SON OF POPULUXE

  SON   OF       POPULUXE

By                    John Almada             

All I can say is that you know it when you see it. Sure, it’s a boomer thing, but children can understand also. They call it “retro”, and retrogressive means culling from the past.  Clothes, interior décor, car design ………... Simpson’s do it. “The Incredibles” was based on a newly built 60’s ranch house with all that eras attendant artwork. 

Ren and Stimpy was so much about recreating the 50’s cartoon imagery and quirky cartoonery.  Jimmy Neutron on Nickelodeon was big on the Populuxe design and color.   All the best cartoons my children seemed to like have that motif. 

The Jetsons was Populuxe in the rocketing space age of the 60’s.

 

Thomas Hines wrote a book called "Populuxe", in 1986 or so.  He has been trying to popularize the idea of what Populuxe is and has coined this term with a specific meaning. His book, “Populuxe”, was published in 1986 and in the revised 1999 foreword, he is delighted to note that his word got into the dictionary. 

From the Random House Websters College dictionary, ”Populuxe, n, a flamboyant decorative style of the period 1954-1964. Implying pastel colors and futuristic contours to impart a sense of luxury in everyday objects, as cars, appliances and dwellings.” Instead of calling it Post Art-Deco, Thomas Hines has given the era its own identity. The Populuxe Era.

          I see the Rogers Maris home run chase in 1961 as the peak of Populuxe. I wonder what Thomas Hines would think of that notion. 1961. It was also President Kennedy’s first year in office. At the time it must have been great to have two modern people for president and first lady.  
        Untainted by the hopeless political and social quagmire that Vietnam became by the late 60's, the Kennedy years buoyed people's spirits.  But not all.

                  

    Billy Crystal made a fabulous movie called “61” depicting that period of time. 

                                                                                                                                           

       

       The automobile culture in 1961 was firmly entrenched; it wasn’t such a new thing anymore.  it was a historical transition from the old era to the new with baseball and most everything else. Soon Cassius Clay would rock the oldsters with brazen outspokenness. He would handle the glare of the modern era much better than Roger Maris. 

        Home Run No. 61 was the nexus of the Populuxe Era.   September 30 1961 was when the modern era was born. The Era of Youth. A 43 year old president and a 27 year old farm was going to break Babe Ruth’s 37 year old record. Astronauts and movie stars and youth-oriented television overwhelmed the established order. Joe Namath brazenly beating Johnny Unitas in Super Bowl 3 in 1968 or so.

          

Populuxe was really about the material enthusiasm after World War 2 and the rapid improvements of convenience, leading to rampant over consumption and the empty busyness of modern life. Critics call this time, enthusiasm for the tacky, but look at those cars from the 50’s. Recognized worldwide for their industrial artistry, it was an era of too many choices but worthy experiments.

Inventions were showing the world a new way back in the 30’s, but  World War Two put the kibosh on everything. Drills, saws, refrigeration, cooking, plumbing, electricity, lawn mowers and thousands more improvements came on line despite the world wide depression. Dramatic improvements in the thirties.

It appeared Americans, and others around the world, were inventing themselves out of the depression during the 30’s, and World War Two usurped this momentum. Factories, owned by corporations, profited greatly from government money given to them to convert to wartime production, to say nothing of the profits created by these accoutrements of the 'dancers of death'. 

               

               Every area of the country shook off its Bank depression in different ways and at different times. Contrary to conventional wisdom that says the war took us out of the depression, I believe World War Two slowed down the momentum of what could have been a long term, economic recovery that could have lasted many decades. 

           This notion was a corporate mantra I heard as a youth, that was embedded in our minds,  was that war was very profitable for America. The era of Madison Avenue, it's propaganda and commercials, became a heavy influence in the 50's and people believed the lie that 'war lifted us out of the depression.' But this was a psychological setup for the Vietnam War. The fascist architects of our foreign policy wanted "war without end" to begin in Vietnam.

