0:00:02 > 0:00:04In the middle of the 20th century,
0:00:04 > 0:00:08a city in the New World arrived on the global stage.
0:00:15 > 0:00:17It quickly became the most influential
0:00:17 > 0:00:20and exciting place on the planet...
0:00:21 > 0:00:24..a place with more energy and originality
0:00:24 > 0:00:26than everywhere else put together.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31Its name, of course, was New York.
0:00:34 > 0:00:38New York is the Babylon of the 20th century,
0:00:38 > 0:00:41a towering testament to human resilience,
0:00:41 > 0:00:44ingenuity and, above all, hope.
0:00:44 > 0:00:48This city did more than any other to create our culture,
0:00:48 > 0:00:51the culture we live in today,
0:00:51 > 0:00:57and I think it all got started in one remarkable year, 1951.
0:00:59 > 0:01:03This was the year when the city's irrepressible creative spirit
0:01:03 > 0:01:06exploded into life,
0:01:06 > 0:01:10when the world's greatest jazz musicians pioneered modern music...
0:01:10 > 0:01:17When you think about the incredible wealth of genius...
0:01:17 > 0:01:19..when Jack Kerouac gave the Beat Generation
0:01:19 > 0:01:24a voice and Marlon Brando redefined modern cinema...
0:01:24 > 0:01:27Hey, Stella!
0:01:27 > 0:01:30..when an English maverick changed the course of advertising
0:01:30 > 0:01:33with one inspired campaign,
0:01:33 > 0:01:38and when television began to take over the world.
0:01:38 > 0:01:42Oh, boy! Look at that! Wow!
0:01:43 > 0:01:46Think the world changed in the 1960s?
0:01:46 > 0:01:47Think again.
0:01:47 > 0:01:52It all happened here - in New York, in 1951.
0:02:07 > 0:02:12In the aftermath of the Second World War, much of Europe was in ruins.
0:02:15 > 0:02:18Their great cities were battered and beaten.
0:02:24 > 0:02:26The hopes of the world now shifted
0:02:26 > 0:02:30westward across the Atlantic to the United States,
0:02:30 > 0:02:34and in particular, to a city on its eastern coast.
0:02:37 > 0:02:41'This is New York, a fascinating city, an incredible city.'
0:02:43 > 0:02:47For those arriving across the Atlantic, the famous skyline
0:02:47 > 0:02:52of New York shimmered on the horizon like the promise of a better future.
0:03:02 > 0:03:07By 1951, New York was the largest and richest city in the world.
0:03:11 > 0:03:14But it was also a youthful city,
0:03:14 > 0:03:18infused with the ambition and energy of an unruly teenager.
0:03:18 > 0:03:23This, after all, was the New World, and none of the old rules applied.
0:03:39 > 0:03:42If any one thing confirmed New York's place
0:03:42 > 0:03:46at the top of the global pecking order in 1951,
0:03:46 > 0:03:51it was a huge building taking shape on the banks of the East River -
0:03:51 > 0:03:54the United Nations Headquarters.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00The United Nations itself was a utopian dream,
0:04:00 > 0:04:03a dream that if every nation could come together,
0:04:03 > 0:04:05they could put an end to the wars
0:04:05 > 0:04:09and bloodshed that had devastated the world for half a century.
0:04:10 > 0:04:13The United Nations could have gone anywhere.
0:04:13 > 0:04:16In fact, many cities battled with each other ferociously
0:04:16 > 0:04:18to become its permanent home.
0:04:18 > 0:04:23Paris, Geneva, San Francisco, Chicago were all in the running.
0:04:23 > 0:04:25There was even talk of building an entirely new city,
0:04:25 > 0:04:28a world capital, in order to host it.
0:04:28 > 0:04:32But in the end, only one place seemed truly commensurate
0:04:32 > 0:04:38with its grand ambitions, and that place, of course, was New York.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41'These are the most important buildings in the world,
0:04:41 > 0:04:46'for they are the centre of man's hope for peace and a better life.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49'This is the place where the nations of the world will work together
0:04:49 > 0:04:51'to make that hope a reality.'
0:04:53 > 0:04:56A team of star international architects,
0:04:56 > 0:04:59including Oscar Niemeyer and Le Corbusier,
0:04:59 > 0:05:01collaborated on the vast building project.
0:05:04 > 0:05:09Here in the Security Council Chamber, the 15 member states meet
0:05:09 > 0:05:11to discuss threats to world peace.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17It looks just as it did when the very first resolution was tabled.
0:05:19 > 0:05:24You can feel the spirit of that founding optimism in the '50s decor,
0:05:24 > 0:05:28with its primary colours and clean, modern lines.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33The mural by the Norwegian painter Per Krohg
0:05:33 > 0:05:37shows a phoenix rising from the ashes of war and oppression -
0:05:37 > 0:05:41a vision of a better, more hopeful future.
0:05:44 > 0:05:48The arrival of the United Nations was a real turning point
0:05:48 > 0:05:51in the history of New York, because it made this city the place
0:05:51 > 0:05:56where the world, the whole world, every single country, came together.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59And it's important to remember that though the United Nations
0:05:59 > 0:06:03is in New York, it is not actually in the United States.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06The whole complex is international territory,
0:06:06 > 0:06:10and for me, that symbolised the moment when New York ceased to be
0:06:10 > 0:06:15simply an American city and became instead a global city.
0:06:18 > 0:06:22By 1951, New York had arrived.
0:06:25 > 0:06:29The city - indeed the whole of America - was booming.
0:06:32 > 0:06:37Confidence and affluence rippled through society,
0:06:37 > 0:06:42and a distinctly American culture began to emerge -
0:06:42 > 0:06:44consumer culture.
0:06:44 > 0:06:49Why don't you switch to the snow-fresh coolness...?
0:06:49 > 0:06:53# You'll wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth... #
0:06:53 > 0:06:56There is another handy way to get around and have fun doing it.
0:06:56 > 0:06:58# Be sharp and listen, Mister
0:06:58 > 0:07:01# How are you fixed for blades...? #
0:07:01 > 0:07:05Consumerism brought with it an exhilarating new art form,
0:07:05 > 0:07:09an art form that would come to define our age
0:07:09 > 0:07:12and our aspirations like few others -
0:07:12 > 0:07:14advertising.
0:07:14 > 0:07:15Got the message?
0:07:16 > 0:07:19And if advertising had a spiritual home,
0:07:19 > 0:07:23it was in New York, on a street called Madison Avenue.
0:07:25 > 0:07:30Madison Avenue did for advertising what Savile Row did for the suit,
0:07:30 > 0:07:36and in the 1950s, this street was crawling with sharp-suited ad men,
0:07:36 > 0:07:40but one of them stood out from the crowd.
0:07:40 > 0:07:44He was an eccentric Brit called David Ogilvy,
0:07:44 > 0:07:46who even had this documentary made
0:07:46 > 0:07:50about his unusual journey to Madison Avenue.
0:07:50 > 0:07:55So I started my career in advertising at the age of 39, which is very old.
0:07:55 > 0:08:00I'd bummed around the world as a kind of rolling stone,
0:08:00 > 0:08:01had a lot of bizarre adventures,
0:08:01 > 0:08:05and then finally, at the age of 39, I came into advertising. Why?
0:08:07 > 0:08:09Do you know why you do the job that you do?
0:08:11 > 0:08:16The film demonstrated Ogilvy's talent for self-promotion.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19Where everyone else on Madison Avenue wore dark suits,
0:08:19 > 0:08:24David Ogilvy sported tweeds and sometimes a kilt.
0:08:24 > 0:08:28Why do I wear a kilt? Well, why shouldn't I?
