How Fast Did Teen Gossip Spread Before Social Media? This 1963 Musical Number has the Answer

Want to spread gossip? Then tell a teen. The very worst age group with which to share a secret – or even something you don’t want spread about – is to spill the beans to a teenager. These days, emails, text messages, social media and apps of varying degree of iniquity – all combine to ensure that when Kim and Hugo get together, and Kim texts Kathy to tell her – that the entire world will know within approximately thirty seconds.  It may seem like a modern phenomenon, but it is only the methods of communication that have changed.  And this clip from 1963 proves it more than adequately but with a lot of charm.

Back then, it was all about the spoken word but way, way more importantly, it was about the telephone.  I used to continually astonish my parents that after seeing my friends all day in school, I would find the need (let alone the things to say) to phone them in the evening.  Not for a few minutes, of course. We would natter on about pretty much anything and everything, anyone and everyone, until I was told (in no uncertain terms) to put the phone down (usually by my mother who wanted to do some nattering of her own.

This clip from the 1963 movie Bye Bye Birdie shows us the teenage Pony Express at full throttle.  When Kim McAfee (Ann-Margret) is “pinned” by Hugo Peabody (Bobby Rydell) – an American teenage tradition where a boy gives his girlfriend his school pin to show they’re officially a couple - the news spreads at lightning speed. The neighbourhood telephone chain erupts, with calls, gossip, and teenage hysteria bouncing from house to house in minutes. It all unfolds in one of the most energetic and memorable musical sequences directed by George Sidney.  It’s something of a joy to behold. Watch it below.