The "Good Kids" from my generation

[EddMarkStarr]

When I chat with friends about the 1960's I'm reminded that not all kids were into drugs, alcohol and rock 'n' roll.
And not all kids were in the streets protesting the Vietnam War, and rock "n" roll.

There were "good kids" who did their school work, attended church regularly, and joined with other good kids in moral organizations like: Up With People!

Up With People was the proof that some kid were into clean living. Up With People held concerts through local chapters and broadcast television specials through the national organization.
There were several concerts held at my school and some of the songs were cool. Overall, I found Up With People a little "too clean", like the kids who attended church youth ministries over the summer.
In the end, Up With People just wasn't for me. I wasn't a "bad kid" but I never like political/religious cults. I get a weird feeling when people are "too nice".

 

[rareboy]

It fucking creeped me out.

But even then, my gaydar was going off like crazy.

Deadspin | Remembering Up With People: The Gayish Quasi-Cult That Invented The Super Bowl Halftime Show

Deadspin | Remembering Up With People: The Gayish Quasi-Cult That Invented The Super Bowl Halftime Show

deadspin.com

 

[EddMarkStarr]

You know what they say about "good intensions". The Up With People organization wanted to counter the perception that America's youth were on the road to ruin. Protesting the Vietnam War was seen as unpatriotic by some segments of society and it highlights something that I still argue about even today.

Television and movies, for all of my life, are the products of an older generation of people at the helm of the entertainment industry. Television especially has always been a medium set in the past with programs that harken back to entertainment from an earlier era. It was the 1960's when television revealed a split in social values. "Good" TV featured traditional values and was perceived as patriotic, while "Bad" TV was progressive and pushed the boundaries of moral standards.

Up With People touched a nerve in conservative America and set-off a sort of "Tug-O-War" between the right and the left, Republicans and Democrats - all as the 1960's was drawing to a close.

And this is when Johnny Mann and The Johnny Mann Singers began appearing on television. Johnny Mann took the momentum of Up With People, and ran with it. Patriotic conservatives who ran the major television networks were eager to air flag waving, old fashioned valued, young Americans on primetime shows and specials. The Johnny Mann Singers toured the country and Johnny Mann himself went national with his syndicated TV show, "Stand Up and Cheer" from 1971 to 1974. The perfect entry to the flag waving frenzy of the year long U.S. Bicentennial celebration year of 1976.


Of course, clean-cut, all-American men are the foundation to all kinds of lifestyles!

Here is one of the few videos I've found, so please forgive the poor audio quality.

 

[Thad1527]

^ Thanks for the clip. I liked Howard Parker but, oh, I will always hate "Spinning Wheel." Cringe.

And I can still sing for you some of those "Up With People" songs. Especially the title one. "Up, up with people, you meet 'em wherever you go..." I believe my school choral groups performed them. It's shocking what sticks in the mind years and years later.

Guess I was not a cool kid.

 

[EddMarkStarr]

^ Thanks for the clip. I liked Howard Parker but, oh, I will always hate "Spinning Wheel." Cringe.

And I can still sing for you some of those "Up With People" songs. Especially the title one. "Up, up with people, you meet 'em wherever you go..." I believe my school choral groups performed them. It's shocking what sticks in the mind years and years later.

Guess I was not a cool kid.

So here's what happened. I was chatting with one of the neighbors when I realized that everything I watched on television back in the 60's had the approval of my grandparents. And that's because everything I could watch in the 1960's was made by people from my grandparent's generation. Television was never a trendsetter - it was a follower of trends, especially outdated trends.

That's why I was surprised by my older sister's college friends who claimed not to watch TV at all.

When school was out for the summer my parents sent me away to summer camp. When I came back, they sent me to Vacation Bible School. Talk about the Swinging 60's!

 

[rareboy]

You know what they say about "good intensions". The Up With People organization wanted to counter the perception that America's youth were on the road to ruin. Protesting the Vietnam War was seen as unpatriotic by some segments of society and it highlights something that I still argue about even today.

Television and movies, for all of my life, are the products of an older generation of people at the helm of the entertainment industry. Television especially has always been a medium set in the past with programs that harken back to entertainment from an earlier era. It was the 1960's when television revealed a split in social values. "Good" TV featured traditional values and was perceived as patriotic, while "Bad" TV was progressive and pushed the boundaries of moral standards.

Up With People touched a nerve in conservative America and set-off a sort of "Tug-O-War" between the right and the left, Republicans and Democrats - all as the 1960's was drawing to a close.

And this is when Johnny Mann and The Johnny Mann Singers began appearing on television. Johnny Mann took the momentum of Up With People, and ran with it. Patriotic conservatives who ran the major television networks were eager to air flag waving, old fashioned valued, young Americans on primetime shows and specials. The Johnny Mann Singers toured the country and Johnny Mann himself went national with his syndicated TV show, "Stand Up and Cheer" from 1971 to 1974. The perfect entry to the flag waving frenzy of the year long U.S. Bicentennial celebration year of 1976.


Of course, clean-cut, all-American men are the foundation to all kinds of lifestyles!

Here is one of the few videos I've found, so please forgive the poor audio quality.

omg. gay as a circus.

 

[Peloso]

Seen through the lens of today's social climate, this sounds like some pretty standard right wing shit.

It fucking creeped me out.

But even then, my gaydar was going off like crazy.

Yep. Right wing all the way.

 

[rareboy]

Seen through the lens of today's social climate, this sounds like some pretty standard right wing shit.


Yep. Right wing all the way.

I love to watch all the white bread variety shows from the late 60's to mid 70's with all the male dancers camping their way through the routines.

What I (and a lot of other young homos) picked up on as a gay vibe now seems so explicit when you see the dancers now.

I'll bet there are tons of stories out there about the sex and drugs and misbehaviour by all of these clean young troupers.

 

[Peloso]

Of course there are. It's always been that way, at least since "polite society" became a thing.

I think that gay vibe you're getting comes from the brief period in the 70's when post-Stonewall gay liberation influenced men's casual fashion. Remember the short shorts and half-shirts? They didn't scream "HA HA GAY!!!" back then, they were normal. They were the fashion. They went away during the Reagan era which wiped away the gays and remaining hippies and reintroduced God-fearing white bread paranoia.

I miss the days when bigots were funny and lovable like Archie Bunker.

 

[EddMarkStarr]

I love to watch all the white bread variety shows from the late 60's to mid 70's with all the male dancers camping their way through the routines.

What I (and a lot of other young homos) picked up on as a gay vibe now seems so explicit when you see the dancers now.

I'll bet there are tons of stories out there about the sex and drugs and misbehaviour by all of these clean young troupers.

Like I used to say in college, "I found love at a Nixon supporters rally".