Honors Visual

Honors Final Paper

Los Angeles in the 1960’s

For my 2012 Senior project for English class, the goal was to create a ‘Literary Atlas’, that detailed a specific time and place. What I chose to research was Los Angeles in the 1960’s – I felt that it would be a momentous and interesting decade, and I was right. To further my knowledge of this subject, I read four books; “Listen to the Lambs” by Johnny Otis, “Helter Skelter” by Vincent Bugliosi, “Blue Jean Baby : One Girl’s Trip Through the 1960’s LA Music Scene” by Sally Parmer, and “The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy : The Conspiracy and Coverup” by William Turner and Jonn Christian. Some of the books focused on crime and facts, while others centered on adventures and anecdotes. All of these novels, however, were written in or about the 1960’s, and – read together – they gave a decent impression of what living in the Los Angeles during the 1960’s was like. Based on my research up until this point, it seems to me that, while 1960’s brought revolution and innovation to Los Angeles, it also brought fear.

The fear wasn’t obvious, though – at least not at first. In fact, the first thing you’d probably notice about the sixties was the fashion. Styles such as mod (coming from Britain, along with The Beatles) and hippie (including psychedelic colors and crazy patterns) became increasingly popular, and items such as the bikinis, stilettos, and miniskirts became trendy. The trendsetters of the time era included Jacqueline Kennedy, who was largely responsible for the popularization of the pillbox hat, and Audrey Hepburn, who made skinny jeans popular. Of course, you’d also see quintessential sixties gear, such as tie-dye, bellbottom jeans, and go-go boots. During this time period, men’s hats went out of fashion, and long hair (and afros) became the popular and common hairstyles. For women, beehives and pageboy cuts were among the popular ‘dos. Parmer’s book, “Blue Jean Baby”, gives a good look at the fashions of the 1960’s in saying, “I now drew a heavy black line over green eyes, wore Erace ccover-up like lipstick, and ironed my hair stick-straight on the ironing board, often laying the iron down on my hand. (It was painfully obvious who ironed their hair; we sported blisters on the tops of our left-hand fingers.) …  I analyzed the completed image in the hallway mirror and compared it to a Vogue magazine photo of Jane Asher, Paul McCartney’s girlfriend.”

The 1960’s were a revolutionary time, regardless of where you lived.  The energy of this time period could be felt everywhere. Movements were endless; everyone found something to fight for. Feminism, anti-war (because the Vietnam War went right through the sixties), gay rights, and Hispanic rights were all, among many others, spoken for during this time. Not to mention African American rights – Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech took place in 1963. Hippies were born, and became an example of the social, sexual, and musical revolutions happening across America – Woodstock took place in 1969, and drugs became much more common. Groupies were a big part of the music culture, in pursuit of up-and-coming bands at the time, such as The Rolling Stones and The Beatles.

While all of this excitement and advancement was felt in Los Angeles, there was something else mixed in with it – that aforementioned ‘fear’. Every single one of the books that I read, in some way or another, dealt with fear. Fear of not fitting in, fear of being rejected, fear of discrimination, or just fear for your life. This abundance of fear in Los Angeles during the 1960s made for more dramatic revolutions, and came about from more vicious happenings. It appears that, despite the new fashions and music and advances, the fear was still there. If you were living in Los Angeles in the sixties, I believe that fear would be a part of your life.

