Elvis Sightings Reported at UB as Exhibit in Arts and Sciences Library Focuses on "The Fifties"

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Yes, Elvis is in the building.

In Lockwood Memorial Library on the University at Buffalo North (Amherst) Campus, that is.

Tunes by "The King" are among the memorabilia from the 1950s featured in an exhibit, "Fifties Flashback: Popular Culture and American Society," sponsored by UB's Arts and Sciences Library and on display in Lockwood through May 31.

The Lockwood exhibit coincides with "The Fifties," an undergraduate course being taught this semester by Bruce Jackson, Distinguished Professor and Samuel P. Capen Professor of American Culture in the Department of English, and "The Tumultuous Fifties," an exhibit of photos from The New York Times' photo archives that recently closed at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.

UB librarians developed the Lockwood exhibit because several of them had selected advertisements for digitalization and display via computer as part of another exhibit of '50s memorabilia Jackson was asked to put together to accompany the Albright-Knox exhibit, says Charles A. D'Aniello, associate librarian in Lockwood who coordinated the Lockwood exhibit along with Don Hartman, associate librarian in Lockwood, and Michael Morin, senior assistant librarian in the Educational Technology Center.

"As we did this, our interest in the decade grew and we decided to do our own exhibit," says D'Aniello. "On a personal level, I remember the decade's popular culture: television, radio and music. And, of course, I remember my family's move to the suburbs. I was born in 1948," he adds.

The librarians also wanted to support Jackson's course and complement the various events associated with it," he says, adding that "Students walking through Lockwood regularly stop to look at the exhibit."

The material in the exhibit was pulled from the UB collections, as well as other sources, D'Aniello pointed out.

Students and others perusing the Lockwood exhibit will find 45 rpms and hula hoops hanging from the ceiling. At the height of the craze, Wham-O Manufacturing Co. sold 25,000,000 hula hoops in four months, notes Judith Adams Volpe, director of university and external relations for the Arts and Science Libraries.

Timelines introduce the exhibit, D'Aniello says, "enabling the viewer to appreciate the progression of events."

"As is always the case from decade to decade," he says, "the '60s was a reaction to the '50s, and a maturation of problems seething beneath the surface of that earlier decade.

"The impact of science, the struggle against segregation and for civil rights, labor unrest, fears of Communism spreading across the planet and infiltrating the United States, the agony of Korea and the threat of nuclear annihilation are present in the many of the '50s photographs we've displayed in collages on three panels," he says.

The collages also feature images of famous and infamous celebrities -- DiMaggio, Marilyn, Lucy, Annette, Howdy Doody, Jack and Jackie, Buddy Holly -- that immerse visitors in mid-20th century culture.

Selections from the libraries' George Kelley Paperback and Pulp Fiction Collection provide lurid and seductive cover art, with such titles as "Darling, It's Death" and "Teen Age Jungle." In fact, some of the pulp novels were categorized as "perverse," "immoral" and "filth" by the House Select Committee on Current Pornographic Materials, convened from 1952-53.

America's fascination with consumer goods -- from automobiles to toothpaste, canned goods and personal hygiene products -- is documented in collections of advertisements and extensive displays of automotive memorabilia from the personal collection of librarian Tom Pirrung.

Via dedicated computer stations, visitors can see how fall-out shelters became part of the national defense by viewing an educational film on civilian defense training. They also can look at digitalizations of images of 1950s advertisements, and listen to Bebop and rock 'n roll tunes -- including classic Elvis -- that changed the culture forever.

"These stations have been particularly popular with students," D'Aneillo notes.

Contributing exhibit materials, expertise or design to the "Fifties Flashback" exhibit were Kathleen Delaney, Daniel DiLandro, Edward Herman, Michael Lavin, Sharon Murphy, Peggy Pajak, Rachel Penniman, Tom Pirrung, Kathleen Quinlivan, Cindi Tysick and Kim Wagner.

As part of the exhibit, the Arts and Sciences Libraries also sponsored a book talk series, "Reading the Fifties," focusing on four classic '50s novels "Things Fall Apart," "On the Road," "The Catcher in the Rye" and "The Fellowship of the Ring." Along with D'Aniello, Carole Ann Fabian and Cynthia Tysick put together the book talk series.

Images representing items in the exhibit can be viewed at http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/ext/50s.html.

The exhibit can be viewed during regular library hours of 8 a.m. to midnight Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, and noon to midnight on Sunday.