Chapter 16
Exploring Pop Culture
In This Chapter
Changing fashion
Entertaining and educating: Arts and culture
Sporting life
Learning the lingo
In addition to all the political and social change going on in the 1960s, the decade saw the birth of new trends in fashion, the arts, popular entertainment, and even slang. To get a feel for the decade as a whole, you can’t overlook ’60s pop culture — where teens and adults alike left their drab knee-length skirts, suits, ties, and Beaver Cleaver haircuts back in the ’50s and let their bodies (and hair) run free and wild. In this chapter, we show you how to “dig” the ’60s and highlight the greatest in theatrical entertainment, the arts, sports, and more.
However, more important than the individual changes in fashion, the arts, and the language was the overall effect of the ’60s — the feeling that a person could look differently, think “outside the box,” speak one’s mind (even on subjects like sex, politics, and religion) and march to his or her own drummer. Some folks felt that all this individuality wasn’t a good thing and gave rise to a selfish “me generation,” but after the ’60s, people were certainly committed to expressing themselves.
Stylin’ in the ’60s
Every decade has fads and fashions, but the 1960s seemed to usher in another fad every other week. Some were classic styles and others were merely cute and fun, but many reflected the social upheavals and gave the youth of the decade a way to create a culture all their own and shock their elders.
In 1960, women’s clothes were still classic and conservative, reflected by First Lady Mamie Eisenhower, who wore tailored suits, medium heels, and pearls. The well-dressed man wore suits and ties, along with hats (picture Eliot Ness in The Untouchables ). By the middle to the end of the ’60s, however, new fashion trends, from miniskirts to space-age fabrics and styles, seemed to emerge almost every other week. The trendiest women’s clothes were revealing (more sheer and skimpier), and men made bold statements with bright color palettes, velvet jackets, and special touches such as ruffles.
Reinventing women’s wear, from Jackie to Twiggy
When Jackie Kennedy came to the White House following her husband’s 1960 election, haute couture (high fashion) became the catchword. Women everywhere imitated her bouffant hairdo, pillbox hats, and elegant style. Jackie was also one of the first ladies to be photographed in casual attire; in Hyannisport (the Kennedy’s vacation home) she was often seen in T-shirts and capri pants. Jackie’s style was popular not only with the American public but also throughout the world.
Although Jackie didn’t wear miniskirts (this trend didn’t make the scene until 1963), she did raise her hemlines to the knee, and her sleeveless, A-line dresses looked equally good when cut off at midcalf. Throughout the ’60s and beyond, Jackie’s style was popular, although by the middle of the decade, it was no longer trendy.
The ’60s saw London emerging as a new fashion capital, not necessarily competing with Paris but existing in a kind of parallel universe. Instead of appealing to wealthy, middle-aged women (like the name brands Dior and Chanel), British fashion was designed and priced for the young. Carnaby Street in London was the hub of the London fashion explosion.
Mary Quant, a Carnaby Street designer, brought out the miniskirt, which went great with André Courrèges’ go-go boots (white midcalf boots with flat heels). Along with go-go boots, knee high boots, popularized by Nancy Sinatra’s song “These Boots Are Made for Walking,” were trendy during the ’60s. At first, the style was simply laughable — real women dressing like cheerleaders. Twiggy, who was Quant’s most famous model, looked like a teenager herself — she was thin, somewhat androgynous, and looked perfect in the designer’s clothes. In fact, she became the standard for fashion models — even today, the “almost anorexic” look is the hallmark of fashion models.
Speaking of androgynous, the ’60s saw the rise of the pants suit for women. Ironically, the same people who objected to bare legs (and more) shown off by the micromini also objected to pants on women — they didn’t want women dressing like men. Although pants for women were becoming more acceptable throughout the ’60s, it was the introduction of the midi (mid-calf) and maxi (floor-length) skirts in 1968 (which many young women hated) that led to the real popularity of pants as an alternative. Feminism (see Chapter 12) also contributed to pants as a fashion option — women didn’t see why they shouldn’t be as comfortable and free to move around as men.
As the decade went on, skirts got shorter, blouses became more see-through, and the public got used to skin. Bikinis, which were seen only in Europe until the mid-’60s, became common sights on American beaches (encouraged by the teenage beach movies with Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon).