Chronologically speaking, it seems that one of the first apparent fears being realized during the 1960’s in Los Angeles was the fear of revolt, and revolt they did. In the summer of 1965, the city of Watts broke out in riots, resulting in 34 deaths, and over 3,000 arrests. Johnny Otis’ novel, “Listen to the Lambs”, spoke on this subject, in saying, “Like any other spot on earth whose inhabitants are perpetually locked in mortal combat with poverty and affliction, Watts is shot through with visual evidence of its plight. And even when the blemishes and the squalor cannot be readily picked up by the eye, they can be felt. You can almost cut with a knife the rage that this imposed ugliness generates. In the more densely populated and consequently shabbier neighborhoods, this grim and unlovely emotion pervades the atmosphere like a noxious gas. But, on the other hand, in Watts, as in any other spot on the earth where the human spirit refuses to yield, there is a deep and startling beauty.” I really enjoyed this quote, from the second I read it in the book. I felt it not only gave an explanation to why the riots started, and analyzed them, but was put forth in a really beautifully worded way. The Watts riots fit in perfectly with the feel of the sixties – fight against the system, and change what you don’t like. However, they were the worst that Los Angeles city had seen (up until the mid-90’s), and what mainly resulted was a lingering fear.

More fear was inflicted upon the area with the murder of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Kennedy was in town campaigning, when he was assassinated. Paul Schrade, a friend of Robert Kennedy’s, who was also shot during the incident, stated, "He knew it was life or death politically that night, and it became a death." While this may have been the only one in Los Angeles during the 1960s, there were certainly other assassinations around the country, and around the world. Malcolm X was killed in 1965, and Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, not to mention the assassination of Robert Kennedy’s older brother, President John F. Kennedy, in 1963. While I’m sure all of these murders shook up the country, it’s easy to imagine that Robert Kennedy’s murder especially put fear into Los Angeles. Not only was the assassination in their town, but it was also an assassination filled with conspiracy theories and plots. It’s much easier to be afraid of something when you’re not exactly sure what happened.

Of the events I read about and researched over the course of this project, the one that probably instilled the most fear into Los Angeles was the Manson Murders. In Vincent Bugliosi’s novel, “Helter Skelter”, he directly talks about the fear resulting from these murders – “Sometimes fear can be measured. Among the barometers: In two days one Beverly Hills sporting goods store sold 200 firearms; prior to the murders, they averaged three of four a day. Some of the private security forces doubled, then tripled, their personnel. Guard dogs, once priced at $200, now sold for $1,500; those who supplied them soon ran out. Locksmiths quoted two-week delays on orders. Accidental shootings, suspicious persons reports – all suddenly increased.” I thought that this quote was an especially powerful one; both interesting and filled with information. Murders weren’t commonplace in the sixties – no more common than they are now – and that’s why the Manson murders continue to stand out today as horrific crimes. At the time of them, at the end of the 1960’s, in 1969, I can only imagine the ripple it sent through the Los Angeles community, and I feel that this quote from “Helter Skelter” illustrated it very well.

There’s no doubt that the 1960’s were a unique and revolutionary time – it’s easy to look back, today, and see the fashions and popular culture that were abundant then. In the center that is Los Angeles, however, an unseen component was added to the mix. Through the texts I’ve read, and the research I’ve done, the invisible element was fear – if you lived in Los Angeles in the 1960’s, you would have experienced, in some way or another, fear. 

Works Cited

Almendrala, Anna. "Robert F. Kennedy's Assassination Remembered By Paul Schrade." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 04 June 2011. Web. 10 May 2012. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/04/robert-f-kennedys-assassination-anniversary_n_871407.html>.

Bugliosi, Vincent, and Curt Gentry. Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders. New York: Norton, 1974. Print.

Otis, Johnny. Listen to the Lambs. New York: W. W. Norton, 1968. Print.

Parmer, Sally. Blue Jean Baby: One Girl's Trip through the 1960s L.A. Music Scene. Charleston, SC: urge, 2009. Print.

Turner, William W., and Jonn G. Christian. The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy: A Searching Look at the Conspiracy and Cover-up, 1968-1978. New York: Random House, 1978. Print.

Honors Draft of Visual

 

This is the first draft of the visual component of my honors project. This is going to be the basic layout of my visual component, which I will create in Photoshop. Right now the image I'm using is the exposition of images I created earlier, but I intend to create a different background that matches the font and looks better. The fonts are all subject to change, depending on what I end up doing. The text in the background is obviously going to be filled in with text - although I'm not sure what yet. It may end up being text from my to-be-written essay, or an excerpt from one of the books I read, or maybe something else. Now that I have all of my ideas in place, I have no doubt that I will no trouble completing my visual component before its due date of May 14th. 