           Tailfins disappeared and Detroit floundered till the muscle cars of the mid-sixties became the fashion and this was another way Populuxe was ushered out. 

        The Press was becoming the Media. Press was the written word; and media became the term for all what was going on with news. The Roger Maris home run chase was an early exhibition of what was to become the paparazzi. Their merciless hounding undid Roger Maris' spirit and showed a dark side to the endless happy face of baseball. Please watch the two videos above to get a big view of what I'm saying.

        From 1962 onwards, Populuxe went into decline. The heady heydays of too many choices and traditional male dominance and mismatched two tone kitchen design began to splinter away. Women went to college and work and found others frustrated with their spouses and the divorce boom began in earnest through the sixties.

         Thomas Hine’s “Populuxe” is a scholarly address of the many details of life back in that era and I recommend you read it. Is there a reason to historically recall those times? Some of us think so. I e-mailed T. Hine, telling him what a great book he wrote and how I enthusiastically support his idea for making the era special in our history by giving it the label "Populuxe". Oddly I got a response. He sounded thankful and kind and said it could help to request another printing by asking for it. Today that would seem to be Amazon.com. So you book reviewers out there need to do that.

        

          

             Culture was moving fast. Roger Maris, the farmboy from North Dakota, simply didn’t understand what was happening to him as he arrived home to embrace his family after a very successful road trip in 1961. There were 30 or 40 reporters standing around his front door.  He insisted that family came before fame and fortune, and chased them away like they were Raccoons eating his garbage.  Those reporters in his yard, the newly formed paparazzi, reported in the papers that Roger was enraged and hysterical. Today we call it pissed off.

        The home run chase was a part of our boomer childhood and pretty much forgotten till Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa had their roided up home run race in '97. Roger was not a fluke or a freak. MVP (most valuable player) in 1961 and the previous year he was also voted the American League's Most Valuable Player. (1960) MVP two years in a row, as he breaks Babe Ruth’s record that had stood for 34 years. New York reporters were vicious every day. Babe Ruth diehards sending him death threats.

          Imagine you’re an embittered New York reporter. Maybe you’d seen the Babe or saw his farewell speech in 1948 shortly before he died. Ruth was baseball. The god of baseball. 

           A few years before 1961, Elvis had led a parade of rockabilly rockers that had upset the older generation’s apple cart and old people at that time really had sand in their pontaloons.  They wanted their world to last forever. 

              The old fuddie duddies decried "this new permissiveness". Women realized it wasn’t all right that men run the family as dictators and beat them and their children. Boomers protested so strongly it forced the Old Orders hand. 

                    In the movie "61", it showed how Roger's hair started falling out near the end of the summer. Mickey Mantle was then an old veteran over 30 and was trying to help Roger deal with the mess. Babe Ruth Fans had written death threats to Roger as the trailer to the movie showed. The Press was constantly twisting his quotes around to make him look bad IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER. All he wanted to do was help his team win. Trying to tell him that others faced the same monster, Mickey Mantle told him,” Hank Greenberg had 58 home runs with a week left in the season,” said Mantle, “He couldn’t take the pressure, they conspired to not give him anything to hit……cuz he was a Jew.”

                During the heat of the season the Commissioner of Baseball, the evil Ford Frick, decides an asterisk would indicate that the record wasn’t broken in 154 games. Major League baseball had switched over to a 162 game season   and this gave Roger more pressure to do it “in a timely fashion.” on the other hand it’s been pointed out that Maris didn’t get a homer during the first 11 games in 1961. So, in actuality, if you take the last 151 games of the season he hit 61 home runs. 

         After all, did any other records get the asterisk it was asked? Suzuki’s 262 hits recently? Recently deceased, Maury Will’s 104 stolen bases the next year in 1962 did not get the asterisk? It was Ford Frick versus Roger Maris who told the press, "sic em boys".  I don’t care what anyone says about the 50’s. There was verbal harassment and threats and meanness. Relentless hostility from the white male control freaks. If only he lived long enough to see the respect he would eventually earn. Roger only lived to 1985 which was his 51st year. 

