May Day event: Play

Don't Blame Me, I Voted for Helen Gahagan Douglas
a new comedy/drama by Michelle Willens and Wendy Kout
starring Christine Lahti and James Naughton

May 1, 7:30pm
Symphony Space in Manhattan
Leonard Nimoy Thalia
$50; Student $20; With Reception and one-year subscription to The Nation Magazine $100 (call box office at 212.864.5400)



The 1950 Senate race in California pitted the popular Democratic Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas against a young Republican member of the House named Richard Nixon. The campaign was destined to be one of the nation's most infamous and is notable as the race that Nixon acquired his "Tricky-Dick" moniker. Nixon waged an unrelenting red-baiting campaign, calling Gahagan Douglas "pink right down to her underwear." The contest is also well-known as the first "modern election" in that dirty campaigning was married to sophisticated media technology.

Don't Blame Me, I Voted for Helen Gahagan Douglas is a new comedy/drama by Michelle Willens and Wendy Kout that tells the true story of the infamous 1950 U.S. Senate race in which Nixon destroyed the elegant Congresswoman (and wife of actor Melvyn Douglas).

On May 1, thanks to the playwrights' generosity, there will be a special May 1 reading of the play starring Christine Lahti and James Naughton with all proceeds going to The Nation magazine.

Nation writer John Nichols will be speaking at a special post-reading reception. Taking place at 7:30 on May 1 at Symphony Space in Manhattan. Click here for info and to buy tickets.