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| Cinema's Golden Age of Heroin: The Glorification of the Junkie |
| Columns - Cultural Trends | ||||||||
| Written by Maxim W. Furek, MA, CAC | ||||||||
| Friday, 05 October 2007 | ||||||||
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Reflected in 1950s pulp fiction, heroin’s golden age navigated the dark
alleyways of opiate abuse through a strange collection of motion
pictures, magazine articles and books. Nelson Algren’s 1949 novel, The Man With The Golden Arm, uniquely portrayed heroin as a serious literary topic as it rejected the standard “dope fiend” approach of the time (Caro, 1996). The gritty 1955 black and white film adaptation of Algren’s novel was the first of its kind to tackle the marginalized issue of illicit drug use. A youthful and intense Frank Sinatra, received an Oscar nomination for his role of heroin-addicted card shark “Johnny Machine.” Because it dealt with the taboo subject of “narcotics,” Hollywood’s Production Code refused to grant a seal of approval for the film. Several other motion pictures took a retro-look at the era. Lady Sings The Blues, Bird, and Ray all traced the lives of artists Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker and Ray Charles, all of whom were addicted to heroin, and were representative of the deadly relationship between heroin and the black music community. After the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914, heroin became the drug of choice for many black urban males. Before that, the individual most likely to be a narcotics addict in the 19th century was a middle-class southern female abusing morphine (Avis,1990). Want to read the entire article? Don't miss out...Subscribe now to Counselor Magazine—or buy the single issue! It's easy. Just follow the links below:
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