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1960 - 1969

The sixties were the age of youth, as70 million children from the post-war baby boom became teenagers and young adults. The movement away from the conservative fifties continued and eventually resulted in revolutionary ways of thinking and real change in the cultural fabric of American life. No longer content to be images of the generation ahead of them, young people wanted change. The changes affected education, values, lifestyles, laws, and entertainment. Many of the revolutionary ideas which began in the sixties are continuing to evolve today .

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ARCHITECTURE

Architecture in the sixties was undergoing a refinement of and a move to an even more streamlined contemporary look. Tall buildings or skyscrapers created a distinctly American structural type. such as , and John Burgee, of Johnson & Burgee (Kline Biological Tower), are some of the architects who designed office buildings which helped create a different look for the skylines of large cities. Architects used light and space, for example the Cleo Rogers Memorial Library by I.M. Pei , to create buildings which were adapted for the activities which took place in them. The influence of space and futuristic design was apparent in some public buildings like the NASA complex at , Texas . created the Memorial Arch in St. Louis, Missouri in 1965. Walter Gropius designed the Pan Am Building ( now called the Met Life Building ) in 1963 with and Emery Rothe & Sons. Louis I. Kahn in his Kimbell Art Museum of Ft. Worth and other buildings brought a feeling of austerity to American architecture. wrote Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture in 1966 and called for a change in the reductive simplicity of Modernism, beginning a protest in the late 60's. Perhaps one of the most well known and influential architects whose career began to rise in the sixties is I. M. Pei . Peter Eisenman and Frank O. Gehry are architects who have become world famous for their distinctive designs and who began making names for themselves during this time . Designers like Herman Miller left their mark on furnishings. Sleek contemporary styles like those by Verner Panton have translated well into future decades of furniture.

ART

As in the fifties, art in America of the sixties was influenced by the desire to move into the modern age or future which the space age seemed to forecast. Major works by Alexander Calder (mobiles and sculpture) or Helen Frankenthaler (non- representational art) showed a desire to escape from details to interpret. Artists wanted to inspire the viewer to leap into the unknown and experience art in their own way. A new artist who appeared was Andy Warhol, a leading name in pop art. Other forms evolving during this time were assemblage art, op art (or optical art) (ex. Vasarely ), or kinetic abstraction (ex. Marcel Duchamp ), environmental art (ex. Robert Smithson ), and pop art , (ex. David Hockney ).

BOOKS ON ART AND ARCHITECTURE:

• N 6490 .L792 Visual Arts in the Twentieth Century History of art in the 20th Century which includes all art forms and architecture. Set up chronologically by decade. • N 6512.5 .P6 P63 Pop Art A Critical History Nicely covers this form of art and the artists • N 6512.5 .M63 F56 Art Since 1940 strategies of being Chapters 9 and 10 cover the sixties. Chapter 11 gives info on the transition to the seventies • N 6537 .W28 A4 America of the Sixties Books like this one go into great depth on the career of a single artist and his work. FADS & FASHION

FADS

Youth predominated the culture of the 1960's. The post World War II Baby Boom had created 70 million teenagers for the sixties, and these youth swayed the fashion, the fads and the politics of the decade. California surfers took to skateboards as a way to stay fit out of season, and by 1963, the fad had spread across the country. Barbie dolls, introduced by Mattel in 1959, became a huge success in the sixties, so much so that rival toy manufacturer Hasbro came up with G. I. Joe, 12 inches tall and the first action figure for boys. Another doll, the troll or Dammit doll (named for it's creator, Thomas Dam) was a good luck symbol for all ages. Slot cars overtook toy trains in popularity.

