The Political Prospers in a Flurry of Events

Art, drama, film and TV reflect--and, some would say, shape--the nation’s social climate. So as the delegates, pols and protesters come to town for the Democratic National Convention, politically themed exhibits, screenings and performances arrive too.

One such production is “Madison Avenue Goes to Washington: The History of Presidential Campaign Advertising” at the Museum of Television & Radio. The 90-minute documentary features the most memorable and significant presidential commercials between 1952 and 1996.

“These presidential commercials tell us a lot about the history of our country and its evolution in terms of our preoccupations with issues like the Cold War, the Vietnam War and Watergate,” said David Bushman, a TV curator at the museum.

Campaign TV advertising has become far more sophisticated since Dwight Eisenhower blazed a new trail with a series of spots called “Eisenhower Answers America” in 1952. However, the 1976 race between Republican Gerald Ford and Democrat Jimmy Carter was a rare instance in which candidates kept commercials as simple and subdued.

“After Watergate, Ford and Carter really wanted to show they were trustworthy,” notes Bushman. “Their commercials were much less slickly produced, which was a reversal to the way things had been going. Ford’s commercials were almost crudely produced, and Carter’s key message was that he was from outside Washington, D.C.”

“Madison Avenue Goes to Washington” also includes campaign ads such as Ronald Reagan’s Rockwell-esque “It’s Morning Again in America” spots from 1984 and John F. Kennedy’s 1960 commercial allaying public fears over his Catholicism. Several un-aired campaign spots are also part of the museum’s presentation, including a Lyndon Johnson TV ad in 1964 linking Republican opponent Barry Goldwater with the Ku Klux Klan.

No candidate would approve of his image as projected in “A Presidential Rogues Gallery: Satirical Poster 1960s-Present,” on view at Frumkin/Duval Gallery Tuesday through Aug. 20. The senior George Bush appears as the macho “Marlboro Man.” Lyndon Johnson’s head is transposed onto a scene from “Bonnie and Clyde.” Bill Clinton appears under the banner headline “Dough Nation.”

Most of these 60 liberal-leaning works take aim at the public policies and hypocritical behavior of presidents--Democrats and Republicans alike--from the 1960s to the present. The exhibition is presented by the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, a local archive of 35,000 posters from around the world. Normally the center is open to the public by appointment only, but organizers hope this show will demystify the political process.

“If you can laugh at the presidents you can also take some of that mystical power away from the whole political process [which people can feel powerless to change],” explained Susan Martin, a board member at the center.

Staunch supporters of George W. Bush might want to stay clear of “Media Whores,” Eric Diamond’s new comedy running at the Gallery SevenZeroSix. As the title implies, it also targets the corporate-owned news outlets. But it also offers a no-holds-barred look at the candidate, who is portrayed as a rather dimwitted man with unimpressive qualifications to be the leader of the free world.

“An audience that comes to see my play will come out knowing something about George Bush Jr. that will hopefully be disturbing to them,” Diamond said. “It is a satire and it is funny, but most of it is true. I’ve taken things that he has said and I’ve put them in the play word for word. They get a big laugh.”

In his work with Rough Theater, a 10-year-old troupe dedicated to bringing political and social topics to the stage, Diamond has found political satires to be a tough sell.

“A lot of people feel very alienated and don’t want to see a political satire,” he said. “They think it won’t be funny, they won’t get it or it will be boring because it’s about issues. But after they see this show I honestly believe they’ll think it’s funny and they’ll recognize the political power they possess.”

The Washington, D.C.-based troupe Gross National Product gives candidates equal skewering time in the West Coast premiere of “Gore More Years” or “Son of a Bush” at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble beginning Saturday. Rock the vote? Nah. The GNP promises to “mock the vote.”

“We get everyone involved in this mock convention and at the end we have a vote,” said GNP actor and director John Simmons. “Then we raise the American flag and whoever wins the vote gets to come out with Lee Greenwood and sing ‘Proud to Be an American.’ It’s very touching!”

What is it about politics that makes people want to sing and dance? For her new cabaret show at the Cinegrill, “The First Lady and Other Stories of Our Time,” Kate Peters weaves together ‘60s and ‘70s songs with stories, including a monologue as Hillary Clinton.

Collage Dance Theatre, which never misses an opportunity to dance in the street (or river, or Laundromat) is taking on city hall. “Governing Bodies,” the latest site-specific work by choreographer Heidi Ducker, will be performed Saturday at the City Hall Courtyard in Culver City.

What Would Cicero Think?

So what would ancient Romans like Cicero and Petronius Arbiter think of today’s American political process?

