Gary McDonogh. Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture

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lighted zone. Increased mechanization after the Second World War slowly eliminated

this neofeudal agricultural relationship while forcing many rural Southerners to migrate

cities

and even to move outside the South.

GARY McDONOGH

Shepard, Sam

b. 1943

Playwright and actor. Shepard has written more than forty plays, generally produced

off

Broadway

. These often explore

family

dynamics as well as the intersection o

representation and reality in the

West

. He won a

Pulitzer Prize

for

Buried Child

(1979).

At the same time, Shepard has developed an active career both behind and in front of the

movie camera, adapting his work as the screenplay for Wim Wender’s

Paris, Texas,

1984, and bringing a lank, laconic presence to many

Hollywood

roles. He was nominated

for an Academy Award for his depiction of Chuck Yaeger in

The Right Stuff

(l983).

GARY McDONOGH

shopping centers

malls

Sierra Club

Founded by John Muir as an outing group in the 1890s, the Sierra Club was one of the

first private organizations to advocate environmental protection. During the 1960s, club

resident David Brower led the group to national prominence by fighting the construction

of dams within the Dinosaur National Monument and the Grand Canyon National

Park

Though still prospering, the Sierra Club has not played the same unquestioned leadership

role in recent decades. Nonetheless, many Americans who wish to contribute to an

environmental cause will become Sierra Club members because of its broad political

agenda and widespread name recognition.

BRAD ROGERS

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 1016

silent majority

backlash; Nixon, Richard M.

Silicon Valley

Growing from the 1950s

Stanford

University Industrial Park, a university project to

facilitate corporate and academic ties in research and development, “Silicon” Valley

became the model for high-tech entrepreneurship and lifestyle in computers and related

industries. This aura of constantly shifting boundaries of information and processing,

instant billionaires and soaring realestate prices belied problems. These include the need

for unskilled and low-paid workers in computer assembly (often third-world women), the

lack of public culture and service centers and the fragility of technology rapidly exported

to offshore assembly areas. Nonetheless, this techno

suburb

has provided both a model

and a nickname for other research/production complexes like Massachusett’s Route 128

and New York’s Silicon Alley (as well as global avatars).

GARY McDONOGH

Silko, Leslie Marmon

b. 1948

Poet and novelist of mixed Native American, Mexican and Euro-American parentage,

raised on the Pueblo Indian reservation. Her novels have explored the oral traditions o

the Laguna peoples, before the arrival of whites or in deep cultural conflict with them. In

Ceremony

(1977),

Storyteller

(1981),

Almanac of the Dead

(1991) and other works, she

defines and champions alternative voices of American storytelling.

GARY McDONOGH

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Simon, Paul

b. 1941

Enduring, popular songwriter/performer since the early 1960s. Simon combined with

Queens,

New York

schoolmate, Art Garfunkel, as Simon and Garfunkel, gaining

recognition with the 1965 hit “The Sound of Silence.” The duo’s songs struck a chord

with alienated adolescents from middle-class

suburbs,

an association intensified by their

soundtrack for

The Graduate

(1967). Yet after even greater success with “Bridge Over

Troubled Water” (1970), the two singers separated. Simon continued briefly as a

successful solo performer with “There goes Rhymin’ Simon” (1973) and “Still Crazy

after all these Years” (1975). Later, South African influences revitalized his career in

“Graceland” (1986), for which he won his second Grammy. Initially criticized for

reaking the boycott of South Africa, after the end of Apartheid, Simon came to be hailed

as one of the founders of “World Music.”

ROBERT GREGG

Simpson, OrenthaI James(“O.J.”)

b. 1947

Winner of the Heisman Trophy in 1968 while at the University of Southern California,

O.J.Simpson signed for the Buffalo Bills where he broke single-season and single-game

rushing records. Retiring in 1979, he went on to a career in

television,

movies and

advertising,

and was inducted into the

football

Hall of Fame in 1985. He acted in the

aked Gun

series (1988, 1991, 1993), joined the commentary team for

Monday Nigh

ootbal

and teamed up with Arnold Palmer to represent Hertz in his best-known

commercials.