0:08:29 > 0:08:33Ogilvy was the original Englishman in New York,
0:08:33 > 0:08:35and in the competitive world of Madison Avenue,
0:08:35 > 0:08:39he used that difference to his advantage.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42After all, if you can't advertise yourself,
0:08:42 > 0:08:45what hope have you of being able to advertise anything else?
0:08:53 > 0:08:59In 1951, Ogilvy's ad agency was only three years old
0:08:59 > 0:09:02and still struggling to make a splash,
0:09:02 > 0:09:05but this was the year that one small contract
0:09:05 > 0:09:09transformed his company - and advertising - for good.
0:09:11 > 0:09:16Some time in 1951, an unknown shirt-maker from Maine
0:09:16 > 0:09:18turned up at Ogilvy's office.
0:09:18 > 0:09:23He had a company called Hathaway, and Hathaway wasn't doing very well,
0:09:23 > 0:09:28so he asked if Ogilvy could help turn his company's fortunes around.
0:09:28 > 0:09:32But his budget was pitifully small.
0:09:32 > 0:09:34I said, "How much money have you got to spend?"
0:09:34 > 0:09:36He said, "30,000."
0:09:36 > 0:09:40I almost burst into tears because 15% commission on 30,000
0:09:40 > 0:09:42wouldn't keep anybody alive very long.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45Ogilvy was on the verge of saying no
0:09:45 > 0:09:49when the shirt-maker said something that changed his mind.
0:09:49 > 0:09:54Ogilvy would have complete freedom to advertise Hathaway shirts
0:09:54 > 0:09:59exactly as he wanted, and Ogilvy couldn't resist.
0:10:02 > 0:10:04Ogilvy decided his principal task
0:10:04 > 0:10:07was to make the brand more glamorous,
0:10:07 > 0:10:11so he hired a handsome silver-haired man to star in the ad.
0:10:11 > 0:10:13The shoot started conventionally enough,
0:10:13 > 0:10:16but Ogilvy thought something was missing,
0:10:16 > 0:10:19and what he suggested surprised everyone.
0:10:21 > 0:10:26Ogilvy whipped out one of these - an eye patch.
0:10:26 > 0:10:29Apparently, he'd bought it at a drugstore on the way to the shoot,
0:10:29 > 0:10:33and then he said to the Hathaway man, "Look, just for a bit of fun,
0:10:33 > 0:10:35"why don't you try this on, just for a few shots?"
0:10:35 > 0:10:39The Hathaway man agreed...
0:10:39 > 0:10:43and the rest, as they say, is history.
0:10:44 > 0:10:48Ogilvy's ad first appeared in the New Yorker magazine
0:10:48 > 0:10:51on 22nd September 1951,
0:10:51 > 0:10:54and it was an instant sensation.
0:10:54 > 0:10:58Ogilvy's eye-patch was a masterstroke.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01And the reason it worked was this -
0:11:01 > 0:11:05as soon as you see the eye-patch, you're intrigued.
0:11:05 > 0:11:07You want to know who the Hathaway man is,
0:11:07 > 0:11:09and what happened to his eye.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12The mystery creates a desire.
0:11:12 > 0:11:14You want to be part of the Hathaway secret.
0:11:14 > 0:11:18And the only way to do that - short of cutting your own eye out -
0:11:18 > 0:11:21is to buy a Hathaway shirt.
0:11:21 > 0:11:25Ogilvy's idea was mad, but it worked.
0:11:25 > 0:11:29Within a week, every Hathaway shirt in existence had been sold,
0:11:29 > 0:11:33and the ad ran for nearly two decades.
0:11:33 > 0:11:35The campaign has been very successful,
0:11:35 > 0:11:39a rather unimportant way to get famous, isn't it?
0:11:39 > 0:11:41But it made me famous, and more to the point,
0:11:41 > 0:11:42it made our clients famous.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46So what made Ogilvy so special?
0:11:46 > 0:11:50Copywriter Jane Maas was the inspiration
0:11:50 > 0:11:52for Peggy Olsen from Mad Men,
0:11:52 > 0:11:55and Ogilvy was her Don Draper.
0:11:56 > 0:12:00What was Madison Avenue like in the 1950s?
0:12:00 > 0:12:05Oh, Madison Avenue was a passionately wonderful place to work.
0:12:05 > 0:12:06It was so exciting.
0:12:06 > 0:12:10We were creating a whole new kind of advertising
0:12:10 > 0:12:14and we loved doing it, we loved each other, we loved our clients,
0:12:14 > 0:12:17they loved us, and it was magical.
0:12:17 > 0:12:21And then, there was in the middle of it, David Ogilvy,
0:12:21 > 0:12:24who was his own school of advertising.
0:12:24 > 0:12:26Unique and unto himself.
0:12:26 > 0:12:28What kind of a man was David Ogilvy?
0:12:28 > 0:12:29Oh! What kind of a man was David?!
0:12:29 > 0:12:32He was enchanting, he was magical,
0:12:32 > 0:12:37he was extremely sexy, I just worshipped him.
0:12:37 > 0:12:39What was the secret of his appeal?
0:12:39 > 0:12:43Well, he was... If he hadn't been an advertising man,
0:12:43 > 0:12:44I think he would have been an actor.
0:12:44 > 0:12:49I mean, he was dashing, and he knew it, of course.
0:12:49 > 0:12:54What he would wear to the office is a very British tweedy suit,
0:12:54 > 0:12:57but he'd wear a black cape with a scarlet lining.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00He would appear like Heathcliff coming out of the moors.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03So he was very, very much a consummate showman.
0:13:06 > 0:13:10Ogvily went on to become the Michelangelo of Madison Avenue.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13Those remarkable little bubbles...
0:13:13 > 0:13:16And he helped pioneer the sleek,
0:13:16 > 0:13:20slick art of advertising that continues to seduce us all.
0:13:26 > 0:13:31But the boom in consumer culture was a double-edged sword.
0:13:31 > 0:13:35By encouraging millions of Americans to buy the same products,
0:13:35 > 0:13:39it also encouraged them to become the same people.
0:13:39 > 0:13:40Some car, ah, folks?
0:13:40 > 0:13:42Isn't it beautiful?
0:13:42 > 0:13:46By 1951, the pressure to conform was immense,
0:13:46 > 0:13:49and only strengthened by the tensions of the Cold War.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54In a society increasingly permeated by paranoia and suspicion,
0:13:54 > 0:13:57everyone wanted to fit in.
0:13:58 > 0:14:00To be different was to be un-American.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05If I had my way about it, they'd all be sent back to Russia.
0:14:06 > 0:14:11And yet New York - the consumer capital of the world -
0:14:11 > 0:14:17was also home to the biggest rebellion against '50s conformity.
0:14:17 > 0:14:22This city, after all, is almost two cities - uptown and downtown.
0:14:36 > 0:14:40And while uptown was the mecca of consumer conformity,
0:14:40 > 0:14:43downtown couldn't have been more different.
0:14:47 > 0:14:52Now this is a New York City street map dating back to 1951.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55You can see the whole of Manhattan with Central Park at the top,
0:14:55 > 0:14:58but the one thing you notice, almost immediately, with this map
0:14:58 > 0:15:01is the famous New York grid system.
0:15:01 > 0:15:04Now, that dates back to 1811, when the planners of the city tried to
0:15:04 > 0:15:08make New York rational, ordered and convenient.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12But if you look closely, you'll notice there's one part of the city
0:15:12 > 0:15:15that doesn't conform, where the streets are, frankly,
0:15:15 > 0:15:19all over the place, and that area is known as The Village.
0:15:26 > 0:15:31The unruly street plan of The Village is revealing,
0:15:31 > 0:15:33because this cheap, raggedy neighbourhood
0:15:33 > 0:15:37was waging its own war against 1950s conformity.
