Sidney Poitier and the Birth of Rock 'n Roll

Both his career and a new musical genre (and the first anti-rock protests) broke out with the same 1955 movie.

There is so much interesting and laudatory to say about the life and career and political activism of the late Sidney Poitier, but I will concentrate on just one early highlight (given my lifetime passion) that is not drawing quite enough attention: His appearance in the movie that played a central role in launching the rock ‘n roll craze in the USA, long before Elvis Presley became a national sensation.

And it happened right in the opening credits for Richard Brooks’ Blackboard Jungle, starring Glenn Ford as the teacher but with everyone from Sidney to Vic Morrow and Paul Mazursky as juvenile delinquents. Spoiler alert: Sidney would turn heroic by the end. And in the following decade he would take the teacher role in To Sir, With Love.

Here is that famous Blackboard Jungle opening:

It must be noted that this movie came out in March, 1955, while Elvis did not make his famous Ed Sullivan appearance until the autumn of 1956. The song, originally an obscure B-side in 1954, took off and went to #1 for two months. Supposedly it ended up in the film after Glenn Ford asked his son to pull a single out of his collection of 45s that would appeal to teens.

“Rock Around the Clock” was used in that opener, as an instrumental in the middle of the movie, and then at the end. Kids got so “hopped up” by the song and the flick that it sparked violence in and around some theaters, sparking the first adult condemnation of that devil rock ‘n roll. It was banned in some cities (including Memphis and Atlanta) and sparked “Teddy Boy” rioting in the UK.

Here’s Poitier, who was 27 at the time, in a couple of key scenes.

“Essential daily newsletter.” — Charles P. Pierce, Esquire

“Incisive and enjoyable every day.” — Ron Brownstein, The Atlantic

“Always worth reading.” — Frank Rich, New York magazine, Veep and Succession

Greg Mitchell is the author of a dozen books, including the bestseller The Tunnels (on escapes under the Berlin Wall), the current The Beginning or the End (on MGM’s wild atomic bomb movie), and The Campaign of the Century (on Upton Sinclair’s left-wing race for governor of California), which was recently picked by the Wall St. Journal as one of five greatest books ever about an election. His new film, Atomic Cover-up, has been featured at a dozen festivals this year and is winning awards. For nearly all of the 1970s he was the #2 editor at the legendary Crawdaddy. Later he served as longtime editor of Editor & Publisher magazine. He recently co-produced a film about Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.