Saying goodbye to plain and white: The men and the mods
Men’s fashions changed during the 1960s as well. Packing away the staid white and pastel shirts and striped ties of the ’50s, even businessmen of the ’60s began dressing in bright colors and sporting wide ties (with the exception of IBM, which kept their white-shirt rule into the ’70s).
Off the job, men became more flamboyant. Evolved from the English Teddy Boy style — which adopted some Edwardian styles — velvet coats, ruffled shirts, and bows made a dramatic statement. In the ’60s, men’s leisure wear emulated rock stars instead of golfers.
Those who couldn’t quite go for ruffles adopted a more casual style. Thinking that sports jackets and ties were still too much like office wear, they adopted turtlenecks as after-hours wear. For men (as well as women), bell-bottom pants were the fashion of the day for off-the-job attire.
Hanging loose, hippie style
By the mid ’60s, along with protests and flower power, students rejected high fashion and adopted a completely casual style. The young conformed to the cult of nonconformity — although they dressed differently from their parents, they had a kind of uniform (though with many variations). Both men and women wore faded, ripped jeans; tie-dyed shirts; and army surplus, often decorated with peace signs. Both sexes also adopted peasant and Indian fabrics and fashions. Copying John Lennon’s style, granny glasses were popular, and most hippies sported love beads. Of course, to dress like a hippie, you have to wear sandals or go barefoot, put a flower in your hair, and wear a headband.
Whiskers, sideburns, and the long and short of hair
For women, hair in the 1960s started with the Jackie bouffant — somehow, though, the style just didn’t go with miniskirts, jeans, or peasant skirts. So what happened? Hairstyles were either very short, as in the geometric Vidal Sassoon cut, or long and straight (which was often achieved by rolling hair around small juice cans — kudos to the person who invented the straightening iron).
The ’60s also saw the birth of unisex hairstyles, as women adopted the mop-top Beatles style. But the mop-top was short-lived — as the Rolling Stones grew their locks, so did their fans. By the late ’60s, men’s hair (for anyone who didn’t have to show up at an office) was long, either worn loose or tied back. Facial hair was in, too, from beards to moustaches to long sideburns, often all at once. If you were a hippie, you made sure that your facial hair was scruffy, even if you had to work at it; even the suit-and-tie crowd sported sideburns if they wanted to be “in.”
Bringing Society to the Big Screen
We cover a lot of movies in this section. If you want a more visual look at the 1960s, take this chapter with you to the video store. And check out Chapter 18, where we suggest ten great films to rent that feature many of the people and events that we cover throughout this book.
Revisiting popular themes and characters
During the 1950s, musicals, historical epics, comedies, and dramas dominated films, and this trend continued through the ’60s, with films such as Lawrence of Arabia, The Sound of Music, Cleopatra, West Side Story, The Miracle Worker, and Some Like It Hot.
Fighting the cold war
Before Vietnam came to the forefront of American consciousness (see Chapter 9), Communism, the cold war, and the threat of nuclear annihilation were on people’s minds, and the movies reflected those thoughts and fears. Espionage films lit up the big screen, including The Spy Who Came in from the Cold , and movies embraced comic portrayals of the enemy, such as in The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming. Some chilling satires also entertained audiences, including Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
Preaching principles
As the ’50s ended, new revelations about the Holocaust, concerns about nuclear war, and the emerging civil rights movement all served to raise social consciousness. Even though World War II was 20 years in the past, films such as Judgment at Nuremberg, which showed the horror of the concentration camps, and Ship of Fools and The Pawnbroker, which depicted the more subtle effects of the Nazi regime, drew audiences.
Other films depicting past events, such as Inherit the Wind, which dealt with the conflict over evolution, and On the Beach, which speculated on life after nuclear war, were also popular. One of the most popular, well-acted films of the decade was To Kill a Mockingbird, which talked about the problems of blacks in the South.
Imagining a different world
Science fiction was a popular genre since the advent of silent movies, and the ’60s were no exception. Fantastic Voyage took viewers on a trip through their arteries and veins, and Planet of the Apes (another evolutionary tale) provided an interesting “what if?” scenario. But by far the best example of 1960s sci-fi was 2001: A Space Odyssey. This film reflected the public’s fascination with space but inadvertently appealed to the counterculture — theaters where 2001 was showing often reeked of marijuana smoke.