Honors - Novel Four

          The fourth and final book that I read for my honors project, as a look into Los Angeles in the 1960’s, was “The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy : The Conspiracy and Coverup”, by William Turner and Jonn Christian. This book, as the title suggests, focuses on Robert Kennedy’s 1968 assassination in Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel, as well as the conspiracies surrounding it. This book felt a lot like the second book I read – “Helter Skelter” by Vincent Bugliosi – and kind of had the same result for me. Both are in depth looks into crime, and do a good job of that, by focusing on, and revealing to you, all of the little pieces of a certain case. While this may be an interesting and informative read, it doesn’t necessarily give me as much information about the 1960’s in Los Angeles as a whole, as I would have liked. In this way, I don’t feel that this book – or Helter Skelter, for that matter – helped me as much as the other two books I read, for this project.

          While, through research, I had learned about this assassination prior to reading this book, one thing that initially surprised me was Vincent Bugliosi’s involvement – a further connection to “Helter Skelter”, and a sign of the time and place of these stories. I thought that the introduction of this book was really good, because it gave an overview to what you’d be reading (and kind of helped you to understand it without overwhelming you with details), as well as information on the book itself. I thought it was interesting that this book was pretty much ignored when it came out. It was slated for great things, such as book tours, before it just kind of disappeared. Apparently, for reasons unrevealed (potentially due to an outside source or involvement), the books stopped shipping, and thousands were sent to the incinerator to be burned. Because of this, demand just went up, and the price for an original copy skyrocketed shortly after.

          I also liked the use of images in this novel. Like many books of this nature, there was a small center section entirely comprised of images relating to the case, along with explanatory subtitles. The images included such things as maps, artifacts, people, and places. While the text is detailed enough to imagine what happened, these images really add another layer of depth and understanding to the writing. Overall, I thought that this was a decent book – most of its interest coming from the various conspiracies revolving around the crime. As I mentioned, however, it’s not necessarily very helpful pertaining to my project, although it has definitely given me some insight on Los Angeles in the 1960’s to walk away with.

Honors Two-Page Paper

 For my twelfth grade honors English project, which involved creating a ‘Literary Atlas’, I chose to research Los Angeles in the 1960’s. The first book I read for this assignment was Johnny Otis’s ‘Listen to the Lambs’, as a look into the Watts Riots that took place in Los Angeles in 1965. Not only did Otis’ novel give me a glimpse back to that time period, but it also served as an interesting read about one man’s experiences in dealing with racism in America.

Commonly known as the “Godfather of Rhythm and Blues”, Johnny Otis was, among many things, an American singer, songwriter, and musician. And, in 1969, with his publication of ‘Listen to the Lambs’, he became an author. Despite being the child of Greek immigrants, Johnny always considered himself to be black – ‘environmentally, psychologically, culturally, emotionally, and intellectually’. There wasn’t one contributing factor to this, but rather the culmination of his life’s experiences. In the book’s preface, Otis writes, “As a kid I decided that if our society dictated that one had to be either black or white, I would be black.”  He continues on life, as outlined in this book, feeling this way – he goes on to marry a black woman, plays with other black musicians, and lives in black neighborhoods. And, when the Watts Riots come about, you can guess who he sides with.

          This novel evolved from a letter that Johnny Otis wrote about the riots to a friend. Within the book, this letter, along with a second one, is included, and you can feel the stark difference to his regular writing. The structure is all over the place, and dotted with ellipses, but the message gets through and is a very real and natural from of his expression. I feel that the inclusion of these personal notes made the book a stronger one. The rest of the book is a mixture of feelings and ideas – from outside accounts of the riots, to stories from his past, to his take on everything that has happened thus far.

