Amazing Footage Reveals How Beatniks Saw Themselves. What They Said. Weird & Wild.

Although these film clips were made in the early 1960s, they are trying to present the Beatniks and especially the Beatniks who lived and performed in Greenwich Village, New York City. Their odd (outrageous?) poetry and new language. Their music. Their style. Smoking marijuana. Drinking heavily (excessively?). I interviewed Beatniks years later and for the most part, they believed that what they did, though outrageous, was necessary to break the social restrictions most everyone felt in the 1950s.
Some of my subscribers say they would like those 1950s restrictions returned to America although most of the commentators who say that want to return did not live during the 1950s and experience the social restrictions. Other subscribers say that they would never want to return to the 50s and that although they were not Beatniks and many commented that the Beatniks went too far, they felt relieved that the Beatniks broke ground by refusing a middle-class suburban lifestyle.
Seen from today, these early 1960s films look ridiculous - silly, and indeed the director of these "documentaries" knew that he was making fun of the Beatnik Greenwich Village lifestyle in 1962, he was correct that these coffee houses were places where old-time Beatniks and a new kind of Hippies hung out. Marijuana was smoked. Alcohol was served to minors. Some of the poetry was awful.
In 1962, as a college junior,I went to a Greenwich Village coffee shop traveling from Levittown Long Island, classic suburbia where I grew up and lived. I knew when I was there that I didn't fit in that culture but there were lots of good looking young 20s girls there and they seemed to find these Beatnik Hippie behaviors appealing. After that visit, I thought about it back in Levittown and decided that I didn't fit that culture. Being an independent documentary filmmaker was where I was headed - and where I'm still headed after all these years.
If these clips interest you or at least give you a smile, I would appreciate your clicking the Super Thanks button to support my efforts to present more videos like these. History. Social history. The 1950s - 60s - 70s - 80s - 90s.
Thank you
David Hoffman filmmaker