              In 1962, I was 8 years old and started playing baseball and in time started collecting cards. But I remember the 1961 season, how everyone was talking about the home run race. My dad had just finished building a huge porch and I would often sit there and write down what cars drove by. As my Uncle was going out the porch door one day they had a serious discussion on baseball.

         I woke up in different ways that year, and baseball was like what video games are today and Roger Maris was my hero. I even pretended to be Roger Maris Jr. when a hobo staggered down the street one day and our little posse started chatting it up with him.
              By 1966, I was a paperboy waking up at 5:00, and the first thing I did was to check the box score if the Yankees played. Scanning right down to where Roger was. Fourth in the lineup. He hit 33 home runs and batted in 100 in 1962 which was a big disappointment to all. 

        Just a fluke, they said, but keep in mind he was the league's MVP (Most Valuable Player) two years in a row. Added together he compiled 133 home runs 358 RBI and only 210 strikeouts in 60 61 and 62. Aaron Judge tied Roger yesterday .....

but also has 178 strikeouts so far this year.

           He had a good year in '63 but was injured a large chunk of the season. In ’64 the real decline began but damage had been done. The stress of the world weighed heavy on his feel-good, do-good farmboy simplicity. He was never really the same after 1961. One of the greatest sporting feats of the century and it only ruined his spirit instead of nourishing the man, primarily because of A-hole reporters from New York.                                                                                                                                                       

           Can’t you be just good at what you do and not have a press corps plucking at you?  The emotional water boarding of the vicious New York Press was the most avaricious ever concocted.   

          In ’66 it was clear he would not fulfill his potential as a career-long slugger after he had a second bad year in a row. In ’67 he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals and I became a Cardinals fan, following Roger as he switched leagues. I was a fanatic. 

        Apparently, he was viewed as a seasoned pro and was highly regarded with the Cardinals, despite only hitting 9 home runs. He won some games with timely hits and became a good clutch hitter helping the Cards reach the World Series and he was always one of the best fielders. He had his best World Series ever, and hit .385 going 10 for 26. He was 2 for 3 in the last game as Bob Gibson pitched a 3 hitter, winning the series for the Cards. 
        It was the most exciting World Series I ever remember, and it was the last good ball I’d ever watch him play. The Red Sox played some gutsy ball, but Gibson won 3 games and was unbeatable. I still had a paper route and religiously checked the box score for every game the Cardinals played in '67 and '68, hoping he would do it again. Roger played another year and was in another World Series in ’68, then retired at the relatively young age of 34. He was done. 

              In 1969 I was 15 and at a loss after Rogers retirement for a team to root for. I batted .239 that year in the Babe Ruth league, striking out twice in the final game. I had a good arm and could reach the catcher from center field, but the pitching had gotten too fast, and I was too small. 

        Then it became downright scary with pitchers throwing 88 MPH only 42 feet from home plate. In the major leagues it is 66 feet away. Tony Conigliaro of the Red Sox was going to miss a second full season from the injuries sustained by getting hit in the head with a baseball. Then Jimmy Pierce threw a rock at my head and blinded me in my left eye that summer. I bonded with Conigliaros plight and became a Red Sox fan till 2007.

           No longer a Yankees fan, I ended up becoming a Red Sox fan for 35 years. Finally beating the Babes curse in 2004 when they won the World Series. Uncle Joe would have been proud. He was a foam at the mouth Red Sox fan and was happy when I converted.

           My dad was a lukewarm Yankees fan and we grew up 104 miles from Fenway Park in Boston and 115 miles from Yankee Stadium. Those of us growing up in the Connecticut River Valley were split on our allegiance.