0:15:40 > 0:15:45The dungarees...the long beards and the short hair,
0:15:45 > 0:15:51for them, the answer - opportunity or just understanding
0:15:51 > 0:15:52may be found in Greenwich Village.
0:15:52 > 0:15:58By 1951, The Village had become a magnet for all who didn't believe
0:15:58 > 0:16:01in the increasingly conventional values of America.
0:16:02 > 0:16:07And this was where New York's other great cultural force emerged -
0:16:07 > 0:16:08the counterculture.
0:16:10 > 0:16:14To learn more about it, I've come to meet David Amram, musician,
0:16:14 > 0:16:17composer and all-round hepcat.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23So, David, what was The Village like in 1951?
0:16:23 > 0:16:27It was kind of an oasis from what Henry Miller
0:16:27 > 0:16:31described in his classic book as the air-conditioned nightmare.
0:16:31 > 0:16:35This was different from the house with the white picket fence,
0:16:35 > 0:16:38where everything was sort of comfortable,
0:16:38 > 0:16:41but everything was the same.
0:16:41 > 0:16:4630 years on the job, a gold watch, pick out your cemetery plot,
0:16:46 > 0:16:49thank you very much, next!
0:16:49 > 0:16:57Here was a place full of people who also felt the same way, and it was
0:16:57 > 0:17:01almost as if, what they eventually called the Beat Generation
0:17:01 > 0:17:04or the bohemia of that time,
0:17:04 > 0:17:07was really like a giant 12-step programme
0:17:07 > 0:17:12for all of us to console one another in pursuing our hopeless dreams.
0:17:12 > 0:17:15We were spectacularly unfashionable,
0:17:15 > 0:17:18which is always a good thing to be as much as possible,
0:17:18 > 0:17:22cos then you don't have to worry about creating the greatest crime
0:17:22 > 0:17:26in American culture, which is falling out of fashion.
0:17:26 > 0:17:30That's worse than being a murderer or arsonist!
0:17:30 > 0:17:34They used to have the loft parties that the painters would give.
0:17:34 > 0:17:38They had the most space at the lowest cost.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41They would put their paintings about ten feet up, so no-one would
0:17:41 > 0:17:45burn a hole in it with a cigarette butt or pour a drink on it.
0:17:45 > 0:17:49As a party, we were one another's entertainment.
0:17:49 > 0:17:50It was terrific.
0:17:51 > 0:17:57In 1951, David was 21 years old and pioneering improvisation on
0:17:57 > 0:18:03the French horn, a suitably offbeat occupation for The Village.
0:18:03 > 0:18:07We were just a whole bunch of different individualistic people,
0:18:07 > 0:18:14all of whom were united by the desire to have some place in the society
0:18:14 > 0:18:18to do what we loved to do with the hopes that we would give pleasure
0:18:18 > 0:18:20to other people, and, more importantly,
0:18:20 > 0:18:23to foster creativity in them.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28Greenwich Village became the spiritual home
0:18:28 > 0:18:31of the so-called Beat Generation,
0:18:31 > 0:18:34and in 1951, one of its residents
0:18:34 > 0:18:37would go on to write their manifesto.
0:18:39 > 0:18:43His name was Jack Kerouac.
0:18:46 > 0:18:50At the time, Kerouac was 29 years old.
0:18:50 > 0:18:54He had served in the Marine Navy during World War II, but he was
0:18:54 > 0:18:58now trying to establish himself as a serious writer in New York.
0:19:02 > 0:19:06For years, Kerouac had been planning a book based on his road trips
0:19:06 > 0:19:08across the United States.
0:19:08 > 0:19:12He hoped it would be a great American novel - one that captured
0:19:12 > 0:19:15the restless spirit of his generation.
0:19:15 > 0:19:19But his every attempt to write it had ended in failure.
0:19:24 > 0:19:30However, in the spring of 1951, Kerouac concluded that the only way
0:19:30 > 0:19:37to write his book was quickly, in one virtually uninterrupted sitting.
0:19:37 > 0:19:40And he hit upon a novel way to ensure that happened.
0:19:41 > 0:19:43Teletype paper!
0:19:43 > 0:19:47Now, this was really designed to be used by electric teleprinters
0:19:47 > 0:19:51to send numerical data, to send morse code, to send news wires,
0:19:51 > 0:19:54but Kerouac thought it would be absolutely perfect
0:19:54 > 0:19:57for his new brand of uninterrupted writing.
0:19:57 > 0:19:59After all, with a roll this long,
0:19:59 > 0:20:01he'd hardly ever have to change the paper.
0:20:04 > 0:20:11Kerouac loaded up his special paper and on 2nd April 1951, he began.
0:20:12 > 0:20:16Fuelled by coffee, Benzedrine and countless cigarettes,
0:20:16 > 0:20:24Kerouac typed and typed and typed 100 words a minute, day after day.
0:20:27 > 0:20:30Kerouac said that he wrote in a semi-trance.
0:20:30 > 0:20:33It was the most intense writing session of his life.
0:20:35 > 0:20:41And then, finally, it was finished.
0:20:41 > 0:20:46On 22nd April, three long, hard weeks after starting,
0:20:46 > 0:20:50Kerouac stared down at a single paragraph
0:20:50 > 0:20:54that was over 120 feet long.
0:20:54 > 0:20:56Now that paragraph would end up being
0:20:56 > 0:20:58one of the great American novels,
0:20:58 > 0:21:00and Kerouac would call it On The Road.
0:21:03 > 0:21:07On The Road may have taken only three weeks to write up,
0:21:07 > 0:21:12but it took another six years to get published.
0:21:12 > 0:21:14It became a huge bestseller,
0:21:14 > 0:21:20and to his surprise, Kerouac become something of a celebrity.
0:21:20 > 0:21:22So here he is - Jack Kerouac.
0:21:22 > 0:21:25This is Kerouac on the Steve Allen Show,
0:21:25 > 0:21:28reflecting on his work, and then giving a rare reading
0:21:28 > 0:21:31of his distinctive musical prose.
0:21:31 > 0:21:36"A lot of people have asked me why did I write that book or any book.
0:21:36 > 0:21:42"All the stories I wrote were true. Because I believed in what I saw.
0:21:42 > 0:21:46"I was travelling west one time at the junction of the state line
0:21:46 > 0:21:49"of Colorado, its arid western one,
0:21:49 > 0:21:51"and the state line of poor Utah,
0:21:51 > 0:21:55"I saw in the clouds huge and massed above the fiery golden desert
0:21:55 > 0:21:59"of eveningfall the great image of God with forefinger
0:21:59 > 0:22:02"pointed straight at me.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06"Through halos and rolls and gold folds that were like the existence of the gleaming spear
0:22:06 > 0:22:12"in his right hand, would sayeth, 'Come on, boy, go thou across the ground! Go moan for man.
0:22:12 > 0:22:14"'Go moan. Go groan.'"
0:22:18 > 0:22:21On The Road is a spiritual epic -
0:22:21 > 0:22:23a quest for what really matters in life.
0:22:24 > 0:22:29It is a breathless, stoned, lyrical love letter to an America
0:22:29 > 0:22:31Kerouac was afraid was dying -
0:22:31 > 0:22:35an America of open spaces and freedom and spontaneity.
0:22:38 > 0:22:42The book is a fictionalised - in fact, mythologised -
0:22:42 > 0:22:44account of his travels across the continent,
0:22:44 > 0:22:48and a celebration of the hoboes, the drunks,
0:22:48 > 0:22:52the prostitute and labourers who make up the company of the road,
0:22:52 > 0:22:54the people who were being written out
0:22:54 > 0:22:56of an increasingly affluent America.
