20th Century Media, 1960s: The Satellite Age 043115256X, 0431152705

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Abbreviations: t-top, m-middle, b-bottom, r-right, Stoae

CREDITS :

David West re Children’s Books 7 Princeton Court

55 Felsham Road London SW15 1AZ

Picture Research: Carrie Haines

Designer: Rob Shone Editor: James Pickering First published in Great Britain in 2002 by Heinemann Library, Halley Court, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8EJ, a division of Reed Educational and Professional Publishing Limited. OXFORD MELBOURNE AUCKLAND JOHANNESBURG BLANTYRE GABORONE IBADAN PORTSMOUTH (NH) USA CHICAGO

Cover m, 6bl, 8mr, 8-9 - NASA. Cover bl, 6-7, 7br & bl, 10bl, 19tr, 20bl - Corbis Stock Market. 3, 24 both, 25t & b - The Kobal Collection. 4t, 13t, 141 & 29b Hulton Archive. 4-5b, 5tr, 81, 9bl & m, 12b, 134, 15 all, Tétk 19b, 22°) & b, 23tr, 26bl, 28br, 29m Popperfoto. 5r & b, 10tr, 11ml, 17tr, 18br, 25ml, 26tr, 27r - Vin Mag Archive Ltd. 27m © Robert Crumb/Vin Mag Archive Ltd. 11t - Topham Picturepoint. 11br & 21tr - Redferns. 12tr & 281 - Mirror Syndication International. 17b - The Advertising Archive Ltd. 20tl - Jasper Johns Collection © 2002 and the Estate and Foundation of Andy Warhol. 22tr - National Museum of Photography, Film and Television/SSPL. 28tr Alfred Eisenstaedt/Time Pix/Rex Features.

Copyright © 2002 David West Children’s Books All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored ina retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without either prior written permission of the Publishers or a licence permitting restricted copying in the United Kingdom issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P OLP.

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ISBN 0 431 15256 X (HB) ISBN 0 431 15270 5 (PB)

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Parker, Steve, 1952-

20th century media 1960s: satellite age 1. Artificial satellites - History - Juvenile literature I. Title II. Twentieth-century media 1960s PaFMM ebLie)

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The dates in brackets after a person’s name give the years that he or she lived. An explanation of difficult words can be found in the glossary on page 30.

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TOO OLD Some media experts predicted that television would mean the end of printed media, especially magazines and journals. SPACE RACE

The world was amazed when news broke that the USSR had launched a man into space. Most people expected the USA to achieve this feat first.

THE WORD IS...

DISASTER LOOMS GLOSSARY & TIMELINE

:Werreceive> news, views, : - entertainment and

ee

_ information through the | : media. The mass media include printed newspapers, books, magazines and photos, the broadcast media of radio and television, and — music, movies and art. In 1960, the ~

exciting new medium was TV. It was spreading fast and carried information | in seyeral forms — still or moving images, speech, music and animation. Very importantly, it could be updated in seconds. TV’s impact was massive. It communicated not only news, but the latest trends and fashions. Young

THE BRITISH INVASION In 1964, British music group the Beatles appeared on America’s top-rated Ed Sullivan Show. Through the medium of TV, they reached millions, and changed US popular music overnight.

people, always keen for something new and different, used TV and the eee media at ever-increasing speeds. They-made the ’60s a decade of a fast- changing styles i in’ \ music, movies, art,

:

theatre, clothes — arid

especially haircuts!

‘MY NAME IS BOND...

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James Bond.’ In 2000, cinema-goers and film-—

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makers voted this as the

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performers tested the boundaries of decency and taste, and ran into public outcry and rows over censorship (see page 26).

SPECIAL ISSUES

WCNC RELAZe their printing times, or produced special editions, so ALCL LAO] (Meet aaR OES and pictures of the epic event. Magazines devoted whole issues to the story.

in ete 2000 began, people voted in a huge survey for the media moment of the 20th century. The result was: the Apollo Moon landing on 20 July 1969. This was the first time that eeeyeyls

Many people kept these

from Earth had walked on

ee MACHO RCC ISS LOS as mementos of a very

another world — and it was ; oe

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shown live on television.

‘THE EAGLE HAS LANDED’ The US Apollo 11 mission had blasted off on 16 July. When it reached the Moon, crew members Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin piloted their landing craft Eagle to touchdown on the dusty Sea of Tranquillity, at 4.47 pm US Eastern Daylight Time. Around the world, billions of people sat glued to their television sets.

