The Lonesome Traveler

The exact date of this episode is unknown. We've filled in the date above with a placeholder. What we actually have on record is: 1949-uu-uu.

"The Lonesome Traveler" features Woody Guthrie as Rusty and is the story of a couple, Rusty and Alvy. Rusty learns in a conversation with Alvy that Alvy has syphilis. Later in the program Rusty says that he should have told Alvy to seek medical care after spending the night in jail and being attacked by a cellmate who had paresis due to untreated syphilis. At the end of the program Rusty encourages a different man to be tested for syphilis and then Guthrie sings "The Biggest Thing That Man Has Ever Done", referring to eliminating syphilis as one of these things.

[Description adapted from Alan J. Sofalvi, https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1196133.pdf]

WNYC archives id: 67817