Casey Bond / Gary Gerani
What appears on the surface as a featherweight teenage romp is in reality a hotbed for social and political debate. Patty Duke’s Billie is celebrating its 50th birthday as a pop culture oddity. And there’s no better time to explore this neo-musical’s unique thesis on social change, political activism and gender identification disorder... all to the infectious Beat of mid-’60s rock and roll! Authors/debaters Gary Gerani and Casey Bond take readers through every stage of Billie, from its beginnngs as Broadway’s celebrated Time Out for Ginger to its current status as a cult classic. Along the way social experts and college professors weigh in with their views pertaining to this study’s central question: Is super-athlete Billie a role model for feminism or, because of her final, fateful, give-up-sports-and-put-on-that-pink-dress decision, a betrayer of same? Even Billie herself, Patty Duke, shares her thoughts on the subject. In addition to thematic analysis and behind-the-scenes revelations, rare photographs, many never before published, add to the overall fun of Patty Duke as Billie: Role Model or Sell-Out? So get in the game, readers... and take a stand!
