1 00:00:35,569 --> 00:00:39,340 Ambition? Well, I want to do something that's going to be lastingly useful... 2 00:00:39,373 --> 00:00:43,411 and leave some sort of mark behind me, not just a blank space. 3 00:00:43,444 --> 00:00:47,615 I think my ambition in life is to be famous, but I'm not quite sure. 4 00:01:05,299 --> 00:01:07,468 I've never experienced another generation, 5 00:01:07,501 --> 00:01:10,171 but I do feel we'll have something to say. 6 00:01:10,204 --> 00:01:13,241 We'll make a gigantic splash in the world to come. 7 00:01:13,274 --> 00:01:15,409 There's always a change going on. 8 00:01:15,443 --> 00:01:17,345 You never know what's gonna happen next. 9 00:01:17,378 --> 00:01:19,647 You never know what new clothes you're gonna have. 10 00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:21,849 You never know what the new records are gonna be. 11 00:01:21,882 --> 00:01:24,252 My stack of records keeps getting larger. 12 00:01:39,267 --> 00:01:42,136 You know how parents are. They always bug you-- where you're going, 13 00:01:42,170 --> 00:01:43,804 when you're getting home, who you went with, 14 00:01:43,837 --> 00:01:46,674 what time you're gonna be back, don't stay on the phone too long. 15 00:01:46,707 --> 00:01:49,343 Then you get your own car, and you're free a little bit. 16 00:01:49,377 --> 00:01:51,412 But they're still holding on the rope. 17 00:02:27,415 --> 00:02:30,384 We're teenagers. 18 00:02:31,452 --> 00:02:33,687 But we didn't always exist. 19 00:02:35,489 --> 00:02:37,658 We were a wartime invention. 20 00:02:41,262 --> 00:02:43,297 Who would we become? 21 00:02:44,332 --> 00:02:46,734 Who would decide it? 22 00:02:46,767 --> 00:02:48,402 The adults? 23 00:02:51,439 --> 00:02:52,773 Or us? 24 00:03:30,511 --> 00:03:33,347 First we were just children. 25 00:03:34,815 --> 00:03:36,717 That's how they thought of us. 26 00:03:38,786 --> 00:03:42,623 And then all of a sudden we were supposed to be adults. 27 00:03:47,595 --> 00:03:51,365 Twelve years old, and I'd be off to work in the factory. 28 00:03:54,502 --> 00:03:56,504 I worked 74 hours a week. 29 00:03:58,038 --> 00:04:01,342 6:00 in the morning till 5:30 at night. 30 00:04:01,375 --> 00:04:03,411 Saturdays till noon. 31 00:04:05,479 --> 00:04:07,681 My hands were bruised and cut. 32 00:04:10,050 --> 00:04:12,353 I felt like a slave. 33 00:04:20,528 --> 00:04:23,431 Children have always worked, 34 00:04:23,464 --> 00:04:26,534 but it is only since the reign of the machine... 35 00:04:26,567 --> 00:04:30,538 that their work has been synonymous with slavery. 36 00:04:32,406 --> 00:04:35,609 There is no more terrible page in history... 37 00:04:35,643 --> 00:04:39,079 than that which records the enslavement of mere babies... 38 00:04:39,112 --> 00:04:41,849 by the industrial revolution. 39 00:04:44,985 --> 00:04:47,688 Adults knew it wasn't right. 40 00:04:50,358 --> 00:04:52,660 They wanted to protect us. 41 00:04:54,662 --> 00:04:57,898 So governments started to make child labor against the law. 42 00:05:03,837 --> 00:05:05,739 I started going to school. 43 00:05:08,108 --> 00:05:10,878 I loved having fun with my friends. 44 00:05:12,846 --> 00:05:14,615 We were young, 45 00:05:15,449 --> 00:05:17,685 and we were allowed to be. 46 00:05:19,787 --> 00:05:22,723 There was a second stage of life now. 47 00:05:25,726 --> 00:05:27,795 "Adolescence." 48 00:05:36,904 --> 00:05:39,740 In the factory we were prisoners, 49 00:05:40,608 --> 00:05:42,976 but in the streets... 50 00:05:43,010 --> 00:05:44,812 we were free. 51 00:05:49,417 --> 00:05:51,619 The cities were fast and hard. 52 00:05:52,953 --> 00:05:54,588 So were we. 53 00:05:57,157 --> 00:05:59,927 We formed gangs that roamed the streets. 54 00:06:01,695 --> 00:06:04,364 "Hooligans" is what the police called us. 55 00:06:05,165 --> 00:06:07,568 We carried knives. 56 00:06:07,601 --> 00:06:10,504 We robbed... and killed. 57 00:06:12,640 --> 00:06:15,142 Youth were a problem... 58 00:06:15,175 --> 00:06:17,445 that had to be controlled. 59 00:06:18,579 --> 00:06:21,148 My brother Scouts, 60 00:06:21,181 --> 00:06:25,953 you are doing much to prevent the present disgraceful waste... 61 00:06:25,986 --> 00:06:27,755 of human materials... 62 00:06:27,788 --> 00:06:30,090 and showing your poorer brothers... 63 00:06:30,123 --> 00:06:32,893 how to be good, successful men. 64 00:06:35,162 --> 00:06:37,998 One man thought he'd found a solution... 65 00:06:38,031 --> 00:06:40,534 to the problem of youth. 66 00:06:41,802 --> 00:06:43,904 A soldier called Robert Baden-Powell... 67 00:06:43,937 --> 00:06:46,874 wrote a military training manual for the young. 68 00:06:47,808 --> 00:06:50,444 Scouting for Boys it was called. 69 00:06:51,211 --> 00:06:53,681 It was a manifesto for a movement-- 70 00:06:54,548 --> 00:06:56,650 the Boy Scouts. 71 00:06:56,684 --> 00:06:58,819 You are tested on your honor... 72 00:06:58,852 --> 00:07:03,090 to do your best to carry out the Scout Promise, 73 00:07:03,123 --> 00:07:06,527 which is to work for God and the king. 74 00:07:07,961 --> 00:07:11,565 Tracking and camping had always been a fantasy for me. 75 00:07:12,666 --> 00:07:15,235 I'd yearned for an awfully big adventure, 76 00:07:15,268 --> 00:07:17,437 and here it was. 77 00:07:19,707 --> 00:07:22,676 The Scouts came to America too. 78 00:07:22,710 --> 00:07:26,680 Hundreds of thousands of boys joined. 79 00:07:26,714 --> 00:07:28,516 They learned patriotism, 80 00:07:28,549 --> 00:07:31,985 courage and self-reliance. 81 00:07:32,019 --> 00:07:36,690 Once a Scout, always a Scout. 82 00:07:36,724 --> 00:07:40,227 I believed what Baden-Powell said-- 83 00:07:40,260 --> 00:07:42,530 "The Scout is loyal to the king, 84 00:07:42,563 --> 00:07:46,534 to his officers, his parents and country. 85 00:07:46,567 --> 00:07:48,936 He must stick to them through thick and thin." 86 00:07:51,271 --> 00:07:53,240 We went from rat-faced slum kids... 87 00:07:53,273 --> 00:07:56,043 to fit and healthy soldiers, 88 00:07:57,177 --> 00:07:59,046 primed for war. 89 00:08:06,920 --> 00:08:12,993 Today, England is off to war. 90 00:08:13,026 --> 00:08:17,931 Meet the fall with the cry of liberty. 91 00:08:19,767 --> 00:08:21,869 If you didn't join up, 92 00:08:21,902 --> 00:08:24,037 you were letting everybody down. 93 00:08:25,673 --> 00:08:27,641 They made sure you knew it. 94 00:08:42,322 --> 00:08:47,094 In Germany, the news of war was intoxicating. 95 00:08:47,127 --> 00:08:49,262 ** 96 00:08:49,296 --> 00:08:52,566 There were bands playing, flags flying. 97 00:08:54,602 --> 00:08:57,270 What drove us was a feeling of adulthood... 98 00:08:57,304 --> 00:08:59,573 burning up inside. 99 00:09:00,674 --> 00:09:04,845 Half the population was under the age of 22. 100 00:09:04,878 --> 00:09:08,148 Almost all the boys applied for military service. 101 00:09:09,683 --> 00:09:11,284 13- or 14-year-olds... 102 00:09:11,318 --> 00:09:15,022 were crushed if they were rejected by the recruiting officers. 103 00:09:22,930 --> 00:09:25,565 Europe tore itself apart. 104 00:09:27,400 --> 00:09:29,770 And then the Americans came. 105 00:09:29,803 --> 00:09:32,039 More than two million soldiers, 106 00:09:32,072 --> 00:09:34,975 fully equipped and indomitable in spirit, 107 00:09:35,008 --> 00:09:39,947 were safely transported across 3,000 miles of seas, 108 00:09:39,980 --> 00:09:42,249 where they turned the tide of battle, 109 00:09:42,282 --> 00:09:44,351 one imperishable glory... 