I Watch Films: Rock Around The Clock

Rock Around The Clock

The manager of a big band is fired because no one wants to dance to big bands any more. While driving across country he stops in a small town where all the kids are going to a dance, there he discovers Rock and/or Roll in the person of Bill Haley and His Comets, and also some dancers. He signs them up (the lady dancer makes him halve his cut, also they flirt a lot).

He takes them to New York where the agent who controls bookings tries to sabotage them because she wants to marry the manager. First she books them into a rather conservative venue, but this backfires as all the young people get up to dance. Rock’n’Roll everybody! Then she just blacklists them.

They get in touch with (real life) DJ and Rock and Roll promoter Alan Freed who gives them airplay and a venue (where we discover the black group The Platters performing, perhaps giving a hint to some of the other reasons Rock and Roll was historically disparaged).

There are lots of musical scenes and plenty of dancing. Although not an accurate record of early Rock and Roll, the film does give some insight into attitudes of the time.

Also it’s quite fun, even if the plot is rather slight.

Watch This: For a rock and roll film from the early days of rock and roll
Don’t Watch This: If you want the real story of rock and roll, though of course this film is part of that real story, so maybe do, but as one source amongst many, I don’t know I’ve gone down this rabbit hole and kind of caught myself between a hard place and rock and roll