HAMILTON ‘ Author John A. Jackson will deliver a lecture titled ‘Rock Makers: Alan Freed, Dick Clark, and the Rise of Rock and Roll,’ on Thursday, November 4 at 8:00 p.m. Sponsored by the 51·çÁ÷ Department of Interdisciplinary Writing and the 51·çÁ÷ Writing Center, Jackson’s talk will take place in the Ho Lecture Room, Lawrence Hall.
Jackson is the author of Big Beat Heat: Alan Freed and the Early Years of Rock and Roll and American Bandstand: Dick Clark and the Making of a Rock and Roll Empire. Both books have won the Ralph J. Gleason Award and the Association for Recorded Sound Collections award for Best Research in the field of Rock, Rhythm and Blues, and Soul. He has lectured extensively on the early years of rock music, most notably at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio.
Preceding the lecture, at 6:30 there will be a special screening of the NBC movie Mr. Rock and Roll: The Alan Freed Story starring Judd Nelson, Paula Abdul, and former ’50s teen idols Fabian and Bobby Rydell. Jackson’s biography of Freed was used as the basis of the movie, and Jackson was a consultant on the project.
The movie and lecture are free and open to the public and refreshments will be served. Copies of Big Beat Heat, now out of print, and American Bandstand will be available at the event for the author to sign. For further information, call Bruce Pegg, 315-228-7376, or Trudy King, 315-228-7859.
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