Being best buddies
Buddy films are as old as movies — remember Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, and Martin and Lewis? In the late 1960s, however, two very different buddy films became famous. Easy Rider was not only a buddy film but also the ultimate road-trip movie, featuring two drugged-out bikers — played by Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda — trying to escape the bonds of conformity. In the course of their wild ride across America, they meet George (played by Jack Nicholson, who was also a cowriter of the script), a good-old Southern boy who also happens to be a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union and whom the bikers convert from booze to pot.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was an outlaw movie of the buddy type, but one where the audience actually roots for the bad guys. Butch (Paul Newman) and Sundance (Robert Redford) are personable, funny, optimistic (no matter what difficulties they encounter), damned good-looking, and above all, human.
Driving fast cars and scoring hot babes
Bond . . . James Bond. Witty, urbane, and handsome, this man always gets the bad guy and the girl (excuse us, the girls!), and he’s been doing it for more than four decades. Adapted from the popular spy novels by Ian Fleming, 007 movies, full of action, romance, fast cars, dry martinis, and gadgetry, were some of the most popular movies of the ’60s. From Dr. No, which was released in the United States in 1963, until the 1969 film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Americans enjoyed From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, and You Only Live Twice.
All the film that’s fit to see
The Hays Code was named for Will Hays, the president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America from 1922 through 1945. He regulated how sex and violence could be presented in films. Neither could be shown explicitly, and the “evildoers” in the film could never be sympathetic and must always get their just desserts. Among other things, bad language was a no-no, reverends (of all denominations) had to be depicted with reverence, and interracial relationships were forbidden. The film-rating system that replaced the Hays Code didn’t seek to restrict or censor films in any way. Instead, the intent was to let people know what was in the films, according to the following ratings:
G: General audiences, including children.
M: Mature audiences — parental guidance was suggested, but all ages were admitted.
R: Restricted — children under 16 weren’t admitted without a parent or adult guardian.
X: No one under 17 was admitted.
Over the years, the rating system has changed to further refine the categories and adapt to changing public perceptions. For example, some of the movies that were X-rated during the ’60s would receive an R rating today.
Confronting social and political issues
In addition to the adventurous, scientific, and nostalgic films of the ’60s, some of the memorable films of the decade did reflect the changing times and emerging social and political issues — such as sex, drugs, and race — that were banned from movies since the Hays Code of the ’30s (see the “All the film that’s fit to see” sidebar). Compliance with the code was entirely voluntary and self-regulated, but the studios abided by it to avoid government censorship. In the ’50s, filmmakers began pushing the envelope of what was acceptable, and by the mid-’60s, the Hays Code was virtually ignored. People wanted more explicit films, yet they wanted to control the films that children could see. Therefore, in 1966, the movie rating system went into effect, indicating whether films were suitable for children. This, as well as the more free-spirited times, effectively ended movie censorship.
Crossing the color line
From the days of silent movies, when blacks appeared on-screen, they were cast in stereotyped roles. The only positive images in films aimed at the general public were those that featured musical greats such as Duke Ellington. During the 1920s through the ’40s, black producers made a number of race films, which were low-budget movies made for black audiences. However, during the late ’40s and ’50s, things began to change as actors like Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, and Harry Belafonte appeared in roles that showed blacks in a positive light.
Perhaps more than anyone else, Sidney Poitier was responsible for creating meaningful roles for blacks in American movies. A Raisin in the Sun, Lilies of the Field, and In the Heat of the Night were some of his most famous films, but Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? , which featured an engaged interracial couple, was definitely a first for 1960s films.
John Wayne in the Vietnam era
John Wayne, one of the most beloved movie actors of the century, appeared in many macho roles in westerns and war films, to the point that people saw him as the roles that he played rather than the man that he was. Although he never served in the military, he made so many war films and was so openly patriotic that this stereotype worked for him — until the Vietnam War.
Wayne loudly supported the Vietnam War and played in the only Vietnam War movie produced and played while the war was on — The Green Berets. This role, along with his cooperation with Senator McCarthy’s Communist witch hunts (see Chapter 11) and anti-integration statements, cost him fans among some segments of the population as the country became more polarized during the late ’60s.
