Majesty in Tokyo: The 1964 Olympics

The first modern Olympics was held in 1896 in Athens, and the games have certainly changed much since then—a fact that will be obvious to anyone who tunes in the 2024 edition from Paris and sees competitve breakdancing, the latest addition to the Games’ cavalcade of sport.

The Olympics are continually evolving, but all throughout the years the Games have a simple appeal: The best athletes in the world gather and compete to see who is the fastest, the strongest, and the most acrobatic. On top of it you have pageantry: the opening and closing ceremonies can be as compelling as the games themselves.

In 1964 LIFE staff photographer Art Rickerby went to Tokyo to capture the 1964 Summer games in all their glory.

The Tokyo Olympics made history because it was the first the time the event was staged in Asia. That was also the first time the Olympics were broadcast via satellite—before that, improbable as it sounds, video tapes had to be flown across oceans before the competition could be seen by overseas viewers.

From the perspective of LIFE managing editor George P. Hunt, who covered many Olympics, the Tokyo event also stood out for the control exerted by Japanese officials. “The Games were precise, stiff and formal,” Hunter wrote, looking back in 1968. “The Japanese have a penchant for over-organization. The government even put a lid on the hot spots in Ginza.”

That management style which seemed novel to Hunter has become the standard, no matter where the Olympics are held. Host cities spend many billions to stage the games, and media companies invest heavily to broadcast them. They prepare with the same intensity as the athletes, and they do what they can to make sure all goes as hoped.

And the 1964 event, as always, made for not just plenty of athletic drama but some pretty pictures as well.

Opening ceremony at the track and field stadium of the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

West and East Germans march together at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Arthur Rickerby/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Japanese athletes marched in at the opening ceremonies of the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Arthur Rickerby/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

(Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock)

Japanese trumpeters at the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics.

Art Rickerby/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock)

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Japanese track athlete Yoshinori Sakai lit the torch at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Olympic torch at the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The opening ceremonies of the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games, Japan.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sunrise at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium, home of the swimming and diving events of the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

1964 Summer Olympic flags, Tokyo, Japan.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Opening ceremony at the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics, Japan.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A snack vendor at the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics.

Art Rickerby/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

1964 Summer Olympics, Tokyo, Japan.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Al Oerter of the U.S. team won a gold medal in discus at the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

US swimmer Don Schollander (second from left) competed at the 1964 Summer Olympics, Tokyo.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

US gold medal winner swimmer Don Schollander celebrated at the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics, Japan.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

US gold medal winner swimmer Don Schollander at 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics, Japan.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

USA swimmer Cathy Ferguson cried after winning gold in the 100-meter backstroke at the 1964 Summer Olympics. (L) Christine Caron of France won silver, (R) American Ginny Duenkel won bronze.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The USA women’s swim team signed a kick board after winning gold in the 4×100-meter medley relay, 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics. L-R: Cynthia Goyette, Kathy Ellis ,Cathy Ferguson, Sharon Stouder.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

(Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock)

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

US sprinter Edith McGuire at 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics, Japan.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

USA diver Larry Andreasen at the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics, Japan.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

US athlete Hayes Jones in Tokyo 1964 Summer Olympics, Japan

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Soviet heavy-weightlifter Yuri Vlasov at 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics, Japan.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Medal ceremony at Lake Sagami for the Women’s 550-meter kayak pairs event. West Germans Roswitha Esser and Annemarie Zimmermann won gold. Second place went to 15-year-old Francine Fox and 35-year-old Gloriane Perrier of the US. In third place were Hilde Lauer and Cornelia Sideri of Romania.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ginny Duenkel (C), Marilyn Ramenofsky (R), and Terri Stickles (L) on the victory stand following the 400 meter race at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Arthur Rickerby/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Behind the Picture: Hansel Mieth’s Wet, Unhappy Monkey

It is, without question, one of the most famous, most frequently reproduced animal photographs ever made. But photographer Hansel Mieth‘s own attitude toward her 1938 portrait of a sodden rhesus monkey hunched in the water off of Puerto Rico was, to put it bluntly, conflicted. In fact, the German-born Mieth (1909-1998) memorably called the creature in the picture “the monkey on my back.”