           Back to the 1961 seasonon the road Mantle tells him. “We’re chasing a ghost Rog. Frick used to be Ruth’s ghost writer, they were tight.” On television they watched a news item about the Mantle and Maris feud?”  “Are we feudin?” they laughed and asked each other. "Must be, it's on the TV."
           The movie pointed out how destructive the media can be. Later evolving into the relentless paparazzi that chased Princess Diana causing her to crash. The ever-intrusive snoops looking for something to keep the rabble buying the various rags that pass for entertainment. They completely made up the story about a Mantle / Maris fued.

               Roger got letters that said, “DIE Roger DIE” Fans began to boo him on those days after he was misquoted in headlines. He’s supposed to just deal with this? He does somehow and ends up with the unassailable 61 home runs. 

           Till 1997, 121 years since the first professional baseball league began, only one person hit more than 60 home runs. All those great home run hitters of the past; Lou Gehrig, Willie Mays, Harmon Killebrew, Hank Greenberg, Hank Aaron, Ralph Kiner, Rocky Colavito and many others could not achieve what was Rogers that fateful year called 1961.

              When Mark McGuire was on his record pace he made it clear that if he broke any record, it was Rogers.   Mark got payback for the New York media dissin' of Maris.  Mark was a California boy but understood the Roger Maris story like others of us. How the New York media tried to kill him. 

          
           Roger Maris' movie son said to another son, during the McGuire Sosa home run race, “It’s like the best year Dad ever had.” Mcgwire smashed 65 homers by the 154^th game thereby making sure Ruth’s record was buried forever. 

      

          The tailfin era began and styling reached a disquieting zenith. In 1961 I was seven years old and poised to absorb this cultural tsunami. From the men in the world I heard about baseball.  Friends of Dad, guys at church, fathers of friends, I became initiated into the baseball tradition. Geez, look at those Yankees. Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris both looked like they were going to hit over 50 home runs as the summer of 1961 proceeded. Mantle got injured, then it became Rogers quest for Babe Ruths record. 

  

           

                                                                                                                           1961. Game 154 of the season, Roger still had 59 homers. His last at bat in the game. One last chance to tie Babe Ruth. The white Sox sent in Hoyt Wilhelm, the knuckleballer whose strange floating pitch was difficult to hit. It was not even about winning the game. Stop Roger. There are virtually no home runs hit off the knuckler.

             Fast forward to 1997. Mark McGuire was about to smash Rogers and Ruth’s records. In a press conference Mark Held Roger Maris bat with reverence and respect. as Rogers’s wife Pat handed it to him. He touched it with his heart and made no mention of Babe Ruth. Put a tear in my eye, that finally, my Populuxe idol had finally got his just due. 

                                  **************************

       

The roadside diner is so Populuxe. Outdoor movies also.

         The previous stylistic era became known as Art Deco. 1925-1940? 1923-1938? 1921-1941? It all depends on who you ask. While it was happening it wasn’t called Art Deco.  It was the jazz moderne or moderne era among other names. Well, the stylistic flourishes of that time period were interesting and modern and the Empire State building being a prominent example. 
         

 
         After World war two the modern era began running on all 8 cylinders. Free college, forests being destroyed for the cheap housing boom. Material growth rocketed as the space age approached. Atomic waste created for cheap electricity. Water was clean and free out of the tap. But unfortunatly, the greatest generation was using up resources in the most reckless ways possible.

         

         The Modern Era of the Mad Media began here. Roger was one of the first victims of the tectonic sociological shifting that was about to occur.  Roger, the reviled mantle wanna be, was booed and abused, but when he hit his 61^st, it was a celebration of triumph and national exaltation. Here's a toast to Aaron Judge and I hope he hits #62 today.

