Hi-Fi's and Hi-Balls: The Golden Age of the American Bachelor

by Steven Guarnaccia, Robert Sloan

His old man liked a stiff drink and a close shave, but he drives a convertible and has a tiki bar in his closet. He wears a shiny pegged-leg suit and takes chicks back to his pad. He's cool, he's urbane, he's glib, he's copacetic. He's a cross between James Bond and James T. Kirk, all wrapped up into one smooth-talking, cocktail-mixing package. The swinging space-age bachelor is back!and more prepared than ever with this classic guide. Illustrated with original artifacts and commercial relics from the Beat era and beyond, this very classy little volume offers a hilarious glimpse into the evolution of the modern man-about-town.

Genres: Nonfiction

96 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1997

Reviews

[Brett Feinstein · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you are interested in the swinging lounge and hipster culture of the 50's and early 60's, this book is a mixed bag. On the one hand, it is beautifully laid out with excellent pictures of vintage items of the period from furniture to clothes to cars to books. On the other hand, to read the limited amount of prose, gives you an experience with some self-conscious writing that tries to emulate the vernacular of the period but just feels forced and fake. Worse, if you read this book, you will come away thinking this is an era where consent was a non-issue. Maybe it was, but it seems like the authors revel in it a little too much and the whole thing comes off as a little rapey--which probably was, in fact, the case.

Also, how can you have a book about bachelor pad hipsters of that era with a chapter on music and not mention Esquivel?

Read the book for the pictures, not the prose.

[Leonard Pierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leonard's obsession with 1950s/1960s advertising and consumer culture strikes again. Had I been alive back then, I would have been the most insufferable hipster imaginable. NOTHING LIKE I AM NOW, haw haw.