As Mieth explained in a 1993 interview with John Loengard, published in his book, LIFE Photographers: What They Saw, she made the photograph while covering a Harvard Medical School primate study on tiny Cayo Santiago, off the east coast of Puerto Rico:

One afternoon all the doctors were away [Mieth told Loengard], and a little kid came running to me and said, “A monkey’s in the water.”

I came down, and that monkey was really going hell-bent for something. . . . I threw my Rolleiflex on my back and swam out. Finally, I was facing the monkey. I don’t think he liked me, but he sat on that coral reef, and I took about a dozen shots.

When she got back to New York, Mieth learned that the joke around the LIFE offices was that she’d produced a striking portrait of Henry Luce, the founder and publisher of TIME, LIFE, Fortune and other magazines: evidently, some of her colleagues felt that the rhesus in the water looked like their boss. When asked by Loengard, six decades later, if she felt the portrait did resemble Luce, Mieth was diplomatic.

I didn’t see Luce that much. He had lots of other things to do rather than talk with photographers. . . . But I suppose it does, in a way. It all depends on what kind of mood you are in. To me it looks like the monkey’s depicting the state of the world at the time. It was dark and somber and angry. There were a lot of dark clouds swirling around. I heard from many people that they were scared when they looked at it.

Today, the monkey on Mieth’s back still commands our gaze, inviting us perhaps challenging us to project our own fears, anxieties and speculations on to a picture, and a primate, that never gets old.

FINAL NOTE: While a half-dozen lesser pictures from the assignment in Puerto Rico were published in the Jan. 2, 1939, issue of LIFE, Mieth’s now-iconic monkey photo appeared a few weeks later, in the Jan. 16 issue accompanied by the caption, “A misogynist seeks solitude in the Caribbean off Puerto Rico.”

According to the magazine, a primatologist explained that “the chatter of innumerable female monkeys had impelled this neurotic bachelor to seek escape from the din” by fleeing the jungle and making his way into the waves.

Seventy-five years later, that particular theory about how and why the rhesus was out there in the water still sounds as reasonable as any other.

Ben Cosgrove is the Editor of LIFE.com

A rhesus monkey in Puerto Rico, 1938.

A rhesus monkey in Puerto Rico, 1938.

Hansel Mieth—The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A baby rhesus monkey climbed on the chest of Michael Tomlin, a primatologist who cared for a rhesus colony in Humacao, Puerto Rico, 1938.

Hansel Mieth/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This photo, which ran at a full page in LIFE in 1939, was labelled “Rhesus: Life Size” to show readers how small the monkeys were.

Hansel Mieth/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A rhesus monkey ate a flower in Humacao, Puerto Rico, 1939

Hansel Mieth/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A rhesus monkey searched for food in Cayo Santiago, Humacao, Puerto Rico, 1938.

Hansel Mieth/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Rhesus monkeys searched for food on Cayo Santiago, Humacao, Puerto Rico, 1938.

Hansel Mieth/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

When It Was “Swimsuit or Jail” at Myrtle Beach

Myrtle Beach is one of the great tourist beach towns that dot the East Coast, and it has only become more popular since it was written about in LIFE magazine in 1952. Back then the magazine estimated the local population to be about 6,000 people, whereas today it can seem as if Myrtle Beach has nearly that many holes of golf available for play.

But in 1952, as a resort destination on the rise, Myrtle Beach was looking for attention-getting ways to open up its beach season. Before that year the town had kicked off festivities with a beauty pageant. Then in ’52 Myrtle Beach decided to stage “Bathing Suit Day,” and the rules were simple: Wear a bathing suit, or go to jail.

Although the word “jail” is being used loosely—no one was actually doing hard time, as the photos from LIFE staff photographer Robert W. Kelley attest. And while the town had officially moved on from a beauty pageant, the event still managed to include a batallion of young women in swimsuits.

Here’s how LIFE described the workings of Bathing Suit Day in its June 23, 1952 issue:

“Everyone in town and every visitor would have to wear beach attire from 6 a.m. until noon under pain of fine or imprisonment in an impromptu stockade. Three businessmen served as judges, 32 town ladies acted as attire inspectors, and convict suits were borrowed from the superintendent of county prisoners—who himself was thrown in jail and made to wear one when he came to Myrtle Beach in ordinary garb to see whether the suits have arrived.”

