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Troubled Waters
It
is sometimes reported in history that upon meeting Harriet Beecher Stowe
during the American Civil War, President Lincoln greeted her with the
words, " So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started
this great war!" If fact, there is no evidence that indeed the
President uttered that line. Nevertheless the rumor of that thought that
has endured for more than a century does in fact illustrate the validity
of another common quotation, "The pen is mightier than the
sword," or the simple precept that the things which entertain us may
also motivate us.
Throughout
the history of the human race talented people have been highly prized for
their talents with word, pen, and music that can provide diversion from
the tragedies of society, or even from the mundane existence of daily
life. Entertainment is a critical part of our development as individuals
and as societies. From the early scribes who penned the history of ancient
civilizations to the performers of P.T. Barnum's early circuses, men,
women, and children have found fascination, humor and diversion in
entertainment.
While
the primary function of entertainment is just that…diversion from every
day life…there is a history wherein entertainment has often served as a
call to activism. The pen of Thomas Paine incited patriotic calls for
revolution in 1775 and, during the darkest early year of the American
Revolutionary War, sustained the populace with stirring accounts of
freedom fighters. The oratorical skills of Frederick Douglas addressed the
wrongness of slavery and Harriet Beecher Stowe's now-famous novel
"Uncle Tom's Cabin" certainly fanned flames of passion that
erupted in a Civil War to abolish slavery. Newspapers flourished in the
late 19th century, not simply as a means of reading to stay abreast of
current events, but as a form of entertainment. Embellishments of
competing newspapers in the late 1800s with headlines that would rival
today's tabloids resulted in what we have come to know as Yellow
Journalism. In 1898 American society hung on every story printed about
events in Cuba, including outlandish tales of the nation's Spanish rulers
cannibalizing the local populace, much like later generations would be
fascinated with the story of Hannibal Lecter. Such entertaining stories
made taking our nation to war with
Spain
a much more acceptable task.
To
be fair however, historically activist-entertainment has usually been a
very minor part of the entertainment industry. Logging camps stories of
legendary heroes or scary boogiemen were designed only to break the
boredom of lonely nights. Dime store novels of Wild West cowboys, while
often based upon true characters, were written with usually fun but
fictitious story lines to captivate the attention of young boys. Romance
novels gave young girls the perfect love to hope for, and married women
the idyllic romance they wished they could have found.
Every
generation has developed and welcomed its own genre of entertainment,
usually pushing the boundaries of acceptability. During medieval periods
when court jesters, the stand up
comedians of the era, failed to draw appropriate laughter or crossed
the boundaries of appropriateness (like insulting the Royal Family),
punishment could be swift and deadly. Not so in later years as
entertainment continued to evolve and as artisans pushed the envelope. It
is also generally true that as each generation developed its own brand of
entertainment, at least for the last century it was frowned upon by an
older generation that asked rhetorically, "What's this younger
generation coming to."
There
can be little doubt that young people coming of age in the Roaring
Twenties shocked and dismayed their own parents, perhaps no less than
their grandchildren growing up in the 1960s shocked and dismayed the
children of those same Flappers who grew up during a heady time of fun and
frolic. But the carefree world of that period came to an abrupt halt when
our nation was plunged into the deep tragedy of the Great Depression in
1929. Over the next decade the one diversion from pain, poverty and hunger
was the Saturdays on which a child could scrounge a nickel and enjoy a
comedic hour on the big screen of the local theater.
If
the comedy of Charlie Chaplain, the Three Stooges, the Little Rascals, and
others helped a generation of children born in the 1920s forget
momentarily the pain of the 1930s, when those same children came of age it
was to face a world at war. Art came to imitate life, or perhaps define
it, as the United States Government reached out to
Radio
City
and
Hollywood
to bolster the war effort. So pervasive was its influence that even today
one can seldom hear a big band tune without subliminally being carried
back to World War II. Those who today rue an activist
Hollywood
industry might do well to recall those years from 1941 to 1945 when such
activism by American movie stars played a critical role in saving our
world.