110 00:09:44,384 --> 00:09:50,190 and triumph to the greatest war that the world has ever known. 111 00:09:50,223 --> 00:09:53,861 They brought new music, dances and films. 112 00:09:54,995 --> 00:09:59,232 American culture started to spread. 113 00:09:59,266 --> 00:10:02,102 Our boys made good in France. 114 00:10:02,135 --> 00:10:05,873 The word "American" has a new meaning in Europe. 115 00:10:33,767 --> 00:10:35,969 When my brother died in the war, 116 00:10:37,470 --> 00:10:42,810 they sent us a frame that said "Died on the field of honor." 117 00:10:43,977 --> 00:10:46,680 There is no field of honor. 118 00:10:48,015 --> 00:10:50,918 An entire generation was gutted. 119 00:10:51,885 --> 00:10:55,022 We lost all loyalty and trust. 120 00:10:58,826 --> 00:11:01,161 We were shell-shocked. 121 00:11:02,863 --> 00:11:05,933 The pound of the guns drove us mad. 122 00:11:07,835 --> 00:11:10,804 Millions of young men were massacred. 123 00:11:13,774 --> 00:11:16,844 The old had sent us to die, 124 00:11:16,877 --> 00:11:18,946 and we hated them. 125 00:11:54,281 --> 00:11:59,286 After the war, everyone wanted to be born anew, 126 00:11:59,319 --> 00:12:01,188 to blot out the past. 127 00:12:03,490 --> 00:12:06,159 There was this reckless sense of release, 128 00:12:08,061 --> 00:12:11,899 and I felt a kind of wildness inside. 129 00:12:11,932 --> 00:12:13,867 What do they want? 130 00:12:13,901 --> 00:12:16,336 They say, "We want beer." 131 00:12:16,369 --> 00:12:20,841 Spending their money, debauching their character, 132 00:12:20,874 --> 00:12:23,110 rotting their bodies... 133 00:12:23,143 --> 00:12:25,245 and jeopardizing their immortal souls. 134 00:12:30,017 --> 00:12:33,987 My father says I can't go out every night. 135 00:12:34,021 --> 00:12:36,857 But what on earth does he want me to do? 136 00:12:36,890 --> 00:12:39,259 Just sit around at home all evening? 137 00:12:41,028 --> 00:12:43,864 I don't trust my parents anymore. 138 00:12:43,897 --> 00:12:45,899 I just want to be with my friends. 139 00:12:48,368 --> 00:12:51,171 Our world is speedy, 140 00:12:51,204 --> 00:12:53,340 and they're old. 141 00:12:58,545 --> 00:13:01,481 The power of today is in our hands. 142 00:13:01,514 --> 00:13:06,519 We who number ourselves among the so-called wild and wicked youth... 143 00:13:06,553 --> 00:13:11,058 would prefer to go out with drums beating and bugles blowing. 144 00:13:12,559 --> 00:13:15,095 We want to be young before we're old. 145 00:13:15,128 --> 00:13:19,532 They call us flappers, flaming youth. 146 00:13:19,566 --> 00:13:25,405 The times have made us awfully experienced for our age. 147 00:13:28,075 --> 00:13:30,610 I got all the new jazz records. 148 00:13:30,643 --> 00:13:34,581 My mum thought it was awful noise. 149 00:13:34,614 --> 00:13:37,050 She asked me why it was good, and I said, 150 00:13:37,084 --> 00:13:39,286 "Because it comes from America." 151 00:13:42,555 --> 00:13:44,357 You'd hear people say, 152 00:13:44,391 --> 00:13:48,228 "Those who get the youth get the future." 153 00:13:49,930 --> 00:13:52,599 Our parents had ruined Germany, 154 00:13:52,632 --> 00:13:55,402 and we wanted a new kind of community. 155 00:13:58,105 --> 00:14:01,341 So we joined youth groups. 156 00:14:01,374 --> 00:14:04,945 There had been youth movements even before the war. 157 00:14:04,978 --> 00:14:07,447 Workers' youth groups, Jewish youth groups, 158 00:14:10,017 --> 00:14:13,887 but the most important group was the Wandervogel-- 159 00:14:13,921 --> 00:14:16,256 "Wandering Birds." 160 00:14:18,491 --> 00:14:22,495 Our teachers and our parents didn't understand us. 161 00:14:22,529 --> 00:14:25,265 So we created our own world. 162 00:14:26,399 --> 00:14:29,036 Youth were leading youth. 163 00:14:31,038 --> 00:14:33,106 We'd run through forests, 164 00:14:33,140 --> 00:14:36,009 lay together at bonfires, 165 00:14:36,043 --> 00:14:38,278 make flower wreaths and photos, 166 00:14:38,311 --> 00:14:40,981 sing and dance. 167 00:14:41,014 --> 00:14:43,683 Then drop off our clothes... 168 00:14:43,716 --> 00:14:46,186 and feel free. 169 00:14:52,192 --> 00:14:54,494 To be young was the style. 170 00:14:56,329 --> 00:14:58,531 And it was for sale. 171 00:14:58,565 --> 00:15:00,500 Records, 172 00:15:00,533 --> 00:15:03,403 cigarettes, perfume. 173 00:15:03,436 --> 00:15:07,407 And all those glamorous Hollywood stars to admire. 174 00:15:07,440 --> 00:15:09,709 I wanted to be like Valentino. 175 00:15:09,742 --> 00:15:11,678 He always got the girls. 176 00:15:11,711 --> 00:15:17,084 When he died, we rushed the funeral by the thousands. 177 00:15:17,117 --> 00:15:19,419 They called it a riot. 178 00:15:22,089 --> 00:15:24,992 I wish I could have been there. 179 00:15:34,467 --> 00:15:38,071 ** 180 00:16:00,460 --> 00:16:03,196 In Britain there was a new breed, 181 00:16:03,230 --> 00:16:06,233 and we defined ourselves by our youth. 182 00:16:09,302 --> 00:16:12,439 They called us the Bright Young People. 183 00:16:14,241 --> 00:16:18,078 It started with a few girls who liked dressing up, 184 00:16:18,111 --> 00:16:20,247 doing hoaxes and treasure hunts, 185 00:16:20,280 --> 00:16:22,449 making a fool of everyone. 186 00:16:23,316 --> 00:16:25,352 We took it all very seriously. 187 00:16:28,121 --> 00:16:30,257 Except when we didn't. 188 00:16:35,395 --> 00:16:39,166 The police were trying to shut down all of London's nightlife. 189 00:16:42,235 --> 00:16:44,404 So we created our own. 190 00:17:33,553 --> 00:17:37,056 There was this one girl who shined especially bright. 191 00:17:40,127 --> 00:17:42,129 Her name was Brenda Dean Paul. 192 00:17:52,439 --> 00:17:55,575 Brenda hit the scene in 1926. 193 00:17:56,643 --> 00:17:58,545 She was 19. 194 00:18:04,751 --> 00:18:07,320 She came from a broken home. 195 00:18:08,621 --> 00:18:10,590 Longed to be famous. 196 00:18:14,927 --> 00:18:16,863 She played many parts, but... 197 00:18:16,896 --> 00:18:22,669 the most convincing was her role as life and soul of the party. 198 00:18:26,906 --> 00:18:28,475 Pajama parties, 199 00:18:28,508 --> 00:18:31,244 Greek parties, Russian parties, 200 00:18:31,278 --> 00:18:33,213 sailor parties, American parties, 201 00:18:33,246 --> 00:18:36,683 murder parties, baby parties. 202 00:18:41,221 --> 00:18:44,123 We called them "freak" parties. 203 00:18:45,392 --> 00:18:48,528 And it didn't take long for them to become big affairs. 204 00:19:00,673 --> 00:19:04,611 Girls were like boys, and the boys like girls. 205 00:19:06,279 --> 00:19:08,581 Sometimes you couldn't even tell us apart. 206 00:19:09,749 --> 00:19:11,651 We liked it that way. 207 00:19:13,953 --> 00:19:17,524 A couple of gossip columnists wrote it all up in the papers. 208 00:19:18,358 --> 00:19:20,293 They made it into... 209 00:19:21,861 --> 00:19:24,163 a "movement." 210 00:19:35,542 --> 00:19:37,377 But for Brenda-- 211 00:19:37,410 --> 00:19:41,214 once she started she couldn't stop. 212 00:19:42,649 --> 00:19:45,652 She crashed her car, and then she fell ill. 213 00:19:46,986 --> 00:19:49,322 Perhaps it was all the late nights. 214 00:19:50,022 --> 00:19:52,225 Or perhaps it was the abortion. 215 00:19:54,494 --> 00:19:56,496 Somebody gave her morphine, 216 00:19:56,529 --> 00:20:01,334 and Brenda became London's first and most notorious junkie. 217 00:20:04,871 --> 00:20:08,508 Scandal, drug busts, prison. 218 00:20:09,342 --> 00:20:11,978 Brenda became famous, 219 00:20:12,011 --> 00:20:14,514 but not in the way she had wanted. 