Hanging On to the ‘60s : An Outpouring of Movies, TV, Fashion, Music and Protest Kicks an Obsession With That Delirious Decade Into High Gear

By most accounts, it started five years ago with the release of “The Big Chill”--the film that introduced a whole new generation to Vietnam Angst, free love and such ‘60s classics as “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” way before those dancing raisins did.

Other trend watchers point to New York fashion designer Stephen Sprouse’s revival of neon-bright miniskirts in 1984 as a key influence.

Still other observers figure it was all those ‘60s reruns--”Leave It to Beaver,” “The Twilight Zone” and “The Munsters” to name a few--that kicked the phenomenon into high gear.

Growing With Each Replay

Though many wrote off such initial evidence of ‘60s fever as passing forays into nostalgia, the trend seems to be growing with each additional replay.

--Three current major films are set in the ‘60s (“Good Morning, Vietnam,” “Dirty Dancing” and “Hairspray,” the movie featuring teased hair, angel blouses, pegged pants and tab collars). Dozens of other films about the ‘60s are in the works, including at least three movies on the Woodstock concert of 1969.

--Student protests are making headlines once again. (Students at Gallaudet University, the liberal-arts college for the deaf, recently forced a newly installed, non-deaf president to resign and got a deaf administrator appointed in her place.)

--Commodities from automobiles to athletic shoes are being advertised on national television with ‘60s music and themes. The trend has even filtered down to independent retailers such as Manhattan Beach florist Geri Harris, who recently placed a huge drawing of a peace symbol outside her shop. Although Harris “couldn’t remember what it looked like--at first I got it mixed up with the Mercedes-Benz symbol”--she found motorists were waving two-fingered peace signs as they drove by.

--Reruns of ‘60s TV programs are not just appearing on television. They’re being screened at such places as the rarely frivolous Los Angeles County Museum of Art. And one cable network (Nick at Nite, the prime-time version of Nickelodeon) has devoted itself exclusively to reruns (‘60s favorites “Mr. Ed,” “Dennis the Menace,” and “Car 54, Where Are You?” among them). Along with “The Donna Reed Show,” the network offered viewers tips on how to be Donna Reed--by doing housework in high heels and chanting the Donna Reed mantra (“Oh . . .”).

--New TV shows, including ABC’s “The Wonder Years,” are being set in the ‘60s. And some decidedly ‘80s shows are adding peacenik touches. On last Sunday’s episode of “Murder, She Wrote,” an unreconstructed hippie camped out in Angela Lansbury’s back yard.

--In the music world, there is serious talk of a Beatles reunion. And numerous pop stars of the decade--notably Roy Orbison (who was recently backed up by Bruce Springsteen) and Little Richard (who is doing commercials for McDonald’s)--are in the midst of major comebacks.

--’60s artifacts such as lava lamps and peace symbols are reportedly selling well at the trendier shops around town. At the Soap Plant, patchouli (the classic hippie fragrance) is attracting more customers now than it did when the store opened in 1971, near the end of the beads-and-sandals era.

--Shorter skirts for women and longer hair for men are de rigueur for the chic throughout the world.

--”Classic rock” radio stations are so prevalent throughout the United States (there are at least six in Los Angeles) that some radio programmers fear that new bands will be denied sufficient air play opportunities for proper development.

--On music video networks VH-1 and MTV, footage of performances from the ‘60s have received increased play. Many new videos are full of visual and audio influences from the ‘60s. Earlier this month on MTV, Randee of the Redwoods (a dashiki- and headband-wearing correspondent straight out of the decade) was chosen to anchor the network’s Super Tuesday coverage.

Why are people increasingly enamored of the ‘60s, the decade that is remembered for its ideals (love and peace) and its excesses (sex, drugs and violence) at home and abroad?

Why are marketing experts predicting the current rehash will last at least another year, probably culminating in the summer of 1989 with the anniversary of Woodstock?

In short, why can’t we let go of the ‘60s?

To Wavy Gravy, a former member of Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters and the man who emceed the party for about half-a-million people at Woodstock, the answer to all those questions is simple: “The ‘80s are the ‘60s. These are the good old days.”

With a few differences. Gravy points out that “people did not like to go to jail in the ‘60s one bit. I didn’t go to jail at all in the ‘60s. I got beat up and tear-gassed a lot, though. I’ve been through three spinal fusions.

“Now I dress up like a clown at demonstrations. I’ve been to jail seven or eight times since the ‘60s. These days we all go to jail together (peacefully) and because there are so many of us we create our own environment.”