Roger Maris and JFK

The tailfin era began, and styling reached a disquieting zenith. In 1961 I was seven years old and poised to absorb this cultural tsunami. From the men in the world I heard about baseball.  Friends of Dad, guys at church, fathers of friends, I became initiated into the baseball tradition. Geez, look at those Yankees. Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris both looked like they were going to hit over 50 home runs as the summer of 1961 proceeded. Mantle got injured, then it became Rogers quest for Babe Ruths record. I hope I captured some of this era with this story.

   

    “My Boyfriends Back" in 1963 was a song that made an impression on me. The drums were SO huge. Syncopated clapping and the heavenly singing by The Angels. There were cool instrumentals like Pipeline and Telstar. Barbara Streisand’s “People” and Ray Charles “I’m Busted” were some of the earliest crossover songs. These songs were on my stations. AND MY PARENTS CORNY STATION. 
    Later in 1965, Louie Armstrong’s hit, “Mame” was something everyone could love. Wayne Newton’s “Danke Schein” was on both  stations also.  "Sugar Shack" was another with its thunky bass line.

        Thomas Hine’s “Populuxe” is a scholarly address of the many details of life back in that era and I recommend you read it. Is there a reason to historically recall those times? Some of us think so. I e-mailed T. Hine, telling him what a great book he’s got and how I enthusiastically support his idea for making the era special in our history. Oddly I got a response. He sounded thankful and kind and said it could help to request another printing by asking for it at places like Amazon.com.  

          When was the Populuxe Era? 1946 to 1966 is the most expansive time span and I like to use those 20 years instead of the ten years described in the dictionary. In 1967, Everything changed.                                                                                                                          
        I have a populuxe display or two in the house and it’s about cars from 1947 to 1967. Die cast cars. I have black crouching jaguars that complemented grandmas homemade pillows and decor. Well, maybe they didn’t match but they were the most distinct object d’art in her house. Blue glass ashtrays, Silver or pewter candy dishes. Probably filled with lead but it's been a good life. 
           We saw the past fade away during the Populuxe Era. It seemed like hardly anybody had an outhouse anymore. It was a new,  modern,…...clean era. Jet Age style. There was debates about clothes dryers, should we spend 10 dollars a month on electricity instead of 8?  That was the choice. Clotheslines were such a common site. Using air to dry clothes. Free air no less.  I would carry wet laundry outside as one of my jobs. As one of the New Lazy Youth, I was too modern to help out much more than that. You know how laundry piles up.

    Imagine squeezing the water out of clothes one by one? Then dragging them outside? "Squeeze these while I go hang this bunch." -Mom. Laundry smelled fresher when hung outside, but now Americans are too good to do that anymore. It's not women's work either, fellas. We insist on more stuff. Make everything cheaper, regardless of quality, Americans needed more stuff and eschewed anything reminiscent of Old Europe during the Populuxe Era.  

           

               Populuxe was the push button era. My grandmother, Eva, (memere) was the only person I knew who was willing and able to buy these fancy new things. Her dryer had buttons.   She wasn’t rich, but how do you describe her fella? They never got married because they were strict Catholics and he was divorced, taboo. They spent every Sunday together and we visited once a month and spent the entire day there. Anyways he had the Rambler Ambassador which was a fancy version of the '65 Rambler we had. Before that he had a 59 Chevy with full Dagmars and fancy chrome. Memere was the first person I knew to get a self-propelled mower, a snow blower and color television. 

                 The Populuxe era is really about the postwar boom.   Burgeoning suburbia. Too many choices, too many colors, not enough carports. The houses from the most extreme fringes of Populuxe design are on the verge of being appreciated.

         In the Populuxe Era, service was different. Americans took to the road.  An older friend of mine named Joe often spoke of the era. I remember as a child going to the beach and experiencing the hometown hospitality when we got our gas. Going further back in time, friend Joe reminisces,”…check your oil, fill your gas tank wipe the mirrors, check other things, even greasing the U-joint… all that….for two fuckin’ bucks.”

