by Nigel Cliff
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.
313public 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.
313accompanied LBJ home to Texas: President’s Daily Diary, December 20 and 21, 1963, LBJL, http://www.lbjlibrary.net/collections/daily-diary.html.
314bought 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.
314press 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.
315reception at the White House: President’s Daily Diary, September 7, 1966, LBJL.
315crack about Van: VCL, 171.
316“‘LOST GENERATION’ BAFFLES SOVIET”: Harrison Salisbury, NYT, February 6, 1962.
317Liu 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.
317invited 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.
317denounced Gu Shengying: Ding Zilin, “Three People Deeply Imprinted on My Memory,” April 8, 2001, HRIC, http://www.hrichina.org/en/content/4665.
318shot 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.
320called 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.
321regular 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).
321name-dropped in Bewitched: In episode 3 of season 5, “Samantha on the Keyboard,” broadcast October 10, 1968, ABC.
321Bell 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.
324sang 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.
324Critics 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.”
326Nikita 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.”
326“CEMETERY CLOSED FOR CLEANING”: Fyodorov, “Khrushchev the Liberator.” Fyodorov, an archaeologist and writer, talked his way through several rings of security to get to the graveside.
327“There were those . . . called a man”: Gwertzman, “Son Lauds Khrushchev.”
327“We remember . . . defense of the party line”: Ibid.
327“You must disperse now”: Fyodorov, “Khrushchev the Liberator.”
327“All the rulers” . . . “acted as they did”: Ibid.
327“Nikita Sergeyevich . . . Russia to his funeral”: Chelminski, “Quiet Passing of Nikita Khrushchev.”
328“merit pensioner”: “Friends, Admirers Attend Funeral of Khrushchev.”
328“Mr. Khrushchev opened the doors”: Harry Schwartz, “Khrushchev: We Know Now That He Was a Giant Among Men,” NYT, September 12, 1971.
20: GREAT EXPECTATIONS
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p; 329Henry Kissinger sat down opposite . . . Ye Jianying: Memorandum of Conversation, February 23, 1972, 9:35 a.m., Box 92, HAK Office Files, National Security Council Files, Nixon Presidential Materials Project, NACP.
330Sol Hurok planned: Roberta Peters, interview with Peter Rosen. Hurok, quoted in “U.S. Stars Due in Soviet at Same Time as Nixon,” NYT, May 15, 1972, maintained that the two events had nothing to do with each other. To believe that Van’s first visit to Moscow in seven years just happened to coincide with Nixon’s is to underestimate Hurok’s talent for public relations.
330Nixon’s aide Ron Walker: Anne Collins Walker recalled the events in “Remembering Van Cliburn,” on GramAnne, March 6, 2013, http://gramanne.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/remembering-van-cliburn.html, and in e-mails with the author.
330Nixon’s personal request: Nixon first discussed the invitation with Bob Haldeman. He gave three reasons: he would get the visit off to a “great start” by doing a “huge favor to the Russians”; since Van was already there, it would save money; and he wanted to back Van after the audience at Carnegie Hall hissed at his rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” OVAL 726–1, May 19, 1972, White House Tapes, RNPL.
331“What happened to you”: Aschen Mikoyan, interview with the author.
331Roberta Peters was amazed: Roberta Peters, interview by Peter Rosen.
331“Why did he have to do it so early”: “Soviet Agent Wakes Cliburn” (AP), Des Moines Register, May 25, 1972.
331“It’s hard to recall . . . ‘provincial sentimentality’”: E. Romadinova, “Define Standards,” Sovetskaya Muzyka 10 (1972): 77–87. The same pages, though, featured an extremely long and largely glowing appreciation by M. Sokolsky entitled “Van Cliburn and Russian Music.”
332“Cultural exchanges . . . from Washington”: Max Frankel, “A Reporter’s Notebook: Comparing the Journeys,” NYT, May 25, 1972.
333All four . . . had gone home: Appendix C, President’s Daily Diary, May 26, 1972, RNPL, http://www.nixonlibrary.gov/virtuallibrary/documents/dailydiary.php. When Brezhnev visited the United States, Nixon made a point of inviting Van and Rildia Bee to the White House dinner and introducing the two men: see “Appendix B” to President’s Daily Diary, June 18, 1973.
