Pendergast T., Pendergast S. St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Volume 1: A-D
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King, Jr., Martin Luther. Letter from the Birmingham Jail. San
Francisco, Harper San Francisco, 1994.
Thoreau, Henry David. Civil Disobedience. 1866. Boston, D. R.
Godine, 1969.
van den Haag, Ernest. Political Violence and Civil Disobedience.
New York, Harper & Row, 1972.
Zashin, Elliot M. Civil Disobedience and Democracy. New York,
Free Press, 1972.
Civil Rights Movement
The African-American struggle for civil rights marks a turning
point in American history because it represents the period when
African Americans made their entry into the American mainstream.
Although the focus of the long persistent drive for civil rights was
centered around political issues such as voting, integration, educa-
tional opportunities, better housing, increased employment opportu-
nities, and fair police protection, other facets of American life and
culture were affected as well. Most noticeably, African Americans
came out of the civil rights movement determined to define their own
distinct culture. New styles of politics, music, clothing, folktales,
A protest for Civil Rights.
hairstyles, cuisine, literature, theology, and the arts were all evident at
the end of the civil rights movement.
Although African Americans have a long tradition of protest
dating back to the seventeenth century, the mid-1950s represented a
turning point in the black struggle for equal rights. With the historic
Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision that outlawed
the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson doctrine of ‘‘Separate But Equal,’’
African Americans realized that the time was right to end all vestiges
of Jim Crow and discrimination. On the heels of Brown, black
Southerners undertook battles to achieve voting rights and integra-
tion, under the broad leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr. Through
marches, rallies, sit-ins, and boycotts, they were able to accomplish
their goals by the late 1960s. With voting rights and integration won
in the South, African Americans next shifted their attention to the
structural problems of northern urban blacks. However, non-violent
direct-action was not the preferred tool of protest in the North where
the self-defense message of Malcolm X was popular. Rather, the
method of protest was urban unrest, which produced very few
meaningful gains for African Americans other than the symbolic
election of black mayors to large urban centers.
Immediately, the civil rights movement ushered in a new black
political culture. With the right to vote won in 1965 with the passage
of the Voting Rights Act, African Americans now began to place a
CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR CULTURE
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tremendous emphasis on political participation. Throughout the South
African Americans went to the polls in large numbers seeking to elect
representatives that would best represent their interests. In the North
where the right to vote had been in existence since the mid-nineteenth
century, a different type of political culture emerged. As a result of the
civil rights movement black voters in the North began to move away
from the idea of coalition building with white liberals, preferring
instead to establish all-black political organizations. These clubs
would not only attack the conservativeness of the Republican Party
but they would also begin to reassess their commitment to the
democratic party at the local, state, and national level. In essence, the
race was moving toward political maturity; no longer would their
votes be taken for granted.
Another aspect of the nascent black political culture was a re-
emergence of black nationalism which was re-introduced into Ameri-
can society by Malcolm X. While a spokesman for the Nation of
Islam, Malcolm X made African Americans feel good about them-
selves. He told them to embrace their culture and their heritage, and he
also spoke out openly against white America. Via his autobiography
and lectures, Malcolm X quickly emerged as the instrumental figure
in this renewed black consciousness. Shortly after his assassination in
1965, the proprietors of black culture immediately gave Malcolm
deity status. His name and portrait began to appear everywhere:
bumper stickers, flags, T-shirts, hats, and posters. Although Malcolm
popularized this new revolutionary frame of mind, by no means did he
have a monopoly on it. Throughout the 1960s African Americans
spoke of black nationalism in three main forms: territorial, revolu-
tionary, and cultural. Territorial nationalists such as the Republic of
New Afrika and the Nation of Islam, called for a portion of the United
States to be partitioned off for African Americans as payment for
years of slavery, Jim Crow, and discrimination. But they insisted that
by no means would this settle the issue. Instead, this would just be
partial compensation for years of mistreatment. Revolutionary na-
tionalists such as the Black Panther Party sought to overthrow the
capitalist American government and replace it with a socialist utopia.
They argued that the problems faced by African Americans were
rooted in the capitalist control of international economic affairs. Thus,
the Black Panthers viewed the black nationalist struggle as one of
both race and class. Lastly, the cultural nationalism espoused by
groups such as Ron Karenga’s US organization sought to spark a
revolution through a black cultural renaissance. In the eyes of his
supporters, the key to black self-empowerement lay in a distinct black
culture. They replaced European cultural forms with a distinct Afro-
centric culture. One of Karenga’s chief achievements was the devel-
opment of the African-American holiday ‘‘Kwanzaa.’’ Kwanzaa was
part of a broader theory of black cultural nationalism which suggested
that African Americans needed to carry out a cultural revolution
before they could achieve power.
One of the most visible effects of the civil rights movement on
American popular culture was the introduction of the concept of
‘‘Soul.’’ For African Americans of the 1960s, Soul was the common
denominator of all black folks. It was simply the collective thread of
black identity. All blacks had it. In essence, soul was black culture,
something separate and distinct from white America. No longer
would they attempt to deny nor be ashamed of their cultural heritage;
rather they would express it freely, irrespective of how whites
perceived it. Soul manifested itself in a number of ways: through
greetings, ‘‘what’s up brother,’’ through handshakes, ‘‘give me some
skin,’’ and even through the style of walk. It was no longer acceptable
to just walk, one who had soul had to ‘‘strut’’ or ‘‘bop.’’ This was all a
part of the attitude that illustrated they would no longer look for
white acceptance.
One of the most fascinating cultural changes ushered in by the
civil rights movement was the popularity of freedom songs, which at
times were organized or started spontaneously during the midst of
demonstrations, marches, and church meetings. These songs were
unique in that although they were in the same tradition as other protest
music, this was something different. These were either new songs for
a new situation, or old songs adapted to the times. Songs such as ‘‘I’m
Gonna Sit at the Welcome Table,’’ ‘‘Everybody Says Freedom,’’
‘‘Which Side Are You On,’’ ‘‘If You Miss Me at the Back of the
Bus,’’ ‘‘Keep Your Eyes on the Prize,’’ and ‘‘Ain’t Scared of Your
Jails,’’ all express the feelings of those fighting for black civil rights.