ASTRO-HEROES

Apollo 11 crew members were (left OMA ELS, commander Neil Armstrong,

LEFT IN ORBIT

Michael Collins

and Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin. All three

Collins received much media NL UCTAED LOLLY LL walked on the Moon. He

became instant global celebrities as

stayed in orbit, in the mothercraft Columbia, as the other

they returned to Earth on 24 July.

two descended in the Eagle.

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Te erate MOMENT The astronauts’ radio reports were accompanied by fuzzy television pictures of clouds of dust blown up from the Moon’s surface. Armstrong confirmed: ‘The Eagle has landed.’ About six hours later, via a television camera attached to the outside of the craft, the world saw him

descend the ladder to stand on the surface. His momentous words: “That’s one small step for (a)

man, one giant leap for mankind’ have become among the best-known in all history.

pss ea Putting men on the Moon was an incredible meatetel triumph. So was showing it on live television. It had taken years of planning to relay the signals back to Earth, then around the globe, by cables and radio links and the relatively new technology of satellites. Clearer, more detailed still photographs were taken by the astronauts, for the world’s media to share. AMERICAN PRIDE In May 1961, President John FE. Kennedy declared the US aim of landing a man on the Moon, and bringing him safely back to Earth, by the end of the decade. The successful landing gave a huge boost . to US national pride in ALAR CLO ACL OLA LETS rival superpower,

the USSR.

MOON-AD MADNESS The Moon mission was the ultimate success

of the time, and the medium of advertising took up the theme at once. Images of rockets, astronauts and spacecraft were used to portray products as the latest in desirable high-tech achievement, even for everyday items like washing powders and conte Pr Using pictures and slogans, the aim was to form a link W es between the Man Bsthe fete , does the«Same fo ICK up a co product and the fantastic success of the moon© moc 00n.

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Drink this coffee and you J too can go to

the Moon!

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Live television reports. from around the world are nothing new today. But in 1960, beaming live TV pictures around the globe was just a dream. Just two years later, the dream came true with a revolution in media

technology. It began with

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the launch of Telstar, the first of the ‘media birds’ — the nickname for communications satellites, or comsats. LIMITED WINDOW Telstar received TV signals

TELSTAR Telstar 1 blasted off on 10 July 1962. It relayed live TV pictures from North

from one side of the

Atlantic, strengthened or 5S OMA—-Zo WMMaP>4n

boosted them, and sent them back down to the

America to

other side. It was the first

Europe, which were received by the huge satellite dish Arthur

TV satellite link between

Europe and North

America. Because of the

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way Telstar orbited Earth, | it was only in the correct position for a limited time in each orbit.

sie at cine Arthur still

receives satellite

signals to this day.

This was its transmission ‘window’. BLAST-OFF FOR SYNCOM

A US Delta rocket at Cape Canaveral, July 1963, blasts off with the second of three experimental Syncom satellites. They were designed to test the idea of GOs (see right). Syncom 2 was ‘parked’ high above the Equator, over Brazil’s east coast, and took part in many successful tests.

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Comsat, the Communications Satellite Corporation, was also formed in 1962. Based in the USA, its aim was to provide satellites for relaying television and radio, and also telephone calls. This new branch of the media business grew fast. By 1965, Comsat had been renamed Intelsat, had 15 member nations and had sent more ‘birds’ into space. TRANS-ATLANTIC

NO MORE

During space missions, ground

The live pictures sent

stations around the world kept in touch with spacecraft, using large receivers. This enabled

by Telstar 1, beginning with this test image of the US

The problem of limited ‘windows’ was

GROUND

CONTROL

Mission Control (above) to

monitor the progress of

spacecraft at all times. A GOOD

WINDOWS

solved in April 1965 with the launch of

Early Bird (later renamed Intelsat I). It : white. Telstar 2 could: |) PUL IU special type of orbit, GO

flag, were black and

relay colour pictures

(see panel below), so it seemed to hang

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satan space when viewed from Earth. It did not need tracking across the sky and was available every hour, every day. Two similar

IDEA

The idea of comsats sending on (relaying or repeating) radio signals, for radio, TV and telephone, was first suggested back in 1945. In the journal Wireless World science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke proposed that a satellite would be like a radio relay station on a very, very, very tall tower.

satellites, Intelsat II and III,

were sent up in 1967 and 1969. They completed a ring around the planet for 24-hour instant worldwide media links.