220 00:20:18,585 --> 00:20:22,589 Did she really think she could stay young forever? 221 00:20:22,622 --> 00:20:25,492 Yes. Probably in that moment we all did. 222 00:20:27,494 --> 00:20:30,530 We were just too tired to break away. 223 00:20:31,498 --> 00:20:34,033 Eventually Brenda crashed, 224 00:20:34,066 --> 00:20:37,370 but by then nobody could really remember or care. 225 00:20:37,904 --> 00:20:39,839 We were all crashing, 226 00:20:41,007 --> 00:20:43,710 and then the whole world did too. 227 00:21:17,477 --> 00:21:19,646 Adults were in a panic. 228 00:21:21,414 --> 00:21:25,385 But we were the ones who would inherit this mess. 229 00:21:25,418 --> 00:21:28,755 Today the largest single group of the nation's unemployed... 230 00:21:28,788 --> 00:21:32,492 are young men and women between the ages of 16 and 24. 231 00:21:32,525 --> 00:21:34,794 Boys like 18-year-old Warren Harper, 232 00:21:34,827 --> 00:21:38,030 hardest hit of a generation which has grown up in depression. 233 00:21:38,064 --> 00:21:41,801 Warren himself never has had a steady job in all his life, 234 00:21:41,834 --> 00:21:43,770 never has owned an overcoat. 235 00:21:43,803 --> 00:21:46,806 When he goes out looking for work, he wears borrowed clothing. 236 00:21:46,839 --> 00:21:48,908 He gets up late and spends most of his time... 237 00:21:48,941 --> 00:21:51,811 hanging around talking with other boys who are out of work... 238 00:21:51,844 --> 00:21:55,748 and wondering what's wrong when a fella wants to work and can't. 239 00:22:03,490 --> 00:22:05,958 You couldn't even work. 240 00:22:05,992 --> 00:22:08,961 I was fired at 16. 241 00:22:08,995 --> 00:22:13,366 The governor wanted to take on an errand boy who'd do my job cheaper. 242 00:22:15,535 --> 00:22:17,437 Nothing to do with my time. 243 00:22:17,470 --> 00:22:19,406 Nothing to spend. 244 00:22:20,473 --> 00:22:22,609 Nothing to do tomorrow, nor the day after. 245 00:22:23,576 --> 00:22:26,379 I was a living corpse. 246 00:22:30,417 --> 00:22:32,819 Not only old people had grief, 247 00:22:34,587 --> 00:22:36,623 but young ones too. 248 00:22:38,591 --> 00:22:41,628 Our future looked bleak. 249 00:22:46,733 --> 00:22:48,968 Some parents were suffering so bad... 250 00:22:49,001 --> 00:22:50,937 they couldn't look after their children anymore. 251 00:22:54,641 --> 00:22:56,643 Those kids hit the road. 252 00:22:58,911 --> 00:23:01,714 They were the children's army. 253 00:23:01,748 --> 00:23:03,416 Hoboes, 254 00:23:03,450 --> 00:23:05,752 boxcar riders, 255 00:23:05,785 --> 00:23:07,620 young tramps. 256 00:23:11,157 --> 00:23:13,826 People thought there was no hope for youth. 257 00:23:15,795 --> 00:23:18,798 But we were searching for something to believe in. 258 00:23:19,766 --> 00:23:22,469 And we were willing to fight for it. 259 00:23:25,805 --> 00:23:29,442 As fast as one mob is broken up, another gathers. 260 00:23:30,777 --> 00:23:33,179 Politics was our problem too. 261 00:23:33,212 --> 00:23:36,048 We are not looking for charity. We want an opportunity to work. 262 00:23:40,820 --> 00:23:43,856 There was talk of revolution. 263 00:23:43,890 --> 00:23:45,892 And they feared us. 264 00:23:49,829 --> 00:23:52,064 There were the Communists... 265 00:23:52,098 --> 00:23:54,867 and the Nazis, 266 00:23:54,901 --> 00:23:56,936 and we took up sides. 267 00:23:59,906 --> 00:24:03,643 People would come up to you in the street and ask, 268 00:24:03,676 --> 00:24:05,578 "Who are you with?" 269 00:24:06,546 --> 00:24:08,581 If you gave them the wrong answer, 270 00:24:08,615 --> 00:24:10,182 they would attack. 271 00:24:30,703 --> 00:24:33,072 Radical change was in the air. 272 00:24:33,105 --> 00:24:35,875 5,000 fascists rally to their mobilization... 273 00:24:35,908 --> 00:24:37,944 for the much advertised march through the East End. 274 00:24:37,977 --> 00:24:39,946 Communists jammed the fascists' route, 275 00:24:39,979 --> 00:24:44,016 resisting the peaceful efforts of the outnumbered police to clear the way. 276 00:24:44,050 --> 00:24:47,887 I was there when the fascists started marching down my street. 277 00:24:49,288 --> 00:24:51,891 I wasn't gonna let my country go that way. 278 00:24:54,627 --> 00:24:56,896 We had to get involved. 279 00:24:57,964 --> 00:25:01,601 We weren't gonna be another lost generation. 280 00:25:11,177 --> 00:25:15,915 Let us carry on the good that the past has given us. 281 00:25:15,948 --> 00:25:19,719 The best of that good is the spirit of America, 282 00:25:19,752 --> 00:25:23,623 and the spirit of America is the spirit in which youth... 283 00:25:23,656 --> 00:25:28,127 can find the fulfillment of its ideals. 284 00:25:28,160 --> 00:25:32,732 It is for the new generation to participate in the decision... 285 00:25:32,765 --> 00:25:35,334 and to give strength and spirit... 286 00:25:35,367 --> 00:25:37,904 and continuity... 287 00:25:37,937 --> 00:25:42,875 to our government and to our national life. 288 00:26:51,277 --> 00:26:56,115 Melita Maschmann was a typical middle-class girl. 289 00:26:56,148 --> 00:27:00,753 Her parents complained about the unemployment and poverty, 290 00:27:00,787 --> 00:27:02,889 but they didn't do a thing. 291 00:27:04,757 --> 00:27:06,893 Melita wanted action. 292 00:27:08,260 --> 00:27:10,663 So she joined the Hitler Youth. 293 00:27:14,233 --> 00:27:17,737 My mother expected me to be unquestioning and obedient, 294 00:27:17,770 --> 00:27:19,739 like the maids. 295 00:27:20,439 --> 00:27:22,709 I rebelled. 296 00:27:22,742 --> 00:27:25,177 I wanted to be different-- 297 00:27:26,713 --> 00:27:30,649 to escape from my narrow childish life. 298 00:27:36,222 --> 00:27:39,091 I was a March Violet, 299 00:27:39,125 --> 00:27:43,229 one of the many youth who joined after Hitler became chancellor. 300 00:27:54,073 --> 00:27:57,243 Every weekend we had tests and competitions. 301 00:27:59,111 --> 00:28:03,415 Swimming, sports, obstacle races. 302 00:28:03,449 --> 00:28:07,153 There were camping trips and holidays too. 303 00:28:13,292 --> 00:28:16,262 I can only recall this feeling of happiness-- 304 00:28:18,865 --> 00:28:22,501 to be allowed to belong to a community... 305 00:28:22,534 --> 00:28:26,038 which embraced the whole youth of the nation. 306 00:28:39,251 --> 00:28:41,988 Millions of us joined the Hitler Youth. 307 00:28:43,455 --> 00:28:45,958 It felt like the Wandervogel, 308 00:28:45,992 --> 00:28:50,229 only now we were part of the national cause. 309 00:28:52,899 --> 00:28:55,134 Youth were leading youth. 310 00:28:59,371 --> 00:29:03,142 We were at the center of the government's plan... 311 00:29:03,175 --> 00:29:06,078 because we would shape the future. 312 00:29:13,419 --> 00:29:16,856 They wanted us to be strong. 313 00:29:16,889 --> 00:29:20,426 Hitler said his youth should be tough as leather, 314 00:29:20,459 --> 00:29:22,962 swift as greyhounds... 315 00:29:22,995 --> 00:29:25,898 and hard as Krupp steel. 316 00:29:27,900 --> 00:29:30,269 A young German... 317 00:29:30,302 --> 00:29:33,772 was the most exciting thing you could be. 318 00:29:45,017 --> 00:29:47,119 Big-city backwoodsmen. 319 00:29:47,153 --> 00:29:48,988 New York boys are getting back to nature... 320 00:29:49,021 --> 00:29:51,824 in the citizens conservation camp at Yellowstone Park. 321 00:29:51,858 --> 00:29:53,559 That's pretty. 322 00:29:53,592 --> 00:29:57,163 An important part of the national recovery program are these camps, 323 00:29:57,196 --> 00:29:59,231 one of the president's pet projects. 