And Gravy, who is still a member of the Berkeley/Laytonville-based commune called the Hog Farm, is part of the cultural comeback. He recently appeared at New York City’s old Fillmore East (renamed The Saint) in what was billed as a “Psychedelic Daze Revue” featuring Gravy, a psychedelic light show and a Country Joe concert. It was so successful that more evenings (with Abbie Hoffman and the rock group Iron Butterfly) were scheduled.

Author David Wallechinsky, who interviewed his classmates and others for his 1986 book, “Midterm Report, the Class of ‘65: Chronicle of an American Generation,” suspects that the fascination with the ‘60s stems from the tumultuous events young people were forced to confront then.

“You had to expand one way or another. If you were a male, you had a choice to make regarding the Vietnam War,” he says. “Both those who went to war and those who protested it thought they were doing something to make the world a better place . . .

‘A Welter of Feelings’

“Back in the ‘60s, everyone discussed these issues. In many of the interviews I did for the book, people said that sense of purpose that was prevalent in the ‘60s is missing today.”

Some suspect those issues, and the sense of purpose they engendered, have never been resolved.

“Part of the reason we can’t let go of the ‘60s is that they brought to the surface a welter of feelings and visions and inclinations which have been at war with each other ever since and have not been settled,” says Todd Gitlin, a UC Berkeley sociology professor and author of “The ‘60s, Years of Hope, Days of Rage.” “Therefore, talking about the ‘60s is an indirect way of talking about where we are now in the culture and politics.”

It’s no accident, Gitlin says, that the strongest ‘60s revival to date is coming just as Ronald Reagan prepares to leave office.

“All the talk about the ‘60s and all the re-enactments, in my view, are not simple nostalgia for a period of innocence of confrontation. It’s a shadow play for the present. Part of what’s going on is the intuition that the Reagan years are coming to an end. And, therefore American politics and culture are up for grabs. Talking about the ‘60s, imagining the ‘60s --whether it’s the real ‘60s or the fantasy ‘60s--is a way to understand what’s possible or desirable now.”

Ironically, along with the paramount issues of the decade, a long-lost sense of silliness and abandon is often mentioned by those who have written about the era.

Journalist/television producer Sara Davidson, whose 1977 book, “Loose Change,” was a memoir of her journey through the ‘60s, sees the time as connected with “feeling young, feeling passionate, feeling good and having time.”

“Nobody has time these days to spend an entire weekend listening to music, lying on the floor and hanging out with friends,” she laments.

Consider a recent trip Davidson made to San Francisco in which she attempted to make purely social appointments with five old pals. Every one of them, she recalls, said their schedules were so “impossibly full” that they could not squeeze her in.

Values, Morals Mattered

“In the ‘60s, ambition was out. It was a dirty word. You had to hide it,” she says. “But at the same time, there was a sense that you mattered, that values and morals mattered. People felt they could make major changes in the world. That’s been sadly missed in all our lives (since).”

But some veterans of the ‘60s aren’t put off at all by the fact that many old hippies are the ambitious yuppies of the ‘80s. “They’re not apathetic,” social philosopher/stand-up comic Timothy Leary says of the baby boom generation. “You can’t be apathetic if you’re jogging and you’ve got two jobs and nine plans for your life. The Summer of Love (1967) kids have smartened up and they’re more realistic and practical. They’re now moving into positions of authority.

“In the ‘50s, they were the Mouseketeers, learning how to be electronic people. In the late ‘60s, they were called hippies. In the ‘70s, they were yippies. In the ‘80s, they’re yuppies, Young Upscale Pragmatics. In the ‘90s, they’re going to take over.”

In the meantime, some of the trappings, if not the substance of the era, are back in our closets. “The new designers are knocking off the ‘60s, but when we did it, it was totally different,” says New York designer Giorgio di Sant’ Angelo, who--with creators such as the late Rudi Gernreich of Los Angeles, New York’s Betsey Johnson, London’s Mary Quant and L.A.’s Holly Harp--was responsible for many of the unique styles of the decade.

“My fall line looks very Op and Pop,” Johnson says, referring to the two movements in modern art during that decade. But Johnson now classifies many of the designs from the ‘60s as classics and thinks they should no longer be considered “retro” wear.

“To me, the ‘60s was the time of clothes that really went with the body. Your armhole was at your armhole. It was a time of tank tops, turtle necks, tight T-shirts. Form followed function,” says the designer who remembers her designs with terms such as “street kid ‘60s” or “be-bop ‘60s.”