In 1994 he was the center of the sensational

Los Angeles, CA

murder case of his

former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend. After a protracted trial, covered live

and featured in

talk shows

and check-out counter

magazines,

Simpson was acquitted on

all charges. But a wrongful death suit followed in 1997 in civil court, finding him liable

to the sum of $33.5 million.

ROBERT GREGG

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 1018

Simpson-Mazzoli Act

immigration

Simpsons, The

Offbeat cartoonist Matt Groening created this animated half-hour program

television

series that gained widespread popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s as the premier

offering of the then upstart FOX television network. While loathed by some parents for

its portrayal of a

family

headed by a boorish, unintelligent father named Homer and

lagued by an irreverent, rambunctious boy named Bart, the show was enormously

opular with young people (not surprisingly) and critics (more surprisingly). Just below

the surface the show offered a social critique built on a myriad of references to politics

and popular culture. In its first two seasons, the show sparked a merchandising craze,

largely through the sale of T-shirts portraying Bart uttering one of several catchphrases.

ROBERT ANDERSON

Sinatra, Frank

b. 1915; d. 1998

Frank Sinatra came to prominence in the 1940s as a crooner of mood music and went

on to become perhaps the most famous and beloved singer in the history of American

opular music, despite his alleged connections with the mob. Through a series o

incarnations, from teen idol to movie star to living legend status as “the Chairman of the

Board,” the one constant in Sinatra’s career was his incomparable vocal talent, which

spanned through five decades of almost uninterrupted popularity Some of his most

famous songs, though penned by others— “My Way” ‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” “It

Was A Very Good Year”—have become forever linked with a man who seemed more to

inhabit songs than merely sing them.

ROBERT ANDERSON

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sitcoms (situation comedies)

television

is “eye candy” a situation comedy (sitcom) is its tastiest morsel. Sitcoms

allow viewers to develop long-term relationships with a stable cast of characters, whose

conflicts, flaws and problems are depicted as endearing, amusing and almost always

resolvable in twenty-two minutes or less. The program’s “situation” remains virtually

unchanged throughout the run of the show and typically revolves around the characters’

home

or work or a combination of the two.

Arising from the venerable traditions of farce, vaudeville and

radio

serials, sitcoms

meet television’s need for new and inexpensive material. Primary sets are built once and

used for years. Actors are signed to long-term contracts so that a “hit” show is not

threatened by a key player’s departure. Four to ten writers, who become familiar with the

situations, character and tone of the show, craft the season’s scripts. By the 1970s,

networks

and

producers

learned that sitcoms with a hundred or more shows “in the can”

could be sold for re-broadcast to distributors for lucrative

syndication

fees.

Sitcoms generally portray the white

middle class

. In the 1950s and 1960s, popular

sitcoms featured silly adults (

I Love Lucy,

CBS, 1951–61;

Gilligan’s Island,

CBS, 1964–

7),

family

life (

Leave it to Beaver,

CBS, ABC, 1957–63;

Ozzie and Harriet,

ABC, 1952–

66;

Donna Reed,

ABC, 1958–66), supernatural powers in suburbia (

I Dream of Jeannie,

NBC, 1965–70;

Bewitched,

ABC, 1964–72;

My Favorite Martian,

CBS, 1963–6) and a

sanitized Second World War (

McHale’s Navy,

ABC, 1962–6;

Hogan’s Heroes,

CBS,

1965–71). Sitcom plots often had broadly physical humor, or played out the small

triumphs and misunderstandings of everyday life for their humor. Through

comedy,

people’s foibles are humanized; sitcoms reassure audiences because no problem or

person upsets the show’s status quo. The best early sitcom,

The Dick Van Dyke Show

(CBS, 1961–6), successfully combined work and home situations and offered an

appealing portrayal of marriage.

