Remembering Woody Guthrie, 100 Years Later

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The intersection of Fourth and Main Street in downtown Los Angeles was anointed the Woody Guthrie intersection today. A native of Oklahoma, Guthrie lived in Los Angeles for a few years in the 1930s amid the Great Depression and the infamous Dust Bowl.

Norah Guthrie, his daughter, encouraged patrons at Thursday's memorial ceremony to remember Guthrie for both his music and his political activism.

"We've been following his footsteps -- from Oklahoma, to Texas and now here in Los Angeles," she said at her father's memorial ceremony. "It was here that he met Will Geer, and they started going around singing and performing for the migrant workers to get them to organize into unions."

For this Thursday's host interview, we spoke with USC journalism professor Ed Cray, who authored a biography on Gurthrie -- Ramblin' Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie.

Cray will be among the panelists at Guthrie's official celebration of his 100th birthday at the USC Bovard Theater this Saturday.

http://www.amazon.com/Ramblin-Man-Times-Woody-Guthrie/dp/0393047598

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