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11. Up For Grabs: Leaving the 1960s
- The University Press of Kentucky
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II UP ~OR GRADS l~RUinG T~~ 1960s As THE UNITED STATES ENTERED THE 1970S, POPular culture provided wildly different signals about where the nation was headed. In 1970, a ninety-three-page novel with a bland title, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, came out of nowhere to become what Time described as "the decade's pop publishing miracle." According to the author, Richard Bach, the story was about "one little sea gull's search for freedom and his striving to attain perfection." The seagull separated himself from the mundane routines of the other birds, becoming their inspiration, simply because he "loved to fly." Several publishers had rejected the book, and Macmillan released it with almost no fanfare. The fable may have been "a mite too icky poo" for Publishers Weekly, but readers swept it up. The subsequent $1 million paperback rights set a record. While jonathan Livingston Seagull topped the best-seller list, however, Hollywood was making dozens of movies in which the bird's fate would have resembled that of a canary in a polluted mine shaft. On one side, such movies spun grim, often depressing narratives; on the other side, the seagull presented a saga of triumphant escape.1 In such ways, entertainment served as a barometer of-and a refuge from--change. The pace of change and the turmoil accompanying it seemed relentless. The Vietnam War finally ended for U.S. combat troops in 1973, two years before a conclusive Communist victory. Scandals ripped the White House, driving both Vice President Spiro Agnew and President Richard Nixon from office. The movement culture of the 1960s had resulted in major breakthroughs for minorities and women, but debates still raged over questions of racial and sexual identity and justice. The economy , so central to America's post-World War II prominence, turned sluggish , revealing serious vulnerabilities and stirring considerable uneasiness about the future. UP FOR GRABS 395 Such disquietude caused many Americans to embrace spiritual certainties and pursue personal fulfillment, a trend that was evident in the spectacular appeal of Jonathan Livingston Seagull and other best sellers. Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth (1970)-an apocalyptic novel based on biblical prophecy-ultimately became the decade's top seller, reflecting a notable turn to religious answers. Among the leading nonfiction books, almost 15 percent were positive-thinking self-help guides along the lines of I'm OK, You're OK (1969).2 "America Now Up for Grabs," reported the Berkeley Barb. The unsettling prediction followed the Rolling Stones' December 6, 1969, concert at an old racetrack in Altamont, California, during which four people died and hundreds were injured. As the Barb interpreted the situation, the idealism of the 1960s rights revolution and counterculture was over: "Stones Concert Ends It." That ominous forecast was both misplaced and accurate. As the United States moved into the 1970s, the previous decade's ferment continued to spill over. Popular culture in many areas continued to jump with new perspectives, sights, and sounds. At the same time, various aspects of entertainment fragmented, reflecting exhaustion and disillusionment . By the mid-1970s, a retreat to older certainties was under way across much of the amusement world, providing a bridge to the upbeat rhetoric and imagery of Ronald Reagan's presidency in the next decade. But, even then, popular culture summoned up numerous minority reports on the health of the nation.3 In the movie industry, changes in the late 1960s briefly opened the door on a "cinematic golden age," in the minds of many critics. "Directors of that era, unshackled after 30 years of censorship and working before accountants and demographic analysts took over the industry, operated in an atmosphere of relative freedom," according to one of those critics, Mick LaSalle. "The freedom sometimes resulted in excess and self-indulgence, but often in experimentation and triumph."4 Hollywood had, of course, produced earlier examples of socially conscious movies. But what set the so-called New Hollywood apart was the sheer number of such films and their popularity. Right after World War II, noir films had, typically, been B productions. By the early 1970s, however, movies with similar themes of doubt and cynicism were box-office and critical successes. This remarkable moment in movie history was a product of economic and demographic forces, a highly charged political context, and new talent. Economically, Hollywood had been struggling for around two decades to recapture its earlier cultural authority from other amusements, particularly television. By the 1970s, five studios were...