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[May 4, 1965] The Op and the Pop: New Movements in Modern Art

May 4, 2020 Cora Buhlert 4 Comments

by Cora Buhlert

News from West Germany

May 1 is not just a public holiday in all of Germany, but also the traditional holiday of the labour movement. The day was celebrated with marches and rallies in both East and West Germany. In East Germany, the marches were the usual propaganda affairs. In West Germany, Turkish, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian flags were spotted at the Mayday marches, as immigrant workers from Southern Europe joined their West German colleagues to demand higher wages and better working conditions. Concerns about the political situation and lack of freedom in the home countries of some of the immigrant workers were raised as well.

May Day parade in Magdeburg, East Germany

May Day rally Cologne — May Day rally in Cologne, West Germany

Turkish flag May Day — A Turkish flag at a May Day march in Cologne, West Germany.

In other news, 32-year-old war correspondent Horst Faas became the first West German ever to win a Pulitzer Prize for his haunting photos of the war in Vietnam. Happy as I am for Mr. Faas, I still hope that he will soon have to find more pleasant subjects to photograph.

Horst Faas photograph — One of Horst Faas' haunting photographs of the war in Vietnam that won him a Pulitzer Prize.

Maybe one day in the future, press photos like Horst Faas' will hang alongside fine art in museums and galleries around the world. Because there are certainly exciting movements afoot in the art world.

Art News

That's that for current events. Now for the meat of the article — a review of current art movements in this most modern year of 1965 (apropos given our show coming up in a few days):

The Reign of Abstract Expressionism

In the art world, Abstract Expressionism has been ruling supreme since the end of World War II, at least in the West. An outgrowth of prewar movements such as Futurism, Cubism, Constructivism, Expressionism, Surrealism, Dadaism and the Bauhaus, Abstract Expressionism is the art world's equivalent of the International Style in architecture and interior design. It is ubiquitous, wins awards, has the highest prestige and commands the highest prices. Abstract Expressionism also has widespread political support in the West, most likely because the Communists really, really don't like abstract art and prefer what they call Socialist Realism. There are even rumours that the CIA has been promoting abstract expressionism via the so-called Congress for Cultural Freedom, which certainly makes for strange bedfellows.

As a result, what was avantgarde and daring only twenty years ago had now become the very establishment that newer artists are rebelling against. And this rebellion is taking some very exciting forms.

Less is More: Minimalism

One reaction to the dominance of Abstract Expressionism was to take abstraction to its utmost extreme and simultaneously return to roots of modernism and the graphic simplicity of Russian Constructivism, the Dutch "De Stijl" movement or the German Bauhaus. This school, dubbed Minimalism, objects to the expressionist part of Abstract Expressionism and believes that art should not reflect its creator and his or her moods. Instead, art should be neutral, objective and refer only to itself. 29-year-old Frank Stella, one of the most notable figures of the Minimalist movement, sums up the aims of Minimalist art as "What you see is what you see."

Marriage of Reason and Squalor by Frank Stella — "Marriage of Reason and Squalor" by Frank Stella, one of his "Black Paintings"

So what do you see, when you look at a work of Minimalist art? You'll see simple patterns, geometric shapes, hard edges, primary colours and monochromatic palettes. The so-called "Black Paintings" by the above mentioned Frank Stella consist of concentric stripes painted on raw canvas in the black wall paint that Stella uses in his day job as a house painter. Canadian artist Agnes Martin paints grids and stripes in pastel watercolours. Meanwhile, Dan Flavin eschews paint altogether and instead creates artworks from tubes of neon lights arranged in various geometric patterns.

Summer by Agnes Martin — "Summer" by Agnes Martin

A Primary Picture by Dan Flavin — "A Primary Picture" by Dan Flavin

Minimalism is also a new trend for sculptures, as artists such as Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt or Tony Smith create sculptures that consist of geometric shapes such as cubes, prisms or triangles. So far, many of those sculptures only exist as sketches or cardboard models, but some such as "Cigarette", a 1961 Minimalist sculpture by Tony Smith made from twisted flat planes of steel, or "Free Ride", another Tony Smith sculpture inspired by the Aurora 7 mission, can be already seen in parks and on museum grounds.

The minimalist sculpture "Free Ride" by Tony Smith was inspired by the "Aurora 7" space mission

So where can you see Minimalist art in the flesh? So far, New York City is ground zero for Minimalism and that's where you can find the respective artworks in galleries and exhibitions like Sixteen Americans at the Museum of Modern Art. So far, there hasn't been a dedicated exhibition of Minimalist art, though there are rumours that there is one planned for next year.

More is More: Pop Art

While the Minimalists responded to what they considered the excesses of Abstract Expressionism by reducing art to pure geometric forms, the Pop Art movement took a different path.

Pop Art arose in the UK in the 1950s, when a group of young artists calling themselves the Independent Group realised that both the prevailing Abstract Expressionism as well as the academic fine art of previous eras had very little to say about them and their lives. So these young artists began to incorporate the imagery they saw in their everyday lives into their works, imagery drawn from advertising, movies, pop music and comic books.

British artist Richard Hamilton describes pop art as follows:

Pop Art is: Popular (designed for a mass audience), Transient (short-term solution), Expendable (easily forgotten), Low cost, Mass produced, Young (aimed at youth), Witty, Sexy, Gimmicky, Glamorous, Big business

The Independent Group incorporated pop culture imagery into their works by reviving the collage, a form associated with early Modernism and Surrealism. Scottish artist Eduardo Paolozzi inadvertently gave the new movement its name, when his collage "I was a rich man's plaything", named after the headline of a True Confessions magazine, that was part of the collage, also included the word "Pop", fired out of a gun.

I Was a Rich Man's Plaything by Eduardo Paolozzi — The collage "I was a Rich Man's Plaything" by Eduardo Paolozzi inadvertedly gave Pop Art its name

Meanwhile, British artist Richard Hamilton responded to the theme of an exhibition called This Is Tomorrow by cutting up some American magazines a friend had brought back from the US. The result was a collage called "Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing?" which uses aspirational pop culture imagery to create a futuristic interior to brighten up the dreary postwar Britain. Across the pond in the US, Tom Wesselmann created a series of "Still Life" collages assembled from advertising images. Another American artist, Robert Indiana uses the typography and imagery of road signs and company logos to create his brightly coloured paintings.

"What is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?" by Richard Hamilton — The collage "What is it that makes today's home so different, so appealing?" by Richard Hamilton. Could it be the bodybuilder with the strategically placed sign?

Still Life No. 30 by Tom Wesselmann — "Still Life No. 30" by Tom Wesselmann

Four Star Love by Robert Indiana — "Four Star Love" by Robert Indiana

On the wall of the apartment Hamilton pictured in "Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing?", the framed cover of an American romance comic hangs next to works of fine art. And indeed comic book imagery plays a big role in the nascent pop art movement.

Finding Beauty in Everyday Imagery

Whaam! by Roy Lichtenstein — "Whaam!" by Roy Lichtenstein after Irv Novick

When his young son showed him a Mickey Mouse comic and said, "I bet you can't paint as good as that, eh, Dad?", American artist Roy Lichtenstein rose to the challenge and began copying and enlarging panels from comic books and even included the characteristic Ben Day dots of the printing process. Lichtenstein is clearly a fan of National/DC Comics and frequently copies panels from DC books such as Secret Hearts, Girls' Romance or All-American Men of War. And so Secret Hearts inspired the Lichtenstein paintings "Drowning Girl" and "Crying Girl", while All-American Men of War inspired "Whaam!", "As I Opened Fire" and "Okay, Hot-Shot". The comic book fan in me rejoices in seeing comic books elevated to fine art, though I wish that Lichtenstein would give credit to the artists whose work he copied, artists like Jack Kirby, Russ Heath, Tony Abruzzo, Irv Novick and Jerry Grandinetti.

