How Anti-Smut Activists Made ‘Louie, Louie' Famous

Censors wore out their welcome during the 20th Century’s indecency wars.

- By Robert Corn-Revere

IN THE MID-1950S, rock ’n’ roll music was widely condemned as a public nuisance and threat to public safety, and the junk science of the day claimed that teens were “addicted” to the music. Police officials across the country—in Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and other states—blamed juvenile delinquency and general unrest on rock ’n’ roll. Minneapolis in 1959 banned a show hosted by Dick Clark “for the peace and well-being of the city” because the police chief was convinced that it would spark violence. It was not an isolated overreaction. Other cities that banned rock ’n’ roll shows based on public safety concerns included Boston, Massachusetts; Bridgeport and New Haven, Connecticut; Asbury Park, New Jersey; Santa Cruz, California; and Birmingham, Alabama.

A 1955 Los Angeles Times article described rock ’n’ roll as “a violent, harsh type of music that, parents feel, incites teenagers to do all sorts of crazy things,” and it quoted a psychiatrist who opined that rock ’n’ roll was a “contagious disease.” Others in the psychiatric field concurred. Dr. Francis J. Braceland, an internationally known psychiatrist who testified at the Nuremberg trials and would serve as president of both the American Psychiatric Association and the World Psychiatric Association, called rock ’n’ roll “cannibalistic and tribalistic,” comparing it to a “communicable disease.”