324 00:29:59,265 --> 00:30:02,168 They're a great thing for city boys. 325 00:30:02,201 --> 00:30:06,072 Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps... 326 00:30:06,105 --> 00:30:09,208 and other programs that put youth to work. 327 00:30:11,377 --> 00:30:14,981 It was job training, but we were getting paid. 328 00:30:17,083 --> 00:30:19,952 Maybe our protests were heard. 329 00:30:28,360 --> 00:30:30,396 On a bank of the Avon, 330 00:30:30,429 --> 00:30:33,265 you will find the men of the first Grith Fyrd, 331 00:30:33,299 --> 00:30:35,101 or Peace Army camp, 332 00:30:35,134 --> 00:30:38,337 where young men of all classes can develop themselves... 333 00:30:38,370 --> 00:30:41,073 both physically and mentally. 334 00:30:41,107 --> 00:30:43,109 We had labor camps. 335 00:30:44,376 --> 00:30:48,047 Instructional Centers is what they were called. 336 00:30:48,080 --> 00:30:50,849 They gave us something worthwhile to do. 337 00:30:59,291 --> 00:31:01,894 The government was taking us seriously. 338 00:31:02,995 --> 00:31:05,231 It gave us a real boost. 339 00:31:06,665 --> 00:31:10,069 Young people were part of the solution. 340 00:31:10,102 --> 00:31:11,938 We were prospering. 341 00:31:14,040 --> 00:31:16,909 And we were going to change the world. 342 00:31:19,645 --> 00:31:22,982 * Happy days are here again 343 00:31:23,015 --> 00:31:26,652 * The skies above are clear again * 344 00:31:26,685 --> 00:31:30,356 * Let us sing a song of cheer again * 345 00:31:30,389 --> 00:31:34,393 * Happy days are here again * 346 00:31:36,295 --> 00:31:39,298 ** 347 00:32:01,320 --> 00:32:05,291 Let me tell you in plain American English. 348 00:32:05,324 --> 00:32:07,059 I'm a jitterbug, 349 00:32:07,093 --> 00:32:09,495 and I'm crazy about swing. 350 00:32:12,064 --> 00:32:15,367 For years we oompahed to sticky fox-trots. 351 00:32:15,401 --> 00:32:19,571 And then came swing with its solid rhythm. 352 00:32:19,605 --> 00:32:21,740 ** 353 00:32:21,773 --> 00:32:25,111 Negro bands playing hot, 354 00:32:25,144 --> 00:32:27,213 but with the power of a big orchestra. 355 00:32:28,747 --> 00:32:31,583 It was free, beautiful music, 356 00:32:31,617 --> 00:32:35,421 and it let us cut loose and act like normal kids for a change. 357 00:32:38,357 --> 00:32:42,561 Every day into music shops from coast to coast... 358 00:32:42,594 --> 00:32:44,596 go more and more customers, 359 00:32:44,630 --> 00:32:46,732 all for the same thing-- 360 00:32:46,765 --> 00:32:48,767 the latest in swing music. 361 00:32:48,800 --> 00:32:51,337 Swing! Swing! 362 00:32:51,370 --> 00:32:54,473 It's the rhythm, rhythm, rhythm that gets 'em. 363 00:32:54,506 --> 00:32:56,342 The hot-cha-cha, 364 00:32:56,375 --> 00:32:59,511 the boogie-woogie, the vicey versa, the nuts and bats. 365 00:32:59,545 --> 00:33:03,115 It's movement, movement, rhythm, rhythm and all that. 366 00:33:08,720 --> 00:33:12,124 Ever since the crash, life's been so grim. 367 00:33:13,659 --> 00:33:16,995 Jitterbugs were changing the mood. 368 00:33:19,198 --> 00:33:22,134 We were the new flaming youth. 369 00:33:26,672 --> 00:33:30,042 When Benny Goodman played New York, it was madness. 370 00:33:33,445 --> 00:33:36,448 There was a whole youth craze catching on. 371 00:33:38,250 --> 00:33:40,386 Adults weren't ready to integrate, 372 00:33:41,487 --> 00:33:43,422 but jitterbugs were. 373 00:33:45,157 --> 00:33:48,026 White kids took their cues from us Negroes. 374 00:33:49,095 --> 00:33:52,598 Where we couldn't go, our songs would. 375 00:33:57,436 --> 00:34:01,607 Our music made the feet of the world dance. 376 00:34:11,717 --> 00:34:15,454 Swing broke out to the mass audience. 377 00:34:17,356 --> 00:34:19,491 If you didn't live in the city, 378 00:34:19,525 --> 00:34:21,427 then you could hear it on the radio. 379 00:34:21,460 --> 00:34:23,362 And so the Camel Caravan-- 380 00:34:23,395 --> 00:34:26,632 Shows like Camel Caravan and Let's Dance. 381 00:34:26,665 --> 00:34:32,304 You could live the dream without ever having to leave your bedroom. 382 00:34:32,338 --> 00:34:35,807 I hereby dedicate... 383 00:34:35,841 --> 00:34:41,447 the World's Fair of 1939. 384 00:34:45,217 --> 00:34:47,619 When they had the World's Fair, 385 00:34:47,653 --> 00:34:49,621 it was about the future, 386 00:34:49,655 --> 00:34:53,091 and jitterbugs were at the center of it all. 387 00:34:54,626 --> 00:34:57,763 I heard them talking about us on the radio. 388 00:34:57,796 --> 00:34:59,665 They said, 389 00:34:59,698 --> 00:35:02,768 "Once you've glimpsed the world of tomorrow, 390 00:35:02,801 --> 00:35:05,171 you can never look back. 391 00:35:05,204 --> 00:35:07,873 You may enter it a girl of today. 392 00:35:07,906 --> 00:35:10,909 You'll come out a girl of tomorrow." 393 00:35:10,942 --> 00:35:13,612 I want to tell you, I have never seen... 394 00:35:13,645 --> 00:35:16,648 such a spectacle as this in all my life. 395 00:35:16,682 --> 00:35:20,519 Swing was the voice of youth, the sound of freedom. 396 00:35:22,221 --> 00:35:23,889 It was real. 397 00:35:23,922 --> 00:35:25,591 It was alive. 398 00:35:25,624 --> 00:35:27,626 Enthusiastic young jitterbugs-- 399 00:35:27,659 --> 00:35:31,363 young Americans living for the world of tomorrow. 400 00:36:13,339 --> 00:36:15,674 When the Hitler Youth started, 401 00:36:15,707 --> 00:36:17,543 it was an inspiring cause. 402 00:36:20,512 --> 00:36:23,749 But now it was the establishment. 403 00:36:25,517 --> 00:36:28,420 Membership was compulsory. 404 00:36:32,023 --> 00:36:35,761 Slowly, you lost yourself. 405 00:36:37,963 --> 00:36:42,701 It was the denial and the degradation of the individual... 406 00:36:42,734 --> 00:36:44,970 into the mass. 407 00:37:01,687 --> 00:37:04,656 If you didn't like it, 408 00:37:04,690 --> 00:37:06,792 there was no escape. 409 00:37:14,833 --> 00:37:16,668 At 16 and 17, 410 00:37:18,470 --> 00:37:21,307 you crawled inside yourself. 411 00:37:23,909 --> 00:37:25,611 Psychologically... 412 00:37:28,046 --> 00:37:30,382 you were armed. 413 00:37:38,490 --> 00:37:43,695 Germany has invaded Poland and has bombed many towns. 414 00:37:43,729 --> 00:37:47,399 General mobilization has been ordered in Britain and France. 415 00:37:52,738 --> 00:37:56,575 Melita had quickly climbed the ranks of the Hitler Youth. 416 00:37:58,910 --> 00:38:04,583 Once the war started, she left home to serve as a youth press officer. 417 00:38:07,653 --> 00:38:10,088 Melita was the ideal youth leader-- 418 00:38:10,121 --> 00:38:13,725 rigorous, hardworking, 419 00:38:13,759 --> 00:38:16,762 and she believed in Germany's superior moral position. 420 00:38:22,601 --> 00:38:25,404 She quickly lost her Jewish friends, 421 00:38:25,437 --> 00:38:28,607 but sacrifices had to be made. 422 00:38:33,579 --> 00:38:36,748 You had only two choices-- 423 00:38:36,782 --> 00:38:40,919 have Jewish friends or be a National Socialist. 424 00:38:44,523 --> 00:38:48,059 When I had to pass along the ghetto street, 425 00:38:48,093 --> 00:38:53,499 the wretchedness of the children brought a lump into my throat. 426 00:38:56,702 --> 00:38:58,504 But gradually, 427 00:38:58,537 --> 00:39:02,340 I learned to switch off my private feelings. 428 00:39:07,813 --> 00:39:11,617 Everything that I was or had been... 429 00:39:11,650 --> 00:39:15,521 was now absorbed into the whole. 430 00:39:42,648 --> 00:39:45,651 Not everyone was willing to comply. 431 00:39:48,654 --> 00:39:50,756 There were the Hamburg Swings. 