Drowning Girl by Roy Lichtenstein — "Drowning Girl" by Roy Lichtenstein after Tony Abruzzo

Crying Girl by Roy Lichtenstein — "Crying Girl" by Roy Lichtenstein

Okay, Hot-Shot by Roy Lichtenstein — "Okay, Hot-Shot" by Roy Lichtenstein after Russ Heath

While Roy Lichtenstein finds inspiration in comic books, his fellow American pop artist Andy Warhol looks to his local supermarket, magazine photos and advertising imagery for inspiration, which is not surprising, since he began his career as a commercial artist, specialising in shoe ads. Shoes do not feature prominently in Warhol's art. Instead, he creates large silkscreen prints featuring product packaging such as cans of Campbell's soup, bottles of Coca Cola or packages of Brillo scouring pads.

"32 Campbell's Soup Cans" by Andy Warhol — "32 Campbell Soup Cans" by Andy Warhol

Green Coca Cola Bottles by Andy Warhol — "Green Coca Cola Bottles" by Andy Warhol

Reproductions and Originals

Magazine photographs are another source of inspiration for Warhol and so he transformed a publicity shot of Marilyn Monroe for Niagara into his so-called "Marilyn Diptych" and a publicity still of Elvis Presley for the western Flaming Star into prints with titles like "Eight Elvises" or "Double Elvis".

"Marilyn Diptych" by Andy Warhol, created shortly after Marilyn Monroe's untimely death.

But Warhol also tackles more serious subjects in his art. His print series "Death and Disaster" uses magazine photographs of car crashes, race riots and suicides as well as the Sing Sing electric chair and a mushroom cloud and reproduces them over and over again, because – as Warhol said in a recent interview – "when you see a gruesome picture over and over again, it doesn’t really have an effect."

Electric Chair by Andy Warhol — "Electric Chair" by Andy Warhol, part of his "Death and Disaster" series. The bright colours don't make the subject any more cheerful.

West German artist Gerhard Richter eschews the Pop Art moniker, but he also makes paintings based on photographs, slightly blurred to create an estrangement effect. Unlike Warhol and other American artists, Richter's paintings are based on snapshots and family photos such as "Tante Marianne", the haunting portrait of the artist as a baby posing with his then fourteen-year-old aunt Marianne Schönfelder. The portrait becomes even more haunting, if you know that Marianne Schönfelder was mentally ill and was murdered by the Nazis as part of their euthanasia program.

"Tante Marianne" by Gerhard Richter is based on a family photo showing the artist as a baby with his then 14-year-old aunt Marianne Schönfelder

The Democratisation of Art

In the beginning, many art critics were outraged by Pop Art's seemingly uncritical use of "low" subject matter such as comics, movies and advertising imagery. Furthermore, critics accused the Pop Artists of being mere copyists, incapable of creating something original. It seems those art critics have forgotten their art history, because using found objects in art is not exactly a new idea. Marcel Duchamp already did the same thing fifty years ago with his so-called "Readymades" such as his famous 1917 work "Fountain", a commercially produced urinal that Duchamp simply signed. Marcel Duchamp is still alive, though retired, and I like to think that he gets a smile out of the young Pop Artists taking up his methods.

Thirty years ago, philosopher Walter Benjamin wrote a notable essay entitled "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction", wherein he postulates that a work of art loses its aura of uniqueness, when it can be infinitely reproduced via new filmic, photographic and printing technologies, and how this influences our perception of art. Benjamin also discusses the political dimensions of the then new mass media both as propaganda for Fascist (and Communist) regimes as well as its potential to democratise art.

Elizabeth Taylor by Andy Warhol — "Liz" by Andy Warhol is a portrait of actress Elizabeth Taylor

The Pop Artists follow the latter path, because their art is both a reproduction of an existing work (comic books, magazine photographs, film stills, product packaging) as well as infinitely reproduceable in itself. Andy Warhol does not create individual paintings, but silk screen prints that he produces in his own workshop in New York City, the so-called "Factory". This makes his works much more affordable than traditional fine art to the point that a Warhol print is not out of reach of the middle classes who want to brighten their homes with some modern art. Though personally, I would go with Marilyn, Elvis, Liz or even the Campbell's soup can rather than the electric chair or a car crash. And if you cannot afford a Warhol print, Pop Artist Robert Indiana is creating a line of greeting cards for the Museum of Modern Art, so you can own a piece of Pop Art for less than a dollar.

Black and White: Op Art

The latest movement to shake up the art world is Op Art, short for Optical Art. The movement got its name last year when the Martha Jackson Gallery in New York City exhibited the works of Polish-born artist Julian Stanczak in the show Julian Stanczak: Optical Paintings.

Julian Stanczak has a tragic history – he was incarcerated in a Soviet labour camp as a teenager and lost the use of his right arm. Now forced to paint with his non-dominant left hand, Stanczak turned to abstract art as a way to escape his painful past. At the show in New York City, he exhibited striking black and white paintings whose patterns seem to flash, blur and vibrate in front of the observer's eyes due to his use of optical illusions. Look too long at a Stanczak painting and you might well get dizzy.

Meanwhile in the UK, a young artist named Bridget Riley chanced to see the painting "The Bridge at Courbevoie" by pointillist French painter Georges Seurat. The painting and its use of dots to create optical effects impressed Bridget Riley greatly, so much that she copied it and placed the copy in her studio.

"Movement in Squares" by Birdget Riley — "Movement in Squares" by Bridget Riley

Inspired by Seurat, Bridget Riley began to create pointillist paintings of her own. She started out with landscapes, but her paintings quickly turned abstract and also made use of black and white contrasts and optical effects.

Another Op Art pioneer, Hungarian-French artist Victor Vasarely was inspired both by the Bauhaus and Russian Constructivism and began to create abstract geometric artworks, which also exploit optical illusions much like the works of Julian Stanczak and Bridget Riley.

Supernovae by Victor Vasarely — "Supernovae" by Victor Vasarely

It is not known whether Stanczak, Riley and Vasarely were aware of each other's work, but curator William C. Seitz brought their work and those of other optical artists together in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City entitled The Responsive Eye. The exhibition concluded two weeks ago and should help to bring Op Art into the mainstream.

Beyond Modernism: The Future of Art

Whether you prefer Pop Art, Op Art or Minimalism, contemporary art has not been so exciting since the heady avantgarde days of the interwar period.

But unlike the avantgarde of the first few decades of the 20th century, today's contemporary art is a lot more accessible and democratic. You don't need to be wealthy to purchase a print by Andy Warhol, a greeting card by Robert Indiana or the work one of the other exciting new artists. And who knows, if those artists take off, you may find yourself in possession of a very valuable piece someday.

Furthermore, you might even be inspired to create some art of your own. At any rate, the pop art collages by Richard Hamilton, Eduardo Paolozzi and Tom Wesselmann inspired me to grab a stack of magazines as well as some scissors and glue and make some collages of my own. Maybe I'll share them here someday!

Hyeana Stomp by Frank Stella — Hyena Stomp by Frank Stella

Our last three Journey shows were a gas! You can watch the kinescope reruns here). You don't want to miss the next episode, May 9 at 1PM PDT, a special Arts and Entertainment edition featuring Arel Lucas, Cora Buhlert, Erica Frank…and Dr. Who producer, Verity Lambert! Register today and we'll make sure you don't forget.

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Fashion, music, politics, sports, Magazine

[February 10, 1965] A Gay Old Time (March 1965 ONE, February-March 1965 The Ladder, March 1965 Drum)

February 10, 2020 Erica Frank 1 Comment

by Erica Frank

As I've been looking into news and literature sources away from the beaten path, I've run across several magazines that aren't likely to show up on your local newsrack: They're published by homophile organizations. They face tremendous prejudice and sometimes outright bigotry, despite their focus on nothing more objectionable than human relationships.

