MIAMI UNIVERSITY the Graduate School Certificate for Approving The
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MIAMI UNIVERSITY The Graduate School Certificate for Approving the Dissertation We hereby approve the Dissertation of __________Peter McClelland Robinson__________ Candidate for the Degree: Doctor of Philosophy ____________________________________________ Director (Allan M. Winkler) ____________________________________________ Reader (Sheldon Anderson) ____________________________________________ Reader (Andrew R. L. Cayton) ____________________________________________ Reader (Marguerite S. Shaffer) ____________________________________________ Graduate School Representative (William J. Doan) ABSTRACT THE DANCE OF THE COMEDIANS: THE PEOPLE, THE PRESIDENT, AND THE PERFORMANCE OF POLITICAL STANDUP COMEDY IN AMERICA by Peter McClelland Robinson This dissertation argues that the emergent performance of political standup comedy became a significant agent for mediating and complicating the relationship between the American people and the American presidency, particularly during the middle half of the twentieth century. The Dance of the Comedians examines standup comedy—particularly its ramifications for the presidency and Americans’ perceptions of that institution—as a uniquely compelling form of cultural performance. Part ceremonial ritual and part playful improvisation, the performance of political comedy in its diverse forms became a potent site of liminality that empowered all of its constituents—the comic, the audience, and the object of the joke—to reexamine and renegotiate the roles of all concerned. It is this tripartite bond of reciprocal and labile performance—and its rise to cultural prominence in American history—that comprises the heart of this study. Five chapters trace the development of political standup comedy with respect to the American presidency and analyze the ground-breaking performances by comedians on both sides of the footlights and both in and out of the Oval Office. During the early Republic, newspaper editor Charles Farrar Browne reinvented himself as Artemus Ward and pioneered the performative relationship between the emergent American humorist and the equally embryonic American audience. During the first third of the twentieth century, humorist Will Rogers masterfully exploited the liminality of stage and radio to insinuate himself between Americans and their elected leaders during a period of crisis and redefinition, and he permanently recast the roles of citizen and president alike. During the 1950s and early 1960s comedians such as Mort Sahl again cross-pollinated comedy and presidential politics, this time with the increasing acidity befitting postwar America. Impersonator Vaughn Meader and his phenomenally popular album, The First Family, consummated the marriage between entertainment culture and political culture, especially where Americans’ perceptions of the presidency were concerned. As for the presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy understood humor’s ability to reap political gain, and they too were cultural arbiters who prompted a more permanent shift in Americans’ attitudes toward the office and those who hold it. THE DANCE OF THE COMEDIANS: THE PEOPLE, THE PRESIDENT, AND THE PERFORMANCE OF POLITICAL STANDUP COMEDY IN AMERICA A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of Miami University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History by Peter McClelland Robinson Miami University Oxford, Ohio 2006 Dissertation Advisor: Allan M. Winkler © Peter McClelland Robinson 2006 Contents List of Figures………………………………………...………iv Dedication…………………………………………………….vi Acknowledgments………………………………….……..…vii Introduction……………………………………………………1 Chapter One: An American Company of Comedians………..17 Chapter Two: Choosing Partners………………………...…..38 Chapter Three: A Presidential Crinoline………………….….55 Chapter Four: New Frontiers……………………………….100 Chapter Five: Dancing for Dollars.…………………………134 Bibliography………………………………………………..153 iii List of Figures Figure 1: “An interview with President Lincoln”…………………………………….