Reflecting a youth explosion
Just as the youth of the ’60s were exercising their independence and searching for new meaning in life, teens and young adults on-screen explored their freedom. One film that definitely presents a young person trying to find himself is The Graduate, which shows a young man questioning his parents’ values and ambitions for him (and also exploring a typical young man’s fantasy — hooking up with Mrs. Robinson, an older woman).
However, not all ’60s youth films were especially introspective. Between 1963 and 1965, Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello starred in a series of beach movies, which were ripe with bikinis, surfboards, and surf music (see Chapter 15). Gidget films, which were all about a girl who wanted to surf, were also popular in the early ’60s.
Getting an X rating
Even before the sexual revolution was in full flower, sex found its place in ’60s movies. In The Apartment, an office worker loans his apartment to his bosses for liaisons in order to curry favor. Splendor in the Grass portrays teen pregnancy, Some Like It Hot shows audiences the joys of cross-dressing, and Tom Jones demonstrates that it’s possible to get physical while eating a lobster dinner.
By the middle of the decade, American audiences could view full frontal nudity in films such as I Am Curious Yellow, Blow Up, and Medium Cool. These movies created the call for a rating system — although many people had no use for censorship, they weren’t quite ready for their children to watch sex on the screen.
One film that illustrates just how far the sexual revolution had gone was Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice in 1969. Not only did this film show wife-swapping, but it also involved people other than the “crazy, long-haired hippies” — two normal suburban couples exploring their sexuality.
A Hair-Raising Experience: The ’60s Make It to Broadway
Like the movies, theater and the Broadway stage, for a good part of the 1960s, followed tried-and-true formulas: historical dramas and elaborate musicals. Some of the top dramas of the decade were Becket, A Man for All Seasons, and The Great White Hope. The blockbuster musical comedies were The Sound of Music, Camelot, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Mame, Man of La Mancha, Cabaret, and Hello, Dolly!
But in 1968, a brand new musical, Hair — The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical made the geographically short (but very long) journey from off-Broadway to the “Great White Way,” paving the way for a whole new format for the musical theater. Inspired by the hippies of New York’s East Village, James Rado and Jerome Ragni, two out-of-work actors, created Hair in 1966, hoping it would find a home on Broadway.
The play was rejected many times by Broadway producers, but the writers’ luck changed when the head of the New York Shakespeare Festival Public Theater offered them a limited run in 1967. In time-honored show business tradition, an “angel” (a financial backer) saw the show, fell in love with it, and made it his mission to bring it to Broadway. But the musical’s first uptown venue wasn’t on Broadway; rather, it was in a working disco, where the show was the opening act for the late-night dance crowd.
Eventually, pressed for funds, Hair closed, but everyone still had Broadway on the brain. Rado and Ragni revised the show, rehearsed in the East Village, and eventually opened in Broadway’s Biltmore Theater on April 29, 1968. The message of this musical was to have fun, live free, and do your own thing (but don’t hurt anyone else). Unbound by conventional morality, the show glorified sex, drugs, rock ’n’ roll, racial equality, peace, and love. As a social commentary, Hair provides insight into the philosophy of the flower children of the 1960s. As the first and most successful of the rock musicals, it paved the way for later musicals such as Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell, and Tommy .
Reflecting Life on the Small Screen
Late-night talk shows
Although the TV talk show was started in 1954 by Renaissance man Steve Allen, it became quite popular in the ’60s, bringing stand-up comedy, satire, and celebrities into America’s living rooms, up close and personal. Because it was shown late at night, talk-show material could be slightly more risqué than prime-time fare, although Jack Paar, Allen’s successor, was bleeped more times than he thought he deserved. In 1962, Johnny Carson took over and became a late-night institution, hosting the Tonight Show until 1992. However, this show wasn’t the only game in town — Dick Cavett had a talk show from 1969 to 1972, which was considered the “thinking man’s” show because he featured more controversial, edgier guests.
A new kind of variety show
Comedy and variety shows also tackled some of the tough issues. Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In was probably the most popular. This fast-moving show featured music, running skits, and an ensemble cast of characters that turned up every week. Cast members wore some of the outrageous and skimpy clothing and fads of the ’60s (such as body painting) and managed to be suggestive without using any off-color words, opting instead for such expressions as “very interesting,” “ring my chimes,” “look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls,” and “sock it to me” — you just had to be there! In the opening monologue, both Rowan and Martin managed to make their political opinions known. Figure 16-1 shows Laugh-In ’s cast.
