Hairspray

The 1950s and 1960s

1950sIn Americahttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8axTYTh_jI

Racism was a significant part of the lives of African Americans in the 1950s, and many crucial advances were made during this decade.

There were two people in particular who helped initiate the Civil Rights Movement; they were:Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr.

Racial Issues

Rosa Parks played an important part in the fight for equality. She was a simple seamstress on her way home from work

on December 1, 1955 when one little move she made would bring her fame and change her life forever. That day she was sitting in one of the seats on a bus reserved for African Americans. A white person came on, and there were no empty seats left, so the bus driver ordered her to stand. According to the law in Montgomery, Alabama she was supposed to give up her seat, but, being extremely tired and carrying many bags she refused to stand. She was arrested, but news of her courage soon spread, and she began to get recognition for her deed from such organizations as the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).

Although her one small protest was not great in itself, it brought awareness to the people who had put up with racial prejudice all their lives, and it showed them that their actions could make a difference.

Rosa Parks

Martin Luther King Jr., another important figure in the Civil Rights Movement, moved to Montgomery, Alabama one year before the Rosa Parks event. When he arrived, he was a young minister not yet active in the Civil Rights Movement but in December of 1955, he got involved.

On December 5, he organized a boycott against the public buses in response to Rosa Parks's arrest. It was supposed to be a one day boycott protesting segregation on public buses, but it ended up lasting almost a year.

90% of the African American population in Montgomery participated, which was part of the reason for its success. During the boycott, they walked, drove, or car pooled to commute to and from work instead of using the buses. Some people even had to walk up to 12 miles a day in order to keep up the boycott, but they still did it. The protest was finally ended on November 13, 1956 when the Supreme Court ruled bus segregation illegal in all of Alabama.

This was only one of the many feats African Americans would accomplish with the help of Martin Luther King Jr. He used his religious beliefs and knowledge, and his preaching abilities, to help fight for equality, but peacefully. He believed that peaceful protests were the only way to go, and that violence would accomplish nothing. This was a new concept to many, and proved itself to be very effective, as seen in the case of the bus boycott and many others to come.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk

Martin Luther King Jr.

Before they made bus segregation illegal, the American Government passed a law against school segregation in May, 1954. Although this may seem like a huge breakthrough, the law was not enforced properly, most schools remained segregated for a long time afterward.

One example of this was at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. The governor got National Guard troops to keep African Americans from entering the school. In response, federal troops had to be sent down to enforce integration.

Little Rock

Baby BoomTeenagersTelevisionMen’s and Women’s Roles in Society

Social and Gender Issues

In the post-war years, with families settling down and making lives for themselves, there was a population explosion. In 1950, there were 24.3 million children between the ages of 5 and 14, and by 1960, there were 35.5 million (Edey 167).

The dramatic increase, commonly known as the baby boom, had ramifications throughout country, some good, some bad. Family life in the 1950’s was focused on the children, and giving them the best possibilities. Schools had to be built at an enormous rate, and parents were expected to give their children any opportunity they could. Encyclopedia sales, for example, rose to approximately $300 million a year.

These baby boom children were a major social force when they were young, and continued to be as they aged, leading the 1960’s.

Baby Boom

On the older end of the spectrum, there were the teenagers. By early 1956, there were 13 million teenagers in the country (Halberstam 473). These teens were the new generation, breaking away from their parents and defining itself in new ways.

The teenagers of the 1950’s were more self sufficient then their parents had been-they did not remember the Depression or WWII, and had no inclination to save money. Before, any money made by children went towards long-term goals, like a college fund or a bike. Now, as this new middle class emerged in America, it created a whole new group of consumers: the young.

The teens had an average weekly income of $10.55, about the same as a whole family’s disposable income 15 years before (Halberstam 473). Their purchases leaned towards the music-related industry, anything from records to radios. These teenagers affected the nation as well.

They were the beginning of the youth culture, the first young people to really have an impact on nations as a whole.

Teenagers

One of the major social changes of the 1950’s was the “coming of age” of television and its effect on people’s leisure habits and family life. While the first regular commercial broadcast had been in 1939 in America, television broadcasting had been suspended during the war and did not take off until the 1950’s.

Television had three major effects: on the family, on the entertainment industry, and on America’s politics. Television, in essence, changed the structure of the American family.  Instead of gathering around to discuss the day’s events, the family would huddle around their television set.

By 1959, the typical family was watching six hours of television a day, seven days a week (Edey 250). Television united the American family and shattered it at the same time. No longer did they meet and talk, they watched television.

Television

During the 1950’s, men’s and women’s roles in society were reverted to the stereotypical notions of what each sex should be doing. During World War II, women had risen up in the workplace, taking the jobs of the men who were away at war. After the war, however, when men returned home, women experienced a setback in the gains they had made.

