From the outset, the opera's depiction of African Americans attracted controversy. Virgil Thomson, a white American composer, stated that "Folklore subjects recounted by an outsider are only valid as long as the folk in question is unable to speak for itself, which is certainly not true of the American Negro in 1935." An apocryphal quote attributed to Duke Ellington allegedly stated "the times are here to debunk Gershwin's lampblack Negroisms," but the quote was probably invented by a journalist who interviewed Ellington about the opera. Ellington publicly repudiated the article shortly after its publication. Ellington's response to the 1952 Breen revival was completely the opposite. His telegram to the producer read: "Your "Porgy and Bess" the superbest, singing the gonest, acting the craziest, Gershwin the greatest." Several of the members of the original cast later stated that they, too, had concerns that their characters might play into a stereotype that African Americans lived in poverty, took drugs and solved their problems with their fists.