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PROTECTING UTOPIA
For a country willing to drop an atomic bomb to end a war, it was not surprising that this same country would go to almost any length to protect the greatest economic boom in its history. After fifteen hard years, America wasn’t about to let this prosperity disappear. When the USSR, America’s ally in the war, became its major political opponent, the country did not stand still. Its mission became to reconstruct the war-torn world and protect it against another totalitarian regime—the USSR, or the Soviet Union.
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PARANOIA REIGNS SUPREME
The entire country seemed to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Every time a threat appeared on the horizon, America responded dramatically, extensively, and often out of proportion to the actual danger. Suburban homeowners built bomb shelters in their backyards to protect them from the remote possibility that the Soviet Union would drop an atomic bomb in their neighborhood. Local schools held atomic bomb drills in which students hid under their desks, even though a desk or a wall would provide no protection in the event of a real A-bomb explosion.
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A family climbing into their backyard bomb shelter.
Throughout its history the Soviet Union had publicly declared itself to be dedicated to world revolution and the overthrow of Western capitalism, in short, America’s new suburban and consumer paradise. To that end, the Soviet Union had begun a campaign of encroachment on Europe, where it set up satellite countries, or “People’s Democracies,” that operated under its control. These countries included most of Eastern Europe (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Rumania, and East Germany), whose borders became known as the “Iron Curtain.” In response, the United States initiated the Marshall Plan to rehabilitate Western Europe after World War II through an infusion of economic support.
Elsewhere in the world, the United States took a military stance to staunch the “red tide” of Communism. In 1949, China had fallen to Communist forces, and the Korean peninsula was divided along the 38th parallel into South Korea and communist North Korea. When communist forces crossed into South Korea, U.S. forces arrived in June 1950 to stop them in what was then called a “police action” and is now called the Korean War. In July 1953, the war ended with an armistice agreement, but a peace treaty was never signed. This stalemate in Asia and Europe eventually evolved into the Cold War—a war without explosions and fire. As long as neither side made encroachments into the other’s territory, an uneasy peace would remain and America’s political, social, and economic security would be preserved.
On the home front, this meant protecting America against “otherness,” or rather, anything that didn’t fit within the consumer culture. Already the country had reduced the possibility of difference with the restrictive immigration policies that went back to the 1920s. For approximately thirty years almost no one was allowed to immigrate to the States, except a trickle from Europe. This created a country that was predominantly white and of European background. As a result the only easily identifiable outsiders were African Americans. The color of their skin made them an easy mark for exclusion. This was achieved throughout the country with the Jim Crow laws. “Jim Crow” was slang for the racist rules and laws that separated blacks and whites. Because of this, many of these new suburbs barred black families. Levittown, the country’s emblematic new community, did not allow an African-American family into the development until 1957, ten years after the first house was built, and this could occur only with around-the-clock police protection for the black family. In addition to housing, blacks were barred from many public spaces and jobs.
Senator Joseph R. McCarthy
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WHITES ONLY
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The World Book annual list of new words and phrases for 1954 included the word “desegregate.”
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Politicians were quick to exploit this fear of “otherness” or anything that was different. Perhaps the most despicable misuse of the public’s trust was exemplified by Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, who conducted hearings before the Senate Committee on Government Operations.
In 1950, McCarthy, a Wisconsin Republican, used the country’s general anxiety about a Communist threat to make numerous charges—usually with little evidence—that certain public officials and other individuals were Communists or cooperated with the Communists. In these hearings McCarthy berated and threatened witnesses and labeled them Communists publicly. Eventually, the Senate censured him for his behavior. But before McCarthy’s downfall, many of the individuals who were accused but never convicted were blacklisted from their professions, particularly Hollywood writers, directors, and actors. This meant that they could no longer get and hold jobs in their fields. Being branded a Communist or a Communist sympathizer ruined many lives long after McCarthyism disappeared. The blacklists remained well into the ’60s and kept people from being able to make a living.
This general fear and anxiety in the country created a culture of intolerance that was clearly vulnerable to and deserving of backlash.
WHADDAYA GOT? BOREDOM AND CONTEMPT
Although there was real danger to the expansion of American ideals in the rest of the world, the country itself was relatively safe and content. One unexpected threat to this new paradise—this American Dream—came from within. The children growing up in all those tranquil cul-de-sacs were bored.
Perfection was boring. An endless future of idyllic days spent in communities with perfectly manicured lawns, lovely homes, well-behaved pets, and ideal families could be horribly dull and predictable. Everyone wants a little excitement—the unexpected—in his or her life. This was particularly true for a generation who never experienced the hardship and unpredictability of the Depression and World War II—namely the kids.
This restlessness manifested itself almost immediately in the films, comic books, and other media of the era. The theme of the juvenile delinquent loose in the community became a popular plot in films. One of the first and most popular of this genre was The Wild One, the landmark film of ’50s rebellion. Premiering under the title Hot Blood, it was the first feature to examine outlaw motorcycle gang violence in America.
