Video: 'Blackboard Jungle' trailer
(Saturday, March 19, 1955) — Blackboard Jungle, a social commentary film about teachers in an inner-city school, opened today at Loew’s State Theatre in New York City. The film marked the rock and roll revolution by featuring Bill Haley & His Comets’ “Rock Around the Clock.”
Directed by Richard Brooks, the film starred Glenn Ford, Anne Francis, Louis Calhern and Sidney Poitier.
Image: 'Charlie Parker - Charlie Parker Story'
(Saturday, March 12, 1955, 8:15 p.m. EST) — Legendary jazz musician Charlie “Bird” Parker died tonight in New York City of heart failure. Known as the inventor of bebop, Parker was 34.
Video: '"Producers' Showcase" Peter Pan (7 March 1955)' (4 videos)
(Monday, March 7, 1955, 7:30-9:00 p.m. EST) — NBC-TV presented the full-length Broadway production of Peter Pan live tonight in color (only a black-and-white kinescope recording survived) as part of Producers’ Showcase, with nearly all of the show’s original cast.
The show attracted a then-record audience of 65-million viewers, the highest ever up to that time for a single television program.
Video: 'Rosemary Clooney - Mambo Italiano - 1954 originals'
(Thursday, November 18, 1954) — ABC radio and TV today banned “Mambo Italiano,” a hit by Rosemary Clooney, for so-called “offensive lyrics,” most likely due to the exaggerated Italian vernacular, including the words “goombah” and “gidrool.”
Image: 'Elvis Presley - Backstage at the Overton Park Shell, Friday, July 30, 1954'
(Friday, July 30, 1954, 8:00 p.m. local time) — Elvis Presley made his professional debut in Memphis. It was his first concert to be advertised.
(Thursday, May 20, 1954) — Bill Haley & His Comets’s “Rock Around the Clock,” considered the first rock and roll song to top the charts, was released today, but it didn’t catch on until it appeared on the soundtrack of Blackboard Jungle the following year.
Video: 'Fender 60th Anniversary American Vintage 1954 Stratocaster Electric Guitar'
(Saturday, May 15, 1954) — The Fender Stratocaster, a double-cutaway electric guitar with an extended top “horn” shape for balance designed by Leo Fender, George Fullerton and Freddie Tavares, was released today.
(Monday, April 12, 1954) — Bill Haley and His Comets today recorded “Rock Around The Clock,” considered the first rock and roll song to top the charts, for Decca Records at the Pythian Temple studios in New York City.
Video: 'Big Joe Turner - Shake Rattle N'Roll (Rare Stereo Mix 1954)'
(Monday, February 15, 1954) — “Shake, Rattle and Roll,” a twelve bar blues-form rock and roll song, was recorded today by Big Joe Turner in New York. The Turner version was ranked #127 on the Rolling Stone magazine’s list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Video: 'Muddy Waters - Hoochie Coochie Man ( Chess 1954)'
(Thursday, January 7, 1954) — Muddy Waters recorded “Hoochie Coochie Man”, a blues standard written by Willie Dixon, today in Chicago. The song was ranked #225 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
