The day when Rock ‘n’ Roll nearly died

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We don’t think this picture was actually taken back in the mid-1950s (in fact we’re damned sure it wasn’t), but if so, it could have been a risky affair. For this day, exactly 60 years ago was a dark day for Rock ‘n’ Roll. Especially when you were in Santa Cruz on that June the third, 1956. The local city authorities, clearly from an earlier generation than the teenagers of the time were, announced a total ban on rock music at public gatherings, calling it ‘Detrimental to both the health and morals of our youth and community.’

The reason was a dance party that had taken place the night before when Chuck Higgins and his Orchestra made the crowd go wild. Or in the words of Lieutenant Overton, who was there, the 200-strong teenage pack were ‘Engaged in suggestive, stimulating and tantalizing motions induced by the provocative rhythms of an all-negro band.’ And Santa Cruz wasn’t on its own. Asbury Park, New Jersey, and San Antonio, Texas, soon followed only to withdraw their bans again not much later. But you know even if they had kept to their prohibitions it was doomed to fail as Rock ‘n’ Roll never dies.

(Words Jeroen Booij, picture courtesy Bostjan Tacol)

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