Flotsam & Jetsam: Humphrey Biogart

Sam Smith -- Re my mention of Humphrey Bogart, reader Bob LeMay writes:

Bogart was part of one part of our shared educational years... implied minimalism.

Beats were also often minimalist, as were beat jokes.

Being that what is not said can play into what is said.

Pauses and negative space.

Bogart was minimalist as were Miles Davis, cool jazz, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

Van der Rohe mentioned "less is more": Bogart was cool; his less was more.

In fact, I was part of the Bogart revival in the 1950s because, as a Harvard student,  I went to the Brattle Theater where, as Wikipedia describes:

Starting in the late 1950s, the Brattle started a tradition of screening Humphrey Bogart films during the week of final exams at Harvard University. Films such as Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon were watched again and again and the "Bogie Cult" at the Brattle was formed. It was not uncommon for fans to attend these movies in costume and recite the dialogue word for word. Even to this day, there is always a packed crowd to see a Bogart film, such as the traditional Valentine's Day showing of Casablanca.

As I have noted before, those of us in the Beat Generation were really the warmup band for the 1960s. We knew what was wrong, we just didn't know what to do about it.