# How long has minus-twenty-years nostalgia been going on? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 6, 2008, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-has-minus-twenty-years-nostalgia-been-going-on/448342 "2008-05-06T21:03:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-has-minus-twenty-years-nostalgia-been-going-on/448342/21 "2008-05-08T05:41:43Z")
Yes, it is a tricky business quantifying the degree of nostalgia in the air at any particular point in time. Just to poke a hole in the premise of the OP, let’s focus on the 1970s. There was the 1950s nostalgia you mention, but we could just as easily say there was a 1940s or 1930s nostalgia going around at the time. Consider the evidence: **1940s** \*Blockbuster movies such as _That’s Entertainment_ - the motherlode of movie nostalgia, with emphasis on 1940s musicals; _Play It Again, Sam_ & _The Long Goodbye_, both part of a film noir revival trend; _Summer of '42_, a sentimental coming-of-age tale with a sentimental theme song that was also very successful \*various big-band era songs being remade & converted into disco hits, such as Johnny Mercer’s “Tangerine” done by the Salsoul Orchestra \*in mens’ fashion wide jacket lapels & wide ties become stylish as they had not been since the 1940s **1930s** \*_The Waltons_, TV’s sentimental look back at the Great Depression \*Blockbuster movies such as _The Sting_; _What’s Up, Doc?_ (an homage to screwball comedies of the '30s); _Paper Moon_; and _The Way We Were_(actually '30s & '40s nostalgia); _Cabaret_ with its hit soundtrack There was even a creeping '60s nostalgia during the 1970s. Lest we forget, _American Graffiti_ was set in the 1960s - in fact it was set only ten years earlier than it was filmed. _Shampoo_ looked back at 1968; _Beatlemania_ was big on Broadway; there was a movie version of _Hair_ in 1979; and Laverne and Shirley were living in 1964 by the end of the 1970s. My point is that it’s not as simple a picture as you may think. Here’s something else to ponder: in 1959 there were 26 westerns being broadcast on TV every week in prime time. Does this indicate a rampant nostalgia for the 1870s in the 1950s? ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-has-minus-twenty-years-nostalgia-been-going-on/448342/22 "2008-05-08T17:26:22Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally Posted by **Exapno Mapcase** > There was no nostalgia for the 1940s in the 60s, I can assure you. I beg to differ: 1962 The Longest Day 1962 Hell is for Heroes 1963 Combat! 1963 Donovan’s Reef 1963 The Great Escape 1964 The Americanization of Emily 1965 In Harm’s Way 1965 Hogan’s Heroes 1966 The Rat Patrol 1967 The Dirty Dozen 1967 Night of the Generals 1968 Hell in the Pacific In the 60s a lot of people who hated the Vietnam War were looking back fondly on a war that had clear-cut “good guys” and “bad guys”. Also, a lot of WW2 veterans were getting to the age where they started publishing their memoirs. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-has-minus-twenty-years-nostalgia-been-going-on/448342/23 "2008-05-08T17:51:16Z")
Good grief. No, no, and no. War movies are not nostalgia pieces. They certainly weren’t in the 1960s. Sure, many people looked back on the war as the Good War, especially in contrast to Vietnam. But nostalgia? Not every look back at the past, even a favorable look, is nostalgia. As **Ellis Aponte Jr.** said, there were dozens of westerns on at about the same time. Were people being nostalgic for the Old West? No. Nostalgia is a different beast entirely. The past is always an interesting place to visit. That’s all that 99% of pieces set in the past mean. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-has-minus-twenty-years-nostalgia-been-going-on/448342/24 "2008-05-08T22:01:40Z")
Nostalgia nowadays isn’t like it used to be twenty years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-has-minus-twenty-years-nostalgia-been-going-on/448342/25 "2008-05-08T22:21:37Z")
But trying telling that to kids today, and they won’t believe you. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-has-minus-twenty-years-nostalgia-been-going-on/448342/26 "2008-05-08T22:31:56Z")
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase] There was no nostalgia for the 1940s in the 60s, I can assure you. _Happy Days_ premiered in 1974. That’s probably what started it. [/QUOTE] Actually there was some to a lot of 1940s nostalgia during the 60s. Comic books fo the 40s started to become big collectibles in the 60s and when the Batman TV show started, the prices of older comic books skyrocketed. Some theaters also began to rerun 1940s serials in the 1960s. World War II was horrible, of course, but the kid who was 8 in 1943, probably didn’t realize how horrible it was. He probably didn’t remember the world not at war nor realize how it affected him. In 1968, this child was 33. What he remembered from the war years was his comic books, toys, etc., many of which had probably be recycled as paper or metal scrap and were now hard to find. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Credible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a8b319/32.png) [@Justin\_Credible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Credible)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-has-minus-twenty-years-nostalgia-been-going-on/448342/27 "2008-05-09T08:16:47Z")
Oh, no. In a few more years, we’re going to have to suffer through a bunch of 90’s crap again. There’ll be flannel shirts and Rob Liefield art everywhere… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-has-minus-twenty-years-nostalgia-been-going-on/448342.md?page=1)