The term "homophile" was first proposed by Harry Hay, one of the founders of the Mattachine Society. It is widely used by gay rights groups to indicate that their identity is not centered around sex. However, the terms homophile, homosexual, gay, and lesbian are all used frequently throughout the periodicals.

ONE was created by members of the Mattachine Society and has been published since 1958. The Ladder is from the Daughters of Bilitiis, a lesbian organization; it's been around almost as long. Drum is the newcomer that began only last year, published by the Janus Society; it has a less serious approach, with more light-hearted content. All three have a letters section and book reviews, which I will cover at the end.

ONE: The Homosexual Viewpoint

One Incorporated is "A non-profit corporation formed to publish a magazine dealing primarily with homosexuality from the scientific, historical and critical point of view." A few years ago, it won a landmark lawsuit, establishing it as not obscene material, and therefore legal to send through the mail.

ONE has the highest production values of the three magazines I found. The text is neatly set in two columns for main articles and it has both photographs and line art. It has a mix of content types: interview article, fiction, poetry, news, and essays. It also has book reviews. All of them have news and book review sections, as any misunderstood and often-persecuted group needs both an awareness of how society treats them and an understanding of their own communities.

Interview with Elmer Gage, Mohave Indian

Mr. Gage is known as a homosexual in his local community, and they accept him. His photo, instead of showing him making the beaded belts he sells to tourists, or at home with his grandmother, is a publicity picture of him in his Bird Dancer outfit. He wears it for ceremonial dances and sometimes for lectures at universities, but it's not what he wears at home. (Of course not. Shakespearean actors may be portraying traditional British cultural entertainments, but nobody expects them to wear Renaissance-era garb all the time.) Despite the hardships he faces, he is at peace with himself; he says life is "too short to spend your time being something you don't want to be… I'm true to myself and my own nature."

Uncomfortable Fiction, Poetry

The short story, "Somebody Else All of a Sudden, Somebody New," by K. O. Neal, is short, and not an easy read. It involves Jeffy–probably a teenager–and a man called "Old Rocker," who pays him for sex: usually a silver dollar, but two dollars this time. (There are no prurient details in the story.) I'm left wondering if Old Rocker would seek other partners if doing so didn't risk arrest or even murder.

The poem that follows the story, "Lines for the almost gone," is not any less distressing. It's directed to either someone dying or someone on the edge of suicide. The other poem in this issue, "frankincense: three letters to c" by Abel Jones, reminds me of both e.e. cummings' style, with few capital letters and broken lines arranged carefully on the page, and Ginsberg's "Howl," with a mix of evocative imagery and coarse irreverence.

Poetry excerpt: in My yellow room surrounded by empty shoes and horrid unfiltered cigarettes that i smoke for your sake Charlie / when you die i iwill sing for you requiems in our common grave-house — I'm sure this poem is deeply meaningful to someone, but that someone is not me.

Transvestites: Not the same as gay

The article "Silks and Satins" by Charles Elkins is a plea for understanding. Men who wear traditionally women's clothing are not a unified group, nor are they all either gay or straight. Some would prefer to wear dresses and heels in public and be accepted as women; others only want them for bedroom activities. They are often very lonely, rejected even by other fringe communities, and told by psychiatrists that they should repress their harmless interest in looking and feeling feminine. I say: if someone wants to wear a silk dress and heels in public, let them. As Jefferson said, "it neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."

This and That

It also has a "news and views" column, "Tangents," which is a roundup of short synposes: Homosexuals in the media (a British tv show about lesbians on January 7th, Macleans magazine planning an article about them in the future); cops falsely accusing political candidates of homosexuality in California; one of Freud's theories about Leonardo da Vinci's homosexuality has been debunked. (Whether da Vinci was homosexual is unknown, but if so, it wasn't proven by a childhood memory of a vulture.)

picture of kittens in button-up shoes, and caption "High button shoes are old fashioned! But the so are many concepts of reasoning toward homosexuality. — Is that Puss in Boots?

The Ladder: A Lesbian Review

The Daughters of Bilitis is "a women's organization for the purpose of promoting the integration of the homosexula into society" by education, participation in research, and promotion of changes to the penal code."

The Ladder's production quality is the lowest of the trio. Most of it is typed, and the text isn't always aligned evenly with the headings. There are no photographs and no line art. Still, it contains solid news articles (impressive, as it does not rely on a clippings service) and thoughtful essays.

Homophile Activists

This issue has several articles about public events. One called "After the Ball…" about the police raid on a New Year's Eve costume ball organized by the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, comprised of members of six homophile organizations. The police harassed attendees and photographed most of the 600 guests, and when they were told they needed a warrant to enter, they arrested the four people trying to stop them.

Attendees of the SF New Year's Eve ball — While the police were attempting to intimidate, they did capture some amazing pictures. Picture from Lewd & Lascivious.

The other activism news was not as well covered in newspapers: Last December in New York, Dr. Paul R. Dince gave a lecture entitled "Homosexuality, A Disesase." Four picketers showed up to protest, handing out free homophile literature and holding signs saying "WE REQUEST 10 MINUTES REBUTTAL TIME." They made their request to the chairman of the forum – and it was granted!

After the lecture, during open questions, one of the picketers was allowed 10 minutes with a microphone. He pointed out that "experts" have contradictory theories about homosexulity. He mentioned they mostly study unhappy individuals, and they start with the assumption that homosexuality is a disease. (It's easy to "prove" something you already believe.) He also noted that most people in the "disease" camp say little against scams that charge ridiculous fees, claiming they will "cure" homosexuality. After the protesters received great applause, Dr. Dince conceded some of their points.

The E.C.H.O. (East Coast Homophile Organizations) report is five pages about the recent conference in Washington, D.C. This issue holds Part Four: "Act or Teach," based on recordings of the event. In this part, Dr. Franklin Kameny pointed out the flaws in approaching the public with information instead of demands for change. He said it is naive to assume information will overcome prejudice, but that when new laws establish civil rights, "public sentiment has then attempted to accommodate itself to the new situation."

Dr. Koneitzko disagreed with him, saying that acceptance from communities and churches is more important than technical legal rights. Kameny does not disagree, but he says that the acceptance will come after the laws change, not before.

Dr. Frank Kameny in a suit — Dr. Franklin Kameny, a WWII veteran who was fired from his post-war job in the Army Map Service because of his orientation. Photo circa 1956.

Essays and Poetry

"I Hate Women: A Diatribe by an Unreconstructed Feminist" is a rant about the repulsiveness of meek, timid, compliant femininity. The compelling title is rather tongue-in-cheek: The author, of course, does not hate women, since she is a lesbian. She hates, however, the notion that all women are destined to be servile wives and mothers, and decries that those who want a different path are often sent to a psychiatrist to "Find Out Why she Rejects the Feminine Role."

She goes on to talk about the risks of over-population, and quotes Arthur C. Clarke from the 1958 Harper's Magazine article, "Standing Room Only":

…the time may yet come when homosexuality is practically compulsory, and not merely fashionable. It will indeed be a piquant paradox if— in the long run and taking the survival of humanity as a whole as our criterion— this controversial instinct turns out to have a greater survival value than the urge to reproduce.

The other essay is considerably less angry. "To Tell or Not To Tell," by Vern Niven, is a short article about wrestling with secrecy, about the choice of whether homosexuals should tell their parents about who they love, or could love. The author says most parents can be accepting, but it may take some effort to prepare them for the truth. She encourages readers to be honest with their families. This can bring support and welcome for both themselves and partners, especially important when they consider their relationship a marriage.

The essays, while subjective, are directed to a broad audience. The four short poems seem more targeted in their appeal. Two have strong nature imagery; one is religious; one relates to music. None of them are overtly lesbian: they do not mention gender at all. But they are lyrical and intense, with hints of secrets being shared between the authors and readers.

