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Jack Kerouac
Program Video Clip List
Clip # Start Time End Time Description
1 00:15.1 01:15.7 Audio tape of Kerouac reading from his book, On The Road
2 01:23.3 04:19.0 Mainstream America in the 1950s - in regards to WWII, Cold War, and The Red Scare
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3 04:53.0 06:39.6 Kerouac's popularity among Americans; how Kerouac handled his fame
4 06:39.6 07:01.7 Kerouac's writings transcended their time
5 07:01.7 08:36.8 His appreciation of jazz music and art; some of Kerouac's favorite jazz musicians and painters
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6 09:56.9 11:31.2 Recommended writings about Jack Kerouac by various authors; Hemingway and Kerouac's interesting personas
7 11:46.5 15:16.7 Influences Kerouac faced when writing, Town and City; understanding the country and movement during the time of his writing; Kerouac's authentic voice in his writings
8 15:19.2 17:46.3 How the Jack Kerouac Park came about; commemorative works in park; reaction of people in Lowell, MA to the memorial
9 18:50.1 21:15.1 Parallels within and to Kerouac's writings; the upbeat experiences of his memoirs
10 21:15.1 23:15.3 Importance of Kerouac's birthplace, Lowell, to his early life and growing up; size of French-Canadian community in Lowell; language spoken by Kerouac; his given name; description of Lowell, MA today
11 24:51.1 26:53.3 Young people's response to the Beat Generation writings during the 1950s; the homelessness spirit of Jack's work
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12 27:05.3 28:00.3 Audio tape of Kerouac reading from his book, On the Road
13 28:00.3 30.03.0 Usage of drugs and alcohol by the Beat Generation
14 30:16.9 32:31.6 Kerouac's writings classified as prose poetry; conservatism in his poetry
15 32:31.6 34:03.8 Political views of Kerouac
16 34:03.8 35:01.0 Main cities of where he spent time growing up
17 36:58.8 40:16.2 Historian Douglas Brinkley shares how he acquired letters and journals from Jack Kerouac's estate; the impact of Catholicism throughout Kerouac's life
18 40:34.1 42:23.0 Video of Greenwich Village today in relation to Beat Generation connection; Brinkley's initial involvement with Kerouac's works; the magic bus in relation to the C-SPAN bus
19 42:24.0 44:05.3 Kerouac's unusually close relationship with his mother
20 44:05.3 47:14.7 Video of Time Square and Columbia University today in connection with the Beat Generation; revival of Kerouac's work during the 80's and 90's
21 47:32.2 48:31.7 Today's inspired young people leave tributes to Kerouac's gravesite
22 48:31.7 50:41.8 Allen Ginsberg and Kerouac's relationship; Kerouac's feelings of separateness from the Beat Generation writers
23 50:57.7 52:45.2 History studied through the writings of Kerouac
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24 52:48.6 54:56.0 Personal memories of Kerouac from Neal Cassady's son
25 58:20.0 1:00:26 Song written by Kerouac, David Amram and others; spontaneous prose by Amram
26 1:00:47 1:03:29 On the Road as a celebration of America: story of Maggie Cassidy; Kerouac as someone who sees the humanity in all of us
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27 1:03:30 1:06:31 His writing process; loved Proust and Shakespeare; he was not afraid to draw from American life; hoped his prose was fresh and authentic; he edited and worked hard at writing
28 1:06:45 1:08:54 Stills with statistical information about America in the 50's; music accompanies
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29 1:10:40 1:13:30 Themes of loneliness, isolation; connection to interest in religion, seeking "it"
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30 1:13:47 1:15:58 Description and visuals of the "Scroll" on which Kerouac typed the novel; later revised for novel's publication, took out names; sold for 2.4 million dollars at Christie's auction
31 1:15:58 1:17:07 Kerouac on Thoreau; attempted to live a life of simplicity; themes of solitude
32 1:17:08 1:18:26 Comparison to John Steinbeck's "road" book, Travels with Charley and other American travel narratives
33 1:19:04 1:21:59 Kerouac's closest boyhood friend was killed in WWII; Kerouac was discharged for refusal to pick up a gun; against hunting later in life; views about Vietnam war; he was not counter-culture, like the 1960's hippies
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34 1:23:22 1:25:29 What it mean to be a "Beat"; words like square, beatnik
35 1:34:15 1:37:17 Ezra Pound, and some stories about his wife
36 1:28:03 1:30:39 Audio clip of Jack Kerouac, and a clip of Sterling Lord, his agent, discussing trying to sell On the Road; took 5 years to sell it
37 1:30:40 1:34:41 John Sampas, brother-in-law, on Kerouac's style; typed the Scroll in three weeks; wrote it on caffeine; publishing world rejected the spiritual, sexual adventure story of two young men; established editors were offended by a "working class" kid replacing them
38 1:35:10 1:37:25 Dr. Sex comic strip by Neal Cassady; the extent of the Kerouac archive
39 1:37:27 1:39:05 Jack London's influence; more on "road" books and the role of the automobile in fiction
40 1:39:01 1:40:10 D.H. Lawrence
41 1:40:11 1:41:06 What the Beats discussed-beauty, French; they were not establishment; wanted to see spontaneity and formality co-exist
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42 1:41:56 1:43:10 How Sampas makes decisions about managing Kerouac's estate-doesn't want to be too commercial; wants to preserve image of him as a "writer" and of a good looking "American" writer
43 1:43:11 1:45:29 Connection with William F. Buckley; disastrous visit to Buckley's television show when he tried to distance himself from the war
44 1:45:55 1:47:57 Allen Ginsberg, sexuality, rumors out of McCarthy era
45 1:48:53 1:50:10 Gary Snyder as the hero of the Dharma Bums, understanding of Buddhism, other poets
46 1:50:11 1:51:30 On the Road today; how it reads compared to how it was read in its time
47 1:51:53 1:53:45 Could society today spawn a Jack Kerouac? Women of the era
48 1:53:46 1:55:10 Impact of the death of his brother, Gerard (also visuals of Jack Kerouac's gravesite)
49 1:55:34 1:57:05 Influence on Bob Dylan, also Henry Miller
50 1:57:30 1:59:55 Closing remarks on significance of the Beat Generation; rise of ecology, flexing of the first amendment
51 1:59:55 2:01:59 Final excerpt of Kerouac reading from On the Road (with Native American inspired music in background)

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