           Everyone looked out for the kids. Would know when they had seen someone last. There was the milkman. Fresh milk and eggs from nearby farms. What was wrong with that system?

 

     The Warrior elite would like you to believe that building bombs and jet planes and bullets for World War 2, was what got us out of the depression. The burgeoning Military Industrial Machine that Dwight Eisenhower warned of in his farewell address, seemed to have a plan. Now we know the plan is called War Without End.
          That coven of conspiratorial compadres, the International Bankers, giggled with glee at the debt that was to be amassed during a world war. They offered Hitler and others some low interest loans. 50 million lives later, It was 1946 and the smell of spent bombs was still in the air, and then effluent from the production of herbicides and pesticides derived from chemical weapons began the silent slaughter of aquatic regions.

 Appliances and other household items saw a dramatic rise in sales after the war.  In 1948, signs that automobile design was going to enter the “jet age” began. Refrigeration was turning the “icebox” into a distant memory. Land was cheap and wood was even cheaper as Southern forests were stripped. The titans of the Logging Industry saw advances and huge profits when the ten foot chain saw was invented. 
        The Mad Men of Madison Avenue could convince people of anything. Destructive, ecosystem destroying logging, was portrayed as 'inexpensive homes for war weary citizens.' Aw. Except for the black veterans who were rebuffed at every turn.

            The poor and discriminated against, the abused and beaten, and that crazy aunt was still in the cellar. Taxes were low as these societal ills were continually hidden under the rug as the trillion-dollar toxic waste cleanup is not being discussed today.  
      Everything was okay, you know, just consume a lot of products, throw litter right out the window of your car, and always trust the boss, the company, the police, your priest, and what the government tells you. Meanwhile the Beatniks were enjoying life and American freedom in their own way. The "ban the bomb" movement arose from these Bohemians.                                                                                                                                                                                 

 The sheriffs' son in a small town could still get away with anything. American Liberty was subject to local censorship. Business was booming for the production of chemicals as WW2 stockpiles were spread across the land like cheap margarine during the war. Taxes weren’t used yet for cleaning toxic waste. Car pollution wasn’t smoky enough to need pollution controls in 1948. No cars were built between 1941 to 1945, and there was a pent-up demand that was filled.  

  The interstate highway system was quickly developed during the Eisenhower years, and I saw it as a good thing. We rode the unfinished highway on our bicycles after making highways in our sandboxes. Americans were now able to go anywhere in their two-ton death wagons. The Industries of the Warrior Elite continued full steam since all the weapons were used up in the world war. More weapons, more jobs we were told. The taxpayers were footing the bill, so high wages for all!(According to plan) The Russians tested the hydrogen bomb in 1952 and the cold war was on.

         By 1954 television was entering homes at a much quicker pace: the old guys at work telling me how TV went from the saloon to the living room. Radios were household items and getting smaller. In 1958, the transistor radio came on the market and in five short years it seemed every young person had one stuck in their ear. Music could now be everywhere. 

 

         There were still hobos in the sixties. At an abandoned railway stop we found hats with fishing hooks in them. They looked like hobo hats, so we called them that. “Look, hobo stuff!”  Those who grew up during the initial birth of suburbs had plenty of places for wild play.  In many neighborhoods, at the end of the row of houses, there would often be some woods or an open area. 

        We had the fun of skipping rocks on actual unaltered streams before they became suburban storm drains. Magazines, hula hoops, little pedal cars, Frisbee banana seat bikes, infinity ad nauseum. We had a gushing of goods from the toy manufacturers but the most fun was our wild play.

        As 1953 progressed, the bigger hydrogen bomb was being tested by America and by the Soviets.  From June ’53, till testing stopped, atomic weapons were tested in the American Desert. Did radioactive fallout drift down on my mother as she hung the laundry outside? What was going on inside the secret America. 1953 was a great year for a new car and kept you distracted from what the CIA was doing in Guatamala. 

Meanwhile beatniks were being refused service