SO, where do we even begin?

1. SO, where do we even begin? In order to understand the 1960’s - you need to understand the 1950’s - which can not be understood without going all the way back to the early part of the 20th century…

2. The Victorians… • Society in the US from the 19th century up through the early part of the 20th century (early 1900’s) was very modest.

3. Things were really nice and neat! Gender roles played a large part of society • Women were in charge of Domestic life (taking care of the home and children) • Men were in charge of taking care of earning money outside of the home (they occupied separate spheres of life)

4. Things started to change… • in the early part of the 20th century with the suffragist movement • The 19th amendment was ratified in 1920…

5. The 1920’s introduced… • The flapper… • Short hair • Short dresses

6. Society began to look “modern” … • The Roaring 20’s was a time of prosperity …after WWI the economy was booming…people partied and spent $ for the first time with what we call “disposable income”

7. But…the GREAT DEPRESSION… • Was right around the corner…1929 the stock market crashes…and doesn’t really recover until the 1950’s…

9. In 1941 the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor… • And the US enters WWII … • The war helps lift the US out of the Depression

10. When the War Ended in 1945… • Returning GI’s were greeted with parades and privileges… • 16 million men were returning to the states

11. How did people dress? • Women dressed "smartly' in the Fifties. Good grooming and a tailored look were prized. Acting and looking "every inch the lady" was taught virtually from the cradle. Although not seen, a girdle was a necessary part of all ensembles

12. Men wore hats in the Fifties. Not sometimes. All the time. There was some variation as to style, but no man was dressed unless a hat adorned his head.

13. Leave it to Beaver - the perfect American family

16. Time Man of the Year William J. Levitt

18. Aerial view of Levittown

19. Drive-in Culture

21. The 1950’s

22. How do you get from the straight laced 1950’s to the crazy “psychedelic” 1960’s? • The beat poets have a large part to play…

23. Who were the beat poets? The Beat Generation was a group of American writers who came to prominence in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

24. The Beat Generation American author Jack Kerouac introduced the term Beat Generation sometime around 1948 to describe his “alternative” friends and as a general term describing the underground, anti-conformist youth gathering then in New York. They were also known as the “counter-culture.” Poetry readings were a common forum for Beatniks to articulate dissatisfaction with societal constraints.

25. The Beat Generation Allen Ginsberg’s poem HOWL illustrated what many “mainstreamers” viewed as the moral and social decay of the time. Groups such as the Beats were a part of a larger movement called the “counter-culture.” This movement led to the emergence of the “hippies” of the 60s. Hippies were dedicated to peace, love, and happiness and they endeavoured to ‘expand their minds’ through the use of mind-altering drugs such as LSD

26. Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg

27. bohemian the term "bohemian" can describe any person who lives an unconventional artistic life, where self-expression is the highest value — that art (acting, poetry, writing, singing, dancing, painting etc) is a serious and main focus of his/her life.

28. What is a BEAT? • Jack Kerouac introduced the phrase Beat Generation sometime around 1948 to describe his friends and as a general term describing the underground, anti-conformist youth gathering in New York. • The adjective beat had the connotations of "tired" or "down and out," but Kerouac added the paradoxical connotations of upbeat, beatific, and the musical association of being "on the beat."

29. The Beat Generation: "Beat doesn't mean tired, or bushed, so much as it means beato, the Italian for beatific: to be in a state of beatitude, like St. Francis, trying to love all life, trying to be utterly sincere with everyone, practicing endurance, kindness, cultivating joy of heart.  How can this be done in our mad world of multiplicities and millions?  By practicing a little solitude, going off by yourself once in a while to store up that most precious of golds: the vibrations of sincerity." - Jack Kerouac, "Lamb, No Lion," 1958. (Kerouac coined the phrase "Beat Generation")

31. What was going on the 1960’s that caused this “rebellion” … The 60s were the age of youth, as 70 million children from the post-war baby boom became teenagers and young adults. The movement away from the conservative 50s continued and eventually resulted in revolutionary ways of thinking and real change in the cultural fabric of American life.

