by Victoria Silverwolf

From Flappers to Hippies

Movies about young people rebelling against society's expectations have been around since the silent days. One influential example is Flaming Youth (1923), starring Colleen Moore.

No less an authority on the Jazz Age than F. Scott Fitzgerald, in later years, noted the film's importance as a reflection on the revolutionary behavior of young people during the Roaring Twenties. I was the spark that lit up Flaming Youth, he wrote, Colleen Moore was the torch.

So risqué was the movie that it was officially judged immoral in Canada, making it illegal to show Flaming Youth anywhere in the nation. Unfortunately, only a fragment of the film survives.

Several films about sheiks and flappers followed the success of Flaming Youth. Things seem to have settled down a bit for a couple of decades, what with the Great Depression and World War Two as distractions from youthful rebellion.

The theme came back with a vengeance in the 1950's. There were far too many movies about juvenile delinquents, hotrodders, beatniks, and so forth to mention. Most of these were cheap drive-in fare. A notable exception was Rebel Without a Cause (1955) with the late James Dean, a serious drama about emotionally disturbed high school students.

(I would be remiss if I failed to note that even science fiction and horror movies got in on the troubled teen craze, with things like I Was a Teenage Werewolf and I Was a Teenage Frankenstein [both 1957] all the way down to Teenagers from Outer Space [1959].)

With the recent appearance of the hippies, a new kind of film is on the horizon.  As a preview of what are sure to be many similar coming attractions, let's take a look at what might be the first of a flood of movies with long hair on boys, short skirts on girls, psychedelic drugs, and groovy rock music.

Fiction and Reality

Riot on Sunset Strip is very loosely based on a real incident.

The so-called Sunset Strip is part of Sunset Boulevard, about one and one-half miles long, that passes through the community of West Hollywood, California. In recent years, it's been a hangout for hippies and other young folks, partly due to a number of rock 'n' roll nightspots with youth permits, which allow them to admit people under twenty-one years of age. The most famous of these clubs is probably the Whisky a Go Go, but a place called Pandora's Box played a more important role in what happened next.

In response to underage drinking, drug use, and traffic congestion, the city administration imposed a 10 PM curfew and laws against loitering. On November 12 of last year, as many as one thousand people showed up outside Pandora's Box to protest the restrictions and clashed with police.

Young actor Peter Fonda, son of Henry, is arrested during the protest. He'll show up later in this article, too.

Unrest continued for the rest of the year, causing the politicians to take away youth permits from a dozen of the Strip's clubs, and forcing Pandora's Box to shut its doors completely. The incident inspired the haunting song For What It's Worth by the rock band Buffalo Springfield.

The movie industry was quick to exploit the protests, with Riot on Sunset Strip showing up in theaters just a few months later.

Mimsy Farmer stars as a teenager new to the area, living with her hard-drinking, pink-haired mother. Dad has been away for some years, it seems, but don't worry; he'll show up in a bit.

Mimsy hangs out with the cool kids at a nightclub on the Sunset Strip. The film makers have the nerve to call the place Pandora's Box, but it's strictly a fictional version of the real one.

Four hippies who seduce Mimsy into their psychedelic world.

On the Strip itself, we see protestors carrying signs that say things like Rights Not Fights, Live and Let Live, Lovers Not Fighters, and Be Nice. As you can see, it's hard to tell exactly what they're demonstrating against.

The wild quartet shown above takes Mimsy to a so-called freak out in an empty mansion, where they spike her soft drink with LSD. This leads to what I believe they call an acid trip, shown as a slow-motion modern dance routine with red lighting.

Mimsy freaks out.

Up to this point, Riot on Sunset Strip has been a enjoyably silly film, with some great music from bands like the Chocolate Watchband and the Standells. After Mimsy's LSD trip, however, it takes a much darker turn. Taking advantage of her drugged condition, a group of boys rape her.

The cops show up to arrest the trespassers, and guess what? Mimsy's estranged father (former leading man Aldo Ray) is a local police lieutenant. Enraged by what happened to his daughter, he eventually beats up three of the rapists.

Aldo tries to comfort Mimsy after her ordeal.

