ASF 2016 Study Materials for

White Lightning by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder

Director Geoffrey Sherman Study Materials written by Susan Willis Set Design James Wolk ASF Dramaturg Costume Design Pamela Scofield [email protected] Lighting Design Travis MaCale

Contact ASF: 1.800.841-4273, www.asf.net ASF/ 1

White Lightning

by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder Welcome to the Premiere of White Lightning

Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder's latest Driving with the Devil: Southern Moonshine, Southern Writers' Project premiere, White Detroit Wheels, and the Birth of NASCAR Characters Lightning, is a tale of grass roots dreams, (Crown, 2006) conveys the factual basis Avery McAllister, 20, a a guy's first fast car and his first true love, a behind this fictional drama. Characters in young World War II young woman's determination to succeed, the play discuss several of the actual figures veteran and how to turn nothing into something in early racing, as anyone interested in fast Hank Taylor, a north by hook, crook, love, and speed on the cars and a chance to win big money in the Georgia moonshiner and South's highways and race tracks. The title 1930s and 1940s would. businessman fuses these two worlds of moonshine and The cars are the context for the play's Chester Pike, the revenuer automotive speed. focus on a person's desire to become Mutt, a skilled mechanic The play looks at Southern moonshining somebody, to chart his or her own course Dixie James, 19, an aspiring and bootlegging as a major backwoods and not default into hopelessness—and young mill worker income source and at the kind of daredevil not let the tentacles of the world or others' driver who ran the booze and began to dreams ensnare him. Clarifying one's race competetively in the years before purpose and finding one's true love in terms Setting: north Georgia, NASCAR got organized, years when dirt of another person or in work are challenges Atlanta, and Southern dirt tracks and stock cars found an audience where self meets world, which can promise, racetracks of thousands—which has now become an tempt, entrap, or liberate. Avery and Dixie's Time: 1947-1948 audience of millions. Writer Neal Thompson, abilities and determination must find a way has delved into the unrecorded early days to survive as they start their young adult of dirt tracks before NASCAR, and his book, lives seeking their "freedom" from being outliers with no future in their society.

The Story Young war veteran Avery McAllister asks a local moonshiner and businessman, Hank Taylor, to hire him as a bootlegger. Because Avery can drive fast and is smart, he's hired to drive and also to Cover picture: Number 7, work at Hank's gas station as "Lightning" Lloyd Seay, one of cover. There his car is modified pre-NASCAR's great racing for speed and storage space champions, took the turns by Mutt, the mechanic, and he on two wheels at full throttle meets Dixie, a young mill worker in 1948 on his way to victory and aspiring accountant. at Daytona. Weeks later he was dead, shot by a cousin Hank's "business partner," in a moonshine dispute in his the local revenuer Chester Pike, hometown, Dawsonville, GA. is a fan who Dawsonville, Georgia—Family experience admires Avery's driving skills and convinces tells Avery and Dixie that this town, the Hank to back him in races. Avery wins, but local mills, and grief are their destiny. that feeds Hank's desire for a one-man Yet in the '30s and '40s Dawsonville empire. When Avery's dreams of winning was famous for its bootlegging stock car and marrying seem to collapse, he must racers, because the only way out was a gut-check and decide whether to fight for fast automobile. the life and woman he wants. ASF/ 2

White Lightning by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder Meet the Author: Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder

Elyzabeth Wilder grew up in Wilder's Other Alabama—living on a houseboat. Her ASF Plays first taste of professional theatre was on ASF's Festival Stage in the 1991 In Gee's Peter Pan playing one of the Lost Boys. Bend, an abused Later she participated in the first Young wife finds her Playwrights' Workshop of ASF's Southern self-respect by Writers' Project (SWP), and went on to earn joining the civil rights march an M.F.A. from the Department of Dramatic in Selma and Writing at New York University. drinking from Her 2006 SWP workshop of Gee's a whites' only Bend, a play about the isolated Alabama water fountain. community of African-American quilters, (Roslyn Ruff, was in ASF's 2006-2007 season and has ASF 2007) subsequently been performed across the country. Gee's Bend also won Wilder the American Theatre Critics' Osborn Award In The for Emerging Playwrights. As ASF's Furniture of Home, a woman Playwright-in-Residence, she led writing tries to preserve workshops across the state. Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder her home, ASF then commissioned two more condemned as plays, The Furniture of Home (2009) and uninhabitable ASF Premieres of The Flagmaker of Market Street (2011). The after Hurricane Wilder Plays current play is her latest ASF commission. Katrina, and to deal with crises In November 2004, her play, Fresh Gee's Bend, 2007 from her daughter The Furniture of Home, 2009 Kills, premiered at the Royal Court Theatre and a deceptive The Flagmaker of Market in London. Her other plays include The developer/friend. Street, 2011 First Day of Hunting Season, The Spirit (Greta Lambert White Lightning, 2016 of Ecstasy, and Provenance. The Bone & Anne Letscher, Orchard was commissioned by The Denver ASF 2009) Center. Check out Wilder discussing Her awards include a number In The her writing process on of prestigious fellowships, including a Flagmaker of YouTube @: MacDowell Fellowship. Recently she has Market Street, https://www.youtube.com/ served three years as the Tennessee the dry goods watch?v=9XnrEVp1c-E Williams Playwright-in-Residence at The store owner, who University of the South at Sewanee. is a secret Union loyalist, and his Themes in Wilder's ASF Plays • quest for self-realization in a new slave find moment of larger change themselves • psychological or physical commissioned abuse by authority figure to sew the first (husband, friend, master) Confederate flag • moving beyond the given/the as the South past/what is secedes from • personally defining moments the Union. (Nikki (the water fountain, the blue E. Walker, ASF chair, the flag's stars made 2011) from her wedding dress)

