It’s Friday! Let’s get groovy with some music history!
Back in the mid-1950s, there were two styles of music that were rapidly gaining popularity. One was “rock ‘n’ roll.” and the other was “calypso.” In fact, in 1956, considered by many to be the birth year of rock ‘n’ roll, the year’s biggest selling album wasn’t Elvis Presley or Elvis. It was Harry Belafonte’s Calypso. After that, everyone jumped on the calypso bandwagon including actor Robert Mitchum who released his album Calypso – is like so… in 1957. As it turned out, there was too much weight on that bandwagon and it collapsed. By the end of 1958, the calypso fad was over.
All this is by way of explaining why a bunch of young Austrians are dancing the calypso in today’s offering. It’s from the 1957 film Die Lindenwirtin vom Donaustrand (The Linden Hostess from Danube Beach.) It tells the story of a young Austrian girl who returns from college to find her widowed mother struggling to make a go of the family inn. The daughter decides to steal antiquities from a nearby uninhabited castle and use them to dress up the inn. She makes a success of the place, turning it into a hangout for hip young calypsomaniacs, but eventually the owner of the castle returns and that’s all IMDb has to say on the matter.
Have a groovy weekend!
Bonus chair dance!
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