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get your podcasts. Previously

1:01

on not all propaganda is.

1:04

Aren't. People

1:06

are gonna wrap up going to

1:08

enjoy life upping the that liberate

1:11

Dunlap washing machine or contraption, other

1:13

gadgets that we've. got all

1:15

the buying guy or add

1:17

more not co. A freedom

1:19

which we can do. What will I can

1:21

exploit our problem However, we like a lot

1:23

of the grind. what about our nobody has

1:26

so far left brain. We

1:29

underestimate the strength and important a

1:31

working class culture if we think

1:33

it can disappear before the impact

1:36

of the washing machine photos day

1:38

in our advertising in connection with

1:40

almost any product, whether it's food

1:43

or an automobile aura. An

1:46

automatic washing machine is designed to

1:48

make. Everyone more

1:50

sexually attractive. Welcome.

2:05

To the ninth and final installment

2:08

of Not All Propaganda Is Art.

2:11

The. Cultural Cold War Podcast Group Biography

2:13

that I've been running on The

2:15

Theory of Everything Seed for the

2:17

past three months. I.

2:19

Do hope you have enjoyed the

2:21

nine plus hours we spent together.

2:24

Listening back on the years. Nineteen

2:26

Fifty Six to Nineteen Sixty. And

2:28

my case, It's. Been four years.

2:31

I'm ready to move on as well. But

2:34

I do have a proper conclusion

2:36

for you. Dear listener, it's waiting

2:38

at the bottom of this episode.

2:41

First. We're. Going to Say

2:43

Goodbye to are three main cast

2:45

members: Dwight Macdonald, Kenneth Tynan, and

2:47

Richard Wright. And. We're

2:50

going to begin with Kenneth Tynan,

2:52

who on May fifth, nineteen sixty,

2:54

was on a witness stand in

2:57

a Senate hearing room in Washington,

2:59

Dc. Gives. A

3:01

Court Reporter? your full name Please.

3:04

Kenneth. Be Tynan. Your. Address:

3:06

Fifty Six East Eighty Ninth

3:08

Street, New York City And

3:10

your business or profession. I'm

3:12

a drama critic and author.

3:15

Kenneth. Tynan went to Washington

3:17

D C on May fifth,

3:19

nineteen sixty because he was

3:21

subpoenaed by Sen. Tom Is

3:24

Dogs powerful Internal Security Subcommittee.

3:27

And what is your present immigration status

3:29

here in the U S? Might.

3:32

Present one entirely due to an

3:34

oversight on my part and my

3:36

employers is be one and to.

3:38

Have been employed on an H One

3:41

Visa expired last October without either myself

3:43

or my employees realizing it. I've

3:46

enlisted Kenneth Tynan son Matthew

3:48

time in to help me

3:50

recreate this hearing. Math is

3:52

actually a lawyer. Probably.

3:54

Could have helped his dad out on immigration

3:57

day but I would have said could propel

3:59

sort of. I'm voicing Mister

4:01

J. Sour Wine Senator Dodd,

4:03

Chief Attorney for the Internal

4:05

Security Subcommittee. Mister. Tynan

4:08

did you produce a broadcast

4:10

entitled We'd It sent for

4:12

the Associated Television Limited, the

4:15

British Television Network on January

4:17

Twenty Seventh? Nineteen Sixty. Is

4:20

yes I did. Was. This,

4:22

a broadcast which served to

4:24

bring the United States into.

4:27

Disrepute. Suddenly not.

4:30

I suppose you know what I

4:32

am had to say about the

4:34

program that overtones.and can avoid him

4:36

to. Asked.

4:41

In Episode Seven, I Told

4:43

You A Story about We

4:45

Descend, a documentary film about

4:47

American nonconformist Kenneth Tynan produced

4:49

for British Tv. I

4:52

made the case that we

4:54

descend with part of a

4:56

British propaganda campaign designed to

4:58

combat anti Americanism in the

5:00

Uk. Well, when America as

5:02

cold warriors read about, we

5:04

descend in the press. They

5:06

blew their don't Senator Dodd

5:08

was so angry he even

5:11

spoke out on the Senate

5:13

floor. This is why our

5:15

man was summoned to Washington.

5:18

Here are a few key

5:20

excerpts from Dod Speech: I

5:23

consider this program to be

5:25

a prime example of the

5:28

kind of irresponsible criticisms that

5:30

undermines the Western Alliance by

5:33

weakening the fabric of mutual

5:35

respect. Senator Dodd only saw

5:38

Anti Americanism and Kenneth Tynan

5:40

documentary about American descent. I

5:43

challenge the programs contention that

5:45

our proud, legitimate tradition of

5:48

dissent is in any way

5:50

represented by a communist party

5:53

liners and a convicted perjurer,

5:55

Spice beatniks, eccentrics, a dope

5:57

addict, and an expert. On

6:00

sex deviation. Senator Dodd

6:02

was is specially appalled

6:04

that the film included

6:06

an interview with King

6:08

of the hipsters Norman

6:10

Mailer. A

6:13

nationally telecast program like this

6:15

could only dispose those who

6:17

feel negative about America to

6:19

feel more negative and those

6:21

who are neutral or friendly

6:24

to feel on easy and

6:26

who gains from all this.

6:29

The. Chair of course is correct I

6:31

will ask this question is if we

6:33

are back in the courtroom Now I'm

6:35

doing sour one again. Was

6:38

this film intended to

6:40

bring the United States

6:42

into disrepute? By no

6:44

means I should say rather the

6:46

opposite. It's aim, if I may,

6:48

continues to correct a distorted image

6:50

of America that I've noticed to

6:52

my horror and a great many

6:55

countries in Europe. The. Idea

6:57

is that America as a country

6:59

of conformists, an organization that. I.

7:01

Know this country well enough to say

7:03

it is untrue. Mr.

7:06

Sour wine with actually one

7:08

of Sen. Joe Mccarthy's original

7:10

bulldog attorneys. and he relished

7:13

going after journalists. And.

7:15

Kenneth Tynan felt this In

7:17

an article he wrote about

7:19

this hearing. He noted that

7:21

defending a Tv show to

7:23

accusers who had never seen

7:25

it was worse than Mccarthyism.

7:28

Kenneth Tynan came to Washington with a

7:30

speech of his own. A

7:33

speech he hoped to read and to

7:35

the official record. But. Mr.

7:37

Sour Wine refused this

7:39

request. So. Matthew.

7:42

Time and will now read

7:44

his father's remarks into our.

7:47

Amended Historical Record.

7:49

Of this hearing. As.

7:52

An English journalists, I have paid regular

7:54

annual visits to the United States the

7:56

past nine years. I

7:59

spent the past. The Winters Here as guess

8:01

Drama Critic of the New York. During

8:03

this period I have also been employed

8:06

by The Observer, a London weekly newspaper.

8:08

I am a visitors The United States

8:10

have never grants or resident alien. Nor.

8:13

Have I done anything during my stay to

8:15

belie the statement I made when my visa

8:18

was first granted. Namely. That.

8:20

I am not and never have been

8:22

a member of the communist party or

8:24

have any affiliated organization. This.

8:27

May not have been the precise terms the declaration

8:29

I was asked to make the that as I

8:32

recall was their imports. It may

8:34

be worth adding that the only organizations

8:36

to which I pay dues our eye

8:38

bleeds: the Royal Society of Literature. The

8:41

Critics Circle and The Ducks Club. And.

8:43

Answering the questions that the committee may

8:45

put to make, I'm perfectly willing to

8:48

apply to any questions about my activities

8:50

in the United States. I

8:52

have no intention of invoking any of the

8:54

amendments to the constitution. Should

8:57

like however. To. Express my

8:59

regret that the committee should have

9:01

seen fit to employ it's authority

9:03

to subpoena of visiting journalists. It

9:07

is not done so before to

9:09

the best to my knowledge and

9:11

I respectfully suggest that there may

9:13

be better way of demonstrating to

9:15

the world this country's traditional and

9:17

splendid regard for freedom of speech.

9:21

And you please state your full name and

9:23

address For the record. My

9:26

name is set for it's fresh. Living.

9:31

At. Thirty

9:33

Five. Said

9:35

it is set. In

9:38

eighteen, Forty seven, Kenneth Tynan, zero

9:40

Bertolt Brecht with some into Washington

9:42

to testify in front of the

9:45

House of Unamerican activities. Like

9:50

Tynan back to is

9:52

also accused of pushing

9:54

anti American propaganda realize

9:56

a voice. Bread

10:01

with the U S the day

10:03

after his interrogation and like was

10:05

Kenneth. Tynan departed soon after his,

10:07

but he threw a party first

10:09

for two hundred plus guests at

10:11

the Forum of the Twelve Caesar's

10:13

in Manhattan. There

10:16

were a lot of theater

10:18

people Vivien Leigh, Stephen Sondheim,

10:20

and Play Right Caddy Frings.