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White Lightning

by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder The Background of the Action: Life in the 1930s and 1940s

The characters' lives have been shaped 1934-1938: Great Depression eases by Prohibition, the Great Depression— • Lower unemployment, fewer bank during which Avery and Dixie were children failures and the other adults were trying to begin • Drought-striken their adult lives—and by World War II. Midwestern Selective Time Lime: Background for farmers Play move west 1919-20: Prohibition legalized as 18th • Germany Amendment to Constitution ratified, annexes Austria outlawing manufacture, transport, or • Jesse Owens wins 4 gold medals at sale of alcoholic beverages. Many Berlin Olympics police participated in bootlegging (in • New: laundromats, Golden Gate the police chief said the rate Bridge, miniature golf, last public was 60%). Prohibition is repealed in hanging 1933. 1939: War and rising economy John Held's cartoon of a flapper • World War II begins in Europe doing the Charleston—quintessence 1919-1929: The Roaring Twenties of the Roaring '20s • Life expectancy is 54 years; • U.S. economy surges due to war divorce rate 13%. • Gone with the Wind, Wizard of Oz • Radio gains popularity. • New: helicopter, fad of swallowing • Car sales boom; 50% of cars sold live goldfish are Fords. 1941-1945: World War II for America • Work day cut from 12 to 8 hours. • First peacetime draft in 1940 • New: Miss America pageant, • War declared Dec. 8, 1941 after Wheaties, Time magazine, traffic Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor lights, airmail, Baby Ruth candy, • After early defeats in Pacific, U.S, radio commercials, Yankee stadium, forces begin to electric shavers, films with sound, win and along Cartoon of an big city speakeasy Academy Awards, solo transatlantic with allies during Prohibition— flight, Mickey Mouse, the charleston gain ground alcohol readily available 1929: Stock Market crash in October in Europe. leads to severe economic downturn D-Day; 1930-1933: Depth of Great Depression invasion at • Many banks close; 56% of blacks Normandy, and 40% of whites are unemployed. June 6, 1944. Germans Wages drop to 60% of 1929 wages. introduce V-1 & V-2 • Roosevelt's "New Deal" creates jobs rocket bombs; Japanese and changes national monetary begin kamikaze attacks. system Napalm-bombing of The 1929 Stock • 5-day, 40-hour work week common Tokyo. War in Europe Market • FBI created due to rising gangster ends May 8, 1945. After Crash— activity (a result of Prohibition) dropping two atomic chart of • Dust Bowl in Midwest begins bombs on Japan, war with Japan ends the value of one • Hitler elected chancellor in Germany August 15, 1945. share of • Cigarette smoking rises • Rationing of rubber, sugar, gasoline, GE stock • New: Empire State Building, "Star shoes, canned goods, meat, cheese, from 1920- Spangled Banner" named national and fat in U.S. during war 1930 anthem • Nuremburg war trials begin • Polio epidemic • New: M&Ms, the lindy hop dance ASF/ 4

White Lightning by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder Character & Action in White Lightning: Avery McAllister in Act 1

Avery McAllister at the start: Thinking about Avery: • 20 years old • Avery's early statements are often • his father died when he was young reaction as much as action. He looks • had a troubled youth, partly spent at his family's life and sees a pattern in reform school; judge gave him a involving booze and death, a pattern How Openings Can choice of the army or jail at 17 he wants to avoid. Foreshadow Action • recently discharged from U.S. Army —Why­ are booze and death the pattern Openings of well-written after World War II for men in his world? plays are seeds for the —What will it take for Avery to avoid action; they start to What he says when the action starts: falling into this pattern? sprout the issues. • "When you grow up in a small, sleepy • Hank's opening lines of the town in the South, time moves slow, • Avery says the army knocked "the fool" play are to Avery, who is while you dream of moving fast. Fast out of him. If it's true he's no longer sitting on the hood of his money, fast cars, anything that might the kid acting out and acting up, who car. Hank's third line is: take you away from it all." or what is he now? How do we judge "You need to stand up his actions? when you're talking to • "It's this [bootlegging] or work in some —Do we see him drinking? me." factory. I spent the last three years —What does he do with his money? Actually, learning to stand having someone telling me what to do. —How does he treat people? up to Hank or to stand up That's not the life for me." —How does he respond to females? for himself is a large part [Hank's reply indicates coming action —How does he problem-solve? of Avery's arc in the play. and the realities of adult life: "And —Is a job breaking the law as a boot- This small line early on what makes you think this'll be any legger a sure route to success? highlights a much larger different?"] personal journey. • Hank seems to be a good mentor.Then • "I screwed up a lot in my life. That's all when Avery's driving skills are verified anybody's ever expected from me. But by the revenuer, the focus switches to I'm out to prove them all wrong. I'm racing, one of Pike's betting interests. out to be somebody." Hank offers to invest in modifying the [Hank's reply: "I've had car "no strings attached." a lot of boys walk through —Is "no strings attached" a good deal? those doors saying the same Would you take it? thing." What does it take to —What role does "betting" play in the succeed?] action as an activity and as an image? —What do bootlegging and racing • "Nobody in my family ever share? wore a suit to work.… My daddy spent his whole life • Avery's other motivation in Act 1 owing somebody something. is Dixie, who is as focused on Out in front is #22, the Drank himself to death without a opportunity as he is, except she is famous Red Byron—one of the penny to his name. I promised myself getting an education. She wants him few non-Southerners on the a long time ago, to be different the other local men. circuit—a stock car driver who, despite a serious World War II leg I wasn't gonna owe nobody nothing." —How does Dixie challenge Avery and wound, returned to race and win. [Can a "self-made man" do everything how much is he sweet-talking her He drove for the legendary owner by himself, with no relationships or because he likes her? Herbert Parks in a car modified help?] —What role does Dixie play in Avery's by expert mechanic Red Vogt. development? Is he being educated? ASF/ 5