0:23:00 > 0:23:04"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad
0:23:04 > 0:23:08"to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything
0:23:08 > 0:23:11"at the same time, the ones who never yawn
0:23:11 > 0:23:12"or say a commonplace thing,
0:23:12 > 0:23:18"but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow Roman candles exploding
0:23:18 > 0:23:20"like spiders across the stars."
0:23:21 > 0:23:23What a great piece of writing,
0:23:23 > 0:23:27and I think it gets to the heart of what On The Road is all about.
0:23:27 > 0:23:30It's an attack on 1950s conformity,
0:23:30 > 0:23:33it's an attack on people who live their lives according to
0:23:33 > 0:23:37the rules, people who get married at the right time, have children
0:23:37 > 0:23:40at the right time, move to the right suburbs, have the right careers.
0:23:40 > 0:23:43It's an attack on all those values that Kerouac believed
0:23:43 > 0:23:46was ripping the heart and the soul out of America,
0:23:46 > 0:23:50and it's a celebration of the individuality
0:23:50 > 0:23:54and the eccentricity that made that country great in the first place.
0:23:59 > 0:24:03Kerouac's novel went on to become a bible for the Beat Generation,
0:24:03 > 0:24:09a handbook for all those who wished to rebel against American authority.
0:24:09 > 0:24:10And, in my opinion,
0:24:10 > 0:24:13it remains a masterpiece of modern literature.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26Joyce Johnson was Kerouac's girlfriend
0:24:26 > 0:24:29when On The Road was finally published in 1957.
0:24:31 > 0:24:33Do you think it was an optimistic book?
0:24:33 > 0:24:34I think it was,
0:24:34 > 0:24:39cos Jack did begin the book in the belief that these
0:24:39 > 0:24:43people who were not approved members of society
0:24:43 > 0:24:48had the capacity to lead the world to a much better future.
0:24:48 > 0:24:50And there was also a sense that,
0:24:50 > 0:24:55um, your rebellious lifestyle actually meant something,
0:24:55 > 0:25:01that everything you did, all your choices, had a certain intensity.
0:25:01 > 0:25:05- That you could remake the world, almost?- That you could remake the world, yes. Yes.
0:25:05 > 0:25:09I look upon the whole Beat Generation thing and the furore over it
0:25:09 > 0:25:16as an idea that sort of got away from the man who had originated it.
0:25:16 > 0:25:20It became something quite different to Jack being beatnik,
0:25:20 > 0:25:24being poor, pure and inward.
0:25:24 > 0:25:28It didn't mean party, party, party all the time, you know,
0:25:28 > 0:25:30get the bongo drums.
0:25:30 > 0:25:35And very soon, it was very much promoted as a kind of
0:25:35 > 0:25:40hedonistic, white, middle-class lifestyle choice,
0:25:40 > 0:25:47whereas the original beats, as Jack saw them,
0:25:47 > 0:25:49had been anything but
0:25:49 > 0:25:53middle-class people, and in fact, he believed that the whole movement
0:25:53 > 0:25:56would be black beboppers.
0:25:57 > 0:26:00In 1951, bebop was certainly the soundtrack
0:26:00 > 0:26:02to the counterculture.
0:26:07 > 0:26:10The glorious result of black jazz musicians'
0:26:10 > 0:26:12own New York City rebellion.
0:26:15 > 0:26:18Tired of playing swing music for white audiences to dance to,
0:26:18 > 0:26:22they had in bebop created a radical new form of jazz.
0:26:26 > 0:26:30One that prized virtuosity and innovation above all else,
0:26:30 > 0:26:35and in the smoky, dingy basement clubs of The Village
0:26:35 > 0:26:40throughout 1951 were some of the greatest figures in jazz history -
0:26:40 > 0:26:43Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane,
0:26:43 > 0:26:46Miles Davis - all of them were doing the rounds.
0:26:46 > 0:26:51But the high priest of bebop was actually a monk -
0:26:51 > 0:26:53Thelonious Monk.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59Monk had come to New York with his family
0:26:59 > 0:27:04when he was five and started playing the piano soon after.
0:27:04 > 0:27:07By the age of 13, he had won the weekly amateur contest
0:27:07 > 0:27:11at the Apollo Theater so many times that he was barred from entering.
0:27:13 > 0:27:18At 19, Monk joined the house band at a Harlem jazz club,
0:27:18 > 0:27:22and it was there that he developed an eccentric rhythmic playing style
0:27:22 > 0:27:24that set him apart from his contempories.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32Hitting the keys with a curious flat-handed technique,
0:27:32 > 0:27:36Monk's phrasing was as original as his dress sense.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45Monk was exploring uncharted musical territory
0:27:45 > 0:27:48throughout the '40s and '50s, producing inventive,
0:27:48 > 0:27:50intricate eccentric music
0:27:50 > 0:27:53that amazed and perplexed everyone who heard it.
0:27:53 > 0:27:57But on a muggy day on 23rd July 1951,
0:27:57 > 0:28:01he recorded what many consider to be his masterpiece.
0:28:12 > 0:28:16Straight No Chaser broke new harmonic ground.
0:28:16 > 0:28:20It was an audacious distillation of bebop, each repetition of the
0:28:20 > 0:28:24motif landing differently within the bar, every shift creating depth.
0:28:45 > 0:28:48Monk's composition influenced everyone around him
0:28:48 > 0:28:53and it helped kick start the next wave of jazz.
0:28:56 > 0:28:59Straight No Chaser is, as Monk loved to call it,
0:28:59 > 0:29:02emphatically modern music.
0:29:02 > 0:29:06It didn't sound like anything anyone had heard before and even today,
0:29:06 > 0:29:10over 60 years later, it sounds just as original.
0:29:12 > 0:29:18Monk's son, Thelonious Junior, grew up surrounded by musical innovation
0:29:18 > 0:29:21and, perhaps inevitably, became a musician himself.
0:29:27 > 0:29:32When you think about the incredible,
0:29:32 > 0:29:36absolutely incredible wealth of genius
0:29:36 > 0:29:41that was in one geographical location on the planet Earth,
0:29:41 > 0:29:44I don't think there has ever been another time like that in history.
0:29:44 > 0:29:47Bebop was very brief. Very, very brief.
0:29:47 > 0:29:49Bebop was only about seven years.
0:29:49 > 0:29:53It was like bubbling, it was bubbling and it was getting bigger,
0:29:53 > 0:29:56it was getting hotter and it just exploded in the '50s
0:29:56 > 0:29:58and you have Thelonious Monk and you have modern jazz.
0:29:58 > 0:29:59That's why I tell people
0:29:59 > 0:30:02that Thelonious was the high priest of bebop,
0:30:02 > 0:30:07yes, he was, but Thelonious was the father of modern jazz, because it was
0:30:07 > 0:30:13what Thelonious did melodically and harmonically that just cracked open
0:30:13 > 0:30:17people like John Coltrane and Miles Davis, cracked them open like eggs.
0:30:25 > 0:30:27Everything was just new.
0:30:27 > 0:30:29Everyone was trying to find new vocabularies
0:30:29 > 0:30:31and new ways of looking at things,
0:30:31 > 0:30:36new ways of turning the kaleidoscope and getting a new picture.
0:30:36 > 0:30:38You grew up in the middle of this! How exciting!
0:30:38 > 0:30:42I grew up in the middle of all this, and a lot of these people I met,
0:30:42 > 0:30:46but I didn't know who they were, they were just Daddy's friends.
0:30:46 > 0:30:50Look, Miles Davis and these cats were coming to the house every day.
