I found today’s feature of particular interest. On this date in 1956, Santa Cruz, California banned rock music at all public gatherings. And why did they do this? Because the music was “detrimental to both the health and morals of our youth and community.” The reason this happened was that the evening before, there was a fantastic party where 200 teenagers danced to the music of Chuck Higgins and His Orchestra. Just after midnight, the police attended the gathering, and what they saw was teenagers “engaged in suggestive, stimulating and tantalizing motions induced by the provocative rhythms of an all-[race] band.” In other words, this was African-American music that caused people to be perverse and engage in behavior that was lewd and lascivious. You can imagine that even though other cities did similar things throughout the country, rock ‘n roll continued to thrive. Interesting that 57 years later, this is tame compared to what happens in concerts and gatherings. No city would dare do this today!
For more info:
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/rock-and-roll-is-banned-in-santa-cruz-california
http://famousdaily.com/history/rock-and-roll-music-banned-santa-cruz.html
Related Articles
5 Comments
-
That was not really all that long ago…and look at what we find as “acceptable” now! You are so right, what got banned then is nothing compared to now!
-
Interesting how times change!
-
-
how fascinating i live in cali & didnt know that
-
-
This totally sounds like what happened in Footloose! 🙂
-
Author
I would tend to agree!
-