White Lightning by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder Character & Action in White Lightning: Hank, Chester, & Mutt

Hank Taylor: Chester Pike: • is a self-made man who started • is the revenuer who takes bribes and Early Dialogue "Seeds" investing with a gumball business tips off Hank about federal stakeouts • Chester: Ain't Raymond • now owns a service station/garage • likes racing and gambling on races Parks the one had you and a moonshine operation: "the boss" • is loyal but looks after his own interests arrested? • wants to expand—year-round into Hank: Ratted me out's moonshine and into stock car racing What he says: what he did. • "I take care of you, you take care of —In the competitive What he says: me.… [but] there's always a first time." moonshining business, • "About the only thing a man can depend —Hank is in business relationships with how must one behave? on these days is his car." Chester, Mutt, and Avery. Compare Does Hank ever rat —Is he right? What else does Hank how he relates to each one. out or take down a depend on? "(pointing to Avery) I think that one's a competitor? Does he like • "You have to drive like there's a cop winner." it when he's ratted out? around every corner. You start thinking —Chester feeds Hank's competitive • In scene 3, Mutt tells Avery you're the only one out there and nature. Why? he'll get dirty from the red you're as good as gone." "Then you need to get out before you dirt track. Hank says the —Does Hank ever act like "he's the only lose it all. You're in over your head, other drivers drive dirty. one out there?" What happens when Hank." —Compare how the ideas he's not? —Is it easy to give Hank necessary of getting physically • "That's why I only hire drivers with their advice? Is Hank grateful? How does dirty and "driving dirty" own cars. It's yours, you'll take care of Chester answer Hank's belittling? work as the story it." progresses. What is —Does Hank take care of what's his? Hank encouraging Mutt • "You gotta know how to set your mind • only known by his nickname Avery to do? Does that on what you want." • world-class mechanic, a wizard with say more about Hank • "I like a man who can be bought." cars or about business and —Who can be "bought" or controlled • quiet, stern, demanding, but wise and sport? Is dirty play the and how or for what? truthful to Avery in crucial moments key to success? Hank's role through the play: What he says: Hank is • a mentor/teacher • Hank: Hey, Mutt, you're a Baptist, right? • the boss/investor/financier Mutt: When I ain't drinking, cursing, or • a man on the make fornicating. • a man used to calling the shots —That will play as a laugh line, but it • a gambler also illuminates aspects of principle —When is Hank in each of these roles? and action in the play. Do Hank and —Once Hank backs Avery as a racer, Chester always act on principle or he also decides to invest in a race only when they're not doing something track. Are those the same kind of profitable? Where is the line between decision? What is the competition/ principle and profit in the play? for risk for each? What does he bet on? Avery? Red Byron —Does Hank change in the play or • Mutt gives Avery vital encouragement: clean before does his character become clearer? Mutt:I never thought you were the kinda a race and —Hank tears Chester apart verbally boy I'd see beat down. I'm not sure covered in near the play's end, alienating his who broke you worse, Hank or Dixie. red dirt and business partner. Why? How does Avery: What am I supposed to do, huh? sweat after. this exchange compare to his last Mutt: Prove 'em wrong. exchange with Avery? —Compare Mutt's demands of Avery. ASF/ 6

White Lightning

by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder Character & Action in White Lightning: Dixie and the Love Plot