10:23

Tynan. Was one of the

10:25

only critics who had praised her adaptation

10:27

of Richard Wright novel The Long Dream

10:30

when it debuted. That said, be wary.

10:33

Never. Before have I seen a

10:35

trenchant exposure of the mutual degradation

10:37

that ensues when the black man

10:39

six wealth by crawling to the

10:41

white and aping his techniques of

10:44

corruption. Time in, wrote in The

10:46

New Yorker lamenting that the play

10:48

had only lasted five performances. I

10:50

wish you could have seen it.

10:55

Also at this party where

10:57

James Baldwin and Richard Gibson

10:59

both Tynan in Baldwin were

11:01

signatories of a letter Gibson

11:03

a just published in the

11:05

New York Times calling for

11:07

fair play for Cuba. Last

11:12

episode, I told you about

11:14

the essay Richard Gibson wrote

11:16

about Island of A Hallucination.

11:18

Richard Rights unpublished novel. Well,

11:20

that essay includes a very

11:22

curious remark about our men

11:24

Kenneth Tynan and the Cia

11:27

is covert support for the

11:29

Congress for Cultural Freedom. One

11:32

person who was aware of who

11:34

Pay the Piper was Kenneth Tynan

11:36

Gibson Road he freely admitted to

11:39

James Baldwin and me at a

11:41

party in New York City. Congress's

11:43

British literary publication Encounter was Cia

11:46

funded, but added that he would

11:48

continue to contribute articles. Do it

11:50

because it was a fine magazines

11:52

and not filled with American propaganda.

12:03

A large number of Kenneth Tynan colleagues

12:05

from The New Yorker also came to

12:07

send them off at the Twelve. Caesar's.

12:10

including. Our. Man Dwight

12:12

Macdonald. Dwight.

12:15

Was still sore at Tynan

12:17

for not including him and

12:19

his documentary about American nonconformists.

12:21

But. Still, he presented during and

12:23

with a copy of the

12:25

New Spring Nineteen Sixty issue

12:27

of Partisan Review. Which. Contains

12:30

the first part of

12:32

his dissent on American

12:34

masses and middlebrow culture.

12:44

When the Twelve Caesar's shut

12:46

down, the festivities moved elsewhere

12:48

Cent on his way home

12:50

in the early morning light

12:52

Kenneth Tynan compose a mental

12:54

draft of memoir to Manhattan

12:56

and as a holiday magazine

12:58

would publish the following December.

13:02

It is at night that a

13:04

Londoner is most aware of missing

13:07

New York. London, on the whole,

13:09

closes down soon after eleven pm.

13:11

But New York is open twenty

13:14

four hours a day. It is

13:16

a nocturnal city constructed to look

13:18

more enticing as darkness envelops it.

13:22

In Times Square, a dusty

13:25

obscenity by day is a

13:27

whirlpool of temptation by artificial

13:29

light. and to survey the

13:31

midtown spires at night is

13:33

the feel a gregarious hunger

13:35

for human companionship so many

13:38

and so inaccessible or the

13:40

lives that are flourishing or

13:42

savings or crashing to disaster

13:44

inside those pillars of gleaming

13:46

windows. The

13:50

streets are flooded with the blue

13:53

of dawn and the crawling wine

13:55

of the garbage disposal trucks. I

13:57

suddenly remember the mythical in perturb.

14:00

More broadway character who stepped on

14:02

the sidewalks and nearly had his

14:04

toes amputated by a truck whereupon

14:07

he remarked with the faintest of

14:09

shrugs that show business. Day

14:14

has broken now. the streets of

14:17

lost their echoes. Before long they

14:19

will be filled with early New

14:21

Yorkers. I look at their faces

14:24

as I ride back to my

14:26

apartment and their unmistakably it is

14:28

the familiar Manhattan look. A pet

14:30

is slightly resentful sound as if

14:33

a great promise had somehow not

14:35

been quite so. Cells. In

14:38

the midst of prosperity people look

14:40

as if they have been robbed.

14:44

But I am speaking mostly of the

14:46

middle aged. My

14:48

cab passes the United Nations

14:51

buildings the longest besides the

14:53

river and at once I

14:55

brightness thinking of the younger.

15:02

Mr. Time When did you visit the

15:04

United States the first time? For twelve

15:06

years ago, and I've in return ever

15:08

since. It's annual in terms. Of

15:11

which parts of the United States seduces

15:13

New York, Chicago, California not. I'm afraid

15:15

of anything anywhere in between, but you

15:18

only state in Iraq for any length

15:20

of time. Yes, this is the real

15:22

Kenneth Tynan but this time is not

15:24

in court is being interviewed by a

15:26

radio host name Franz Josef. Or

15:29

mans on a book tour talking up

15:31

as nineteen Sixty one collection curtains. What?

15:33

Was the main purpose of your

15:35

visits I've I've that's nearly always

15:38

come over here to look at

15:40

the. Bravo

15:42

seems to English eyes and to

15:44

and to with to get some

15:47

sort of an account of into

15:49

the English Reader mister Time and

15:51

your books, curtains and a tip.

15:53

the consent up as you seem

15:55

to indicate that the American Theater

15:57

is com funded was too dangerous.

16:00

I one is production for the

16:02

market which. Leads. To commercialization

16:04

into vulgarization and the other

16:06

you seem to describe as

16:08

the tendency of odd work

16:10

to become more and more

16:13

a private fantasy. Would you

16:15

like to explain this? Yes,

16:17

I think. Any

16:19

culture in which drama

16:22

and tyson answer inseparably.

16:25

Wedded to each other is rapidly

16:28

I'm heading for some sort of

16:30

and pass that they are refers

16:32

to the tendency. To produce for

16:34

the market to consider the taste

16:36

of the masses. So now the

16:38

other side of fewer the second

16:40

danger you refer to would you

16:42

like to come in unless I

16:44

think that is a tendency that

16:46

American players take as they're here

16:48

as him to minister disturbed. Individual.

16:51

In a high status hysteria. Ah,

16:53

and to explain it, employ internal

16:55

fans, but there is no tendency

16:58

are hardly any to analyze what

17:00

is wrong with the individual in

17:02

terms of the society outside him.

17:14

On May twenty ninth, Nineteen Sixty,

17:16

the London Observer announced Kenneth Tynan

17:18

return to his old post as

17:21

the papers teen drama critic. Along.

17:24

With a new article dining room

17:26

called Bouquet for the British. And.

17:29

This one's he tried to explain what

17:31

he had learned about America during his

17:33

two years in New York. It.

17:36

Has not been easy for me to

17:38

be candidly critical without feeling rather like

17:40

a weekend guest to sneer at the

17:42

linen. Our man called the

17:44

Nineteen, Sixty Eight and Fifty Nine

17:46

Broadway Seasons. The clanking

17:49

ten can of commercialism. And.

17:51

America's inability to produce

17:53

politically and socially engaged

17:56

art Preset be quizzed

17:58

by Senator Mccarthy. The.

18:01

Ideological problem that hinders the

18:03

American theater can be simply

18:05

stated in Room. Materialism

18:07

as out metaphysics are in.

18:10

or to phrase it more

18:12

modestly, it is not within

18:14

the power of social and

18:16

political change to heal the

18:18

eternal sickness of the individual

18:20

soul. This

18:25

article from May Nineteen Sixty is

18:27

a very prescient piece of writing

18:29

on these so called cultural turn

18:31

of the late Nineteen fifties. In

18:34

fact, I. Think Kenneth Tynan

18:37

might be one of

18:39

the very first intellectuals

18:41

who understood that the

18:43

cultural turn was not

18:46

a turn towards artistic

18:48

and cultural protest, but

18:50

rather a turn inwards.

19:12

Another. Critic who understood in

19:14

Nineteen Sixty that the times

19:16

they were a changing was

19:18

the young Michael Billington. In.

19:21

Nineteen Sixty when I was an undergraduate

19:23

at Oxford Feeding English, I'm the Observer

19:25

had the competition and the competition was

19:28

of a parody of a new of

19:30

their regular contributors. So what did I

19:32

do? I wrote a parody of Kin

19:34

Tynan and said to column. We.

19:37

Heard from the great British drama

19:39

critic Michael Billington in episode three.

19:41

As. A young man, he idolized

19:43

Kenneth Tynan. And in nineteen

19:46

Sixty, he sent the Observer a parody

19:48

of his era. I. Had to

19:50

convince some plays with time and might

19:52

be reviewing and I visited states as

19:54

Innocence and had just written a take

19:56

one way pendulum so I invented a

19:59

play called to. The a Stretcher by

20:01

Michael Nw seven am I just been

20:03

by began buzzing I'm guessing for you

20:05

worried about end up yousef of this

20:07

is meet. With a big

20:09

time, it's good. it's that was often

20:11

how he would begin a review with.