That’s the intriguing question “The Roman Forum” will try to answer in the coming days. This adventurous project begins as a collaborative online writing project, where creators will respond to the Democratic National Convention as it unfolds. The material from these improvisations will then be staged at Side Street Live in downtown Los Angeles. Video of those performances will then be uploaded onto the Web.

“[Characters like Cicero and a Roman slave] will be responding to what’s happening at the convention,” explained the project’s director, Robert Allen. “The material will end up being quite political, but also quite funny and very Vaudevillian.”

The movie industry’s take on politics, naturally, shows up a few places during the convention.

Posters, lobby cards and photographs from noteworthy political films--from D.W. Griffith’s “Abraham Lincoln” to Warren Beatty’s “Reds”--are on view at the Hollywood Entertainment Museum through Aug. 31.

In “The People’s Choice: Hollywood Looks at Politics” there is an evident shift toward the left among the films made since the ‘60s, thanks to prominent movie figures like Oliver Stone, Robert Redford and Beatty. But curator Chris Horak believes the conservative argument that the Hollywood film industry is controlled by liberals doesn’t hold water.

“When you talk about movies and politics you are usually talking about stories that involve individuals,” Horak said. “Even if the film shows the system to be corrupt, before the film is over it’s usually made clear that the system is in order and that it’s only individuals who are corrupt.”

Some of those movies will be screened during a series organized by the American Cinematheque and the LA Weekly leading up to the convention. “Politics in Film” begins today with “Smoke and Mirrors: A History of Denial,” a disturbing study of the growth of the tobacco industry in America, and the 1960s political thriller “The Manchurian Candidate.” Other movies in the series include the documentaries “The War Room” and “License to Kill,” and “The Candidate,” “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” and “Advise & Consent.”

There’s less cynicism and more toe-tapping in “How to Steal an Election.” The ghost of Calvin Coolidge counsels two young activists (a radical anarchist and a Green Party hopeful) on how to reform the American political system from the inside.

The 1960s Broadway show has been updated by its original writer and composer for 2000, and starts a run Saturday at the Actors’ Gang Theater. Assistant managing director Elizabeth Tobias, says the musical combines social commentary with humor and good cheer.

“It’s a fun play with a lot of great songs and interesting ideas,” Tobias said. “I feel like people with different political mind sets are going to take different things away from it. I personally feel like there are few, if any factions within the political system that are currently working effectively to make real progressive change. That’s definitely one of the messages in the piece.”

No art is more political than the editorial cartoon. And no one knows that better than Joshua Needle, who left his longtime criminal defense lawyer position last year to open the nation’s first and only gallery devoted to editorial cartoons.

His Impolitic: Cartoon Commentaries gallery carries the work of the country’s top political cartoonists including Pulitzer Prize winners Paul Conrad, Mike Luckovich and Walt Handelsman. Original cartoons on display at his Santa Monica gallery generally fetch between $250 to $1,200.

“I’ve always found that the political cartoonists seemed to get to the nub of the matter more quickly and directly than most of the long-winded pundits. It’s an under-appreciated art form,” Needle said.

A Confluence of Cartoonists

The public can attend a meeting of these witty minds Sunday when Impolitic hosts a free party featuring political cartoonists--most of whom will be in town covering the convention.

Artist Lowell Darling’s idea of political art is more active. It actually involves running.

In 1978, the conceptual artist got national attention when he ran for governor of California under the pretense of “raising no money and spending no money” for his campaign. However, Darling’s recent run for U.S. president quickly fizzled after he ran into a legal quagmire known as CFR-11 (the Code of Federal Regulations for presidential elections). Because of the complicated regulations, he discovered, only those rich enough to hire campaign and finance lawyers can mount legitimate presidential campaigns.

His personal White House aspirations thwarted, Darling’s new mission is to get as many ordinary folk as possible to register as presidential candidates. This Tuesday, the Occidental, Calif., resident will distribute the required filing papers and copies of CFR-11 at the Frumkin/Duval Gallery.

Darling’s political-performance art campaign underscores how difficult it is for the average person to pursue the presidency. “It’s time for schoolteachers to stop telling kids that anyone can become president,” he griped. On the other hand, he said, if everyone ran for president, no one would forget to vote.

“The philosophy behind this campaign is that the propositions and initiatives on the ballot are more important than who is president,” he says. “If someone doesn’t want to vote for Nader, Bush or Gore they just won’t vote. Consequently, they don’t vote on the environment, prison reform, schools and other issues. But if they’re running for president, they’ll make sure to vote.”