Book Review: The Pump House Gang, by Tom Wolfe (1968)

My rather tattered paperback copy of The Pump House Gang, by Tom Wolfe, 1968. Yes, that's the by now obligatory photo of my Tom Wolfe bookshelf. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

Tom Wolfe, photographed by Irving Penn, 1966, around the time he wrote most of the pieces in The Pump House Gang.

It started on the beach. That was where they first saw him. They weren’t quite sure which member of the group had spotted him first, but eventually they became aware of him. This guy just hanging out on the beach with a notebook. And what was he wearing? A suit? Dig, man, what kind of crazy trip was he on? And how old was he? He didn’t look that old, but he just seemed old, you know, like there was no way he would know who the Beach Boys were, or that he could possibly know anything about chopped and channeled woodies. What kind of a nutso getup was he wearing? I mean, fer Chrissake, who in the hell wears a suit to the beach, man? 

And he asked them all of these really basic questions, it was obvious he had never been surfing. They had to explain everything to him, which they were only too happy to do. KA-SPLOSH, the surf came roaring in, and it almost gets him wet, and he’s got these white buck shoes on, if he gets those babies wet they are done for, but zoom! He moves back real fast, and doesn’t get a drop on him. Nothing seems to faze this guy, it’s like he’s off on his own out in some other time zone, neither hip nor square, just in his own bag with his own groovy happening going on. 

He has this soft voice, like he doesn’t want to draw too much attention to himself, despite the Beau Brummell wardrobe. He’s got this real high, cresting forehead, with this mass of hair swooping over from left to right. He pulls out this notebook, this great, hulking green notebook with the spirals at the top, and he starts firing questions, one after the other. He’s scribbling furiously, feverishly trying to get it all down on paper as they tell him the dope on their lives. 

In the Introduction to The Pump House Gang, Tom Wolfe’s second collection of articles, which was released on the same day in 1968 as Wolfe’s book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Wolfe described taking part in a symposium on “The Style of the Sixties.” The other panelists all seemed quite depressed about the state of the world. When it was Wolfe’s turn to speak, he said “What are you talking about? We’re in the middle of a…Happiness Explosion!” (p.9) The other panelists didn’t have the foggiest notion what Wolfe was talking about, but he was right! Sure, things might have seemed like they were going to hell back in the late 1960’s, but middle class Americans suddenly had the leisure time and money to be deliriously happy! All of the time! And, despite the stagnation in middle class earning power since then, we still have a lot of things that can distract us in 2016! iPhones! Computers! Kindles! Spotify! Netflix! We are doing less and less manual labor-which means more time to tune out the world around us and create our own versions of reality!

Wolfe’s real subject of The Pump House Gang is exploring different subcultures and how they define themselves. In “The Hair Boys,” he writes: “It is not that any of these groups is ever rich. It is just that there is so much money floating around that they can get their hands on enough of it to express themselves, and devote time to expressing themselves, to a degree nobody in their netherworld position could ever do before.” (p.103) 

There are 15 pieces in The Pump House Gang, and as usual in Wolfe’s collections, many topics are covered.

“The Pump House Gang” follows a group of teenage surfers in La Jolla, California. Wolfe describes how these kids have set up their own lifestyle of surfing and hanging out-they’re a prime example of the subcultures he examines throughout the book.

“The Mid-Atlantic Man” is a brilliant piece of reporting about a London advertising man who travels to New York City regularly on business and then finds himself stuck between being English and being American. It’s a piece of Wolfe’s writing that foreshadows what a great fiction writer he would become. It reads like fiction, since you’re inside this guy’s mind, but you know that it’s all true! This piece shows how in tune Wolfe is to differences and gradations in status. On page 40, we get a mention of Fabrilex, which is the name of a fictitious company that Wolfe has used in other books as well. It shows up at random times; look for it in The Bonfire of the Vanities. 