20:13

what I'd that hit, declare some some

20:16

out or hesitation or whatever and my

20:18

astonishment done, amazement. I. Won first

20:20

prize or the competition. And

20:22

my Parody of Time and was published. The

20:26

title of Michael Billington parody

20:29

was protesting too much. I

20:31

think they earned five pounds.

20:33

It's my first earnings in

20:35

Jefferson. The

20:57

saga of Dwight Macdonald same

20:59

assess a mass called Metcalfe

21:02

begins with a solicitation from

21:04

the Saturday Evening Post. In.

21:06

Nineteen Sixty Eight. The post was

21:09

running a series of think pieces

21:11

called Adventures of the Mind, and

21:13

on September thirtieth, they reached out

21:16

to Dwight Macdonald with an invitation

21:18

to participate. Your. Own

21:20

qualifications are so comprehensive

21:22

wrote editor John Cobbler.

21:25

That we feel sure you can

21:27

produce a forceful essay in the

21:29

field of letters, sociology or cultural

21:31

taste. the enigma of best seller

21:33

them might appeal to you. Dwight

21:36

Sound Cobblers offer twenty five hundred

21:38

dollars for a five thousand word

21:40

article. Extremely appealing and

21:42

with an eye towards preempting

21:45

editorial conflict, Cobbler established a

21:47

few ground rules for Dwight

21:49

Essay on the dangers of

21:52

mass and middlebrow culture. Illustrate

21:54

some of your points through

21:56

analysis of specific well known

21:59

literary news. The work that

22:01

path for art. and we

22:03

do not wish to be

22:05

unkind to Mr. Norman Rockwell,

22:07

our cover artist who is

22:09

unhappily well aware of the

22:11

dichotomy you explore. Also, avoid

22:13

the taint of intellectual snobbishness.

22:15

All that glitters and the

22:17

ivory tower is not gold.

22:19

And finally, there is no

22:21

deadline or hurry. This

22:24

last piece of advice with a

22:27

mistake on the part of Mister

22:29

Cobbler as the correspondence shows, can

22:31

we expect to hear from you

22:34

soon Cobbler wrote on February seventeenth,

22:36

nineteen Sixty Nine. Alas, not very

22:38

sound. Our man replied. On

22:42

April twentieth, Dwight wrote the cobbler

22:44

to inform him that his article

22:47

on mass culture was still unwritten.

22:49

However, he added i'm leaving this

22:51

week for two months semi holiday

22:54

in England and I can and

22:56

will write it there. We will

22:58

be happy to see your article

23:00

at any time. Cobbler replied may

23:03

too many weeks however not go

23:05

by. During

23:07

his semi holiday in London,

23:09

Dwight delivered the America America

23:11

lecture we talked about in

23:13

episode six at The Universities

23:15

and Left Review Club, but.

23:18

He. Made no progress on his article

23:20

for the Saturday Evening Post. Are

23:22

we to give you up for

23:24

lost cobbler? Inquired on September tenth,

23:26

No, don't give up Dwight replying

23:28

the very next day I've begun

23:30

the piece, have about a third

23:32

done, hope to get the rest

23:35

and of finished form and not

23:37

over two weeks. I didn't write

23:39

you because I was ashamed of

23:41

all my earlier unmet schedules, but

23:43

it's now going well, that is.

23:45

I only get stuck three times

23:47

a day. I. Do. Think it will

23:49

be in your hands shortly. And

23:52

it was. And. That is when

23:54

the real trouble began. Since about

23:56

eighteen hundreds, we really hard on

23:58

the Western world. The coaches one

24:01

of them are kind of send

24:03

a text books which I call

24:05

high culture or serious cuts are

24:07

high culture or the other mass

24:09

culture which seems to be on

24:11

a surface just like high culture

24:13

that is a site though A

24:15

novels written, an act of of

24:17

paintings painted a Norman Rockwell's covers

24:19

this out in imposed on excellent

24:21

example of mass culture. This is

24:24

from a lecture Dwight Macdonald gave

24:26

on December since Nineteen Sixty Nine

24:28

at a symposium at Iowa State

24:30

University called the Positions of the

24:32

Writer and America As you can

24:34

hear, Norman Rockwell is no longer

24:36

off limits evidence that his relationship

24:38

with Mr. Cobbler. Had passed.

24:40

It's breaking point is you have a

24:43

the real thing. I culture another but

24:45

Norman Rockwell's was not the cause of

24:47

the wrist. The issue was mid court

24:49

but we now have certain with something

24:52

even more insidious amount is work for

24:54

mid called are middle about culture you

24:56

have ah the exploitation in the same

24:59

way that mascots exploits will cause. If

25:01

you have the exploitation of high culture

25:03

you have what seems to be a

25:05

rise in a level of culture but

25:08

was actually is not. In

25:14

the first draft Dwight Macdonald

25:16

submitted to the Saturday Evening

25:18

Post, he analyzed the number

25:20

of American magazine' Harper's The

25:22

Atlantic, The Reporter, and The

25:24

Saturday Evening Post in an

25:26

attempt to illustrate the pernicious

25:28

qualities of Middle. Cobbler

25:30

question why the New Yorker was

25:32

missing from the list. We.

25:35

Are quite resigned to having you

25:37

kick in the teeth practically every

25:39

other publications in the country including

25:41

the Post, but not as long

25:43

as you exempt the periodical with

25:45

which you are associated. By your

25:47

own definition he insisted be New

25:50

Yorker would be a glittering a

25:52

pit a me of mid forties

25:54

him and honestly the man's it's

25:56

inclusion with two or three sentences

25:58

of analysis. Dwight

26:01

tried to wriggle out of the

26:03

situation. He explained the cobbler that

26:05

he'd already gone on the record

26:07

and defended the New Yorker from

26:10

charges of mid cultures I'm in

26:12

an article called amateur Journalism that

26:14

he wrote First Encounter Magazine back

26:17

in Nineteen Fifty Six. We talked

26:19

about this one back in episode

26:21

two, but Cobbler refused to budge.

26:24

Dwight Explain all of this in

26:26

a letter he sent on November

26:28

ninth, Nineteen Fifty Nine to Ben

26:30

Hibs cobblers boss at the Saturday

26:32

Evening Post. Dear. Mr.

26:35

Hips Dwight wrote i think I've

26:37

been treated unfairly by your Mr.

26:39

Cobbler who has just rejected an

26:41

article mascot and mid called I

26:44

wrote at the post invitations for

26:46

your Adventures of the Mine series.

26:48

The sole reason for rejection is

26:50

that I was unwilling and indeed

26:52

unable to change my opinion of

26:55

The New Yorker to agree with

26:57

Mister Cobblers. This strikes

26:59

me as unjust, and also as

27:01

a method of editing a series

27:03

that is supposed to present serious

27:05

thoughts. Absurd. What kind are writers?

27:07

Are your editors used to dealing

27:09

with. I don't think I should

27:11

let this kind of thing go by without

27:13

at least a protest. and your the logical

27:15

person to protest to. A

27:18

month after Dwight wrote this letter

27:20

to Mr. Hibs at his lecture

27:22

in Iowa City, someone in the

27:24

audience asked if he considered the

27:26

New Yorker high culture. Sadly,

27:29

This part wasn't recorded, but according

27:31

to the transcript, this is how

27:33

we answered. The. New Yorker as

27:35

a middlebrow but with a difference. And

27:38

the difference is essentially that the other

27:40

middlebrow magazines like Harper's are frightened to

27:42

death of their readers. Were, as a

27:45

New Yorker, pays almost no attention to

27:47

it's readers. It never makes an attempt

27:49

to get subscribers. For instance, Doj

27:52

Mcdonnell also brought up the Saturday

27:54

Evening Post rejection of his article

27:57

during this audience Q and A

27:59

session. They rejected it, he

28:01

said on the grounds that I was

28:03

covering up for The New Yorker. I

28:06

think personally, that they didn't want to

28:08

print it because it was a thoroughgoing

28:10

attack on mass culture and middlebrow culture,

28:12

and this was the way they figured

28:14

out how to put me on the

28:17

spot. Doit.

28:19

Spent a few months ceiling

28:22

out editors at other magazines

28:24

the Atlantic Esquire. he even

28:26

tried encounter. But. They all

28:28

said no. In the

28:30

end, William Phillips, one of

28:33

the editors at Partisan Review

28:35

convince doit. To. Let him publish

28:37

it. And. On March

28:39

eighth, nineteen sixty, William Phyllis recorded

28:41

the financial agreement he made with

28:43

Dwight Macdonald. We will pay him

28:46

approximately three hundred for the peace

28:48

two sections in a five hundred

28:50

dollar advance on the pamphlets which

28:52

we will publish in the fall

28:55

charging probably seventy five cents per

28:57

copy and we get hands. This.

29:01

Is a far cry from the

29:03

twenty five hundred dollars the Saturday

29:05

Evening Post had promised. Plus.

29:08

William, it's only paid twenty

29:10

two hundred. Although

29:12

he did throw me a

29:14

giant stack of pamphlets. Partisan.