The Intelsats were put in SOD eo Ee a geostationary orbits, 35,890 kilometres above

the Equator. In this position each orbit takes exactly 24 hours, while the Earth below spins at the same rate. So the satellite _ seems to hover, stationary < above Earth.

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With the first

generation of communications satellites, television and

radio programmes could be sent live around the world in seconds. But broadcast time on these new media

links was limited and precious. What should be shown? GLOBAL INTEREST A global telecom network needed events of world importance. News was one of the main ‘strands’. It concentrated on reports from regions which could receive the broadcasts and where many people had televisions — chiefly Europe, North America, Japan and mT Australasia. Sports were another major strand, and with

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fortunate timing, the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo were the first to be seen by millions, live on television.

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TOKYO OLYMPICS

The Olympic Games in Japan were relayed to North America by the comsat Syncom 3, high over the Pacific Ocean, above the Equator.

Another satellite,

Relay 2, sent them «across the Atlantic to Europe.

HOT NEWS This view of the CBS TV News studio, during the 1968 US presidential election, shows the

mass of cameras, lights, microphones and other vital equipment.

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ENGLAND WIN! Well before pay-perview cable TV, or direct-broadcast satellite TV into the

TELSTAR BECOMES

A STAR

People were so amazed by the idea of live TV links around the globe, that ‘satellite fever’ spread like wildfire. The satellites themselves became celebrities, with stories and songs written about them. In October 1962, the British pop group the Tornados made No. 1 with Telstar. Its spooky, echoing organ sound captured the endless flight of the little satellite in space. Telstar also went to No. 1 in the USA, making the Tornados the first British band to top the American charts.

home, the British

Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

made pictures of the Soccer World Cup available to all.

COLOURFUL MEXICO Two years later, the planet’s second-biggest sports event, the Soccer World Cup, was beamed out live from England to more than 50 countries. The 1968 Olympic Games from Mexico City went one better — the pictures were in colour. During the 1960s, and as usual starting in the USA, many people switched from

black-and-white to colour TV sets.

MOLNIYA The comsat revolution began in the West. But to the East, the superpower of the USSR was not idle. From 1965, it launched its own ‘birds’, the Molniyas (‘Lightnings’). These had military as well as civilian uses. Because comsats in GO (see page 9) are above the Equator, places to the far north and south of the planet have trouble receiving their signals. Much of the USSR is very northern. The Molniya satellites had 12-hour orbits. Each was switched on as it came into

position, then off as the next one took its place.

‘OUR WORLD’

To celebrate the second Intelsat ‘hook-up’ in 1967, a live TV show was

organized with contributions from many different countries. In London

the Beatles sang their latest record, All You Need Is Love to more than 300 million viewers.

ROGRAMME WARS

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Entertainment media, and

1960s

especially television, have responsibilities. They capture big audiences with game shows, light entertainment and comedy. But they also have a role to present more informative programmes on history, world events, culture and the arts. THE FIGHT FOR VIEWERS In the USA during the 1960s, some people began to feel that fierce rivalry between the big networks was lowering programme quality. Trivial variety acts, talk

BEVERLY HILLBILLIES This long-running comedy (1961-72) topped US ratings for two years. “Pee

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y were they ‘dumbing down’ the nation’s intelligence and level of education?

ED SULLIVAN The Ed Sullivan Show was known for booking people just as they gained great fame. In 1964, Ed presented the Beatles to 73 million US viewers.

‘“HEEEEEERE’S JOHNNY’

NBC’s Tonight Show made Johnny Carson TV’s highestpaid performer. He took over as host in 1962,

mixing sly humour with celebrity guests. PUPPET FUN

Before computer animation, string

puppets scored hits like Thunderbirds and Stingray.

PBS ARRIVES In 1967, a US committee produced a Carnegie Report into TV broadcasting. It advised setting up a fourth national network, in addition to the commercially-driven ABC, CBS and NBC. This was : the PBS, the Public Broadcasting System. It was formed from many non-profit educational and cultural TV stations already in existence across the nation. It was to be non-commercial, and so similar to the BBC in the UK. Its funds came from the : government, viewer donations and private sources.

