Hitchcock - The Birds

Tippi Hedren plays Melanie Daniels in the film "The Birds", by Alfred Hitchcock, released in 1963. Hitchcock had in mind George Braque's painting named "The Birds". Hitchcock used to film like a painter would paint.
Moreover, Hitchcock's masterpiece "Psycho" was released in 1960 and the shower scene with actress Janet Leigh will remain in the memories.

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan's (Robert Zimmerman) first album of folk songs, "Bob Dylan", was released in. He introduced the Beatles to marijuana. His most famous albums include "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" (1963) and "The Times they are a'changing (1964). Bob Dylan expressed political and social critics in his songs (Masters of war, Only a pawn in their game). He was a major musical influence on the Beatles, especially on Lennon. Gradually, the Beatles showed their political views in "The White Album" ("Revolution").

Twiggy

Twiggy (Leslie Hornby), 1m65, 42 kg, the model who became a star. Her heart and soul belong to the 20's and 30's. In the afterwards she became an actress.

James Bond

1962, Oct 5th : first James Bond film with Sean Connery after the books of Ian Flemming and with Ursula Andress as James Bond girl released in the UK. Then the part was taken by Roger Moore, George Lazenby (On her Majesty's service), then Timothy Dalton and at last Pierce Brosnan.

Kennedy and Khrutchev

The Cold War : Khrutchev supported the wars of national liberation (such as Cuba, Vietnam...) as these countries would eventually become communist. Kennedy wanted to stop the spread of the Communist influence, as, according to the Domino theory, Communists were to extend their power over the world by encouraging the national liberation and then take control of these nations.
The Third World War menace : during the Cuban crisis, USSR had settled nuclear weapons in Communist Cuba (Fidel Castro), so that they could have the USA within missile range. It could have started a war if the USSR had not accepted to remove these nuclear heads from Cuba, on Kennedy's demand. Secretary of Defence McNamara finally came up with a Mutual Assured Destruction theory that said that if USSR and the USA were to keep their nuclear weapons, it would probably lead to a nuclear war that would destroy the planet. It was decided that both of the superpowers would progressively get rid of their weapons. The disarmament plan lasted long after JFK.

Ways of life

1963 : 4.5 millions TVs in France - first appearance of De Gaulle on TV.

Typical American household consumer habits.

In 1966 in France the 23-year-old women had the highest natality rate and in all women, there was near 3 children (2.79) for one woman. By comparison, in 1993, women have hardly 2 (1.65) children and those with the highest natality rate are 28.
In Germany, the highest number of births ever happened in 1963-1964.
About fashion : the number of teenagers from the Baby Boom was reaching his peak and they demanded new values for themselves, as they didn't recognized themselves in the adults' model. They had more money and cared for their appearance. Fashion developped itself to satisfy their demand ; the "stylists" arrived, nylon and synthetic materials were a revolution, Mary Quant created the mini-skirt... Douglas Millings and then Pierre Cardin created the collarless jackets for the Beatles. The youth let their hair grow... In France, 10% of the household's income was for clothes.

1969 : Neil Armstrong on the moon.

Painting by Deneika, 1961, USSR. - The race for space

After the Hitlerian defeat, the victors grabbed the German scientists to help in their scientific programs such as their research in military defence against either the communists or the capitalists, or in the race between USSR and the USA for space conquest.... USSR had the first artificial satellite in orbit around the Earth (1957 : Sputnik), the first living being in space (the dog Laïka), and the first man in space. 1959 USSR : Luna1 escaped the earth attraction.
1961, April 12th : USSR put the first man (Youri Gagarine) in space.
1962 : USA : John Glenn in space.
1966 USA : Surveyor1 landed on the moon. 1969, July 21st : USA : Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin embarked in Apollo 11 and landed on the moon ; "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" said Armstrong to the medias.

Radio Caroline

The BBC (British Broadcast Corporation) was virtually the only radio in Britain in the 60's and its programs were aimed more at adults than at youngsters.
Radio Caroline was created on March 29th, 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly on the ferry Frederika and was animated by DJ Roger Gale (photo).
In the sixties there was also Radio Luxembourg that changed its programmation to attract teenagers : non-stop music and ads aimed to the youth. It became very popular.

The Rolling Stones

As the Rolling Stones were gaining more and more celebrity as the bad boys of the English scene, some journalists described them as the rivals of the Beatles, which was wrong, as both bands were getting on well, appreciating each other's music. Thus they managed to release their albums not on the same time. John and Paul met the Rolling Stones and gave them "I wanna be your man" (which Ringo will sing on With the Beatles). Some members of the Stones took part on some Beatles' songs such as Hey Jude, or on the White Album.

Marylin Monroe

Marylin Monroe (Norma Jean Mortenson/Baker) was first discovered as a model, whose photographs would make soldiers dream. She took the name Marylin in 1946 as she signed a contract with the Twentienth Century Fox. She was known to have had an affair with President Kennedy. In 1962 she was found dead at home from a drug overdose.

Brigitte Bardot and Sophia Loren

Brigitte Bardot and Sophia Loren were among the favorite female stars of the Beatles. (Juliette Gréco also)

The Hippies

First were the Beatnik (50's), whose motto was "I'm hip". But serious things began with the hippies (-> "hip") who showed their support to the Black revolution, the development of the feminist movement etc...by organizing huge manifestations.
1969 : the Woodstock festival gathered around 500 000 people in the state of New York for a giant party in the open air, with free music (Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan...), free drugs and free love...