Avery's life has two plots—the finding • "The boy I fell in love with wanted more himself through work plot and the love than this. I'm done here." plot. Dixie James in many ways parallels —Does she call this right? Time to go? Dixie's Name Avery's plot line, but she's a mill worker • Is Dixie's name another and student with plans. The Love Plot: Avery and Dixie marker for the Southern Dixie • We see Avery's dream from two , the culture and locale of • 19 years old work and the personal—he wants the play? How would a • worked a man's full-time job in mill to win, but winning means having a name with such roots during the war; then made part time home and family, too. in the past fit with her • wearing trousers in first scene (work) • In Avery's last scene with Dixie in Act 1, character? • a forthright, no-nonsense young woman he ends the scene with "When I first • Jim Croce wrote a famous who keeps focused on her goal started racing all I thought about was song praising Georgia • taking accounting courses at night winning. Now, I think about how each stock car racer "Rapid" • has never been to Atlanta win takes me one step closer to giving Roy Hall: • challenges Avery at every turn you a good life. That's something I can "Oh Rapid Roy that stock car promise." boy What she says: —How does having a love interest He's the best driver in the • "A dress does not make a lady." affect Avery and the action of the land… • "I'm not sure if I want you to win or play? Compare this scene to Avery in He do a hundred thirty mile the first scene, when Hank calls him an hour, smilin' at the lose." an "arrogant sonofabitch." If Hank is camera, —Avery bets her he'll win his first race right, what begins to change Avery? With a toothpick in his mouth and if so she'll go to Atlanta with him. He's got a girl back home, Explore how winning and losing—and Does Dixie change as well in the name of Dixie Dawn…. " what—becomes a major issue for course of the action? —Which source seems them. —Does Act 2 make it easy for Avery to more appropriate for the • "I wanted you to be different." keep that Act 1 promise to Dixie? character and the play? —Dixie knows the game; her father —Compare the challenges of the work/ Are there other possible made moonshine and drank himself racing scenes and the love scenes. sources for her name? to death. Is she right to get out of the Are these plots parallel or divergent? car in Atlanta? Should she get back in Are her challenges distractions or when Avery explains his dream and clarifications? calls her "a class act"? • Avery wants Dixie to go see him race. • "If something was In Act 1 she refuses. Late in Act 2 he to happen to you, I asks again. don't want my last —What does each answer mean for the memory of you to action of the play? What does Avery's be something sad." later decision setting this up mean? —What life • There are fewer love plot scenes than experience gives work/racing scenes in the play. The one this view? rhythm of the two plots' scenes shows • "He's taking the double dream and double pull on advantage of you, Avery. Avery.… You're too —Assess the role of the Avery/Dixie good for Hank.… scenes. Are they well placed? How do Avery and Dixie meet at It's better you take that risk for your they enhance the character arcs and Hank's service station. This is dream instead of someone else's." the play's large action? the Atlanta station of Raymond —Should we consider the play a Parks, from which he built his —Who fights more for Avery's dream romance, a love story? Why or why business and racing empires. and talent down the stretch in Act 2, Gas is 16¢! Avery or Dixie? Does she fight for not? What role does love play in the herself or him? overall action? ASF/ 7

White Lightning

by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder Character & Action in White Lightning: Avery in Act 2

The crash at the end of Act 1 • Perhaps Avery will turn into another foreshadows things to come. Act 1 is a Mutt: "Looks like I'll be working for glory ride of discovery for Avery. But there [Hank] til the day I die," because he is no drama without still believes Hank: "He said I wasn't conflict, and Act 2 will good enough for Bill France." offer Avery a double Yet Avery, for the first time in the play, dose. earns praise from Mutt for his work, Challenges and and Mutt tells him: "don't let him get to Changes in Act 2: you." When Dixie leaves, Avery thinks • The broken arm "I messed up everything else in my means Avery cannot life, no reason to think this'd be any drive to bootleg or to different"—believing his destiny will On the uneven, rutted red dirt race, and repairing his busted car will now be like his father's. Mutt simply tracks amid daredevil drivers, puts his dream back in his hands: wrecks were common cost money. • His accident/near arrest occurred just "Prove 'em wrong." Dream Alliances as Hank's new track was about to Avery's moment of give in or fight is • How important is belief in open, so that must be postponed and crucial to the action. He seems to give oneself? so must the betting: "The real money in, but Mutt challenges him to try, to The play keeps focusing on comes from betting on the race." believe in himself. Avery's faith in his dream • As their relationship changes, Avery —What should Avery do? How can he and in his abilities. realizes his world is not what he address these problems, his boss's On one side, Dixie says, "I control, his girlfriend's walkout? Which believe in you"; on the other, thought: "There's no 'we' in this," Hank one should he address first? Hank, when he cannot hold explains. Avery just cost him money onto the fragile empire he's rather than making him money, so he • We see his decision, not surprisingly, been building, lashes out tells Avery: "You can be replaced," on the racetrack. Even the announcer at Mutt and Avery: "Look whereas Avery says, "I thought you'd can see that "what that boy needs to at the two of you. Nothing take care of me." do is find his focus"—true in the race but a couple of boys that • Avery challenges Hank; the "team" and in the race of life. And that is what nobody wanted. You'll be breaks apart. Avery decides to take he does. Avery realizes he isn't racing sorry you walked away his car and leave—and gets an for himself, and without his heart or from me, cause I'm the only his dream in it, he won't make it. So chance you ever had to be eyeopener: "Sure thing. Once you pay he chooses his heart and his dream. somebody." me back for the tires and the gas, the —How important is it to have new engine and labor." • While it may seem he goes to Dixie someone else that believes Hank expects a return on his first, in fact he tells her he's already in you? How dangerous is it investment and will decide what called Bill France and will be racing in to deal with someone who return is enough. Avery can have Daytona. Having set up to race there tears you down, especially the car—stripped clean of all Mutt's in February, he asks Dixie to go with when that person has been improvements. Can he win a race him. Dixie draws her line: "I believe respected or a mentor/ then? He says, "I gotta have my car." in you. I believe in your racing. But I boss? Is that a betrayal or don't believe in breaking the law.… someone else's dreams Then Hank makes him submit and say You stop hauling moonshine." Avery dying, which can get ugly? "thank you. Hank's political credo —Avery wants to leave things emerges as well as year-round simply says, "I got a plan." "even" with Hank. How does bootlegging plans with Avery as driver. —The play does not give us all he decide to make things —Is this Avery's dream? Who wants to the answers at once. We get the even? Is he right to do this? be the winner here and in what race? challenges and slowly we see Avery Would you do it? • Hank muscles Avery and then Chester, make his decision and pursue it, so driving conditions will change. scene by scene. Does that work to —Is Avery in control now or is he drive and develop the action? controlled? And if Hank is making bad choices, what will that do to Avery? ASF/ 8