COSTUMES / FASHION

The 1960's began with crew cuts on men and bouffant hairstyles on women. Men's casual shirts were often plaid and buttoned down the front, while knee-length dresses were required wear for women in most public places. By mid-decade, miniskirts or hot pants, often worn with go-go boots, were revealing legs, bodywear was revealing curves, and women's hair was either very short or long and lanky. Men's hair became longer and wider, with beards and moustaches. Men's wear had a renaissance. Bright colors, double-breasted sports jackets, polyester pants suits with Nehru jackets, and turtlenecks were in vogue. By the end of the decade, ties, when worn, were up to 5" wide, patterned even when worn with stripes. Women wore peasant skirts or granny dresses and chunky shoes. Unisex dressing was popular, featuring bell bottomed jeans, love beads, and embellished t-shirts. Clothing was as likely to be purchased at surplus stores as boutiques. Blacks of both genders wore their hair in an afro.

LINKS

• Costumer's Manifesto | Links to world wide of fashion . Good ones. • Baby Boomers Headquarters | a site on the decade. Includes an interesting quiz on happenings from 1960-1969. • The Sixties Project | the Viet Nam generation • Badfads | Descriptions of the styles of the sixties • Hairstyle history gallery | Online costume and hair gallery • Sixties City | Culture, music, history. A little of everything. HISTORIC EVENTS AND TECHNOLOGY

The Civil Rights movement made great changes in society in the 1960's. The movement began peacefully, with Martin Luther King and Stokely Carmichael leading sit- ins and peaceful protests, joined by whites, particularly Jews. Malcolm X preached about Black Nationalism. After his assassination, the Black Panthers were formed to continue his mission. In 1965, the Watts riots broke out in Los Angeles. The term "blacks" became socially acceptable, replacing "Negroes."

The number of Hispanic Americans tripled during the decade and became recognized as an oppressed minority. Cesar Chavez organized Hispanics in the United Farm Workers Association. American Indians, facing unemployment rates of 50% and a life expectancy only two-thirds that of whites, began to assert themselves in the courts and in violent protests.

The Presidential Commission of the Status of Women (1963) presented disturbing facts about women's place in our society. Betty Friedan, Pauli Murray and Gloria Steinem, (National Organization for Women) questioned the unequal treatment of women, gave birth to Women's Lib, and disclosed the "glass ceiling." The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was amended to include gender. The birth control pill became widely available and abortion for cause was legalized in Colorado in 1967. In 1967, both abortion and artificial insemination became legal in some states.

The Supreme Court decided in Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421, 1962, that prayer in the public schools was unconstitutional. As the 1960's progressed, many young people turned from mainstream Protestant religions to mystic eastern religions such as Transcendental Meditation (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi) or Zen Buddhism. Respect for authority declined among the youth, and crime rates soared to nine times the rate of the 1950's. Marijuana use soared. Well known Harvard psychologist Timothy Leary encouraged the use of LSD as a mind- opening drug. The hippie movement endorsed drugs, rock music, mystic religions and sexual freedom. They opposed violence. The Woodstock Festival at which 400,000 young people gathered in a spirit of love and sharing, represents the pinnacle of the hippie movement. Many hippies moved to Haight Ashbury in San Francisco, East Village in New York City, or lived in communes. When Fidel Castro, soon after overtaking Cuba, declared that he was a communist, the United States broke off diplomatic relations. Castro seized American property. The CIA attacked Cuba in an ill-fated mission at the Bay of Pigs. In 1962, a spy plane identified long range missiles in Cuba. President John F. Kennedy readied troops to invade Cuba, and the Soviet Union prepared to fire at US cities if we made a move.

John F. Kennedy was young and charismatic, and his brief reign as president was often called Camelot. He was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963. His Vice President, Lyndon B. Johnson became president, and was reelected the following year. To prevent communist North Vietnam from overtaking South Vietnam, the United States sent military advisors and then soldiers. It was largely a secret war until 1965, when massive troop buildups were ordered to put an end to the conflict. The draft was accelerated and anti-war sentiment grew in the US. College students organized anti-war protests, draft dodgers fled to Canada, and there were reports of soldiers reflected the growing disrespect for authority, shooting their officers rather than follow orders. Johnson, blamed by many for the war and the racial unrest in the country, did not run for reelection in 1968. John Kennedy's brother, Robert campaigned for the nomination for President and he, too was killed. Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965 and Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968.