EDUCATIONAL - eeBUT FUN! One of PBS’s early hits, from 1969, was

sae Sefer made bpthe Childrens Television Workshop. Aimed at the 3-5 years age group, it borrowed methods from advertising. Obvious humour,

cartoons, costumes, puppets and real children combined to make amusing, yet educational, programmes. These helped WaisioS lk chee Ie aine toeSunt.

MORE COMMERCIALS In the UK, the opposite was happening. The statefunded BBC was being challenged by the commercial network Independent Television (ITV). As the BBC reacted with more mass-appeal shows, a second channel, BBC2, was added. Like PBS, this showed less mainstream programmes on science, history, classical music, arts and literature.

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Any decade has momentous

events which are communicated Communist governments, as in

by news

media.

Poland, tightly controlled articles in newspapers and magazines.

But the 1960s

seemed to have more than its fair share of dramatic news. THE COLD WAR The 1960s saw the height of the ‘Cold War’. The capitalist USA and its friendly Western European nations

cherished their democracy and freedom. The communist USSR and its Eastern allies preferred high levels of state control. The two

superpowers

never

Came

into

direct battle. But they supported opposing sides in many regional conflicts, and they waged campaigns against each other through the media.

POWER OF THE PRESS One of many East-West differences was in their news media, known as ‘the press’ (from newspaper printing presses). There — , were many press agencies in the West. Each produced its own rt = version of the news, in its own style, provided the facts were : :

KENNEDY SHOT US President

Kennedy was shot dead on 22 November PGaaa

\ | Dallas, Texas. Within ies it d reports. Normal TV schedules were

suspended for days as the nation mourned.

|“ BREE PRESS "In capitalist nations, newspapers and other news media were subject to little state control.

fairly accurate. In the East, the USSR’s Pravda (‘Truth’) was the one official state newspaper and news agency. Its reports were under strict government control. =>. \/)

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_ BRINK OF NUCLEAR WAR

- One of the scariest moments came in October 1962. The USSR wanted to base nuclear missiles on the Caribbean _ island of Cuba, its communist friend. From here, they could _ easily reach the USA. US President John F. Kennedy sent warships to surround Cuba. The superpowers faced each other. For two weeks the news media were full of terrible predictions of all-out nuclear war. Then USSR leader Nikita Khrushchev agreed to withdraw nuclear

weapons from Cuba. In return, the USA agreed to stop its attempts to weaken or overthrow Cuba’s communist

government.

CZECH INVASION: 1

In August 1968, the USSR invaded its ‘friendly’ neighbour Czechoslovakia. The Czech government had allowed reforms to loosen the communists’ grip ... ‘CZECH INVASION: 2

... and the USSR was worried

_ that other East European “nations might do the same. - Pictures showed unarmed

Czech citizens facing tanks on _ the streets. But Czech leader

_ Alexander Dubcek was soon - removed and the communists - took back control.

FUNNY BUT SERIOUS

The spectre of nuclear war and other frightening events led to a 60s revival in satire, which ridiculed follies and pointless causes. Global nuclear war was one target. What was the point of winning it, when nuclear fallout would make most of the world impossible to inhabit? UK’s Beyond the Fringe satirists (top left, clockwise): Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller, Alan Bennett,

Dudley Moore.

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te Away from thewars and of global politics, the ’60s saw a huge change in popular culture. The West’s social revolution of the 1950s continued as young people gained more time and money. But USinspired rock ’n’ roll, black leather jackets and blue denim jeans were already oldfashioned. As always, the next generation wanted something new. INVASION

DJ POWER

BRITISH

Disc jockeys had much

It came in the shape of the ‘British invasion’, spearheaded by bands such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones (see page 18), and clothes designers like Mary Quant, who devised the miniskirt. London quickly established itself as the world capital of

influence over listeners. Here DJ] Simon Dee interviews

English singer Cliff Richard.

popular culture, with fresh ideas on music; fashion, poetry and art. A new language developed with terms such as ‘groovy’, ‘fab’ (fabulous) and ‘swinging’. The whole decade has gained the nickname of the Swinging Sixties.

SIXTIES SYMBOL Che Guevara aided the communist revolution in Cuba.

§ m@ = On his death in 1967 his rugged, ~ Ma romantic portrait became a $ symbol of ’60s rebellion.

