English 122

Ms. M. White

DECADE: 1950-1959

View the entire list of “Censorship Incidents” link on the Parental Advisory: Music Censorship in America”

http://www.ericnuzum.com/banned/incidents/

Remember, the novel The Catcher in the Rye was published in 1951.

Research, Reading and Responding:

·  Read through the “Censorship Incidents” link on the Parental Advisory: Music Censorship in America” site at: http://www.ericnuzum.com/banned/incidents/50s.html. Look under 1950.

·  Radio stations ban Dottie O'Brien's "Four or Five Times" and Dean Martin's "Wham Bam, Thank You Ma'am" fearing they are suggestive. Look up the lyrics to these songs and read them.

·  Webb Pierce's "There Stands the Glass" is banned from radio because the lyrics are thought to condone heavy drinking. Look up the lyrics and look for evidence that supports this challenge.

CHECKPOINT: K/W/L—(Include your answers in your Personal Problem Log).

What did you know? What do you want to know? What did you learn by reading and researching further?

Consider the following points that describe the culture and mindset of the time in which the novel was published:

·  Variety runs a three-part series on what they term "leer-ics," or R&B songs with obscene lyrics, calling for censorship of the recording industry. The articles compare these songs to dirty postcards and chastises the music industry for selling "their leer-ic garbage by declaring that's what kids want." Read and learn more at: http://www.alanfreed.com/archives/Newspaper_Articles/1950s/067%20Big%20Beat%20Has%20Arrived.pdf

·  The Juvenile Delinquency and Crime Commission of Houston, Texas, bans more than 30 songs it considers obscene. The Commission's list is almost entirely comprised of black artists.

·  Officials cancel rock and roll concerts scheduled in New Haven and Bridgeport, Connecticut; Boston; Atlanta; Jersey City and Asbury Park, New Jersey; Burbank, California; and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Observers mistake dancing at concerts for riots and fighting.

·  CBS television network cancels Alan Freed's Rock 'n Roll Dance Party after a camera shows Frankie Lymon (leader of the doo wop group Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers) dancing with a white girl.

·  Officials in San Diego and Florida police warn Elvis Presley that if he moves at all during his local performances, he will be arrested on obscenity charges.

·  ABC Radio Network bans Billie Holiday's rendition of Cole Porter's "Love for Sale" from all of its stations because of its prostitution theme. Stations continue to play instrumental versions of the song. Look up the lyrics to this song.

·  The Parks Department in San Antonio, Texas, removes all rock and roll records from jukeboxes located at city swimming pools, terming it "jumpy, hot stuff" that is unsuitable for teens.

·  Producers of the Ed Sullivan Show instruct cameramen to show Elvis Presley only from the waist up on his third and final appearance on the program on January 7th.

·  Link Wray's instrumental classic "Rumble" is dropped from radio stations across the country in January - even though it has no lyrics. The title of the song is thought to be suggestive of teenage violence. When Wray appears on American Bandstand to perform the song, Dick Clark introduces Wray and his band, but refuses to mention the song's title.

·  Wanting to secure an appearance on the hit television program American Bandstand, singer Lloyd Price agrees to re-cut the lyrics to his song "Stagger Lee," removing all references to violence. Look up the lyrics.

CHECKPOINT: (Include your answers in your Personal Problem Log)

-What interests you from the summary?

-What do you want to find more information on?

-What will help you better answer our guiding question?

-What did you learn?

-How will you demonstrate what you have learned?

Viewing: (One of your group members may decide to look at one or more of these films in investigating the problem).

Movies that illustrate the social fabric of this time include the following:

-Dead Poets Society. Dead Poets Society is a 1989 film directed by Peter Weir. Set in 1959 at a conservative and aristocratic boys prep school, it tells the story of an English teacher who inspires his students to change their lives of conformity through his teaching of poetry and literature. The movie is a modern interpretation of the transcendentalist movement.

-Grease. In 1958, during their summer vacation, Danny Zuko (John Travolta) and Sandy Olsen (Olivia Newton-John) meet at a beach but before long, Sandy and Danny say their last good-byes as Sandy is due to return to Australia. She is upset, thinking that this is the end of their romance and that they will never see each other again. Danny tries to comfort her by telling her "it's only the beginning".

-Hoosiers. A 1986 sports film about a small-town Indiana high school basketball team that wins the state championship. The film is set during 1952, when all high schools in Indiana, regardless of school size, competed in one state championship tournament.

-L.A. Confidential. A 1997 feature film based on the 1990 crime fiction novel of the same title by James Ellroy, the third in his L.A. Quartet novel cycle. Both the book and the film tell the story about a group of Los Angeles police in the 1950s, and police corruption bumping up against Hollywood celebrity.

-Malcolm X. A 1992 biographical film directed by Spike Lee about the African-American activist and black nationalist Malcolm X. The story is based on The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley.

-Mona Lisa Smile. tells the story of Katherine Ann Watson, a feminist teacher who studied at UCLA graduate school and left as a first-year teacher from "Oakland State" University (thought to be a fictionalized University of California, Berkeley), leaves her boyfriend behind in Los Angeles, California in 1953, to teach at Wellesley College, a conservative women's private liberal arts college in Massachusetts, United States.

-Pleasantville. Although David (Tobey Maguire) and his sister Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon) are twins, they lead dramatically different high school social lives. Jennifer focuses mainly on her appearance and popularity, while David spends much of his spare time on the couch watching reruns of Pleasantville, a black-and-white 1950s sitcom mirroring such "ideal family" shows such as Leave It To Beaver or Father Knows Best .

-Stand By Me. is a coming of age film set in the fictional Castle Rock, Oregon in 1959. It portrays a journey embarked upon by four 12-year-old boys across the woodlands near their hometown to see the dead body of another boy who was close to their own age. The film is told through the recollections of the main character, Gordie LaChance, a freelance writer.

We will watch the film Pleasantville in class. Your group should discuss and incorporate issues/ comments regarding this film in your investigation/ solution/ final project.