The day went well, and the weekend also included a parade and contests on the beach. LIFE reported that $650 in fines were levied to those not in swimwear, with the proceeds going toward the construction of a new hospital, and that the 1952 vacation season at Myrtle Beach “had opened with the biggest attendance ever.”

Bathing Suit Day in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, June 1952.

Robert W. KelleyLife Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bathing Suit Day in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, June 1952.

Robert W. KelleyLife Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bathing Suit Day’ in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, June 1952.

Robert W. KelleyLife Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Patrolman Charles Edmonson on duty during ‘bathing suit day’ at Myrtle Beach, 1952.

Robert W. KelleyLife Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bathing Suit Day in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, June 1952.

Robert W. KelleyLife Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bathing Suit Day in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, June 1952.

Robert W. KelleyLife Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A violator of the “must wear a swimsuit” rules and a law-abiding dog left the impromptu jail set up during Bathing Suit Day in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, 1952.

Robert W. KelleyLife Picture Collection/Shutterstock

One of the enforcement offices for Bathing Suit Day in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, June 1952.

Robert W. KelleyLife Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Men buried women in sand for a contest held on Bathing Suit Day in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, 1952.

Robert W. KelleyLife Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bathing suit day in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, June 1952.

Robert W. KelleyLife Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bathing Suit Day in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, June 1952.

Robert W. KelleyLife Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bathing suit day in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, June 1952.

Robert W. KelleyLife Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bathing Suit Day in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, June 1952.

Robert W. KelleyLife Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bathing Suit Day in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, June 1952.

Robert W. KelleyLife Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bathing Suit Day in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, June 1952.

Robert W. KelleyLife Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Eisenstaedt in Postwar Italy (and Yes, That’s Pasta)

Some individuals are blessed enough to look beautiful even when they’re having a bad hair day. That was, in a sense, Italy on a grand scale in 1947. The country was coming out of World War II and 18 years of the rule of dictator Benito Mussolini. A LIFE story surveyed the postwar Italian landscape and fretted that the country was “on the brink of Communist revolution.”

That revolution didn’t happen, but still, Italy—birthplace of the Renaissance—had seen better days.

For its 1947 story LIFE sent staff photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt on a tour of the country, and many of his pictures documented scenes of distress, with Italians doing their best to carry on amid bombed out buildings.

But even its those hard times Italy still looked beautiful, and Eisenstaedt even captured livelier scenes, most of which did not make it into the magazine. Eisenstadt photographed a packed La Scala opera house in Milan, American sailors enjoying the Piazza San Marco in Venice, and people at work in pasta factories and Tuscan wineries.

And LIFE’s generally dire account of the Italy did acknowledge that, amid the political unrest and troubling poverty, there were still tourists visiting and good times to be had:

“….with her surging vitality, Italy is showing signs of recovery. In her delightful restaurants the tourist can choose from among countless delicacies, though most Italians still do not get enough to eat. In her factories the production lines are running again….Even among venerable remains of past glory, transformed into modern rubble by the war, scholars are working to change the ruins back to their original state. Slowly, painfully, Italy is trying to rebuild herself.”

Eisenstaedt ranged widely during his tour of Italy, capturing images in Rome, Venice, Siena, Naples, Milan and more, venturing from tony resorts to struggling regions where the difficulties are plain to see. One of the shots that captures the mix well shows children playing amid the ruins of the Theatre of Marcellus, broken and magnificent all at once.

LIFE’s plaintive final note to its story was: “For sensitive people with an abiding lust for life, the Italians’ tragedy today is that they have never learned to govern themselves.”

Young men working in a pasta factory carried rods of pasta to drying rooms, Italy, 1947.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Young men carrying rods of pasta for drying, Italy, 1947.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Man hanging pasta noodles, Italy, 1947.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Postwar Italy, 1947.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life PIcture Collection/Shutterstock

An Italian boy stood on top of a US Army tank left on the edge of the beach at Salerno, 1947.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Postwar Italy, 1947.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The La Scala Opera House in Milan was at capacity for a performance conducted by Antonio Pedrotti, 1947.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A cellarman at Giannino’s handed a bottle of wine to a waiter; the cellar had about 1,500 different wines and liqueurs. Chianti flasks were in the foreground, 1947.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Chianti flasks in storeroom of the Baron Ricasoli vineyards in Siena, Italy, 1947.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Men fishing near the bridge in Italy, 1947.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The archway was all that remained in 1947 of a block of buildings near the main plaza of an Italian city that was heavily bombed during World War II.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Postwar Italy, 1947.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Children played among the ruins of the Temple of Apollo. In background, the Palazzo Sermoneta, built atop the centuries-old ruins of Caesar’s Theater of Marcellus in Rome. 1947..

