Popular Entertainment: Escape and Engagement

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14 Popular Entertainment: Escape and Engagement

In film and television it is hard to determine which movie or program best represents American popular culture in the 1960s. Television included such diverse programs as the popular western Bonanza (1959–73), with its depiction of life on a nineteenth-century cattle ranch and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967–70), in which comedians Dick and Tom Smothers pushed the boundaries of social satire, sexual innuendo, and taste. Films of the decade included big-budget spectacles like Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Cleopatra (1963), set in ancient times and featuring huge casts and lavish sets, and small independent movies such as Easy Rider (1969), which depicts two hippie rebels searching for freedom from the mainstream's restrictive rules as they motorcycle across America. Music was also diverse. It included the socially aware folk songs of Bob Dylan, the surf sounds of the Beach Boys, the romantic crooning of Frank Sinatra, and the late 1960s psychedelic rock of Jimi Hendrix. Even the popular music of the Beatles included very different songs, such as the early happy song "I Want to Hold Your Hand," and the angry later songs such as "Revolution" and "Helter Skelter."

The truth is, no single TV show, film, or song captured the spirit of the whole decade. In this period of political and social upheaval, American popular entertainment was a study in contrasts. To some extent, television, film, and music all engaged with the pressing issues of the day. In each of these media, there were performers and creators who were deeply engaged with such issues as the civil rights movement, the push to end American involvement in the war in Vietnam, or the quest for individual identity. These works or programs resonated with people who had similar concerns and thus they came to stand as symbols of the decade. In addition, there were a number of performers and producers whose sole intention was to entertain. Their creations, whether they were television programs, films, or songs, allowed viewers and listeners to escape to more lighthearted pleasures. Engaging with and helping people escape from the complex political and social issues of the day, American popular entertainment truly served the interests of all variety of Americans.

Television in the 1960s

By the beginning of the 1960s, television had become perhaps the single most important source of entertainment and news for Americans. It was estimated that in 1960 some 90 percent of American homes had at least one television set, up from 20 percent just ten years before. Though there were many televisions, there were not many TV channels. Most televisions only offered channels 2 through 13, and the three major television networks—ABC, CBS, and NBC—offered the vast majority of programming. TV viewers received their signal from a local broadcasting station, for there was not yet satellite or cable TV.

Critics complained that, with few exceptions, the programming offered on American television was junk. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Newton Minow (1926–), who took office in 1960 with the Kennedy administration, hoped to use the persuasive power of his position to convince broadcasters to create better programming. In a 1961 speech to broadcasters quoted in his book, Abandoned in the Wasteland, Minow proclaimed: "When television is good, nothing … is better. But when television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite you to sit down in front of your television set when your station goes on the air and stay there without a book, magazine, newspaper, profit-and-loss sheet or rating book to distract you—and keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that you will observe a vast wasteland."

Minow's speech attracted much attention—especially his dramatic phrase "vast wasteland"—but it did little to change American television. For better or worse, American television was driven by commercial concerns. Programming was paid for by advertising, and advertisers knew the kinds of programs they preferred: safe, family-oriented shows that would draw the largest audience and offend no one. Increasingly, advertisers and programmers used a rating system devised by Arthur Neilsen to measure which shows people preferred to watch and thus which shows advertisers wanted their ads to appear on. Over time, Nielsen ratings became the standard measure of a show's success.

Driven by ratings and by the needs of advertisers, the networks gave people what they seemed to want: Westerns, family-based situation comedies, game shows, variety shows, and all manner of light, unchallenging entertainment. In addition to the shows mentioned in the sidebar, popular programs from the decade included one about a talking horse (Mister Ed), a beautiful young witch trying to live a normal human life (Bewitched), a friendly dolphin (Flipper), and seven stranded castaways on an uncharted desert isle (Gilligan's Island), among many others. Children were bombarded with cartoons on Saturday mornings, and housewives enjoyed daytime talk shows and soap operas. Not until the late 1960s did Americans begin to experience more diversity in their programming. In 1967 President Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973; served 1963–69) introduced the Public Broadcasting System, giving Americans a real alternative to commercial television programming. Also, networks began to introduce somewhat more imaginative and daring programming, encouraged as they were by the success of the racy, political content in the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In.