While these songs were popularized in the South, other tunes such as
‘‘Burn, Baby, Burn,’’ and the ‘‘Movement’s Moving On,’’ signaled
the movements shift from non-violence to Black Power. Along with
freedom songs blacks also expressed themselves through ‘‘Soul
music,’’ which they said ‘‘served as a repository of racial conscious-
ness.’’ Hits such as ‘‘I’m Black and I’m Proud,’’ by James Brown,
‘‘Message from a Black Man,’’ by the Temptations, Edwin Starrs’s
‘‘Ain’t It Hell Up in Harlem,’’ and ‘‘Is It Because I’m Black’’ by Syl
Johnson, all testified to the black community’s move toward a
cultural self-definition.
African Americans also redefined themselves in the area of
literary expression. Black artists of the civil rights period attempted to
counter the racist and stereotyped images of black folk by expressing
the collective voice of the black community, as opposed to centering
their work to gain white acceptance. Instrumental in this new ‘‘black
arts movement,’’ were works such as Amiri Baraka’s Blues People,
Preface to a Twenty-Volume Suicide Note, and Dutchman. These
works illustrate the distinctiveness of black culture, while simultane-
ously promoting race pride and unity.
The black revolution was principally the catalyst for a new
appreciation of black history as well. Prior to the civil rights move-
ment, the importance of Africa in the world and the role of African
Americans in the development of America was virtually ignored at all
levels of education, particularly at the college and university level.
Whenever people of African descent were mentioned in an education-
al setting they were generally introduced as objects and not subjects.
However, the civil rights movement encouraged black students to
demand that their history and culture receive equal billing in acade-
mia. Students demanded black studies courses taught by black
professors. White university administrators reluctantly established
these courses, which instantly became popular. Predominantly white
universities and colleges now offered classes in Swahili, Yoruba,
black history, and black psychology to satisfy the demand. Due to the
heightened awareness, all black students were expected to enroll in
black studies courses, and when they didn’t, they generally had to
provide an explanation to the more militant factions on campus.
Students not only demanded black studies courses but they also
expressed a desire for colleges and universities that would be held
accountable to the black community. Traditional black colleges and
universities such as Howard, Spelman, and Fisk, were now viewed
with suspicion since they served the racial status quo. Instead, schools
such as Malcolm X College of Chicago and Medgar Evers College of
CUNY became the schools of choice since they were completely
dedicated to the black community.
The 1960s generation of African Americans also redefined
themselves in the area of clothing. Again, they were seeking to create
something unique and distinct from the white mainstream. The new
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attire consisted of wide-brimmed hats, long full-cut jackets, platform
shoes, bell-bottoms, leather vests, and wide-collar shirts. These
outfits were complimented by African-like beads, earrings, belts,
medallions, and bracelets. However, the more culturally conscious
rejected all types of western culture in favor of dashikis, robes, and
sandals. In response to these new cultural tastes clothing companies
began specifically targeting the black consumer by stating that their
items were designed to meet the body style of blacks. To complement
the new clothing look African Americans also began to reject the
European standard of beauty. Whereas African Americans were once
ashamed of their full lips, broad nose, high cheekbones, and coarse
hair, they now embraced them. Black women took hair straighteners
and hot combs out of their bathrooms and began to wear ‘‘naturals,’’
cornrows, and beads, which many considered to be the most visible
sign of black self-expression.
Interestingly enough, black Americans also experienced a slight
shift in eating tastes. Although collard greens, ‘‘chitlins,’’ catfish,
pigs feet, and fried-chicken had been a staple in the black diet for
years, it was now labeled ‘‘soul food,’’ because it provided a cultural
link to the African ancestral homeland.
African-American folktales took on a whole new importance
during the civil rights movement as the famed ‘‘trickster tales’’
became more contemporary. Folklorists made the black hero superior
to that of other culture’s, by stressing its mental agility, brute physical
strength, and sexual prowess. These heroes also reversed the tradi-
tional socio-economic arrangements of America as well. Characters
such as Long-Shoe Sam, Hophead Willie, Shine, and Dolemite, all
used wit and deceit to get what they wanted from white America. In
the eyes of black America, traditional heroes such as Paul Bunyan
and Davy Crockett were no match for this new generation of
black adventurers.
The civil rights movement also encouraged blacks to see God,
Jesus, and Mary as black. As their African ancestors, these deities
would assist African Americans in their quest for physical, mental,
and spiritual liberation. By stressing that a belief in a white God or
Jesus fostered self-hatred, clergyman such as Rev. Albert Cleague of
Detroit sought to replace the traditional depiction of God and Jesus
with a black image. Throughout the country black churches followed
Cleague’s lead as they removed all vestiges of a white Christ in favor
of a savior they could identify with. Followers of this new Black
Christian Nationalism also formulated a distinct theology, in which
Jesus was viewed as a black revolutionary who would deliver African
American people from their white oppressors.
As with other facets of black popular culture, television also
witnessed a change as a result of the black revolution. With the
renewed black consciousness clearly evident, the entertainment in-
dustry sought to capitalize by increasing the visibility of black actors
and actresses. Whereas in 1962 blacks on TV were only seen in the
traditional stereotyped roles as singers, dancers, and musicians, by
1968 black actors were being cast in more positive roles, such as Greg
Morris in Mission Impossible, Diahann Carroll in Julia, Clarence
Williams III in the Mod Squad, and Nichelle Nichols, who starred as
Uhura in Star Trek. While these shows did illustrate progress, other
shows such as Sanford and Son and Flip Wilson’s Show all reinforced
the traditional black stereotype. In the film industry, Hollywood
would not capitalize on the renewed black consciousness until the
early 1970s with blaxploitation films. In the mid-1960s however,
African Americans were continually portrayed as uncivilized, barbar-
ic, and savage, in movies such as The Naked Prey, Dark of the Sun,
and Mandingo.
The principal effect of the civil rights movement on American
popular culture was a renewed racial consciousness not witnessed
since the Harlem Renaissance. This cultural revolution inspired
African Americans to reject the white aesthetic in favor of their own.
Although they had fought and struggled for full inclusion into
American society, the civil rights drive also instilled into African
Americans a strong appreciation of their unique cultural heritage.
Through new styles of music, clothing, literature, theology, cuisine,
and entertainment, African Americans introduced a completely new
cultural form that is still evident today.
—Leonard N. Moore
F
URTHER READING:
Anderson, Terry. The Movement and the Sixties: Protest in America
from Greensboro to Wounded Knee. Oxford, Oxford University
Press, 1995.
Dickstein, Morris. Gates of Eden: American Culture in the Sixties.
