1960s Boomer Culture
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How well do you know these moments in time when Bob Dylan went electric, LSD went mainstream and "Laugh-In" made sense of it all? Take our 1960s Boomer culture quiz and find out.
Posted 18 Feb 2010
In what city did the 1968 Democratic National Convention take place?
- Boston
- Chicago
- Los Angeles
- New York
The 1968 Democratic National Convention was held in Chicago amidst a tense national mood. Both Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy had been assassinated just months earlier, and the Vietnam War was grinding on with no end in sight. Over 100 antiwar groups came to protest, and Mayor Richard Daley welcomed them with an iron-fisted police force, quickly turning the scene outside of the convention hall into a full-scale riot. The conflict came to be known as the "Battle of Michigan Avenue," and lasted for the entire convention. Ironically, the worst of it took place while the politicians inside were debating the Democratic party's "Peace Plank."
What drug did Time magazine put on the cover of its April 7, 1967 issue?
- Aspirin
- Heroin
- Marijuana
- The Pill
The 1967 appearance of the oral contraceptive pill (or simply "The Pill") on Time magazine's cover was inevitable. In the few short years since the FDA had approved it, it had changed contraception entirely by giving women control over their own fertility. The decision was now hers and hers alone, and the long-term effect on women's lives was significant. Women could now put off motherhood for as long as they wanted, allowing them to pursue education and career goals instead.
What was Timothy Leary's catchphrase?
- Don't trust anyone over 30
- Four more years
- Steal this book
- Turn on, tune in, drop out
Timothy Leary's endorsement of LSD was embraced by drug-using Boomers, who followed his instruction to "turn on, tune in, drop out" to the letter. Leary claimed that he came up with the catchphrase on the advice of media critic Marshall McLuhan, who had suggested that he think of a "snappy" way to promote the drug to his followers. Leary believed that he was offering a path to enlightenment and liberation, but some inside the hippie movement felt he was doing more harm than good. Legendary LSD cook and Grateful Dead soundman Owsley Stanley described him as "drunk with celebrity-hood and his own ego... his very public exhortations to the kids to 'tune in, turn on and drop out,' is the inspiration for all the current draconian US drug laws against psychedelics."
Which musical group did not perform at Woodstock?
- Creedence Clearwater Revival
- Iron Butterfly
- Sha Na Na
- The Incredible String Band
32 bands played at the Woodstock Music & Art Fair in August 1969, but Iron Butterfly was not one of them. Among those that did perform were such legendary artists as the Who, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, as well as such less well-known ones as the Keef Hartley Band and the Grease Band. So while the extremely stoned, mud-splattered hippie attendees were not treated to a version of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" with a 45-minute drum solo, they did get to enjoy demonstrations of burping and muscle-flexing from Sha Na Na's inimitable Bowzer.
Who was the Public Safety Commissioner in Birmigham, Alabama in 1963?
- Bull Connor
- George Lincoln Rockwell
- George Wallace
- Huey Long
Bull Connor became a symbol of segregationist bigotry in May of 1963. Alabama civil rights activists had begun recruiting children by the hundreds for nonviolent protest marches, and on May 3, he gave police the order to deal with it by unleashing attack dogs and turning high-pressure fire hoses on the young marchers. The television footage of the vicious clampdown helped to sway public opinion in the protestors' favor, with no less a spectator than President John F. Kennedy saying that the events "have so increased the cries for equality that no city or state or legislative body can prudently choose to ignore them."
What movie title was used as a pseudonym by an informant during the Watergate scandal?
- Cool Hand Luke
- Deep Throat
- Goldfinger
- Zorba The Greek
During the heyday of the Watergate scandal, FBI agent William Mark Felt gave Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward exclusive information about the cover-up. To protect his identity, he went by the pseudonym "Deep Throat," a reference to the pornographic film of the same name. For over 30 years, Woodward protected the identity of his informant, and speculation ran wild as to who the mysterious informant actually was. The list of possible contenders included such names as Henry Kissinger, George H.W. Bush and Richard Nixon's own vice president, Gerald Ford.
Who wrote the groundbreaking book "The Feminine Mystique"?
- Betty Friedan
- Gloria Steinem
- Molly Yard
- Susan Faludi
"The Feminine Mystique" was written by Betty Friedan and published in 1963. The book's premise is that women find their identity not in their own lives but through the lives of their families, causing them to lose their own identities in the process. This may not seem like much of a revelation today, but at the time this was nothing short of revolutionary, as were the book's assertions that females have a sex drive and that highly educated women have more satisfying sex lives than those who marry early. The book is said to have "ignited the contemporary women's movement" and "permanently transformed the social fabric of the United States."
In the movie "Easy Rider," what kind of drugs are Wyatt and Billy smuggling from Mexico?
- Cocaine
- Crystal meth
- Quaaludes
- Speed
In "Easy Rider," Wyatt (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper) are bikers smuggling cocaine from Mexico into California. Though the movie is a little thin on plot, its 94 minutes provide a guided tour through every cultural touchstone of 1960s hippie culture. The bikers stay on a commune. They engage in free love. They make Jack Nicholson smoke pot. They take some bad LSD. And they catch a lot of grief from hillbillies. But while the film was intended to be nothing more than an authentic slice of the counterculture, it struck a chord with filmgoers, earning a $60 million return on its $340,000 budget. The film still turns up in pop culture to this day, with references to it appearing in everything from the Stephen King novel "Heart in Atlantis" to the animated film "Beavis and Butthead Do America."
Why was heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali stripped of his title in 1967?
- He refused to fight in the Vietnam War
- He used the "rope-a-dope" maneuver
- He verbally attacked Howard Cosell
- He was arrested for drug possession
In 1967, Muhammad Ali received his draft notice. A recent convert to Islam, he declared himself a conscientious objector and publicly refused to serve, stating that "war is against the teachings of the Holy Qur'an... we are not supposed to take part in no wars unless declared by Allah or The Messenger." Ali's stand against the war cost him --- he was stripped of his title and banned from professional boxing, and he also received a five-year prison sentence for draft evasion. The case eventually went all the way to the Supreme Court, who reversed his conviction in 1971.
What song by The Who refers to such figures of 1960s Baby Boomer culture as Bob Dylan, the Beatles and Timothy Leary?
- My Generation
- The Seeker
- We're Not Gonna Take It
- Won't Get Fooled Again
The Who referred to the three notables of 1960s Boomer culture in "The Seeker," in the lyric "I asked Bobby Dylan, I asked the Beatles, I asked Timothy Leary, but he couldn't help me either." Although the song is considered by many to be one of the group's best, Who guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend has never cared much for it, claiming that he only really liked it when it was recorded "at three in the morning drunk out of my brain."
Your score:
- Groovy
All those years of listening to Cream records have paid off.
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Growing Up Boomer
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Boomer$!: The Story of History's Wealthiest and Most Influential Generation - Hip
Not bad, but you need to brush up on your Ken Kesey.
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Boomer$!: The Story of History's Wealthiest and Most Influential Generation - Square
You need to do a little more transcendental meditation.
RELATED LINKS
Slideshow
Growing Up Boomer
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Boomer$!: The Story of History's Wealthiest and Most Influential Generation
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