29:24

Review Published the first half of

29:26

Mass called Mid Cold in It's

29:28

Spring Nineteen Sixty issue. As I

29:30

mentioned earlier, Dwight give Kenneth Tynan

29:32

a copy before he left town

29:34

for London in May. In.

29:37

The introduction, Dwight, recounts his

29:39

long history with the subject.

29:42

I. First crystallized my ideas about

29:44

mass culture in an article

29:46

in Politics And February of

29:49

Nineteen Forty Four, an article

29:51

called A Series Of Popular

29:53

Culture. Politics with

29:55

the name of Dwight Macdonald

29:57

own little magazine. He shut

29:59

it down. The in Nineteen forty

30:01

nine because he decided to

30:03

turn from politics a culture.

30:06

My. First Article and Popular culture

30:08

Dwight Contingent in his introduction to

30:11

Mascot Midcourt Part one was recapitulate

30:13

it with extensive additions and deletions

30:15

for an essay called a Theory

30:18

of Mass Culture published in the

30:20

summer nineteen fifty three issue of

30:22

Dial Deniers. Curiously,

30:25

this nineteen fifty three piece

30:28

was supposed to runs in

30:30

a Ford Foundation funded cultural

30:32

Cold War magazine called New

30:34

Perspectives Usa, but the editor.

30:36

James Laughlin refused to publish

30:39

it. He passed it off

30:41

instead to a Unesco funded

30:43

friends journal called Dyad Nice.

30:46

Do I got his revenge in

30:48

Nanking? Fifty Five when he profiled

30:51

the Ford Foundation for the New

30:53

Yorker. Mister Laughlin, having become alarmed

30:55

by the Congressional Investigations of Foundations,

30:58

has tended to exclude material from

31:00

new Perspective Usa critical of the

31:03

American way of life. These

31:07

are the same charges Dwight

31:09

leveled as Encounter Magazine and

31:11

Nineteen Sixty Eight when they

31:13

receive to publish his article

31:15

America America. And at

31:17

the Saturday Evening Post. When.

31:20

They refuse to publish Mass Cold

31:22

Mid Called a year later. In.

31:25

Fact: The entire history of

31:27

Dwight Mcdonalds critiques of mass

31:30

culture is a story about

31:32

rejection and marginalization. But.

31:34

As he zoom in on the years

31:37

he was involved with the Congress for

31:39

Cultural Freedom From Nineteen Sixty Six when

31:41

he went to London to finish his

31:44

Critique of American Mass Culture book to

31:46

the publication of his essay Mass Cold

31:48

Mid Cold in Nineteen Sixty. Oil.

31:51

Another. Descriptive reveals itself,

31:55

Containment. In

32:00

the summer of Nineteen Sixty as

32:02

Mass Cold Mid Cult Part One

32:05

was circulating, the Congress or Cultural

32:07

Freedoms celebrated it's ten year anniversary

32:09

with a giant intellectual conference in

32:12

Berlin. Mass Culture was one of

32:14

the main topics, and Edward Sales,

32:17

the Ccf guy who ran the

32:19

Nineteen Fifty Nine Mass Culture Conference.

32:21

We talked about an episode six

32:24

was once again that chair and

32:26

host and Dwight Macdonald with once

32:28

again not invited. Doit

32:31

expressed his frustrations and offered

32:34

explanations for his exclusion. In

32:36

a letter to a friend,

32:38

William Phillips was invited to.

32:41

I wrote because after all

32:43

the Congress publishes partisan review.

32:46

And form at least. The.

32:50

Second half of mascot midcourt

32:52

ran in the Fall Nineteen

32:54

Sixty issue of Partisan Review.

32:56

It contains Dwight Mcdonalds

32:59

critique. Of middlebrow culture.

33:02

Mid. Cult Mid Brown Earth or

33:04

Midcourt rather combines the waist features

33:06

of high culture. A mass culture

33:08

at combines the pretense of this

33:10

of high culture and of our

33:12

gowdy of mascots. Dwight

33:14

Macdonald concept of mid cost is

33:16

what distinguishes him from all the

33:18

other critics of mass culture from

33:20

this period. And. This essay

33:23

is really the only time

33:25

he attempts to explain his

33:27

idea using examples. I.

33:29

Believe we have the Saturday

33:31

Evening Post Mister Cobbler, To.

33:34

Thank for that! Oh.

33:37

Here's some scenery for those of

33:39

you who think you have to

33:42

have scenery. One of the examples

33:44

Dwight chose to write about was

33:46

Thornton Wilder play Our Town. My

33:49

stuff in order me what I heard

33:51

somewhere that I'm i want to numbers

33:53

match and it's it's most obvious connection

33:55

with our town and the covers by

33:57

Norman Rockwell. Up for this Out of

33:59

him. Because both of them have

34:01

an athlete. Perfect ice For all the connie

34:04

cliches about American small town life, the out

34:06

I just as situations I'm and for the

34:08

that drugstore seeing you know the guy with

34:10

his girl on the dog so and bashful

34:13

it's someone are you So you don't have

34:15

a money and out of pay for the

34:17

saudis and felons almonds it's all just we've

34:19

seen it. I don't think any small town

34:22

I never loved one but about of New

34:24

York City. but I can't believe that the

34:26

fabric of Little could have been as cliche

34:28

as that at any time. On

34:32

the other hand are town also has you

34:35

know a technical innovations are rather watch would

34:37

have been at one point or the audio

34:39

the stage manager you know on of plywood

34:41

survive on the same making comments was because

34:43

he got from his chinese territory of her

34:46

out and also for the john instead of

34:48

the imaginary steps and pop since. But

34:51

on the other hand stays manages a

34:54

manager who wizard technical innovation. Himself

34:57

is so reassuring because you know is one

34:59

of these. Are small town editors

35:02

us smoking his pipe and

35:04

lamanite ruminating on am very

35:06

mellow and philosophical of got.

35:11

Our town Dwight Macdonald

35:13

says exhibits mid colts

35:15

to primary characteristics. In

35:18

techniques, they're just enough advance to be impressive

35:20

to the middle bows, but not enough to

35:22

really worry them. Ah

35:24

Andrus as as one thing

35:26

and secondly this technique is

35:29

is the allied to very

35:31

familiar ultra American seems they're

35:33

all very malik and in

35:35

quotation marks. Now

35:40

I don't believe any is Dwight

35:42

Macdonald. Critics ever dug too deeply

35:45

into the difference between his conception

35:47

of mass and middlebrow culture. And.

35:50

Fact: It's pretty obvious that is

35:52

far as they were concern, all

35:54

of it was anti American. But.

35:58

His warning about. Metcalfe the

36:01

False Good masquerading as the

36:03

True Good as he called

36:05

Fallen Wilson's Nineteen Fifty Six

36:07

book, The Outsider is not

36:10

only one of the best

36:12

descriptions of America's culture industry,

36:14

it's also an incredibly easy

36:16

to grasp definition of propaganda.

36:19

Actually, to our midfield is

36:21

that it isn't Popular guys

36:23

are doesn't give you a

36:25

simplified version or of elementary

36:28

version of a reality. On

36:31

the contrary, it really affects and

36:33

chains is this aesthetic reality? In.

36:36

The first episode of the series

36:38

I promised you a story. The

36:40

real story about how the debate

36:42

over mass culture ended. I.

36:44

Teased a story that

36:46

involves psychological warfare, covert

36:49

propaganda, and Cold War

36:51

secret intelligence agencies. And

36:54

while both Cia and I

36:56

are the play significant roles.

36:58

The. Key acronym in this story

37:00

and the other two stories in

37:03

this mini series is our oh

37:05

I. An. Episode

37:07

Six, I introduced you to

37:09

Dwight Mcdonalds enemy Edward Sills

37:12

and the network of Cold

37:14

War sociologist and propagandists who

37:16

had their own theory of

37:18

mass culture and mass media

37:20

to promote. A theory

37:23

that forever changed the sealed

37:25

of Mass communications. When. The

37:28

sociologist Paul Lazarus Felt published

37:30

his Nineteen Sixty Five books.

37:33

Personal. Influence. Here's

37:36

communication scholar Jefferson, fully

37:38

again explaining the importance

37:41

of tall as ourselves

37:43

series of personal influence.

37:46

In the late thirties, working with

37:48

Frank Stanton, their future Cbs President,

37:51

he had found that to his

37:53

surprise radio broadcast don't tend to

37:56

change people's opinions much. He also

37:58

found that attempts to. Change

38:00

people's opinions face to face tend to work

38:02

a little bit better and what he was

38:05

then proceed to do is relate those two

38:07

things together in different ways with different conclusions.

