This year’s newest seniors making history
SOME MEMORABLE MUSIC AND MOVIES WERE CREATED IN 1959
When the sun rose for the first time this year, I started to feel old. Not because I stayed up and partied or I had any sudden aches or pains.
With the dawn of 2019, it meant I and pretty much everyone I went to school with turns 60 this year. A couple of them hit that milestone last year. One showed he was easing into senior-hood when we were planning our 40-year class reunion in 2017 and he insisted I take the seniors discount at IHOP since he was paying for breakfast.
I, on the other hand, got insulted when offered a seniors discount at a store when I turned 55, having just walked out of the gym feeling all buff and cocky.
Well, 60 is on the horizon for me and others including two friends who will celebrate that milestone on the same day in March. For all of us who hit 60, this is a special year because we are the last who can say we were born in the 1950s.
Like the dawn of a new era, the end of an old one is kind of interesting to think about. We only caught the tail end of the ’50s and I’m pretty sure none of us remember one minute of it.
Throughout the ensuing decades, we’ve had plenty of reminders through pop culture, of course. Film, radio and TV have all been forums for nostalgia.
Among the top songs that year were “Sea Cruise,” by Frankie Ford, one that I have to admit I can’t stand. Others included the Johnny Horton classic “The Battle of New Orleans,” “Venus,” by Frankie Avalon, Paul Anka’s “Lonely Boy” and “Put Your Head on My Shoulder.” Also on the list were “The Happy Organ” — I don’t even want to know — by Dave “Baby” Cortez, “Tallahassee Lassie” by Freddie Cannon, “Poison Ivy” and “Charlie Brown” by The Coasters and “16 Candles” by The Crests. When I think of “16 Candles,” I’m reminded of the John Hughes movie from the 1980s which had a killer soundtrack with tunes like “Turning Japanese” by The Vapors and of course, David Bowie’s “Young Americans.” I’m kind of thinking that stuff may not have gone over all that well in 1959 when even the Mormon Tabernacle Choir made Billboard’s top 100 with “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
Television was still relatively in its diapers like all of us who were born that year and among the top shows — in no particular order — according to Nielsen Media Research were, “The Red Skelton Show,” “77 Sunset Strip,” “The Ed Sullivan Show,” “Perry Mason,” “Rawhide,” “The Ann Sothern Show,” “Lassie,” and in top spot “Gunsmoke.”
I’m sure we 1959ers watched plenty of Ed Sullivan and “Gunsmoke” in our formative years in the 1960s along with stuff like “Rat Patrol,” “Get Smart,” “F Troop” and “The Wonderful World of Disney.”
Nowadays as 60 nears, I tend to fall asleep watching anything unless I’m primed up with asthma medication and caffeine. Or I turn on a Ted Bundy documentary. . .
Some truly classic movies were created in 1959 including “Sleeping Beauty,” which I call the German shepherd when he doesn’t get up six times to bark or eat snow at night.
Also big with audiences were the Cary Grant classic “North by Northwest,” “Ben-Hur,” “Rio Bravo,” “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” Rock Hudson’s “Pillow Talk,” “Gidget,” “Operation Petticoat,” “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” “Porgy and Bess,” “The Shaggy Dog” with Fred MacMurray, and “Warlock,” not to be confused with the ’80s German metal band featuring the incomparable Doro Pesch.
In history, 1959 was the year Prime Minister John Diefenbaker cancelled the Avro Arrow Project. The St. Lawrence Seaway opened that year. 1959 was also the year Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba and the Barbie Doll was launched.
Among the cars launched in 1959 were the Pontiac Parisienne, Buick LeSabre and Dodge Challenger.
In 1959, my Toronto Maple Leafs lost to Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup final but at least we made it that far. So that’s a win.
The 1959 NFL champion was the Baltimore Colts which beat the New York Giants 31-16. The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago White Sox in six games to win the World Series and in the Grey Cup, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers beat Hamilton’s Ti-cats 21-7.
It was an eventful year and we were part of it — the last to be born in the 1950s. Time for a nap.
SPEAKING OF MUSIC: I tried watching the Grammy Awards Sunday but either I’m not hip anymore or the music industry has really taken a sideways turn.
I get that a younger generation has turned its ear to rap but today’s just is not the same as the groundbreaking material that was created by artists such as N.W.A. and so many other influential groups and solo artists. And now it seems so much music is just being launched whenever without the continuity of an album. In an era of streaming and downloading, that’s more convenient for artists, who can stay in the public eye 24/7 by releasing music when they feel like it but for the art to be considered in its totality, I still think it needs to be created in the context of an entire body of work.
And rock now seems to be a minor part of the Grammys; it’s become music’s version of the Oscar technical awards, shunted off to the background. It’s a pity.
One moment of brilliance at the Grammys, though, was the performance of Canada’s Shawn Mendes. For me, that was the only highlight before I noticed I had recently recorded the documentary on the original Woodstock festival. Unlike the Grammys, that was truly epic.