“King of the Status Dropouts” is a profile of Playboy magazine publisher Hugh Hefner. It’s fascinating stuff, as during this period of time Hefner was holed up in his Chicago mansion, running the Playboy brand and empire entirely from his house! He wasn’t out on the town partying with blonde starlets; he was staying in, dressed in his robe, smoking his pipe, drinking Pepsi-Cola after Pepsi-Cola, and embracing the Sexual Revolution that he had helped to create! One of my favorite anecdotes about Hugh Hefner, dating from this same time period, is about Hefner’s appearance on William F. Buckley’s television show Firing Line. In his excellent 1971 book Cruising Speed, Buckley related the story of how a friend of his was watching Hefner’s appearance on his show with some guests from France; however, when they tuned in, there was a problem with the sound, so they couldn’t hear what the men were saying. Based solely on their body posture, the French guests surmised that the slouching, grinning Buckley, with his arching eyebrows and darting tongue, must be the publisher of Playboy, and the erect, ramrod-straight Hefner must be the conservative Republican writer and host! In all seriousness, I think Hugh Hefner is quite a remarkable guy, and someone should really write a biography about him, as I think he’s one of the figures most responsible for the sexual revolution in America. 

“The Put-Together Girl” chronicles the adventures of Carol Doda, an exotic dancer in San Francisco who was one of the first women in America to get breast implants. 

“The Noonday Underground” is another piece that Wolfe wrote in London, about teenagers who spend their lunch hours at dingy discotheques listening to mod rock and buying the latest Carnaby Street knockoffs. 

“The Mild Ones” is a very short piece about “work-a-daddy citizens” who are also into motorcycles.

“The Hair Boys” is about teenage car culture, and it revisits car customizer Ed Roth, one of the subjects of Wolfe’s first ground-breaking essay, “The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby.” 

“What if He is Right?” profiles media theorist Marshall McLuhan, who had become an unlikely mid-1960’s celebrity. It’s an interesting piece, opening with Wolfe staring at, and becoming obsessed with, McLuhan’s clip-on necktie. 

“Bob and Spike” dives into the New York City art world of the mid-1960’s, as seen through the eyes of Robert and Ethel Scull, two of the most prominent collectors of that time. Ethel was the subject of Andy Warhol’s wonderful 1963 portrait, Ethel Scull 36 Times. There’s a marvelous description of a party that the Sculls gave at the Top o’ the Fair restaurant in Flushing, which was built for the 1964-5 World’s Fair. The restaurant is still there, now called “Terrace on the Park.” 

“Tom Wolfe’s New Book of Etiquette” is the funniest piece in the book. It features Wolfe’s views on cocktail parties, and the rapidly changing social mores of the 1960’s. Among other fascinating tidbits, you’ll learn that “Socially, New York today is highly redolent of London during the Regency period (roughly, 1800 to 1830).” (p.169) 

“The Life & Hard Times of a Teenage London Society Girl” is another piece from London where Wolfe does some great reporting and gets into the mind of, well, a teenage London society girl. 

“The Private Game” is yet another dispatch from London, this time about private gambling clubs that had proliferated after the legalization of gambling in England. 

“The Automated Hotel” is one of the few non-fiction pieces in which the focus is squarely on Tom Wolfe. Wolfe is the protagonist of this piece, and he has some very harsh words for the then newly opened New York Hilton Hotel, where he checked in while trying to avoid distractions and finish several magazine articles.

