Philip Terzian: Comedy Central at the House of Representatives
[Philip Terzian is literary editor of The Weekly Standard.]
On the Thursday after Memorial Day, 1933, J. Pierpont Morgan Jr. sat at the witness table awaiting the resumption of a hearing by the Senate Banking Committee investigating the practices of New York investment banks. Suddenly, a publicist with the Ringling Brothers circus thrust a German-born dwarf named Lya Graf onto Morgan’s lap: “The smallest lady in the world wants to meet the richest man in the world!” announced the publicist. The room erupted in laughter, photographers crowded in to take pictures, and a smiling Morgan exchanged pleasantries with Miss Graf, complimenting her on her hat.
This was not the first, nor would it be the last, time the dignity of Congress—pardon the expression—had been assaulted for theatrical purposes. In 1966 the antiwar activist Jerry Rubin appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee dressed in the uniform of a Revolutionary War soldier; the following year he showed up in the costume of an urban guerrilla, complete with toy rifle.
In more recent years members of Congress have enlisted film and television actors to lend their celebrity to favored causes—Jane Fonda testified on the rural economy in the 1980s, Meryl Streep on the food additive Alar in the 1990s—and in 2002 “Elmo” from Sesame Street (actor Kevin Clash) addressed a House education appropriations subcommittee on funding for school music programs....
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On the Thursday after Memorial Day, 1933, J. Pierpont Morgan Jr. sat at the witness table awaiting the resumption of a hearing by the Senate Banking Committee investigating the practices of New York investment banks. Suddenly, a publicist with the Ringling Brothers circus thrust a German-born dwarf named Lya Graf onto Morgan’s lap: “The smallest lady in the world wants to meet the richest man in the world!” announced the publicist. The room erupted in laughter, photographers crowded in to take pictures, and a smiling Morgan exchanged pleasantries with Miss Graf, complimenting her on her hat.
This was not the first, nor would it be the last, time the dignity of Congress—pardon the expression—had been assaulted for theatrical purposes. In 1966 the antiwar activist Jerry Rubin appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee dressed in the uniform of a Revolutionary War soldier; the following year he showed up in the costume of an urban guerrilla, complete with toy rifle.
In more recent years members of Congress have enlisted film and television actors to lend their celebrity to favored causes—Jane Fonda testified on the rural economy in the 1980s, Meryl Streep on the food additive Alar in the 1990s—and in 2002 “Elmo” from Sesame Street (actor Kevin Clash) addressed a House education appropriations subcommittee on funding for school music programs....