New York, Basic Books, 1977.
Seeger, Pete, and Bob Reiser. Everybody Says Freedom. New York,
W.W. Norton and Company.
Van Deburg, William. Black Camelot: African-American Culture
Heroes in Their Times, 1960-1980. Chicago: University of Chica-
go Press, 1997.
———. New Day in Babylon. Chicago, University of Chicago
Press, 1992.
Civil War Reenactors
Reenactors are those people whose hobby involves dressing in
the manner of soldiers from a particular period of time in order to
recreate battles from a famous war. Those individuals who choose to
restage Civil War battles form the largest contingent of reenactors.
They are part of a larger group of Civil War buffs who actively
participate in genealogy research, discussion groups, and roundtables.
The American Civil War divided the country in bitter warfare from
1861 to 1865 but its legacy has endured long since the fighting ceased.
The war wrought extensive changes which shaped United States
society and its inhabitants. Historian Shelby Foote, renowned for his
participation in Ken Burns’ popular PBS series The Civil War,
observes that ‘‘any understanding of this nation has to be based, and I
mean really based, on an understanding of the Civil War. I believe that
firmly. It defined us.’’ The importance of the Civil War in American
culture and memory makes it significant in popular culture. The Civil
War has a long history of serving ‘‘as a vehicle for embodying
sentiments and politics in our day.’’ The Civil War has therefore been
entwined with popular culture before, during, and since its actual
battles occurred as popular cultural producers fought to determine
how its meaning would apply to postwar society.
Civil War reenactments range in size from small one-day
skirmishes to large encampments like the 125th Anniversary of
Gettysburg that attracted 12,000 soldiers and 100,000 audience
members. The larger events are great tourist attractions that feature
concerts, lectures, exhibitions, encampments, and demonstrations of
camp life, hospitals, Civil War fashions, and other topics. These large
reenactments are often cosponsored by the National Park Service and
local museums as they involve numerous volunteers and intensive
CIVIL WAR REENACTORS ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR CULTURE
522
A reenactment of the battle at Andersonville, Georgia.
preparations. The battles themselves are choreographed events where
the soldiers shoot blanks and show a great concern for the safety of all
involved. The reenactors who stage these events are part of the
amateur and living history movement that encourages direct audience
interaction and has enjoyed increasing popularity in the late twentieth
century. Living history museums rose in popularity in the United
States in the 1920s with the founding of automobile giant Henry
Ford’s Greenfield Village in Michigan and John D. Rockefeller’s
Colonial Williamsburg village in Virginia. The majority of the people
in the United States learn their history from popular culture rather
than academic books and classes. Popular cultural forms of history
provide their audiences with forms, images, and interpretations of
people and events from America’s past. Their popularity makes their
views on history widely influential. Civil War reenactors understand
that popular history is a valuable form of communication. They view
living history as a valuable education tool, viewing their participation
as a learning experience both for them and for their audience.
The first group to reenact the Civil War consisted of actual
veterans belonging to a society known as the Grand Army of the
Republic. These late-nineteenth-century encampments were places
where these ex-soldiers could affirm the passion and the sense of
community to fellow soldiers that their wartime experiences engen-
dered. Veterans also showed their respect for the former enemies who
had endured the same indescribable battle-time conditions. Commu-
nity sponsored historical pageants replaced the early reenactments as
the veterans largely died off, until the fragmentation of society after
World War II broke apart any strong sense of community. Reenacting
emerged in its late-twentieth-century form during the 1960s Civil
War centennial commemorations. The battles staged during this
period found a receptive audience. Public enthusiasm for reenactments
faded in the late 1960s and 1970s as the result of a national mood of
questioning blind patriotism and American values. The phenomenal
popularity of the living history movement in the 1980s, however,
quickly led to a resurgence of Civil War reenacting.
Twentieth-century Civil War reenactors have found themselves
involved in the controversies between amateur and professional
historians. Academics have accused the reenactors of engaging in
cheap theatrics to capture their audience’s interest and questioned the
morality of the use of actual battlefields as reenactment sites. They
have also been criticized for their sentimentalized historical portraits.
Civil War reenactors have a highly developed sense of culture
among themselves. Most are generally white males in their thirties
and are very passionate about the endeavor. There are a few women
and African-Americans who participate, but they often meet with
hostility. Reenactors are mostly not academic historians but are
usually quite knowledgeable, conducting considerable research to
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create their historical characters and outfit themselves in meticulous
detail. They categorize their fellow reenactors by a tiered system that
demonstrates their amount of dedication to the activity and to the goal
of complete authenticity. ‘‘Farbs’’ are those reenactors who lack
seriousness and attention to detail and are usually more interested in
the social and alcoholic aspects of the encampments. ‘‘Authentic’’
reenactors concern themselves with detail but are willing to allow
some twentieth-century comforts whereas ‘‘hard core’’ reenactors
share a precise and uncompromising commitment to accuracy. ‘‘Hard
core’’ reenactors are also those who wish to ban women from
participation despite the fact that many women disguised as men
actually fought in the Civil War. Reenacting involves a great deal of
preparation time as participants must obtain proper clothing and
hardware and memorize complicated drills for public exhibition.
Magazines such as the North-South Trader’s Civil War, Civil War
Book Exchange and Collector’s Newspaper, Blue and Gray, Ameri-
ca’s Civil War, Civil War News, Civil War Times, and the Camp
Chase Gazette cater to the large market of Civil War buffs and
reenactors looking for necessary clothing and equipment. The reenactor
must also make every effort to stay in character at all times, especially
when members of the public are present.
The reenactors are largely unpaid amateur history fans who often
travel great distances to participate in what can prove to be a very
expensive hobby. Many participants welcome the chance to escape
everyday life and its worries through complete absorption in the
action of staged battles, the quiet of camp life, and the portrayal of
their chosen historical character. Many also seek a vivid personal
experience of what the Civil War must have been like for its actual
participants. They are quite intense in their attempt to capture some
sense of the fear and awe that must have overwhelmed their counter-
parts in reality. They find that experiential learning provides a much
better understanding of the past than that provided by reading dry
academic works. Jim Cullen observes in that by ‘‘sleeping on the
ground, eating bad food, and feeling something of the crushing
fatigue that Civil War soldiers did, they hope to recapture, in the most
direct sensory way, an experience that fascinates yet eludes them.’’