Among
the first of these movies which often combined entertainment with a
message was the early 7-part series directed primarily by Frank Capra and
titled "Why We Fight." The true intent of these films is nowhere
more evident than the closing lines containing the quotation of Army Chief
of Staff General George C. Marshall, "The victory of the democracies
can only be complete with utter defeat of the war machines of
Germany
and
Japan
." The patriotic fervor aroused by such heroic soldiers on film as
Henry Fonda, Robert Montgomery, and others including John Wayne who became
perhaps the all-time epitome of the American soldier, sailor and Marine,
fanned flames of passion and inspired young men and women to volunteer for
service. Other actors like Robert Montgomery, Jason Robards, and even Lee
Powell who had inspired a late depression-era crowd as the Lone Ranger,
chose to serve in uniform.
So
thoroughly was the movie entertainment business intertwined with the
military effort to save our world, the U.S. Army Air Forces leased the
California
studios of Hal Roach. Known ubiquitously as "
Fort
Roach
," more than 400 films were produced in a joint Army/Hollywood
program of entertainment, inspiration, training, and indeed propaganda.
Many of the actors were themselves reserve members of the military like
Ronald Reagan and Alan Ladd. Army Air Force reservist Clark Gable even
flew in heavy bombers over
Europe
to film for an Air Force recruiting film titled "Combat
America."
That
the entertainment industry became critical to the successful prosecution
of World War II is undeniable. The patriotism of
Tinsel
Town
was untarnished by those in its population whose political leanings were
socialistic; after all, during those critical years the
Soviet Union
was a tenuous but necessary ally. That physical war however, was followed
by the Cold War in which we found our nation competing in an arms race
with
Russia
. The McCarthy hearings of the early '50s that singled out the Hollywood
Ten and others sent a cold chill through the entertainment industry.
For the next ten years an actor or actress pushing the envelope, whether
in film or even in a private conversation, faced swift retribution nearly
as deadly as the fate of a not-so-funny medieval court jester.
War
movies remained popular in the 1950s as the Greatest Generation justly
recalled and celebrated their achievements in the World War. Unlike most
such movies produced during the war when the heroic man in uniform was
often the "unknown but patriotic farm boy from
Kansas
" young men in the audience could identify with, these new war
stories often TRUE stories, not necessarily intended to motivate
volunteerism, but to remember real people and real events. These were
enjoyable films without the pressure of a personal call to service. Some,
like 1959's Operation Petticoat
even presented war with a humorous twist, as did the popular early TV war
programs like Sergeant Bilko and
the early 1960's McHale's Navy.
Increasingly
also, that new medium of television boomed in those post-war decades.
Young boys and girls of the Defining Generation thrilled every Saturday
morning to the inspiring, All-American stories of The Lone Ranger,
Superman, and the pleasant singing and positive messages of Roy Rogers and
Dale Evans. Sunday evenings were filled with tunes reminiscent of World
War II on Lawrence Welk, and the Wonderful World of Walt Disney. Monday
through Friday television's evening Family
Hour literally defined the word "family" according to the
American Dream. "Leave it to Beaver," "The Adventures of
Ozzie and Harriet," and "Father Knows Best" taught us how
we were supposed to live as Americans. Though plot-lines changed the
underlying theme was always the same. In the ideal American home dad
worked hard for a living while mom did the domestic chores in her
well-equipped modern kitchen, and the kids studied in school to insure
their own success. Everything revolved around family, mom emerging from
the kitchen each evening in dress and high heels to welcome dad home,
while the kids sat dutifully at the table finishing their homework. In a
sense, some might argue, these shows became a propaganda genre in their
own right, defining success based upon material gain and traditional
familial roles. Some might even recall those "Happy Days" by
noting that for a time, entertainment lost its edginess.
By
the mid-50s however, a storm was "brewing in paradise" as
children of the Defining Generation entered their teens and began asking
pointed questions, often to receive answers they found less than direct.
Their first steps of rebellion were probably first noted as they redefined
the music of their own era, flocking to listen to Rock and Roll while mom
and dad shook their heads in dismay. Furthermore, it often seemed that the
more mom and dad objected, the more it only added fuel to the fire and
inspired the young to further test the boundaries of what the older
generation believed appropriate.
By
the early 1960s a 35-year-old comedian named Lenny Bruce (Leonard Alfred
Schneider) began drawing a following among older teens with his more than
edgy and utterly profane, push-the-envelope brand of stand-up comedy. His
repeated use of the "F-word" would today be considered
commonplace in comedy, but in 1960 it was utter blasphemy. On
October 4, 1961
, after using a slang term for a person engaged in fellatio during a
performance in
San Francisco
, he was arrested and charged with obscenity. He was subsequently
acquitted in a jury trial and his over-the-top act appealed to young
people in rebellion while further inciting close scrutiny persecution by
older "guardians of morality," often leading to additional
arrests for obscenity. Undercover detectives were known to regularly
gather evidence while posing as members of his audience, and the vulgar
comedian become something of a folk hero and martyr to many college-age
and recently liberated teens, even more so when he was at last found
guilty of obscenity on
November 4, 1964
. He was sentenced to four months in a work program but died on
December 21, 1964
, while free pending appeal. In 1970 his conviction was overturned by the
New York Court of Appeals.
