| This dissertation examines ethnic performers on American television from the 1950s to 1970s. Most of the Cold War scholars have demarcated the period as a singular, unified epoch, but this dissertation examines the conflicting models of Cold War culture that emerged at three key historical junctures: the Korean War in 1950, the Cuban Revolution in 1959, and the statehood of Hawai`i in 1959. Each of these distinct geopolitical contexts made a significant contribution to conceptualizations of Cold War cultural exchange in the United States. During this period, approximately 60 Asian and 75 Latino/a performers appeared on musical variety shows, including the Kim Sisters, the De Castro Sisters, Xavier Cugat, Grace Chang, Alfred Apaka, and Charles K.L. Davis. These ethnic entertainers, as cultural producers, performed the role of Cold War internationalists on the American domestic front. Despite the mass influx of international talent, most of the existing scholars concerning Cold War race relations have continued to reinforce the white-black binary, failing to repudiate the dominant racial stratification that places Whites on the top, Blacks on the bottom, and other groups, including Asians and Latinos/as, in the middle. This dissertation challenges this racial hierarchy by analyzing Asian and Latino/a performers simultaneously, moving beyond traditional comparative studies, to understand these two races and ethnicities from a transcultural perspective. It analyzes Asian and Latin performances in variety shows, such as The Ed Sullivan Show (CBS, 1948-1971), The Dinah Shore Chevy Show (NBC, 1956-1963), The Steve Allen Show (NBC, 1956-1961), The Xavier Cugat Show (NBC, 1957), and The Don Ho Show (ABC, 1976-1977). As earlier forms of global television, these musical variety shows played an instrumental role in enhancing Cold War internationalism, promoting globalism, and communicating the rhetoric of competency inscribed in musical talents or skills. Drawing on original archival research, this dissertation examines how these conceptions shaped the interactions between commercial broadcast television, the popular music industry, and ethnic performance during the formative years of the Cold War. |
