Contrary to
popular belief, Beatniks were not black beret, black turtleneck, dark sunglasses, goatee wearing kids who hung-out in dark cafes reading poetry. Allegedly, the word was coined by a reporter who combined the words beat—tired, worn out—short for Beat Generation, and nik, short for Sputnik, the World’s first space satellite, implying members of the Beat Generation (my parents’ generation, who were children in the 1940s and in their twenties in the 1950s) were
Communists—and some of them were. There were real Beatniks though—what we
in the States called Hippies (little Hipsters), the British called Beatniks. In virtually every way, they were one in the same. Beginning in the late ‘50s, the stereotype “Beatnik” we think of today was created as a marketing ploy to create a new subculture in order to sell anything from berets and sunglasses to cheap bongos. Hollywood contributed to the stereotype, but also portrayed Beatniks for what they really were, at times. A very
realistic TV “Beatnik” was Maynard, played by Bob Denver, in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959).
When someone of the Beat
Generation was asked “
How are you,” the reply was
inevitably— “Ah, you know me. I’m just beat.”
When a Beatnik was asked the same, he might have replied—“Hey Dad, don’t put me on a bummer with all that phony L7 stuff! Have another Martini and just slide me some skin, unless you really wanna rap!”
