Road Trip to Nowhere: Hollywood Encounters the Counterculture

The sixties counterculture had a significant commercial and political impact on Hollywood, leading to a generation-long box office slump and struggling to get young people into the habit of going to the movies. Road Trip to Nowhere examines a ten-year span (from 1967 to 1976) rife with uneasy encounters between artists caught up in the counterculture and a corporate establishment still clinging to a studio system on the brink of collapse. Many among the young and talented walked away from celebrity, rejecting the aspirational backstory and inevitable material trappings of success, much to the chagrin of the studios and directors who backed them.

Format: Hardback
Length: 352 pages
Publication date: 26 July 2022
Publisher: University of California Press

By 1967, the commercial and political impact of the 1960s counterculture on Hollywood had become undeniable. The studios were struggling, facing a generation-long box office slump and struggling to attract young audiences to the movies. Road Trip to Nowhere explores a ten-year period (from 1967 to 1976) marked by tense encounters between artists immersed in the counterculture and a corporate establishment clinging to the brink of collapse. During this tumultuous era, many young and talented individuals chose to turn their backs on celebrity, rejecting the allure of becoming a movie star, the best job Hollywood and America had to offer.

Road Trip to Nowhere delves into a primary-sourced history of movie production culture, examining the lives of several talented actors who became entangled in the politics and lifestyles of the counterculture. Tired of the superficiality and materialistic trappings associated with celebrity culture, actors like Dennis Hopper, Christopher Jones, Jean Seberg, and others rejected the traditional path to success, much to the dismay of the studios and directors who supported them.

In Road Trip to Nowhere, film historian Jon Lewis provides a captivating and rigorous historical account of the out-of-touch Hollywood establishment and the counterculture workforce they would never fully comprehend. Through detailed encounters on movie sets, in corporate boardrooms, on the job, and on the streets, Lewis offers an entertaining and enlightening perspective on this complex period of cultural transformation.

Weight: 590g
Dimension: 229 x 152 x 28 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780520343733