The immediacy of the battles and surrounding camp life is part of the
hobby’s appeal. Cullen also suggests one of reenacting’s more
negative aspects in observing that certain participants seek a ritual
reaffirmation of their own past which may hide a thinly veiled racism
in the face of a growing emphasis on new multicultural pasts.
—Marcella Bush Treviño
F
URTHER READING:
Bodner, John E. Remaking America: Public Memory, Commemora-
tion, and Patriotism in the Twentieth Century. Princeton, Prince-
ton University Press, 1992.
Catton, Bruce. America Goes to War: The Civil War and Its Meaning
in American Culture. Lincoln, University Press of Nebraska, 1985.
Cullen, Jim. The Civil War in Popular Culture: A Reusable Past.
Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995.
Hadden, R. Lee. Reliving the Civil War: A Reenactor’s Handbook.
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, Stackpole Press, 1996.
———. Returning to the Civil War: Grand Reenactments of an
Anguished Time. Gibbs Smit, 1997.
Claiborne, Liz (1929—)
After spending 25 years in the fashion business, Liz Claiborne
became an overnight success when she opened her own dress compa-
ny in 1976. By the time she and husband Arthur Ortenberg retired in
1989, their dress company had grown into a fashion colossus that
included clothing for men and children as well as accessories, shoes,
fragrances, and retail stores. Claiborne successfully combined an
emphasis on sensible dresses with a keen intuition for the professional
woman’s desire to appear sophisticated and dressed up at the office.
Her sensibility to what people want in fashion carried over into a
successful sportswear line. Her genius as a fashion designer was
highlighted by the fact that Claiborne was one of most stable fashion
companies on the New York Stock Exchange, serving as a model for
publicly-owned fashion companies until it faltered in the 1990s.
—Richard Martin
F
URTHER READING:
Klensch, Elsa. ‘‘Dressing America: The Success of Liz Claiborne.’’
Vogue. August, 1986.
‘‘Liz Claiborne.’’ Current Biography. June, 1989.
Clairol Hair Coloring
In 1931, Lawrence M. Gelb, a chemical broker, discovered and
bought ‘‘Clairol’’ hair color in Europe to market in the United States.
From the start, he promoted Clairol with the idea that beautiful hair
was every woman’s right, and that hair color, then considered risqué,
was no different from other cosmetics. With the 1956 introduction of
‘‘Miss Clairol,’’ the first at-home hair coloring formula, Clairol hair
color and care products revolutionized the world of hair color. The
do-it-yourself hair color ‘‘was to the world of hair color what
computers were to the world of adding machines,’’ Bruce Gelb, who
worked with his father and brother at Clairol, told New Yorker
contributor Malcolm Gladwell.
The firm’s 1956 marketing campaign for a new, Miss Clairol
product ended the social stigma against hair coloring and contributed
to America’s lexicon. Shirley Polykoff’s ad copy—which read ‘‘Does
she or doesn’t she? Hair color so natural only her hairdresser knows
for sure!’’—accompanied television shots and print photos of whole-
some-looking young women, not glamorous beauties associated with
professional hair color but attractive homemakers with children. With
ads that showed mothers and children with matching hair color, Miss
Clairol successfully divorced hair coloring from its sexy image.
Moreover, women could use the evasive ‘‘only my hairdresser knows
for sure’’ to avoid divulging the tricks they used to craft an appealing
public self. For women in the 1950s, hair color was a ‘‘useful
fiction—a way of bridging the contradiction between the kind of
woman you were and the woman you were supposed to be,’’
wrote Gladwell.
Hair color soon became an acceptable image-enhancing cosmet-
ic. In 1959 Gelb’s company was purchased by Bristol Meyers, which
has continued to expand the line into the 1990s. From the decade Miss
Clairol was introduced to the 1970s, the number of American women
coloring their hair increased dramatically, from 7 to 40 percent. By
the 1990s, store shelves were crowded with many brands of at-home
CLANCY ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR CULTURE
524
hair colorings and the image of hair coloring had changed as the
brands proliferated. Hair color was no longer something women hid.
Instead women celebrated their ability to change their look on a
whim. Supermodel Linda Evangelista would appear as a platinum
blonde one day, a redhead the next, and a brunette the next. The brand
Féria advertised hair color that didn’t pretend to be natural. Clairol’s
ads accommodated this change as well. While keeping with the image
of the-girl-next-door, Clairol’s shampoo-in color Nice ’n Easy ads
featured Julia Louis-Dreyfus, well-known as Elaine on the popular
sitcom Seinfeld, spotting women on the street and giving them public
hair colorings. Clairol had initiated an appealing formula that gave
women new freedom to shape their image as they pleased.
—Joan Leotta
F
URTHER READING:
‘‘Clairol’s Influence on American Beauty and Marketing.’’ Drug &
Cosmetic Industry. New York, August, 1996.
Gladwell, Malcolm. ‘‘True Colors.’’ New Yorker. New York, March
22, 1999, 70-81.
Clancy, Tom (1947—)
Known for his potboiling thrillers with political, military, and
espionage themes, author Tom Clancy’s influence on American
popular culture has been incalculable. Within the high-tech action
adventure that has proved so beguiling to the movie industry and its
audiences, as well as to a vast number of people who buy books of
escapist fiction, Clancy evokes a disturbing picture of the world we
live in, and has come to be regarded as the spokesman for the
American nation’s growing mistrust of those who govern them. If his
name is instantly identified with the best-selling The Hunt for Red
October (1984) and the creation of his Cold Warrior hero Jack Ryan
(incarnated on screen by Harrison Ford) in a series beginning with
Patriot Games (1992), his work is considered to have a serious
significance that transcends the merely entertaining.
On February 28, 1983, the Naval Institute Press (NIP) received a
manuscript from a Maryland insurance broker, whose only previous
writings consisted of a letter to the editor and a three-page article on
MX missiles in the NIP’s monthly magazine, Proceedings of the U.S.
Naval Institute. The arrival of the manuscript confounded the recipi-
ents. As the publishing arm of the U.S. Naval Institute, NIP is an
academic institution responsible for The Bluejackets’ Manual which,
according to them, has served as ‘‘a primer for newly enlisted sailors
and as a basic reference for all naval personnel from seaman to
admiral’’ for almost a century. NIP created an astonishing precedent
by publishing the manuscript, and the obscure insurance broker
became a world-famous best-selling author of popular genre fiction.