White Lightning by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder The Play's Sixth Character: The 1939 Ford V-8

Many legends emerge from the late Family Car to Bootleg Car to Race Car 1930s and 1940s in the early history of The first truly economical Ford V-8 stock car racing, but legendary is not premiered in 1932. When the industry built strong enough for the 1939 Ford V-8, six-cylinder models, Ford struck back with one of the greatest stock car racing this eight-cylinder auto. Thompson calls the vehicles ever made. V-8s "sexy, growling panthers," their design Henry Ford's Affordable Ford offering "more torque, more horsepower, Henry Ford experimented with and more stability at high speeds." By gasoline-powered vehicles before 1900. 1938-39 they also had hydraulic brakes, Once he had a company, he streamlined perfect for bootlegger turns, and gear automotive mass production with his shifters on the floor. They had "cast-iron assembly line technology and thereby heads, high-compression cylinders, and A vintage 1939 Ford V-8 made the cars more affordable. He wanted dual manifolds," making them "the greatest coupe, the choice in the day to produce good cars for all Americans. V-8 of all, and the first car of NASCAR" plus of bootleggers and racers He wanted to show what his experi- "the most famous whiskey car of all time." mental auto could do, so in 1901 he raced The bootleggers discovered these "Moonshiners put more it against another car made by Alexander Ford cars handled well at high speeds, and time, energy, thought Winton—the only race Ford ever competed with some modifications by an inventive and love into their cars in himself. Ford lagged for half the race but mechanic—removing the backseats, more than any racers ever eventually won, going a dazzling 45 mph, carburetors, a stronger suspension system, will." a speed he said "scared [him] to death." heavier tires—they could fly at over 100 —"Junior" Johnson, mph fully loaded with 90 gallons or more early NASCAR champion Racing victories won Ford financial backers and "taught him a lesson: fast cars of moonshine, and they had equal speed are viewed—rightly or wrongly—as well- on the track. The V-8s and Crime made, desirable machines," a good way to Bootleggers were already racers; they Mobsters and criminals had to outrun the local revenuers and the loved the Ford V-8, their escape advertise, even though Ford believed that vehicle of choice. Neal Thompson racing was not a car's proper use. federal agents who wanted to destroy their reports that both John Dillinger The Model T emerged in 1908, but untaxed moonshine cargo. Their finish line and Clyde Barrow (of Bonnie Ford kept improving production, lowering was the delivery point in the nearby big city, and Clyde) wrote Henry Ford the price, and selling many more cars than where the demand for moonshine was high thank-you notes praising his cars. his competitors. "By the 1920s," records during Prohibition and even after the law Southern bootleggers, Thompson, "two-thirds of America's cars was repealed in 1933 because some of the however, did not consider were Model Ts." Ford's 1927 Model A was South stayed dry. themselves criminals or even better and faster, to the great delight The cars, drivers, and mechanics were mobsters and rarely expanded the key. A modified "whiskey car" could their moonshine business into of those needing reliability and speed to racketeering, prostitution or outrun the law. be further modified to race on dirt tracks robbery. Many invested their by removing the headlights and anything profits in legitimate businesses— else the driver or car didn't need to race and in stock car racing. and by protecting the front end. Having a mechanic who could fix the damage racing Source: Most automotive, stock inflicted—wrecks, flips, collisions—and get car racing, and moonshining the car back on the track fast made the history is drawn from racing team shine. Neal Thompson's Driving with the Devil: Southern Moonshine, Detroit Wheels, and the Birth of NASCAR (Crown, 2006), an excellent resource. A 1939 Ford V-8 coupe says "eat my dust" in a pre-NASCAR race ASF/ 9

White Lightning by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder Did You Know? Quick Facts on Moonshine and Racing