38:09

So in the one hand he could say

38:11

something like. Here's. A blueprint to

38:13

do propaganda. It's really hard because mass

38:16

media doesn't work on a tone. However,

38:18

If you want to influence

38:21

Indian intellectuals, make sure you

38:23

send an American message through

38:25

credible third party Indian opinion

38:27

leaders and that will be

38:29

effective. It away that American

38:31

messages wouldn't be. On

38:33

the other hand, he could

38:35

take the same basic idea

38:37

that priscilla influence more powerful

38:39

and treat personal influence the

38:41

small social groups as a

38:43

buffer between the mass media

38:45

and the local community as

38:48

reassuring evidence that the fears

38:50

of domestic from has media

38:52

influence are overblown and that

38:54

we need not be worried.

39:02

In Dwight Macdonald archive

39:04

at Yale I sound

39:06

another articulation of this personal

39:08

influence theory. In. Fact:

39:10

It's the very first item he

39:13

added to a mass culture research

39:15

folder he created in Nineteen Sixty

39:17

Six, just before he left for

39:19

his year at Encounter in London,

39:23

It's a news clipping from the June

39:25

Twelfth Nineteen Fifty Six edition of The

39:27

New York Times. And. Article

39:29

about Cts President Frank

39:31

Stanton. Testimony before the

39:33

Senate's Interstate and Foreign

39:36

Commerce Committee, a committee

39:38

that was threatening America's

39:40

television industry with anti

39:42

monopoly regulation. Thanks

39:44

Then testified that regulations would not

39:46

only be a colossal backward step

39:49

for America, they were also unnecessary.

39:51

The public dictated what was put

39:53

on the air because it always

39:56

turned off the show it did

39:58

not like. He does. The I'd

40:00

Love You Are Not the Network

40:03

Executive as the industry's monitor in

40:05

chief. Dwight

40:07

Macdonald highlighted that part with a

40:09

red pen. Frank.

40:12

Stanton. Began. His career

40:14

working as Jefferson poorly just

40:16

noted in Paul Lazarus Selves

40:18

lab at Columbia University. And

40:21

during his June Nineteen Sixty Six

40:23

testimony. Frank. Stanton brought

40:25

up personal influences core arguments

40:28

again and again to debunk

40:30

the argument that a television

40:33

monopoly was inherently dangerous to

40:35

the Americans. You were. And

40:38

these arguments. One. Over

40:40

the committee. It's

40:43

great pleasure Judgment introduced to your doctor

40:45

Frank state. And

40:48

ninety sixty Two friends certain delivered

40:50

a lesser en Mass Media and

40:52

Mass Culture at Dartmouth College is

40:54

brand new culture hub the Hopkins

40:57

Center that is one of the

40:59

most hopeful signs of our times.

41:01

I think Frank Stanton was actually

41:03

supposed to deliver a lecture at

41:05

the Nineteen Fifty Nine Mass Culture

41:07

Conference. We talked about an episode

41:09

six. But. He bailed at

41:12

the last moment when he learns

41:14

that his boss, Williams Haley, had

41:16

already called Dibs on the Cbs

41:19

Private Jet. Deeper understanding? Of

41:21

American Culture. This Nineteen

41:23

Sixty Two lecture, while similar to the

41:26

one he wrote for the kids debate

41:28

in the Poconos, is more like a

41:30

victory speech. Our man

41:32

Dwight Macdonald great. Steven gets a kick

41:34

in the teeth. Writers have had a

41:37

field day visiting new deformities upon the

41:39

English. And such

41:41

point words as Mass called

41:43

admit Cold but threatens or

41:45

survive more for their ugliness,

41:48

Van for the role of.

41:53

The Chairman of the American

41:56

Library Association Broadcasting Committee has

41:58

said dramatization of fast. On

42:00

Television inspires people to read

42:02

or re read. Books, Public

42:04

affairs commentaries and documentaries have

42:07

been sending people back the

42:09

history books. We look upon

42:11

television as a tremendous motivational

42:13

force, and we haven't even

42:15

scratched the surface. On

42:35

November eighth, Nineteen sixty, Richard Wright

42:37

delivered a lecture at the American

42:39

Church in Paris. He. Called

42:42

it the Position of the

42:44

Negro Artist and intellectual and

42:46

American Society. It

42:48

was his final public

42:50

appearance. And I seem

42:52

far as published novel or maybe some

42:54

for some reason the book of the

42:57

month plus the left that law of

42:59

us far as that of this this

43:01

ancestors of the halls of schools and

43:04

libraries in the white Americans. There

43:06

was little so. You.

43:09

Can hear him reading from the

43:12

pages of the manuscript that in

43:14

his archive at Yale. This one,

43:16

like many of the writings we've

43:18

talked about over the course of

43:20

this series, has never been published.

43:23

But a wise to say

43:25

no the rabbit public recognition

43:27

that far and Richard Wright

43:29

often used his famous book Native

43:31

Son as a starting point to

43:34

introduce himself and his own position

43:36

in literature that have a radically

43:39

independent free. Thinker. I

43:41

can safely say stop until the fuck

43:43

the tenth know maybe some they had

43:46

not been written a distributed in the

43:48

United States on a national scale model

43:50

that does not reflect I was the

43:53

church and Pluto. The new route of

43:55

and to the the philosophically minded are

43:57

determined know things are subsidized mean really.

44:01

In his essay, how Bigger Was

44:03

Born, Richard Rights explains how he

44:05

came to write his radical novel.

44:08

In. This lecture, He wants to

44:11

explain the consequences that came

44:13

from writing such a radical

44:15

novel. For the appearance

44:17

of a book that I'm not going

44:20

before mean it or meaning that he

44:22

realized is that the time realize until

44:24

I the on of missing the Dean

44:26

of American Sociologists i'm a doctor Robert

44:29

a Pop out of coffee of them

44:31

are walking into the living room with

44:33

a community center that evening and being

44:36

greeted by and infirm wire haired old

44:38

gentleman who insisted with a cane he

44:40

was a seminar of and rising from

44:43

is sad risk may I ask him

44:45

remain seated. Are rising

44:47

your deposit. I thought that was

44:49

not necessary and Dr. Fox and

44:52

me with hard i said hi

44:54

the hell did you apple. I

44:57

admit I didn't know what he met

45:00

and told him. so don't know. Doctor

45:02

Paul Mcgann, The Sap. Forty five million

45:04

dollars over Valve and the bad news

45:06

it out before you. We've been spending

45:09

millions of dollars left. By the way,

45:11

you use Rosenwald fundraising. He wrote this

45:13

book you have written was supposed to

45:15

be done by Rise as We Help

45:17

you wrote a book in Mesa Problem

45:20

National. What Happened. I

45:22

knew matter what, the good doctor Miss. I

45:25

was afraid independent minds negro the

45:27

Doctor pocket ever met. Last line,

45:30

And he was just with bathroom. He

45:33

has to be. Suppose.

45:35

Negro literature in the United States

45:37

were no longer under the control.

45:40

Rak the interests of institutions influenced

45:42

farmers in our a Negro leadership

45:44

enjoys pricey by being subsidized by

45:47

the of Britain was what was

45:49

that Researchers said. Richard.

45:53

Wright grew up in the

45:56

racist and corrupt American South,

45:58

and in his autobiography. The

46:00

boy He credits the poverty

46:02

and neglect he suffered as

46:04

a child for turning him

46:06

into a radically free thinker,

46:08

And this lecture. He takes

46:10

this ironic reasoning even further.

46:13

I'm sure of for me what university

46:15

and I were got hope of me

46:17

or a high school Latin that I

46:20

would have been to conditions would never

46:22

written a single book I've written. You

46:24

have the right to say that what

46:26

I've written is that a fact which

46:29

kept failing was controlled by the influences

46:31

x that in the blacksmith's it was

46:33

a free expression in the ones used

46:35

Roosevelt. Maybe I was nowhere near me

46:37

when I sat down. Julius

46:41

Rosenwald the Chicago Millionaire comes up

46:43

a number of times in this

46:46

lecture. And Nineteen seventeen,

46:48

Rosenwald invested some of his

46:50

millions into a fund to

46:52

support African American writers, artists,

46:55

musicians, researchers, and intellectuals. And

46:57

Nineteen Forty eight, the Rosenwald

47:00

Fund ceased operations. One.

47:02

Of it's final grantees. Was.

47:04

A young James Baldwin. In

47:07

fact, Baldwin used his Rosenwald money

47:09

to buy his plane ticket

47:11

to France. This

47:16

lecture is actually the piece of

47:18

writing that contains Richard Rights version

47:20

of the fight he had with

47:22

James Baldwin over the essays Baldwin

47:25

wrote about Richard Wright shortly after

47:27

his arrival in France. We.

47:30

Talked about this site in episode One.

47:33

Unfortunately, I can't

47:35

play the audio because. Someone

47:38

cut section. From

47:40

this recording. I

47:44

can however read you what Richard

47:46

Wright wrote. Here's

47:48

his set up. One

47:51

night, Richard Wright and his friend

47:53

Chester Homes were drinking at a

47:55

Parisian cafe, the legendary The Mega.

47:57

They were then joined by James Bond.

48:00

The one. Who. Were accompanied by

48:02

a white woman named Mrs.

