“Blackboard Jungle” Removed as U.S. Entry in Venice Film Festival
The American film Blackboard Jungle was removed from consideration at the Venice Film Festival on this day because of objections by the U.S. Ambassador to Italy, Clare Boothe Luce. Luce said she would not attend the film festival if Blackboard Jungle film was shown.
A noted playwright, Clare Booth Luce was married to the powerful publisher of Time and Life magazines, Henry Luce. (In those years, Time and Life were extremely popular and politically powerful magazines.)
Blackboard Jungle was famous and controversial in part because of its portrayal of juvenile delinquency, but also because the opening credits featured the recording of Bill Haley’s classic record, Rock Around the Clock. Moralists were convinced that the film and the music would inspire juvenile delinquency.
In the U.S., local communities tried to ban the film because they felt the soundtrack and the film’s portrayal of juvenile delinquents would incite delinquency. On March 28, 1955, the city of Memphis banned Blackboard Jungle. And on May 17, 1955, students at Princeton University staged a “riot” by blasting Rock Around the Clock simultaneously from many dormitory windows.
Watch the trailer for Blackboard Jungle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA0_NRjx9KQ
Read: Eric Nuzum, Parental Advisory: Music Censorship in America (2001)
See Bill Haley and the Comets perform Rock Around the Clock in 1956: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5fsqYctXgM
Learn more at the National Coalition Against Censorship here.