432 00:39:52,090 --> 00:39:55,894 They were obsessed with American music and British fashion. 433 00:39:57,963 --> 00:40:00,832 It didn't matter if it was against Nazi law. 434 00:40:04,503 --> 00:40:05,904 They had no manifesto. 435 00:40:07,906 --> 00:40:12,978 Still, their mere presence was a threat to the regime. 436 00:40:21,820 --> 00:40:25,557 Tommie Scheel fell in love with swing. 437 00:40:31,062 --> 00:40:35,000 It all started when a friend of his came back from New York... 438 00:40:35,033 --> 00:40:36,935 with all the latest records. 439 00:40:38,737 --> 00:40:41,940 Tommie heard something in swing he liked. 440 00:40:43,008 --> 00:40:45,477 It was a new youth language, 441 00:40:45,511 --> 00:40:47,813 and Nazis weren't allowed. 442 00:40:50,682 --> 00:40:54,052 Once the war started, if you weren't in uniform, 443 00:40:54,085 --> 00:40:57,823 everyone knew what you believed in or what you didn't. 444 00:41:00,058 --> 00:41:02,761 Tommie wore British suits. 445 00:41:02,794 --> 00:41:05,864 He wouldn't put on the Hitler Youth uniform. 446 00:41:07,799 --> 00:41:11,970 It was important not to look like faithful German younglings. 447 00:41:28,620 --> 00:41:30,956 The Nazis hated swing. 448 00:41:32,290 --> 00:41:35,627 They banned all art and social dancing. 449 00:41:37,228 --> 00:41:40,098 Boys and girls were forbidden to mix. 450 00:41:44,836 --> 00:41:47,773 Swing shows were raided by police. 451 00:41:48,907 --> 00:41:51,910 When one Hamburg Swing was arrested, they told him, 452 00:41:51,943 --> 00:41:55,647 "Anything that begins with Duke Ellington... 453 00:41:55,681 --> 00:41:58,550 ends with an assassination attempt on Hitler." 454 00:42:02,854 --> 00:42:06,692 So Tommie and his friends met at his parents' house... 455 00:42:08,660 --> 00:42:10,929 where nobody could see them dance. 456 00:42:35,954 --> 00:42:38,857 Once, for fun, 457 00:42:38,890 --> 00:42:41,760 they dressed up like American gangsters... 458 00:42:41,793 --> 00:42:44,796 and pretended to rob a friend's villa. 459 00:42:46,732 --> 00:42:48,834 Of course they took pictures. 460 00:42:50,101 --> 00:42:52,037 It was their art. 461 00:42:59,010 --> 00:43:01,713 Once the Gestapo got ahold of the pictures, 462 00:43:03,715 --> 00:43:05,951 they wished they'd never done it. 463 00:43:11,122 --> 00:43:14,860 Robbery charges were brought against them. 464 00:43:16,261 --> 00:43:18,964 Police reports called them criminals. 465 00:43:19,931 --> 00:43:22,400 It said they were race defilers, 466 00:43:22,433 --> 00:43:24,069 they fornicated, 467 00:43:25,804 --> 00:43:28,173 they were homosexuals and robbers. 468 00:43:30,742 --> 00:43:33,879 It wasn't just kids having fun. 469 00:43:33,912 --> 00:43:36,848 They were a direct threat to the nation. 470 00:43:47,859 --> 00:43:51,897 When they arrested Tommie, they beat him. 471 00:43:53,431 --> 00:43:56,001 He was shipped to a political prison, 472 00:43:56,034 --> 00:43:58,236 much like a concentration camp. 473 00:44:00,305 --> 00:44:02,841 He survived, 474 00:44:02,874 --> 00:44:06,778 eventually finding his way to his beloved America. 475 00:44:10,315 --> 00:44:12,684 But most of his friends did not. 476 00:44:44,482 --> 00:44:49,120 A date which will live in infamy. 477 00:44:49,154 --> 00:44:52,157 Following yesterday's shattering and unprovoked attacks, 478 00:44:52,190 --> 00:44:55,260 the United States formally declared war on the empire of Japan. 479 00:44:55,293 --> 00:44:57,462 Today the nation is stirring... 480 00:44:57,495 --> 00:44:59,931 as it slowly realizes the immense extent... 481 00:44:59,965 --> 00:45:02,400 of the enterprise on which it has embarked. 482 00:45:02,433 --> 00:45:04,836 More than 16 million young Americans, 483 00:45:04,870 --> 00:45:08,139 in answer to the highest obligation of their citizenship, 484 00:45:08,173 --> 00:45:11,743 place themselves at the disposal of their country. 485 00:45:11,777 --> 00:45:14,780 I will obey the orders of the president of the United States... 486 00:45:14,813 --> 00:45:19,217 The government was asking us to defend freedom, 487 00:45:19,250 --> 00:45:21,319 and we answered the call. 488 00:45:24,255 --> 00:45:28,126 We thought democracy was something worth fighting for. 489 00:45:33,064 --> 00:45:35,366 The Americans were coming. 490 00:45:35,400 --> 00:45:37,936 It was world war all over again. 491 00:45:37,969 --> 00:45:40,839 The youth of Britain certainly means to play its part... 492 00:45:40,872 --> 00:45:42,273 in shaping the future. 493 00:45:42,307 --> 00:45:45,911 The authorities know how keen all these boys of 17 are-- 494 00:45:45,944 --> 00:45:48,113 a sign of the times. 495 00:45:50,281 --> 00:45:52,818 We'd been at war for two years now. 496 00:46:03,228 --> 00:46:05,230 I lived in London during the Blitz. 497 00:46:07,899 --> 00:46:11,002 I slept in the Underground while the bombs dropped, 498 00:46:15,173 --> 00:46:18,009 then came up to see the buildings crumbling. 499 00:46:26,918 --> 00:46:29,787 I was excited when the G.I.s arrived from America. 500 00:46:31,456 --> 00:46:35,293 They brought all the swing music I'd been listening to and made it live. 501 00:46:35,326 --> 00:46:38,129 Who wants to listen to some sentimental ballad... 502 00:46:38,163 --> 00:46:40,832 when you're young and you can dance the "A" Train with the Yanks? 503 00:46:42,467 --> 00:46:45,303 The G.I.s looked so sharp, 504 00:46:45,336 --> 00:46:50,275 like we were in black and white and here they came, in color. 505 00:46:52,577 --> 00:46:54,579 When you think of entertainment, 506 00:46:54,612 --> 00:46:58,083 you must somehow think of Piccadilly, the hub of entertainment. 507 00:46:58,116 --> 00:47:01,119 In Shaftesbury Avenue, less than a hundred yards from the circus, 508 00:47:01,152 --> 00:47:05,190 is Rainbow Corner, famous American entertainment headquarters. 509 00:47:05,223 --> 00:47:07,525 Ices and lasses, and what more could you want? 510 00:47:07,558 --> 00:47:09,961 Unless it's more lasses than ices. 511 00:47:12,130 --> 00:47:15,600 Rainbow Corner was open all day and all night. 512 00:47:15,633 --> 00:47:17,402 But sometimes they had to close it... 513 00:47:17,435 --> 00:47:20,171 because there were so many of us on the street outside. 514 00:47:23,108 --> 00:47:26,211 For a night, I could forget about the war. 515 00:47:26,244 --> 00:47:28,246 And are they enjoying it. 516 00:47:28,279 --> 00:47:32,317 Such an occasion as this, small though it may be in itself, 517 00:47:32,350 --> 00:47:34,252 it's just another happy indication... 518 00:47:34,285 --> 00:47:36,922 of the friendly relationship and happy understanding... 519 00:47:36,955 --> 00:47:41,092 that exist between ourselves and our cousins across the Atlantic. 520 00:48:10,421 --> 00:48:13,391 In Europe they were treating us like equals. 521 00:48:16,127 --> 00:48:18,363 But back home was a different story. 522 00:48:20,966 --> 00:48:23,168 We were the enemy. 523 00:48:28,706 --> 00:48:32,978 Warren Wall was 16 when the war started, 524 00:48:33,011 --> 00:48:35,380 the eldest of seven brothers and sisters. 525 00:48:36,447 --> 00:48:39,384 He hoped to become an electrical engineer. 526 00:48:46,757 --> 00:48:50,161 Sometimes I feel so alone. 527 00:48:54,299 --> 00:48:56,334 I don't wanna run with the gangs. 528 00:48:59,337 --> 00:49:00,938 I wanna work... 529 00:49:02,040 --> 00:49:03,508 and gain respect. 530 00:49:05,176 --> 00:49:07,979 But most of my friends don't see it that way. 531 00:49:09,180 --> 00:49:13,118 They tell me, why try to fit into a white man's world? 