The Most Popular TV Shows of the 1960s

A sampling of the most popular television shows from 1961, 1965, and 1969 reveals a great deal about America's viewing preferences. First, Americans loved Westerns: Gunsmoke was the top-rated show in 1961, followed by Wagon Train and Have Gun Will Travel; Bonanza took top billing in 1965 and remained near the top for nearly ten years; in 1969, both Bonanza and Gunsmoke were among the top six shows. These shows were not mere fluff, as some have complained of television in the 1960s. These Westerns dealt with moral issues. Because the shows were set well in the American past, producers and writers could probe such issues without coming too close to the troubling political issues of the day.

Also popular were family-based situation comedies. The Andy Griffith Show, its spinoff Gomer Pyle (U.S.M.C.), The Real McCoys, I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Mayberry R.F.D., Peyton Place II, Family Affair, and The Beverly Hillbillies all occupied spots in the top ten during the decade. Ranging from sincere shows illustrating moral lessons (The Real McCoys) to the sheer goofiness of a suddenly wealthy family of hillbillies adjusting to their new life in Beverly Hills (The Beverly Hillbillies), such shows stayed well away from the serious issues of the day and were great favorites of advertisers.

There was life in TV beyond situation comedies and Westerns. Variety shows sometimes cracked the top ten in ratings, with The Red Skelton Hour reaching sixth in 1965 and Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In taking the top spot in 1969. These shows combined comedy, music, and improvisational skits. Another favorite of the era was crime dramas; The Untouchables reached eighth in 1961, and The Fugitive was fifth in 1965. In 1961 a game show, The Price Is Right, placed ninth, becoming one of the rare game shows to place in the top ten. The original Price Is Right aired from 1957 to 1965; revived in 1972 with Bob Barker (1923?–) as host, the game show continued to run into the new century.

Some of the highest quality television programming in the 1960s was found on the network news programs. The networks had a great deal to cover in the 1960s. From the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, to the many dramatic events of the civil rights movement, to frontline action in the Vietnam War (1954–75), network news programs offered detailed, compelling coverage that brought these important events into American homes. In fact, many historians believe that national news coverage of the beatings of civil rights marchers by white policemen and of the violence of the Vietnam War helped strengthen public opinion around these issues in ways that could not have happened before the widespread use of television. One example of the power of television news came in 1967, when highly respected American newsman Walter Cronkite (1916–), anchor of CBS Evening News, voiced his opinion at the end of one broadcast that the war in Vietnam was a stalemate and that the United States should negotiate a withdrawal. It was suspected that Cronkite's statement and its assumed effect on public opinion was a key factor in President Johnson's decision not to seek reelection in 1968.

Movies in the 1960s

In many ways, the American film industry had lost its way in the 1960s. The rise of television in the 1950s had presented the industry with a huge challenge. Now that most Americans could be entertained at home with their television, moviemakers could not count on the enormous audiences that had made them rich in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. The entire movie industry reorganized in what is widely known as the death of the studio system. Before the 1960s, the studio system described how giant movie companies, or studios, operated. Studios produced and distributed movies, and they managed the careers of most movie stars. By the 1960s, however, most movies were produced independently and sold to the studios for distribution, and it was this arrangement that represented the death of the studio system. Taken together, the death of the studio system and the rise of television were the forces that shaped the movies of the period.

The big movie studios did not withdraw from producing movies altogether. Instead, they focused their efforts on making movies that were clearly different than TV fare: big budget epics. With casts of thousands, lavish sets, distant locations, and the biggest stars, pictures such as Ben-Hur (1959), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), and Cleopatra (1963) were far more spectacular than anything offered on the small screen. They cost a good deal more to make—Ben-Hur cost $15 million to make, while Cleopatra cost $37 million—but they also brought the kinds of profits that otherwise remained out of the reach of the studios.