…36 Figure 2: Franklin Roosevelt on stage with Will Rogers, 1932…………………………83 Figure 3: President John F. Kennedy presiding over a news conference, 1962………..125 iv v For Beth, Ryan, and Sarah, who love a comedian. vi Acknowledgments This was very much an ensemble effort. I am grateful to the many people at Miami University who were giving of their time and talents during the various stages of this project. Jeffrey Kimball and Osaak Olumwullah provided valuable theoretical and methodological feedback as I first contemplated mixing politics and humor to produce history. Charlotte Goldy and Robert Thurston offered encouragement and direction during my graduate career that helped me to keep this project and related objectives correctly prioritized. I owe special thanks to my dissertation committee. Historians Sheldon Anderson and Peggy Shaffer commented on this work with critical eyes and supportive words, and William Doan’s insight regarding performance studies continued a tradition of wise and compassionate counsel from the Miami University theatre department that I have benefited from since my undergraduate days at Miami thirty years ago. I would like to offer special appreciation to Andrew Cayton, whose generous service on my committee is but one small measure of what this extraordinary scholar has given me. He has modeled excellence in teaching, advising, and writing that I will spend a career attempting to emulate. These are all extraordinary scholars whom I now count among my colleagues and friends. I am also grateful to Jeri Schaner, secretary in the history department, for her assistance throughout this process. I owe special thanks to the entire staff at the Will Rogers Memorial in Claremore, Oklahoma for their help and generosity. Michelle Lefebvre-Carter, executive director of the Memorial, and Joseph Carter rendered to me one kindness after another during my stay. I am enormously indebted to Steven Gragert, the Memorial’s archivist and historian, whose knowledge saved me time, whose expertise served to bring Will into clearer focus, and whose hospitality turned hard work into an absolute pleasure. This project could not have been completed in a timely way without the support of all of my colleagues in the Department of Humanities at the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati, Ohio. Sister Margaret McPeak, Elizabeth Barkley, Fran Harmon, and Tim Lynch were particularly helpful and accommodated my need for time to write with understanding, incredible good cheer, and constant words of support. Two people were absolutely indispensable to this project and remain so as I continue my academic career. Words fail to express my gratitude to Allan Winkler, who has been the ideal teacher, mentor, guide, and friend. His knowledge, experience, and meticulous approach to history are surpassed only by his generosity of spirit. Finally but foremost, my wife Beth has humored me throughout this endeavor. I thank her for her love, for the expressions of support and encouragement that are much too numerous to count, and for the joy that has brought me strength (and plenty of laughs) along the way. Milford, Ohio April 2006 vii Introduction Without warning to her audience, and with even her husband uncertain of exactly what was coming, first lady Laura Bush took the lead and stole the show at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on April 30, 2005. In a performance widely applauded by supporters and critics on both sides of the culture wars, Mrs. Bush made open fun of the policies, the foibles, and, obliquely, even the sexual performance of the president of the United States. Just as George W. Bush was approaching the podium as entertainer-in-chief, a role increasingly prescribed for the president by the exigencies of the twentieth century, Mrs. Bush reversed expected performance roles––and even lingering gender expectations where First Ladies are concerned––and pushed him aside: Ladies and gentlemen, I've been attending these dinners for years, and just quietly sitting there. Well, I've got a few things I want to say for a change. George always says he's delighted to come to these press dinners. Baloney! He's usually in bed by now. I'm not kidding. I said to him the other day: George, if you really want to end tyranny in the world, you're going to have to stay up later. As the ten-minute routine proceeded, Mrs. Bush bemoaned her evenings spent married to “Mr. Excitement” by identifying with one of the year’s most popular television shows and by sharing her solution for invigorating White House domestic life, touching on Mr. Bush’s more private shortcomings in the process: Ladies and gentlemen, I am a desperate housewife. I mean, if those women on that [television] show think they're desperate, they ought to be with George. One night, after George went to bed, Lynn Cheney, Condi Rice, Karen Hughes and I went to Chippendale's. I wouldn't even mention it, except Ruth Ginsburg and Sandra Day O'Connor saw us there. I won't tell you what happened, but Lynn's Secret Service codename is now "Dollar Bill." As the laughter swelled, it quickly became clear that Laura Bush was a hit. Occasionally she cast glances left or right toward Bush, Lynn Cheney, or some other target, perhaps with a wink of reassurance that all was in jest, but never apologetically. She clearly enjoyed her moment at center stage, the studied gracefulness of her smile failing to completely mask a sense of impish glee she flashed with each joke and every roar of approval from