In the early 1970s sitcoms like

The Mary Tyler Moore Show

(CBS, 1970–7),

All in the

amily

(CBS, 1971–92) and

M*A*S*H

(CBS, 1972–83) addressed more serious subjects.

Thus,

M*A*S*H’s

creator Larry Gelbart changed sitcom’s conventions by incorporating

both a major and minor plot in many shows.

M*A*S*H

plunged viewers, long weary o

Vietnam on television, into existential musings over life and

death

in the

Korean War

In its prosaic setting of working-class Queens, New York,

All in the Family

explored

reviously taboo subjects, including homosexuality sexism and racism. A program that

introduced the workplace as a surrogate

family,

The Mary Tyler Moore Show,

inaugurated television’s first successful professional woman. Starting in the late 1980s,

three of the longest running sitcoms presented dichotomous class issues—

The Cosby

Show

(NBC, 1984–92) offered an engaging portrait of an upper-middle-class

African

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 1020

American

family whereas

Married

…

With Children

(FOX, 1987–97) and

Roseanne

(ABC, 1988–97) portrayed the trials and tribulations of crass working-class white

families. Successful sitcoms, such as

Seinfeld

(NBC, 1990–8),

Frasier

(NBC, 1992–)

and

Friends

(NBC, 1994–)—evidence Americans’ teleliteracy by including large casts

and intricate plots. Liberated from the constraints of the soundstage, cartoons like

The

Simpsons

(FOX, 1989–) and

South Park

(Comedy Central, 1996–) twist and expand

upon sitcom conventions. Sitcom has emerged as an acronym for Single Income Two

Children Oppressive Mortgage, connecting once again family and representation.

Further reading

Jones, G. (1993)

Honey I’m Home! Sitcoms: Selling the American Dream,

New York: St

Martin’s.

MELINDA SCHWENK

sit-ins

Four students from North Carolina A&T College, a

black college

in Greensboro, asked

to be served at the Woolworths’ lunch-counter in early February 1960. Remaining in

place after they were refused service, they began the sit-in movement. News of the sit-ins

spread rapidly and within two weeks Fisk students, led by James Lawson, had instituted

their own sit-in at Nashville’s Kress store. The sit-ins were then copied in cities

throughout the

South,

and soon sympathy sit-ins were being undertaken in Kress and

Woolworths’ stores in northern cities

Boston, Chicago, IL

and

New York,

receiving the

vocal support of northern black leaders Adam Clayton

Powell

. The fact that these stores

elonged to national chains contributed to the success of the southern protests against

segregation

The sit-ins were first seen as an extension of the work of the

SCLC,

but, in fact, the

Greensboro sitins were done independently of both the SCLC and the

Congress o

Racial Equality

and never received the support of Martin Luther

King,

Jr.

CORE,

however, quickly attempted to lead the new sit-in movement, and the SCLC attempted to

harness the energy of the student movement by establishing the

Student Non-violent

Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

later in the year.

The willingness of

African Americans

to withstand beatings and terror during the sit-

ins opened the eyes of

white

southerners to the depth of black discontent. This discontent

was not fully acknowledged by the SCLC with its stress on non-violence, and students

became increasingly radicalized, shifting towards an emphasis on

Black Power

ROBERT GREGG

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skateboarding

Now a staple in ESPN’s

X-Games,

skateboarding took off as a fad in the 1960s. As

portrayed in the movie

Back to the Future

(1985), it started with children tinkering with

go-carts and roller skates, yet quickly migrated from playgrounds to downtown as

skateboarders sought the best surfaces for their fast-developing techniques and tricks. The

sport’s novelty its athletes’ penchant for practicing in places where “suits” carried out

their business and the inheritance of some

surfing

etiquette gave skateboarding an anti-

authoritarian aspect. This lessened with growing commercialization and the establishment

of custom

parks

designed to keep the skateboarders away from “public” space. New

urethane wheels and fiberglass for the boards, introduced in the 1970s, increased costs,

ut also made boards more able to ride over bumpy terrains like uneven sidewalks. But

the main thrills remain in the skating parks, where the boarders have developed tricks

ranging from aerials and grinders to rock and rolls.

