to a $200,000 -a-ycar income. As a diskjockey for New York’s station WINS, his program reaches 12 states and Newfoundland. On tape he’s heard in Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City and over the powerful “We’rc having some fun before Radio Luxemberg throughout BY THE ODORE IRWIN we get too old to enjoy ourselves” Europe and England. His first said one l5 -year-old girl in a recent movie, Rock Around the Clock, has grossed a profit of $3,000,000. PAGEANT JULY 1957 . . Gilbert Youth Research survey. Is rock ‘n’ roll merely harmless On the side, Freed writes songs, teen-age fun? Or is it something makes records, le ads a band, em c e es shows and is a partner in two music more dangerous? Any serious investigation prob- publishing firms and a record com- pany. One of his song-hits, Sincere- ing for the answers to these ques- tions in evitably runs smack into a ly, sold 2,000,000 records. Last IN RECENT YEARS, getting upset year, one of his in-person shows in shrewd, cool-headed, knowledge- over the mysteries of teen-age be- Brooklyn brought out a record able and surprising young man $228,000 crowd in a single week. havior has almost become a na- named Alan Freed. He coined the tional pastime. A noisy crowd is “In this business,” he says can- phrase, “,” and not didly, just a crowd, for instance, unless only sparked the trend but fanned “your career is so short, it’s composed of adolescents and you’ve got to get it from all angles.” it into flame. then it’s labelled a “riot.” And Today, he is the acknowledged To understand the why and how lately, when youngsters get into high priest of the rock ‘n’ roll cult, of rock ‘n’ roll, you’ve got to know troub le , adults groping for a scape- the Pied Piper and dedicated evan- The King. A wiry, int e ns echain- , goat have pointed an accusing fin- gelist of ’ Big Beat. smoking, 35-year-old dynamo, Alan ger at a new “corrupter of youth” “Rock ‘n’ roll is kids,” he says. Freed is actually shyly introverted -that “awful music,” rock n’ roll. despite his “hard-sell” radio tech-, If you have normal hearing, you “It’s not me or or n ique .He’s a devoted family man must be aware of this musical phe- anyone else. The music belongs to with no visible qualities of a ro- nomenon with its undulating, two- them-they had a need for it and mantic idol, and it’s difficult for beat rhythm. Apparently rock 'n ' they discovered it. I don’t set the adults to understand why hordes of pace-these kids do.” roll has no charms to soothe the young girls call him “the greatest, savage breast, for its impact upon Until fairly recently, the name of the most e st.” Before a microphone, youthful masses has been at times Alan Freed had no meaning to however, this rock n' roll spieler explosively violent. In Boston, most adults, despite his astonishing “sends” the younger ge n e ration. As Washington, Minneapolis, Atlanta popularity with the younger gener- a record spins, he slaps out the -across and up-and-down the na- ation. Then, three rock ‘n’ roll characteristic beat on a telephone movies he made for Columbia book, shouts “Go! Go! Go!” or tion -over-exhilarated teenagers in jammed theatres all over the world, “Blow, man, blow !” He has a grand many rock ‘n’ roll audiences have causing “riots” as far off as Paki- time, he says, enjoying the music screeched and screamed, smashed stan. His stage shows and rock ‘n’ along with the kids. windows, thrown beer bottles, About half a million fan letters bowled over police, wrecked thea- roll parties in various cities have and telegrams deluge him during tres and dance halls, and produced stampeded audiences. Last Washington’s Birthday, for a year. Close to 7,000 Alan Freed blaring headlines. Fan Clubs, each with ten to 300 In the frenzy 'n ' furor accom- example, some typically tumultuous members, have sprung up in the panying each breach of peace, hor- scenes enacted in New York’s rified parents, harried police and Times Square, in and around the past couple of years. What, precise- some vocal social scientists have Paramount Theatre. The program ly, is the magnet? included a Freed rock ‘n’ roll movie, viewed such goings-on with alarm. “Teenagers believe in me,” he his 20-piece orchestra, assorted live Elders have fumed, fretted, pon- explains, “because they know I’m entertainers and Freed in-person, tificated and legislated against the their friend and give them the billed as “The King of Rock ‘n’ "craze ." Sporadically, rock ‘n’ roll music they want.” Roll.” Before dawn, at 4:00 A.M., has been officially banned in some To vehement, vitriolic criticism teenagers with lunch-boxes started public places. Eminent psycholo- of rock ‘n’ roll, Freed says he queuing up. During the day, 13,120 gists, sociologists and psychiatrists usually turns the other che e k. But “cats” poured into Times Square, have characterized rock ‘n’ roll as one recent Sunday afternoon, talk- overflowing sidewalks, tying up everything from “adolescent rebel- ing to me while relaxed on a couch traffic, pushing over barriers. As a lion” to “a medieval type of spon- in