Rating the Movies

Movie censorship—rules to forbid certain kinds of material—has a history nearly as long as moviemaking itself. Following a series of scandals and scandalous movies made in Hollywood in the 1920s, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA; the film world's governing body) instituted the Production Code, which placed strict limits on the sexuality, violence, and "incorrect" moral lessons that could be shown in movies. By the 1960s, however, the Code had become ineffective. Cultural standards for what was acceptable were changing fast, and people wanted to have access to movies that reflected the way people really lived—including nudity, homosexuality, and violence.

In November of 1968, the MPAA began a voluntary ratings system. Movies could be rated G, for general audiences; M, for mature audiences (this rating was later changed to PG, for parental guidance; the PG-13 rating came in 1984 to indicate to parents that some material was not for children under thirteen); R, for restricted, meaning that anyone under seventeen must be accompanied by an adult; and X, meaning children under seventeen not admitted. Though the system was voluntary, moviemakers of the 1960s felt that they had to submit their film for a rating in order to reach a mass audience. The ratings system continued into the early 2000s. Typically, only foreign films and pornography are released without a rating.

The withdrawal of the big studios from movie production did not mean an end to filmmaking by any means. Instead, it meant that an increasing number of films were made by independent producers who either sought financing from the studios or financed their films on their own. The result was a real diversity in the kinds of films that were made. Some were cheaply produced and designed to appeal to specific limited audiences. American International Pictures, for example, specialized in making "beach films," such as Beach Party (1963), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965), and horror films, including Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959), Die, Monster, Die! (1965), and Queen of Blood (1966). Inexpensively made and poorly acted, these films nevertheless show eye-catching subjects—like girls in bikinis and scary monsters. Other movies were imported from abroad, including a series of immensely popular movies from England starring the fictional character James Bond.

The rise of independently produced movies definitely pushed the market to explore more controversial social issues. Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) featured a call girl heroine who has a life that ends up happily (previously, anyone guilty of moral trespass would be punished in the end); The Carpetbaggers (1964) included the first instance of nudity in a Hollywood film; and Midnight Cowboy (1969), starring Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight, had homosexual content. The latter movie earned an X rating, automatically granted to any movie with homosexual references, which were still very much taboo in the 1960s. Several of the more controversial films from the 1960s are now considered classics of American cinema. The Graduate (1967), for example, depicted the gulf that divided the generations in the 1960s, and Easy Rider (1969) captured the rebellious spirit of two hippie dropouts as they ventured across a hostile American landscape. Other notable films from the 1960s are Psycho (1960), Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), Bonnie and Clyde (1967), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and Planet of the Apes (1968).

Popular music in the 1960s

If there was a medium that truly reflected the diversity and vibrancy of American culture in the 1960s it was popular music. The decade began amid fears that rock'n'roll was dead. This new musical form, born in the 1950s, seemed to be in decline, and more established musical genres like jazz, swing, and pop crooning by the likes of Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett enjoyed resurgence. But rock's decline was short-lived. Beginning with the dance craze started by Chubby Checker's popular 1960 song "The Twist," rock'n' roll went through a remarkable transformation, splintering off in a dozen different directions. By the end of the decade, rock'n' roll, in its many forms, was by far the most popular music in America.

Rock music was given a tremendous boost beginning in 1963 with the emergence of the Beatles, a British rock group that many consider the greatest band of all time. The Beatles made their first visit to the United States in 1964, thrilling teen audiences with such songs as "Love Me Do," "Please Please Me," "She Loves You," and "I Want to Hold Your Hand." They were simple love songs, expertly performed and artfully arranged, and they launched a revolution in music. The Beatles remained at the top of the American music charts throughout the decade, even as their music became much more complicated and harder edged. They also triggered what became known as the British Invasion, the U.S. introduction of other British rock bands such as the Rolling Stones and the Animals.

