KHS Museum Theatre - Tobacco's Tale

100 West Broadway • Frankfort, Ky. • 40601 • 502.564.1792 • www.history.ky.gov Connections. Perspecitve. Inspiration.

The Kentucky Historical Society is an agency of the Kentucky Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet.

www.history.ky.gov

Tobacco has long been a part of Kentucky’s history and culture. The methods of growing, harvesting, and selling tobacco have changed greatly through the years. Technology and the demand of the customer have played a major role in many of these changes, for both the farmer and the auctioneer. Today the auctioneering system is completely gone, and farmers sell directly to the buyers.

Presented in the style of a tobacco auctioneer, this performance illustrates the amount and types of work needed to raise, harvest, and cure a crop of tobacco. The presentation moves quickly, illustrating both the speed and repetition of the auctioneer’s chant and the assembly-line redundancy of the job of harvesting the tobacco. The language is a combination of farmer and auctioneer terms and phrases, both past and present. Like other forms of folk culture, the language of tobacco differs from community to community. To illustrate this, a line describing a certain job may contain many different phrases meaning the same thing, but phrased differently (i.e., “Bulk down, book down, dropped down and stacked.”)

To learn more about Kentucky’s tobacco history: • Interview with Bob Cage, by John Klee, the Oral History Collection of the Kentucky Historical Society.

• Tobacco Culture, John van Willigen and Susan C. Eastwood, 1998.

• Tobacco Cultivation, The Kentucky Encyclopedia, 1992.

KHS Museum Theatre Since 1998, the Museum Theatre program has staged more than 40 original productions often inspired by the rich resources in the Kentucky Historical Society collection. Each play is presented within KHS exhibit spaces, and designed to connect audiences with the sights, sounds, and stories of the past. These professional productions provide museum visitors with a personal perspective of historical characters and encourage them to explore the exhibits to learn more. Audience members often find they relate to the story itself. What’s your story?

Glossary of Terms: Burley: a drier, greener leaf, good for chewing, pipe, and cigarettes, air-cured.

Darkfire: fire-cured.

Bed: a plot of ground prepared for growing tobacco plants from seeds.

Bulk Down or Book Down: stacking several “in case” sticks of tobacco.

Cultivate: prepare and cultivate soil for growing plants, by aerating and weeding.

Cure out: allowing the tobacco to dry out sufficiently and evenly.

Hand: several leaves, a handful, neatly bunched together and hung on a stick.

In Case: after curing, tobacco is allowed to wilt because of humidity in the air.

Seedlings: young tobacco plants.

Tiers: rows of support beams in a barn, used to hang curing tobacco stalks.

Toppin’: snapping off the flower of the plant, to stop it from making seeds.

Auctioneer/Playwright – Greg Hardison A native of North Carolina and Virginia, KHS Museum Theatre Coordinator Greg Hardison is no stranger to tobacco cultivation. His earliest job, at 10 years of age, was driving the tractor on a flue-cured tobacco farm (very different from a Kentucky tobacco farm). Since moving to Kentucky in 1999, he has worked to bring Kentucky’s stories to life through museum theatre. He dedicates his performance to his father, Dewitt, who taught him how to work hard.

Director – Mike Thomas Before moving to Bowling Green, Kentucky, and assuming the position of president and executive director of the Capitol Arts Alliance in July 2005, Mike spent seven years as the KHS Museum Theatre manager. A native of Maysville, Kentucky, Mike completed his theatre studies at Western Kentucky University in 1978 and since that time has served as an arts administrator, educator, director, and performer for a variety of performing groups.

Photo credits: (cover) Howell family stripping tobacco, Bowling Green, Ky., 1916. (inside, left, from top) Setting tobacco on the Boitman farm, Burlington, Ky., ca.1950s. Tobacco in baskets, ready for auction, Fayette Co., Ky. (This page, from left) Workers cutting tobacco, 1916. Tobacco workers “chopping out” tobacco, Ghent, Ky., ca.1900s. Burly barn, Carter Co., Ky., 1920. Tobacco sale, Maysville, Ky., 1977. KHS Collections.

