I may be a little too young to remember when Steve Allen was an important television personality, but seeing this little book "for kids" sheds a little light on what kind of personality that was.
"Bop" and "be-bop" were the catch phrases of his time, and taking a look at the names of the stories here gives an appropriate lesson in history:
- Goldilocks and the Three Cool Bears
- Three Mixed-Up Little Pigs
- Crazy Red Riding Hood
- Jack and the Real Flip Beanstalk
The history lesson here is in "coolness". What coolness is how certain folks (Steve Allen, Elvis Presley, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page, et al) took the speech patters, music, and style of the black Americans and made it acceptable for other white folks to mimic. That's the essence of "cool"--copying black people.
And while this book may not be a milestone, it is a piece of very real history, and a history that I plan on sharing my own kids, whenever they show up.
No comments:
Post a Comment