This was the way "cool" cuture came into mainstream American living rooms during the mid 1960s, just before everything blew up. RIP Andy Williams. And of course Antonio Carlos Jobim, who like Williams was in his 30s at the time of this show (and who died nearly 20 years ago).
The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Beach Boys were all emerging at exactly this time, but they seemed to be part of a different generation, even century, from Andy Williams.
I feel sympathetic to Mitt Romney's sense of style if I imagine him being
imprinted in this age -- and surprisingly unruffled by anything that
came later.
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James Fallows is a national correspondent for The Atlantic and has written for the magazine since the late 1970s. He has reported extensively from outside the United States and once worked as President Carter's chief speechwriter. He and his wife, Deborah Fallows, are the authors of the new book Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey Into the Heart of America, which has been a New York Times best-seller and is the basis of a forthcoming HBO documentary.