ROBERT GREGG

skiing and snowboarding

Americans have seldom challenged Alpine skiers’ dominance in skiing. Skiing is a very

expensive sport that Americans have taken to as a recreation, but very few have been

rought up in the kind of skiing environment necessary to compete. Even Americans

living in the

Rocky Mountain

region treat skiing as a vacation sport, compared to Alpine

communities that depend on skiing for transportation and communication. Victories, like

the Picabo Street in the 1998 Nagano

Olympics,

are rare exceptions.

Snowboarding, by contrast, has been developed and dominated largely by Americans.

The first snowboard was built in Sherman Poppen’s garage in 1967. Many early designs

borrowed from

surfing

and, until 1985, metal edges were included on all snowboards. By

1993 there were over fifty different snowboard manufacturers.

Generally cheaper than skiing, snowboarding was first viewed as low-class and

countercultural, and many American resorts banned it. Gradually the Snowboarding

Outreach Society began to gain acceptance for the sport and for the competitive racing

egun in 1981. After Stratton Mountain in Vermont offered the first snowboarding

instruction in 1986, the sport gained respect and widespread popularity.

Women also established themselves as athletes in the sport competing against men.

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 1022

The emphasis on jumps and spins as opposed to speed has given women equal chances.

The sport has become increasingly professionalized in the 1990s, sponsored by

manufacturers and covered since 1993 on ESPN. With its emphasis on daredevil antics,

snowboarding has also been a mainstay of

X-games

ROBERT GREGG

slackers

Term popularized by Richard Linklater’s 1991 film about “twenty-somethings” in

Austin, TX,

the term underscores the diminished expectations of

Generation X

. This is

evident in underdeveloped careers and questions about family and society yet is coupled

with an ability to consume media and other commodities. Many have questioned this

road generalization as well as its localization of issues in a group of people rather than

their social, economic and cultural context.

Further reading

Daly S. and Wice, N. (1995)

Alt.culture,

New York: Harper.

GARY McDONOGH

CINDY WONG

slang

language

Slavic Americans

The largest wave of

immigration

into the United States from Eastern Europe took place

etween 1880 and 1914, when some 7 million people from this region arrived in

America. Apart from about 1.8 million

Jews,

mostly of

Russian

origin, who had been

forced out by persecutions, nearly all these peoples were of Slavic stock. Poles were the

largest single group, consisting of about 1.1 million people, but there were also

substantial numbers of Russians, Hungarians, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Belorussians,

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Latvians, Czechs, Slovaks, Slovenes, Serbs, Croats and Romanians.

Some of these immigrants, like the Russian Doukhobors, came searching for religious

freedom, while others, especially from the lands of the Austro-Hungarian empire, were

avoiding conscription into the army Most, however, were attracted to America by

economic opportunities. Rising populations, collapsing agricultural prices and changes in

land tenure meant that many peasant families could no longer subsist. America had

acquired the reputation of a “promised land,” where work could be found and there was a

chance of advancement. Many of the immigrants were in fact recruited by agents in their

home countries; others took passage to America trusting that the rumors of plentiful work

would turn out to be true. Many of the immigrants were single young males looking for

work rather than land.

Most of the immigrants did find work, especially in the rapidly growing industrial

centers of the

Midwest

. The large Polish community in

Chicago, IL,

for example, dates

from around this time. However, wages were low and the immigrants suffered much

discrimination. Some stuck it out and put down roots; others moved west to establish

homesteads in the Great Plains. Many returned. In the decade before the First World War,

immigration records show that around half of all Hungarian, Croat, Slovak and Slovene

immigrants returned to Europe soon after their arrival.

