Papp, Sweet and Sour

For Theatrical Impresario Joseph Papp, last week was like a goodnews, bad-news joke. On one hand, he broadened his institutional base enough to make him the most powerful man in the American theater. On the other hand, one of his fondest dreams--to bring good drama to millions of people on nationwide TV--was given a stunning blow.

Papp's good news came from Manhattan's Lincoln Center, where he was given control of all drama production. Potentially the most prestigious and influential dramatic organization in the U.S., Lincoln Center's theater company has floundered almost since its beginning eight years ago. Far from being an American equivalent of Britain's National Theater, a goal that many had held for it, Lincoln Center only rarely came up with productions that were as good as the best of Broadway. In recent years, the financial situation had become as desperate as the aesthetic.

Papp's takeover is contingent upon the raising of $5,000,000 to offset part of the theater's expected deficits in the next five years. If that barrier is successfully passed, Papp will bring in his own company. He plans to turn the 299-seat Forum Theater into a permanent platform for Shakespeare and switch the larger, 1,140-seat Vivian Beaumont from its present repertory of classics and revivals to new plays that "reflect the great issues of our times."

As for the bad news, the second of a series of dramas that Papp was producing for CBS, Sticks and Bones, was yanked off the network schedule three days before air time. The winner of last year's Tony Award, David Rabe's play is a bitter but brilliant satire of conventional American attitudes toward the war in Viet Nam. It was too harsh for many of CBS's affiliate stations, which screened it in a closed-circuit transmission from the network. Although pre-reviews had already appeared in the national press (TIME, March 12), a total of 71 of the 184 stations that normally carry CBS's programming during the time-slot assigned to Sticks and Bones--including those in Detroit, Minneapolis and Denver--notified CBS headquarters in Manhattan that they would not air the play. Network President Robert Wood then announced that the program was being canceled on the grounds that it "might be unnecessarily abrasive to the feelings of millions of Americans whose lives or attention are at the moment emotionally dominated by the returning P.O.W.s and other veterans who have suffered the ravages of war." The play might be broadcast at a later date, he added, "when its possible application to actual events [will be] less immediate."

Cowardice. Papp condemned the network's decision as "a cowardly act, a dastardly thing. It is frightening that this monster corporation has decided to put its tail between its legs and back away from this program because some affiliates find it too strong stuff." Papp argued that CBS should have aired the play even if it was carried only by the stations it owns in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and St. Louis. The American Civil Liberties Union joined him in the attack, accusing the network of "corporate cowardice" that betrayed both the artists producing the show and the public, which has a right to see it.

In fact, many of the CBS affiliates would have run the play. "We didn't see any reason not to," says Paul Raymon, general manager of Atlanta's WAGA-TV. Some of those who refused to run it said that they would carry it when the excitement surrounding the returning veterans has subsided. "It was the timing of the thing," explains Charles Crutchfield, president of WBTV in Charlotte, N.C. Ironically, it was CBS --and not Papp--who originally wanted the play to run last week, to qualify it for this year's Emmy awards.

One imponderable remained at week's end: the question of how much some affiliates' resistance may have been stiffened by the Nixon Administration's concerted attack on the programming power that is concentrated in the networks' eastern headquarters. The White House made no comment on the Sticks and Bones affair, and several other influences were certainly involved; yet, however indirectly, the Administration's campaign to drive a wedge between local affiliates and the networks may have made an impact last week.

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