334Liu Shikun: Interview with the author.
334staggering sum of money: Liu received eight thousand renminbi in compensation for lost salary; the average monthly salary was ten or twenty renminbi. The blame for his imprisonment was pinned on senior leader Lin Bao, who had conveniently died in a plane crash.
335shaking hands: They still shake today, though it has not affected his piano playing.
335Philadelphia Orchestra: Francis B. Tenny, “The Philadelphia Orchestra’s 1973 China Tour: A Case Study of Cultural Diplomacy During the Cultural Revolution,” American Diplomacy (September 2012), http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/item/2012/0712/fsl/tenny_orchestra.html.
336played a duet: On March 7, 1974. “You don’t play as well as I sing,” joked Bailey, “but I don’t sing as well as you govern.” When he started on “Home on the Range,” she interrupted: “Mr. President, I wanted to sing a song, not ride a horse.”
336listened to his recordings: Jerrold Schecter, “The Private World of Richard Nixon,” Time, January 3, 1972.
336his favorite piece: Frank Gannon interview with Richard Nixon, February 9, 1983, part 1; Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection, University of Georgia Libraries, http://www.libs.uga.edu/media/collections/nixon/ohms/index.html.
336“He’s so colorful”: Conversation with Julie Nixon Eisenhower, WH Telephone 43–142, February 21, 1973, White House Tapes, RNPL.
336“He is our friend . . . for us”: OVAL 867–16, March 2, 1973, White House Tapes, RNPL.
336upbraided his staff: OVAL 867–8, March 2, 1973, White House Tapes, RNPL.
337Van virtually adopted him: John Giordano, interview with the author.
337visited her in the hospital: Pablo A. Tariman, “Van Cliburn of Imelda’s Splendorous Days,” September 14, 2012, http://verafiles.org/van-cliburn-of-imeldas-splen dorous-days/. Van was also friendly with the Marcos entourage: when he played at the White House for the Golda Meir visit on March 1, 1973, he invited as his guest Romeo Amansec, a Marcos bodyguard. President’s Daily Diary, March 1, 1973, Appendix C, RNPL.
337“the Cliburn line . . . mortals of our time”: “Minicult Blooming Over Van Cliburn” (AP), The Capital (Annapolis, MD), June 15, 1973.
337“Deep in the Heart of Texas”: Davidson, “Every Good Boy Does Fine.”
338“Only a person” . . . “above his shoes”: “Clothes Don’t Make the Pianist” (AP), Kansas City Times, June 23, 1973.
338“Sonny Boy, I love you”: Greta Beigel, “Finally, a Return Engagement,” LA Times, July 3, 1994.
338lonely figure: Davidson, “Every Good Boy Does Fine.”
338“To tell you the truth”: Gary and Naomi Graffman, interview with the author.
338Iris Kones: Gal Beckerman, When They Come for Us, We’ll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010), 238–39. The bomb exploded on January 26, 1972; another did so at the CAMI offices, but no one was hurt.
339accompanying Soviet astronauts: Caption to photo stand-alone, Guardian, September 21, 1974.
339“legendary talent”: “10/2/75—Introduction of Van Cliburn, State Dinner,” Box 17, President’s Speeches and Statements: Reading Copies, GFPL.
339“There are so many” . . . “everyone’s autograph, too”: Bob Colacello, “The White House’s Dinner Theater,” Vanity Fair, June 2010.
340two Soviet entrants: One, Georgian pianist Alexander Toradze, came second.
340whispered in unguarded moments: VCG.
341“I’m late”: Reader’s comment appended to Tim Page, “Van Cliburn, Celebrated Classical Pianist, Dies at 78,” WP, February 27, 2013.
341“Don’t worry, honey”: Mary Lou Falcone, interview with the author, August 22, 2014.
341André Chenier: Untitled clipping, VCJA.
341Tom Zaremba: Davidson, “Every Good Boy Does Fine”; “Palimony suit filed against Van Cliburn” (AP), Bangor Daily News, May 1, 1996.
342Van’s stage makeup: Page, “Van Cliburn Dies at 78.”
342refused to sanction: Peter Rosen, interview with the author, August 23, 2014.