And you, my subtle friend
Come counterpoint,
Offer me softly
of your melodic
Talents.

The tone of The Ladder is down-to-earth and almost wistful; the articles are laced with hope and perseverance. Not all of the homophile magazines are so sober.

Drum: Sex in Perspective

The name is inspired by a quote by Thoreau: "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music he hears, however measured or far away."

I saved the fun one for last. Drum has more lively content than the others: the longest article is the 12-page "Beginner's Guide to Cruising," which is as much playful as informative. Indeed, its very first news article includes a picture of Tony Sabella kissing Robert Kennedy.

The caption reads: "A group of New York lawyers is studing the possibility of having sodomy charges brought against Senator-elect Robert Kennedy for allegedly committing a public indecent act in the Fulton Fish Market to demonstrate the importance of Penal Law reform."

Tony Sabella kissing Robert Kennedy — Is a public kiss between men acceptable as long as neither of them is believed to be gay?

Dating Guide

The feature article, "The Beginner's Guide to Cruising" by George Marshall, bypasses any question of inner speculation or the gay identity within a heterosexual community. It is focused on a single goal: sexual conquest. While the methods described border on predatory, it is clear that the purpose is great fun for both men involved; this is not a primer for seducing people who aren't interested.

It spends some time discussing which men should not be pursued: Those who are "superbly dressed," as they are more interested in themselves than you; those wearing very tight slacks, indicating bitterness and a lack of feeling; those with white shirts and pastel pants, who will take you to court if things go badly; those with political causes, who will involve you in their mania; those who are drunk or drug addicts, who are, at best, walking complications.

It gives several possible approaches to avoid clichés like, "Care for a coffee?" It then goes on to discuss socializing after an introduction at a party, how to convince him you are a clever conversationalist (mostly by agreeing with him), and the importance of setting a future meeting date. While the tips in the article are very much focused on gay men who are seeking other gay men, they are the same methods used by salesmen and politicians: know your target, make yourself interesting, follow through with more contact.

Spy Stories

"I Was a Homosexual for the FBI" (by P. Arody) is a short article crammed full of hilarious stereotypes. It is ostensibly by someone who saved the country from "the deadliest conspiracy ever to rock the United States": To convince straight people that gays are really no different from their neighbors. The author had access to the FBI's extensive resources, including the Homo-o-dors that smell "suspected perverts" and flash a lavender light on detection. His "training" included "how to talk with a lisp" and "how to swish when walking, drink like an alcoholic, and organize orgies." (If the FBI knows how to organize orgies, I demand it release that information to taxpayers!) The result of all that hard work: "we caught every homosexual in the entire country and now all twelve of them were on trial!"

In keeping with this month's unstated "super spy" theme, we have several pages of artwork showing Harry Chess, that man from A.U.N.T.I.E ("Agents' Undercover Network To Investigate Evil) and his team. This is an an obvious play on the new Man from U.N.C.L.E spy-thriller tv show.

Harry Chess - line art — Not shown here: his sidekick "Mickey Muscle," their informant Big Bennie, girl bartender, and villain Lewd Leather, the leader of M.U.C.K. (Maniacal Underworld Control Corp).

The puzzle is probably not connected to the spying, since one was included last month, and another will be shared next month. The "cryptogayme" cipher is a nice stretch-your-mind exercise in a magazine mostly devoted to casual enjoyment.

Cryptoquiz puzzle — The solution will be in next month's issue.

Pretty as a Picture

Speaking of casual enjoyment… the "Portfolio" covers four pages of the magazine: Full-page photos of young men wearing very little clothing. The portfolio is accompanied by ads from the photographers: $6 sent to an address in Germany will get you 8 black and white photos of two models, or 6 color slides. Alternately, $1 sent to a post office box in Detroit will get you "samples," which presumably will contain information on how to order more.

"More like this" is a recurring theme in all three magazines. Each contains contact information, mentions of homophile organizations (Drum has a full page listing more than 20 of them), and letters from the community.

The letters columns are compelling. Over and over, they say: Thank you. Thank you for helping me understand myself, my community. Thank you for helping me understand the truth about my loved ones. Thank you for showing me we can fight for better acceptance, for the rights our heterosexual neighbors take for granted.

The book reviews, while useful enough on their own, showcase one of the problems all homosexuals face: There is so little representation of them in literature and movies that they must accept any depictions of their existence as other than "evil" or "perverted" as a benefit. Books that draw on stereotypes are approved if they are not too inaccurate. Those that are well-written, in which the only homosexuals are background characters, are still recommended. This is a community eager to see their reality in print, and each of the magazines provides that to its audience.

Not So Different

The real truth shown by these magazines is this: These people are not so different from everyone else. Some gay men, like some straight men, go "cruising" for casual partners. Some gay men, like some straight men, would rather find a single person for a long-term committed relationship. Lesbians, like straight women, chafe under legal and social constraints. Lesbians, like straight women, fall in love and hope their trust will not be betrayed. Homosexuals, like heterosexuals, worry about what their families think of their career choices, their hobbies, and their partners.

With all these revelations of homophile lives and interests, the biggest discovery is that they are just people: some shallow, some passionate, some thoughtful, some clever, some angry, some shy. If they have an agenda, it's to be allowed to live and love in peace, just like their neighbors.

[Come join us at Portal 55, Galactic Journey's real-time lounge! Talk about your favorite SFF, chat with the Traveler and co., relax, sit a spell…]

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Fashion, music, politics, sports

[December 3, 1964]: Future Bound (Civil Rights and a Colorful Journey)

December 3, 2019 Erica Frank 4 Comments

by Erica Frank

This past summer has brought great changes to the political landscape, and some people aren't happy about that. The University of California at Berkeley has banned civil rights activism and political fundraising. This is ostensibly to "keep the peace," but in reality, it smacks of telling students, "Don't pay any attention to the injustices you see in the world around you. Focus on your grades, not on the society where you'll be living once you get your degree."

Many students were involved with voting registration drives in the South this summer, and they returned to school intending to support CORE—the Congress of Racial Equality—and other civil rights groups.

Newspaper article: Never Too Old to Vote — Newspaper article about first-time voters, from The Afro American, Nov 28, 1964.

But the school wants no part of their enthusiasm for fixing longstanding oppressions and discriminations. Several times, students have clashed with both faculty and the local authorities.

Protest at Sproul Plaza

Yesterday was the largest one yet. The "FSM," Free Speech Movement, drew a huge crowd of at least 1,500 students and possibly as many as 5,000. They gathered in Sproul Plaza and gave speeches, then folk singer Joan Baez led them in singing "We Shall Overcome" before they went into Sproul Hall and protested all night long.

Joan Baez playing guitar — Joan Baez on the steps of Sproul Hall.

The student who spoke right before Miss Baez was Mario Savio, recently back from registering voters in Mississippi. He gave an impassioned, impromptu speech about why they are protesting. He had been told that the university's President Kerr refused to support the students. Kerr said, "Would you ever imagine the manager of a firm making a statement publicly in opposition to his Board of Directors?" Savio pointed out that this analogy has other implications: if Kerr is a manager of this hypothetical company, the faculty are "employees." That would make the students the raw material that they're selling. Kerr's casual explanation denies the students' humanity, and in return, they refuse to accept his authority.

There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part! You can't even passively take part! And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus—and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!!

Mario Savio speaking at Sproul Plaza — Mario Savio speaks to the crowd.

Deeper Meaning

It fills my heretic heart with joy to see young people so adamant about fighting injustice, about shutting down the systems that stifle and oppress those who want to make a better world for everyone. I look at the words printed above, and they don't carry the full intensity of Savio's speech, all the more powerful because he's not reading it from cards or a page. He probably had some idea what he wanted to say when he took the stage, but that's not always enough. Plenty of politicians have discovered that there's a difference between planning a speech in your living room, and giving the same speech to a live audience of thousands.

