Commentary
By Jonathan Mahler
Bloomberg News
We have grown accustomed to seeing the Super Bowl halftime show as a showcase for aging rockers or mainstream pop stars — so accustomed, in fact, that it’s easy to forget that it was once a showcase for a singing quasi-cult of closeted gay youths.
Yes, I’m talking about Up With People, the unlikely progenitors of the modern-day Super Bowl halftime show.
Remember Up With People?
The group was born in the 1960s, an ensemble of clean-cut youngsters who sang and danced to upbeat songs written expressly to counter the cynicism of the counterculture. (Sample titles: “Freedom Isn’t Free” and “What Color Is God’s Skin?”)
On stage, they were members of a polymorphous shock troop of cultural ambassadors projecting an image of boundless joy — cast members were required to smile for the duration of their performances — not to mention innocence and purity. Offstage, they were normal teenagers and twenty-somethings, which is to say that they experimented with sex and drugs on their tour bus.
Also — surprise! — the male cast members were disproportionately gay. “What kind of guy wants to prance around in a bodysuit on a stage?” says Eric Roos, a former Uppie who now runs a cosmetics company in San Francisco called Nancy Boy Products. “It was a huge percentage of gay guys with the supposition that no one was gay.”
Roos was part of the human car that rolled across the field of the Pontiac Silverdome near Detroit during halftime of Super Bowl XVI in January 1982 — the third of Up With People’s four halftime pageants.
Before Up With People came along, the Super Bowl halftime show consisted mostly of university marching bands and high school drill teams, which made a certain kind of sense: Professional football was still trying to match the popularity of the college game. The National Football League did offer an occasional flourish of its own, usually as part of the pregame ceremonies. For instance, in 1969 — the year that gave America Woodstock — the NFL gave America Anita Bryant, who sang the national anthem at Super Bowl III.
In the run-up to the 1976 Super Bowl, the NFL decided to undertake a more ambitious halftime show. Don Weiss, the executive in charge of game-day operations for the Super Bowl, was on Up With People’s board; the father of a cast member was friendly with then-NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle. During this era of cultural malaise, the combination of the group’s upbeat message and youthful exuberance proved irresistible to pro football.
The Uppies performed at the 1976 Super Bowl in Miami (“200 Years and Just a Baby,” the bicentennial tribute show was called), in 1980 in Pasadena, and, of course, in 1982 at the Silverdome.
Roos had joined Up With People after finishing his freshman year at the University of California at Berkeley, taking a break from college to travel around the world with his cast. General Motors sponsored the trip to Michigan — Up With People was heavily dependent on its close ties to corporate America — so the group performed at some local GM facilities before their engagement at the Silverdome.
At the Super Bowl, they sang a Motown medley, building up to the grand finale: the human car. Roos was part of the hubcap. “It’s mortifying,” Roos says now. “It felt like we were an act in a high-school talent show.”
Watching the video on YouTube, it’s hard to disagree. Although, in fairness, they weren’t much worse than the rest of the era’s halftime shows. Like, say, the NFL’s awkward stab at multiculturalism in Miami in 1979 — the “Caribbean Carnival,” which featured a boat-shaped float “sailing” over a blue tarp, with musicians playing regional tunes at each port. The Haitian band never showed up, the tarp got snagged on the base of a goal post, ripping the sea, and the float’s motor conked out near Puerto Rico. Or the 1989 show in Miami, which featured an Elvis impersonator and “the world’s largest card trick.” Or the 1992 show in Minneapolis, with Brian Boitano and Dorothy Hamill skating on sheets of Teflon spread over the field.
Up With People’s last Super Bowl performance was in 1986 in New Orleans. By this point, the group’s cultural moment had passed; it was morning in America. Rozelle had grown sick of them, anyway, reportedly telling his staff years earlier that there were three words he never wanted to hear again: Up, with and people.
Still, the Uppies left their mark on the game. As campy as they may look now, they created the concept of the halftime show as a free-standing cultural event of its own. It took a little while for the NFL to figure out what sort of acts its viewers really wanted, but if not for Roos and his fellow Uppies, we might very well be watching the Southern University marching band on Sunday night instead of Beyonce.