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Naples, 1947.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Postwar Italy, 1947.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Workers in an olive grove south of Monopoli took a siesta after lunch under a favorite tree, 1947.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Shoeshine boys in slum neighborhood near the waterfront in postwar Italy, 1947.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A woman carried a tray of dough on her head through street of hilltop town in postwar Italy, 1947.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Two American sailors in the Piazza San Marco in Venice, 1947.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Beside damaged statues of the Monte Cassino Abbey, a lay brother made sketches that were to aid in the restoration process, 1947.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Women worked at a fabric factory in Italy, 1947.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Newsstand, Italy, 1947.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Customers buying bread in the streets in Naples, Italy, in 1947.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Women sewed outside their Trulli homes. Trulli are made from limestone boulders and feature conical or domed roofs. Roofs of Trulli are painted with signs to ward off evil. Italy, 1947.

.Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Two women passed by a wayside shrine near Castellamare, Italy, 1947.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Laundry hanging in main square of Burano, Venice, Italy, 1947.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Portrait of a woman standing near a ruins, Italy, 1947

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Postwar Italy, 1947.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

People relaxed at a swimming pool in a resort in Italy, 1947.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A woman in heeled sandals, Italy, 1947.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Hey, Wanna Hot Dog?

In 1972 LIFE magazine ran a story which announced that “hot dogs are on the grill both literally and figuratively these days.” The problem with hot dogs, the story said, was that they were full of fat and water and not very much protein. The article included a quote from consumer watchdog and future presidential spoiler Ralph Nader calling hot dogs “among America’s deadliest missiles.”

And yet all these decades later, even as Americans have only grown more health- and diet-conscious, hot dogs remain a favorite. In 2023 the cookout staples were an $8 billion market, according to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council.

The numbers reflect a basic truth, which that health is not always at the forefront of consumer’s minds, and that is especially true when they are heating up the grill or enjoying an afternoon at the ballpark. Those are the situations for which the concept of the cheat day was invented. For every person who finds a hot dog revolting—that same LIFE story quoted New York consumer affairs commissioner Bess Myerson as saying “After I found what was in hot dogs, I stopped eating them”—there are others who gravitate to its simple pleasures.

During the original run of LIFE magazine, hot dogs frequently popped up in settings both surprising and expected. Frank Sinatra was seen munching on one in his tuxedo after performing in Miami. Hall of Fame baseball executive Bill Veeck was photographed enjoying one in the stands. Perhaps the most humorous photo in this collection features actress Buff Cobb, who would go on to marry TV journalist Mike Wallace. Cobb and LIFE staff photographer Martha Holmes collaborated on a 1946 photo shoot that was a parody of a Hollywood puff piece. In one photo Cobb was on the beach, being attended by a butler as she roasted a hot dog over an open fire. The caption mentioned how Cobb loved to rough it and cook from “old family recipes.”

In that instance the hot dog was the punch line to a culinary joke. But if you substitute “old family recipe” with “old family favorite,” that caption would be a perfect description of the hot dog’s place in the American diet.

Tony Bennett was out with Frank Sinatra after a performance in Miami, 1965.

John Dominis/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

TV comedienne Dagmar took her siblings to a hot dog stand while visiting family in Huntington, West Virginia, 1951.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bill Veeck, owner of the St. Louis Browns baseball team, 1952.

Ed Clark/Life Picture Collection/Shuttertstock

In a shoot that was a parody of the life of a Hollywood movie star, actress Buff Cobb was said to be ‘roughing it” and cooking from an old family recipe as she prepared a hot dog on the beach while a butler attended to her, 1946.

Martha Holmes/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Cooking hot dogs, Mattar uses homemade stove which slides forward into the back seat from trunk.

