Moscow Nights: The Van Cliburn Story-How One Man and His Piano Transformed the Cold War (78 page)

312
  
“President Johnson . . . a great many are”:
John Edgar Hoover to Tolson, Belmont, De Loach, Sullivan, December 20, 1963; FBI file 105–70035–10. Despite Hoover’s equanimity, in 1963 it was still dangerous to be gay in America. That year, the FBI had to correct a rumor that Van had “picked up a young man in the mens [
sic
] room” at a hotel; in fact, a memo explained, it was a different pianist who picked up “an informant of the Washington Field Office, who is an active, aggressive homosexual” and told him to come to his room, where they “engaged in a homosexual act.” The report added that the informant identified a photograph of the pianist in question, whom he cattily said he “considered as a more talented pianist than Van Cliburn.” A. Rosen to Belmont, “Van Cliburn Information Concerning,” December 21, 1963, FBI file 105–70035–9.

312
  
“It’s more . . . entertainment purposes”:
Recording of Telephone Conversation Between Lyndon B. Johnson and J. Edgar Hoover, December 20, 1963, 3:35 p.m., Tape K6312.11, PNO 2, Recordings and Transcripts of Conversations and Meetings, LBJL. Johnson signaled to his secretary to press a switch and activate the recorder, and the first part of the conversation summarized in Hoover’s memo is missing.

312
  
“Edgar Hoover says . . . invite him”:
Recording of Telephone Conversation Between Lyndon B. Johnson and J. Edgar Hoover, December 20, 1963, 3:36 p.m., Tape K6312.11, PNO 3, Recordings and Transcripts of Conversations and Meetings, LBJL.

312
  
Ludwig Erhard . . . landed:
The White House Motion Film Unit filmed the visit, including Van’s performance. Video Recording MP801, December 28/29 1963, Materials Relating to “Visit of Chancellor Ludwig Erhard of West Germany” Project, 12/28/1963–12/29/1963, White House Naval Photographic Center Films, LBJL.

312
  
“But Van” . . . “artistic rustic fashion”:
Rothman,
LBJ’s Texas White House
, 175.

313
  
“the Republican platform”:
Dorothy Austin, “Liz Carpenter Recalls the Johnson Years,”
Milwaukee Sentinel
, July 5, 1978.

313
  
“He was a man . . . West Texas hill country”:
Transcript, Elizabeth (Liz) Carpenter Oral History Interview V, 2/2/1971, by Joe B. Frantz, Internet Copy, LBJL.

313
  
public relations catastrophe:
Dwight Macdonald, “A Day at the White House,”
New York Review of Books
, July 15, 1965; Henry Raymont, “Professor Says President Infuriated by Viet Critics at 1965 Arts Festival,”
Eugene Register-Guard
, December 25, 1968.

313
  
accompanied LBJ home to Texas:
President’s Daily Diary, December 20 and 21, 1963, LBJL, http://www.lbjlibrary.net/collections/daily-diary.html.

314
  
bought its entire contents:
Paul R. Rundle, “In the Key of Life: Van Cliburn and the Piano Double,” April 4, 2013, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-r-rundle/van-cliburn-_b_2807508.html.

314
  
press coverage was incessant:
See Viktor Merzhanov, “Van Cliburn,”
SK
, June 15, 1965; Sofia Khentova, “Van Cliburn, Pianist and Conductor,”
Leningradskaya Pravda
, June 25, 1965; Soloveichik, “The Charm of Talent,”
Komsomolskaya Pravda
, June 25, 1965; Jakob Milshtein, “At Van Cliburn’s Concerts,”
Muzykalnaya Zhizn
17 (1965): 9–10.

314
  
“was not in good favor”:
SA Leonard A. Butt to SAC, New York, memorandum, July 23, 1962, FBI file 62–12802–6. The subject of the surveillance adds that Van was “very discouraged.”

314
  
“medium or spiritualist”:
SAC, New York to Director, FBI, memorandum, “Harvey Lavan Van Cliburn Miscellaneous Information Concerning,” July 7, 1965, FBI file 62–12802–16.

315
  
reception at the White House:
President’s Daily Diary, September 7, 1966, LBJL.

315
  
crack about Van:
VCL
, 171.

316
  
“‘LOST GENERATION’ BAFFLES SOVIET”:
Harrison Salisbury,
NYT
, February 6, 1962.

317
  
Liu Shikun:
Again, my account is based primarily on my interviews with Mr. Liu, with further sources detailed hereafter.

317
  
“They told me . . . music and arts”:
Liu Shikun, interview with the author.

317
  
“feudalistic . . . fill one with courage”:
“Defector Ma Ssu-tsung [Ma Sicong] Tells of Cultural Persecution on Mainland,”
Taiwan Journal
, April 23, 1967. Sicong was known in China as King of the Violinists; as well as president of the Central Music Academy, he was also vice president of the Union of Chinese Musicians and a deputy to the National People’s Congress.

317
  
invited Van to tour China:
In 1960 and 1962. Rogers to Paris embassy, March 23, 1973, State Department cable 1973STATE053785, RG59, NACP; https://aad.archives.gov/aad/createpdf?rid=77902&dt=2472&dl=1345.