About MOONSHINE About STOCK CAR RACING • Also called rotgut, white lightning, • Stock car racing existed well before any panther's breath, popskull, or just organization became involved. The "shine" AAA organized "high end" racing and • By definition, "moonshine is made thought stock car races would die out. in secret, and it's illegal." So • The name NASCAR [National any modern moonshine you see Association for Stock Car Auto Racing] advertised or for sale in a store may was proposed by mechanic Louis be harsh, unaged corn liquor, but not "Red" Vogt at Bill France's 1947 "moonshine." organizational meeting. Its acronym Commercial is aged, often for was the only one pronouncable. years, in oak barrels, so it is golden • When NASCAR started in 1948, the and has a more mellow flavor. only track that was not dirt was the Moonshine is not aged; it comes Daytona Beach-Road track. harsh and fresh direct from the • On dirt tracks, cars slide sideways still, usually at 150 proof (75% around turns, drifting on four, or often Read the hood. Scott alcohol). Since it is unregulated, if two, tires, thus making the cars hard to Bloomquist's modern racecar is proudly sponsored by Ole carelessly produced, it can be deadly. control. The cars also throw up clouds Smoky Moonshine. As we know, (Moonshiners sometimes add bleach, of dust, so drivers behind cannot see, by definition that can't be real embalming fluid,or paint thinner to are also drifting, and so may hit a rut at moonshine… enhance the brew's kick, all of which the corner, which will flip the car. are poisonous additives.) • In the 1960s only three dirt tracks were • Origin of the terms: still in use. The last dirt-track NASCAR What is a Moonshiner Turn? (not recommended for —moonshine: The English once race was held Sept. 30, 1970 in non-bootleggers!) called any activity done late at night Raleigh, NC and won by . • While racing down the road "moonshining." But now it only means • , which opened in toward a roadblock at 100 illegal brewing. Moonshiners produce 1950, was the first fully paved stock mph, brake hard to 50 mph the whiskey. car track. • then come off the brake and —bootleggers: the ones who transport • In the 52 races of the first official spin the steering wheel and sell the moonshine. The term NASCAR racing season (1948), every with one hand and pull the apparently comes from colonial winning car was a Ford. emergency brake with the other (to lock the wheels) transporters who hid the brew inside • just as the car spins 180°, their tall riding boots. release the emergency • Moonshine is produced by a process of brake and gun the fermenting a grain and then distilling accelerator the alcohol that it produces. In colonial • the slide will slow, and as the times moonshiners used rye or barley; car barely stops, then peel for the past 150 years in the South, out in the direction opposite they've used corn.Grain + sugar + to the one you traveled in 10 yeast + water = booze, if you can seconds before "cook" it and reclaim the steam safely. Additional Sources: • Ironically, the two major results of • Ed Grabianowski, "How Prohibition were the rise of organized Moonshine Works" @ http:// crime in America and an explosion of science.howstuffworks.com/ moonshining. Prohibition did not stop • NASCAR website: NASCAR liquor; by making it forbidden, it made Modified Results, NASCAR it desirable—and more profitable. The Daytona Beach-Road racetrack was Race Car Tracks, NASCAR • A bootlegger drives with his hands at the only early stock car track to include any Yearly Recaps 7:30 and 4:30 so he can make big pavement prior to 1950. Note: all oval tracks race counter-clockwise with all left turns. turns fast in one motion. ASF/ 10

White Lightning by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder The Real Stock Car Racers of the 1930s and 1940s

Stock car racing, unlike the formula Raymond Parks racing of the Le Mans circuit, essentially • Native of Dawsonville, GA, from a dirt means that you drive a car out of the poor home. Ray ran away at 14 to driveway onto a racetrack. But because become a moonshiner (who never so many of the impromptu, "bet my car drank) and soon started his own can beat your car" races that took place still. He moved to Atlanta to work at on rural straightaways or in open pastures his uncle's service station and soon in the early 20th-century South were run bought it. by bootleggers, who already had very fast • With his moonshine profits he kept cars altered to enhance speed and power, buying new cars and expanding into there were rarely any ordinary cars racing. his own lottery and snack machine The birth of NASCAR, even though early businesses and legal liquor stores. NASCAR organizers tried to obscure the • Two of his cousins were his drivers, fact, came directly out of bootlegging so when he entered stock car racing, moonshine. Many of the early successful they became his racers. Parks was drivers had honed their speed-driving a longtime figure in stock car racing, L to R: Lloyd Seay, Raymond techniques eluding revenuers. fielding the first "team" in the sport. Parks, Roy Hall; below: Other kinds of auto races at the time "Lightning" Lloyd Seay Red Vogt at his garage were populated by the upper class, so the • Native of Dawsonville; Parks's cousin fact that stock car racing came out of the • Illiterate but a skilled driver, cool and rural South and was run and watched by steady under pressure the working class meant it had grassroot • Drove in the first Atlanta stock car race or, rather, red clay appeal—which is why at Lakewood Speedway before 20,000 the rest of the racing world ignored it. fans—the first appearance of the When 20,000 people filled Atlanta's new Parks "team" Lakewood Speedway in 1938 to see its first • Won many dirt tracks races, a champi- stock car race, however, racing noticed. on in the early days of stock car racing Stock Car Racing History in the Play • Shot dead in a dispute about a The play mentions several formative moonshine debt (a debt of 5¢) Major Stock Car Race Tracks "Rapid Roy" Hall 1930s-1940s figures in early stock car racing, especially the Atlanta "team" of owner Raymond • Native of Dawsonville; Parks's cousin Parks, mechanic Red Vogt, and drivers • A daredevil driver, a fearless speed demon who liked to be out front Martinsville Lloyd Seay, Roy Hall, and later Red Byron, Speedway all major winners on the post-war circuit of • Drawn to crime beyond bootlegging; North Wilkesboro • Greensboro arrest warrants on him often forced Speedway Fairgrounds races. In Act 2 race promoter and former Charlotte• •Tri-State Speedway •Speedway him to race incognito. Greenville-Pickens • racer Bill France figures prominently; he Speedway Spartanburg• Darlington • A big winner in early stock car racing •Fairgrounds •Raceway saw that the sport needed organization Red Vogt Lakewood and regulation and maneuvered to lead it. •Speedway Birmingham• • A skilled mechanic who opened a 24- Fairgrounds The play is set in of 1947-48 when stock Columbus hour garage in Atlanta •Speedway car racing's appeal rose markedly and the • Known for his red hair and spotless sport itself was about to organize. Wilder Daytona white attire, even while working, and Beach-and-Road sets the action just as it does, when there • for his meticulously organized tools are several different dirt track circuits and • Modified and engineered whiskey cars new tracks appearing. Plus the character in a secret back room at his garage— Hank's political rhetoric can still be heard "he knew speed" and worked on most from Southern politicians and citizens to of the winning cars in the early days of this day in states' rights and civil liberties stock car racing arguments, just as it was in the 18th and 19th centuries. ASF/ 11

