ABSTRACT
‘He is a Cripple an’ Needs My Love’: Porgy and Bess as Cold War Propaganda
In 1952 the Department of State sent a touring production of Porgy and Bess to Berlin and Vienna in an effort to counter Soviet charges that America was a cultural wasteland and socially backward in its race relations. The tour was both the culmination of efforts by the US government to bind Germany and Austria to the West and the first attempt to use entertainment as a way of fighting Soviet communist ideals. This study explores the goals of those involved in the Porgy tour and assesses the success of their efforts to use art as propaganda. It concludes that, although the tour was deemed a great success, State Department officials were numb to the complexities of theatre production and reception and that Porgy never escaped the prejudices and misperceptions it was dispatched to counteract.