The Beatles opened a space in American popular music for innovation, and a number of distinctive sounds developed to fill that space. The Beach Boys from southern California combined beautiful harmonies with catchy rhythms to create such songs as "I Get Around" and "Good Vibrations"; their unique sound helped create a genre of its own known as surf music. In the late 1960s, several bands based in San Francisco, California, began to diverge significantly from the lighter rock sounds of the Beatles and the Beach Boys. Performers such as the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Janis Joplin introduced harder-edged guitar playing, driving beats, and more socially conscious lyrics. Closely associated with the drug-using culture of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, these bands played what was known as psychedelic rock, named after the hallucinogenic drugs favored by hippies. Perhaps the most notable musician of this form of music was Jimi Hendrix, whose guitar playing prowess amazed and delighted many audiences.

Some of the most original and popular music of the 1960s was produced by Motown Records in Detroit, Michigan. Created by African American producer Berry Gordy Jr. (1929–) in 1959, Motown produced fifty-six number-one hits during the decade. Motown's top acts were Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, the Four Tops, Martha and the Vandellas, and Smokey Robinson. Though very few of the songs produced by Motown commented directly on the evolving civil rights movement,

Woodstock and Altamont

Two music festivals held in 1969 at opposite ends of the nation captured the promise and tragedy of the youthful hope that emerged during the 1960s that music could change the world. Woodstock, held in August 1969 in a farm field near Woodstock, New York, was promoted by four young businessmen hoping to host a three-day festival celebrating peace and music. From modest early plans the festival soon ballooned in size and scope. Festival planners booked some of the greatest musical acts of the era, including The Who; Jimi Hendrix; Janis Joplin; Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young; Joe Cocker; and Santana. But they did not anticipate the size of the crowd that gathered. An estimated 500,000 people descended on the event, quickly overwhelming all plans for traffic, food, and accommodations. For three days, through rain and shine, concertgoers dug the music in a general spirit of happiness and peace. Though conservative observers were horrified at open displays of nudity and drug use, many felt that the concert proved the positive spirit of the age. Woodstock was, in many ways, a symbolic high point of the 1960s.

If Woodstock was the high point, Altamont was the low point. Held just a few months later, on December 6, 1969, at the Altamont Speedway near Livermore, California, the concert was organized by the British rock band the Rolling Stones as a free concert for their fans. The show included many of the bands that had played at Woodstock and promised to attract nearly as many peace-loving hippies as the earlier concert. But there was a serious complication: concert organizers had hired the Hell's Angels motorcycle gang to act as security. The Angels, known at the time for their violent and illegal behavior, accepted their payment in beer and soon got out of hand. Concertgoers who ventured too close to the stage were beaten. During the Rolling Stones' set, Hell's Angels stabbed and kicked to death one young man, and the violence grew so intense that the concert came to a halt. Just as Woodstock was seen as a high point, Altamont signaled to many that the era of peace and love was over.

the very existence of a black record company producing hits by black artists helped convince many that African Americans deserved equal status in American society.

Though rock and its variations dominated the radio airwaves during the decade, folk music also enjoyed a surprising popularity. Folk music had existed in the United States since the founding of the nation; in its early forms it was just the simple music made by common people and played on acoustic instruments. The folk revival of the late 1950s and 1960s began when such groups as the Weavers and the Kingston Trio recorded older tunes from the 1930 and 1940s. It was Bob Dylan (1941–) who truly revolutionized the genre, however. Dylan was deeply influenced by Woody Guthrie (1912–1967), whose songs from the 1930s protested living conditions during the Great Depression (a period of economic distress that lasted from 1929 to 1941). Dylan brought direct social commentary back to folk music. In songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a Changin'," Dylan called for an end to war and discrimination. Dylan eventually created a new form, folk rock, when he used an electric guitar instead of conventional acoustic instruments to play his music. Folk musician Joan Baez (1941–) was the female counterpart to Dylan, and the two toured together on occasion. More than any other genre in the 1960s, folk music was the music of liberal ideals, as folk singers of all sorts supported civil rights and sang out against the Vietnam War.