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Drugs-trial quiz today, then final decision

A MATTER OF ATTITUDE Through the various media, especially music and up-to-the-minute TV, ideas spread faster than ever before. With the new culture came different attitudes and morals. The birth control pill (oral contraceptive) became generally available, so sex was less likely to

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lead to pregnancy. Use of non-medical drugs

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became more open and widespread. WHO’S MOST

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Thursday, September 14, 1967

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OLLING STONE Keith Richard wasveluced cotny | to America when he arrived at Kennedy Airport

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FAMOUS?

Stars of music, movies and fashion became

more famous than presidents, kings and queens. However there were many problems. In 1966, John Lennon, a member of the Beatles, was quoted as saying: ‘We’re more popular than Jesus now.’ This casual _ remark, quoted out of context, was seized upon by some in the media as

offensive. Especially in the southern USA, people protested by burning Beatles records. a

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MARTIN AND THE MEDIA

The 1960s saw continuing struggles for the civil rights of poor and racially oppressed people. Nowhere were events reported in more detail than in the USA, with its huge media business. Baptist minister Martin Luther King, Jr. became a campaign figurehead as TV coverage communicated his speeches of great eloquence and enormous power, against the injustices of racial discrimination. In 1964, King received the Nobel Peace Prize and was Time magazine’s Man of the Year. He was shot dead on 4 April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.

ROLLING

STONES - AGAIN | |f @} British rock band | the Rolling Stones ran into trouble with the authorities many times, including

arrests or ‘busts’ for drug use, putting their US tours in doubt. They were defended in « part by respected media figures such as London’s The Times editor | Wen William Rees-Mogg. | | = a

BEATLEMANIA

The Beatles first visited the USA in February 1964. Their images appeared in every imaginable medium, helping to whip up the exciting chaos of ‘Beatlemania’.

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OMEN 1e Popular music altered greatly during the 1960s — not only |

once, but several times. At the start of the decade, best-

sellers were mainly rock ’n’ roll, mushy ballads and novelty songs. In 1963 came the Beatles, and change gathered pace. POPULAR :

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‘POP’

Young people had more leisure time, more money, and also more ways of finding out the latest trends. Television could communicate both sounds and images of performers. New specialist pop music magazines brought the latest information. The vinyl disc ‘single’ (one song per side) was inexpensive. The cassette tape, introduced by Philips in 1963, was another convenient format for music.

MUSIC STYLES Among many ’60s styles were the folk-based and then folk-rock, poetic songs of Bob Dylan, the California ‘surfin’ sound’ of the Beach Boys and soul-based harmony singing of Tamla Motown groups such as the Supremes. CHANGING TIMES British bands like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Who drew much early inspiration from black-origin soul, blues and rock ’n’ roll in the USA. In the later 1960s, more experimental musical styles evolved: the lilting peace anthems of the hippie movement, the wailing, psychedelic sounds of guitar heroes like Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, and heavy rock with Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. Media journalists, as in the USA’s Rolling Stone, discussed events in a

serious, respectful fashion.

Rolling Stone devotes much ofa 1969 issue to British musicians.

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GROUPS RULE The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and other bands of the mid-1960s changed not only musical styles, but the whole business. Previously many top performers were solo singers with songs written, and music played, for them. The new bands wrote their own songs, played their instruments and sang harmonies at the same time, and, sometimes, even produced their own recordings in the studio. Albums, rather than hit singles,

became their focus.

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publications for young people could encourage fan worship to an extreme degree. Crowds of screaming, weeping teenagers followed their heroes’ every step.

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EDIA ART With pop (popular) music came pop art. The ’°60s saw experiments and variety in many artistic media. People sought to throw off tradition and find something new and fresh — and not necessarily serious or lasting. CANS AND BOTTLES Perhaps the best-remembered artistic celebrity of the time was Andy Warhol. After success as a New York commercial

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artist in the 1950s,,he developed methods for silk-screen-printing large, bright photographic images on to canvas, each one slightly different. His subjects : ;

Warhol shunned the art tradition of beautiful, significant ranged from movie stars to comic book images, for pictures from mass media, popular culture and _ W&roes and banal items such as bakedobjects of tedious daily life. He memorably predicted: ‘In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.’ bean cans and fizzy-drink bottles. ‘

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ROY’S WHAAM! Lichtenstein’s comicstrip work Whaam! (1963) caused great controversy among art-lovers. Some believed that works of art should be respectful, precious, serious and unique. Pop artists wanted to avoid pretence and make closer links between art and everyday life. oa

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During endless protests

in the USA against the Vietnam War, peacelovers faced the military — and they could be brothers.