48:04

Putnam. For. Some

48:06

reason Richard Wright removed the d

48:08

from Baldwin's name in this text.

48:11

so in the interest of accuracy,

48:13

we will do the same here.

48:16

The four of us sat sipping be yours

48:19

for to write wrote. I

48:21

wanna talk to you Baldwin said to

48:23

me why not I said I'm here

48:25

Where did you think of that article

48:27

I wrote about you fall When asked.

48:30

Ball when. I didn't know what

48:32

you're talking about in that article I

48:34

said softly, trying to smile to cushion

48:36

the shock of my statement. Ball

48:40

when glared at me don't take

48:42

me for a child he warned,

48:44

what are you talking about I

48:46

asked laughing. a bet. That did

48:49

it. My laughter spurred him to

48:51

rage. He left to a seat

48:53

and pointed his finger in my

48:55

face and screamed, i'm going to

48:58

destroy you I'm going to destroy

49:00

your reputation. You'll see. Alum

49:03

Jimmy tell them the white woman

49:05

balance friend egg them on. Why

49:08

don't you tell me I challenge

49:11

to her. He's telling you for

49:13

me The white lady said. I'm

49:17

sure that by now describing has

49:20

not been publicly forty four The

49:22

recording resumes just after this story

49:24

know why seals the deal about

49:26

the size of black intellectual he

49:29

says of blacks to do that

49:31

job Point that the having the

49:33

midst of a neat rows some

49:35

neat row who is willing to

49:38

states that point of view. I.

49:41

Told you about the history of

49:43

James Baldwin essay Everybody's Protest Novel

49:45

in episode One, as well. He.

49:48

Was first commissioned by Partisan Review.

49:51

The. Same little magazine that published

49:53

Moscow Medical. They. Commissioned

49:55

this before James Baldwin left

49:57

New York for Paris. They

50:00

ran it in their June nineteen

50:02

Forty nine issue after it debuted

50:04

in Zero, a Paris based little

50:06

magazine. In. Nineteen Fifty

50:08

Two New Perspectives Usa ran it

50:11

as well. That's actually the same

50:13

Ford Foundation funded magazines that

50:15

refused to run Dwight Mcdonalds Critique

50:17

of Mass Culture, and Nineteen Fifty

50:20

Three. James. Baldwin is

50:22

one of the only two African

50:24

American writers who were ever published

50:26

in New Perspectives Usa. Everybody's.

50:29

Protests novel was paired with a

50:31

short story about a black rider

50:34

who did not want to write

50:36

protest fiction. a story called a

50:39

Know to Nothing by Richard Gibson.

50:42

Adding. That part of his. Life

50:44

with a strict control over

50:46

money that fail. They are

50:48

many rows not even need

50:50

to be sold at somebody

50:52

bought. A

50:55

new arrivals And this money he

50:57

had and close to be that

50:59

I've seen one of his own.

51:03

Copious notes Princess a Ponzi

51:05

take that same game and

51:07

it is assumed a that

51:09

for me that a reward

51:11

would. Have been posted for his capture.

51:19

James. Baldwin wrote a second

51:22

attack on Richard Wright.

51:24

This. Essay called many thousands

51:26

Gone and it's a very

51:29

strange piece written from the

51:31

perspective of a white person.

51:34

On. November eighth, nineteen fifty. He

51:36

sent it to Partisan Review. this

51:38

time. Unsolicited, With.

51:40

A note. The enclosed as

51:43

say represents to have something of

51:45

an imposition for what I would

51:47

like from you is not a

51:49

simple yes or no, but some

51:52

idea of what you think. is

51:54

it Baldwin teased it is not

51:56

quite literary criticism nor altogether social

51:58

criticism. I wouldn't. Like it to

52:01

be read as an attack on

52:03

Richard Late. nor am I in.

52:05

perhaps. I should say that this

52:07

letter is confidential to quite possibly

52:10

unlucky a sex such a beast

52:12

as this may have in such

52:14

a highly charged social situation. But.

52:17

I do think that it says

52:19

or at least suggests certain things

52:21

of value which have not been

52:23

said or suggested and one might

52:25

as well begin. Partisan.

52:27

Review responded on January twenty

52:30

fourth, nineteen fifty one writing:

52:32

"We like your article very

52:34

much, would you allow us

52:36

to edit?" James

52:38

Baldwin replied on February twelfth, consenting

52:41

to the editorial request and asking

52:43

if he could be paid in

52:45

advance for the peace. And

52:48

even though Partisan Review had

52:50

a strict policy of only

52:52

paying on publication, They. Paid

52:54

him. In advance. On

52:58

June eighteenth, James Baldwin wrote

53:00

a note of thanks. This.

53:03

Is belatedly to thank you for the

53:05

checked and also I hope you do

53:07

not intend to wait too long before

53:09

publishing it. I would like if you

53:11

know what I mean to get it out of my

53:13

way. Give my love to the

53:16

boys in the back room and thank you.

53:21

For hot a while to say, you

53:23

realize that they. Saw:

53:25

mobilized foods and gendered among

53:27

negroes conflict sackboy among them

53:30

By this system of it

53:32

is a definite five would

53:34

probably rather than which sets

53:36

of files are now I

53:39

want black to allow box

53:41

where about caught a few

53:43

of us. Another

53:47

section: a Richard Wright lecture missing

53:49

from this recording is something he

53:51

called in a margin note he

53:54

made with a red pen the

53:56

Problem of The Blacks by. All

53:59

people. It like spies but

54:01

speaking ironically and facetiously, I'd like

54:04

to ask you to view the

54:06

blacks by with some degree of

54:08

compassion. This is a most

54:11

difficult job. Spies if they are

54:13

going to be good ones must

54:15

have what is known as cover

54:17

stories. For. Your edification. I'd

54:19

like to tell you that we've

54:22

spotted several blocks buys operating here

54:24

in Paris. How did we do

54:26

it by listening carefully? To.

54:28

Their cover stories. In

54:32

his own published novel about

54:35

black spies in Paris island

54:37

of Hallucinations Richard Wright provides

54:40

mechanical the novel's villain, an

54:42

agent provocateur with the cover

54:45

story of writer. And

54:48

just to make sure there

54:50

is no confusion as to

54:52

which Black rider Richard Wright

54:54

was referring to, he tells

54:56

us that mechanical once went

54:58

to jail in Paris for

55:00

stealing bedsheets from a hotel.

55:02

a detail he lifted right

55:05

at a James Baldwin March

55:07

Nineteen Fifty Five autobiographical story

55:09

equal in Paris. Richard

55:13

Wright also warns in

55:15

his final lecture that

55:17

black spies often pose

55:19

as revolutionary communist. I'd

55:22

go as far to say said

55:25

most revolutionary movements in the Western

55:27

world our government sponsored. They.

55:29

Are launched by Agent Provocateurs to

55:32

organize the discontented so that the

55:34

government can keep an eye on

55:36

them. If you fail to

55:38

grasp the meaning of what I'm saying,

55:40

I can only recommend that you read

55:42

a classic in this field. Gk.

55:45

Chesterton, the man who

55:47

was thursday. Violence

55:54

and chaos. and the console

55:56

eleven days as an official

55:58

independence. Newton

56:00

Eight. I began a wave of attacks

56:02

and looting throughout the far flung sectors

56:04

of the former colonies in November of

56:06

Nineteen Sixty. When Richard Wright deliver this

56:08

lecture, the Congo crisis was at it's

56:11

peak. The. Belgians, the British, the

56:13

friends, and the Americans. We're all

56:15

working behind the scenes to separate

56:17

the mineral rich region of Khatanga

56:19

from the newly independent Republic of

56:21

Congo. Western. Spies. We're

56:24

also trying to assassinate the

56:26

popular Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba.

56:29

The. See I tried to kill

56:31

him with poison toothpaste. Harsher

56:33

weakening to reality from northern

56:35

for hims of independence. Has

56:42

the grass our address, crimes

56:45

or whatever other. One of

56:47

the most amazing thing about

56:49

this recording of Richard Rights

56:51

Final Speech is that it

56:53

also includes audio from the

56:55

audience discussion that followed. But.

56:57

Part of the problem as voices

57:00

all underlie voice overs Really say

57:02

I was because well why is

57:04

this as the fights don't want

57:07

that we get to hear among

57:09

Richard Wright interacting well some of

57:11

the individuals who came to the

57:13

American Church in Paris to hear

57:16

him speak up. Right

57:18

now lot and maybe not but

57:20

I want them to play bar

57:22

and in someone even a them

57:24

about the moon But and the

57:26

Congo crisis aguirre about the what

57:28

you might think about the moon

57:30

but I have noticed that some

57:32

of the said the ports them.

57:35

And I understand I don't know what. I

57:37

don't know quite how to understand why this

57:39

the for him. I got this be very

57:42

fault new something but he was clearly undesirable.