Los Angeles designer Holly Harp, who opened a Sunset Strip boutique bearing her name in 1968 and was an immediate hit with many rock and film stars, says the clothes she now manufactures for specialty stores and better department stores have much in common with those she made for her shop 20 years ago.

“The clothes are still fluid, romantic and hopefully reflect a certain amount of wit,” says Harp, who was known for her “rich hippie” looks often fashioned of lace, beads and matte jersey. “I’m not trying to do tasteful little uniforms. Being dressed in perfect taste is very aging.”

But Stephen Sprouse, the designer who paced the ‘80s revival of ‘60s styles with a well-received collection of tight, bright bodywear in 1984, finds he has no interest whatsoever in any further exploration of ‘60s design.

“I’m kind of over it,” he says. “People probably still like it because that’s when the times got the most modern and futuristic in this century--art, music and fashion all got pretty advanced. But I went on to the ‘70s, like the punk ‘70s. Now I’m just trying to figure out what the ‘90s are going to be.”

It’s clear that many see hope in the current preoccupation with the past.

Ram Dass--Richard Alpert when he was thrown out of Harvard University for his LSD experiments with Timothy Leary--feels the country’s collective fascination with the ‘60s indicates “an emerging quality that it’s all right to dream again.”

Movie producer Linda Gottlieb, whose ‘60s dance movie “Dirty Dancing” is among the largest-grossing independent feature films ever made, says she’s heartened by all the letters she gets from teen-aged fans of the movie.

“They write that they relate to the emotional aspects of the movie, things they had only dreamed of before,” Gottlieb says. “These kids weren’t even born until the ‘70s, but they see the ‘60s as a more simple, innocent and emotional time and they want more of that in their lives.”

But some observers are worried about the dangers of too many blasts from the past.

Marc Mancini, a film journalist who teaches cinema at Loyola Marymount University, is concerned about the obsession with the past he observes in many of his students:

“Today’s youth have direct access to media artifacts from other eras. They can rent anything from the ‘60s they want. Past generations often looked to the future or the present for hope. But when this generation looks to the future it often sees a worse world.

Easy to Live in the Past

“Because of intensive TV watching they’re used to living vicariously, and it’s easy to live in the past, with their parents’ media obsessions. The kids of today have many of the same heroes as their parents’ generation--Tina Turner, George Harrison, Paul Simon.”

For a while, Mancini thought pop star Madonna was unique enough to re-invent things on a scale similar to what happened in the ‘60s, but “then she decided to be Marilyn Monroe.”

Mancini sometimes shows his classes films made in the ‘60s such as “The Graduate” or made about the decade, such as “Easy Rider.” He has found the students typically understand the traditional values of “The Graduate” and are rather mystified by the hippie values of “Easy Rider.”

“They find ‘Easy Rider’ either quaint, silly or troubling,” Mancini says, noting that the students particularly have a tough time understanding the film’s view that material ambition was a joke during the time.

Those who see danger in today’s affair with the past can rest assured, however, that the trend hasn’t yet reached everywhere. Hunter Thompson, a syndicated columnist who was once described by writer Tom Wolfe as “the mad-dog prince of Gonzo journalism” (the written equivalent of psychedelia), reports that there isn’t much of a ‘60s revival near his farm in Woody Creek, Colo., a few miles from Aspen.

“Things haven’t changed much really,” Thompson says by phone.

Just the same, he’s pleased at the news of the ‘60s spirit surfacing elsewhere. “After the ‘60s, there was the Me Decade and now we have the Generation of Swine,” declares the writer, who is frequently satirized as the character Duke in Garry Trudeau’s “Doonesbury.”

“I don’t blame (them) for looking back to the ‘60s,” he says. “At least there was fun then. We didn’t have to think the rain was poison. Now we have AIDS and acid rain and no political heroes. If George Bush is the best we have, this generation’s really in trouble.”

In the opinion of Ray Browne, chairman of the Department of Popular Culture at Bowling Green (Ohio) State University, “We have been in a conservative span for so long that many of us think it may be dangerous and want more freedom and liberalization.” However, the author of 38 books on popular culture, literature and folk lore cautions that trying to go back to the ‘60s is “like trying to go back into a suit that no longer fits,” and calls instead for taking a run at the ‘90s “with a new frame of mind. We don’t want to reinvent the liberalism of the ‘60s, we want to invent the liberalism of the ‘90s.”