0:30:50 > 0:30:54I didn't even know his last name was Davis. I just knew him as Miles.
0:30:54 > 0:30:56It's Miles. That's all I knew.
0:30:59 > 0:31:02I was looking through a book, right, and I see this photograph,
0:31:02 > 0:31:06and it's my father standing there, looking like Thelonious as usual,
0:31:06 > 0:31:11and there's this white guy who looks a little bit younger, but
0:31:11 > 0:31:16he's looking at Thelonious like he's looking up at Mount Olympus, right?
0:31:16 > 0:31:20And I look at the caption, and the young guy was Allen Ginsberg.
0:31:20 > 0:31:22All of these people knew each other
0:31:22 > 0:31:25and were finding ways to hang out with each other.
0:31:25 > 0:31:27That's the amazing thing about New York in the period, isn't it?
0:31:27 > 0:31:30The abstract expressionists, the Beat Generation, the bebop,
0:31:30 > 0:31:32the jazz, everything, coming together.
0:31:32 > 0:31:38The music supplied an atmosphere for intellectuals of every stripe,
0:31:38 > 0:31:42and I think, collectively, they changed the world.
0:31:46 > 0:31:50In a country that was still racially segregated, the jazz clubs
0:31:50 > 0:31:56of New York were havens of liberty, equality and self-expression.
0:32:02 > 0:32:05But the jazz scene was fuelled by more than just freedom.
0:32:06 > 0:32:09Heroin took a staggering toll.
0:32:09 > 0:32:13In 1951, many of Monk's friends were hooked.
0:32:13 > 0:32:15Billie Holliday was barely upright,
0:32:15 > 0:32:18Miles Davis recorded virtually nothing at all
0:32:18 > 0:32:22and Charlie Parker was only a few years away from an early grave.
0:32:24 > 0:32:27On Wednesday 9th August, only a few weeks after recording
0:32:27 > 0:32:31Straight No Chaser, Monk too found himself
0:32:31 > 0:32:32on the wrong side of the law.
0:32:38 > 0:32:41Monk was in a car talking to a friend
0:32:41 > 0:32:46when two narcotics policemen rapped on the window.
0:32:46 > 0:32:49Now, Monk didn't take heroin - not at the time, anyway -
0:32:49 > 0:32:52but his friend did, and it wasn't long before the officers found
0:32:52 > 0:32:54a bag of the stuff in the car.
0:32:54 > 0:32:57Within minutes, Monk and his friend were handcuffed
0:32:57 > 0:33:01and in a squad car on the way to Central Booking.
0:33:04 > 0:33:08Monk was charged with possession and spent two months in jail.
0:33:12 > 0:33:16His remarkable year had proved that though New York was a city
0:33:16 > 0:33:21of opportunity, it was also a city of sin.
0:33:25 > 0:33:29It had the power to make and break people's lives.
0:33:30 > 0:33:35And if the career of any one man demonstrates this,
0:33:35 > 0:33:40it was that of a volatile painter called Jackson Pollock.
0:33:46 > 0:33:49My home is in Springs, East Hampton, Long Island.
0:33:50 > 0:33:53I was born in Cody, Wyoming, 39 years ago.
0:33:56 > 0:33:58Pollock had exiled himself from New York
0:33:58 > 0:34:02in a last-ditch attempt to stop drinking.
0:34:02 > 0:34:07He moved here, a couple of hours outside the city,
0:34:07 > 0:34:08in Long Island.
0:34:11 > 0:34:17Jackson Pollock was one part Picasso, one part Marlboro Man,
0:34:17 > 0:34:19because while he was a modernist painter
0:34:19 > 0:34:22in the European mould, he was also a denim-wearing,
0:34:22 > 0:34:27cigarette-smoking, bourbon-drinking man's man.
0:34:27 > 0:34:30He did, after all, come from cowboy country, and for many,
0:34:30 > 0:34:35he was proof that the Wild West could also produce artistic genius.
0:34:37 > 0:34:41In 1951, Jackson Pollock was at the peak of his fame.
0:34:41 > 0:34:46He had made his name in New York's vibrant art world in the late 1940s.
0:34:46 > 0:34:50And many were now convinced he was the world's greatest artist.
0:34:52 > 0:34:55I don't work from drawings or colour sketches.
0:34:55 > 0:34:57My painting is direct.
0:34:57 > 0:34:59Pollock created his paintings
0:34:59 > 0:35:04with a typically American no-nonsense technique.
0:35:04 > 0:35:06I usually paint on the floor.
0:35:06 > 0:35:11Sometimes I use a brush, but often prefer using a stick.
0:35:11 > 0:35:14Sometimes I pour the paint straight out of the can.
0:35:14 > 0:35:19I also use sand, broken glass, pebbles, string,
0:35:19 > 0:35:20nails or other foreign matter.
0:35:22 > 0:35:25A method of painting is a natural growth out of a need.
0:35:27 > 0:35:31I want to express my feelings, rather than illustrate them.
0:35:35 > 0:35:38So this is where the magic happened,
0:35:38 > 0:35:40and it was a kind of magic by all accounts.
0:35:40 > 0:35:42People who saw Pollock at work said that
0:35:42 > 0:35:46when he was making a painting, he entered a kind of trance.
0:35:46 > 0:35:49He put the canvas down on the floor
0:35:49 > 0:35:52and then he would encircle it like a kind of shaman's dance.
0:35:52 > 0:35:56Spattering, flinging, spilling, dribbling and dripping -
0:35:56 > 0:35:59completely oblivious to those who were watching him,
0:35:59 > 0:36:01completely oblivious to the outside world,
0:36:01 > 0:36:04completely oblivious to time itself.
0:36:04 > 0:36:09And what I find really exciting about this place is the floor.
0:36:09 > 0:36:10No-one really knew this floor was here.
0:36:10 > 0:36:14In '53 it was covered up with MDF, and then 30 years later,
0:36:14 > 0:36:17when this barn was being renovated, they stripped it away
0:36:17 > 0:36:22and they revealed this, a great fossilised relic of his work.
0:36:22 > 0:36:26And this is like a kind of crime scene,
0:36:26 > 0:36:29and the paint is the incriminating evidence.
0:36:29 > 0:36:33And, you know, this room, this is a room that produced
0:36:33 > 0:36:37some of the great paintings of the 20th century.
0:36:38 > 0:36:40By the early 1950s,
0:36:40 > 0:36:44a sober Jackson Pollock was making the best work of his career.
0:36:45 > 0:36:50His vast and original paintings were taking New York by storm.
0:36:55 > 0:36:58But not everyone was impressed.
0:37:01 > 0:37:05"Chaos. Absolute lack of harmony.
0:37:05 > 0:37:08"Complete lack of structural organisation.
0:37:08 > 0:37:14"Total absence of technique, however rudimentary. Once again, chaos."
0:37:14 > 0:37:17That's what one critic wrote about Pollock's work.
0:37:17 > 0:37:22That's what some people still think, but they couldn't be more wrong,
0:37:22 > 0:37:27because I think this painting is a breathtaking accomplishment.
0:37:27 > 0:37:30After all, it's almost five metres wide.
0:37:30 > 0:37:32It's bigger than a lot of New York apartments.
0:37:32 > 0:37:36And yet, and yet the whole thing holds together.
0:37:36 > 0:37:40It's balanced, it's harmonious, it's structured.
0:37:40 > 0:37:42And do you know what I love so much about this painting?
0:37:42 > 0:37:45It is so exciting to look at.
0:37:45 > 0:37:50You can go to almost any single point on the canvas and find something truly enthralling.
0:37:50 > 0:37:51Take that point, for instance.
0:37:51 > 0:37:56We've got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven different colours,
0:37:56 > 0:37:59one on top of the other, creating this vibrating space.