57:44

Well as were from the when he's been

57:46

reported in the flesh. you could help with

57:48

the okay I i want our know what

57:50

what what lullaby the pan Africanist the didn't

57:53

lot. Of Congo with the

57:55

size of in the is interesting.

57:58

Is no doubt it. Perhaps

58:00

not well qualified. His yacht of

58:02

the to Belgium songs that, but

58:04

he was fine with me. He

58:06

keeps his legal states is he

58:08

in head inside. And out

58:10

his are very bad press in the west

58:12

somewhere around and called a very big of

58:14

a a five then the Congo. What I've

58:17

been explaining to you lied about. the black

58:19

boxes are now divided up among them fight

58:21

each other's the was as easy yeah I

58:23

do, I know the and some a lot

58:25

of the private minded sellers rather rather felt

58:28

as if. That was the

58:30

president. On

58:33

November twenty seventh, the day before

58:36

Richard Wright death, the number was

58:38

convinced to flee the safety of

58:40

his you unguarded prison. He

58:42

was then caught, been beaten and

58:44

tortured and executed. It's

58:47

still unclear who aided Mobuto

58:49

more the Americans or the

58:52

British. A. Daphne Park,

58:54

the M I Six Leopold

58:56

Ville Station chief during the

58:58

Congo Crisis confided to a

59:00

friend before her desk that

59:02

See organized the killings. And

59:04

in an interview she did for the

59:06

B, B C, and Ninety Ninety Two,

59:09

she pretty much. Explains.

59:11

How. Punk of

59:13

assess what it calls swaths of

59:15

action which which means the cook

59:17

cook for such. Very

59:21

good. If

59:24

only because once you get

59:26

really good insight and services.

59:28

Thought any proof. You

59:31

are able to learn was to leave

59:33

as a thaw and put. Each

59:36

man says from another. And

59:38

fought Each man is capable will

59:40

fit as another man was actually

59:43

prefer. Theory is all a matter

59:45

of inside knowledge. To

59:47

destroy things and then. You

59:51

sit people say to speak since

59:53

one of the thought. That

59:56

I enjoy each other as you did

59:58

you say that A as. Why

1:00:00

is? Not a pretty the phone.

1:00:03

So the phone district. Not

1:00:06

much more a close that a much more sophisticated.

1:00:08

Operations on that the says ruff so

1:00:10

kind of the presidential office. Ah,

1:00:13

that I couldn't hospital. In

1:00:27

the last episode, I told you about

1:00:29

letters Richard Wright wrote to his friend

1:00:31

in Dutch translator Margaret, dissembling air during

1:00:34

the last year of his life. I

1:00:37

strung together all the references

1:00:40

he made to his doctor,

1:00:42

Vladimir Schwarzman in order to

1:00:44

illuminate this strange relationship. The

1:00:49

last two letters also shed light

1:00:51

on richard rights relationship with the

1:00:53

Congress for Cultural Freedom. At the

1:00:55

time of his death, On

1:00:59

November twenty third, Richard Wright wrote

1:01:02

Margaret in response to an article

1:01:04

she sent him my a Dutch

1:01:06

Rider name map look. An

1:01:08

article about the weekend she spent

1:01:10

with Richard right when he came

1:01:12

to Indonesia, and Nineteen Fifty Five

1:01:14

to cover the band Don't Conference.

1:01:18

That looks wrote that

1:01:20

she and other Indonesian

1:01:23

intellectuals were shocked by

1:01:25

Richard Wright ignorance and

1:01:27

insensitivities about racial issues.

1:01:30

And she called the book he wrote

1:01:32

about his Indonesian travels, The Color Curtain.

1:01:35

Distorted and an.

1:01:42

While. The article you sent was

1:01:44

not unexpected. richer right road. I've

1:01:46

been attacking here in Paris, both

1:01:48

in writing public speeches and on

1:01:51

the radio, and I knew that

1:01:53

it was about time for a

1:01:55

counter attack to start. Now

1:01:58

Margaret, listen carefully. The

1:02:00

tactic of the Americans today is

1:02:02

to attack those who disagree with

1:02:04

them from the last, an anti

1:02:07

communist left which they have bought

1:02:09

and which they control. I'm sure

1:02:11

that if you look into the

1:02:13

background of bed book you'll find

1:02:16

that See is backed by the

1:02:18

Congress for Cultural Freedom which has

1:02:20

it's headquarters here in Paris. The

1:02:24

following day, in his final letter

1:02:27

to Margaret discipline. Richard.

1:02:29

Wright brought up best again.

1:02:32

Find out what organizations this woman

1:02:34

works for. If see is a

1:02:37

member of the congress or cultural

1:02:39

freedom, then all is clear. Some

1:02:45

of Russia Rights biographers believe that

1:02:48

in the fall of Nineteen Sixty,

1:02:50

he somehow found out that the

1:02:52

Congress for Cultural Freedom was an

1:02:55

appendage of the Cia rather than

1:02:57

the Us. State Department. But.

1:03:01

I believe this change of

1:03:03

heart was do more to

1:03:05

an inner revelation. A

1:03:07

revelation that the little support and

1:03:10

patronage he received from the Congress

1:03:12

for Cultural Freedom. Was.

1:03:14

Always meant only.

1:03:17

To contain him. On

1:03:27

December second, Nineteen Sixty, Gene Hunt

1:03:29

one is the Cia agents in

1:03:31

charge of the Congress for Cultural

1:03:34

Freedoms Paris office sent friends on

1:03:36

Monday, the editor of the Ccs

1:03:38

since journal proves an emergency telegram.

1:03:42

I'm sending was to you urgently because

1:03:44

Mrs. Right has asked his. you could

1:03:46

say a few words at the cremation

1:03:48

services of Richard Wright. The

1:03:50

services will take place at nine forty

1:03:53

five am tomorrow at the Crematorium and

1:03:55

the pair of the Says Cemetery. The

1:04:04

Congress for Cultural Freedom published

1:04:07

it's final words on Richard

1:04:09

Right in the April Nineteen

1:04:11

Sixty One issue of It's

1:04:13

British Magazine Encounter, These

1:04:16

were written by James

1:04:18

Baldwin. I'm

1:04:21

gonna read any of us. And

1:04:26

we're going to say goodbye

1:04:28

to Richard, right? with a

1:04:30

reading of the end of

1:04:32

his final lecture. It's another

1:04:35

allusion to the Black Spies

1:04:37

and Agent Provocateur Earth of

1:04:39

Paris. Unfortunately

1:04:41

this to was missing from

1:04:43

the recording. In

1:04:49

conclusion, Richard Right Road I

1:04:51

could also paraphrase from Shakespeare's

1:04:53

Macbeth by saying corruption and

1:04:56

corruption And corruption eats and

1:04:58

petty hearts from day to

1:05:00

day that the last jingle

1:05:03

of the cash register and

1:05:05

all our allusions or leading

1:05:07

fools the way to moral

1:05:10

death. Our informers

1:05:12

make life but are walking

1:05:14

charade a poor pretense that

1:05:16

struts and frets. His hour

1:05:19

of deception and then

1:05:21

slinks from our view

1:05:23

it as a tale

1:05:25

told by the trailers

1:05:27

full of double crossing

1:05:29

signify deceit. Okay,

1:06:03

So. Now that we have bid farewell

1:06:05

to all three of our main cast

1:06:07

members. I've got a proper

1:06:10

conclusion for you. And. Eight

1:06:12

and a half minutes story Similar to

1:06:14

the introduction back at the top of

1:06:16

this mini series. And. Attempt.

1:06:18

To. Illuminates connections between our

1:06:21

world and the world

1:06:23

of Nineteen sixty. We're.

1:06:26

Going to end Dear listener as

1:06:28

we began. with a movie.

1:06:31

A movie set in the

1:06:34

final days of But He

1:06:36

Says Cuba and filmed just

1:06:38

after Castro's revolution. Graham Greene's

1:06:40

Nineteen Sixty Black Comedy about

1:06:42

Cold War spies Our Ma'am

1:06:44

Mm, how bad. The

1:06:48

film is about James Wormhole,

1:06:50

a British mild mannered vacuum

1:06:52

cleaner salesman. Did

1:06:56

you. Want a vacuum

1:06:58

cleaner? Away one

1:07:00

day and m I six chief

1:07:02

named Hawthorne walks into warm old

1:07:04

Havana shot and recruits him to

1:07:06

become a spy for England. Hundred

1:07:08

and thirty dollars a month and

1:07:10

expenses, old man. That's

1:07:13

free. World

1:07:15

who knows nothing about spycraft or

1:07:18

intelligence says yes because he's a

1:07:20

single dad with a seventeen year

1:07:22

old daughter named Millie who loves

1:07:25

to shop. There is one thing

1:07:27

I want. The I something

1:07:29

like Canada as a Christmas present to and next

1:07:31

to them easier to that's. Really? what have

1:07:34

you bought? It

1:07:38

to happen Next A Horse is

1:07:41

a barely disguised autobiographical reference he

1:07:43

sees back in Nineteen Fifty Six.