Clancy’s manuscript was based on the fruitless attempt of the
Soviet missile frigate Storozhedoy to defect from Latvia to the
Swedish island of Gotland on November 8,1975. The mutiny had
been led by the ship’s political officer Valeri Sablin, who was
captured, court-marshaled, and executed. In Clancy’s tale, Captain
First Rank Marko Ramius successfully defects to the United States,
not in a frigate, but in a submarine, the Red October. The Naval
Institute Press published The Hunt for Red October in October 1984,
its first venture into fiction in its long academic history. It skyrocketed
onto The New York Times best-seller list when President Reagan
pronounced it ‘‘the perfect yarn.’’ In March 1985, author and
president met in the Oval office, where the former told the latter about
his new book on World War II. According to Peter Masley in The
Washington Post, Reagan asked, ‘‘Who wins?’’ to which Clancy
replied, ‘‘The good guys.’’
Born on April 12, 1947 in Baltimore, Thomas L. Clancy, Jr.
grew up with a fondness for military history in general and naval
history in particular. In June 1969, he graduated from Baltimore’s
Loyola College, majoring in English, and married Wanda Thomas in
August. A severe eye weakness kept him from serving in the Vietnam
War, and he worked in insurance for 15 years until the colossal
success of his first novel. The book was a bestseller in both hard cover
and paperback, and was successfully filmed—although not until
1990—with an all-star cast headed by Sean Connery. Meanwhile, he
was free to continue writing, building an impressive oeuvre of both
fiction and non-fiction. In a 1988 Playboy interview, Marc Cooper
claimed that Clancy had become ‘‘a popular authority on what the
U.S. and the Soviets really have in their military arsenals and on how
war may be fought today.’’ Indeed, his novels have been brought into
use as case studies in military colleges.
In April 1989, Clancy was invited to serve as an unpaid consult-
ant to the National Space Council, and has lectured for the CIA, DIA,
and NSA. A 1989 Time magazine review added a moral dimension to
his growing public authority: ‘‘Clancy has performed a national
service of some sorts: he has sought to explain the military and its
moral code to civilians. Such a voice was needed, for Vietnam had
created a barrier of estrangement between America’s warrior class
and the nation it serves. Tom Clancy’s novels have helped bring down
this wall.’’ It is the dawning of the idea that the novel as a textual form
is slowly attempting to replace that which we conventionally labeled
‘‘history’’ that has been an important factor in the growing critical
interest in Clancy’s thrillers, dealing as they do with the politics of our
times. Whereas the ‘‘literary’’ aspect of a text is traditionally located
in its ability to deal with the ontological and existential problems of
man and being, we now find ‘‘literary’’ values in those texts that deal
with pragmatic problems: man and being in the here and now. Read
from this standpoint, Clancy’s thrillers can be seen not as an escape
from reality, but as presenting real, and relevant, issues and ex-
periences, drawing on society’s loss of trust in the great myths
of existence: truth, and the questionable value of official and
governmental assurances.
Although Clancy claims, in The Clancy Companion, that he
writes fiction ‘‘pure and simple . . . projecting ideas generally into the
future, rather than the past,’’ critics have labeled him the father of the
techno-thriller. In his novels Red Storm Rising (a Soviet attack on
NATO; 1986), Cardinal of the Kremlin (spies and Star Wars missile
defense; 1988), Clear and Present Danger (the highest selling book
of the 1980s, dealing with a real war on drugs; 1989), Debt of Honor
(Japanese-American economic competition and the frailty of Ameri-
ca’s financial system; 1994) and Executive Orders, (rebuilding a
destroyed U.S. government; 1996), the machine is hero and technolo-
gy is as dominant as the human characters. In both his fiction and non-
fiction the scenarios predominantly reflect the quality of war games.
‘‘Who the hell cleared it?’’ the former Secretary of the Navy, John
Lehman, remarked after reading The Hunt for Red October. Clancy,
whose work includes his ‘‘Guided Tour’’ series (Marine, Fighter
Wing) and the ‘‘Op-Center’’ series (created by Clancy and Steve
Pieczenik, but written by other authors), has always insisted that he
finds his information in the public domain, basing his Naval technolo-
gy and Naval tactics mostly on the $9.95 war game Harpoon.
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In November 1996 Tom Clancy and Virtus Corporation founded
Red Storm Entertainment to create and market multiple-media enter-
tainment products. It released its first game, Politika, in November
1997, the first online game ever packaged with a mass-market
paperback, introducing ‘‘conversational gaming’’ in a net based
environment. Clancy has called it ‘‘interactive history.’’ The huge
success of his books, multimedia products, and movies that are based
on his novels allowed him to make a successful $200 million bid for
the Minnesota Vikings football team in March 1998.
—Rob van Kranenburg
F
URTHER READING:
Greenberg, Martin H. The Tom Clancy Companion. New York,
Berkley Pub Group, 1992.
Clapton, Eric (1945—)
Eric Clapton, a lifelong student of the blues, has been in more
bands that he himself formed than any other guitarist in rock music.
He first distinguished himself with the group, the Yardbirds, where he
earned the ironic nickname, ‘‘Slowhand,’’ for his nimble leads. When
the Yardbirds went commercial, Clapton left them to pursue pure
blues with John Mayall, a singer, guitarist, and keyboard player who
was regarded as the Father of British Blues for his discovery and
promotion of luminary musicians in the field. Clapton proved to be
Mayall’s greatest discovery. On John Mayall’s Blues Breakers,
Featuring Eric Clapton (1966) Clapton displayed an unprecedented
fusion of technical virtuosity and emotional expressiveness, giving
rise to graffiti scribbled on walls in London saying, ‘‘Clapton
is God.’’
When jazz-trained bassist Jack Bruce joined the Blues Breakers,
Clapton grew intrigued by his improvisational style. He recruited
Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker to form the psychedelic blues-rock
power-trio Cream. They became famous for long, bombastic solos in
concert, and established the ‘‘power trio’’ (guitarist-bassist-drum-
mer) as the definitive lineup of the late 1960s, a form also assumed by
Blue Cheer, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Rory Gallagher’s band,
Taste. Cream disbanded after four excellent studio albums, having set
a new standard for rock musicianship and Clapton, bored with the
improvisational style, became interested in composing songs.