Aldo's attack on the creeps winds up in the news, which leads to the so-called riot, which consists entirely of folks carrying protest signs. During the demonstration, Aldo stops a cop from hitting a hippie with his nightstick. This prevents a real riot from breaking out, and reconciles Aldo with Mimsy. The end.

As you can see, this doesn't have much at all to do with the real demonstrations on the Sunset Strip. It also doesn't seem to be a very accurate portrait of the hippie subculture. For the most part, it's a soap opera that tries to be hip. Watch it for Mimsy's freak out, and for the groovy music.

The Chocolate Watchband.

Hell On Wheels

A very different kind of youthful rebel showed up on movie screens not too long ago. I'm talking about the members of outlaw motorcycle gangs. A little background is needed to appreciate this phenomenon.

In July of 1947, about four thousand motorcyclists converged on the small town of Hollister, California. That nearly doubled the population of the community, and things got out of hand. Reports have been exaggerated to some extent, but it can't be denied that there was a lot of drinking and a lot of noise. About fifty people were arrested on charges of public intoxication, reckless driving, and disturbing the peace.

A famous photograph of the incident, probably staged, shocked the nation when it appeared in Life magazine.

Writer Frank Rooney's 1951 short story The Cyclists' Raid was inspired by what happened at Hollister. In turn, it became the basis for a memorable role for Marlon Brando as the outlaw biker Johnny.

The 1953 movie The Wild One offered this bit of famous dialogue, neatly summing up the nihilistic philosophy of its antihero.

Mildred: Hey Johnny, what are you rebelling against?
Johnny: Whadda you got?

It took Hollywood more than a decade to jump on this particular bandwagon with another film of the same type. Maybe that has something to do with the current younger generation challenging the beliefs of their elders in general. In any case, let's take a look at a new movie about rebels on two wheels.

The Wild Angels stars Peter Fonda (I told you he'd be back) as Heavenly Blues, the leader of the fictional Angels motorcycle gang. (Yes, they're obviously based on the infamous Hell's Angels. As the poster proudly informs us, members of that organization show up as minor characters.)

Heavenly Blues, in a pensive moment.

Much of the film consists of the gang drinking, smoking marijuana, fighting, busting things up, and making out with their barely clothed girlfriends. There is a plot, of sorts.

It seems that a rival gang stole the motorcycle of Heavenly Blue's aptly named buddy Loser. While on a quest to get the wheels back, Loser winds up stealing a cop's bike. The police chase him and shoot him. With the help of his girlfriend (Nancy Sinatra), Heavenly Blues grabs Loser out of the hospital, but he dies anyway.

Bruce Dern as the dying Loser and Diane Ladd as his girlfriend. The two are married in real life.

The gang holds a funeral for their departed member, propping him up with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. A bewildered minister, trying to add a note of dignity to the proceedings, has a conversation with Heavenly Blues.

Heavenly Blues: We don't want nobody telling us what to do. We don't want nobody pushing us around.
Preacher: I apologize. But, tell me, just what is it that you want to do?
Heavenly Blues: We wanna be free! We wanna be free to do what we wanna do. We wanna be free to ride! We wanna be free to ride our machines without being hassled by The Man. And we wanna get loaded. And we wanna have a good time. And that's what we're gonna do. We are gonna have a good time. We are gonna have a party.

The debate in the church. Note the bikers' fondness for Nazi regalia.

True to his word, Heavenly Blues turns the funeral into a wild party, smashing the place to pieces before the gang takes Loser's body to the cemetery. The film ends there, in properly hopeless form. The last two lines we hear from Heavenly Blues are Nothing to do and Nowhere to go.

Coming Soon

I'm sure these won't be the last hippie and biker movies to show up at the drive-in. In fact, we've already had Devil's Angels (with Mimsy Farmer again) in theaters a couple of months ago, as a follow-up to The Wild Angels.

According to my sources in the film industry, later this year more snarling motorcycles will show up in something called The Glory Stompers.

As far as hippie movies go, at the start of year we had Hallucination Generation. (Oddly, it was in black and white instead of psychedelic color.)

Next month I'll rush out to see The Love-Ins, and I hope it will be as groovy as the poster.

I'm sure there will be many more to come. See you at the movies!

Is this trip really necessary?

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