0:37:59 > 0:38:01You can't tell what's background and what's foreground.
0:38:01 > 0:38:03And all these different kinds of gestures -
0:38:03 > 0:38:07delicate little spatters, shooting stars, big zigzags,
0:38:07 > 0:38:08all one on top of the other.
0:38:08 > 0:38:13For me, this painting captures the American dream, this whole canvass
0:38:13 > 0:38:16is the great American wilderness, and the gestures on top of it.
0:38:16 > 0:38:20These are acts of individuality, of defiance, of freedom.
0:38:20 > 0:38:24This is a great big widescreen movie of a picture.
0:38:27 > 0:38:29And it's the kind of picture
0:38:29 > 0:38:32that could never have been produced in Europe.
0:38:33 > 0:38:36One: Number 31, 1950
0:38:36 > 0:38:40is the product of an artist at the peak of his powers,
0:38:40 > 0:38:44and at the time, it must have seemed that Pollock was only going to
0:38:44 > 0:38:50get better, but by 1951, his vices had returned to haunt him,
0:38:50 > 0:38:54and his golden period came to an abrupt end.
0:38:56 > 0:39:00It all started one afternoon in November.
0:39:00 > 0:39:03Pollock had been sober for two years,
0:39:03 > 0:39:07but on that day he did something that would eventually prove fatal.
0:39:07 > 0:39:10He poured himself a glass of whiskey.
0:39:10 > 0:39:14Now, Pollock and his wife had actually invited friends here for dinner that evening,
0:39:14 > 0:39:18but by the time they sat down to eat, he was completely drunk.
0:39:18 > 0:39:21He lost his temper, upended the whole dining room table,
0:39:21 > 0:39:25and sent 12 turkey dinners flying through the air.
0:39:25 > 0:39:27There was a stunned silence,
0:39:27 > 0:39:30and then his wife said, very calmly,
0:39:30 > 0:39:32"Coffee will be served in the living room."
0:39:34 > 0:39:40Pollock's sabotage of his own polite dinner party had a kind of symbolic value.
0:39:40 > 0:39:45For like others in New York, Pollock was fighting to be free,
0:39:45 > 0:39:50to find his own dissonant voice within '50s conformity.
0:39:50 > 0:39:56But 1951 was the beginning of the end for Jackson Pollock.
0:39:56 > 0:40:01His drinking increased. He never produced great work again.
0:40:01 > 0:40:04And within five years, he was dead,
0:40:04 > 0:40:06killed in a car crash while driving drunk.
0:40:20 > 0:40:23Kerouac, Monk, Pollock -
0:40:23 > 0:40:27New York had patented a new kind of American artist -
0:40:27 > 0:40:31brilliantly talented, but impulsive and flawed,
0:40:31 > 0:40:35and in 1951, it inspired a new generation who would bring
0:40:35 > 0:40:39that idea to the world. In early September,
0:40:39 > 0:40:44a young man arrived in New York on a Greyhound Bus from California.
0:40:44 > 0:40:48He had been on the road for five days, had hardly any money
0:40:48 > 0:40:50and knew no-one in the city.
0:40:53 > 0:40:56The young man was so confused and homesick
0:40:56 > 0:40:58that he spent the majority of his first few weeks
0:40:58 > 0:41:00in New York hiding in movie theatres,
0:41:00 > 0:41:03watching three or four films a day.
0:41:03 > 0:41:05But the young man had actually come to the city
0:41:05 > 0:41:07to make his name as an actor,
0:41:07 > 0:41:09and he certainly succeeded,
0:41:09 > 0:41:12because his name was James Dean.
0:41:14 > 0:41:18Dean soon auditioned and was admitted to an organisation
0:41:18 > 0:41:21whose headquarters was
0:41:21 > 0:41:24a converted church in the Hell's Kitchen area of New York.
0:41:24 > 0:41:26It was called the Actors' Studio.
0:41:27 > 0:41:29The Actors' Studio may not look very much,
0:41:29 > 0:41:34but in 1951, it was already a cultural powerhouse.
0:41:34 > 0:41:37And over the years, it produced some - hell, virtually all -
0:41:37 > 0:41:39of America's great modern actors -
0:41:39 > 0:41:43Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Marilyn Monroe,
0:41:43 > 0:41:46Marlon Brando - all of them trained here.
0:41:48 > 0:41:52The secret of the Actors' Studio was a new approach to acting itself.
0:41:52 > 0:41:56Its formidable director Lee Strasberg, who took over
0:41:56 > 0:42:01the organisation in 1951, rejected conventional acting training.
0:42:01 > 0:42:05No more enunciation classes or singing and dancing lessons.
0:42:05 > 0:42:08He proposed something very different,
0:42:08 > 0:42:10and he called it method acting.
0:42:13 > 0:42:18Method acting was all about drawing on what was within.
0:42:18 > 0:42:20Strasberg wanted his actors not to play their roles
0:42:20 > 0:42:24but to take them over - to bring all the pain, suffering,
0:42:24 > 0:42:26longing, humiliation of their own lives
0:42:26 > 0:42:28and bring it to their characters.
0:42:28 > 0:42:32"Here there is no acting", Strasberg famously declared.
0:42:32 > 0:42:35What he was after was reality.
0:42:35 > 0:42:39A kind of aggressive instinct, an instinct of wanting to kill something
0:42:39 > 0:42:43because as we've found here, there is a much greater degree of expression
0:42:43 > 0:42:46in private than most people think there is.
0:42:47 > 0:42:49Part psychoanalyst,
0:42:49 > 0:42:52part tyrant, part shaman, Strasberg worked on what
0:42:52 > 0:42:57he called an actor's "affective memories", urging them to dig deep
0:42:57 > 0:43:01into themselves to find the suffering and frustration at their core.
0:43:04 > 0:43:08The path to this emotional truth could be painful.
0:43:10 > 0:43:14James Dean, newly arrived at the Actors' Studio,
0:43:14 > 0:43:17was working on one of his own affective memories
0:43:17 > 0:43:21when something unforgettable happened.
0:43:25 > 0:43:32Dean picked up a knife and started to cut himself with it.
0:43:32 > 0:43:36Now, one actress in the room was so horrified by what was happening
0:43:36 > 0:43:38that she leapt forward to stop him.
0:43:38 > 0:43:41Strasberg was furious. "You idiot!" he cried,
0:43:41 > 0:43:46because for Strasberg, that was Dean's chance, that was his gateway
0:43:46 > 0:43:50to the emotions he needed to unlock if he was to become a great actor.
0:43:52 > 0:43:54Even once an actor had found success,
0:43:54 > 0:43:58they would return to Strasberg to work on the method.
0:43:58 > 0:44:04Oscar-winning actress Lee Grant joined the Actors' Studio in 1951
0:44:04 > 0:44:07and saw first-hand the devotion Strasberg inspired.
0:44:09 > 0:44:14Now, in 1951, Lee Strasberg took over the Actors' Studio.
0:44:14 > 0:44:16What kind of man was he?
0:44:16 > 0:44:18Lee was a magnet.
0:44:18 > 0:44:22Lee was God. Lee had the word.
0:44:22 > 0:44:25If you see pictures of actors in the Actors' Studio,
0:44:25 > 0:44:29in that ring around him, they're all like... That's the...
0:44:29 > 0:44:31Glued to him?
0:44:31 > 0:44:35Yeah, they're all leaning forward, and they're all... you know, it's like...
0:44:35 > 0:44:38and they had their recorders going,
0:44:38 > 0:44:44so that no word that he said would be missed.