By today’s standards, The Wild One was definitely tame, but what resonated in the film was one particular scene. The young, attractive waitress in the town’s café/bar was disgusted by the boorishness of the gang’s leader, played by Marlon Brando, and asked impatiently, “What are you rebelling against?” A side-burned, leather-clad Brando famously replied, “Whaddaya got?”
Brando’s belligerent pose resonated with young people and inspired a slew of juvenile delinquent movies. This culminated two years later in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), a movie starring the legendary James Dean, who portrayed a confused teen questioning his parents’ authority. Rebel Without a Cause offered for the first time a sympathetic perspective on the misunderstood American youth. The film became an instant classic, in part because it looked at the world of the conformist mid-’50s from the point of view of the restless, misunderstood middle-class youth, but also because James Dean died in a car accident one month before the release of the film. By dying so young, Dean became an instant legend—the mythic, eternal rebel whose promise would never be fulfilled, and who would never suffer the indignity of growing old.
While some found the American Dream simply dull and constricting, others were troubled by what else they saw in suburbia: monotony, soullessness, cultural emptiness, and materialism. For these people, life was not like an episode of Leave It to Beaver, the popular TV show about a traditional, suburban family. Their lives did not mirror a world where the day’s big crisis was “the Beave” forgetting to do his homework. Ironically, as much as the majority of Americans wanted to buy into this fantasy of conformity, nobody’s life was really all that perfect.
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HOT BLOOD
“Hot feelings hit terrifying heights in this story that rea
lly boils over!”
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The criticism of this new life exhibited itself in a variety of ways. For teens, comic books became one of the major outlets for rebellion. Clearly not literature meant to improve moral character, the most popular comics exploited teens’ desires to escape their humdrum suburban life. Some of the most popular were horror comics—gruesome tales of the undead and vampires—that touched a deep psychic desire in teens for excitement. Quickly, adults decided that comic books were corrupting the younger generation. Adults responded to this new threat to utopia much like they did to communism. Like McCarthy’s interrogation committee, the Comic Magazine Association of America was formed in May of 1954. This new association created a “code” that banned popular horror comics.
Luckily, this new turn did not deter William Gaines, horror comics’ most creative voice. Instead, Gaines cast his inspired gaze toward satirizing the society that was set on shutting him down. He gave his editors the green light to start a new kind of humor magazine. It was titled Mad and was completely unique because it skewered conformist ’50s culture. Each issue offered up a satirical, skeptical portrayal of American life, which clearly was taking itself too seriously. Mad ridiculed everything and everyone. Without a doubt, adolescents recognized the magazine as the perfect antidote to the pompous and pretentious adult world. Ironically, Mad did for youth culture what horror comics never would have done: It put a name to their discontent.
The writer who did more to expose the hypocrisy in contemporary culture, however, was J.D. Salinger. His novel The Catcher in the Rye caused such a stir when it was published in 195 1 that it was banned in many communities. Still, it became a bestseller because it spoke directly to the emotions of teen and adult readers alike. The main character, Holden Caulfield, sees adulthood as full of superficiality and hypocrisy, or in his word “phoniness,” and childhood as the true sanctuary of honesty, curiosity, innocence, and purity. Holden symbolizes pure, unfettered individuality in the face of cultural oppression.
THE Catcher IN THE Rye
In this excerpt from The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield describes his old boarding school and phonies:
One of the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies. That’s all. They were coming in the goddam window. For instance, they had this headmaster, Mr. Haas, that was the phoniest bastard I ever met in my life. Ten times worse than old Thurmer. On Sundays, for instance, old Haas went around shaking hands with everybody’s parents when they drove up to school. He’d be charming as hell and all. Except if some boy had little old funny-looking parents. You should’ve seen the way he did with my room-mate’s parents. I mean if a boy’s mother was sort of fat or corny-looking or something, and if somebody’s father was one of those guys that wear those suits with very big shoulders and corny black-and-white shoes, then old Haas would just shake hands with them and give them a phony smile and then he’d go talk, for maybe half an hour, with somebody else’s parents. I can’t stand that stuff. It drives me crazy. It makes me so depressed I go crazy. I hated that goddam Elkton Hills.
A well I bless my soul What’s wrong with me? I’m itching like a man on a fuzzy tree My friends say I’m actin’ wild as a bug I’m in love I’m all shook up Mm mm oh, oh, yeah, yeah!
—lyrics from Elvis Presley hit “All Shook Up”
ALL SHOOK UP
While many white youths might have been rebelling for the sake of rebelling, others were looking beyond the manicured boundaries of their neat little communities for a more interesting world. One of the first places these white suburban youths looked was in black culture. Because African Americans were excluded from much of America’s rising mass culture, the white youths were drawn to this forbidden and exotic-seeming community. Perhaps the best avenues for exploring black culture were the radio stations that played a new kind of music called rhythm and blues. R&B was a high-energy mix of several traditional black musical styles: field, church, and juke joint.