In the first two years after the war, 2 million women lost their jobs (Halberstam 589). They returned to their places in the kitchen, while men took over the workforce again.

Women were expected to be good mothers and wives. In addition, the new culture of consumerism told women they should be

homemakers.  Advertisers and companies recognized that women made many purchasing decisions for families, and their ads would show a woman gleefully turning on her stove, or happily loading a dryer (Halberstam 591).

This reinforced the notion that a woman’s place was in her home, and that her job was to create the perfect family life.

Men’s and Women’s Roles

Music – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZH8zTzjQpE&feature=related

What to do on a Date – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WH4NWbPABw&feature=related

How to be well Groomed –http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtSo0GBX_0g&feature=related

1950s

1960shttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA7_3l23b5o

The 1960s were a decade of political and social upheaval. Young people challenged the traditional values of their parent's generation and actively opposed the decisions of the government.

Women demanded equal rights and others called for racial equality and a new consideration for the environment.

Political and Social

In the late 1960s, many women began to question the restrictive roles that society had assigned to them. Many women felt that there was more to life than raising children and taking care of the home. Others were dissatisfied at being confined to traditionally 'female' occupations like teaching, administration and secretarial work.

Women marched, protested and pressured governments in a bid to gain equal rights in all spheres of life including the workplace, education, politics and sport.

Women’s Roles and Rights

Commercialshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yWTsFVkrFc&feature=related

1960s

Hairspray (2007)

1962 Baltimore, Maryland, America

Setting

In the early 1960s, the time when Hairspray takes place, more than half of the population of Baltimore was African-American. The city had voluntarily decided to desegregate the school system, rather than be forced to do so by court order. However, “white flight” (affluent white families moving to the suburbs) meant that the increasingly overcrowded schools had a much higher percentage of black students than white. Despite the efforts to integrate schools, Baltimore remained heavily segregated, as it had been from its earliest days. (North Avenue, the location of Motormouth Maybelle’s record shop in the show, was originally the northern boundary of the city. Blacks were not allowed to cross this boundary after dark).

Baltimore, sometimes described as “an outpost of the North in a Southern state,” found itself in a strategic position in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The proximity of the city to the nation’s capital made it a popular place for civil rights activists to stage protests and rallies. The city’s central position between the North and the South, the very location that made it an economic centre, put Baltimore in the midst of the social struggle that divided the entire country.

Baltimore, Maryland

Waters became interested in making a movie about his childhood obsession with The Buddy Deane Show, an after-school dance show, in which local teens bopped to pop hits. Waters considered calling the film White Lipstick, but settled on Hairspray.

With its PG rating and subject matter, Hairspray drew a larger audience than Waters’ earlier movies. It became one of the hits of 1988, catapulting Ricki Lake to fame.

Hairspray’s success drew a wide audience to Waters’ subsequent films (which include Cry Baby, Serial Mom, and Cecil B. Demented). Waters even appeared in cartoon guise on The Simpsons.

Waters has continued to set all his films in Baltimore, keeping true to his particular skewed vision and delighting audiences with his tales of eccentric characters who revel in the excesses of tastelessness and trash.

John Waters

May 3, 1962 begins the same as every other school day for Tracy Turnblad an overweight high school student from Baltimore, Maryland. She endures a day's worth of boring classes so that she and her best friend Penny Pingleton can race home to catch their favourite TV program, The Corny Collins Show. The program, a teen dance show, is broadcast from Baltimore's station WYZT on weekday afternoons.

Some of the teenagers featured on the show also attend Tracy and Penny's school, in particular snobby rich girl Amber Von Tussle and her heartthrob boyfriend Link Larkin with whom Tracy is madly in love. Amber's mother Velma manages station WYZT, and goes out of her way to make sure Amber is prominently featured and that Corny Collins remains a segregated program. Corny Collins and all of his "Council Kids" are white; black kids are only allowed on Corny Collins on "Negro Day", held the last Tuesday of each month and hosted by local R&B radio DJ Motormouth Maybelle (.

Neither Tracy's plus-sized shut-in laundress mother Edna nor Penny's strict Catholic mother Prudy (approve of their daughters basing their lives around a TV show, particularly one where teens dance to "race music". Tracy's father Wilbur a joke-shop proprietor, is far more lenient. On one day's show, Corny Collins announces that one of his "Council Kids" is going on a leave of absence, and auditions for a replacement will be held the next morning - during school hours.

However, Velma turns Tracy away at the audition for being overweight and supportive of integration. Tracy is sent to detention for skipping school, but finds that detention hall is where the black kids hang out and dance. Tracy befriends the detention hall's best dancer, Motormouth Maybelle's son Seaweed who teaches Tracy several R&B dance moves. These moves secure Tracy a spot on The Corny Collins Show.