532 00:49:17,488 --> 00:49:23,361 I don't believe I or any Negro can help but feel inferior. 533 00:49:33,438 --> 00:49:37,108 Scouting's one program where I'm nearly an equal. 534 00:49:38,643 --> 00:49:43,014 I can compete with white boys and get the same recognition. 535 00:49:44,415 --> 00:49:48,119 I'd like to be the first Negro Eagle Scout in the city. 536 00:49:50,188 --> 00:49:52,523 But somehow I'm stuck. 537 00:49:54,225 --> 00:49:58,329 I don't know whether it's me or the Scout leadership. 538 00:50:07,738 --> 00:50:10,575 I've always wanted to be an athlete. 539 00:50:13,544 --> 00:50:16,414 And I know you can't give up all your strength on girls... 540 00:50:16,447 --> 00:50:19,250 and expect to give your best in athletic games. 541 00:50:21,619 --> 00:50:23,254 But when I was 14, 542 00:50:23,288 --> 00:50:26,591 I had sex for the first time with a girl, 543 00:50:26,624 --> 00:50:29,160 and I thought I was hot stuff. 544 00:50:30,295 --> 00:50:33,064 I'll never forget the experience... 545 00:50:34,265 --> 00:50:38,136 because for weeks I was darn near eaten up. 546 00:50:38,169 --> 00:50:42,173 I had to go to my father, and he just laughed. 547 00:51:13,871 --> 00:51:16,307 I've seen lots of people... 548 00:51:16,341 --> 00:51:19,510 whose actions make me dislike them, 549 00:51:19,544 --> 00:51:21,512 even despise them. 550 00:51:24,749 --> 00:51:30,188 But my father says we should be fighting for our rights, 551 00:51:30,221 --> 00:51:32,123 not picking fights. 552 00:51:38,529 --> 00:51:43,134 But at times, I've just itched to take a crack at a white guy... 553 00:51:43,168 --> 00:51:46,137 just to see if he can take it like he can dish it. 554 00:51:48,239 --> 00:51:54,145 When I get disrespected, I get so angry I could explode. 555 00:52:01,586 --> 00:52:05,456 I want to appeal to all the people of Harlem... 556 00:52:05,490 --> 00:52:08,526 for your complete cooperation... 557 00:52:08,559 --> 00:52:12,463 in order to bring to a speedy end... 558 00:52:12,497 --> 00:52:16,301 this most unfortunate condition... 559 00:52:16,334 --> 00:52:22,240 which was brought about by a few rowdies and hoodlums. 560 00:52:22,273 --> 00:52:23,874 And during the past 10 days, 561 00:52:23,908 --> 00:52:25,776 the zoot-suit warfare here in Los Angeles. 562 00:52:25,810 --> 00:52:30,515 Mobs attacked and roughed up harmless citizens of Mexican descent. 563 00:52:30,548 --> 00:52:34,285 Cars were stopped, the occupants pulled out, doors ripped from the cars. 564 00:52:34,319 --> 00:52:37,888 That's what happens when the mob starts to take things into its own hands. 565 00:52:42,627 --> 00:52:46,397 Why would young people fight for democracy... 566 00:52:46,431 --> 00:52:50,835 if we're just gonna be treated like second 567 00:52:50,868 --> 00:52:53,571 Aside from the physical evidences of the war, 568 00:52:53,604 --> 00:52:57,975 the psychological impact of the war is of extreme importance... 569 00:52:58,008 --> 00:53:02,413 in consideration of the conduct of the children at this time. 570 00:53:03,648 --> 00:53:05,850 The lid had blown off, 571 00:53:05,883 --> 00:53:09,454 and all our anger poured out. 572 00:53:11,456 --> 00:53:14,892 And they searched for a reason why. 573 00:53:14,925 --> 00:53:16,927 Have you ever had any obsessions? 574 00:53:16,961 --> 00:53:19,964 Ideas that drive you to do something? 575 00:53:19,997 --> 00:53:22,567 Well, yeah, I guess so. 576 00:53:22,600 --> 00:53:24,702 I remember when I was a kid I used to have spells... 577 00:53:24,735 --> 00:53:28,539 where I was afraid to touch a knife for fear I'd cut my throat. 578 00:53:32,877 --> 00:53:35,246 Upon America's youth, 579 00:53:35,280 --> 00:53:37,014 the excitement and emotional tension of war... 580 00:53:37,047 --> 00:53:39,584 is today exerting an influence... 581 00:53:39,617 --> 00:53:42,553 which psychiatrists fear may be felt for years to come. 582 00:53:42,587 --> 00:53:48,359 And the conversion to all-out war effort of American industry and the American community... 583 00:53:48,393 --> 00:53:50,995 has confronted many young people, like their elders, 584 00:53:51,028 --> 00:53:54,665 with a profound and unsettling change in their manner of living. 585 00:53:58,669 --> 00:54:00,671 The depression was long gone. 586 00:54:02,373 --> 00:54:04,809 Millions of people were on the move, 587 00:54:04,842 --> 00:54:06,744 just going where the work was. 588 00:54:11,048 --> 00:54:13,751 Dad's working again all hours. 589 00:54:13,784 --> 00:54:15,820 Mom too. 590 00:54:15,853 --> 00:54:18,423 So I'm at home alone a lot. 591 00:54:19,724 --> 00:54:21,626 It gets a little lonely. 592 00:54:25,396 --> 00:54:27,965 Freed from parental authority, 593 00:54:27,998 --> 00:54:31,736 youngsters are venturing into new and unwholesome worlds. 594 00:54:31,769 --> 00:54:35,906 Experiments with new sensations, such as the smoking of marijuana, 595 00:54:35,940 --> 00:54:40,445 are tempting more and more teenage youngsters along dangerous paths. 596 00:54:43,080 --> 00:54:45,383 To many adolescent girls, 597 00:54:45,416 --> 00:54:47,552 even those in their earliest teens, 598 00:54:47,585 --> 00:54:50,888 war is opening up avenues of unaccustomed excitement. 599 00:54:52,423 --> 00:54:55,560 To them any man in uniform seems a hero. 600 00:54:55,593 --> 00:54:58,796 And in towns crowded with footloose soldiers or sailors, 601 00:54:58,829 --> 00:55:03,401 it is easy for them to get passing attention they could not normally expect. 602 00:55:03,434 --> 00:55:06,070 Do you realize what time it is? 603 00:55:06,103 --> 00:55:08,773 Oh, Mother, don't be such an old fuddy-duddy. 604 00:55:20,851 --> 00:55:22,487 No! 605 00:55:25,790 --> 00:55:30,695 Is it wise for a girl of your age to go steady with just one boy, June? 606 00:55:30,728 --> 00:55:35,433 Well, Miss Norton, I don't think a girl should confine her dating schedule to just one boy. 607 00:55:35,466 --> 00:55:38,436 She needs the companionship of all of them. 608 00:55:38,469 --> 00:55:41,972 * There's a girl named Kate, and she thinks she's really great * 609 00:55:42,006 --> 00:55:43,741 * But she's not 610 00:55:46,577 --> 00:55:50,948 * All the boys stare at the girl with blonde hair It's not fair * 611 00:55:53,984 --> 00:55:56,587 They called us Victory Girls. 612 00:55:56,621 --> 00:55:58,589 Khaki Whaki young women. 613 00:55:59,123 --> 00:56:00,791 Juvenile delinquents. 614 00:56:00,825 --> 00:56:02,627 Are you pregnant? 615 00:56:03,193 --> 00:56:05,596 Yes! Yes, I am! 616 00:56:11,502 --> 00:56:15,573 Johnny and 200,000 other youngsters who are arrested each year... 617 00:56:15,606 --> 00:56:18,409 are America's number one crime problem. 618 00:56:19,510 --> 00:56:21,746 Now what will become of this boy? 619 00:56:21,779 --> 00:56:25,149 Will he be fingerprinted, photographed, 620 00:56:25,182 --> 00:56:29,554 given a permanent criminal record at 15? 621 00:56:29,587 --> 00:56:32,089 Will he grow up in reformatories and prisons... 622 00:56:32,122 --> 00:56:34,892 to become a bitter and seasoned criminal? 623 00:56:36,160 --> 00:56:37,928 Can't something be done... 624 00:56:37,962 --> 00:56:42,099 to help these twisted young lives and set them straight? 625 00:56:42,132 --> 00:56:45,570 Golly, what do you suppose is going to happen to us now? 626 00:56:54,111 --> 00:56:57,582 To keep youngsters away from dives and drinking places, 627 00:56:57,615 --> 00:56:59,750 there is the dry nightclub, 628 00:56:59,784 --> 00:57:03,688 organized and operated by the local young people themselves. 