Blind Faith, a band comprised of established musicians from
other famous bands and often called the first ‘‘supergroup,’’ was
formed by Clapton in 1969. He retained Ginger Baker, and recruited
guitarist/pianist Steve Winwood (from the recently disbanded Traf-
fic) and bassist Rick Grech. They produced only one album (Blind
Faith, 1969), for Clapton soon transferred his interest to the laid-back,
good-vibes style of Delaney and Bonnie, who had opened for Blind
Faith on tour. Delaney and Bonnie encouraged him to develop his
singing and composing skills, and joined him in the studio to record
Eric Clapton (1970). Clapton then formed Derek and the Dominos
with slide guitarist Duane Allman in 1970 and released Layla and
Other Assorted Love Songs, one of the finest blues-rock albums ever
made. Unfortunately, the band, beset with intense personal conflicts
and drug problems, was dissolved and Clapton, increasingly reliant
on heroin, became a recluse.
In 1973 Pete Townsend organized the Rainbow Concert with
Steve Winwood and other stars to bring Clapton back to his music.
Clapton kicked the heroin habit, and in 1974 resumed his solo career
with the classic 461 Ocean Boulevard. Although Layla could never be
surpassed on its own terms, 461 was a worthy follow-up, mature and
mellow, and set the tone for the remainder of Clapton’s career. He had
become attracted to minimalism, in search of the simplest way to
convey the greatest amount of emotion. Developments in the 1980s
included work on film soundtracks and a regrettable tilt toward pop
under producer Phil Collins, but the 1990s found him once again
drawn to the blues, while still recording some beautiful compositions
in the soft-rock vein.
The subtleties of the mature Clapton are not as readily appreciat-
ed as the confetti-like maestro guitar work of Cream or Derek and the
Dominos. Once regarded as rock’s most restlessly exploring musi-
cian, too complex to be contained by any one band, by the 1990s
Clapton had become the ‘‘Steady Rollin’ Man,’’ the self-assured
journeyman of soft rock. A younger generation, unaware of his earlier
work, was often puzzled by the awards and adulation heaped upon
this singer of mainstream hits like ‘‘Tulsa Time,’’ but a concert or live
album showed Clapton displaying the legendary flash of old. Except
for a few low points (No Reason to Cry, 1976), and the Phil Collins-
produced albums Behind the Sun (1985) and August (1986), Eric
Clapton aged better than many of his contemporaries, finding a
comfortable niche without pandering to every new trend.
—Douglas Cooke
F
URTHER READING:
DeCurtis, Anthony, ‘‘Eric Clapton: A Life at the Crossroads.’’
Included in the CD boxed set Eric Clapton: Crossroads.
Polydor, 1988.
Headlam, Dave. ‘‘Blues Transformations in the Music of Cream.’’ In
Understanding Rock: Essays in Musical Analysis, edited by John
Covach and Graeme M. Boone. New York, Oxford University
Press, 1997.
Roberty, Marc. The Complete Guide to the Music of Eric Clapton.
London, Omnibus, 1995
Schumacher, Michael. Crossroads: the Life and Music of Eric
Clapton. London, Little, Brown and Company, 1995.
Shapiro, Harry. Eric Clapton: Lost in the Blues. New York, Da Capo
Press, 1992.
Clark, Dick (1929—)
As host of American Bandstand for more than 30 years, Dick
Clark introduced rock ’n’ roll music via television to a whole
generation of teenaged Americans while reassuring their parents that
the music would not lead their children to perdition. With his eternally
youthful countenance, collegiate boy-next-door personality, and trade-
mark ‘‘salute’’ at the close of each telecast, Clark is one of the few
veterans of the early days of television who remains active after
nearly half a century in broadcasting.
Richard Wagstaff Clark was born in 1929 in Mount Vernon,
New York. His father owned radio stations across upstate New York,
and his only sibling, older brother Bradley, was killed in World War
II. Clark grew up enamored of such radio personalities as Arthur
Godfrey and Garry Moore, and instantly understood the effectiveness
and appeal of their informal on-air approach. Clark studied speech at
CLARK ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR CULTURE
526
Dick Clark
Syracuse University, supplementing his studies with work at campus
radio station WAER. After graduating in 1951, he worked for several
radio and television stations in central New York radio and television,
and even briefly adopted the on-air name ‘‘Dick Clay,’’ to his
later embarrassment.
In 1953 Clark moved to Philadelphia to host an afternoon radio
show, playing popular vocalists for local teenagers. Three years later,
he was chosen as the new host of a local-TV dance show, Bandstand,
which featured the then-new sounds of rock ’n’ roll music. The
show’s previous host, Bob Horn, had been arrested on a morals charge.
Clark was an instant hit with his viewers. By the fall of 1957,
Bandstand was picked up nationally by the ABC network. American
Bandstand quickly became a national phenomenon, the first popular
television series to prominently feature teenagers. Clark demanded
that the teens who appeared on the program observe strict disciplinary
and dress-code regulations. Boys were expected to wear jackets and
ties, and girls, modest skirts and not-too-tight sweaters. Many of the
teens who danced on the show, from Italian-American neighborhoods
in south and west Philadelphia, became national celebrities them-
selves. One of the most popular segments of American Bandstand
was one in which members of the studio audience were asked to rate
new songs, a poll whose results were taken seriously by record
executives. New styles of rock music rose or fell on the whims of the
teenagers, who would explain their decisions by such statements as
‘‘I’d give it an 87. . . it’s got a good beat, and you can dance to it.’’
Interestingly, Clark’s audience panned ‘‘She Loves You,’’ the Beatles’
first hit. The Bandstand audiences introduced a national audience to
such dance moves as the Pony, the Stroll and, most famously, the
Twist, by Philadelphia native Chubby Checker.
As Clark was becoming a millionaire, his career was threatened
by the payola scandals of the 1950s, when it was learned that record
companies illegally paid disc jockeys to play their rock and roll
records. Clark admitted that he partially owned several music pub-
lishers and record labels that provided some of the music on American
Bandstand, and he immediately sold his interests in these companies
as the scandal broke, while insisting, however, that songs from these
companies did not get preferential treatment on his show. Clark made
such a convincing case before a House committee studying payola in
1959 that Representative Owen Harris called him ‘‘a fine young
man’’ and exonerated him. Clark thus provided rock music with a
clean-cut image when it needed it the most.