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, however, was more outspoken. Although they featured famous, well-respected comedians and singers, the brothers pushed the envelope to see how much they could satirize and criticize the government and the Vietnam War without being censored (and they were often censored). They waged their greatest battle, however, when they were cancelled in 1973. They sued, claiming that their First Amendment rights were violated, and eventually won a financial and moral victory.
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Figure 16-1: The Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In ensemble. |
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The vast wasteland: ’60s sitcoms
From the earliest days, comedy has been a staple of TV. Uncle Miltie and Your Show of Shows with Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca kept people laughing throughout the ’50s, when often a whole neighborhood gathered around an old black-and-white TV set. Situation comedies (otherwise known as sitcoms ), starting in the ’50s with I Love Lucy, Ozzie and Harriet, Leave it to Beaver, and Father Knows Best, are often nostalgically regarded as great examples of the good-old days. The public’s love affair with the sitcom continued throughout the ’60s and into the 21st century, although The Donna Reed Show is a far cry from Sex in the City.
Perhaps it was a yearning for more innocent times, but in a decade of cold war, assassinations, protests, hot war, and social change, the country bumpkin show became popular. Petticoat Junction, Hee Haw, and Green Acres were guilty pleasures for many so-called sophisticates and intellectuals (much like today’s tabloids). However, slapstick and somewhat childish comedy wasn’t limited to country. Who could possibly take My Mother the Car, Mr. Ed, or Gilligan’s Island seriously? Sitcoms also got into the magic and fantastic in such 1960s classics as The Munsters, Bewitched, and I Dream of Jeannie. But just as with westerns and cop shows, TV liked to make fun of itself — for example, the classic spy spoof, Get Smart, which was popular in the last half of the decade.
An immediate look at the news
Although TV entertained and amused, it also educated. The American public of the ’60s became aware of current events as never before. They watched the debate between Kennedy and Nixon in 1960 and then the assassination of Kennedy in 1963 (see Chapter 2). They also saw the horrors of Vietnam, the beatings in Birmingham (see Chapter 6), and the brutality of the 1968 Chicago Riots (see Chapter 9) more graphically than newspapers or the radio could ever betray. Americans also celebrated when Neil Armstrong took his first step on the moon (see Chapter 4). In addition, the great news stories of the decade saw the rise of great TV newscasters, such as Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, and Edward R. Murrow.
Poking Serious Fun: The New Comedians
Comedians are as old as recorded history — people throughout time have needed someone to make them laugh and forget life’s problems. In the 1950s and early ’60s, comedians such as Bob Hope, Red Skelton, Jackie Gleason, and Milton Berle helped people laugh out loud, not only at jokes and slapstick routines, but also at humanity, with its public and private missteps. But in the more open atmosphere of the late ’60s, a new breed of comedian became popular — one who, with humor, looked at people’s hypocrisy as well as the problems of society.
In 1962, the album of a comedian named Vaughn Meader, The First Family, rose to the top with his right-on imitation of President Kennedy. His career, like the Kennedy presidency, was brief — after the assassination, Meader pledged to never again do his Kennedy voice as a comedy act.
However, most of the comedians of the ’60s were far more biting and critical. Here are a few:
Mort Sahl: In the late ’50s, Sahl brought a new style to the stage with his casual clothes and improvisational and conversational delivery, instead of the standard joke-telling that was common at the time. His patter was about anything and everything — relationships, current events, politics, you name it. His iconoclastic style (debunking traditionally accepted ideas) remained popular through the ’60s and influenced many later comics and comedy writers.
Mort Sahl ended his routines with the line, “Is there any group I haven’t offended?”
Lenny Bruce: Sahl’s comic style inspired Lenny Bruce, who changed his act from doing impressions to telling stories and performing skits in a more natural style. He also brought profane and controversial material into his act and didn’t avoid using four-letter words. This edginess brought him dedicated audiences but also unwanted attention from the law — he was arrested for obscenity several times. Eventually, Bruce was convicted of obscenity after a six-month-long trial but never served his four-month sentence. He used his encounters with the police and the courts as material for his routine, which put him under even closer scrutiny. Blackballed in many cities in the United States and overseas, Bruce’s last stand was at the Fillmore in San Francisco. On August 3, 1966, he died from a drug overdose.