White Lightning by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder Dawsonville: "The Hub of American Moonshining in the 1930s"

As the site of America's first gold rush in 1828, Dawsonville, Georgia staked an early place in history, thus fostering the election of anti-Indian Andrew Jackson, who expelled Dawsonville's native Cherokee landowners on the Trail of Tears. Then Sherman marched through, bringing destruction and Reconstruction After that, Dawsonville was largely "off A 1939 Ford V-8 coupe, racer the map," being near no major railroad Charlie Mincey's moonshine car line or highway. A small, slow, winding The "dead end" hills of Dawsonville, GA state road to Atlanta through Dawsonville. Residents still resembled "Uncle Benny" Booze & Prohibition Parks, who had discovered the gold and Although whiskeymaking whose Scots-Irish heritage had made him was part of everyday life in a whiskey-loving man who preferred his colonial America, so much independence far from the Puritans up so that it was taxed to pay north and far from cities and, truth be told, for the Revolutionary army, far from government. His neighbors and A fervor of 19th-century descendants were "proudly self-sufficient, anti-alcohol rhetoric built uneducated yet bold, living off the land, so that in 1919 the U.S. distrustful of outsiders and authority, and ratified the 18th Constitutional crazy for deer hunting." amendment, Prohibition, The late 19th and early 20th-century Left, the location of Dawson County effective in 1920 and enforced South, especially in isolated hill country in Georgia; right, Dawsonville in red. by the Volsted Act. It outlawed such as Dawson County, had difficult the manufacture, transport, conditions, for "widespread illiteracy, or sale of any beverage with terrible schools, limited railroad service +.5% alcohol. Buying and and electricity afllicted the South, which drinking alcohol were not came to hold a quarter of the national illegal, however, the loophole population but only a tenth of its wealth. that quickly undermined the President Roosevelt ultimately declared law. the South to be 'the nation's number The 18th amendment one economic problem.'" Only a few was finally repealed in 1933 nearby mills and local businesses because alcohol simply went offered employment. Everyone carried underground, enriching and guns, served jail time and drank their entrenching organized crime own homemade whiskey. syndicates. Many police also The independent, hard drinking spirit GEORGIA STATE HIGHWAY 9, a "Thunder Road" of bootlegging in the participated in bootlegging of the place, the Scots-Irish tradition of or got kickbacks.Booze was South, goes right through Dawsonville brewing whiskey, the availability of corn and Dawson County (in circle) on its provided by mobsters in and the hills in which to hide stills, made the North—to be sold at way into Atlanta. In the 1930s-'40s brewing corn liquor a local industry and bootleggers could make the 60-mile trip urban speakeasies or under put Dawsonville on the bootlegging and into the city on the twisting two-lane road the counter at diners, even the NASCAR map. in less than an hour—at speeds of up to prescribed by physicians— 100 mph. and sold by moonshiners in the South, delivered by young, daredevil bootleg drivers. ASF/ 12

White Lightning

by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder Activities and Issues for Working with White Lightning

CONFLICTS & VALUES for Writing or • Dixie has been working through her Discussion teens at the local mill to help her Young Adults Joining the Adult World family economically, but she wants • Avery has a past of acting out against something better for herself, so authority and breaking laws, and his she takes college night classes in society sent him to reform school. accounting. She wants a desk job, —What is the idea of that "reform"? perhaps a salaried job, not hourly. "Reform" into what? Why? —Compare Dixie's skill set, goals, and —To what extent does school and/or approach to the future with Avery's. society seek to "re-form" all of us? In our world who would we expect to What values are involved on each have the better chance of success side in this individual interface with (and define "success")? How many society? avenues to success are there? Who • Now Avery has been in the Army in says? Auto racing's checkered flag wartime. —Compare the degree of risk-taking of victory —Has that experience completely in Avery and Dixie. If there is a changed him? Is any of the former difference, why? Is it important to take Avery evident? risks? Is dating Avery risky for Dixie, —Is enlistment in the armed forces an and if so, why? Is dating Dixie risky for ideal social solution to adolescent Avery; if so, how? issues? • Avery wants a job, a job offering more REPUTATION/"NAME" independence and "freedom," so he • Early in the play Avery says: “People chooses driving bootleg liquor. have always known my name cause of —How many jobs offer independence something bad. This is my chance for and freedom? Why does them to know it because of something Avery think bootlegging is good.” the ideal job for him? Does —How does one get "known"? How it prove to be—why or why easy is it to change how one is known not? or one's reputation? Are all reputations —What are the best jobs for deserved? Do people change? Do non-college-educated young reputations change? adults starting a "career" in —How often do we look beyond a your community? label, stereotype, or reputation to the —How does "the world"—in person? Why or why not? this play, Hank, Chester, and Mutt—view Avery? How do they treat him? Are his goals "Rapid Roy" Hall in a turn at important to them? How do an early Daytona Beach-and- their goals fit with his? Road race—the course was part beach, part paved city street. Drivers often got stuck in the rising surf or flipped into dunes or palmettos. Instead of braking, Hall just kept his foot on the accelerator. ASF/ 13

