Not All Propaganda is Art 5: The Play's the Thing

Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything

Benjamen Walker & Radiotopia

Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 20 February 2024

⏱️ 70 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the fall of 1958, Kenneth Tynan moved from London to New York and upon arrival, clashed with Hollywood mogul Samuel Goldwyn over socially engaged art and the politics of apolitical culture on live TV. At the same moment New Yorker writer Dwight Macdonald went West to report on “New” Hollywood's ambitions to create commercially and artistically successful films. We also meet two of Professor Macdonald’s former students from a Mass Culture course he taught at Bard College in 1958. Meanwhile in France, Richard Wright suffers a number of disturbing attacks, prompting him to channel his frustrations into a revealing radio play.

Shownotes: Tamara Walker is the author of Beyond the Shores, Hugh Wilford wrote The Mighty Wurlitzer, Tom Benjamin and Frances Hodes were both students of Dwight Macdonald at Bard College in 1958 and Dan Sinclair is the author of Curteous Enemy.

Support ToE and get access to the incredible exclusive bonus companion series to Not All Propaganda is Art by subscribing at https://theoryofeverything.supercast.com/, or subscribe directly in Apple Podcasts by hitting “Subscribe” right on the show page.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to Benjamin Walker's Theory of Everything.
0:05.0	At Radiotopia, we now have a select group of amazing supporters that help us make all our shows possible. If you would like to have your company or
0:14.8	product sponsor this podcast then get in touch drop a line to sponsor at radiotopia
0:21.4	fm thanks
0:24.0	William beres is in big trouble this is police he is accused of running a pan-European
0:29.9	art smuggling ring with ties to the Sicilian mafia and if convicted he faces up to 20 years
0:35.7	in prison.
0:36.7	He's called the professor by dealers and traffickers.
0:40.1	To stay out of jail, William Verres plans to find a hundred million dollar painting, Caravaggio's
0:45.0	nativity.
0:46.0	I once asked how many mobsters do you know in Sicily.
0:49.0	He said, well, officially none.
0:57.0	From brazen and PRX, listen to the professor, wherever you get your podcasts. Out now. My name is Benjamin Walker and this is episode 5 of not all propaganda is art.
1:11.0	It's called The Play is the Thing, and it features all three of our main cast members, Kenneth
1:17.5	Tynen.
1:18.5	That evening was a slap in the face for many people that I've been longing to see public
1:22.7	its lap.
1:23.7	Dwight McDonald, we now are threatened with something even more insidious
1:26.9	and that is what I call mid-cult or middle-brow culture.
1:30.6	And Richard Wright.
1:32.3	Is it possible to extend the area of the rational in the world?
1:38.0	For a while I was going to call this one Tynen Wright and Dwight, a reference to one of Kenneth Tynen's books called Tynen right and left. Yeah, kind of too
	...

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