Dick Gregory: One of the first black comics to become popular with all audiences was Dick Gregory, who was not only a comedian but also a social activist, working for civil rights both on- and offstage. During the ’60s, Dick Gregory joked about the conditions of blacks in the South. He became involved in causes such as social justice, anti–Vietnam War activism, economic reform, antidrug issues, alternate history (conspiracy theories), and others. To support his views, he went on several hunger strikes. In 1968, he ran for president of the United States as a write-in candidate, and later he wrote the book Write Me In about that political campaign.
Hitting the Books
Even with the popularity of movies and TV, people were still reading a lot of books in the ’60s. Popular fiction as well as nonfiction including diet books, cookbooks, and astrology topped the New York Times bestseller list. However, among the counterculture, older books often inspired and supported their quest for a new way of seeing the world. And with the launch of the sexual revolution, magazines featuring light pornography began to have their heyday.
Topping the charts
The bestseller lists of the 1960s were heavily weighted in favor of historical fiction, political novels, and suspense by popular authors such as Irving Wallace, Allen Drury, Irving Stone, and James Michener. Steamy potboilers, such as Valley of the Dolls and The Love Machine by Jacqueline Susann, and books by Harold Robbins also flew off the shelves.
However, some authors who were more introspective also hit the top of the lists. Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth, The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron, The Chosen by Chaim Potok, and Couples by John Updike were critically acclaimed. And in 1969, The Godfather by Mario Puzo rose to number two on the bestseller list, soon to gain fame as the subject of two blockbuster movies during the ’70s.
Some powerful nonfiction titles also found their niche during the decade. Profiles in Courage by President Kennedy, Conscience of a Conservative by Barry Goldwater, and The Selling of the President 1968 by Joe McGinniss reflected the American public’s fascination with politics and politicians.
But the bestsellers of the ’60s weren’t the only influential books of the decade. Classical works such as Walden and Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau, the novels of Herman Hesse, The Little Red Book by Mao Tse Tung, Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein, Brave New World and The Doors Of Perception by Aldous Huxley, and 1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell shaped the political opinions and encouraged the alternate lifestyles of the ’60s counterculture.
Embracing the Playboy philosophy
A lot of what people call the hedonism and rampant sexuality of the 1960s was embodied in Playboy magazine, which glorifies the good life — clothes, cars, music, sports, and, of course, sex. Founded in 1953, Playboy was definitely ahead of the curve (pun absolutely intended).
Hefner also strove to undermine his critics in the “thought police” by giving his magazine an intellectual side. Each issue of Playboy featured an interview with a famous personality, such as Muhammad Ali, George Wallace, and Martin Luther King Jr., and often featured fiction and articles by top-name authors. But what Playboy is most known for is its nude centerfolds (although many people claim to read it “just for the articles”).
In 1965, Playboy began losing its grip on the market, as other magazines copied its format. Penthouse, a sensational version of the original, hit the streets, featuring more explicit photos and content.
Changing Perspective: Pop, Op, and Psychedelic Art
Pop art was a popular 1960s movement that featured objects from popular culture. Consumer products, movie stars, and comics were common pop art subjects. One of the first artists to create such art was Roy Lichtenstein, who drew comic-like paintings featuring dots (as you’d see in a comic book) and speech bubbles, which express the subject of the paintings. One of Lichtenstein’s most famous paintings is Whaam! (a large cartoonlike painting of a plane hitting a target, with the word “Whaam” at the point of impact), painted in 1963. Another famous pop artist was Andy Warhol, whose paintings and prints featured repeated images of a person or a thing. Warhol is most famous for his painting of Campbell’s soup cans and also for his Marilyn green, pink, red, and gold, depicting Marilyn Monroe.
Op art, an abbreviation for optical art, emphasized optical illusions by using spirals, wavy patterns, and the repeated representation of simple geometric forms, often in different proportions. Op art patterns were not only shown in paintings and posters, but by the mid-’60s were also featured in advertising and on clothing. Two of the main op artists were Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley.