“The Shockkkkkk of Recognition” follows movie star Natalie Wood as she visits New York City in April of 1966 to tape an episode of What’s My Line? and to possibly buy some paintings. Wolfe gets to observe Wood at an art dealer where she looks at a variety of paintings. Had I been a dashing young New Journalist working for the New York World Journal Tribune in 1966, I would have gladly accepted this assignment! I also would have accepted the assignment, “watch Natalie Wood watch paint dry.” The day before Wood taped the episode of What’s My Line? she was in Boston at Harvard University accepting an award from the Harvard Lampoon for the “Worst Actress of the Year.” No one accepted sarcastic awards like that in person, but Wood confounded her critics by showing up. Of course, she stole the show, treating the event like she had won the Oscar. You can watch Natalie Wood’s appearance on What’s My Line? here. She’s very funny as she tries to stump the panel by adopting a Russian accent, and completely throwing panelist Arlene Francis for a loop when Francis asks her, “Are you something other than American?” Wood replies, “Well, in my mind.” 

“O Rotten Gotham-Sliding Down into the Behavioral Sink” explains the ideas of anthropologist Edward T. Hall, who theorized that life in New York City was getting worse because of overcrowding. It’s an interesting theory, and I wonder what Hall would have to say about overcrowding in cities now, fifty years later.

As noted above, The Pump House Gang was released on the same day in 1968 as The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. While The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test has gone on to assume classic status and is one of Wolfe’s most famous books, The Pump House Gang remains more obscure. It’s probably inevitable that collections of non-fiction articles are rarely ever the most famous works of authors, but despite the fact that it might not be well known today, The Pump House Gang, like its predecessor The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, was a very steady seller. The copy of The Pump House Gang that I own is the 13^th paperback printing, from November of 1980. The Pump House Gang went through four paperback printings in 1970 alone, so I’d say it was pretty successful for Tom Wolfe. It’s a fine example of his exhilarating writing style, and his sharp observations on contemporary culture.

Book Review: "Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention," by Manning Marable

Malcolm X

Manning Marable, 1951-2011.

Recently I finished reading Manning Marable’s 2011 biography of Malcolm X, “Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention.” It’s a terrific book, one I would recommend to anyone interested in the Civil Rights movement of the 1950’s and 60’s. Marable does a great job of interpreting Malcolm X’s various incarnations throughout his short but eventful life. I read “The Autobiography of Malcolm X,” by Malcolm X and Alex Haley, last year, and Marable’s biography is a much needed companion. Marable successfully untangles the sometimes complicated web that Malcolm and Alex Haley wove. Any reading of Malcolm X’s Autobiography is complicated by the fact that Haley finished the book after Malcolm died, thus Malcolm obviously didn’t have a say on the final text of the book. Marable helps clear up what the Autobiography sometimes leaves unsaid. 

Marable does a great job of illustrating how the split between Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam festered and developed for years before Malcolm’s official split with the Nation in 1964. The Nation of Islam under its leader Elijah Muhammad was strictly opposed to African-Americans voting or participating in any kind of civil rights demonstrations. The Nation of Islam was an odd combination of radicalism and conservatism, as it preached total separation of the races, but yet also didn’t want to involve itself at all in politics or civil rights. Marable shows how Malcolm was always interested in the mainstream civil rights movement, even when he was criticizing Martin Luther King as an “Uncle Tom.” Malcolm wanted to be more proactive in the civil rights movement, but he felt hamstrung by Elijah Muhammad’s refusal to get involved in the movement. Malcolm knew that for African-Americans to win the rights they deserved, they needed to engage in politics, to engage in protest and the political process. Once he realized this, his split with the Nation of Islam was destined to happen, unless he could somehow persuade Elijah Muhammad to change his views. 

Malcolm X rose very quickly in the Nation of Islam, as he went from prison convert to national minister in just a few years during the 1950’s. Malcolm’s rapid rise to the top of the Nation and his high profile in the national news media made him many powerful enemies within the Nation, and Marable shows how they conspired to lessen Malcolm’s influence. One of those enemies was John Ali, the national secretary of the Nation. Ali did all he could to hurt Malcolm, eventually orchestrating a total news blackout of Malcolm in the Nation’s newspaper “Muhammad Speaks.” 