          To me, the most interesting (and relevant) parts of this book were those pertaining to the Watts Riots. Otis conducted interviews of those who took part in the riots, and put them – word-for-word – into this book. By sharing the telling of such a large and significant story, I think that you were really able to get a better understanding of the entire picture. He provided the interviews of five different individuals that experienced these riots, and each had a unique perspective on the incident. One segment told of a shop-owner who got arrested for no particular reason, while dropping of a mother at her home, while another tells of a reporter feeling conflicted. Read together, in conjunction to Otis’ writing, I found this section to be one of the more powerful and interesting ones. In addition, I really enjoyed Johnny’s description of Watts –

“Like any other spot on earth whose inhabitants are perpetually locked in mortal combat with poverty and affliction, Watts is shot through with visual evidence of its plight. And even when the blemishes and the squalor cannot be readily picked up by the eye, they can be felt. You can almost cut with a knife the rage that this imposed ugliness generates. In the more densely populated and consequently shabbier neighborhoods, this grim and unlovely emotion pervades the atmosphere like a noxious gas. But, on the other hand, in Watts, as in any other spot on the earth where the human spirit refuses to yield, there is a deep and startling beauty.”

          Although the section about the Watts riots piqued my interest the most, I enjoyed the rest of the book, as well. Some of the parts fell a little flat, however – mostly where Otis is trying to be poignant and reflective. It just didn’t seem to fit his style of writing, necessarily. You can tell that he is a storyteller, and when he gets into his life experience, that’s when you really get involved. A good portion of his book contained his retelling of things that happened to him in the past, from his upbringing, to the discrimination he experienced and witnessed, to the music he created, to the life he lived. And all of it really captured and held my attention.

For my third honors novel, I chose to read “Blue Jean Baby”, an autobiographical work by Sally Parmer. Subtitled ‘One Girl’s Trip Through the 1960s L.A. Music Scene’, I figured that this book would give me insight into the time period I was looking into for this assignment. Luckily, I was right – of the three books I have read so far, this one most definitely gives the most feeling of what it was like to be in Los Angeles in the 60’s. While “Listen to the Lambs” was built upon events prior to and after the sixties, and “Helter Skelter” focused on a specific crime, “Blue Jean Baby” gave more of an overarching view on what life was like at that time.

This book follows Sally Parmer - from a first-person perspective – as she becomes a part of the L.A. music scene.  In reference to the term ‘groupie’, she states:

“In reality, the original music fans, those of us who hooked up with the musicians in the early 1960s, were wide-eyed kids overwhelmed by a style of music so intensely life-affirming we longed to attach ourselves to the people who created the sound.”

          She and her friends, at the ripe age of fourteen, begin their pursuit of this musical lifestyle just as the Beatles began their rise to popularity. Music was changing from beachy to rock, and they all wanted a part in it.

“The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and nameless groups we’d soon grow to worship caused the ground to rumble in the West Coast pre-earthquake way. Something big was finally happening, and the emotionally weary among us vowed to be involved.”

          Sally exploited her visual similarity to Cher to initially make connections, and from there just expanded her circle. At school, she socialized with like-minded teens, and even became a folk singer with a friend, as a way to make money to fund their pursuits. They got into drugs, sex, and rock-and-roll – a stark contrast from what previous generations lived by.

“My generation carried the banner that transitioned western culture from conservative, post-war blandness to open-minded pro-activity. That transition included a free-spirited attitude toward speech, style, and behavior, and made the world cool for the first time since the 1920s.”

          Sally used this world to somewhat escape from her family – her mother was a drunk, and when Sally got pregnant at sixteen, she was completely locked up and treated horribly, resulting in a near-death experience after giving up her newborn.

          The story continues with expected outcomes – unwanted pregnancies in the music community, her different encounters with various musicians, her changing relationships, and a never-steady or calm lifestyle. Even the ending doesn’t really give resolution – in her seemingly early twenties (I don’t believe a specific age is ever stated) she takes her daughter and leaves an abusive relationship to continue on with her life. While the afterword tells the current lives of her friends, and other characters from the book, you never really learn what her final fate was.