White Lightning

by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder Activities and Issues for Working with White Lightning

The Adult World of "Enterprise" • Compare Avery's confrontations • In the play, Hank is the center of with Hank in Act 2 to Chester's enterprise, running a bootlegging confrontation with Hank in Act 2. operation, competing with others, —What do Avery and Chester want? compromising the threat of law How does Hank respond? Could these enforcement, sensing the potential for discussions have gone another way, profit in stock car racing now that he or is the result inevitable, given the has a racer, and expanding the limits participants? Why? of his operation to year-round. —How does one approach a business —What view of "business" does Hank discussion involving money (a raise, give us? Is he an accurate depiction a change in dynamic)? Is money the of business ethics and motives in his core of business for all concerned? world? In our world? —How does Mutt participate or interject —Is the moonshine business different in these discussions? Is he right? Is from the racing business? How does he ignored? Why, in each case? Hank deal with others in each world (though we never meet Bill France, AVERY, RACING, & THE MEDIA the race organizer)? • The major p.r. element of the script is —Is Hank the antagonist in the play? Avery's newspaper interview. Mechanic Red Vogt Is he the one that "falls" or learns the —Compare what p.r. or coverage is with driver Red Byron limits of his dreams in the world? If available for racing in the 1930s and so, why? Does his experience offer '40s to coverage today for a racer or an observation about how to go about organizer (or sponsor). LIFE LESSONS pursuing business ventures or how to —Compose a hypothetical Facebook • At the end of the play, treat others in business? or Twitter account for Avery and/ Avery tells Hank he's —What kind of role model is Hank? or for Hank's new stock car track. learned what not to do. What kind of boss is Hank? What What would Avery post or tweet in —What does he mean? might an ideal boss be? How does the course of the play's action? What What has he learned (or should) a boss balance the needs effect might Facebook responses not to do? What has he of employees and the needs of the have on him? learned to do? business? Would Dixie have a Facebook page or —How important a life a diary? What would she say? lesson is knowing what • Hank works with Chester and with Mutt, —If you were Avery's friend (and he not to do? Why? seemingly "bossing" each of them. doesn't seem to have a peer friend— —Compare these relationships. How why not?), what would you say to him does Hank treat each man? Why does in Act 1? in Act 2? he need each man? How does he value each of them? —How does Hank insure that he profits, that he "wins"? Is he a role model?

Look at those Fords go! Occoneeche Speedway, 1948 ASF/ 14

White Lightning by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder Activities and Issues for Working with White Lightning

HISTORY & CULTURE AMERICAN LITERATURE • Research the history of alcohol • Compare Avery, Hank, and Mutt to Jay production and taxes in America and Gatsby of The Great Gatsby, another how those issues show up in the play. poor boy with dreams who tried • Research Prohibition and its effects; bootlegging in the North. (See cartoon also consider its effect on the below; the caption is "Summer Shack moonshine/ bootlegging elements of of a Struggling Young Bootlegger.") the play. • Research the settlement of the rural South (by whom, for what) and how that links to rural life and issues in the 1930s and '40s and their depiction in the play and/or how that links to today. The moonshining process • Research the history and role of by the numbers moonshining and bootlegging in the South. —Given its reputation for illegality, how do we respond today when Southern Living runs articles on upscale moonshine brands that can be ordered in flavors online? —What is the role of alcohol in our society? Has the place of alcohol as a "vice" (in law enforcement terms) been replaced by drugs? • Research women in the workforce during World War II and the effect of the war's end on their employment. • The myth of the "American dream"— Trace that effect into the values/ the promise of a better tomorrow, the mores/issues of the 1950s and 1960s. "manifest destiny" of the West, the Compare those issues to workplace Horatio Alger hard work reaps rewards issues today. story, the Tom Sawyer entrepreneurial —Is workplace awareness only Dixie's spirit (complete with mischief)—fills issue in the play? In her world, should American culture. her focus be on job or romance? What —What role does the American dream does she focus on? play for Avery and Dixie? for Hank? • Research the world —Does this play comment on or support of auto racing in the that mythos? 1930s and '40s and the reasons for the insignificant place of stock car racing in it. Compare that place to the role of NASCAR in today's racing world. Fonty Flock leads Bill Snowden and brother Bob Flock

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