Clark produced and hosted a series of Bandstand-related concert
acts that toured the United States in the 1950s and 1960s. During their
tours in the South, these were among the first venues where blacks
and whites performed on the same stage. Eventually, even the seating
in these arenas became desegregrated. In 1964, Bandstand moved
from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, coinciding with the popularity of
Southern California ‘‘surf’’ music by The Beach Boys and Jan and
Dean. From that point, the show began relying less on playing records
and more on live performers. Many of the top acts of the rock era
made their national television debut on Bandstand, such as Buddy
Holly and the Crickets, Ike and Tina Turner, Smokey Robinson and
the Miracles, Stevie Wonder and the Talking Heads, and the teenaged
Simon and Garfunkel, known then as Tom and Jerry.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Clark expanded his television
presence beyond Bandstand with Dick Clark Productions, which
generated between 150 and 170 hours of programming annually at its
peak. During these years, Clark hosted the long-running $10,000
Pyramid game show from 1973 through the late 1980s; in subsequent
versions, the word association-based Pyramid expanded with infla-
tion, eventually offering $100,000, and featured numerous celebrity
guests. In 1974 ABC lost the broadcast rights to the Grammy Awards,
and asked Clark to create an alternative music awards show. The
American Music Awards quickly became a significant rival to the
Grammys, popular among artists and audiences alike. In the 1980s,
Clark also produced and hosted a long-running NBC series of highly-
rated ‘‘blooper’’ scenes composed of outtake reels from popular TV
series. His co-host was Ed McMahon of the Tonight Show, who had
been friends with Clark since they were next-door neighbors in
Philadelphia during the 1950s. Clark also replaced Guy Lombardo as
America’s New Year’s Eve host, emceeing the televised descent of
the giant ball in New York’s Times Square on ABC beginning in 1972.
The seemingly ageless Clark, dubbed ‘‘America’s oldest living
teenager’’ by TV Guide, ushered his series with aplomb through the
turbulent 1970s. It was on Bandstand where an audience first body-
spelled ‘‘Y.M.C.A.’’ to The Village People’s number-one hit. With
changes in musical tastes and practices, the popularity of Bandstand
began to wane. What had begun as a local two-and-a-half hour daily
show in the mid-1950s had gradually been whittled down to a weekly,
hour-long show by the 1980s. There were several culprits: competing
network music programs, including The Midnight Special, Solid
CLARKEENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR CULTURE
527
Gold, and even Saturday Night Live were competing with Bandstand
to get the hottest acts of the day. The advent of MTV in 1981, with
round-the-clock music videos, further cut into the series’ influence.
As the years passed, new rock groups devoted more time to video
production and promotion, and less to appearing live on shows. Clark
retired from Bandstand in the spring of 1989; with a new host, a
syndicated version of the long-running show called it quits later that
year, only weeks shy of making it into the 1990s.
Ironically enough, however, MTV’s sister station had a hand in
reviving interest in American Bandstand. In 1997, VH-1 ran a weekly
retrospective, hosted by Clark, of highlights from the 1970s and
1980s version of Bandstand. The success of the reruns coincided with
the fortieth anniversary of the show’s national debut, and Clark
returned to Philadelphia to unveil a plaque on the site of the original
American Bandstand television studio. That same year, Clark pub-
lished a comprehensive anniversary volume, and he also announced
the founding of an American Bandstand Diner restaurant chain.
Modeled after the Hard Rock Café and Planet Hollywood chains,
each diner was designed in 1950s style, with photos and music of the
greats Clark helped make famous.
—Andrew Milner
F
URTHER READING:
Clark, Dick and Bronson, Fred. Dick Clark’s American Bandstand.
New York, Harper Collins, 1997.
Jackson, John A. American Bandstand: Dick Clark and the Making of
a Rock and Roll Empire. New York, Oxford University, 1997.
The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll. New York,
Random House, 1992.
Clarke, Arthur C. (1917—)
British writer Arthur Charles Clarke’s long and successful career
has made him perhaps the best-known science fiction writer in the
world and arguably the most popular foreign-born science fiction
writer in the United States. Clarke is best known for 2001: A Space
Odyssey (1968), the film script he wrote with noted director
Stanley Kubrick.
Clarke’s writings are in genre of ‘‘hard’’ science fiction—stories
in which science is the backbone and where technical and scientific
discovery are emphasized. He is considered one of the main forces for
placing ‘‘real’’ science in science fiction; science fiction scholar Eric
Rabkin has described Clarke as perhaps the most important science-
oriented science fiction writer since H. G. Wells. His love and
understanding of science coupled with his popularity made him a
central figure in the development of post-World War II science
fiction. Clarke’s success did much to increase the popularity of
science and create support for NASA and the U.S. space program.
For Clarke, technological advancement and scientific discovery
have been generally positive developments. While he was cognizant
of the dangers that technology can bring, his liberal and optimistic
view of the possible benefits of technology made him one of the small
number of voices introducing mass culture to the possibilities of the
future. His notoriety was further enhanced domestically and globally
when he served as commentator for CBS television during the Apollo
11, 12, and 15 Moon missions.
A second theme found in Clarke’s work which resonates in
popular culture suggests that no matter how technologically advanced
humans become, they will always be infants in comparison to the
ancient, mysterious wisdom of alien races. Humanity is depicted as
the ever-curious child reaching out into the universe trying to learn
and grow, only to discover that the universe may not even be
concerned with our existence. Such a theme is evident in the short
story ‘‘The Sentinel’’ (1951), which describes the discovery of an
alien artifact created by an advanced race, millions of years earlier,
sitting atop a mountain on the moon. This short story provided the
foundation for 2001 (1968). One of Clarke’s most famous books,
Childhood’s End (1950), envisions a world where a portion of earth’s
children are reaching transcendence under the watchful eyes of alien
tutors who resemble satanic creatures. The satanic looking aliens
have come to earth to assist in a process where select children change
into a new species and leave earth to fuse with a cosmic overmind—a
transformation not possible for those humans left behind or for their
satanistic alien tutors.
Clarke’s achieved his greatest influence with 2001, which was
nominated for four Academy Awards, including best picture, and
ranked by the American Film Institute as the 22nd most influential
American movie in the last 100 years. Clarke’s novelization of the
movie script, published under the same title in 1968, had sold more
that 3 million copies by 1998 and was followed by 2010: Odyssey
Two (1982). The sequel was made into a film directed by Peter
Hyams, 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984, starring Roy
Scheider). Clarke has followed up the first two books in the Odyssey
series with 2061: Odyssey Three (1988) and 3001: The Final
Odyssey (1997).
