Tulsa Bans Play “Tobacco Road”
The play Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell was banned in Tulsa, Oklahoma, it was reported on this day, following a protest by the local Ministerial Association.
The play was based on Caldwell’s 1933 novel of the same name. Both the novel and the play were censored in cities around the country because of their treatment of sexuality. The play was also banned in Newark, Chicago, Detroit and Albuquerque for being “immoral.”
Two other Erskine Caldwell novels were banned or challenged over the years: God’s Little Acre 1933) and Tragic Ground (1944).
Read the novel: Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road (1933)
Read: John H. Houchin, Censorship of the American Theater in the Twentieth Century (2003)
Watch the movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkMWzmwkkXA
Go to the Banned Book Week web site: http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/
Banned Book Week; authors speak out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKE7k5Qjobw