In 1948, the Standard Oil Company commissioned this movie to promote their drilling expansion into several Louisiana bayous. It was sold as a documentary but is actually a docu-fiction as it is primarily propaganda to make the locals believe that drilling for oil in their back yards was good for them, when the opposite was true. Louisiana was exploited for its riches and left polluted, ugly, and poisoned.
The Louisiana Story
he was just “the boy he wasn’t given a name
his father was only “the father” and valued just the same
set in Cajun swampland about a boy and his raccoon
the good guys were the drillers making poor crackers rich too soon
the villain was an alligator who must have eaten the boy’s pet
river life was hard until the good old boys made them forget
the moral of the movie was drilling for oil was good
never mind the explosions or the black poison in the woods
money was the hero and damn the pristine swamp
standard oil should be praised for their awful damaging romp
this was not true story even though they wanted you to believe
back then we were gullible and this they could achieve
we feel for the raccoon and he’s a lot like us
oil is the alligator destroying land without a fuss
The Louisiana Story was praised in California at the ’48 awards
best writing was the nomination for the oil baron lords
the music won a Pulitzer but that was in ’49
filmed in black and white fictitious by design
looking backward is helpful and maybe we can learn
before all the land is polluted and our morals have all been burned