I ended up enjoying both of these books, and felt that they both gave me a good understanding of the time period. The books actually ended up feeling and reading similarly – both are based in reality and are told as stories. Because of this, they both read as interesting and easy to follow – it wasn’t all facts and figures, but rather the feelings and experiences of the 1960’s. Both books gave context that tied them, as well as the time period, together. The books referenced events from the time period, such as the Watts Riots, that gave you an idea of how the time felt. Overall, these novels really painted a clear picture of what Los Angeles was like in the 1960’s, and reading them will have given me a greater understanding for my final project.

       

Honors Exposition of Images

Honors - Novel Three

          For my third honors novel, I chose to read “Blue Jean Baby”, an autobiographical work by Sally Parmer. Subtitled ‘One Girl’s Trip Through the 1960s L.A. Music Scene’, I figured that this book would give me insight into the time period I was looking into for this assignment. Luckily, I was right – of the three books I have read so far, this one most definitely gives the most feeling of what it was like to be in Los Angeles in the 60’s. While “Listen to the Lambs” was built upon events prior to and after the sixties, and “Helter Skelter” focused on a specific crime, “Blue Jean Baby” gave more of an overarching view on what life was like at that time.

          This book follows Sally Parmer - from a first-person perspective – as she becomes a part of the L.A. music scene.  In reference to the term ‘groupie’, she states:

“In reality, the original music fans, those of us who hooked up with the musicians in the early 1960s, were wide-eyed kids overwhelmed by a style of music so intensely life-affirming we longed to attach ourselves to the people who created the sound.”

          She and her friends, at the ripe age of fourteen, begin their pursuit of this musical lifestyle just as the Beatles began their rise to popularity. Music was changing from beachy to rock, and they all wanted a part in it.

“The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and nameless groups we’d soon grow to worship caused the ground to rumble in the West Coast pre-earthquake way. Something big was finally happening, and the emotionally weary among us vowed to be involved.”

          Sally exploited her visual similarity to Cher to initially make connections, and from there just expanded her circle. At school, she socialized with like-minded teens, and even became a folk singer with a friend, as a way to make money to fund their pursuits. They got into drugs, sex, and rock-and-roll – a stark contrast from what previous generations lived by.

“My generation carried the banner that transitioned western culture from conservative, post-war blandness to open-minded pro-activity. That transition included a free-spirited attitude toward speech, style, and behavior, and made the world cool for the first time since the 1920s.”

          Sally used this world to somewhat escape from her family – her mother was a drunk, and when Sally got pregnant at sixteen, she was completely locked up and treated horribly, resulting in a near-death experience after giving up her newborn.

          The story continues with expected outcomes – unwanted pregnancies in the music community, her different encounters with various musicians, her changing relationships, and a never-steady or calm lifestyle. Even the ending doesn’t really give resolution – in her seemingly early twenties (I don’t believe a specific age is ever stated) she takes her daughter and leaves an abusive relationship to continue on with her life. While the afterword tells the current lives of her friends, and other characters from the book, you never really learn what her final fate was.

          This book was a very easy read, because it read like a story. There wasn’t a lot of hard facts or figures anywhere throughout – just Sally Parmer telling you about her life. It also just seemed like an extremely relevant novel for the topic I’m looking into. In the books, mentions are made to the topics of the other three books I’m reading for this topic – the Watts Riots, Kennedy assassination, and Manson Murders – and it’s shown how they affected your everyday person. You get to see how these events were in context, which gave them deeper – it seemed – meaning than reading an entire book simply dedicated to it. All in all, I enjoyed this book and feel that it was a good choice. It really painted a picture of Los Angeles in the sixties, and I think that it will help me to have a good understanding of it as I continue on with this project.