Woody Guthrie: The Columbia and the B.P.A. Documentary: Hydro

WOODY GUTHRIE: THE COLUMBIA AND THE B.P.A. DOCUMENTARY: HYDRO BY HARRY MENIG Harry Menig is a Graduate Associate in the English Department, Oklahoma State University. He is currently writing his dissertation on Woody Guthrie. In 1966, Secretary of the Interior, Stuart L. Udall, presented the Department's Conservation Service Award to America's best-known ballad maker, Woodrow Wilson (Woody) Guthrie. Secretary Udall spoke in honor ofWoody Guthrie's outstanding contributions to the preservation of America's human and natural resources: "Yours was not a passing comment on the beauties of nature, but a living, breathing, singing force in our struggle to use our land and save it, too. The greatness ofthis land is that people such as you with creative talent worked on it and that you told about the work - told about the power of the Bonneville Dam and the men who harnessed it, about the length ofthe Lincoln Highway and the men who laid it out. You have summarized the struggles and the deeply held convictions of all those who love our land and fight to protect it."(l) Most people are familiar with Guthrie's famous ballad, "This Land is Your Land," in which he patriotically celebrates that "From California to the New York Island - From the Redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters - This land was made for you and me."(2) Few, however, realize that Woody Guthrie did more than sing about the beauties of the American landscape. Even Secretary Udall does not specifically mention that Woody Guthrie provided music for a documentary film, The Columbia ( 1 949), which depicted the construction of the Bonneville Dam complex in the Pacific Northwest. The goal of this article will be to fill in this historical gap by reporting the details ofWoody Guthrie's little known film efforts for the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). President Franklin D. Roosevelt hoped that the Tennessee Valley Authority would serve as a model in the creation of a Columbia Valley Authority in the Northwest. As a result, construction ofthe Bonneville project began in 1933 after the President urged Congress to consider the future "development ofother great natural territorial units within our borders."(3) Ifthe Bonneville project was to expand, more than encouraging Presidential messages were needed, for a very strong Republican opposition against any form ofpublic utilities existed in the Northwest.(4) The BPA having decided to use every possible medium to sway popular opinion in favor ofregional planning, produced two documentary films, Hydro (1939) and The Columbia which, though production was begun in 1941, went uncompleted until 1949. In their film efforts, the BPA drew upon the inspired persuasive documentaries of Pare Lorentz, The Plow That Broke the Plains (1936) and The River (1937). With Lorentz, they believed that "film should be used to clarify public perception of issues."(5) With this goal, they attempted first to show the desperate need for reclamation of the land, and second to reveal the potential cultural benefits derived from proper conservation practices. Like Lorentz' Plow, both Hydro and The Columbia exhibit the problems, which result from poor land use and piecemeal planning. But the BPA films are perhaps 24 more akin to The River in celebrating the power of technology and regional planning to develop a healthy balanced industrial rural economy. (6) The strength of Hydro is also its weakness. Throughout the film we receive voice-over descriptions of the Columbia River as a "river ofhope," a "shining symbol of plenty." Further, we are told that the river "hammers," "roars," and "thunders an anthem of power," like a "cavalry ofhalfa million wild horses." Unfortunately, these hyperboles are not adequately balanced by appropriate visual materials. The controlling theme of Hydro is evidently an exaggeration: that the BPA will be the guiding force in the creation of a new manifest destiny in the Pacific Northwest. Although the filmmakers made an obvious overstatement, they never lost sight of the value of the individual. Throughout Hydro, therefore, we are reminded that the development of the Columbia River basin will benefit every "little fellow in the Big Bend country," giving him the chance for a secure home and a steady income. Hydro tells us that electric...