Part of what doomed Malcolm X was his misreading of people. He never figured out who his enemies were in the Nation of Islam until much too late. It seems as though Malcolm didn’t realize that he had any enemies in the Nation. As smart and perceptive a man as he was, he seems to have been taken totally by surprise when he was kicked out. Was Malcolm aware of the way he was not mentioned in “Muhammad Speaks” for more than a year before he was kicked out? It’s not clear if he was, but that should have been a signal to him that all was not well in the Nation. 

Malcolm X had a very close relationship with Elijah Muhammad and he looked up to Muhammad as a kind of father figure. Did Malcolm X see himself as the rightful successor to Muhammad as the leader of the Nation of Islam? The short answer is that Marable doesn’t know. But others in the Nation feared that Malcolm would be named Muhammad’s successor or that he would somehow usurp the power from the rightful successor. Elijah Muhammad had several sons, all of whom were active in the Nation of Islam and who were the most likely successors to the leadership of the Nation. There doesn’t seem to be any evidence that Muhammad was going to make Malcolm his successor when he either retired or died. And while Muhammad was surely very pleased at Malcolm’s ability to gain followers for the Nation, he must have also felt threatened by the younger man. In many ways, Malcolm X was the opposite of Elijah Muhammad. Elijah was old, frail, short, and not a good speaker. Malcolm was young, handsome, charismatic, energetic, and a terrific public speaker. Muhammad must have seen Malcolm as a possible rival very early on. Surely the news blackout of Malcolm in “Muhammad Speaks” could not have lasted as long as it did without the tacit approval of Elijah Muhammad. 

There were many rumors that Elijah Muhammad had fathered numerous illegitimate children. Malcolm ignored these rumors for years, but finally he started investigating them for himself and at a meeting in the Spring of 1963 Muhammad confirmed the rumors during a private meeting with Malcolm. I think Malcolm was legitimately shocked and disappointed when he found out about Elijah’s affairs and illegitimate children. I think he really was deeply wounded by this, that the man he took to be Allah’s Messenger was as human and imperfect as anyone else. 

The differences between Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad finally started to emerge in late 1963. After John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Malcolm said that Kennedy’s death was a sign of “the chickens coming home to roost.” Malcolm added, “Being an old farm boy myself, chickens coming home to roost never did make me sad; they’ve always made me glad.” (Marable, p. 273.) This was widely interpreted as Malcolm taking glee in Kennedy’s death, and it gave the Nation of Islam the perfect excuse to punish him. Malcolm was suspended as national minister for 90 days, and was not supposed to talk to the press during his suspension. Despite this harsh punishment, Malcolm still thought that he would be reinstated when the 90 days were up. But his enemies saw this as their chance to expel Malcolm from the Nation. Which is exactly what happened in the Spring of 1964. Malcolm was unceremoniously relieved of his leadership positions within the Nation. 

After his expulsion from the Nation, Malcolm began to talk more openly about the failings of Elijah Muhammad, including Elijah’s illegitimate children. As the feud between Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam grew more heated, there were calls within the Nation for Malcolm’s death. Malcolm made a pilgrimage to Mecca after leaving the Nation, and it was this trip that made him realize that people of different skin colors could get along in peace and harmony. His rhetoric began to change when he returned to the United States. He started two new organizations, Muslim Mosque, Inc., and the Organization of Afro-American Unity, the OAAU. Muslim Mosque, Inc., was an attempt to take followers away from the Nation of Islam’s brand of Islam and to move towards more orthodox Sunni Islam. Malcolm’s trips to the Middle East and Africa during 1964 helped get Muslim Mosque, Inc. recognized by other countries and by more traditional Sunni Islam groups. And just as Muslim Mosque, Inc. represented a turn away from the Nation of Islam’s brand of Islam, so too the OAAU was a definite step away from the racial separation preached by the Nation of Islam. Malcolm now talked more and more about all African-Americans working together to gain their full civil rights. He realized that he could no longer keep criticizing the more moderate elements of the civil rights movement. But, on the other hand, he still wrote an article explaining why he was supporting Barry Goldwater rather than Lyndon Johnson in the 1964 Presidential race, despite the fact that LBJ was hugely instrumental in the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, while Goldwater opposed it. 