Savio pulls it off beautifully. I don't believe there's any amount of polish or practice that could've made his words have more impact. He's caught the zeitgeist of the moment: looking the status quo in the eye and saying, "No, that's not good enough."

Psychedelic Journey

With a less confrontational approach, that's what Ken Kesey and his "Merry Band of Pranksters" were doing this past summer. They loaded themselves into a converted yellow schoolbus, which they painted in all sorts of colors, and took a trip across the country. Their crew included a philosophers, a couple of athletes, a former military man, several activists, and a pregnant woman. Kesey himself is a famous author; One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest came out just a couple of years ago to great critical acclaim.

The "Pranksters" decided to film their journey as they went, so they could make a documentary later. The documentary itself hasn't been released yet, but some of the footage is available.

They experimented with all sorts of consciousness-raising techniques: meditation, Eastern mystical practices, and intoxicants of varying legalities. They had some… interesting encounters with local authorities. The police often pulled them over, not for suspicion of crimes, exactly, but because they'd never seen a bus like that.

A very colorful bus being stopped by a police car — They had to hide the marijuana and alcohol, but the LSD is entirely legal… for now.

Incidents and Accidents

They had an easy way to talk to police and any locals who looked at them strangely: "We're making a movie about our road trip!" Then they'd bring out the cameras and show off the designs painted on the bus. Sometimes they'd show the living arrangements inside, and all of that was unusual enough to keep anyone from noticing signs of drugs or petty crime.

They had several small adventures: The bus got stuck in a sandy field; one person "freaked out" and left the group to go home; the pregnant woman (known as "Generally Famished") lost her purse and felt trapped. But they also had fun and tried absurd games to pass the time. They even went to the World's Fair in New York.

Several of the "Merry Pranksters" dancing and playing instruments near a large tree — Pranksters dancing and playing instruments in Pensacola, Florida.

Kesey said he learned something from his time working in an asylum that he believes was "the most important thing I've ever learned: Every once in a while, all the power, the attention that you have, comes to bear on exactly what you're doing, and doesn't decide whether it's good or bad. It just decides that it is. And the only thing you can do is enjoy the ride."

Living in the Future

That kind of "just accept it" may seem to clash with the student protests above. But they are two sides of the same coin: a rejection of the mundane, predictable life with its rote habits and strictly assigned roles. They're both striving for a future that welcomes change, celebrates diversity, and respects individuality. They both stand in stark contrast to the corporate forces that want a pliant, unthinking populace dedicated to "progress" that mainly serves to make rich people richer.

I would welcome Savio's chosen future, and I could enjoy the future Kesey and his friends want. They may even be two approaches with the same goal. While neither of them is directly involved in science fiction's visionary leanings, they both carry a reminder for us: As we develop incredible machines, as we reach out toward the stars, what kind of future are we making for the people who will live with our incredible technology?

Flier for "Progressland" at the 1964-65 World's Fair — Somehow, I don't think Disney and GE's version of "progress" includes Savio's or the Pranksters' ideal future.

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Fashion, music, politics, sports, Science Fiction/Fantasy

[November 22, 1964] A Special Gift

November 22, 2019 Gideon Marcus 8 Comments

by Gideon Marcus

First and foremost, I wanted to thank all of my fellow travelers for being on this Galactic Journey with us. It's hard to believe we've been chronicling science fact and fiction (and so much more) for over six years now!

Second, I want to doff my hat in memory of an event that pummeled the nation exactly one year ago. I don't think any of us have any difficulty remembering the terrible events of Dallas that day. But shortly thereafter, as Beatlemania was sweeping the nation in the wake of the Fab Four's appearance on the Ed Sullivan show, the dark part of my brain came up with a way that November 22, 1963 could have been even worse.

As a special present to all of our loyal fans, I present to you Sad All Over, a short story that takes place today, November 22, 1964…but in a divergent timeline. I don't know if "enjoy" is the right word, but I hope it interests you and stimulates discussion!

Sad All Over (PDF, epub, mobi, kindle)

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Fashion, music, politics, sports

[October 4, 1964] Are You Literate Enough to Vote in Louisiana?

October 4, 2019 Erica Frank 4 Comments

by Erica Frank

Voter registration drives are sweeping across the South. Tensions are running high: some people want everyone to have a voice in the government, and others want to restrict voting rights. Mississippi has recently gained thousands of new voters, and the conservative establishment in Louisiana is nervous.

Three members of COFO, two black and one white, explain voting rights to an 81-year old man in 1964. — Three members of COFO explain the registration process and his voting rights to an 81-year-old man in Mississippi.
Photo credit: Ebony, September 1964.

Fighting Against Equality

Although this year has had several advances for civil rights and equality, not everyone is willing to share their freedom. Between the 24th Amendment and the Civil Rights Act, many formerly disenfranchised people now have the right to vote—and some communities are fighting back against that.

Louisiana's Tangipahoa Parish has decided the standard voting registration process is too easy. The parish fears that if it loses the ability to literally just refuse to allow black people to register, they might actually vote. The new test, which "may be given to anyone who cannot prove a fifth grade education," is guaranteed to block voting rights at the whim of the administrator.

The previous test was available across the state but administered selectively. Registration offices mostly required black citizens complete it, but it was occasionally used for some whites without much income or education. It involved a statement of identity and moral qualifications, followed by a short multiple-choice test.

The moral declaration involved criminal history (most misdemeanors disqualify a person from voting for five years) and personal life questions: "Common law" marriages or an illegitimate child were five-year disqualifiers. Women had to declare they had not given birth to an illegitimate child; men only needed to declare that they had not "acknowledged" themselves as the father of an illegitimate child.

1963 Voter Registration Card in Louisiana — 1963 Voting Application in Louisiana

The test asked questions about the Constitution and government, and covered facts like the required age of the President and the limits on Congressional powers to regulate commerce. It asked for details that Civics classes often cover, but that any adult might not recall readily.

Card showing the first question of a voting literacy test from 1963. — How often do we need to consider who would preside over a Presidential impeachment trial?

Although it asks about some obscure facts, the test itself, and even the application form, don't seem particularly onerous. What they hide is a long history of excluding black voters; many parishes in Louisiana have not registered a single black voter this century. Some required that new voters must be personally identified by two registered voters, even if they have a driver's license or military ID card. If no local white voters agreed to "verify" the identity of a black person, they are neatly barred from the vote.

A History of Discrimination

Recent legal changes threaten that entrenched racism. The new Civil Rights Act bars literacy tests as requirements to vote–except for people who haven't completed the sixth grade. Hence the new test, which "may be given to anyone who cannot prove a fifth grade education."

Note the "may." Registration officials can skip the test for anyone they think is qualified to vote: that is to say, wealthy or well-educated white people or friends of the registrar. Of course, they cannot give the test to anyone who can "prove" a fifth grade education, but the law establishes no standards for "proof."

Educational Differences

Before Brown v. Board of Education ten years ago, most areas in the South had segregated schools, and there were fewer non-white schools. Black children had to walk much farther than white children, and the schools often lacked the amenities of white schools, like heating in the winter, or enough books for every student, or a curriculum that covered advanced topics like "algebra" or "literature." Some of the many problems with black schools in the south were described years ago in Charles Johnson's Growing Up in the Black Belt, which discusses, among other topics, the difficulties of getting an education while working on a farm.

The schools themselves are better now, and will be better in the future without segregation, but their legacy continues. Today's adults include those who attended Depression-era schools that operated under a scant fraction of the money received by white schools.