Movie trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkzcNF-jlWw

Plot

Look for these cultural references from 1960s America which feature in Hairspray. Connie Francis: A top singer of the 1950s and early 1960s. She appeared in the classic Spring Break movie, Where the Boys Are (1960). Gidget: Pint-size surfer girl originally played by Sandra Dee in Gidget (1959). Sequels included Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961) and Gidget Goes to Rome (1963). Jackie B. Kennedy: First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, wife of President John F. Kennedy, was known for her trendsetting style, particularly her bouffant

hairdo and pillbox hats. “Hair Hopper”: A Baltimore term for someone, male or female, who spent too much time on their outsized hairdos. Rock Hudson, Doris Day: Starred together in romantic comedies such as Pillow Talk (1959) and Lover Come Back (1961). He was tall, good looking, and

debonair,while she was known for her squeakyclean “good girl” image. “Wilt the Stilt”: At 7'1", Wilt “The Stilt” Chamberlain was one of the NBA’s legendary players, setting numerous records during his 14-year professional

basketball career. Candid Camera and Allen Funt: Allen Funt was the host of Candid Camera, the first hidden-camera stunt show, which captured the reactions of ordinary people to

pranks played by Funt and his cast. The show first aired in 1948 and has been revived on various TV networks for over 50 years. Peyton Place: Based on a popular novel, this 1957 melodrama delved into the sordid secrets of a New England town. It became the first American prime-time

soap opera television series in 1964. Jackie Gleason: Robust comedian best known for creating The Honeymooners television show in 1955. His trademark phrases included "And away we go,"

"Hommina hommina hommina," and "To the moon, Alice!" “Don’t tell me Khrushchev has his shoes off again”: On November 17, 1956, millions of television viewers saw Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev pound the podium

of the United Nations General Assembly with his shoe, shouting at the West, “We will bury you!” Metrecal: First introduced in 1960, Metrecal (from “metered calories”) was a canned diet drink. Eddie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds, Liz and Dick: Singer Eddie Fisher and perky film comedienne Debbie Reynolds married in 1955 (they are the parents of

writer/actress Carrie Fisher, perhaps best known as Princess Leia from the Star Wars movies). Fisher fell in love with Elizabeth “Liz” Taylor, and married her in 1959 on the same day he divorced Debbie Reynolds. Taylor went to Italy in 1962 to film the epic Cleopatra. Although Eddie Fisher was also in the film, Taylor fell for her co-star Richard “Dick” Burton. Their affair made headlines worldwide. They married in 1964, divorced in 1974, and remarried the following year.

Frankie Avalon and his “favourite Mouseketeer”: Teen idol Frankie Avalon’s “favourite Mouseketeer” was Annette Funicello, who became a star on the 1950s TV series The Mickey Mouse Club. They met in 1958 and became a wildly popular couple, starring in 1960s movies such as Beach Party (1963) and Bikini Beach (1964).

The Gabor Sisters: Glamorous Hungarian sisters Zsa Zsa, Magda, and Eva Gabor became known in Hollywood for their seductive, sophisticated, yet slightly scatterbrained, personalities.

Mamie Eisenhower: Wife of President Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower, she was First Lady from 1953 to 1961, known for her trademark bags and fondness for pink clothing.

Gina Lollobrigida: Sultry Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida was known in the 1950s as “The Most Beautiful Woman in the World.” “Castro’s invading”: In 1961 the United States launched an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow Cuban leader Fidel Castro by invading the Bay of Pigs. Tensions

remained high between Cuba and the U.S., culminating in the Cuban Missile Crisis in October of 1962. Glenn Miller: Popular bandleader and composer of the 1940s, known for hits such as “Moonlight Serenade.” Chubby Checker: Originally named Ernest Evans, singer Chubby Checker created a dance sensation with his recording of “The Twist” in 1960. The Hindenburg: The 800-foot blimp, Hindenburg, was the largest aircraft ever flown. While landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, on May 6, 1937, the ship was

destroyed in a tragic fire when the hydrogen that filled the blimp ignited. (Modern blimps are filled with nonflammable helium). Eva Marie Saint: Beautiful blonde actress who starred in such films as Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959).

1960s References

1946 - Concerned about the prevalence of racial discrimination, President Harry S. Truman establishes the President’s Committee on Civil Rights.

1947 - Jackie Robinson joins the Brooklyn Dodgers and becomes the first black Major League player. 1948 - President Truman orders the integration of the U.S. military. 1954 - In Brown v. Topeka, Kansas, Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court declares that “separate

educational facilities are inherently unequal,” and orders that students be admitted to public schools without regard to race.

1955 - In Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white man in defiance of local laws. Bus boycott led by Martin Luther King, Jr. successfully overturns the ordinance.