News
Pre-Beyonce, the best Super Bowl halftime show
- News
-
-
Scammer: This is not a scam
Residents from Danville to Beavertown are reporting they’ve been receiving “exciting news!” via postcards in their mailboxes.
“We are holding $100 in gift cards for YOU — good at Walmart and Target — your choice!” Just call a toll-free phone number and claim your reward.
-
BBs damage car on Route 15
An incident that began along Route 15 near Allenwood ended Wednesday at the Watsontown borough building, with police arresting one man for numerous charges, after they say he shot a BB gun at another man while threatening him.
-
Penn State report reviews women's status at university
STATE COLLEGE — Women at Penn State either haven't made progress or have lost ground when it comes to being represented in several key areas, including leadership positions and enrollment, according to report from a university commission.
-
State unemployment rate drops slightly in April
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate declined slightly last month, but remains above the national rate.
-
State attorney general says she opposes decriminalization of marijuana
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane says she opposes legislation to decriminalize marijuana.
-
Texas residents missing after tornadoes are found safe
GRANBURY, Texas — People who were missing in the wake of the destructive tornadoes in North Texas have been found safe, officials said Friday, but they didn’t indicate when residents of one hard-hit neighborhood will be allowed to return to survey damage to their homes.
-
Today's Top Videos
-
Police Log
A daily roundup of police news from around the region.
-
Hartleton police chief faces felony theft and conspiracy counts
HARTLETON — Donald “Larry” Zerbe, Hartleton police chief for more than 30 years, was charged Thursday in Union County with theft and conspiracy for allegedly funneling traffic citation fines to a community playground fund.
-
Trial to be scheduled for Mifflinburg businessman
MIFFLINBURG — A Union County businessman waived his right to a preliminary hearing Thursday on charges that he spent $241,000 for personal debt and expenses instead of investing it in a storage facility partnership in West Buffalo Township as he told 10 clients he would.
-
Restaurant owner: 0.05 percent DUI level is too low
SELINSGROVE — The National Transportation Safety Board announced Tueday that states should shrink the standard from the current 0.08 percent blood alcohol content to 0.05 percent - and that doesn’t sit well to many Valley business owners.
-
Danville's Mill Street to be featured in new TV series
DANVILLE - For the premier episode of the Pennsylvania Cable Network’s “Discover Main Street PA” program, viewers will see the sights and sounds of Danville’s Mill Street.
-
OJ back in court for Day 4 in bid for new Vegas trial
LAS VEGAS — The lead defense attorney in O.J. Simpson’s armed robbery trial had a conflict of interest because he could have been a witness in the case, a lawyer who worked on Simpson’s unsuccessful appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court testified Thursday.
-
Sen. Bob Casey defends Pennsylvania military bases from cuts
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Bob Casey is asking a Senate committee to forgo the process of looking at potential closures of military installations.
-
New study: Fracking hasn’t polluted Arkansas water
PITTSBURGH — A new study has found that natural gas drilling, or fracking, hasn’t contaminated drinking water wells in Arkansas. But researchers say the geology there is more of a natural barrier to pollution than in other areas of shale gas drilling, such as Pennsylvania.
-
Obama: No special prosecutor to investigate IRS
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama today dismissed the idea of a special prosecutor to investigate the Internal Revenue Service, saying probes by Congress and the Justice Department should be able to figure out who was responsible for improperly targeting tea party groups when they applied for tax-exempt status.
-
No Powerball winner; jackpot soars to $475 million
So you didn’t win Wednesday’s $360 million Powerball jackpot? Make that you and everyone else.
-
At least 6 confirmed dead in Texas tornadoes
A rash of tornados slammed into several small communities in North Texas overnight, leaving at least six people dead, dozens more injured and hundreds homeless. The violent spring storm scattered bodies, flattened homes, threw trailers onto cars.
- More News Headlines
-
Scammer: This is not a scam
