Tours: Return of the Gentle Persuaders

Only the gloomiest philistine would question the spirit of the State Department's cultural exchange program—its value is eloquently stated in pictures of Leonard Bernstein drawing admiring crowds in Moscow and Louis Armstrong flashing teeth and trumpet for fascinated Africans. Yet last year the program was suspended for a thorough reappraisal, and after six months of hearings, it was clear that the program's practices had not always lived up to its promises. Last week, with a new and far better charter, the "reconstituted" program was under way again as the first of 14 music and dance groups selected for the season headed abroad.

Fulbright Country. Performers who go abroad for the Government are supposed to be the "most representative" cultural attractions a $2,500,000 budget can hire, and the vast array of U.S. talent leaves any choice open to argument. Until this year, the State Department seemed almost to look for trouble. A Foreign Service officer decided the broad policies, such as "send jazz to Africa," and then individual performers were picked from serpentine lists provided by the American National Theater and Academy, which picked up a fee of $110,000 a year for managing things.

ANTA's auditioning left much to be desired. Benny Goodman was chosen as the first jazzman to tour Russia when even the Russians knew he was strictly otstaly.* Then last year, the Schola Cantorum from the University of Arkansas was refused traveling money; the choir raised its own expenses and went off to win first prize in the Polyphonic Competition in Italy and was invited to the White House on its return. Senator J. William Fulbright promoted the cultural exchange program in the first place; and since the Schola Cantorum comes from the heart of Fulbright country, it was no surprise that the Senator's election-year scowls brought things to a sputtering halt.

Local Talent. The new program closely follows proposals made by Roy E. Larsen, chairman of Time Inc.'s Executive Committee and vice chairman of the U.S. Advisory Commission on International Educational and Cultural Affairs, and Glenn G. Wolfe, director of the State Department's Cultural Presentations Office. Broad policy decisions are now made by an expert Advisory Committee on the Arts under Larsen's chairmanship; it includes such people as Cleveland Orchestra Conductor George Szell, Juilliard President Peter Mennin, Producer and Director George Seaton, Alley Theatre Director Nina Vance, Sculptor Theodore Roszak, and Manhattan School of Music President John Brownlee. Panels of experts make the artistic choices and the State Department settles for arranging the tours.