George Murphy - in Satire

In Satire

George Murphy was the subject of a 1965 song by satirist Tom Lehrer, who declared in mock vaudeville style: "Oh, gee, it's great, at last we've got a Senator who can really sing and dance." Lehrer also alluded sarcastically to an infamous remark Murphy once made during a debate about the Bracero Program that granted temporary work visas to Mexican migrant farmhands:

Should Americans pick crops?
George says no;
'Cause no one but a Mexican would stoop so low.
And after all, even in Egypt, the Pharaohs
Had to import—Hebrew Braceros.

Murphy had stated that Mexicans were genetically suited to farm labor; because they were "built lower to the ground," it was supposedly "easier for them to stoop." Oddly, some years earlier, in 1949, Murphy himself had starred next to Mexican actor Ricardo Montalban in the film Border Incident, which cast the exploitation of the Braceros in a negative light. Mr. Lehrer further satirized Senator Murphy with the line: "Think of all the musicals we have in store, imagine "Broadway Melody of Nineteen Eighty-Four". Lehrer began the song:

Hollywood's often tried to mix
Show business with politics.
From Helen Gahagan
To. . . Ronald Reagan??

This connection is also referred to by folk singer Phil Ochs on the spoken-word introduction to "Ringing of Revolution", when Ochs describes a fictional film based on that song, and Murphy is played by Reagan. Ochs also imagines that Lyndon Johnson would "play God" and Ochs would "play Bobby Dylan."