317
  
“Blood-sucking ghost”:
Sheila Melvin and Jindong Cai,
Rhapsody in Red: How Western Classical Music Became Chinese
(New York: Algora, 2004), 241.

317
  
denounced Gu Shengying:
Ding Zilin, “Three People Deeply Imprinted on My Memory,” April 8, 2001, HRIC, http://www.hrichina.org/en/content/4665.

318
  
shot in the head:
Melvin and Cai,
Rhapsody in Red
, 240.

318
  
“second-rank ghost” . . . “Counterrevolutionary Musician”:
Richard Curt Kraus,
Pianos and Politics in China: Middle-Class Ambitions and the Struggle over Western Music
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 167.

318
  
“If I speak . . . smash me”:
Melvin and Cai,
Rhapsody in Red
, 242.

318
  
“Liu Shikun you bastard”:
Kraus,
Pianos and Politics in China
, 165.

320
  
called the White House:
This episode is largely reconstructed from a note by Paul Glynn; see “Remembering Van Cliburn,” February 27, 2013, LBJL, http://www.lbjlibrary.org/press/lbj-in-the-news/remembering-van-cliburn. Unless otherwise indicated, quoted speech is from this source. Also see President’s Daily Diary, October 14, 1967, LBJL.

321
  
“They look fine”:
“People,”
Time
, October 27, 1967.

321
  
“Beatles and Marshall McLuhan”:
“The Artist as Culture Hero,”
Time
, November 22, 1968.

321
  
regular on
What’s My Line?
:
Van appeared in episodes 426 (August 3, 1958), 461 (April 19, 1959), 604 (March 11, 1962), and 791 (April 5, 1964).

321
  
name-dropped in
Bewitched
:
In episode 3 of season 5, “Samantha on the Keyboard,” broadcast October 10, 1968, ABC.

321
  
Bell Telephone Hour
:
Van Cliburn: A Portrait
, Video Artists International, 2004, DVD.

322
  
“I was moved . . . but declined”:
Warren Bennis,
Still Surprised: A Memoir of a Life in Leadership
(San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2010), 145.

322
  
“unmistakably in the ranks”:
Albert Goldberg, “Van Cliburn Proves His Greatness,”
LA Times
, October 3, 1963.

323
  
“I don’t think it’s worth fightin’ for”:
Recording of Telephone Conversation Between Lyndon B. Johnson and McGeorge Bundy, May 27, 1964, 11:24 a.m., Tape 64.28, PNO 111, Recordings and Transcripts of Conversations and Meetings, LBJL; reprinted as Document 53 in
FRUS 1964–68
, vol. 27,
Mainland Southeast Asia: Regional Affairs.

323
  
“mad masters . . . tide of communism”:
John Dumbrell,
President Lyndon Johnson and Soviet Communism
(Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2004), 9.

323
  
“The communists already control”:
Kelley Shannon, “Tapes Reveal LBJ’s Vietnam Conversations,”
WP
, November 18, 2006.

323
  
“communist way of thinking”:
Robert Dallek,
Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961–73
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 279.

324
  
“Down with the U.S.!” and “America stinks!”:
Saunders,
Who Paid the Piper?
361.

324
  
“Many in the full house”:
Robert Sherman, “Cliburn Startles Recital Audience,”
NYT
, May 5, 1972. At the White House, Nixon read part of the article to his chief of staff, H. R. “Bob” Haldeman, adding that he wanted to back Van. OVAL 726–1, May 19, 1972, White House Tapes, RNPL.

324
  
sang the national anthem:
“President Hears Van Cliburn Sing National Anthem” (UPI),
Chicago Tribune
, October 13, 1966. Van had promised the rendition as self-punishment for missing the start of yet another concert.

324
  
Critics accused him:
Joan Barthel, “Eight Years Later: Has Success Spoiled Van Cliburn?”
NYT
, October 9, 1966.

324
  
“a bit ticky-tacky”:
Davidson, “Every Good Boy Does Fine.”

325
  
“shows both in your character and in your development as an artist”:
Helen G. Coates to Rosina Lhévinne, New York, October 17, 1966, enclosing a letter to Van dated October 16, Folder 20, Box 2, RLP. “All his talk about his Church and what it means to him is idle talk when it comes to showing it in deeds,” Coates fumed. “I’m afraid he is a very self-centered, and ungrateful young man.”

326
  
Nikita Sergeyevich . . . died:
My account of Khrushchev’s funeral draws on Rudolph Chelminski, “The Quiet Passing of Nikita Khrushchev,”
Life
71, no. 13 (September 24, 1971): 40; Edward Gwertzman, “Son Lauds Khrushchev at Rites,”
NYT
, September 14, 1971; “Friends, Admirers Attend Funeral of Khrushchev” (UPI),
Ludlington Daily News
, September 13, 1971; Georgy Fyodorov, “Khrushchev the Liberator,” trans. Brian Murphy, Great Britain-Russia Society, http://www.gbrussia.org/reviews.php?id=167.

326
  
“antisocial act”:
Gwertzman, “Son Lauds Khrushchev.”