Cultural references to the Rosenbergs

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Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were American Communists who received international attention when they were tried March 6, 1951 — March 29, 1951 executed June 19, 1953 for passing nuclear weapons secrets to the Soviet Union.

This article lists significant cultural references to the Rosenbergs.

  • In The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, a journal fragment dated June 19, 1953 talks about the Rosenbergs. The first sentence is, "All right, so the headlines blare that the two of them will be killed at 11:19 PM". The first sentence of Plath's The Bell Jar (1963) is "It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York."
  • The Book of Daniel, a 1971 novel by E. L. Doctorow, is loosely based on the Rosenberg case; the 1983 film Daniel, starring Timothy Hutton, is based on Doctorow's book.
  • Robert Coover's 1977 novel The Public Burning is a parodic reconstruction of their execution.
  • In Woody Allen's film Crimes and Misdemeanors, the Allen character says of another, "I love him like a brother: David Greenglass."
  • In 1980, Jewish American poet Adrienne Rich penned a poem entitled "For Ethel Rosenberg" in which she expresses sympathy for the convicted woman.
  • In 1983 for the sessions for Infidels Bob Dylan recorded a song entitled 'Julius and Ethel' about their plight (this song remains officially unreleased as of 2006).
  • The song The Shortest Straw by heavy metal band Metallica from their 1988 album ...And Justice for All is about the Rosenbergs.
  • Tony Kushner's 1992 play Angels in America features a fictionalized version of Ethel Rosenberg, played by Meryl Streep in the HBO version. Ethel's ghost appears to Roy Cohn when he is dying of AIDS.
  • In the film Citizen Cohn, also from 1992, Karen Ludwig plays a fictionalized Ethel Rosenberg. Both in this film and in Angels in America, Ethel only appears as a ghost or hallucination that Roy Cohn supposedly had during his last days as he was suffering from complications brought on by AIDS.
  • A play, The Rubenstein Kiss debuted at the Hampstead Theatre in London on 17 November 2005. Inspired by the iconic photograph showing Ethel and Julius Rosenberg kissing in the back of a police van, the play takes place during both the final years, pre- and post- trial, of the Rosenbergs' lives, and also in 1975, when two young radicals explore the Rosenbergs' life and trial. Written and directed by James Phillips, the original production starred Samantha Bond and Will Keen.
  • Billy Joel's song "We Didn't Start the Fire" has the following line in it "Rosenbergs, H-Bomb", Etc.
  • In the 1998 film You've Got Mail, Parker Posey's character states that Greg Kinnear's character is the "greatest living expert on Julius and Ethel Rosenberg."
  • In an episode titled "Scaredy Dick" in season three of the U.S. sit-com "Third Rock from the Sun", the characters Sally and Tommy say they are dressed as Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for Halloween, though they're actually look more like Sonny and Cher.
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