ALAN writes:

In 1965, American teenagers listened to the “music” of the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and other such groups. But grown-ups did not enjoy it and would not have dreamed of playing such “music” in retail stores or supermarkets.

Fifty years later: “Music” that grown-ups in 1965 regarded as raucous or juvenile is now routinely foisted on shoppers in such places. This is just one example of the infantilization of American culture – or, as Diana West describes it ever so accurately, the death of the grown-up.

Another example is the ill-mannered behavior of people in theater audiences, like that described by Steve Hogan [“Hilarious Lear,” July 7 ].

When my mother and I went to the elegant St. Louis Theater in April 1965 to see a new motion picture called “The Sound of Music,” we encountered no such rude behavior. Theatergoers were well-dressed and on their best behavior. But the loss of elegant theaters in later decades was paralleled by the loss of good manners and the rise of the youth subculture.

Steve Allen recalled a night when cretins in the audience at a movie theater caused him to lose his temper:

 “It happened during the showing of the film classic If I Had Million, which includes one of the most touching scenes in motion picture annals. The star of this particular vignette was May Robson and the action took place in an old people’s home where once a day Miss Robson would read a letter from her son to a roomful of her sisters in despair. The tragic faces of the lonely, forgotten old women glowed as she read them her letters in the hope of bringing them a flicker of vicarious happiness. A stab of poignancy was introduced by a camera shot revealing that the ‘letter’ from which she was drawing such happy pictures was in reality only a laundry advertisement.

“All during the picture I had been disturbed and had tried to shush the raucous, vulgar chatter of a group of teenaged toughs several rows behind me. At this moment on the screen, a particularly aged woman, suffering from an ailment that gave her withered hands a noticeable tremor, rose from her bed and shuffled toward Miss Robson. As I was attempting to stifle the tears that this pathetic spectacle aroused, I suddenly heard one of the boors behind me say, quite loudly, ‘Shake it, baby!’ The next thing I knew I was on my feet shouting, ‘Shut your God-damned mouth!’

“Immediately I was surprised by three reactions. First, there was applause from the audience; secondly, the teenagers were frightened into immediate silence…..; and thirdly, my ferocious courage suddenly vanished, leaving me unnerved, breathing heavily, and ashamed at having made a spectacle of myself. To the charge that in speaking aloud I had committed the very crime against which I am inveighing, I plead not guilty because of temporary insanity.”  [ Steve Allen, Hi-Ho Steverino (1992), page 131 ]

Americans today might not have to put up with such cretins in theater audiences if entire generations of older Americans had not agreed to abdicate their proper authority and surrender firm standards of behavior (and speech, and dress) in public places. But they did.

Mr. Allen had the spine to do what acquiescent theater owners or management will not do: Put the cretins in their place. Now if we could only find ten million more Americans with the kind of spine shown by Mr. Allen, we might stand a chance of expelling the louts and restoring decency to theaters and the culture at large. 

                                                         — Comments —

Mrs. P. writes:

My husband and I have lived in the same suburb of Chicago for 20 years. We go to the movie theatre often. While everyone there is dressed casually, everyone is polite. In all our movie-going years here in this suburb, we have never encountered a single teenage cretin at the theatre. There are a few good kids in the world. 

This post criticizes today’s grownups primarily, but it also slams young people. I can’t help but think of the musical Bye Bye Birdie that was done in the early Sixties. It was a satire about the Fifties when I myself was a teenager. One song in particular comes to my mind named Kids Reprise. This is not to make light of the problems we face today with some of our youth (some grownups, too) and the erosion of adult authority in certain cases, but I believe we have been down this road several times in the past. As proof, here are the lyrics to that song.

Laura writes:

It’s true, manners are not terrible everywhere and there are many well-mannered children and teenagers still. However, in general, I don’t think we have been down this road before in terms of the disregard for everyday courtesy. There’s a level of public slovenliness that is relatively new. My teenaged son went to the U.S. Open and the woman behind him put her bare feet on the back of his seat throughout the matches. And, at our local Borders, which is about to close, people used to take off their shoes while sitting in the big armchairs in the cafe and put their feet up on the tables. At another coffee shop in our town, people routinely take up an entire table for hours with their laptops. They have no problem using a business as their free office.

The fight against bad manners will never end, but I think it’s harder to justify courtesy today because people so strongly approve of informality. You can see why bare feet in a public place are not a problem. It’s just opennness and self-expression.    

Louise writes:

Alan writes:

Fifty years later: “Music” that grown-ups in 1965 regarded as raucous or juvenile is now routinely foisted on shoppers in such places. This is just one example of the infantilization of American culture – or, as Diana West describes it ever so accurately, the death of the grown-up.

This reminded me of something I was just thinking of the other day. While watching an episode of George Peppard as Banacek, I noticed classical music was used twice in the episode: once when Banacek was at home working and once in a scene in a library/antique book shop. When I was younger, movies and television programs would routinely have the heroes listening to classical music or use classical music as a backdrop for a scene. Even cartoons such as Bugs Bunny used Beethoven and Wagner. Now it seems only villains listen to classical music – I believe Anthony Hopkins’ character in Silence of the Lambs (a movie I once had the misfortune to run across while flipping channels) listened to Bach while planning crimes. What does it say about our culture if some of the most beautiful music ever produced is listened to only by villians? What is the entertainment industry trying to tell us?

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