his studio at home, the King of result, 175 cops were called out. Rock ‘n’ Roll sounded off. taneous lunacy.” Between shows, Freed stepped Yet millions of youngsters vir- “What are those psychologists out through the stage door for a yelling about?” he said. “They don’t tually live by rock 'n’ roll and every breath of air. Instantly, a group of day more and more of them are know these kids and have probably high school students descended on never seen a rock ‘n’ roll show. Our becoming exponents. Ninety per- him. Before he could retreat, they cent of all single records-45 rpm- teenagers aren’t bad-they’re just tore off his jacket, Ivy League cap, enthusiastic. are bought by teenagers and many tie and cuff-links for souvenirs. record companies arc operating on “No music can bc morally bad. “I love it,” he told me later, in Whether he’s playing a ukulele or a three-shift basis to fill orders for the seclusion of his Stamford, rock 'n' roll. The young devotees listening to rock ‘n’ roll records, a Conn., home “I love being mobbed will tell you that disapproving child is cutting his teeth on music, by kids. I wouldn’t want it to stop.” and I say he’s on the path to finer “middle-aged” people - anyone It 's understandable that such over 25-are hopeless squares who music. In fact, one recent survey adulation is welcomed by Freed. fail to keep up with the times and revealed that about 37 percent of Virtually overnight, this super- teenagers enjoy opera or classical now condemn what they don’t salesman has parlayed rock ‘n’ roll understand. records as well as rock ‘n’ roll.” Undeniably, Freed had some- Freed is honestly convinced that called off. But apparently the crowd thing. Throughout the country, a rock ‘n’ roll is “good” for children had such a grand time breaking strong upsurge of interest in all and he backs up his contention with into the Arena that no one asked kinds of music has been reported. piles of fan letters. Boys have writ- for his money back. “Rock ‘n’ roll was discovered by ten that once they hung around Thereafter, Freed staged eight the kids themselves,” Freed went street corners at night and now they rcscrvcd-seat shows, all sell-outs. on. “They feel it’s new; for their stay home with their rock ‘n’ roll His fame spread to New York and generation alone. Before it came records. Many teenagers write in I954 came the inevitable high- along, they were starved for enter- something like this: “My parents priced deal for a rock n’ roll disk tainment. The ballad-type music are too busy going to parties. If I jockey show on WINS. Four they’d been hearing was too soupy didn’t have rock ‘n’ roll, I don’t months later, he threw two rock ‘n’ and languid for dancing. Tele- know what I’d do,” roll dances at the St. Nicholas vision offered very little musical Rock ‘n’ roll burst upon the Arena in New York. variety for them. So when they en- nation, via Freed, virtually by acci- “In a way,” he recalls, “those St. countered the powerful, affirmativc dent. Until then, he was an ob- Nick dances were the turning point. beat of rock ‘n’ roll, it was like scure toiler on the airwaves. You see, those affairs ap- making an exciting discovery.” Born in Johnstown, Pa., of a pealcd most to colored people. In To show how rock ‘n’ roll “be- Welsh mother and a Lithuanian fact, after I ran them, I received longs" to the youngsters, Freed Jewish father, a clothing salesman, batches of poison-pen letters calling cited scores of simple songs aimed Alan was raised largely in Salem, me a ‘nigger-lover.’ But at the St. directly at them: Teen-Age Crush, . At 12, he took to the trom- Nick the audiences were about 70 Young Love, Sitting in the Bal- bone, soon organized a high-school percent white and 30 percent cony, Teen-Age Prayer. Many of band, and played dance dates at Negro. This was the first inkling I the popular rock ‘n’ roll perform- fifty cents a man. With his carn- had that white people enjoyed ers arc their peers, groups such as inqs. he traveled as far as 200 . Rock ‘n’ roll had The Six Teens, The Teenagers miles to stand in line for hours to moved out of the limited ‘race’ clas- watch Benny Goodman or Artie and The Teen Chords. sification into big business.” “Like adolescents of every gen- Shaw. In those days he, too, used to Freed has four children, ranging dance in theatrc aisles and grown- eration,” Freed pointed out, “to- in age from two to eleven. All of day’s teenagers have a need to be ups were blasting swing as a danger- them, he contends, are rock ‘n’ part of something vital, reach out ous evil. rollers; even the youngest, Alan, for some form of group participa- At Ohio State, where he studied Jr., “shakes his butt” in rhythm to tion. Rock 'n' roll gives it to them. mechanical engineering and hated the music. On every show he talks They also have to blow off steam it, Freed one dav peered through about his children and his wife, and rock ‘n’ roll is a harmless way of the window of the campus radio Jackie. A sleek, Vogue-type beauty, using up excess energy. station. “That was it-1 was gone,” Jackie