1957 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends federal troops to enforce the right of nine black students to enrol at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.

1960 - Sit-ins at segregated public restaurants and lunch counters are held throughout the South. 1961 - Freedom Riders challenge “white only” rules at drinking fountains, lunch counters, and rest rooms

in bus and train stations in the South. 1962 - James Meredith, a black student, enrols at the University of Mississippi under protection of federal

troops. 1963 - Four young black girls are killed in a church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama. 1963 - Two hundred fifty thousand people attend the March on Washington, where Martin Luther King, Jr.

delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech. 1965 - Riots erupt in Watts, a ghetto neighbourhood of Los Angeles, California. 1967 - Thurgood Marshall becomes the first black Supreme Court justice. Riots occur in Detroit and other

large cities. The first black mayors of major U.S. cities are elected in Cleveland, Ohio, and Gary, Indiana. 1968 - Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated.

“I Know Where I’ve Been”

John Waters made the original film in 1988The musical's original Broadway production

opened on August 15, 2002The musical Hairspray has music by Marc

Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman and Shaiman and a book by Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan.

Versions

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427327/http://www.ticketsforschools.com/education_p

acks/Hairspray_Study_Guide.pdf

Bibliography

Tasks and AssessmentsInterpretations of a text are all about opinion NOT fact

and need examples (quotations) from the text to support your opinion.

Whilst reading through the text, use the following symbols to highlight the following language or structures of a drama text:o ___________ (underline) words you don’t understand and find

out , and record, its meaning o write (60) next to words/phrases that are used in the 60s

decade. Research these people/eventso place a box around lines that discuss the themes of the playo squiggle or write complication next to the

section that explains a problemo write set – up or (introduce) next to lines that demonstrate

the complication being introduced to the reader/viewero colour words that set up/provide insight into a character

Tasks – whilst reading

Do you believe that people from various groups and societies are equal to each other and should be treated in equal ways?

Do you believe that people in different societies and cultures can be comfortable interacting with one another? Or, on the other hand, do you believe that there are some important differences to notice? If so, do those differences affect our behaviour? How?

Do you believe that members of different cultural groups can date, intermarry, have children, and communicate as effectively as families with all members from the same cultural background? Explain your feelings and beliefs.

What are the pros and cons experienced in a family where everyone is from the same cultural group? What about in families made up of differing cultural groups?

Discussion – answers to be written in your books

Act 1, Scene 1 In this scene, the girls are watching a teen dance program on TV. Tracy and

Penny are particularly struck by images of cool, young people, how they dress, how they appear, and how they are encouraged to look, illustrating the ways in which these icons are encouraged to appeal to the young TV audience.

Note that the Corny Collins dancers are termed "cool" on his show. Write down all the words related to the word. Then answer the following questions: What is your perception of the word "cool" today? Does it mean the same today

as it meant in the ‘50s and ‘60s? If not, what word has replaced it? Who would you consider to be a "cool" person? Think about a friend, someone in the media, family member whom you consider "cool.“ Why would you consider them "cool"?

Take a look at Connie Francis, who is mentioned in the above script excerpt. Who would be considered your Connie Francis today? What would make him or her "cool"? Whom do some people consider "cool" that you do not? What images are projected in the media today that you like? What images are projected in the media today that you do not like?

Discussion - answers to be written in your books

Was Hairspray like any other book/movie that you’ve ever seen? In what ways would you say it was different, and in what ways was it similar? What would you identify as the themes of Hairspray?

How many movies, plays or books can you think of that deal with integration in ways that are satisfying to you? Literally count the number that you can think of. Of this number, how many of them represent the world as you know it?

Some people say movies/books should be more like life, others say that life should be more like books /the movies. Which statement do you agree with and why?

Discussion - answers to be written in your books

Hairspray is a unique world seen through the eyes of John Waters. In this world, integration on TV is possible every day, overweight girls can be sexy teen idols and romantic love objects, and goofy couples who seem to be complete opposites can be the dream parents of their time. In this world, TV personalities can support healthy role models and not lose their jobs.

How true is this worldview to real life in 2010?

Discussion - answers to be written in your books

You will need to write a comparative essay of 1000 words that compares the themes, use of characters, worldview … of Deadly Unna? and Hairspray

Assessment criteria will be explained in Week 7 and placed on the Wiki

Due Date: Week 9

Assessment – Part I

Choose one character and perform a monologue from the script that reflects on a decision made by the character and the results of the decision. You will need to:show outstanding understanding of the character

and their traits and the influence of the character on the theme, plot and resolution of the conflict.

show that you understood the character’s objective and performed the monologue with a clear purpose.

min 5-10 minutesDue Date: Week 10

Assessment – Part II