The impact of 2001 is seen throughout American popular
culture. The movie itself took audiences on a cinematic and cerebral
voyage like never before. As Clarke said early in 1965, ‘‘MGM
doesn’t know it yet, but they’ve footed the bill for the first six-million-
dollar religious film.’’ The film gave the public an idea of the wonder,
beauty, and promise open to humanity at the dawn of the new age of
space exploration, while simultaneously showing the darker side of
man’s evolution: tools for progress are also tools for killing. Nowhere
is this more apparent than in HAL, the ship’s onboard computer.
Although Clarke possesses a liberal optimism for the possibilities
found in the future, HAL poignantly demonstrates the potential
dangers of advanced technology. The name HAL, the computer’s
voice, and the vision of HAL’s eye-like optical sensors have since
become synonymous with the danger of over reliance on computers.
This is a theme seen in other films ranging from Wargames (1983) to
the Terminator (1984, 1991) series. The killings initiated by HAL and
HAL’s subsequent death allow the surviving astronaut to pilot the
ship to the end of its voyage. Here the next step of man takes place as
the sole survivor of this odyssey devolves into an infant. The Star
Child is born; Man evolves into an entity of pure thought. The
evolution/devolution of the astronaut completes the metaphor that
humanity does not need tools to achieve its journey’s end, our final
fulfillment, but only ourselves.
The message of 2001 is powerfully reinforced by the music of
Richard Strauss. Strauss’ dramatic ‘‘Also Sprach Zarathustra,’’ com-
posed in 1896, was used several times during the movie but never
with more impact than in the ‘‘Dawn of Man’’ segment. As the movie
progressed, this music (as well as music composed by Johan Strauss)
came to carry the narrative nearly as effectively as the dialogue.
CLEMENTE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR CULTURE
528
Some have even suggested that the film influenced the language
of the astronauts aboard the Apollo 13 mission. When HAL reports
the ‘‘failure’’ of the AE 35 Unit, he says ‘‘Sorry to interrupt the
festivities, but we have a problem.’’ On the Apollo 13 command
module, named Odyssey, the crew had just concluded a TV broadcast
which utilized the famous ‘‘Zarathustra’’ theme when an oxygen tank
exploded. The first words sent to Earth were ‘‘Houston, we’ve had
a problem.’’
—Craig T. Cobane
F
URTHER READING:
Boyd, David. ‘‘Mode and Meaning in 2001.’’ Journal of Popular
Film. Vol. VI, No. 3, 1978, 202-15.
Clarke, Arthur C. Astounding Days: A Science Fictional Autobiogra-
phy. New York, Bantam Books, 1989.
McAleer, Neil. Odyssey: The Authorised Biography of Arthur C.
Clarke. London, Victor Gollancz, 1992.
Clemente, Roberto (1934-1972)
Longtime Pittsburgh Pirates rightfielder Roberto Clemente is
much more than one of the premier major leaguers of his generation.
While his statistics and on-field accomplishments earned him election
Roberto Clemente
to the Baseball Hall of Fame, equally awe-inspiring are his sense of
professionalism and pride in his athleticism, his self-respecting view
of his ethnicity, and his humanism. Clemente, who first came to the
Pirates in 1955, died at age 38, on New Year’s Eve 1972, while
attempting to airlift relief supplies from his native Puerto Rico to
Nicaraguan earthquake victims. He insisted on making the effort
despite bad weather and admonitions that the ancient DC-7 in which
he was flying was perilously overloaded. This act of self-sacrifice,
which came scant months after Clemente smacked major-league hit
number 3,000, attests to his caliber as a human being and transformed
him into an instant legend.
Roberto Walker Clemente was born in Barrio San Anton in
Carolina, Puerto Rico. While excelling in track and field as a
youngster, his real passion was baseball—and he was just 20 years old
when he came to the major leagues to stay. On the ballfield, the
muscular yet sleek and compact Clemente dazzled as he bashed extra-
base hits, made nifty running catches, and fired perfect strikes from
deep in the outfield to throw out runners. He was particularly noted
for his rifle arm. As Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers announcer Vin
Scully once observed, ‘‘Clemente could field a ball in New York and
throw out a guy in Pennsylvania.’’
Clemente’s on-field record is exemplary. In his 18 seasons with
the Pirates, he posted a .317 batting average. He won four National
League batting crowns, and earned 12 consecutive Gold Gloves for
his fielding. On five occasions, he led National League outfielders in
assists. He played in 12 all-star games. He was his league’s Most
Valuable Player (MVP) in 1966, and was the World Series MVP in
1971. When he doubled against Jon Matlack of the New York Mets on
September 30, 1972, in what was to be his final major league game, he
became just the eleventh ballplayer to belt 3,000 hits.
Yet despite these statistics and the consistency he exhibited
throughout his career, true fame came to Clemente late in life. In the
1960 World Series, the first of two fall classics in which he appeared,
he hit safely in all seven games. He was overshadowed, however, by
his imposing opponents, the Mickey Mantle-led New York Yankees,
and by teammate Bill Mazeroski’s dramatic series-winning home run
in game 7. Clemente really did not earn national acclaim until 1971,
when he awed the baseball world while starring in the World Series,
hitting .414, and leading his team to a come-from-behind champion-
ship over the favored Baltimore Orioles. According to sportswriter
Roger Angell, it was in this series that Clemente’s play was ‘‘some-
thing close to the level of absolute perfection.’’
Clemente was fiercely proud of his physical skills. Upon com-
pleting his first season with the Pirates, his athletic ability was likened
to that of Willie Mays, one of his star contemporaries. The ballplay-
er’s response: ‘‘Nonetheless, I play like Roberto Clemente.’’ During
the filming of the 1968 Neil Simon comedy The Odd Couple, a
sequence, shot on location at Shea Stadium, called for a Pittsburgh
Pirate to hit into a triple play. In the film, Bill Mazeroski is the hitter.
Supposedly, Clemente was set to be at bat during the gag, but pulled
out because of the indignity.
In the decade-and-a-half before his 1971 World Series heroics,
Clemente yearned for the kind of acknowledgment won by a Mays or
a Mantle. Certainly, he was deserving of such acclaim. Had he been
playing in New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago, rather than in a city
far removed from the national spotlight, he might have been a high
profile player earlier in his career. Compounding the problem was
Clemente’s ethnic background. Furthermore, Clemente was keenly
aware of his roots, and his ethnicity; he even insisted that his three