One-room schoolhouse in 1941 in Georgia. — One-room Negro school in Veazy, Georgia, in 1941. These students are now in their late 20s to late 30s. Courtesy of Library of Congress, Delano, Jack, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, October 1941

Many who did get grade-school educations did not complete high school, because they needed jobs as soon as they were able to work. While the law only requires a 6th-grade education, how many schools give out certificates of completion of 6th grade? And how many adults keep that certificate for decades? Even if they did receive one, and kept it, nothing guarantees the voting registrar will accept it. The local official may decide, "That document looks like a forgery. I don't recognize the name of that school, the date is unclear, and I can't read the signature of the principal. You'll have to take the literacy test."

The Unpassable Test

This new test is literally unpassable. Several questions have more than one potential answer, allowing the administrator to declare the test a failure no matter what is answered. It consists of 30 questions that must be answered entirely correctly in 10 minutes—and a single wrong answer disqualifies a person from voting.

The average reading speed is 200 words per minute; the full test has about 650 words. Most people will waste over a third of their time just reading the questions. They then have, on average, 13.5 seconds to answer each question.

It looks simple enough at the start. The instructions say "Do what you are told to do in each statement, nothing more, nothing less." That seems simple—until you consider how someone could interpret it.

1. Draw a line around the number or letter of this sentence.

Any reasonable person would circle the "1." An unreasonable person, like a registrar trying to find an excuse to bar someone from voting, might claim the answer is incorrect if the line around the "1" also included the dot after the number, as that was not part of the instructions. A very unreasonable person might mark it as a failure if the words "the number or letter" were not circled.

2. Draw a line under the last word of this line.

Normally, we'd assume the correct answer is to underline the final word, "line." Someone looking to disqualify an answer might insist the underline belongs under "word"—the last "word" of that line. Or they might decide the phrase "the last word" needs the underline.
Nothing in the law prevents irrational interpretations.

There is no answer key with the "correct" version. The administrator decides whether an answer is using the "right" interpretation, and appealing that judgment requires access to the courts. A would-be voter might be able to file a legal claim, but that won't help in time to vote in the upcoming election.

6. In the space below, draw three circles, one inside (engulfed by) the other.

Which of these answers is correct?

Guessing wrong will cost you your ability to vote.

9. Draw a line through the two letters below that come last in the alphabet.

Z V B D N K I P H S T Y C

Does that mean "draw a line through Z and another line through Y?" Or does it mean, "draw a single line through Z, the intermediate letters, and Y?" Or does it mean, "draw a curving line through Z, running over or under the remaining letters and going through Y?" Remember the instructions: Do nothing more or less than what you are told to do.

Guessing wrong means you can't vote this year.

Multiple Interpretations

As the test progresses, the instructions become increasingly opaque and subject to interpretation. Biased officials can use these ambiguities to disqualify potential voters.

20. Spell backwards, forwards.

Does that mean, "spell the word backwards as it appears normally," or "spell the word 'forwards' as 'sdrawrof'?"

21. Print the word "vote" upside down but in correct order.

Does that mean printing the word as ǝʇoʌ, so it looks correct if you turn the page 180°, or ʌoʇǝ, so the letters are in the normal correct order but are upside down? Note that writing "Ǝ┴OΛ" may disqualify you; the original used lower-case letters only.

24. Print a word that looks the same whether it is printed forwards or backwards.

Is that a palindromic word like "civic" or a mirror-image word like "bid?" A word like "MOM" qualifies as both, but the registrar might decide that's a name and not a normal word, or that words in all capitals don't count.

27. Write right from the left to the right as you see it spelled here.

Is that asking for the single word "right" or the entire phrase "right from the left to the right as you see it spelled here"? Or the partial phrase, "right from the left to the right?"

Incomprehensible Questions
And then there are questions that are just incomprehensible:

28. Divide a vertical line in two equal parts by bisecting it with a curved horizontal line that is straight at the point of bisection of the vertical.

Everyone knows how important geometry is when you're trying to make a sensible, well-informed vote. Note the impossibility of a "curved… line" that is "straight at the point of bisection." The administrator might also use a ruler to decide if the vertical line has two "equal" parts.

29. Write every other word in the first line and print every third word in the same line, but capitalize the fifth word that you write.

Better hope you saved time on some of the early questions, because this one is going to take more than 13 seconds to complete. See that switch from "write" to "print?" Apparently, voting in Louisiana requires both cursive and print skills. Did you print the answer to the question 27? NO VOTING FOR YOU.

Finally, we come to the pièce de résistance, the ultimate question for barring undesirables from exercising their right to vote:

30. Draw five circles that have one common interlocking part.

Bottom of a page, showing a question with almost no space left to answer it. — If the instructions said to just "Draw five circles," I'm not sure there's space for that.

This question is about half an inch above the bottom of the page. A biased registrar can find many ways to mark the answer wrong, no matter what the would-be voter has drawn in the space:

First, by declaring that the answer must have only one common interlocking part. The registrar may demand that no two circles connect other than at that part—a physical impossibility that would disqualify anyone.

Second, by declaring that the submitted drawing does not consist of true circles.

Third, by saying the resulting image is too small to see, or the interlocking part is not clearly a part of all five circles.

Fourth, if the drawing touches the words, or the applicant erases a mistake, the registrar may claim that he or she did "more than what was asked."

Fifth, if the drawing is done on the back of the page where there is more space, the registrar can insist the answer isn't in the correct place. He may decide the applicant left the answer blank. If, to avoid that, the applicant wrote, "answer on back," that may count as "more than what was asked"

Racism in Action

I've mentioned under half of the questions on the test. Some of the remaining are more clear-cut than these, but even one wrong answer disqualifies a person. This test is not designed to test whether someone can read well enough to cast a ballot. It's not designed to test someone's general literacy, or understanding of civics. It's not even designed to require black voters to have a better education than is required for white people. It's designed for one purpose: to prevent black people from voting. It forces them to undergo an unpassable test administered with subjective bias.

This is exactly the kind of discrimination the Civil Rights Act was designed to prevent. If the Civil Rights Act can't stop this, we need a new law that does. Every adult should have the right to vote!

(Are you registered?)

Activists protesting literacy tests in 1964 — Activists in Mississippi protest literacy tests.

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Fashion, music, politics, sports

[July 4, 1964] A Struggle for Freedom (The Civil Rights Act)

July 4, 2019 Erica Frank 3 Comments

by Erica Frank

Free at Last?

On America's 188th birthday, we have much to celebrate. Congress and President Johnson have expanded the rights to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" to many people who have faced discrimination and bigotry.

This has been a landmark year for civil rights: In January, the 24th Amendment to the Constitution abolished poll taxes: voting is no longer limited by income. Two days ago, in a ceremony broadcast nationally, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, fulfilling one of Kennedy's campaign promises.

“One hundred eighty-eight years ago this week, a small band of valiant men began a struggle for freedom,” Johnson said. “Yet those who founded America knew that freedom would be secure only if each generation fought to renew and enlarge its meaning.”

Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the famous civil rights activist, is prominently visible right behind President Johnson as he signs the groundbreaking law. Immediately after signing, Johnson turned and shook the Reverend's hand, and gave him one of the pens used to sign the law.

The new law bars many forms of previously legal discrimination. It ends racial segregation of schools and businesses, and ends discrimination in jobs based on race or sex. It also grants equal voting access by requiring that everyone face the same restrictions. This means states and cities may no longer make voting easier for wealthy or white voters.

One of the key passages is:

"All persons shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations of any place of public accommodation, as defined in this section, without discrimination or segregation on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin."

This means no more "whites only" restaurants and hotels, no more segregated schools or drinking fountains. Even more importantly, no more "whites only" hospitals that leave entire communities without access to health care: until now, less than half the hospitals in the South admitted anyone who wasn't white. People have died from being refused treatment, or from being transferred to the "black" wing of a hospital while in critical condition. These catastrophes will now be illegal; hospitals can focus on providing health care to everyone.