32. The 1960’s… • 1961 - Peace Corps created by Pres. Kennedy • 1963 - Martin Luther King delivers his “I have a dream” speech • 1963 - Pres. John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas • 1963 - Lyndon Johnson becomes President of the United States • Malcolm X assassinated in 1965 • MLK Jr assassinated in 1968

33. Ken Kesey

34. Kesey’s Early Life Ken Kesey was born in Colorado, but grew up in Oregon. This also happens to be where One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest takes place. The Oregon State Mental Hospital

35. Kesey’s College Years Ken went on to the University of Oregon where he became a star wrestler and lead actor in college plays. He married Faye, his high school sweetheart during his freshman year. Voted Most Likely to Succeed as a Senior in High School

36. College • While at Stanford, he participated in government-funded experiments involving chemicals at the psychology department to earn extra money. • These chemicals included psilocybin, mescaline, and LSD. This experience fundamentally altered Kesey, personally and professionally. • While working as an orderly at the psychiatric ward of the local VA hospital, Kesey began to have hallucinations about an Indian sweeping the floors. This formed the basis for Chief Bromden (for "broom") in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – the project he worked on at Stanford

37. After College Kesey and Faye went to Hollywood to try to land a part in a movie. However, Kesey couldn’t resist the urge to write and enrolled in Stanford in 1958 on a creative-writing fellowship.

38. Ken Kesey - Perry Lane Days

39. Partying • At this time, Kesey lived at Perry Lane, a bohemian community in Palo Alto, where he became notorious for throwing parties in which certain chemicals mysteriously found their way into the punch. • Kesey published One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1962. The novel was an immediate critical and popular success.

40. Perry lane cottages Perry Lane, a cluster of two-room cottages inhabited by young, promising intellectuals.

41. Kesey and LSD Ken’s best friend on Perry Lane told him about some experiments the local VA hospital was conducting with hallucinogenic drugs. They paid Ken $75 a day to come in and lie down in a bed while they gave him a series of capsules of placebos, Ditran, and LSD.

42. Kesey and LSD • The doctors had never taken LSD and couldn’t understand the effects and feelings. Ken managed to provide all his friends on Perry Lane with LSD. • To the counter-culture of the 1960s LSD was a good thing; it helped hippies to explore their own mind and expand their horizons.

43. LSD • Ken Kesey took part in scientific experiments at a hospital, Menlo Park Veterans Hospital,trialling LSD as a state-controlled mind-altering substance. • LSD was thought that it could help those suffering mental disorders such as schizophrenia. It was not so effective as a medical tool as it induced hallucinations.

44. Kesey’s Job on the Psych Ward Ken got a job covering the night shift at a psychiatric ward in order to write his first book, Zoo, which was never published. Once he got there and started interacting with patients, he discovered the punishing abuse of power by the system.

45. Kesey’s inspiration for Cuckoo’s Nest Kesey would come to work high on LSD in order to try to achieve a similar state of mind as his patients. It was during one of these acid trips that he envisioned his narrator, Chief Broom, a deaf-mute, paranoid schizophrenic Native American mental patient.

46. Immediate Success One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was the first book that Ken published (in 1962). The book was immediately adapted into a successful stage production a year later, and then became and Academy Award winning film, sweeping five major Oscar categories in 1975.

47. Kesey’s opinion of film - 1 Kesey was originally involved in creating the film, but left two weeks into production. He claimed never to have seen the movie because of a dispute over the $20,000 he was initially paid for the film rights. Jack Nicholson as Randle Patrick McMurphy Kesey wanted Gene Hackman to play McMurphy 6’ 7” Will Sampson as Chief Bromden

48. Kesey’s opinion of film - 2 Kesey was apparently angered by the fact that, unlike the book, the film was not narrated by the Chief Bromden character, and he disagreed with Jack Nicholson being cast as Randle McMurphy (even though Nicholson went on to win Best Actor) Jack Nicholson as Randle Patrick McMurphy 6’ 7” Will Sampson as Chief Bromden

49. The Move to La Honda, California After the success of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken and Faye moved to La Honda. His Perry Lane friends followed and their communal LSD culture continued. They nicknamed themselves the Merry Pranksters.

50. Author Hunter S. Thompson remembered La Honda as "the world capital of madness. There were no rules, fear was unknown, and sleep was out of the question."