50s and 60s...cautionary books

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i was thinking, initially, about a particular book, i don't know the name of it, but i think it was around 1960-1961, and it was one of those american books which 'warned' high school kids about the dangers of....i dont know, drugs, maybe, or driving too fast, or sex.

the kind of book that has a glossary at the back, explaining what words like 'hip' and 'cool' mean.

then i was thinking about an episode of beavis & butthead, that parodies one of those cautionary type things, a public information film in this case, which maybe isnt the same kind of thing. or maybe it is. there were 'hot rodders' and they would drive up and down the strip, and then someone would die in a horrific way, and it was because the teens were out of control

and then i was thinking, i know about books like this, cautionary american high school literature

but i cant think of any

i have a feeling you can though, i think you'll come through

― terry lennox. (gareth), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 12:35 (nineteen years ago)

David Wilkerson, The Cross and the Switchblade
Anonymous (Beatrice Sparks), Go Ask Alice

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 12:39 (nineteen years ago)

http://g-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/05/b6/9757124128a02e7698e19010._AA240_.L.jpg

As for the highway safety films and other moralizing education films, they're available (in Amerca) on Kino Video's Hell's Highway - The True Story of Highway Safety Films and The Educational Archives series of DVDs from Fantoma.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 12:45 (nineteen years ago)

Pat Boone named one of his daughters "Cherry."

― Nemo (JND), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 16:57 (nineteen years ago)

This thread reminds me that we were shown clips from American Graffiti in a year 10 sex education class. The reasoning behind this escapes me - in fact with hindsight it seems frankly bizarre.

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 17:03 (nineteen years ago)

The movie for "Go Ask Alice" was seriously freaky.

"Where the Boys Are" was pretty darn cautionary. If you drink, you WILL be raped by cads.

― andy --, Wednesday, 8 March 2006 17:16 (nineteen years ago)

OMG I love The Cross and the Switchblade!!! It's pretty hardcore, I have to say -- and it makes heroin look so, SO unappealing.

― Laurel (Laurel), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 17:17 (nineteen years ago)

I mean, it's not one of those titillating, faux-alarmist works of fiction designed to shock/fascinate Today's Teenager -- it's a personal memoir of doing mission/social rescue work to inner-city gangs and lots and lots of junkies. Or so my childhood memory tells me.

― Laurel (Laurel), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 17:19 (nineteen years ago)

Pat Boone named one of his daughters "Cherry."

There's also a picture of Pat Boone -- verrry easily findable online IIRC and confirmed to be him by friends -- holding a box with his you-know-whats sticking out, face full of fake jackass shock. But I'm at work right now.

Cherry wrote a memoir on her problems with eating disorders called Starving For Attention that's supposed to be engrossing if completely purple.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 17:48 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, Cross and the Switchblade totally glamorizes heroin and gang life. There's another book called Run, Baby, Run by Nicky Cruz, which is the autobiography of one of the gang members from the first book, and it's even more descriptive and gritty. The second half, after he becomes saved, kind of drags a bit though.

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 17:53 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, Cross and the Switchblade totally glamorizes heroin and gang life

Do you think so?? That's not what I remember, but I did read it a very long time ago -- maybe I'd see it differently now.

― Laurel (Laurel), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 18:04 (nineteen years ago)

http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/img/media/l/675.jpg

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 22:02 (nineteen years ago)

Do you think so?? That's not what I remember, but I did read it a very long time ago -- maybe I'd see it differently now

I misread your first post. I thought you said it made heroin look appealing, which I thought I was agreeing with. To me, it seemed glamorous, in contrast to the white-bread, goody-goody lives of Wilkerson and his family in the book. I'm sure he scrupulously detailed the dangers of it, but somehow the sheer evilness of it probably made it appealing to the younger self I was in those days. Also, in the Nicky Cruz book, the first half, when he's in the gang and doing drugs, reads like a gritty NYC street thriller (ie., exciting), whereas the second half reads like some kind of typical Christian conversion story (ie., boring) - or at least that's how it seemed to me at the time. So subconsciously you're kind of rooting for him to backslide into the gang life so things will get interesting again. There was another similar book called "Junkie" I think, or something similar, which was about another Wilkerson-related ex-gang member, but that one dealt more specifically with heroin addiction. Perhaps that's the one that really glamorized it - I don't remember exactly which parts were in which books.

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 22:22 (nineteen years ago)

i used to have a book put out that had a quote on the from from j edgar hoover, that inquired why so many young people today "go chasing crazy rainbows." It was a great book, and had detailed discussions of STING OPERATIONS in which FEDS busted people trafficking in porno/contraceptives/dildo across state lines.

someone stole it from my fucking bathroom when i lived in a college dormitory a few years ago.

― Special Agent Gene Krupa (orion), Thursday, 9 March 2006 04:35 (nineteen years ago)

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