0:44:44 > 0:44:50And he was judgmental about who really knew the method, you know,
0:44:50 > 0:44:53and it wasn't Stanislovski or Gabrovski,
0:44:53 > 0:44:58or any other -ski, it was Strasberg.
0:44:58 > 0:45:00Did all the actors respect him, then, hugely,
0:45:00 > 0:45:03- or were they scared of him? - Both.
0:45:03 > 0:45:06You can't have that kind of respect without fear.
0:45:06 > 0:45:11His criticisms were very interesting, very to the point,
0:45:11 > 0:45:17and very valuable to the person.
0:45:17 > 0:45:21I remember somebody telling me, I wasn't there,
0:45:21 > 0:45:28that he had Geraldine Page, who was an exquisite actress,
0:45:28 > 0:45:34who moved too much, he had her tie on to a post at the studio,
0:45:34 > 0:45:39and refused to let her use her body or her arms,
0:45:39 > 0:45:44so that she was forced to find her truth
0:45:44 > 0:45:48and speak her lines, without the mannerisms.
0:45:49 > 0:45:52What are you trying to accomplish?
0:45:52 > 0:45:57Well, I got a little confused about what I was trying to accomplish.
0:45:57 > 0:46:01I was trying to figure out what things she would do that I wouldn't,
0:46:01 > 0:46:05what things would she wear that I would not necessarily want to wear.
0:46:05 > 0:46:06Smocks.
0:46:08 > 0:46:11Well, except that it's a little too early yet to become concerned
0:46:11 > 0:46:13with those details,
0:46:13 > 0:46:16even though sometimes those details do stir the actor's imagination
0:46:16 > 0:46:20and help 'em to work. It seemed to me, in this particular scene,
0:46:20 > 0:46:23that you did, or rather, in this particular improvisation that you did,
0:46:23 > 0:46:28I got you doing very well, a little bit more authority,
0:46:28 > 0:46:31not quite tied to your own mannerisms, that's true,
0:46:31 > 0:46:37but, er, the element of character was left out.
0:46:39 > 0:46:41I mean, it was an actor's home.
0:46:41 > 0:46:45It was where you went to work out your problems.
0:46:45 > 0:46:51If you were given a movie that you had a problem with, you brought it
0:46:51 > 0:46:56to the studio and worked on the parts of it that you couldn't get through.
0:46:56 > 0:46:59So it was like going to work, but it was also like going home,
0:46:59 > 0:47:00it was also like going to therapy, I guess?
0:47:00 > 0:47:04Yes, very much, it was like going to therapy.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13Strasberg's methods were controversial.
0:47:13 > 0:47:16Some claimed his actors were more interested in playing themselves
0:47:16 > 0:47:17than their characters.
0:47:17 > 0:47:22But it certainly produced some momentous performances.
0:47:22 > 0:47:25And 1951 was the year that method acting
0:47:25 > 0:47:28got its biggest platform to date.
0:47:28 > 0:47:31In September, the film of Tennessee Williams'
0:47:31 > 0:47:34A Streetcar Named Desire opened.
0:47:34 > 0:47:39At its heart was a violent but passionate antihero called Stanley,
0:47:39 > 0:47:44who was played by a young, unknown actor called Marlon Brando.
0:47:44 > 0:47:48Don't you ever talk that way to me! Disgusting, vulgar, greasy!
0:47:48 > 0:47:52Who do you think you are - couple of queens or something?
0:47:53 > 0:47:56In the film's most famous scene, Stanley has just beaten
0:47:56 > 0:47:58his pregnant wife Stella,
0:47:58 > 0:48:01who's taken refuge upstairs with a neighbour.
0:48:01 > 0:48:04Hey, Stella!
0:48:04 > 0:48:07And now he tries to win her back.
0:48:07 > 0:48:10- Why are my clothes down here? - You shut up!
0:48:10 > 0:48:11You're going to get the law on you!
0:48:11 > 0:48:14- Hey, Stella!- She ain't gonna come!
0:48:14 > 0:48:18THEY BOTH SHOUT AT ONCE
0:48:18 > 0:48:20Why are my clothes down here?!
0:48:20 > 0:48:21DOOR SLAMS
0:48:25 > 0:48:28Hey, Stella!
0:48:30 > 0:48:31Wow!
0:48:31 > 0:48:33What a performance!
0:48:33 > 0:48:35You know, it's electrifying still today,
0:48:35 > 0:48:41but back in 1951, few people had ever seen anything like this.
0:48:41 > 0:48:45They were used to elegant, poised, even restrained performances.
0:48:45 > 0:48:51But Brando, Brando is an uncontrollable force of nature here,
0:48:51 > 0:48:55with his T-shirt torn, his back muscles rippling,
0:48:55 > 0:49:01his whole body soaked in water - it's almost like he's come out of a primordial swamp, not acting school.
0:49:01 > 0:49:04And that moment, that famous moment when he shouts...
0:49:04 > 0:49:07Hey, Stella!
0:49:07 > 0:49:10..it is explosive.
0:49:10 > 0:49:13And this is raw, pure method acting.
0:49:13 > 0:49:16But in one way it's not really acting at all, because Brando
0:49:16 > 0:49:21wasn't actually performing - what he was doing was drawing
0:49:21 > 0:49:25on a huge reservoir of emotional energy that lay deep within him.
0:49:27 > 0:49:32Brando's powerhouse performance kick-started his own remarkable career.
0:49:32 > 0:49:36And he, together with James Dean and others from the Actors' Studio,
0:49:36 > 0:49:39pioneered a new kind of acting.
0:49:39 > 0:49:41But it was more than that.
0:49:41 > 0:49:47In 1951, a new kind of American hero was born,
0:49:47 > 0:49:51one who captured the restlessness in American society itself.
0:49:51 > 0:49:55Brando and Dean, like Pollock, Kerouac and Monk,
0:49:55 > 0:49:58all brought with them a jolt of dangerous
0:49:58 > 0:50:01and untameable electricity to American culture.
0:50:01 > 0:50:04You could, I suppose, call all of them rebels without a cause.
0:50:04 > 0:50:08But the thing is, they did have a cause.
0:50:08 > 0:50:10All of them were rebelling against the conservative
0:50:10 > 0:50:13and complacent society that America was becoming,
0:50:13 > 0:50:17and all of them were looking for something different - for reality,
0:50:17 > 0:50:19for authenticity.
0:50:22 > 0:50:28Cinema brought the principles of New York' counterculture to the masses,
0:50:28 > 0:50:33but in 1951, the silver screen was just beginning to be overtaken
0:50:33 > 0:50:37by a dynamic new medium that was being pioneered
0:50:37 > 0:50:40in the very heart of Manhattan.
0:50:40 > 0:50:41Television.
0:50:41 > 0:50:43Tonight on the screen in your home,
0:50:43 > 0:50:46one of the most exciting parts of New York,
0:50:46 > 0:50:48the most exciting city in the world,
0:50:48 > 0:50:51comes to the new medium of television tonight.
0:50:53 > 0:50:58By 1951, there were 16 million television sets in America,
0:50:58 > 0:51:01with 100,000 more sold every week.
0:51:03 > 0:51:06It was fast becoming a national obsession,
0:51:06 > 0:51:08and that year would turn out to be a crucial one
0:51:08 > 0:51:10in the story of television,
0:51:10 > 0:51:14thanks to two new kinds of programme that continue to this day.
0:51:16 > 0:51:18The first was live television,
0:51:18 > 0:51:21and the most memorable of these early broadcasts
0:51:21 > 0:51:28came on 3rd October 1951 with a famous New York sporting event.
0:51:28 > 0:51:31Out of the subway, into the polo grounds
0:51:31 > 0:51:33swarm the fans by the thousands, for
0:51:33 > 0:51:37the sudden death game in the play-off between the Dodgers...
