Coming of Age in Buffalo: Youth and Authority in the Postwar Era

164 Pages·1993·26.073 MB·English

by  William Graebner

COMING
OF AGE IN
BUFFALO

c o
M I N G
OF AGE IN
B U F F A L O
Youth and Authority in the Postwar Era
WILLIAM GRAEBNER
Temple University Press Philadelphia
Temple University Press, Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Philadelphia 19122
Graebner, William.
Copyright © 1990 by Temple University.
Coming of age in Buffalo : youth and authority
All rights reserved
in the postwar era / William Graebner.
Published 1990
p. cm.
Printed in the United States of America
Includes index.
ISBN 13: 978-1-56639-197-9 (paper: alk. paper)
The paper used in this publication meets the
1. Youth-New York (State)-Buffalo-
minimum requirements of American National
History-20th century.
Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence
2. Buffalo (N. Y. )-Social conditions. I. Title.
of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
HQ796.G6995 1989
ANSI Z39.48-1984
305.2'35'0974797-dc 19 88-27283
CIP
011008
For Michael Higgins and
the people of Buffalo

CONTENTS
PREFACE IX
THEMES 5
CULTURE AND SUBCULTURE 11
SOCIAL ENGINEERING 87
PORTENTS 119
NOTES 131
INDEX 143
vii

c
p R E F A E
y work on the history of Buffalo youth began about five years ago
as a traditional scholarly undertaking, inspired by an abiding
interest in systems and relationships of authority, by a grow
ing attachment to the city of Buffalo and, as my teenage son
suspects, by a reluctance to give up the ghost of my youth.
The project took a different direction in 1985, when Rollie Adams, then Direc
tor of the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society, encouraged me to move
toward a major public exhibit of photographs and artifacts. With a grant from the
New York State Council on the Arts, the exhibit opened in September 1986. It
ran for a year (in fact, portions of it still circulate at local banks and shopping
malls) and proved to be the single most important experience of my professional
life. For the first time, my work-me, my ideas, my ways of seeing and organizing
the world-became accessible to my friends and to the community.
I am grateful to Rollie, for his vision and confidence, and to the Buffalo and
Erie County Historical Society; to Thomas Payne, for dogged and decisive assis
tance in organizing materials for public consumption; to Michael Higgins, for
printing the exhibit photographs; to Mary Simmons-Smillie, for producing over
700 8 X 10 inch prints, some of which appear in this book; and to Joan Tondra of
Tondra & Stem, for a brilliant catalogue design that captured not only the exhibit
but the spirit of the postwar era. I am also indebted to those who talked with me
about their lives as teenagers in Buffalo, and whose recollections and photographs
make this book possible. Special thanks go to Dave Schnell, Lee Johansson,
Jerry Szefel, Al Triem, David Holdsworth, Bob Prince, Cliff Pritchard, Patricia
Guarino, Joe Greco, Ernie Corallo, Tom Scherer, Bob DeSoto, Margaret Russ,
June Bihl, Daniel Majchrzak, Betty Lou Eisenmann, Dan Petrelli, Rose Galli-
van, Danny Chudoba, B. John Tutuska, Rose Ann Bruno, Bob Sniatecki, Tony i x