Special thanks: John Klee, Bob Cage, Joe Rankin, Brownie Roberson and Leland Long - N.C., Hat (Costume) – Levi Maddox

Tobacco has long been a part of Kentucky’s history and culture. The methods of growing, harvesting, and selling tobacco have changed greatly through the years. Technology and the demand of the customer have played a major role in many of these changes, for both the farmer and the auctioneer. Today the auctioneering system is completely gone, and farmers sell directly to the buyers.

Presented in the style of a tobacco auctioneer, this performance illustrates the amount and types of work needed to raise, harvest, and cure a crop of tobacco. The presentation moves quickly, illustrating both the speed and repetition of the auctioneer’s chant and the assembly-line redundancy of the job of harvesting the tobacco. The language is a combination of farmer and auctioneer terms and phrases, both past and present. Like other forms of folk culture, the language of tobacco differs from community to community. To illustrate this, a line describing a certain job may contain many different phrases meaning the same thing, but phrased differently (i.e., “Bulk down, book down, dropped down and stacked.”)

To learn more about Kentucky’s tobacco history: • Interview with Bob Cage, by John Klee, the Oral History Collection of the Kentucky Historical Society.

• Tobacco Culture, John van Willigen and Susan C. Eastwood, 1998.

• Tobacco Cultivation, The Kentucky Encyclopedia, 1992.

KHS Museum Theatre Since 1998, the Museum Theatre program has staged more than 40 original productions often inspired by the rich resources in the Kentucky Historical Society collection. Each play is presented within KHS exhibit spaces, and designed to connect audiences with the sights, sounds, and stories of the past. These professional productions provide museum visitors with a personal perspective of historical characters and encourage them to explore the exhibits to learn more. Audience members often find they relate to the story itself. What’s your story?

Glossary of Terms: Burley: a drier, greener leaf, good for chewing, pipe, and cigarettes, air-cured.

Darkfire: fire-cured.

Bed: a plot of ground prepared for growing tobacco plants from seeds.

Bulk Down or Book Down: stacking several “in case” sticks of tobacco.

Cultivate: prepare and cultivate soil for growing plants, by aerating and weeding.

Cure out: allowing the tobacco to dry out sufficiently and evenly.

Hand: several leaves, a handful, neatly bunched together and hung on a stick.

In Case: after curing, tobacco is allowed to wilt because of humidity in the air.

Seedlings: young tobacco plants.

Tiers: rows of support beams in a barn, used to hang curing tobacco stalks.

Toppin’: snapping off the flower of the plant, to stop it from making seeds.

Auctioneer/Playwright – Greg Hardison A native of North Carolina and Virginia, KHS Museum Theatre Coordinator Greg Hardison is no stranger to tobacco cultivation. His earliest job, at 10 years of age, was driving the tractor on a flue-cured tobacco farm (very different from a Kentucky tobacco farm). Since moving to Kentucky in 1999, he has worked to bring Kentucky’s stories to life through museum theatre. He dedicates his performance to his father, Dewitt, who taught him how to work hard.

Director – Mike Thomas Before moving to Bowling Green, Kentucky, and assuming the position of president and executive director of the Capitol Arts Alliance in July 2005, Mike spent seven years as the KHS Museum Theatre manager. A native of Maysville, Kentucky, Mike completed his theatre studies at Western Kentucky University in 1978 and since that time has served as an arts administrator, educator, director, and performer for a variety of performing groups.

Photo credits: (cover) Howell family stripping tobacco, Bowling Green, Ky., 1916. (inside, left, from top) Setting tobacco on the Boitman farm, Burlington, Ky., ca.1950s. Tobacco in baskets, ready for auction, Fayette Co., Ky. (This page, from left) Workers cutting tobacco, 1916. Tobacco workers “chopping out” tobacco, Ghent, Ky., ca.1900s. Burly barn, Carter Co., Ky., 1920. Tobacco sale, Maysville, Ky., 1977. KHS Collections.

Special thanks: John Klee, Bob Cage, Joe Rankin, Brownie Roberson and Leland Long - N.C., Hat (Costume) – Levi Maddox

100 West Broadway • Frankfort, Ky. • 40601 • 502.564.1792 • www.history.ky.gov Connections. Perspecitve. Inspiration.

The Kentucky Historical Society is an agency of the Kentucky Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet.

www.history.ky.gov