Businesses no longer need to have two sets of facilities, with the expense resulting in one set—invariably, the one reserved for people who aren't white—being of lower quality. I don't know if the "separate but equal" ruling would've stood unchallenged if most businesses actually did provide equal services; the truth in practice has fallen far short of that. The common approach has been, "Provide white people with good service. Everyone else gets whatever we can cobble together out of leftover parts." This has resulted in de facto second-class citizens, who now have the same rights of access as the majority.

De Jure vs. De Facto

Many people are already testing the new law. In some places, integration is going smoothly: Yesterday, in Kansas City, Missouri, a 13-year-old boy got a haircut at the Muehlebach Hotel. Eugene Young had been turned down just one day before, but is now free to go to any barber shop in the nation. However, in other places, would-be patrons are facing resistance or even violence. A restaurant owner in Atlanta, Georgia chased away three Negro ministers with a gun, insisting that his place would stay segregated.

Eugene Young's Haircut
Photo: AP Photofax

While the law prevents race-based restrictions on voting registration, it's not being accepted everywhere. Charles Evers, field secretary for the NAACP, attempted to register to vote in Jackson, Mississippi. He was told he would have to provide proof that he had voted in the previous two general elections. That's a simple way to prevent non-voters from ever becoming voters!

The NAACP and other organizations are asking for federal protection in Mississippi, where segregationists are using threats, physical attacks, and even bombs to prevent new voters from registering. On Thursday, just after the law was signed, two churches used for civil rights activism were destroyed. One was set on fire; a bomb went off in the other. It is possible, of course, that those attacks were just coincidental, and have no direct connection to racist agendas. Possible, but not likely.

Governor Wallace of Alabama gave a speech today in Atlanta, Georgia, calling the law "a fraud, a sham, and a hoax" created by "left-wing liberals" to put people in bondage. He claims that "every American citizen is in jeopardy" of losing "the rights of free men"—by which he apparently means, the right to discriminate against other free men. He doesn't seem to acknowledge that the people protected by this law are also American citizens. Wallace claimed the Supreme Court's recent decisions benefit "criminals, Communists, atheists" and left-wing minority groups. His presidential campaign, he insists, is focused on fighting against the "tyranny" of the "liberal left-wing dogma."

People like Wallace make it clear that the law will not change life in America overnight. It will take some time (and likely police action) for everyone to comply. It will take even longer to undo the differences in income and living conditions caused by segregation. Because of this, many people are dedicating themselves to keep working for equal rights for everyone. In Indianapolis, activists held a 10-mile march for freedom, hoping for a better future for all Americans.

Photo: Indiana Historical Society

The Civil Rights Act brings even broader protections to employees:

"It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer— to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin…."

This law protects women as well as people of different races and religions. A workplace can no longer insist on hiring only white men, nor to pay them more than other employees. They cannot restrict women to secretarial and janitorial positions. They cannot fire someone because they realize his ancestry isn't what they expected. And they can't relegate some groups of employees to only working at night, or in the back rooms where customers can't see them.

Last year's Equal Pay Act guaranteed equal wages for equal work, but it didn't require that employers hire women at all. Now, they can't refuse to hire a qualified woman to do the job. There's still a long way to go, as most women can't even get bank accounts in their own name, but this is a good start.

A young woman in the Civil Rights march in Washington DC, on August 28th, 1963.
Photo: National Archives

And Justice for All

America isn't perfect; we have our share of short-sighted people, of bigots, of greedy and corrupt politicians. But today, we can celebrate that we are closer to equality and prosperity for everyone, because many people who were held back by force now have the rights to strive for the best future they can create for themselves. And we are all enriched by a nation of hardworking, free-thinking, thriving people who wish to be involved in their communities.

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Conventions/Performances, Fashion, music, politics, sports, Magazine

December 9, 1963 Indifferent to it all (January 1964 IF)

December 9, 2018 Gideon Marcus 3 Comments

by Gideon Marcus

Picking up the pieces

It's been two weeks since President Kennedy was shot in Dallas, and the country is slowly returning to normal (whatever normal is these days). Jackie has taken the family out of the White House, President Johnson is advancing the first legislation of his social welfare plan, the "Great Society," and all around the nation, streets, parks, and buildings are being renamed in the slain President's honor. In fact, Cape Canaveral, launching site for all crewed flights, is being christened "Cape Kennedy."

We're still trying to make sense of the events surrounding Kennedy's death. Within an hour of the shooting, there were two divergent theories as to who shot the President. CBS reported on the trail that led to Marine-turned-defector, Lee Harvey Oswald. NBC, on the other hand, interviewed a woman who saw a shooter on a grassy knoll overlooking Dealey Plaza. On December 5, the FBI determined that Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, did the deed. Of course, Jack Ruby ensured that Oswald would never speak in his own defense. The seven member "Warren Commission," headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren, has begun a more thorough investigation. We may never know who shot Kennedy or why.

A eulogy for Kennedy

Yesterday, I appeared at a local venue to present a eulogy for Kennedy and enlighten the audience as to the youthful President's numerous accomplishments. In the end, we all drank a toast to Jack. We taped the performance so you can view it even if you couldn't make the event.

Meanwhile, the science fiction magazines continued as if nothing unusual had happened. This makes sense given the vagaries of production schedules and the need to have work to press months in advance. Still, it is an eerie feeling to have the world turned upside down and yet see no evidence of turmoil in one's reading material.

Maybe that's a good thing. One can use stability in crazy times.

In any event, the January 1964 issue of IF, Worlds of Science Fiction was the first sf digest of the new year. As usual, it contained a mixture of diverting and lousy stories. Let's take a look:

The January 1964 IF

Three Worlds to Conquer (Part 1 of 2), by Poul Anderson

On the Jovian moon of Ganymede, American colonists warily greet the arrival of the U.S.S. Vega, a battleship out from Earth. Thanks to a recent civil war in the USA, it is uncertain where the loyalties of the ship's crew lie. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of miles below, the inhabitants of Jupiter's surface are also preparing for a war of their own. The common thread to the two stories is the neutrino beam link set up by the human protagonist who makes his home on Jupiter's biggest moon.

It's an interesting set up, but it utterly fails in its execution. Poul Anderson is the patron saint of unreliability. On the one hand, he produced some of last year's gratest works, including Let the Spacemen Beware and No Truce with Kings. On the other, he produced drek like this piece.

Some examples: Anderson likes to wax poetic on technical details. He spends a full two pages describing what could have been handled with this sentence: "I used a neutrino beam to contact the Jovians; nothing else could penetrate their giant planet's hellish radiation belts or the tens of thousands of thick atmosphere."

Two. Pages.

Worse, while I applaud Anderson's attempt to depict a Jovian race, he fails in two directions. Firstly, it's highly doubtful anything could live on the solid surface of Jupiter, if the planet even has one. If there is a rocky core, its surface gravity must be around 7gs, and the air pressure would be more crushing than the bottom of the Earth's ocean. Assuming life could stand those conditions, it would have to be something akin to the well-drawn creatures portrayed in Hal Clement's Close to Critical (in the May 1958 Analog). Instead, Anderson gives us centaurs with quite human characterization and motivation.

The dialogue is stilted. The writing is uninspired. And there's enough padding to comfortably sleep on.

One star. And, oh boy, a whole 'nother part to read in two months.

Mack, by R. J. Butler

Dolphin stories are big right now, from Clarke's People of the Sea to Flipper. New author, R. J. Butler, gives us another one. Something about the thwarting of an alien invasion of fish people. Pleasant enough but it won't stay with you. A very low three stars.

Personal Monuments, by Theodore Sturgeon

IF's non-fictionalist tells us about six science fiction authors he believes deserve more credit than they get. He's probably right. Three stars.

Science-Fantasy Crossword Puzzle, by Jack Sharkey

A welcome feature that is as long as it needs to be (two pages for the game and half a page for the answer). Three stars.