Malcolm journeyed again to the Middle East and Africa during mid-1964, and he ended up staying there for about four months. He was trying to build his fledgling organizations, and he was also keeping safe from the Nation of Islam. When he returned to the United States in late 1964, it was clear that he would have to be protected all the time from violent threats. Just a week before he died, his house was firebombed in the middle of the night. Malcolm, his wife Betty, and all their children were able to escape, but their home was badly burned. The home was also at the center of a dispute with the Nation, as the Nation tried to get Malcolm and his family evicted. The Nation claimed that they had bought the house for Malcolm, and that the Nation still owned it, not Malcolm. Malcolm fought this in court, but he lost and was forced to leave his house. 

On the afternoon of February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was about to speak to an OAAU audience in Harlem’s Audubon Ballroom. He stepped to the podium and just before he started talking a disturbance broke out in the crowd. Two men appeared to be having a disagreement and started shoving each other. However, this was just a planned distraction, and as Malcolm and the audience focused on the two men’s argument, three other men rushed towards the stage and shot Malcolm with a sawed-off shotgun and handguns. Malcolm was wounded 21 times and died at Columbia Presbyterian hospital. 

As Marable makes tragically clear, the investigation into Malcolm X’s assassination was botched badly from the very beginning. While one of the assassins was instantly apprehended, two other men went free as two innocent men took the fall. It was clear that Malcolm’s death had been ordered by the Nation of Islam. The police simply didn’t care about a fight between black radical groups and did not investigate Malcolm’s murder as carefully as they should have. They just wanted to find scapegoats, even if they didn’t find the real killers. 

As with so many other fallen leaders, the question remains, what would have happened to Malcolm X if he had lived longer? He was a great inspiration to the Black Power movement, yet if he had lived, the Black Power movement might have scorned him as being too integrationist. That’s assuming that Malcolm’s thinking would have kept going in the direction he was headed in the last year of his life. One of the most interesting tidbits in the book is Malcolm’s visit to Selma, Alabama, in February, 1965, just weeks before his death. Malcolm didn’t meet with Martin Luther King, who was in jail in Selma at the time, but he did meet with Coretta Scott King. “After the talk he met with Coretta Scott King, stating that in the future he would work in concert with her husband.” (Marable, p. 412.) Had Malcolm lived longer and really started a united front with Martin Luther King, the ramifications would have been enormous. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King are so often seen as opposites, yet during the last years of their lives they were, for the most part, moving closing together, as Malcolm spoke more and more about tolerance and King got angrier with the status quo. That isn’t a perfect comparison, as Malcolm’s public statements were not very consistent, veering one way and then the other, making it difficult to say for sure what he really felt. But it’s clear that had he lived Malcolm X would have done a lot more work in support of African-American civil rights and in support of equality all over the world. 

Malcolm X was a very complicated man, a brilliant, restless soul who thought and cared deeply about the issues of his time. This essay can’t get to all parts and pieces of the man; I can’t dissect everything he said and thought. As a white man, it would be folly for me to say that I completely understand Malcolm X’s views on race in America. I can’t fully understand the racism that he saw and experienced throughout America during his life. But I’ve tried to understand more about Malcolm X’s remarkable life. He’s a very fascinating man, and I can respect him even when I might disagree with what he said. Manning Marable’s book presents a full, nuanced portrait of Malcolm X. It’s probably as close as we will get to the man himself. Sadly, Marable did not live to see his masterpiece published, passing away just weeks before the book was released. Marable was not able to soak up the glowing reviews, the healthy sales, and the Pulitzer Prize for History for 2011. All of those honors were well-earned by a truly remarkable book about a truly remarkable man.