629 00:57:03,721 --> 00:57:06,491 Where they exist, experience has shown... 630 00:57:06,524 --> 00:57:11,796 that most youngsters prefer these clubs to more dubious hangouts. 631 00:57:11,829 --> 00:57:15,065 We had a right to a place of our own. 632 00:57:15,099 --> 00:57:20,871 And adults started to realize that maybe some freedom might make us behave. 633 00:57:22,907 --> 00:57:25,843 So we started our own social clubs. 634 00:57:27,111 --> 00:57:29,814 They were called teen canteens. 635 00:57:29,847 --> 00:57:32,082 This is fun, isn't it? Yeah! 636 00:57:32,116 --> 00:57:35,019 You're sure you like to do things like this? Sure. 637 00:57:35,052 --> 00:57:39,223 I thought all girls wanted fellas to take them to fancy places... 638 00:57:39,256 --> 00:57:42,727 and spend lots of money. Not this girl. 639 00:57:42,760 --> 00:57:45,896 We called the clubs The Jive Hive, 640 00:57:45,930 --> 00:57:49,534 The Buzz Bucket, The Swing Haven, Hepcat Hall, 641 00:57:49,567 --> 00:57:52,069 Rhythm Rocker, Boogie and The Strut Hut. 642 00:57:52,102 --> 00:57:54,104 Hear the names? 643 00:57:54,138 --> 00:57:57,007 Proves that they're really ours. 644 00:57:57,041 --> 00:58:00,110 The canteen has its own laws about closing, 645 00:58:00,144 --> 00:58:02,112 and the members obey them. 646 00:58:02,146 --> 00:58:06,150 Some people may question our behavior when we keep the canteen open until 11:00. 647 00:58:06,183 --> 00:58:10,187 Nobody has to stay here till 11:00 just because the canteen is still open. 648 00:58:10,220 --> 00:58:13,658 There's no law that says you have to stay or you have to go. 649 00:58:13,691 --> 00:58:17,595 I have heard people talking about your late hours here. 650 00:58:17,628 --> 00:58:20,164 You'd better realize that the town could pass a law. 651 00:58:20,197 --> 00:58:25,269 You see, whatever the community decides is best for itself... 652 00:58:25,302 --> 00:58:27,071 usually becomes law. 653 00:58:27,104 --> 00:58:30,808 The community? Well, aren't we part of the community? 654 00:58:30,841 --> 00:58:32,643 Well, of course you are, Jack. 655 00:58:32,677 --> 00:58:34,612 Don't you think it would be better... 656 00:58:34,645 --> 00:58:38,849 if the canteen were to pass its own law to close weeknights at 10:30? 657 00:58:38,883 --> 00:58:43,187 And so Jack is learning about social controls. 658 00:58:43,220 --> 00:58:47,291 Social controls, moral code and law... 659 00:58:47,324 --> 00:58:51,696 have always played a part in the activities of the teen canteen. 660 00:58:55,265 --> 00:58:56,934 These leaders-- 661 00:58:56,967 --> 00:58:59,737 the Hitlers and the Goebbels and the Görings... 662 00:58:59,770 --> 00:59:02,707 and, uh, so forth... 663 00:59:02,740 --> 00:59:06,611 have built up, uh-- I don't know-- 664 00:59:06,644 --> 00:59:09,714 some sort of a demi-godliness about them. 665 00:59:09,747 --> 00:59:13,718 The youth of Germany-- they have likes and dislikes, 666 00:59:13,751 --> 00:59:15,986 and they want freedom just as much as other people do. 667 00:59:29,900 --> 00:59:31,702 The tide turned... 668 00:59:33,337 --> 00:59:35,940 and bombs rained from the sky. 669 00:59:40,711 --> 00:59:43,347 There were sirens every night... 670 00:59:43,380 --> 00:59:46,150 and several terrible attacks. 671 00:59:49,319 --> 00:59:52,056 We wanted to run away from this misery. 672 00:59:54,424 --> 00:59:58,696 It didn't matter where to, just away. 673 01:00:21,318 --> 01:00:23,120 Still, 674 01:00:23,153 --> 01:00:26,090 there were some who resisted Hitler's will. 675 01:00:27,291 --> 01:00:28,592 For years, 676 01:00:28,625 --> 01:00:32,763 underground gangs like the Edelweiss Pirates escaped into nature-- 677 01:00:34,398 --> 01:00:36,901 far away from the regime. 678 01:00:40,805 --> 01:00:44,241 They declared eternal war on the Hitler Youth. 679 01:00:46,977 --> 01:00:48,245 In Cologne, 680 01:00:48,278 --> 01:00:51,816 they started a campaign of anti-Hitler graffiti, 681 01:00:51,849 --> 01:00:54,885 vandalism and sabotage. 682 01:00:54,919 --> 01:00:59,123 In just one month 600 of them were arrested. 683 01:01:02,159 --> 01:01:05,863 The Gestapo made an example of them. 684 01:01:12,202 --> 01:01:16,073 Kids of 13 or 14 were sent to the front. 685 01:01:20,310 --> 01:01:23,113 The old had sent us to die, 686 01:01:25,482 --> 01:01:27,952 and there was no turning back. 687 01:01:54,544 --> 01:01:58,715 My parents died in a night bombing attack by the British. 688 01:02:00,851 --> 01:02:05,089 The sight of smoking ruins became a daily occurrence. 689 01:02:12,396 --> 01:02:16,033 I believed that I would not outlive the Third Reich. 690 01:02:18,568 --> 01:02:22,106 If it was condemned to go under, 691 01:02:22,139 --> 01:02:23,908 then so was I. 692 01:02:27,878 --> 01:02:31,882 I was no longer able to suppress the realization... 693 01:02:33,550 --> 01:02:38,222 that all the sacrifices had been in vain. 694 01:02:50,600 --> 01:02:55,405 ** 695 01:02:55,439 --> 01:02:59,143 * Fifteen thousand times a day 696 01:02:59,176 --> 01:03:04,214 * I hear a voice within me say 697 01:03:04,248 --> 01:03:06,984 * "Hide yourself behind a screen * 698 01:03:07,017 --> 01:03:09,319 * You shouldn't be heard You shouldn't be seen * 699 01:03:09,353 --> 01:03:15,025 * You're just an awful in-between" * 700 01:03:19,196 --> 01:03:24,935 * I'm past the stage of doll and carriage * 701 01:03:24,969 --> 01:03:27,537 * And not the age 702 01:03:27,571 --> 01:03:30,040 * To think of marriage 703 01:03:30,074 --> 01:03:34,945 * I'm too old for toys, and I'm too young for boys * 704 01:03:34,979 --> 01:03:39,083 * I'm just an in-between 705 01:03:40,050 --> 01:03:42,319 * I'm not a child 706 01:03:42,352 --> 01:03:44,955 * All children bore me 707 01:03:44,989 --> 01:03:47,124 * I'm not grown up 708 01:03:47,157 --> 01:03:49,393 * Grown-ups ignore me 709 01:03:49,426 --> 01:03:54,999 * And in every sense I'm just on a fence * 710 01:03:55,032 --> 01:03:59,369 * I'm just an in-between * 711 01:04:02,239 --> 01:04:04,208 There's nothing worse than a dope... 712 01:04:04,241 --> 01:04:06,977 who tries to look old or sophisticated, 713 01:04:07,011 --> 01:04:10,080 so all the makeup we use is just powder and lipstick. 714 01:04:10,114 --> 01:04:12,082 But we're fussy about lipstick. 715 01:04:12,116 --> 01:04:14,851 The right shade can make or break. 716 01:04:23,961 --> 01:04:26,196 Of course clothes are awfully important. 717 01:04:26,230 --> 01:04:29,633 If a girl doesn't dress right, the way everyone else is dressing, 718 01:04:29,666 --> 01:04:31,368 well, she's just out. 719 01:04:31,401 --> 01:04:34,071 She might as well be dead. 720 01:04:34,104 --> 01:04:36,240 I don't mean she needs a lot of clothes, 721 01:04:36,273 --> 01:04:39,643 and they don't have to be expensive, but they have to be right, 722 01:04:39,676 --> 01:04:43,147 or she just labels herself a crumb for life. 723 01:04:45,282 --> 01:04:46,616 What's this? 724 01:04:46,650 --> 01:04:48,018 What's what? 725 01:04:48,052 --> 01:04:52,156 Well, Jen, you're not going to Emily's party in those clothes, are you? 726 01:04:53,223 --> 01:04:55,425 Oh, Mother, it's only a hen party. 727 01:04:55,459 --> 01:04:58,228 Do you want them to think I'm different or something? 728 01:04:58,262 --> 01:05:00,164 Oh, all right. 729 01:05:00,197 --> 01:05:01,565 Bye. 730 01:05:01,598 --> 01:05:03,267 Be home early. 