One white teenager was particularly inspired by the music he heard on these black stations. His actions, according to Rolling Stone magazine, began one of the most influential and lasting musical traditions in America: rock-and-roll. Rock-and-roll was born on July 5, 1954, when a nineteen-year-old truck driver for Crown Electric entered the Memphis Recording Studio owned by Sam Phillips. This was the moment when Elvis Presley opened his mouth and sang “That’s All Right (Mama),” a cover of a 1947 tune written and first sung by black singer-guitarist Arthur Crudup. Elvis fused the several musical styles of R&B into a high-energy, expressive sound. Backup guitarist Scotty Moore remembered in 1991 about the session: “We just sort of shook our heads and said, ‘Well, that’s fine, but good God, they’ll run us out of town.’” Tolerance for anything other than mainstream culture was in short supply.
Though the record did not sell very well, it was the first note in a great tidal wave of new sound. Over the next few years some of the greatest rock-and-roll classics were cut:
“Elvis Presley is the greatest cultural force in the twentieth century.”
—Leonard Bernstein Classical composer and conductor
“This hooby-dooby, oop-shoop, ootie-ootie, boom-boom, de-addy boom, scoobledy goobledy clump—is trash.”
—The Denver Post commenting on rock-and-roll
“An unrelenting, socking syncopation that sounds like a bull whip; a choleric saxophone honking mating call sounds; an electric guitar turned up so loud that its sound shatters and splits; a vocal group that shudders and exercises violently to the beat while roughly chanting either a near-nonsense phrase or a moronic lyric in hillbilly idiom…”
—Time, June 18, 1956, in an article describing rock-and-roll
The ultimate party song of all time, “Louie, Louie” by the Kingsmen
The historic thirty-sixth take of “Maybellene” that turned Chuck Berry into a household name
The rockabilly sound of Memphis Recording Studio powerhouses Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash
The crazy frenzy of Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti”
HIPSTER LINGO Axe a musical instrument
Baby a loved one
Bad good
Bag someone’s particular interest or talent
Beat tired or exhausted
Blow your top to get overly upset or angry
Bomb, The someone or something extremely cool
Bread money
Bring down, Bringdown to depress; someone who’s depressed
Bug annoy
Cat a cool person
Chick a young, pretty girl
Crazy weird
Crumb someone who is disrespectful
Dad, Daddy-o what hipsters call other guys
Dig totally understand
Disk jockey, Deejay, DJ someone who announces and selects records on the radio
Down by law someone who has paid their dues
Drag someone or something that depresses
End, The crazy, incredible
Flip go crazy; an eccentric person
Flip your lid blow your top
Gas stir up feelings, something that moves you
Gig a paying job
Gone crazy
Hand me that/some skin shake my hand; give me five
Hep, hip used to describe someone who understands well
Hipster someone who follows the different types of bop jazz
Jake okay
Junk heroin
Kill excite
Out of this world incredible
Out to lunch lame
Pad bed, home, apartment
Scene a place, atmosphere, environment
Send move emotionally
Snap your cap flip your lid
Solid dependable, cool
Square unknowing
Wild crazy
Witch doctor a minister or priest
Rock-and-roll was here to stay. This music brought to life the same kind of rebellious attitude and energy that movies like
The Wild One and Rebel Without a Cause were able to tap into. The difference, though, was that it didn’t simply celebrate nihilism and powerlessness. Instead, it opened the picket fences of the dominant white culture to a truly entertaining—and truly American—musical tradition.
THE MARKETING OF ROCK-AND-ROLL
The rise in popularity of rock-and-roll did not happen through traditional avenues. Rock groups were first recorded by independent record producers. At the beginning of the ’50s, the recording equipment to produce records cost approximately one thousand dollars. Anyone could open a recording studio in their basement, and many did. Sam Phillips’s Sun Records was a tiny recording studio in Memphis that got most of its business from walk-ins who wanted to record something and paid to cut a record. Elvis had originally entered the studio to make a record of gospel songs for his mother, but Phillips recognized the young nineteen-year-old as something special. Phillips also recorded such rock pioneers as Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash.
While production was inexpensive, distribution became equally simple. The jukebox industry at the time was run by the mafia. Because the mob was interested only in profits, not the morality of young people, mobsters were happy to stock their jukeboxes with whatever recordings kids wanted to hear at the local drive-in, bowling alley, or drugstore. At the same time, young DJs like Alan Freed in Cincinnati spun rock-and-roll platters on their radio shows despite disapproval from the older generation. Both the mob and disk jockeys let the marketplace determine what product was available, and in doing so they were a step ahead of the large media companies. That would change, of course, when RCA bought Elvis’s contract and master recordings from Sun Records in 1957 for a measly $35,000. Other major labels would follow. The phenomenon of rock-and-roll showed not only just how powerful the youth marketplace was, but also that not everything was mass-market driven.
America Dreaming Page 2