Psychedelic art, inspired by drug-induced hallucinations, wasn’t a huge feature of art galleries and museums. Instead, it decorated album covers and posters. Psychedelic art often depicted objects seen through a kaleidoscope and used contrasting colors and detailed images, which often morphed into each other. Some famous examples of psychedelic art are Peter Max posters, which display a combination of art deco swirls and psychedelic patterns. He often used Day-Glo paints (specially designed to glow under black lights) and bright, contrasting colors. Although his work reflected the freewheeling youth culture, it was used to market everything from linens to tea bags.
Playing the Game
Before multimillion-dollar contracts, steroid scandals, killer athletes, and drug-addicted players, Americans had a love affair with sports, supported the home teams, win or lose, and idolized their star players.
The dynasties
In the both baseball and football, the 1960s saw sports dynasties, teams that, for a few years, seemed absolutely unbeatable.
The pinstriped New York Yankees of the early ’60s seemed to be a sports monopoly. Of course, it had happened before — the team of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig also dominated the sport in the late 1920s. Armed with power players such as Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, the “Bronx Bombers” seemed unstoppable and won the World Series from 1960 through 1964. In fact, Maris was the first player to break Babe Ruth’s single-season home record, hitting 61 balls out of the park in 1961. Mantle was considered to be one of the greatest of all time — he was a great outfielder and base runner, as well as a power hitter.
Before the 1960s, professional football wasn’t particularly popular — most football fans were devoted to their favorite college team. However, three things changed the place of football in the American consciousness: televising the game, the Super Bowl, and the most powerful team of the decade, the Green Bay Packers. Coached by the great Vince Lombardi, the Packers went from being a losing team in a small city to the major force in the sport.
The underdogs
America loves an underdog and celebrates when a dismal loser rises to the top. In New York City, 1969 was the year of the underdog as two last-place teams moved to the head of the line.
After the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers left New York for California, the city wanted a new National League team, so the New York Mets were born in 1962. They were a disaster. Not only did they seem to have permanent possession of last place, but they also “achieved” the worst record (40 wins and 120 losses) of any 20th-century baseball team. They made every mistake in the book, even running the wrong way around the bases. But in 1969, they surprised everybody when they won not only the National League pennant, but also the World Series. The celebration in the city was legendary.
The New York Jets, founded in 1959 as one of the teams in the new American Football League (which later merged with the NFL), had one of the most talked about quarterbacks in the league. Unlike the typical jock, Joe Namath was a bit of a rebel, with his long hair, mustache, and white shoes on the football field (which, incidentally, became the standard for years afterward). However, the public would forgive “Broadway Joe” anything, as long as he kept on throwing his deadly accurate passes.
Namath was also cocky — he guaranteed a win for his team in Super Bowl III, even though odds-makers listed the Jets as a 17 1/2-point underdog to the powerful Baltimore Colts. But he had the stuff to back it up and went on to lead his team to victory. Broadway Joe was probably the first and last football star who was as popular as a rock star — he was a major party animal who stayed out all night and usually dated beautiful women, and his fans, both men and women, loved it. In fact, Namath was so popular that he was able to get away with appearing in a TV commercial wearing a pair of pantyhose, with no loss to his reputation.
International politics at the Olympics
Although the Olympic games were pure sport, designed to foster international competition and cooperation, they were never free of politics. The 1964 Olympics saw a nation barred from the games for their domestic policies — South Africa was banned from participating because of their policy of apartheid.
The 1968 games, however, saw the most overt political statements by athletes. When U.S. runners Tommie Smith and John Carlos stood on the victory platform to receive their medals, they each raised a black-gloved fist in a black power salute as the Star Spangled Banner played, protesting racial inequality in the United States. Because the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided that this gesture went against the spirit and ideals of the Olympics, Smith and Carlos were expelled.
The Greatest: Muhammad Ali
People either loved him or they hated him, but very few people felt neutral about Muhammad Ali. Learning to box at age 12, Cassius Marcellus Clay had big dreams — to be the heavyweight champion of the world. Before his 18th birthday, he won six state Golden Gloves championships and two national Golden Gloves championships, and shortly after he turned 18, he won a gold medal at the 1960 Olympics.