EASIER PHOTOS

During the 1960s, a new type of camera, the Instamatic, became popular. Its roll of photographic film was contained ina lightproof cartridge that simply clipped into the open camera case. This did away with the fiddly process of pulling out the end of the film roll and winding it on to the empty spool. The whole cartridge clipped out again, to develop the images. Photography had never been easier.

BACKGROUND TO THE WAR The Vietnam War was a continuation of the Indo-China

War, when French troops fought communists under Ho Chi Minh. From about 1964, the USA supported South Vietnam against the North Vietnamese communists, who used deadly guerilla tactics in the a ; shadowy, steamy jungles. Photographs in newspapers and magazines brought the horrors of conflict home to the USA and the West, helping to turn public opinion against the war.

NO GLAMOUR Photo-journalism eaten war in Vietnam — a

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dirty, deadly business, without

glamour or romance.

PHOTOGRAPHIC STYLES Photo-journalists followed wars and other events around the world, braving danger an. thes to tell their stories in gripping pictures, for newspaper supplements and magazines. London-born Don McCullin recorded aa in graphic detailae in Cyprus, suffering Vietnam, Congo and other hot-spots. He received 1964’s World Press Photographer PIL IaCMeNeW aeecoye eA photographers such as Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander and Gary Winogrand showed mundane details aC LN mele revealed po aimless lives even in rich cities.

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Light from image

Small and light, the SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera is the main type used by professional photographers on the move. Light from the scene passes through the lenses, reflects off a mirror and is twisted by a prism, so that the viewfinder shows exactly what the picture will record. To ‘snap’ the image, the mirror swings up : petr cage dee for a split-second so that light can hit the film.

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HE BIGSCREEN. 1960s

Like other entertainment media, cinema went through radical changes in the 1960s. Huge attention was paid to

costumes, scenery and set designs, while the

‘message’ could be confused or trivial. Style was often as important as substance. STANLEY KUBRICK In 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), US director Stanley

Kubrick told an Arthur C. Clarke story of ‘ape to spaceman’. The rambling, confusing mass of hypnotic special effects set new styles for the cinema.

NEW WAVE The USA's big film studios in Hollywood had suffered during the 1950s from the growth of television, and campaigns against the supposed communist takeover of the entertainment business. ‘New Wave’ cinema filled the gap with downbeat, personal stories made on location rather than in studios. New Wave began in France and continued with directors such as Francois Truffaut with Jules et Jim (1962), Claude Chabrol’s Li’ Femme Infidele (The Unfaithful Wife, 1968) and Jean-Luc Godard with La Chinoise (Chinese Lady, 1967).

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FRANCOIS TRUFFAUT

FEELGOOD FACTOR A trend in British films was the gritty, realistic drama of workingclass people trying to cope with mundane existence yet rebel

French director Truffaut

against authority, as in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

styles, such as future fiction

(1960). To counteract this everyday depression and restore some

explored various cinema

r wy | i” Fahrenheit 451 (1966), Sa and the dark suspenseI mystery of ‘film noir’ in The bi Bride Wore Black (1968). iy

excitement, glamour and ‘feelgood’ escapism, one of the most f. oh nee Shee '4™ous movie characters of all time made his first appearance in 1962. This was 007 himself, James Bond, in Doctor No.

THE GRADUATE Actor Dustin Hoffman shot to fame as a downtrodden, | awkward college graduate '| trapped in a middle-class world of shallow values and hypocrisy.

‘society, its traditions Lg | and conventions. © Stories reflected new, more liberal lifestyles

MOVIE RATINGS As ’60s film-makers experimented with greater levels of sex, violence and horror,

many countries began new rating systems. These indicated the type of content in each movie. The US Motion Picture Rating System dates from 1968.

with The Graduate (1967), : Midnight Cowboy and Easy _ Rider (both 1969), and the savagely anti-Vietnam War

The rating system replaced the

film M*A*S*H (1970).

Production Code which was written in 1930.

Bonnie and Clyde (1967) was a milestone. This tale of US Depression-era robbers mixed graphic, yet casual, violence with

Suitable

for older children.