helps handle Freed’s mail, “Our in-person shows, for in- hc recalls. After a brief stretch in accompanies him to his in-person stance, are a wonderful outlet. the Army and as an ordnance in- shows and always gets a big hand When performers come on stage, spector, he landed a $l7-a-week when she’s introduced to the audi- the children jump and scream, radio job in which he did evcry- ence. Almost every fan letter ends drowning out the entertainers. thing from sweeping floors to writ- with, “Give my love to Jackie and Why? Because the kids’ have lis- ing continuity and acting as en- the little Freeds.” tened to records of those songs and gineer for his shows. This is the famiIy man whom know every note and word, so they For a while Freed was a sports detractors charge is demoralizing do the pcrforming. The show is in announcer and disk jockey in American youth_ the audience, not on the stage. Akron, then moved on to WJW in Near his renovated 16-room “Youngsters today are happy be- Cleveland. One day in 1951, he mansion overlooking Long Island cause of rock ‘n’ roll. That’s what was approached by his friend, Leo Sound in an exclusive section of many parents don’t realize. The Mintz, owner of Ck!vcland’s largest Stamford, Conn., Freed has fixed up kids are happy about their music record shop. Mintz had noticed an old stable as his broadcasting because at last they have something that so-called “race” records- studio. There, every weekday eve- they can understand and dance to. rhythm and blues seemed to be ning from six-to-ten, he spins his Look at them some time, clapping getting more and more popular. if platters and chatters away. After their hands and tapping their feet Alan would do a special show with the show, he walks to his house to records. Their exuberance is them, Mintz would sponsor it. At where he and Jackie have a late rock ‘n’ roll jubilation. Even the first Freed was reluctant but Mintz meal while the King of Rock ‘n’ songs are happy. Yet our critics call persuaded him to go along. Roll listens on his hi-fi to guess- rock ‘n’ roll madness. Is it madness What could they cal1 the show? what? Classical records. His favor- for kids to enjoy themselves?” The racial “stigma” of rhythm and ites are Beethoven’s Pastorale, That’s what the man says, and blues, hitherto aimed only at the Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique. there’s no doubt about his sincerity. Negro market, had to be somehow At midnight he returns to the And maybe he’s not far off base. avoided if a wider audience was to studio and concentrates until three While many psychologists, edu- bc reached. So Freed and Mintz sat in the morning on auditioning new cators and clergymen are still blast- around playing records, searching rock ‘n’ roll records, trying to figure ing rock ‘n’ roll, others have lately for a name. As he listened, tapping out what teenagers will like. swung around to a tolerance of the his feet and rocking to the heavy A home-bound character, Freed back beat, Freed diffidently sug- musical fad. Prof. Sigmunt A. Pio- never goes to night clubs. His only gested: “How about this-The hobby is renovating and decorating trowski of N.Y.U. concedes that Rock and Roll Party?” “youth must express itself in some his recently acquired 5O-year-old His program ‘caught on like a house. His consuming drive, overt energetic manner.” Dr. Karl barn afire. The next year, to cash Bowman, a distinguish4 psychia- however, is a passionate crusade in on his rhetoric success, Freed for acceptance of rock ‘n’ roll as a trist, maintains that rock ‘n’ roll ‘is planned a rock and roll ball at the an emotional outlet for young folk legitimate musical development. Cleveland Arena, which has a ca- “Rock ‘n’ roll,” he says reflec- rebelling against their elders and pacity of 10,000. About 9,000 there’s nothing dangerous or very tively, “is a great river of music into tickets were sold in advance. On which many streams flow. It really unusual about it. One sociologist the night of the ball, however, feels that rock ‘n’ rolI stems from began over a hundred years ago, in 30,000 persons showed up, crash- the cotton fields and on the levees, the same virus which induced panty ing the doors down and bowling raids and goldfish swallowing. with work songs, spirituals and over the cops. That show, first of river songs. It’s just our own Ameri- the rock ‘n’ roll “riots,” had to be can music, earthy and soulful. “Rut rock ‘n’ roII has added some- What about Elvis Presley? The Waldorf Astoria, just as Benny thing of its own: the roiling two- pelvis-wriggler, according to Freed, Goodman is doing now.” beat rhythm with the accent on is not .a genuine rock ‘n’ roller. “He For the present, Alan Freed rocks every second beat. Only the young really sings hill-billy or country- along, gathering legions of young in heart can dig that socking synco- and-western style I think Presley is converts with what bandleader pation. For those who hate it, I a fine, w&mannered young guy, a Lucky Millindcr has called “the fire think it’s too much excitement for wonderful performer with lots of and excitement of evangelist Billy their tired arteries." ability. But I wish he’d shave off Graham.” Accounting for his pro- Put rock and roll in its historical his sideburns.” digious appeal, Freed points to one perspective, Freed urges. A British Is rock roll contributing to prime factor: psychiatrist, Dr. J. Macalister Brew, juvenile delinquency? “I believe in what I’m doing.” recently observed that adolescents “Nonsense!” says Freed sharply. “What do you think that is?’ he today are basically no different “Rock ‘n’ rolt came along just was asked. when delinquency was getting a lot “Making kids happy.” from those of any other generation. of publicity, so it’s convenient to In every era, he contended, any Listening to the King of Rock make a musical trend the butt for ‘n’ Roll, you can’t help feeling that new type of music or dancing has adult failurcs. It was also unfor- become the fashionable craze of the maybe our vibrating teenagers are tunate that rock ‘n’ roll music was not being “demoralized” by a “medi- 15 to 25-year-old age group. The used in that hoodlum-infested Charleston and Turkey Trot were eval lunacy” after all. If anxious movie, The Blackboard jungle, parents want to improve the situa- less violent and anti-social only be- which seemed to associate rock ‘n’ cause they were in a less violent era. tion, Dr. Brew suggests, they’ll have rollers with delinquents.” to provide adolescents with “safer Recently, Freed had dinner with What about those jeans and Paul Whiteman, King of Jazz in the and more self-controlled methods of leather jackets some rock ‘n’ rollers experiencing excitement, physical Twenties. Whiteman showed him a wear? Are they a sinister symbol, fat scrapbook filled with contem- and emotional release.” That way as some critics charge, of moral children wilI “have fun with the cur- porary denunciations. In 1927, for decay? Freed snorts that Hotly- example, the Bishop of Dubuque rent crazes” but won’t be so lonely wood is to blame for that, too. that something like rock ‘n’ roll be- was quoted as saying: “Jazz is lead- “Those kids are aping Marlon ing the youth of America down the comes an “all-absorbing compensa- Brando and James Dean. The tory addiction.” primrose path to hell. Jazz must hoodlum element is only a minority be stopped.” Until the next musical fad comes of maybe five percent. Why malign along, it appears that rock ‘n’ roll Similar abuse was hurled in the all teenagers?” Thirties at Glenn Miller, Benny can’t do our youth any serious Rock ‘n’ rollers are good kids, harm. Let ‘em go, man, go! l B Goodman and the swooning, Freed emphasizes, and he relates sweatered bobby-soxers. Swing was a revealing incident to prove it. gravely condemned as “a depraved Last year, Freed was asked by the outgrowth of the depression years.” National Nephrosis Foundation to When Goodman, then King of Swing, played New York’s Para- be chairman of a Teen-Age March mount Theatre in 1939, his young for Childhood Nephrosis. His as- disciples were so noisy-many of signment was to organize youngsters them’ rushing onto the stage-that to distribute literature and coin Goodman had to stop his show with cards. On the appointed day, the the Star Spangled Banner. weather was miserably cold and “I’ve never had it that bad with sleety. Yet 19,000 Freed aficion- rock ‘n’ roll,” Freed points out. ados showed up all over the New “When kids stand on seats or dance York metropolitan and suburban in the aisles, I hold up my hands area. Each child spent at least four and ask them nicely to please sit hours on his job and they distrib- down and we’ll continue with the uted over a million coin cards and show. That’s all I have to do. As pieces of literature. But there for rock ‘n’ roll dancing, which wasn’t a line in the press commend- shocks some oldsters as ‘immoral,’ ing them. rcmembcr the Lindy Hop.” “What do WC have to do,” one Actually, rock ‘n’ roll dancing is rock ‘n’ rotlcr wrote Freed, “to almost identical with the jittcr- prove most of us kids are O.K.?” bugging of the late Thirties although What’s the future of rock ‘n’ it’s less bouncy, more undulating roll? Is it just a passing fancy? -the dancer’s feet stay more on the “I think,” says Freed, “it will floor. Moreover, today’s dancing is settle itself into the mainstream of American popular music. In fact, far from intimate--the wriggling it’s starting to, right now, as it youngsters barely touch hands, and reaches out and embraces country appear oblivious to each other. and western artists, Eventually Even disk jockey Martin Block, ‘pure’ rock ‘n’ roll will be replaced who has disparaged rock ‘n’ roll as by a watered-down version that monotonous, concedes that it has combines the best with normal Tin gotten the youngsters back on the Pan AlIey pop tunes. Whiteman’s dance floor and is paving the way jazz and Goodman’s swing each for a return to good music. tasted about ten years and I expect rock ‘n’ roll will, too. In ten years my band wil1 be playing at the

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