This 1952 story about “a car that has everything” included this image of owner Louis Mattar, a California garage owner and tinkerer, making a hot dog in his tricked-out Cadillac, 1952.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

People crowded a hot dog stand on the boardwalk at Atlantic City, N.J., 1941.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A barefoot hot dog vendor waited for customers near a police headquarters in Guatemala, 1953.

Cornell Capa/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A dog nibbled on a hot dog, 1972.

Ralph Morse/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The All-American Hot Dog 1972

Portrait of a hot-dog eater, 1972.

Ralph Morse The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The All-American Hot Dog 1972

Portrait of a hot-dog eater, 1972.

Ralph Morse The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The All-American Hot Dog 1972

Portrait of a hot-dog eater, 1972.

Ralph Morse The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The All-American Hot Dog 1972

Portrait of a hot-dog eater, 1972.

Ralph Morse The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Dawn of Rock: America Finds Its Thrill

In its April 18, 1955 issue LIFE magazine reported on—with a fair amount of concern—the onset of the defining evolution of popular music in the 20th century. The story was titled “Rock ‘N Roll: A Frenzied Teenage Music Craze Kicks Up a Big Fuss.“

Here’s how LIFE described what the “big fuss” was all about:

The nation’s teenagers are dancing their way into an enlarging controversy over rock ‘n roll. In New Haven, Connecticut the police chief has put a damper on rock ‘n roll parties and other towns are following suit. Radio networks are worried over questionable lyrics in rock ‘n roll. And some American parents, without quite knowing what it is their kids are up to, are worried that it’s something they shouldn’t be.

But like it or not, rock and roll was here to stay. Standing in the heart of the moment, LIFE saw dancing as a big part of the new music’s appeal. The magazine, grasping to connect this revolutionary moment to the recent past, described rock and roll dancing as “a combination of “the Lindy and the Charleston, and almost anything else.” The story, shot by staff photographers Walter Sanders and Loomis Dean, had more pictures of kids dancing than of musicians performing. One of the shoots took place at the dance studio of Arthur Murray, where kids demonstrated their new moves.

LIFE acknowledged the roots of this new music, saying “The heavy-beat and honking-melody tunes of today’s rock ‘n roll have a clearly defined ancestry in U.S. jazz going back to Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith of 30 years ago.” The broader market was now turning to a style of music that first became popular in the Black community because record companies had been focussing on “mambos and ballads,” and as a result “the country’s teenagers found themselves without snappy dance tunes to their taste.”

Some adults fretted over lyrics that seemed to be laden with innuendo and double meanings. But even as the LIFE article adopted the tone of a worried parent, the pictures in the magazine told another story. The photos showed exuberance and joy. And by today’s standards, everything looks extremely proper. The main concert photos feature the great Fats Domino, who is wearing a suit and playing a grand piano. The young fans are dressed as if they were going to a formal occasion, without any jeans or T-shirts in sight.

It’s mind-boggling to think that a mere 14 years from when this story ran, rock fans would be mucking around in the mud at Woodstock. But there was no stopping it at this point. The revolution was on, and it was coming fast.

Teenagers demonstrated their rock music dance moves for Arthur Murray and his wife, in background, at Murray’s dance studio.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Arthur Murray and wife (in the background to the left) enjoyed a demonstration by teen-agers of rock`n roll dancing, 1955..

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Young dancers from a 1955 story on rock music.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A couple dancing from a story on rock music, 1955.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A young couple danced to rock music, 1955.

Loomis Dean/Life PIcture Collection/Shutterstock

Pioneering rock DJ Allen Freed did a show from a studio in Boston, 1955.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A sign for an early rock show presented by pioneering DJ Allan Freed, 1955.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Teenagers danced to rock music being spun by DJ Al Jarvis in the parking lot of a Los Angeles supermarket, 1955.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Audience members enjoying Alan Freed’s Easter show at Brooklyn Paramount Theater, 1955.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Saxophonist Herbert Hardesty (center), a member of Fats Domino’s band, let loose at 54 Ballroom in Los Angeles, 1955.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fats Domino’s band performed in Los Angeles, 1955.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fats Domino’s band rocked out in Los Angeles, 1955.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fats Domino in concert in Los Angeles, 1955.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fats Domino and his band performed in Los Angeles, 1955.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Young dancers from a 1955 story on rock music.

Walter Sanders/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A show from the early days of rock and roll, 1955.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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