The BBC has an audio feature on the famous moment when, on American TV, Petula Clark touched Harry Belafonte’s arm.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/witness
Here’s what the fuss was all about. As you can see, Pet actually held his arm.
[flv:/Video/2008/APR/BelafontePetula.flv 440 330]
Dave – Well, it goes like this. In America we had Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier representing the “new black man,” as distinct from the old “Amos and Andy” sort of caricature. Belafonte and Poitier were acceptable to the public at large, as long as they were presented properly. But any sort of physical contact between a black man and a white woman pushed the limits of what some whites, especially in the South, would tolerate. This is, have no doubt about it, at the heart of what bothers some Americans about Obama.
Doug: Petula went on to advertise the Chrysler Sunbeam in Scotland, and probably England and Wales and possibly Ireland long after that incident, so it didn’t do her any harm with the company.
I suppose he just worried that the Southern states’ sales might fall like a stone if Petula was seen to be endorsing their cars and black people at the same time. What (as a European) I have never understood is….. why, in that case would Chrysler have backed having a black star on the show in the first place if they were so likely to cause offence to the white car buyers in the south?
Dave — Chrysler was the single sponsor of that program, and it was great that Pet, her husband, and director Steve Binder presented a unified front against that idiot corporate executive.
Petula and Claude, being Europeans, had no real knowledge of the policy of segregation. It simply never occurred to Petula that she was doing something “wrong”. Petula, by this time was an artiste of some 27 years’ experience. She did what was right for the song, which as you say Doug, she co wrote.
When they discovered what was going on, both of them acted fast. Petula had been overjoyed and flattered to have Harry as her guest. She would never have embarrassed him and she was not happy that the company was going to do so. If you’ve never seen Ms Clark not happy, then I guess you have to idea of the seven kinds of hell that can descend when she is angry. Pet’s not a diva about most things. No weird demands for champagne or white drapes or lemon scented air freshner or 7 different kinds of beer, oh dear no… but don’t mess with her music… or else!
Naturally she and Claude won… as they usually do when they are up against something. The guy from Chrysler was fired and the song went out…
In some parts of America, this sort of thing still gets people upset. Petula wrote that song herself, by the way.
I can’t understand this was controversial, they were so stupid. So sweet performance