731 01:05:07,637 --> 01:05:12,309 Before Pearl Harbor, I was playing with paper dolls. 732 01:05:13,978 --> 01:05:16,580 After Pearl Harbor, 733 01:05:16,613 --> 01:05:19,349 I never played with dolls again. 734 01:05:22,519 --> 01:05:25,189 I'm part of the war effort now. 735 01:05:25,222 --> 01:05:27,391 Workers for victory. 736 01:05:27,424 --> 01:05:31,695 The National Youth Administration schooling in skilled mechanical trades, 737 01:05:31,728 --> 01:05:33,363 and you earn while you learn. 738 01:05:33,397 --> 01:05:37,301 And note the nifty new costumes too: blue jeans. 739 01:05:37,334 --> 01:05:39,736 So here's your chance to take a slap at a Jap. 740 01:05:39,769 --> 01:05:42,239 The army of industry needs you. 741 01:05:50,780 --> 01:05:52,983 I'm earning my own money. 742 01:05:55,619 --> 01:05:58,022 I'm not a little kid anymore. 743 01:06:01,225 --> 01:06:05,295 And I want to be treated like an equal. 744 01:06:06,796 --> 01:06:09,666 I suppose you're going out again tonight. 745 01:06:09,699 --> 01:06:11,468 Yeah. So what? 746 01:06:11,501 --> 01:06:14,771 Jimmy, you have no business staying out half the night... 747 01:06:14,804 --> 01:06:17,207 and coming home all liquored up. 748 01:06:17,241 --> 01:06:21,045 Look, I'm getting sick and tired of being treated like a kid. 749 01:06:21,078 --> 01:06:23,180 I'm making as much money as you are, 750 01:06:23,213 --> 01:06:25,549 and I have a right to have a little fun. 751 01:06:41,365 --> 01:06:43,367 All the big businesses... 752 01:06:43,400 --> 01:06:45,602 were starting to understand how important we were. 753 01:06:45,635 --> 01:06:50,040 We are endeavoring to evaluate your group's social habits. 754 01:06:50,074 --> 01:06:52,376 Could you tell us in your own words? 755 01:06:53,643 --> 01:06:55,779 I can walk into a store... 756 01:06:55,812 --> 01:06:59,683 and buy clothes, records, magazines... 757 01:06:59,716 --> 01:07:02,352 all aimed right at me. 758 01:07:02,386 --> 01:07:04,554 Department stores, 759 01:07:04,588 --> 01:07:07,824 waking up to the special market represented by some six million girls... 760 01:07:07,857 --> 01:07:12,596 are earnestly concentrating on giving this exacting clientele what it wants. 761 01:07:15,699 --> 01:07:19,169 We're the bosses of the business now. 762 01:07:19,203 --> 01:07:21,538 A Big Bang. Uh, chocolate-- 763 01:07:21,571 --> 01:07:23,407 With chocolate sauce. 764 01:07:23,440 --> 01:07:25,542 And, uh, marshmallows, nuts. 765 01:07:25,575 --> 01:07:28,178 How about a cherry? A cherry. 766 01:07:36,386 --> 01:07:38,322 They called us subdebs. 767 01:07:40,224 --> 01:07:43,093 You'd see us all over the magazines. 768 01:07:45,195 --> 01:07:47,431 We weren't debutantes at all. 769 01:07:49,133 --> 01:07:51,601 Just regular old high school kids. 770 01:07:55,772 --> 01:07:58,208 But it sounded fancy. 771 01:07:58,875 --> 01:08:01,111 And we sure like fancy. 772 01:08:07,884 --> 01:08:11,321 I love being 17. 773 01:08:11,355 --> 01:08:14,491 I wish I could stay this age for a while. 774 01:08:18,595 --> 01:08:22,832 Seventeen is that perfect spot between adolescence-- 775 01:08:22,866 --> 01:08:26,303 which means you're going somewhere-- 776 01:08:26,336 --> 01:08:30,574 and adulthood-- which means you're on the downgrade. 777 01:08:33,643 --> 01:08:38,182 ** 778 01:08:48,258 --> 01:08:50,327 Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. 779 01:08:57,801 --> 01:09:00,170 Whether they called us hooligans, 780 01:09:00,204 --> 01:09:04,708 flappers, jitterbugs or subdebs, 781 01:09:04,741 --> 01:09:07,311 we knew who we were. 782 01:09:09,346 --> 01:09:11,648 The time had come... 783 01:09:11,681 --> 01:09:13,450 to declare it. 784 01:09:23,493 --> 01:09:26,296 The article came out in the New York Times. 785 01:09:27,831 --> 01:09:30,567 The Teen-Age Bill of Rights. 786 01:09:31,901 --> 01:09:33,737 A declaration. 787 01:09:33,770 --> 01:09:35,739 A manifesto. 788 01:09:35,772 --> 01:09:39,543 It was like a contract between the generations. 789 01:09:41,478 --> 01:09:43,747 From the beginning of man's life on earth, 790 01:09:43,780 --> 01:09:48,385 there have been but two generations: the old and the young. 791 01:09:48,418 --> 01:09:51,288 And throughout the world's history, 792 01:09:51,321 --> 01:09:53,523 in every nation and in every time, 793 01:09:53,557 --> 01:09:55,292 the lives and fortunes of the young... 794 01:09:55,325 --> 01:09:58,695 have been inevitably ruled by the dictates of the old... 795 01:09:58,728 --> 01:10:03,433 who have called upon youth to enforce their aims and impose their will. 796 01:10:09,773 --> 01:10:11,408 Of all the world's youth, 797 01:10:11,441 --> 01:10:13,577 none are more fortunate by birthright and inheritance... 798 01:10:13,610 --> 01:10:18,282 than the 21 million boys and girls between the ages of 16 and 24... 799 01:10:18,315 --> 01:10:21,485 who constitute one vast and glamorous society. 800 01:10:39,569 --> 01:10:41,738 Today no one portion of the American population... 801 01:10:41,771 --> 01:10:45,775 is more consistently admired than its young men and women. 802 01:10:47,377 --> 01:10:49,946 For since the postwar days of the flapper, 803 01:10:49,979 --> 01:10:51,748 speakeasy and flaming youth, 804 01:10:51,781 --> 01:10:54,951 America's youngsters have led the styles and set the pace... 805 01:10:54,984 --> 01:10:57,521 for the young of every other nation. 806 01:11:10,600 --> 01:11:14,270 Each generation feels that it is the future. 807 01:11:15,605 --> 01:11:17,374 To the teenager, 808 01:11:17,407 --> 01:11:20,344 nothing is more important-- 809 01:11:21,645 --> 01:11:24,581 Than to find out where we fit in... 810 01:11:24,614 --> 01:11:27,417 in relation to life around us. 811 01:11:29,085 --> 01:11:31,555 It is a serious quest. 812 01:11:32,689 --> 01:11:34,290 Often a painful one. 813 01:11:44,934 --> 01:11:48,772 Two atomic bombs three days apart. 814 01:11:48,805 --> 01:11:50,874 Japan has surrendered. 815 01:11:50,907 --> 01:11:54,444 And there's jubilation around this earth. 816 01:12:00,984 --> 01:12:05,589 This is a story that ends with a beginning. 817 01:12:08,157 --> 01:12:10,727 The old world was over, 818 01:12:11,961 --> 01:12:14,564 and a new figure emerged. 819 01:12:24,841 --> 01:12:27,577 It would become the model for youth... 820 01:12:27,611 --> 01:12:29,913 that still exists today. 821 01:12:31,481 --> 01:12:32,916 The teenager. 822 01:12:42,692 --> 01:12:45,795 American culture kept spreading around the world. 823 01:12:49,966 --> 01:12:52,502 They took away our weapons... 824 01:12:54,504 --> 01:12:57,407 and gave us Coca-Colas instead. 825 01:13:04,614 --> 01:13:07,617 The teenager was an American invention. 826 01:13:10,053 --> 01:13:11,555 It's what we wanted to be. 827 01:13:15,625 --> 01:13:17,727 We knew we could be blown up in an instant. 828 01:13:20,063 --> 01:13:22,532 So we lived in the now. 829 01:13:29,105 --> 01:13:32,742 Teenage was a compromise solution. 830 01:13:34,243 --> 01:13:36,813 We got the freedom we were looking for. 831 01:13:39,516 --> 01:13:41,785 But adults still had some control. 832 01:13:46,823 --> 01:13:50,226 A lot of people try to shape the future. 833 01:13:50,259 --> 01:13:52,228 Parents, the government, 834 01:13:52,261 --> 01:13:54,998 bankers, the police. 835 01:13:57,266 --> 01:13:59,803 But it's the young ones who will live in it. 836 01:14:01,004 --> 01:14:04,708 And we are the ones who will fight for it.