1:07:45

Writer Graham Greene's daughter Lucy wanted

1:07:47

a horse ranch, and so he

1:07:50

sold the film rights to his

1:07:52

novel The Quiet American to the

1:07:54

highest bidder. This turned

1:07:56

out to be a disastrous

1:07:59

decision because. In Nineteen Fifty

1:08:01

Eight, Joseph make oh it's

1:08:03

with help from the Cia

1:08:05

transformed Greens anti American novel

1:08:07

into a pro American movie.

1:08:11

Graham Greene was so enraged

1:08:13

he decided to personally manage

1:08:16

the film version of this

1:08:18

Nineteen Sixty Eight novel Our

1:08:20

Man in Havana. Nuclear

1:08:27

science fiction writer. Illustrating

1:08:30

my own words, the movie

1:08:33

like the Book as Esquire

1:08:35

Magazine newly hired some critics

1:08:37

know Dwight Macdonald noted was

1:08:39

a peculiar combination of spy

1:08:41

thriller and offbeat comedy. Or

1:08:43

sea that pretty horrifying official

1:08:45

into the Boffins fabulous aspects

1:08:47

about Mormons and London drawings

1:08:49

of mysterious installation, the hidden

1:08:51

in the Cuban mountain of

1:08:53

a man things or results.

1:08:55

In reality, sick of of these

1:08:57

fast cleaner vacuum tubes he sells

1:09:00

and shot what did the premises.

1:09:02

He said some of these toys

1:09:04

reminded him of a gigantic vacuum

1:09:06

sealer. London,

1:09:08

Send the beautiful Beatrice to Havana

1:09:10

to assist warm of but you

1:09:12

have every reason to be confident

1:09:15

if pulled a big scoop. Your

1:09:17

amen and Havana The best agent

1:09:19

in the Western Hemisphere. The. Film

1:09:21

is incredibly faithful to the novel.

1:09:24

For. Example The speech World makes

1:09:26

at the business luncheon after he

1:09:28

realizes Carter, the man from New

1:09:31

Cleaners Fast Cleaners competitor is trying

1:09:33

to poison him is an almost

1:09:35

word for word rendition. We hear

1:09:38

a lot. Not as

1:09:40

about the Cold War. That

1:09:44

any trade will tell you that

1:09:46

the wall between two manufacturers. Can

1:09:49

be quite a hot for. Sorry.

1:09:56

I take Sauce Clean as a nucleus

1:09:58

for as there's no fun. The mental

1:10:00

difference between the two machines

1:10:02

anymore than that is between

1:10:05

to human beings. When

1:10:11

our Man in Havana the book

1:10:13

hit shelves a young British get

1:10:16

rich quick scheme and named John

1:10:18

Bloom Reddit and was inspired he

1:10:21

renamed the Dutch twins have a

1:10:23

washing machine. He was selling door

1:10:25

to door the Electro Matic and

1:10:28

on September twenty four, nineteen fifty

1:10:30

eight, he spent four hundred and

1:10:33

twenty eight pounds on a full

1:10:35

page ad in The Daily Mirror

1:10:37

offering housewives, home demonstrations and a

1:10:40

direct to consumer. No middle

1:10:42

man involves low low price.

1:10:45

A direct challenge too. Hot point.

1:10:47

England's establishment washing machine

1:10:50

dealer. By

1:10:53

Nineteen Sixty, when Our Man

1:10:55

in Havana debuted in cinemas,

1:10:57

England's Washing Machine more was

1:11:00

in full swing. And. John

1:11:02

Bloom was a multimillionaire. As he

1:11:04

wrote in his autobiography, it isn't

1:11:07

a sin to make a profit.

1:11:10

And while I can't confirm the

1:11:12

veracity of this connection the Graham

1:11:15

Greene it is similar to the

1:11:17

stories John Bloom liked to tell

1:11:19

about himself, to the celebrities and

1:11:21

young girls who frequented the wild

1:11:23

parties he threw at his Park

1:11:25

Lane Manson and the early Nineteen

1:11:27

sixties. Guess. Included

1:11:30

The Beatles. The National

1:11:32

Theaters new Dramaturgy Kenneth Tynan.

1:11:35

And Christine Holford who was later

1:11:37

sought to death by her husband,

1:11:39

Harvey Holford after see taunted him

1:11:42

over her lover John Blooms sexual

1:11:44

and business prowess. When

1:11:47

Harvey Hofer was acquitted of

1:11:49

murder, the public gallery erupted

1:11:52

with applause suggesting that they

1:11:54

liked The judge also saw

1:11:56

the man with the golden

1:11:58

Washing Machine cufflinks. As

1:12:00

the sordid affairs true them.

1:12:07

In. Graham Greene story the British Secret

1:12:09

Service assess the significance of their Man

1:12:12

in Havana. What else Using equally flawed

1:12:14

reasoning that a good trip or better

1:12:16

as you to come over to the

1:12:18

spot of bother oh yes about does

1:12:21

construction. Frankly they're reminded me of parts

1:12:23

of of accuracy and I mean you

1:12:25

thought that I have tried to pull

1:12:27

the length of the Secret Service or

1:12:29

did it at we're forced to live

1:12:32

on the others admit of events to

1:12:34

murder of really proves that runs a

1:12:36

genuine. This is another

1:12:38

autobiographical no I don't know of

1:12:41

Graham Greene new to well how

1:12:43

badly the real M I six

1:12:45

have been play with demonstrated that

1:12:47

organization by the other side spies

1:12:49

the Cambridge find a way you

1:12:52

know to complement your dangerous mouth

1:12:54

but after the other side assassinate

1:12:56

wormholes friend doctor have a backer

1:12:58

were mode consensus that his reports

1:13:01

were fate and his drawings vacuum

1:13:03

tubes. But. London's Smite. She's

1:13:05

decide to carry on with the

1:13:07

false narratives we've been considering. Your

1:13:10

last report: When I said that

1:13:12

confession, it was the first your

1:13:15

new As confession was never received.

1:13:17

Understand That said, they never received.

1:13:20

I'm. Speaking of something quite different the report and

1:13:22

of which was said the construction of approved

1:13:24

have saved up I never said anything of

1:13:26

the thought. On the contrary,

1:13:28

at the works, whatever they were had

1:13:31

been dismantled. If you have

1:13:33

that we decided to shut down your post. We

1:13:35

think the best thing for your the way I

1:13:37

say about our man in Havana is a comedic

1:13:39

heads up. A. Jovial warning that

1:13:42

any history of the late

1:13:44

Nineteen sixties Cold War era

1:13:47

at math for downplays the

1:13:49

influence of the spies foreign

1:13:51

journalists is total bullshit. Says

1:13:55

as he starts Destroy That must never get out

1:13:57

of. Quickly

1:14:08

and fit his clothing. In

1:14:12

the late Nineteen Fifties,

1:14:15

America was determined to

1:14:17

roll back and destroy

1:14:19

the Soviet Union. The

1:14:21

West cultural cold warriors

1:14:23

and covert propagandists used

1:14:25

this broad ideological remit

1:14:27

to target communism as

1:14:30

well as anti americanism,

1:14:32

anti colonialism and peaceful

1:14:34

coexistence. The

1:14:36

profound legacy of all this

1:14:39

propaganda the are, oh I

1:14:41

extends far beyond Cold War.

1:14:43

Triumph is built the world

1:14:46

we live in today. Not

1:15:02

all propaganda. His art was

1:15:04

researched, written and produced by

1:15:07

me. Benjamin Longer Andrew Calloway

1:15:09

Mixed and sound design the

1:15:11

whole thing. Special thanks to

1:15:13

family and friends for the

1:15:16

support over the long course

1:15:18

of this project and to

1:15:20

everyone who is in the

1:15:22

series especially Jim Campbell Mercedes

1:15:25

is Us and Jefferson Pooley.

1:15:29

You can find more information

1:15:31

about the series in the

1:15:33

show Notes and the special

1:15:36

audio footnotes companion podcast I

1:15:38

created for the series propaganda

1:15:40

notes and sources. Also

1:15:44

thanks to everyone at Radio Topeka

1:15:46

from P R X for all

1:15:48

the care and support getting this

1:15:51

into the world. And

1:15:53

now that this mini series is

1:15:56

complete please fearlessness, share it with

1:15:58

a friend and rated. On

1:16:00

what ever thought that. He.

1:16:23

I'm. Lindsey Graham to host of Wonder

1:16:25

is American history tellers. In our latest

1:16:27

series we explore the emergence of a

1:16:29

covert network a secret routes in safe

1:16:31

houses known as the Underground Railroad which

1:16:33

worked a shepherd, fugitive slaves to freedom

1:16:35

and the decades before the Civil War.

1:16:37

Listen to American history Dollars on the

1:16:39

Wonder yeah or wherever you get your

1:16:42

podcasts. And Radio.