The Competitors, by Jack B. Lawson

Here is the jewel of the piece. Humans and androids have evolved in their own directions, each with a stellar sphere of influence. When humanity comes across an alien race, whose close ties with their own robots make them more than a match for our species, a crotchety old man and a powerful (but subdued) android take on the enemy.

The interactions between human and humanoid robot are priceless and illuminating. Neither can stand the other, but both see the value in their cooperation. In the course of their quest, our human protagonist learns the pros and cons of too close integration of humanity and machinery.

Excellent stuff that packs a wallop: Four stars.

The Car Pool, by Frank Banta

Car Pool is a cute little joke in which a gaggle of human petty criminals turns a run-in with the Martian law into a profitable venture for all concerned. Three stars.

Waterspider, by Philip K. Dick

There is a sub-genre of science fiction known as "fan fiction." It is written by SF fans (of course) and involves said fans going on wild and fantastic adventures. Laureled SF author, Philip K. Dick, offers up the fannest of fan fiction in which a pair of folks from the 21st Century employ a time machine to visit a gathering of "pre-cogs" in 1954 to get help with some thorny spaceflight issues.

The gathering is the 1954 World Science Fiction convention in San Francisco, and the pre-cog the Futurians seek is none other than Poul Anderson. He is kidnapped back to the future, where he runs into mischief before making it back home (with the notes for a story, of course — probably this one). Along the way, we get an alien's eye view of the various personages who attended SFCon, including A. E. Van Vogt ("so tall, so spiritual"), Ray Bradbury ("a round, pleasant face but his eyes were intense"), and Margaret St. Clair, whom the aliens anachronistically revere for The Scarlet Hexapod, which she hadn't written yet.

It's a bit of silly, self-indulgent fluff saved from banality by the talents of Mr. Dick; I don't know that it merits a quarter of IF's pages. Three stars.

Summing up

So, yes, it certainly looks like IF will remain steady and true through any crisis. This means some bad stories, occasional winners, and a lot of filling.

Things could be worse.

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Fashion, music, politics, sports

[November 24, 1963 cont.] Kennedy: Making sense of it all

November 24, 2018 John Boston 1 Comment

CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite reports that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

[You have likely gotten much of your news from one source during this crisis — the television. Once a junior partner in the new business, TV has come full flower in its coverage of the Kennedy assassination.

Part of it is propitious timing. This season, news broadcasts expanded from 15 to 30 minutes. Steps had already been undertaken to provide live coverage of events, as was demonstrated so shockingly with Jack Ruby's murder of Lee Harvey Oswald just a few hours ago.

And so, television news has transformed from sideshow to centerpiece. May we never have to be glued to it for such a spectacle again…]

by John Boston

I learned of the assassination in high school geometry class, after returning to school from lunch. Then I understood why one of the right-wing S.O.B.s among the students had been standing outside the school door as I came in, clasping his hands over his head in the manner of a victorious prize fighter.

Tragedy, drama, outrage, grief. Yeah, we’re all together, we all agree, at least the reasonable ones among us. But what next? What does this mean?

We’ve all heard that this is the American Century, and at least since the end of World War II, the US of A has been riding high internationally, both in public prestige and power and in less obvious ways, exercising its will in more covert fashion in countries all around the world, getting its way with little meaningful challenge.

We are told that the accused assassin lived for several years in the Soviet Union, and that he is involved with something called the Fair Play for Cuba Committee—Cuba, one of the countries the United States tried to dominate, in that case with disastrous results publicly exposed. Is the murder of our President a response to our government’s covert activity in Cuba, or in the world generally?

We do not know and we may never know. But this terrible event is America’s first significant reminder since Pearl Harbor that it does not look down on the world from a protected height and is not immune either to the sweep of history or to its caprice. Will our government and people take the lesson and conduct themselves circumspectly in the world, for example in Vietnam, where there seems to be developing an open-ended American commitment to prop up a government as incompetent as it is undemocratic, regardless of cost or consequences?

We will all know soon enough.

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Fashion, music, politics, sports

[November 24, 1963 cont.] Oswald dead, shot by Jack Ruby

November 24, 2018 Jessica Holmes 4 Comments

Just two hours ago, at 11:21 CST, Presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was shot by Jack Ruby, a local nightclub owner. Oswald was being transferred from the Dallas police department, where he had been charged for the murder of the President and a local law enforcement officer, to a nearby county jail when the attack occurred.

Ruby was immediately subdued and arrested. Oswald died just a few minutes ago.

It is hard to imagine the drama of this national crisis rising any higher. Our new UK correspondent, Jessica Holmes, is having similar trouble…]

By Jessica Holmes

I'm having a lot of difficulty putting my thoughts into words today. I'm not even an American, but the recent news knocked the wind out of me. It'd be silly to say, what with the world being the way it is, that I could never have imagined something like this. However, there's a difference between being able to imagine a horrible thing happening and actually believing that it may. We take normality for granted, that we go to sleep in a world unchanged from the world we woke up in.

Sadly, that's not how the world works. A horrible thing happened the other day.

I don't know what more I can say that hasn't already been said by people far more eloquent and knowledgeable than myself. I'll keep it simple: I liked President Kennedy, and to have him be gone so soon is a horrible thing. My thoughts are with his family and with the American people.

President Kennedy with UK Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in June 1963

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Fashion, music, politics, sports

[November 24, 1963] Mourning on two continents

November 24, 2018 Cora Buhlert 2 Comments

[President Kennedy's body has been transported to the Capitol where it will remain in state pending his funeral tomorrow. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, West Germans have offered an outpouring of sorrow for their fallen fellow Berliner…]

by Cora Buhlert

Like most West Germans, news of the terrible events in Dallas reached me at home, just settling onto the sofa for an evening of TV. Like some ninety percent of West German television owners, I had my set tuned to the eight o'clock evening news tagesschau. But instead of the familiar tagesschau fanfare, the screen remained dark for a minute or two, something which has never happened before in the eleven years the program has been on the air. When the image finally returned, the visibly shaken news anchor Karl-Heinz Köpcke reported that John F. Kennedy had been shot in Dallas, Texas, and was rushed to hospital. By the end of the program, we knew that Kennedy had not survived.

John F. Kennedy was extremely popular in West Germany, not least because of his memorable visit to our country earlier this year. And so many West Germans spontaneously burst into tears. People called friends and family, rang their neighbours' doorbells and shouted the news from windows to random passers-by on the street. Theatres and cinemas interrupted their programming, dancehalls closed down (on a Friday evening, i.e. prime business time) and in less an hour, the entire country was in shock.

The shock and grief was nowhere greater than in West Berlin, where Kennedy had won the hearts of the population, when he proclaimed "Ich bin ein Berliner" earlier this year. The people of Berlin took him by his word and mourned him as one of their own.

The students of the two big West Berlin universities heard the news during a student dance at the Hilton Hotel and spontaneously took to the streets, joined by many other Berliners. Several thousand – overwhelmingly young – people marched to the Rathaus Schöneberg, West Berlin's city hall, bearing torches, flowers and placards.

"Berlin has lost its best friend", West Berlin's mayor Willy Brandt proclaimed last night on the very spot in front of the Rathaus Schöneberg where John F. Kennedy held his now historic speech only five months ago, while the gathered mourners provisionally renamed the square in front of the city hall "John-F.-Kennedy Platz". By now, Willy Brandt has announced that the square will be named in honour of Kennedy for real on Monday. I'm sure it won't be the last John F. Kennedy street or square in West Germany.

By today, the soon to be John-F.-Kennedy Platz was drowning in flowers and thousands of mourning West Germans had signed one of the condolence books laid out around the country. In West Berlin and elsewhere, people placed candles in their windows in memory of John F. Kennedy. Reportedly, flickering candles have also spotted on the far side of the Berlin Wall.

For John F. Kennedy was not just a friend of Berlin, he was a friend of all of Germany.

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55 years ago: Science Fact and Fiction