Clay was an unorthodox fighter, using moves that were rarely seen in the ring. He danced around his opponents and adopted the catchphrase “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” to describe his fighting style. He also used what he later called the “Ali Shuffle,” where he would quickly shuffle his feet and, whenever possible, deliver a blow while dancing.
In 1964, while training for his title bout against Sonny Liston, then heavyweight champion of the world, where he was a heavy underdog in spite of his confidence, Clay met Malcolm X and became a member of the Nation of Islam (a black organization that embraced the principles of Islam and advocated self-reliance, as we discuss in Chapter 7). The day after he beat Liston in a huge upset (see Figure 16-2), Clay announced his conversion and his new name, Cassius X. Later that year, Elijah Muhammad, founder of the Nation of Islam, gave him the name Muhammad Ali.
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Figure 16-2: Cassius Clay taunts then-champion Sonny Liston during their 1964 title fight. |
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©Topham/The Image Works
In 1967, Ali was drafted into the military but refused to be inducted on religious grounds as a practicing Muslim minister. After that, almost every state and city cancelled his boxing licenses. In spite of the growing antiwar sentiment, he was stripped of his title and faced a five-year prison term (in 1970, the Supreme Court reversed his conviction and upheld his conscientious objector claim, and he won back his boxing licenses).
In 1970, Ali began his comeback but wasn’t up to his former form, and he lost the 1971 fight against heavyweight champ Joe Frazier. However, this minor setback was just a prelude to the 1974 “Rumble in the Jungle,” where he fought George Foreman, the world heavyweight champion, in Zaire. Again, Ali was the underdog. Realizing that he couldn’t do his usual dance because of the heat, he developed the “rope-a-dope” strategy, where he stood with his back to the ropes, slipping punches and absorbing punishment until Foreman tired, making it easier for Ali to knock him out. Afterward, a series of wins and losses ensued until he ended his boxing career in 1981 with 56 wins (37 by knockout) and 5 defeats.
Walking the Talk
Bag: Thing, usually used in the negative to describe something you’re just not into, as in “Math just isn’t my bag.”
Bread: Money — enough said!
Cool: This word was popular way before the ’60s and is still popular today.
Crash: Hit the hay, get some winks — you get the idea (in case you don’t, it means to sleep).
Dig it: Understand.
Do your own thing: Do whatever you want, without worrying about pleasing someone else.
Downer: Something that puts you in a bad or sad mood, as in “The ending of Romeo and Juliet is a real downer.”
Far out: Fabulous, great, the best. “That band is far out!”
Freaked out: Uneasy, scared, or distressed — generally a really bad feeling. This started with having a bad trip but can relate to anything: “She was really freaked out when she got the speeding ticket.”
Go with the flow: Don’t try too hard or resist what’s happening.
Grass: Marijuana.
Hang-up: An emotional problem or an obsession with something. “She’s got a hang-up about her looks.”
Karma: The new age version of “what goes around comes around.”
Lay it on me: Tell me or give it to me. If someone says, “I’ve got good news and bad news,” you might say, “Lay it on me.”
Make love, not war: The catchphrase of the antiwar movement.
Man: A way of addressing another person, as in “Hey man, what’s happening?” People sometimes use it to address women, too.
Mind blowing: Astounding or awesome, as in “Those fireworks were mind blowing.”
Outta sight! See
far out.
Pad: A place to sleep. Decorated in whatever was available, this place could hardly be called a home. A hippie, who wasn’t really into ownership and possessions, often allowed anyone to crash at his or her pad.
Pot: See
grass.
Rip-off: A con or swindle.
Spaced out: Another term that originated with drugs, describing someone who’s not thinking clearly. However, people now use it to describe anyone who’s not quite “with it” (regardless of why).
Split: Leave, as in “I gotta split, man!”
Square: Hopelessly “out of touch.” Parents, teachers, cops, or anyone in authority was considered square.
Stoned: Under the influence of marijuana.
Tell it like it is: Tell the truth.
Trip: What you go on after dropping acid (LSD).
Uptight: Frigid, conventional, tense, or rigid. Someone who didn’t like sex, drugs, rock ’n’ roll, and long hair would be considered uptight.
Vibe: An intuition or a feeling that you get from something or someone. “I got really good vibes hanging out in the Haight.”