guthrie|Nora]]; and sons [[Arlo Guthrie|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.<ref>Klein, ''Woody Guthrie'', p.&nbsp;344–351.</ref> Arlo and Joady followed in their father's footsteps as singer-songwriters.

When his family 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 the [[Dust Bowl]]'s brutal weather. He could not get it published.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/2013/02/05/170496691/woodie-guthries-house-of-earth-calls-this-land-home |title=Woody Guthrie's 'House of Earth' Calls 'This Land' Home |last1=Neary |first1=Lynn |date=February 5, 2013 |publisher=[[NPR]] |access-date=February 5, 2013}}</ref> It was published posthumously in 2013, by [[Harper (publisher)|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 the documentary film ''Columbia River'', which explored government dams and hydroelectric projects on the river.<ref>{{cite video
 | year =1949
 | title =Video: The Columbia (1949)
 | url =https://archive.org/details/gov.fdr.353.3.4
 | publisher =[[United States Department of the Interior]]
 | access-date =February 22, 2012
}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news
 |title        = Ten Dollars a Song: Woody Guthrie Sells His Talent to the Bonneville Power Administration
 |work         = Columbia Magazine
 |date         =Spring 2001
 |volume       = 15
 |issue        = 1
 |first        = Robert C.
 |last         = Carriker
 |url          = http://columbia.washingtonhistory.org/anthology/fromwartowar/woodyGuthrie.aspx
 |access-date  = February 23, 2012
|archive-date = March 29, 2013
|archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20130329193008/http://columbia.washingtonhistory.org/anthology/fromwartowar/woodyGuthrie.aspx
 |url-status   = dead
}}</ref>