The Space Race, begun by the Soviets in 1957, was highlighted by Alan Shepard, the first American in space in 1961. In 1963, John Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, in Apollo XI, were the first men to walk on the moon in 1969. The surgeon general determined that smoking was a health hazard, and in 1965 required cigarette manufacturers to place warnings on all packages and in all ads. The first clone of a vertebrate, a South African tree frog, was produced in 1967. Dr. Denton Cooley implanted the first artificial heart in a human, and it kept the patient alive for three days until a human heart could be transplanted.

People became more concerned with their health and their environment. Rachel Carson's Silent Spring awakened the environmental movement and the Sierra Club gained a following. Ralph Nader's book, Unsafe at any Speed , led to the consumer movement.

Important Historic and Cultural Events 1961 - Peace Corps created by Pres. Kennedy 1963 - Martin Luther King delivers his I have a dream speech 1963 - Pres. John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas 1963 - Lyndon Johnson becomes President of the United States

LINKS

• Historical Atlas of the 20th Century | Collection of maps and stats of the 20th century • Early Information and Technology | Pictures and essays from Library of Congress. • Genealogy Guide | Helpful guide for locating past people, places and events.

MUSIC

In 1960, Elvis returned to the music scene from the US Army, joining the other white male vocalists at the top of the charts; Bobby Darin, Neil Sedaka, Jerry Lee Lewis, Paul Anka, Del Shannon and Frankie Avalon. America, however, was ready for a change. The Tamla Motown Record Company came on the scene, specializing in black rhythm and blues, aided in the emergence of female groups such as Gladys Knight and the Pips, Martha and the Vandellas, the Supremes, and , as well as some black men, including Smoky Robinson, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, and the Temptations. Bob Dylan helped bring about a folk music revival, along with Joan Baez and Peter, Paul & Mary. The Beach Boys began recording music that appealed to high schoolers. The Beatles, from England, burst into popularity with innovative rock music that appealed to all ages. The Righteous Brothers were a popular white duo who used African American styling to create a distinctive sound.

There was a major change in popular music in the mid-1960's, caused in part by the drug scene. Acid Rock, highly amplified and improvisational, and the more mellow psychedelic rock gained prominence. When the Beatles turned to acid rock, their audience narrowed to the young. Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead grew out of the counterculture in 1967. The musical phenomena of the decade was Woodstock, a three day music festival that drew 400,000 hippies and featured peace, love, and happiness...and LSD. Folk music contributed to the counterculture. THEATER, FILM, RADIO, and TELEVISION

By 1960, Broadway productions had become prohibitively expensive for adventurous offerings, and producers resorted to musicals and works proven elsewhere. It was a great decade for musicals, including Camelot, Hello Dolly, Oliver, Man of La Mancha, Hair, and Funny Girl . Even Off-Broadway was feeling the economic pinch. leading to the advent of off-off-Broadway, where innovative shows and new writers could get a start. Theater expanded outside New York City, and by 1966 for the first time, more actors were employed outside New York City than in it. The most prestigious playwright of the sixties is , who wrote Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. (...) Television offered the second prime time cartoon show, the Flintstones , in 1960. (The first was Rocky and his Friends in 1959.) It appealed to both children and adults and set off a trend that included Alvin & the Chipmunks , the Jetsons , and Mr. Magoo. The Andy Griffith Show was the epitome of prime time family television, and ran for most of the decade. The Beverly Hillbillies was another popular sitcom. The supernatural and science fiction blended in many of the popular shows, including Bewitched, The Addams Family, My Favorite Martian , I Dream of Jeannie, Star Trek, the Outer Limits , and the Twilight Zone. In the late 60's, humor was revived in a show called Rowan and Martin's Laugh In, where many regular performers and guests became part of a show biz classic.