Da Silva / Nixon, 1970

Get a load of this. On February 22, 1970, the Broadway company of 1776 gave a command performance at the White House. They performed the entire musical, on a makeshift set built by Jo Mielziner in the East Room. (And it really was the whole show — even the song “Cool, Cool, Considerate Men,” which Nixon would persuade Jack Warner to cut from the film version in 1972.)

There’s a lot to think about here. You can bemoan the idea of an American history musical so benign that it would be welcomed in the Nixon White House; you can also long for the days when autocratic, paranoid, criminal Republican presidents at least had a little intelligence and taste.

But what gets me the most is the sight of Howard Da Silva as Benjamin Franklin, standing there next to Nixon — Nixon grinning at “Franklin,” Da Silva grinning at us.

Howard Da Silva was an important figure, present at the birth of the modern American musical, having originated roles in The Cradle Will Rock and Oklahoma! (also Fiorello!), along with some interesting film, radio, and television work. But his career was mangled by the blacklist, and he was unable to work in film or broadcast throughout the 1950s. He was listed in Red Channels, and when called before the House Un-American Activities Committee, he excoriated the committee much the way he had excoriated the Liberty Committee as Larry Foreman in Cradle. He invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer questions; he was HUAC’s first uncooperative witness.

Nixon, of course, had been on the side of the blacklist. He’d risen to national prominence as a member of HUAC, though by the time of Da Silva’s testimony, he’d moved on to the Senate. But every time I hear those excerpts from the Nixon tapes, in which the disgraceful and soon-disgraced president rants psychotically against Jews, alleged Communists, New York, and Hollywood, I’m going to think of this photo, and that heavy, knowing smile on Benjamin Franklin’s face.

(For anyone who might be wondering: The White House performance took place almost a year into the Broadway run of 1776, and some original cast members had left the show — so that’s Peter Lombard, instead of Ken Howard, as Thomas Jefferson in the photo. Betty Buckley had left the show too, and Mary Bracken was playing Martha Jefferson. John Collum did not originate the role of Edward Rutledge on Broadway, but he had joined the cast by the time of the White House gig, and went on to appear in the film version.)

Photo source: Wikimedia

Many more photos of the event, from the White House Historical Association

White House Is Host to ‘1776,’ Its First Full‐Length Broadway Show, New York Times, February 23, 1970

Photo Flashback, Michael Dale, BroadwayWorld, January 21, 2016

“Cool, Cool, Considerate Men,” as deleted from the 1972 movie and restored for the DVD: