The Daily Egyptian, March 04, 1974
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Southern Illinois University Carbondale OpenSIUC March 1974 3-4-1974 The aiD ly Egyptian, March 04, 1974 Daily Egyptian Staff Follow this and additional works at: http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/de_March1974 Volume 55, Issue 115 Recommended Citation , . "The aiD ly Egyptian, March 04, 1974." (Mar 1974). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by OpenSIUC. It has been accepted for inclusion in March 1974 by an authorized administrator of OpenSIUC. For more information, please contact [email protected]. / I "Nostalgia ain't '~ hat it used to be." p;gyptiBh Peter De Vries . Magazine ljouthem mi~s University ( ~~ Carry me back: rich lode for purveyors of pop arts By CAlme Prescott "White Ou-istmas" or Guy Lombardo's then forged forth with his own Arma er generations, are too serious. too un· Starr Writer " Auld Lang Syne." Vintage Mon geddon. Some sociologists even theorize able to laugh without tinges of sarcasm. tgomery Ward catalogues. once ban that the nostalgi. craze would ha\'e irony or cynicism. Technology has out· Three years ago, the nostalgia craze ished to the outhouse, are selling for $S slipped into obscurity if the Watergate stripped humanity. As Carly Simon . sweeping America prompted Time apiece. Nostalgia is even credited with scandal hadn't exploded into the Ameri plaintive chronicler of liCe sings. " I essayist Gerald Clarke to ask, " How giving The Saturday E\'e"jDg Post a can consciousness. Now Sam Ervin Fan remember a time when our fears could much more nostalgia can America second chance &f immortality. Clubs dol the counlr)'side and T-shirts be named. when courage meant not re· take?" He observed. " We seem to be Also in a lilera~ vein is the Nostalgia bearmg his caricatured face sell by the fusing dares . Now we are grown not so much entering the new decade as Book Cub, a book- and record-<lf-tl1e thousands. with debts and regrets and broken backinR away from it full steam." Even month club, while books for comic fans , Dr. Thomas HarriS, who authored the hearts and senlimenlal sch~mes . Now now, as we approach mid-decade. like The Celebrated ease. of Dick runaway best-seller on transaclional every ~der Cailure seems to over· Americans are sLilI wrapped up in Tracy and An (The We aDd Hard analysis. I'm OK-You're OK, said. throw Old dreams . It was so easy glorifying the 19205 and 19305. Nostalgia 'I\mes of UUIe Otpban Aaaie, 19J$ " Watergate has had quite an impact on once never taking any stands ... ne\'er shows no signs of waning. INS), sell for about $15 each. the country. People are turning back on making any plans . just ho lding Set to premiere on Broadway in the Hollywood, never an industry to lag the uncertainties and the complicated. hands." next two months are two musical far behind in cashing in on the public's We seem to havt iost our sense of direc· memories from the "2Os - Good News faney, has produced a spate of films re lion . our moral values. We're look If there's one common denominator with Alice Faye and Over Here! calling the years between t~n ing toward things that gave us comfort of the decades of the ':!IIs and '305 that starring the Andrews Sisters. CBS cluding Boaaie ..... ayde, They SbOet in other limes." supercedes even the vinues of simpli· Radio has brought back the radio Hones, DoHa't They!, The Lut Picwre Future Sbock author Alvin Tomer cilY and honesty. it is innocent hUl']lor drama. while CBS-TV, capitalizing on Show and Paper MOOD. the engaging adds, " Mounting evidence that society or. to use a nostalglc word . mirth. the phenomenal success of Tbe story about a flim-llam artist in the is out of control breeds disillusionment WalIODS, has premiered a new and 19305. with science. History is a great alterna Perhaps Americans can steer lheir si milar series called Apple's Way. Uni Taking its cue from HoUywood, tele tive lo the super-industrial environment way through the commercialization and versities around the country are pack vision stations across the country are we don 't know how to live in." As Mar· the overblown memories of "the good ing them in for revivals of film classics resurrecting. W.C.Fields and Marx Bro shall McLuhan wrote in The Medium Is old days" to find relief in enjO)nlent , starring Greta Garllo. Humphrey Bo thers films. In the Carllondale viewing Ibe M ...age , "We march backwards candor and honesty. If they can then gart. Bette Davis and Clark Gable. area alone WSlU-TV shows at least one into the future." perhaps we can all share in the unbri On the music scene the "acid rock" of 19305 film every night it operates. Perhaps at the core of all these rlled optimism of poet MacLeish . who Led Zep~in . Iron Butterfly and the KMOX-TV in St . Louis features the opinions lies a simple but appalling opined, "The results of this looking Jefferson Airplane is giving way to Bijou Theatre ''with double and triple truth : Americans, especially the young- backward can only be good." more tender. sentimental and melodic film features" until the wee hours of the tunes. The Pointer Sisters. garbed in morning. what Life magazine would have called But what makes Americans yearn for ',he - lady - is - a - tramp look," are the past, sink thousands of dollars into crooning their way to the top of the movies, books and art deco objects, and charts. thanks to the nalional notoriety engage in what London WainwrilZht Helen Reddy gave-them last summer. calls "an excercise in hopeIessness?" Even Lawrence Welk . the bubble king The most preval""t theory is that 0{ champagne music. is appealing to John Kennedy's assassination, followed those who can't remember when his by race riots, Vietnam, student pro hair wasn', gray. tests, Kent State. the "new morality," The fashion industry. perhaps the and the murders of Bobby Kennedy and harbinger of the nostalgia craze, leads Martin Luther King Jr .. were too shock the vanguard by promoting oversized ing for the American public, a stabbing bow ties. double-breasted jackets. two reminder of man"s inability to deal ef lone shoes. tulle dresses laden with ruf fectively with the machine, the environ nes, ankle-strap shoes with bow ties, ment and even himself. wedgies. chubby jackets of the '405 , Indeed, a study of the word nostalgia gold lame gowns of the '305 and. to ac seems to support this hypothesis. The cent it all. dark fingernail polish and word is derived from the Greek word ned, red lipstick. _ , meaning "return home," and The pop arts, perhaps more than the the Old English word ge_, meaning elite arts of high culture. have exploded ..to survive." Perhaps people believe into America's consciousness with the that if they can ''return home" to a less rebirth of antiquing, spinning, weaving, complicated life they can survive in the candlemaking, embroidery and bread present. In a word . they are homesick. baking. Even the humble trade of farm "In a real sense." Wainwright said. iilg is being eulogized as more and " life tends to be circular. a round trip. more people, disenchanted with urban As one develops an awareness of the frenzy , return to the country to "grow end, he is drawn more and more to the our own food and live off the land." beginnings. " What does such a pervasive fad At the same lime, however, as Wain· mean? or course. it means money. wright noles, nostalgia, that " wispy The receipts for No, No, N_. cousin" of memory, '·picks its way (which the Nall.al Observer's Clifford daintily through the ruins" of some of Ridley called "a particularly egr:eJPous the sobering facts of the ':!lis and '305. hunk of nostalgia" J would make MIdas' facts like Prohibition, AI Capone. coffers appear bare in comparison. breadlines,. the worst depression this N_'. example as a three-year country has ever experienced, and " the smash hit goaded other producers to re genocidal catastrophes of World War I I. surrect ghosts of the 19205, plays like complete with Adolf Hiller and our own Sigmund Romberg's 'I1Ie Desert SHe contribution to the holocaust, the and 'I1Ie SWdetIl Priace. Manufacturers atomic pulverization of Hiroshima and 0{ Mickey Mouse watches re-<IjJened the Nagasaki." factories when adults, and not children, Not to be ignored in this same time clamored for timepieces showing the period, though, were the solid, if not ,saucer-eyed mouse with the toothless Puritanical values engrained in every smile. The Yuletide season wouJdn't day life, values such as the work ethic. seem complete without Bing Crosby's honesty, sincerity. Americans had their hero images, from the celluloid fantasies ol Clark Gable to the char 'Daily 'Egyptian ismatic "mah (riends" approach of -..;:,~___ ~= Uwe'IIy _ =.::r=_ youIh~~ cult =~\~;..&'f!.ar;,7 IaIderscores the compelling ~ .........., - .... -- 'Z..= need to return to homespun virtues of = . ~~_..-.:.. c:.ro...: candor and honesty_ ~_ • .ao .. _ .. """ .. _ Poet Archibald MacLeish once said, in .._ ____ .... llIiI,_ .... ...... _" .-. .. ol verynostalgia ~ A!pI'eSeJIls fashion , that• "return the wave to =.:: .. - .. .., - .. .. history for ideas about how to ~ out of Ed_ ... _ .... _ .. Qm. _ this mess." PeopIe are seeking exam- -... e::."'\-- "'"e. ...... 5a3:In. 'Illes of leadership in history, they ,.rant - A, ""'II. ... -- c.or. - to '100t back to times wtet people be- =-.::=~=-:~.: tiSaDmething." - "'--: -- - . ~ ------ . badt over the past • years -. ~.- c.-. a.c. ~ of led leadership, MacLeiah'. ::.-......... ~ - . theory becomes quite credible_ After ~ - 0000 -. - &ora. World War n we had Dwilht Ei- a;:..a.;.~="= · DIn semower, who ooce told his prede- _ ___.