California Dreams

In a recent segment on Berkeley and Watts in their “California Dreaming” series, NPR’s syndicated program Day to Day featured Kirse Granat May, author of Golden State, Golden Youth: The California Image in Popular Culture, 1955-1966. [May appears around the 2:20 mark in the podcast.] Reporter Richard Gonzales also has a blog post about reconsidering the historical flashpoints of 1960s California, from “Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color” to the Watts riots.

Of May’s Golden State, Golden Youth, the Los Angeles Times had this to say: “Wholly fascinating in its savvy take on the making and manipulation of pop culture, Kirse’s study is a lively exercise in the deconstruction of beach movies, coonskin caps, surf music and even Annette Funicello’s famous one-piece swimsuit.”

You can read a sample chapter of Golden State, Golden Youth on the UNC Press website.

Are you a California dreamer?