The collapse of the Austro-Hungarian and Russian empires at the end of the First

World War brought more Slavic immigrants, though in smaller numbers, and there were

more after the Second World War. Refugees from behind the Iron Curtain continued to

arrive in small numbers; for example, the events of 1956 brought several thousand

Hungarians to the USA, while the first suppression of the Solidarity movement in 1982

resulted in around 8,000 Poles fleeing to America.

In many ways, the Slavic immigrants have been model members of the “melting-pot”

society The initial immigrants tried to integrate quickly into American society and

culture, sometimes even changing their names to Anglicized forms. Unlike German and

Jewish immigrants, who retained political affiliations and set up strong intercommunity

organizations, the Slavs did not become highly political. During the

Cold War,

the

Republican Party

in particular canvassed for votes among immigrants who had families

ehind the Iron Curtain, but the Slavs never developed the political voice of, for example,

Jewish Americans or

Irish Americans

. In the 1970s, however, following the success o

the

Black Power

movement, some groups of Slavic descent such as Polish Americans

and Ukrainian Americans did establish cultural associations with the aim of reawakening

pride in their own culture and counteracting racism from WASP segments of society.

MORGEN WITZEL

small-town ideals

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 1024

Post-war growth overwhelmed small towns but never erased their symbolic appeal. Small

towns began losing residents in the 1920s, but postwar educational opportunities lured

still more, and younger, townspeople away. Sprawling suburban developments also

transformed independent towns into mere bedroom communities for nearby

cities,

as new

highways

enabled routine commuting from residential neighborhoods created virtually

overnight. Suburban tracts offered privacy and autonomy hitherto unattainable outside

cities, while the relocation policies of corporate employers discouraged ambitious

employees from forming any sentimental attachments to place. This postwar culture o

education,

mobility,

growth and anonymity sapped the civic energy inter-generational

connection and

community

feeling of small-town life.

Pre-war townspeople purchased a wide range of personal services from familiar

merchants, shopkeepers and mechanics, many of whom began to close up in the 1960s

and 1970s. New interstate highways bypassed thousands of towns, stranding

“mom-and-

pop stores”

that had traded with motorists traveling the local roads. New mass-market

retailers offered large inventories of cheaper goods to local shoppers and tourists alike.

Unable to compete, local stores closed, diminishing the uniqueness that was each town’s

pride and treasured inheritance.

Small-town services, neighborliness and civic unity had always involved uneven

quality intrusiveness and unchallenged prejudice. But by the 1970s and 1980s, new

suburban communities, with names like “Hometown,” “Pleasant Valley” and “Littleton,”

traded on rosy nostalgia for small-town life. Developers of “new towns” featuring

artificial centers with the same retailers that lined the interstates advertised a perfect mix

of town-style community and suburban prestige, themes also seen in

New Urbanism

Surviving small towns began in the 1990s to assert their own version of the past,

reaching out for tourist dollars by rediscovering local

history

and refurbishing fine old

buildings. Nineteenth-century town boosters had eagerly exaggerated local get-up-and-go

and promised that their growing town would be a new Colossus within the year. In the

1980s, town leaders, seeking new corporate and light industrial employers, sold their

communities as quiet, traffic-free, family friendly and homogenous.

The poorest towns, lacking political strength, acquired the most problematic new

economic resources. In the 1970s and 1980s,

Appalachian

towns, along with southern

African American,

southwestern

Hispanic

and Native American reservation towns,

egan spending local economic development funds to build facilities for imported

hazardous waste. In the 1990s, as mandatory sentencing swelled the

prison

population,

obstarved towns also reached out for new federal prison-building contracts.

Visible reverse

migration

from cities to towns began in the 1980s, notably among

African American families. Parents who had left southern towns for northern cities before

1940 saw their adult children return to look after elders or family land, or simply to

escape what had not, after all, been a promised land up north.

Old towns, dead towns, ersatz towns and new towns cover the late-twentieth-century

landscape. Though nothing has restored the pre-war American town, small-town life

remains a compelling ideal.

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