"Liberation"
in the '60s came to mean much more than granting Civil Rights to all or
freeing women from traditional roles. It also came to symbolize a growing
openness about old values and taboo subjects like sex. The research work
of William Masters and Virginia E. Johnson, which began in 1957, took sex
out of the darkness and plastered previously untouchable subjects in the
pages of leading American publications. College frat boys proudly
displayed issues of "Playboy Magazine," which began publication
in 1953, openly on the desks in their dorm rooms. A symbol of their new
freedom and perhaps also a symbol of status, their actions were in stark
contrast to those of their father's who kept "Playboy" hidden
out of sight in a tool drawer in the garage.
In
1963 Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique told young women that
the act of sex whether with a partner or self-fulfilled, was not
necessarily an evil thing, and that it could in fact, be as pleasurable
for a woman as well as it was for a man. Coupled with availability of the
"Pill," a far more convenient and certainly surer form of
contraception than a Roaring
Twenties' Coke purge, as well as a growing hippie movement that
preached free love and open sexuality, it became a period of sexual
revolution. Art soon began to imitate life as
Hollywood
responded with films that included the same language that had resulted in
Lenny Bruce's arrest, and partial nudity became increasingly common on the
big screen. The change was so swift and so dramatic that in 1966, in
response to growing complaints about profanity and violence, the Motion
Picture Association of America (MPAA) established an "SMA"
(Suggested for Mature Audiences) label for movies of a more adult nature.
Within two years it was obvious that this simple designation was
inadequate, and on November 1, 1968, MPAA established a new movie rating
code similar to how we know it today (G-General, M-Mature, R-Restricted,
and X). The rating was voluntary but most producers quickly complied,
especially as they learned that an "M" or "R" rating
assured them a larger and more eager audience.
No
examination of the evolution of entertainment in the '60s would be
complete without a view of the role music came to play in society in
general, and particularly for a new generation. When the Beatles came to
America
in 1963 with their long hair, the older generation collectively groaned in
great despair. Within two years however, the Beatles with songs about
"Yellow Submarines" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand"
seemed mild in comparison to a drugged-out Janis Joplin singing "
Whoa, I need a man to love me," activist Joan Baez addressing Civil
Rights abuse while singing "Birmingham Sunday," and Bob Dylan
composing and singing songs to protest the war in Vietnam.
That
entertainment evolved and pushed-the-envelope during the sixties, building
to the climactic 3-day concert outside
Woodstock
,
New York
, in August 1969 that marked the apex of the new counter-culture of the
period, is an inescapable fact. Over a decade the entertainment industry
experienced perhaps its most dramatic change in world history, breaking
all laws of nature, decency, and morality. It set a pace that continues to
this day as a new generation seeks to shock and dismay their own parents,
many of whom participated in the wild weekend that was Woodstock or who
wished they had. With those changes have come not only acceptance of
pornography but elevation of its participants to celebrity status, a lust
for more blood and violence on the big screen, and any number of
associated societal problems.
It
light of the Pandora's Box the Defining Generation released decades ago,
it might be easy to focus only on that which was negative and blame
ourselves for the problems of a new generation. But they would have
defined their own culture of entertainment, even had we not sought as a
generation to define ourselves and our time so liberally. Accepting the
good with the bad, it must also be remembered that as entertainment
breached tradition and social custom, in its activism it also began to
address serious issues in American society that had long been ignored.
Furthermore,
not to be forgotten from that period are other more positive reflections
of our thoughts and our time: songs of peace and love, ballads of hope,
and the search for the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius. One of the most
popular songs of our era, holding the Number One spot on the charts for
six weeks in 1970, was Simon and Garfunkel reminding us:
"When you're weary, feeling small,
"When tears are in your eyes,
"I will dry them all;
"I'm on your side. when times get rough
"And friends just cant be found,
"Like a bridge over troubled water
"I will lay me down."
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