0:51:39 > 0:51:42It was a crucial baseball game between two of
0:51:42 > 0:51:44the city's fiercest rivals -
0:51:44 > 0:51:48the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers.
0:51:48 > 0:51:52And it would turn out to be - in the words of John Steinbeck, no less -
0:51:52 > 0:51:54the greatest ball game ever played.
0:51:57 > 0:52:02The winner of that game would take the coveted Champion's Pennant,
0:52:02 > 0:52:04and the Dodgers were the favourites to win.
0:52:06 > 0:52:09Around the country, millions of people tuned in.
0:52:13 > 0:52:16The Dodgers dominated from the get-go.
0:52:16 > 0:52:22After eight innings, they had taken a seemingly insurmountable 4-1 lead.
0:52:23 > 0:52:28Only one innings was left for the Giants to turn the game around.
0:52:29 > 0:52:30It was surely impossible.
0:52:33 > 0:52:36And then the Giants' outfielder, Bobby Thomson,
0:52:36 > 0:52:39stepped up to the batter's box.
0:52:40 > 0:52:44Facing him was the Dodgers' pitcher, Ralph Branca.
0:52:45 > 0:52:50The pressure on both men was unbelievable.
0:52:50 > 0:52:52Everything depended on them.
0:52:52 > 0:52:56If Branca pitched well, he would secure victory for the Dodgers.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59But if Thomson somehow managed to hit a home run,
0:52:59 > 0:53:03he would pull off a miracle for the Giants.
0:53:06 > 0:53:12The stadium, and a spellbound TV audience, held its breath.
0:53:12 > 0:53:16Branca nervously toyed with the ball.
0:53:16 > 0:53:19Thomson, his mouth dry with fear, gripped his bat.
0:53:21 > 0:53:24And then the miracle happened.
0:53:29 > 0:53:31The Giants win the pennant!
0:53:31 > 0:53:33The Giants win the pennant!
0:53:33 > 0:53:35The Giants win the pennant!
0:53:35 > 0:53:37The Giants win the pennant!
0:53:37 > 0:53:41Bobby Thomson hits into the lower deck of the left-field stands!
0:53:41 > 0:53:45The Giants win the pennant and they're goin' crazy!
0:53:45 > 0:53:48Bobby Thompson's dramatic strike became known as
0:53:48 > 0:53:49"the shot heard round the world".
0:53:53 > 0:53:56It marked the beginning of a new era in television,
0:53:56 > 0:53:59where millions watched live events simultaneously,
0:53:59 > 0:54:02and so helped secure the medium's position
0:54:02 > 0:54:05at the centre of national life.
0:54:05 > 0:54:08Oh, boy, look at that! Wow!
0:54:08 > 0:54:13But live broadcasting was not the only form of television
0:54:13 > 0:54:16to take a huge leap forward in 1951.
0:54:16 > 0:54:20Just 12 days after "the shot heard round the world",
0:54:20 > 0:54:23another seminal broadcast appeared on American screens.
0:54:27 > 0:54:32At nine in the evening on Monday 15th October 1951,
0:54:32 > 0:54:37the American people sat down to watch a brand-new show.
0:54:37 > 0:54:42It would go on to become the most popular series of the entire decade,
0:54:42 > 0:54:47and in the process, it would usher in the modern television age.
0:54:47 > 0:54:50It was called I Love Lucy.
0:54:54 > 0:54:57I Love Lucy was the first great sitcom.
0:54:57 > 0:55:00In it, Lucille Ball played Lucy,
0:55:00 > 0:55:05a lovable housewife, opposite her real-life husband Desi Arnaz.
0:55:13 > 0:55:18- Look, honey, you're not serious about this, are you?- I am, too!
0:55:18 > 0:55:21Here I am with all this talent bottled up inside me,
0:55:21 > 0:55:23and you're always sitting on the cork!
0:55:24 > 0:55:26Every week, she would pursue her dream
0:55:26 > 0:55:29of breaking into showbiz like her husband.
0:55:29 > 0:55:32Now, look, Lucy, you know how I feel about this.
0:55:32 > 0:55:35- I don't want my wife in showbusiness! - Why?
0:55:35 > 0:55:37- Why?!- I asked you first.
0:55:37 > 0:55:40Ah, honey, we've been over this 10,000 times.
0:55:40 > 0:55:43I want a wife who's just a wife!
0:55:44 > 0:55:47Now, look, all you've got to do is clean the house for me,
0:55:47 > 0:55:50hand me my pipe when I come home at night,
0:55:50 > 0:55:53cook for me and be the mama for my children.
0:55:53 > 0:55:55You don't smoke a pipe.
0:55:55 > 0:55:57It doesn't matter! Just do the others.
0:55:58 > 0:56:03Lucy's hilarious attempts to escape the conformity of family life
0:56:03 > 0:56:08touched on a more serious paradox in American culture in 1951 -
0:56:08 > 0:56:12that the dream home might also be a gilded cage.
0:56:12 > 0:56:13Who's under the table?
0:56:14 > 0:56:16There's nobody here but us dogs!
0:56:20 > 0:56:24Either way, audiences loved I Love Lucy.
0:56:24 > 0:56:30Within a year, it was being watched by 11 million American families every single week.
0:56:31 > 0:56:34It dominated the ratings throughout the 1950s,
0:56:34 > 0:56:38and its reruns continue to be broadcast today.
0:56:39 > 0:56:41The show may not have met with
0:56:41 > 0:56:45the approval of Pollock, Kerouac and the other New York rebels,
0:56:45 > 0:56:48but I Love Lucy was just as revolutionary,
0:56:48 > 0:56:51even in the way it was made.
0:56:51 > 0:56:55I Love Lucy was the first major programme
0:56:55 > 0:57:01to be filmed by multiple cameras in front of a live studio audience,
0:57:01 > 0:57:04and that became the way that all the great American sitcoms,
0:57:04 > 0:57:09from Friends and Frasier to Cheers and Seinfeld, were made.
0:57:09 > 0:57:13And if the sitcom was the great American cultural export,
0:57:13 > 0:57:15I Love Lucy was its defining prototype.
0:57:19 > 0:57:251951 gave America a taste of the future of television,
0:57:25 > 0:57:31and it was arguably the first step in the medium's triumph over all of our lives.
0:57:31 > 0:57:34But New York had transformed more than just television.
0:57:34 > 0:57:40Its restless and anarchic spirit brought a wave of change.
0:57:40 > 0:57:43New York in 1951 gave birth to
0:57:43 > 0:57:47a slick, clever and witty mass culture.
0:57:47 > 0:57:51But born at the very same time was its unruly sibling,
0:57:51 > 0:57:55the counterculture, with its glamorous and violent rebels.
0:57:55 > 0:58:00Together, these two strands came to define American life for decades,
0:58:00 > 0:58:03and they continue to shape the art, the films, the books,
0:58:03 > 0:58:06the music, and even the clothes, we consume today.
0:58:08 > 0:58:12New York did so much to create our culture.
0:58:13 > 0:58:17But so too did the other cities in this series.
0:58:17 > 0:58:19They were crucibles of creativity,
0:58:19 > 0:58:22And they all helped define the 20th century.
0:58:24 > 0:58:29Vienna in 1908 opened the Pandora's box of human emotions,
0:58:29 > 0:58:32and eventually helped drag the world into war.
0:58:33 > 0:58:38Paris in 1928 rebuilt Europe's faith in the imagination
0:58:38 > 0:58:41and taught it to dream of a better future.
0:58:41 > 0:58:45And without New York in 1951,
0:58:45 > 0:58:48modern life would be very different indeed.