The Secaucus High School gymnasium didn’t exactly look like Arnold’s malt shop from the 1970s TV sitcom “Happy Days” on Feb. 2 when students celebrated the break in semesters with a “1950s Day.” Yet the students managed to capture the mood of 1950s middle class America, with boys wearing leather jackets and girls wearing sweaters and long skirts.
Although the event was alive with the sound of 1950s Chuck Berry guitar riffs and the rocking singing of Elvis Presley, most of the students – born nearly 30 years after the era – had only the memory of the television show with characters like Ralph-mouth, Potsie, Richie Cunningham, Leather Tuscadero, and The Fonz.
Like Arnold’s, the Secaucus gym had a soda fountain as well as a string of tables where kids could get everything from hamburgers and fries to root beer floats. Indeed, the gym even had a small bandstand with drums, guitar and a keyboard waiting for the band.
Guidance counselor Frank Bartletta acted the role of DJ for the affair, bringing his own compact discs for the occasion, feeding tune after tune into the PA system for a nearly non-stop presentation of top 40 hits of the ’50s.
“I love 1950s music,” Bartletta said, dressed up like many teachers in a leather jacket and doing his part to maintain the fantasy.
Although many of the kids had dressed for the day as well and looked somewhat authentic in their costumes, they wandered from table to table somewhat bemused by the activities such as the hula hoop contest and the line dancing, each enjoying the novelty of the day. Several said they enjoyed the scene, but didn’t particularly understand the culture of the 1950s well. It was the teachers who seemed caught up in the scene as if – like the main character in the film “Back to the Future” – they had managed to return to the era, walking through the transformed gym a bit misty-eyed for an era even they could barely remember, humming tunes that are now the materials of oldies radio stations.
Pat Impreveduto, principal of the high school, seemed particularly enamoured with the day. Dressed in his leather jacket, wearing his dark sunglasses, he went from event to event, dancing to Bartletta’s records, admiring the skill (or lack thereof) of those participating in the hula hoop contest.
A history lesson
The day was not merely an exercise in novelty. The event was an outgrowth of history teacher Jim Clancy’s class last fall when Clancy, seeking a way to bring out the reality of the 1950s time period, asked the kids to act out a scene.
“I wanted to have them do something as a class project,” Clancy said. “I told them to try to envision a set from Happy Days [the 1970s TV sitcom].”
The kids went to work. They built their own soda shop. They cut out decorations for the walls. They set up a soda fountain. They served ice cream and root beer soda floats. Then, they dressed up and played ’50s music on 45 rpm records.
When Principal Impreveduto came to monitor the class, he decided it would make a good event for mid-semester break. “Things sort of snowballed,” Impreveduto said.
For the larger occasion on Feb. 2, teachers supplied the live music, with Mike Kelly on guitar, Lyle Leeson on keyboard, Assistant High School principal Frank Costello on bass, and Middle School Principal Fred Ponti on drums.
Kelly said the improvised band learned three songs for the occasion. They played two Elvis songs and well as Bill Haley’s “Rock around the Clock,” considered by many critics as the theme song of the 1950s era.
“I love The King [Elvis],” Kelly said. “Even though I was born in 1963, I’ve followed his career.”
Also featured was Secaucus High School’s own dance troupe, the F-Stops.
Doug DePice, the school’s art and photography teacher, said he always liked the name. Several years ago – as part of a class project – the students developed the dance group.
“Since then, people ask us to perform,” he said.
Outside in the parking lot, kids and adults got to ogle over classic 1950s cars loaned to the school for the occasion by Secaucus resident Jesus Perez.
Perez, who emigrated from Cuba in 1970, said he started collecting the cars in 1976 because they were the kinds of cars he remembered in Cuba before he left.