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Two motorcyclists cross the USA to a

SUPER-SPY

rock music soundtrack, and cause

Bond movies combined

various reactions with their mix of freedom-loving ‘hippie’ values and shiny-chrome ‘chopper’

exotic locations, clever

machines.

Universal

(suitable for all).

acid humour.

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Adults only.

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gadgets, camp , humour, implied sex and oddly harmless violence. 007 saved the world every time.

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The media of printed

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words need no electronic

communications or costly consumer gadgets. Just the author, the book, the reader’s eyes — and imagination. Many of the strangest and least traditional ideas of the ’60s first spread through print. pens

COUNTER-CULTURE As in other decades, many writers wanted to make their mark by moving in new directions. From the mid-’60s a ‘counter-culture’ grew in strength. It rejected the traditions of settled family life, daily routine, hard work and obeying authority. Nonviolent rebellion was in the air. Drug use was more

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VIOLENT VISION open, especially of marijuana and LSD (‘acid’). Artists, oes ce English author Anthony Burgess wrote musicians and performers joined in. The new many novels, as well as studies of literature and William Shakespeare. A Clockwork catchwords were ‘peace and love’.

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Orange (1962) tells ofa bleak, grim future where violent criminals are brainwashed by what seems an even more violent society.

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BREAKING

OUT

Some authors felt restricted by literary conventions such as keeping fiction separate from non-fiction. Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. 4 Thompson, Joan Didion and Norman \ ‘ Mailer began to mix styles and describe real events using the flowery techniques of storytelling. The fresh approach was known as New Journalism. It had many ON TRIAL| spin-offs into other media — music, poetry, James Anderson, Richard}

Neville and Felix Dennis of the student

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Wleeeed Glandards oPdecency.\

They were convicted in an obscenity trial in 1971.1

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cinema,

art and sculpture. These art forms i

eat often combined into multi-media events, known as ‘happenings’.

- ROBERT CRUMB An artist’s

impression of Tom Wolfe, who

TOM WOLFE

Born in Richmond, Virginia, USA, Wolfe was a leader of New Journalism. His sharp, lively

went on to write

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one of the bestselling books OF the 980s; Bonfire of the

» Vanities.

style observed details of daily life, but with colourful descriptions and exaggerations used by novelists. One of his best-known ’60s works was The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968), about early hippie culture. His

‘Underground’ cartoonists and comic-strip artists

such as Crumb brought aggressive humour to difficult, often taboo or dangerous subjects.

1973 account The

New Journalism looks back at the previous decade.

CATCH-22 Authors used satire (see page 15) to show that authority is often pointless, even stupid. Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 (1961) described how Yossarian, of the US Air Force, tries to avoid flying dangerous missions by saying that he is insane (mad). But the fact that he recognizes the missions are so dangerous, shows that he is really sane. It’s an argument that goes round and round — that’s Catch-22.

MAD MAGAZINE

Especially popular with teenagers, Mad had begun in 1952. In the guise of a comic, it poked serious fun

at the rich and famous.

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Traditional printing, letterpress, used pieces of metal with the shapes of the letters as raised lines. These were coated with ink and pressed on to paper, ready to make the printing plate. In photo-typesetting, which was much faster, the letters are dark shapes on clear film. Light shines through each one in turn, to build up the required words as a kind of photograph, to make the printing plate.

| 1 Letters stored on disc, as dark shapes on seethrough film

2 Light flashes through required letter when it is in line\

shapes shine on to photographic film

3 Lens focuses light beams of lett

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ISASTER LOOMS The 1960s had been a decade of great hi-tech achievement, especially in space — from the first astronaut Yuri Gagarin

1960s ECO-DISASTER

in 1961, to the Apollo Moon

In 1967, supertanker

landing of 1969. The

Proke Torrey up in a Canyon storm and

Concorde and Boeing 747

coated the sea and coasts of South-West England with thick, suffocating oil.

Jumbo

jets also had their first flights in 1969. However,

back on Rachel Carson (1907-64) worked

as a marine biologist in the USA.

calls speact

MOUNTING PROBLEMS ... People were beginning to recognize several interrelated and mounting problems. True, daily life was becoming easier and more convenient, especially in beso" well-off Western nations. But there were growing ger WORT ist piles of waste and polluting chemicals from cars and factories churning out consumer products. As nuclear power stations spread, and nuclear war loomed, radioactive pollution was also a fear. to

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