What Really Happened to the Class of '65? [Mass Market Paperback]

Michael Medved (Author), David Wallechinsky (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 370 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (September 12, 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345302273
• ISBN-13: 978-0345302274
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,144,424 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My, how times have changed, October 1, 2001

By 

Jeffrey Ellis "bored recluse" (Richardson, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What Really Happened to the Class of '65 (Hardcover)

Written in 1975, What Really Happened to the Class of '65 is a compilation of interviews with 30 members of the 1965 graduating class of Palisades High School. Most of those in question grew up in very affluent households and most of them, in the course of their interviews, seem to have an almost astounding ignorance of the fact that their teenage lives were hardly the norm. However, that's not a major problem or concern. Instead, what makes this book interesting is seeing just how much time has changed -- both in the ten years between their graduation and the book's publication and, even more so, in the decades after the book came out. On the whole, everybody in the book represents a certain type -- popular jerk, pretty boy, quarterback, nerd, bully, cheerleader, ect. However, in the course of some remarkably candid interviews, they're all given a chance to establish their own unique, for-the-most-part fairly likeable individual indentities. Reading it made me wonder what was really going on in the heads of those people I knew in high school who I simply assumed were bullies or jocks or cheerleaders or geeks and nothing else? It actually made me want to get in touch with people I barely knew just to find out who they were now.

Most of the interviewees share in common an amazement at how much times had changed between their high school graduation and 1975. All of them, for the most part, are quick to point out that they're now totally different (read: better) people. Most of them, as well, sound like almost stereotypical creatures of '70s -- i.e., the quarterback becomes a bisexual, new age minister, quite a few have made fortunes of their own but still proudly wear their hair long and seem to believe they were personally responsible for ending Viet Nam and forcing Nixon to resign. While reading, I found myself wondering what happened to these folks once the '80s hit, much less the '90s. On the whole, you could imagine most of them probably voted for Carter in '76 and then spent the next decade pursuing the same basic life styles that they seem so quick to attack their parents for doing. Its a shame that Medved and Wallechinsky didn't follow-up on these people in 1985 and 1995. (Though Wallechinsky did write a sequel on his own, for some reason he decided to interview a new batch of people!) Of course, the most interesting change to be found amongst the people profiled is that of co-author Michael Medved. In the book, he almost practically boasts of how, once in college, he dedicated all of his time to "liberal politics." (Though, of course, he doesn't mention it, he was a friend to Clintons while at Yale.) Of course now, Medved is better known as one of the most outspokenly right-wing film critics out there. Many will enjoy this book for the nostalgia but for me, it'll always be wonderful proof that nothing -- be it your politics, your bank account, the length of you hair, or whatever else -- is ever as permanent as you might think.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars These were my classmates, September 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: What Really Happened to the Class of '65 (Hardcover)

I was a member of the Palisades High Class of 1965 (but not an interview subject). Those whose tales are chronicled in this book were my class mates. While it was surprisingly (voyeuristic) interesting to read, ten or fifteen years afterwards, what had happened to Judy, Brock, Mark, Suzanne, Jon, Bill, Lisa, David, and the others that I had known all through Junior and Senior High, these people were hardly typical of our class or of our generation as a whole.

The book should be taken for what it is -- a simple compilation of self-told chronicles provided by a few particularly (and intentionally)selected, well-to-do, West L.A. High School graduates from the mid-60's. That's all. It is not, by any means, a significant or noteworthy representation of an entire generation of young adults coping with and maturing during the "Viet Nam / Drug / Hippie / Sexual Revolution" 1960's and 1970's.

A interesting read. Especially for someone who was a part of the generation and a part of the very class covered. Beyond that...conclude what you wish...but you do so at the peril of selective representation.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Same Old Lang Syne, February 5, 2005

By 

Bill Slocum (Norwalk, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What Really Happened to the Class of '65 (Hardcover)

"What Really Happened To The Class Of '65" purports to be a sociological examination of the Baby Boomer generation's road to maturity, but what really is great about it is its candor and vivid accounts of high school life.

The members of the class are a mix of different types recognizable in schools today: The star quarterback, the flirt, the joiner, the outcast, the slut. Of course, within those broad categories are individuals with complications and insecurities their smooth exteriors often hid. Kids work very hard at protecting their inner selves from scrutiny. Fortunately the older versions of these kids are all-too-happy to share the details of their class insecurity, sexual desires, and what they thought of each other.

"I just remember her being sort of a snob, and I could never quite trust her," one female class member says of another. "She would be my friend one day, and the next day everything would change..."

"He was totally sarcastic," goes a recollection of another class member. "I enjoyed his sense of humor, but a lot of people didn't. I know this because people used to ask me how I could stand to go around with him."

You can recognize such characters from your own high school years. I know I can.

I wish the authors did more with the "when they were young" element of the story. There's some recountings of favorite music and when President Kennedy was shot, but not enough. The focus, after various classmates give their snapshot portraits of each subject in turn, is often on what these kids grew into. The quarterback is now a New Age minister. The flirt is now a lesbian. The outcast now lives in Micronesia. Several have been arrested for drugs.

It's here where the story becomes more specific to its time, the freewheeling 1960s and 1970s, and you get that sense of things coming apart unique to that era. There's still poignance in the stories, though, especially two. One, the school dreamboat, pursues an acting career with diminishing success and commits suicide. Another, the aloof dreamer, joins a series of movements and finally becomes a John Bircher, renouncing sex, movies, and society in general as he lives in his own dreamworld. "Ten years from today I expect to have written at least ten books which are far superior to anything a college or high school student sees in his literature courses," he tells the authors.

I haven't done a search of the name "Jamie Kelso" on this website, but I sense that I won't find much if I do. At least he participated in one terrific book.

The level of overall participation is the most remarkable thing about the book. All but two out of the 30 students profiled opted to be identified by their real names (the two not so identified wouldn't have been missed) and dish enough dirt on themselves and each other that you realize this could have only happened in the "Let-it-all-hang-out" era of the early 1970s. Though the book was a bestseller in its day, and even was the basis for a "Saturday Night Live" sketch, there hasn't been a true followup, which is not surprising. Doubtless many of the subjects didn't appreciate how much information the authors used, and those that did probably didn't relish a second exposure in the more judgmental 1980s.

The authors also give out information on themselves. Michael Medved especially comes off as a bit stuck up, but amusing. He toiled over an epic poem on the assassination of William McKinley, which a classmate pronounces "awful." There's also a funny account of how he lost his virginity, which if made into a movie scene today, would undoubtedly earn the wrath of Medved the popular reactionary film critic.

Funny, poignant, wistful, "What Really Happened To The Class Of '65" is like thumbing through someone else's yearbook and realizing you recognize most of the people there.