Monday, December 4, 1933

I walked to school this a.m. as Ruth and them didn't come by in time. Had a test. Stayed over at Mrs. Raifert's.

On December 4, 1933, Tobacco Road, the play by Jack Kirkland from Erskine
Caldwell's novel of the same name premiered at the Masque Theatre on Broadway.

Plot Summary:

In desolate farm country in Georgia the profitable tobacco crop has given way to cotton
plantations, but poor planting practices have depleted the soil. The Lester family were
once sharecroppers but are now poverty-stricken and unable to cope with the bleak life they face.
Jeeter Lester, the patriarch, lives in squalor with his wife Ada, their two children, 16-year-old
Dude and 18-year-old Ellie May, and his mother. Ada is suffering from pellagra and Ellie May
 has a harelip. Jeeter and Dude are thin and emaciated, and the family wears tattered clothing.

Sister Bessie Rice, a stout preacher of about forty, decides to marry Dude, who agrees
when she promises to buy him a car. When Capt. Tim Harmon tells the family that the house
and property are owned by the bank, Jeeter is given a chance to earn money so that they may
keep living there, but he refuses.

The youngest daughter Pearl tries to escape from her much older husband Lov Bensey,
 but Ada is run over by Dude's car as she attempts to help Pearl. As Ada lies dying Pearl
 escapes and runs away; Jeeter sends Ellie May to Lov instead.