342“most famous dropout”: Donal Henahan, “What Makes a Gifted Artist Drop Out in Mid-Career?” NYT, August 17, 1986.
342“not terribly good years”: Arlene Dahl, interview by Peter Rosen.
342“junk”: Rogers, “Midnight Conversation.” Many of Van’s choicest objects were auctioned at Christie’s on May 17, 2012, and March 4–5, 2014. See James Barron, “For Sale: The Practice Piano That Made Van Cliburn Perfect,” NYT, May 16, 2012; Marilyn Bailey, “Items from Van Cliburn’s Estate to Be Auctioned at Christie’s,” FWS-T, February 20, 2014; Madigan, “Mementos of the Musician”; “The Van Cliburn Collection,” video recording, http://www.christies.com/features/the-van-cliburn-collection-2283–3.aspx.
342never taking a lease: Davidson, “Every Good Boy Does Fine.”
343Scotch tape: Richard Rodzinksi, interview with the author; Michael Kimmelman, “Playing When He Wants, and Remembering,” NYT, July 30, 2000.
343“I enjoy flowers as much”: Davidson, “Every Good Boy Does Fine”; and see Joyce Saenz Harris, “Van Cliburn: Myth and Reality on a Legendary Scale,” DMN, May 23, 1993.
344tiny plastic boxes: Perlmutter, “Long Road Home.”
344Random Harvest: Rogers, “Midnight Conversation.”
344sniffing the cantaloupes: Susan Tilley, interview by Peter Rosen, Reel no. 60, Van Cliburn—Concert Pianist elements, VCA.
344“What do you and that piano player have going”: Tim Madigan, “Diner Waitress Remembers Years Serving Van Cliburn,” FWS-T, July 21, 2013.
345White-gloved valets: Bob Merrill, interview by Peter Rosen, Reel no. 59, Van Cliburn—Concert Pianist elements, VCA.
345Pot roast: Bernard Holland, “Van Cliburn: Man Behind the Contest,” NYT, March 27, 1989.
345Olga Nikolaevna: “The Van Cliburn Collection.”
345“priceless stories”: Andrew Marton, “Remembering Van Cliburn,” http://www.dfw.com/2012/09/25/686901/van-cliburn-tribute-fort-worth.html.
345“Mother remembers”: Shields-Collins Bray, interview with the author, August 17, 2014.
345“In Texas . . . we like to stay babies”: Joseph Horowitz, The Ivory Trade: Music and the Business of Music at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (New York: Summit, 1990), 35–36.
346“He twists a cigarette”: Rogers, “Midnight Conversation.”
346commencement at Juilliard: A copy of the address, given on June 2, 1978, is in the “Commencement 1978” file, JA.
346“just shy of Aunt Rildia Bee’s view”: Micke Brown, Salisbury Post obituary comment, February 27, 2013, http://www.legacy.com/guestbooks/salisburypost/van-cli burn-condolences/163346926?&page=27.
346wrinkles erased: Horowitz, Ivory Trade, 36.
347“Try me”: Ibid., 32.
348Albert Schweitzer Award: Bill Zakariasen, “An Award for Cliburn, but Not a Note from Him,” Daily News (New York), April 20, 1983; “Suzy,” Daily News, April 19, 1983.
348“The march of freedom”: “Text of Reagan’s Address to Parliament on Promoting Democracy” (AP), NYT, June 9, 1982.
348“an evil empire”: “Excerpts from President’s Speech to National Association of Evangelicals” (AP), NYT, March 9, 1983.
349“I felt sad”: “Cliburn Helped Open Door to Cultural Exchange,” Odessa American (Odessa, TX), April 15, 1978.
349first Chinese artist: Gail Jennes, “Pianist Liu Shih-Kun Wins Bravos in Boston After Years of Forced Silence in a Peking Prison,” People, April 16, 1979. The orchestra players nicknamed him “the man who never smiles.”
349smuggling and womanizing: Kraus, Pianos and Politics in China, 187–90. Yet again the accusations appear to have been part of a campaign to discredit Ye Jianying.
349something to do with Russia: Perlmutter, “Long Road Home.”
350classic Brezhnev joke: Caroline Brooke, Moscow: A Cultural History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 101–2.