Altered states

Ben Walters gets ready to brave security at London‘s US embassy so he can check out a movie showing the influence America had on Liverpudlians

The sight of young blades swaggering down the streets of Liverpool at the height of rationing in flashy American suits was a remarkable sight. ‘People wouldn’t give them the full-blown look, ’cause that wouldn’t be the Liverpool way,’ one of those blades now recalls. ‘But certainly a look out of the corner of the eye. “There they are: the Cunard Yanks.”’

Earning their nickname from the cruise line for which they worked, the ‘Yanks’ were Liverpudlian waiters, cooks and stewards whose transatlantic work gave them first hand exposure to the pop-culture explosion taking place during the ’50s at just the spot where the liners docked in New York: around Broadway, between 42nd and 56th streets. In ‘Liverpool’s Cunard Yanks’, showing this Thursday at the US embassy, four of the ‘Yanks’ return to Manhattan to revisit their old haunts. What emerges, in a little under an hour, is an intriguing window onto the formative period of the cultural special relationship as we know it today, making full use of its subjects’ vibrant amateur period footage.

Describing Cunard Lines as ‘the first information superhighway’, the film (directed by Dave Cotterill, Ian Lysaght and Mike Morris) draws out the access the seamen had to items considered extraordinarily exotic back home, from fridges and cameras to those distinctive clothes – not to mention the music. Hundreds of jazz, blues, doo-wop and nascent rock ’n’ roll records were available only from the illicit import market the ‘Yanks’ offered, at a time when the finest US musicians were barred from performing in the UK by the Musicians’ Union. Indeed, the film suggests the Beatles were crucially influenced by this cultural resource – John credited sailors with introducing new songs to Britain while George’s dad brought records back from New York. The film’s soundtrack is a jukebox of greats of the era (rights to which, incidentally, might be a stumbling block to wider distribution).

But it wasn’t a purely harmonious dynamic. ‘Liverpool’s Cunard Yanks’ hints at some of the social frictions the seamen experienced and contributed to. As well as excitement and imagination, these harbingers of consumerism provoked suspicion, indignation and envy, and were also engaged in the industrial actions that helped mark the radical post-war shift in attitudes towards authority. Cultural pioneers on land, they remained all but indentured at sea well into the 1950s; according to the film, the first on-board rebellion against traditional power structures was about guitar usage. Their story offers one aspect of the fissure growing between the generations – in many ways they were ‘teenagers’ avant la lettre.

It seems apt that the US embassy is hosting this screening, ahead of a charity premiere in Liverpool on June 21. (The directors are also hoping to show the film in New York and release it on DVD.) The embassy’s regular screenings – it recently previewed ‘Flags of Our Fathers’ and showed titles for Black History Month and International Women’s Day – offer a rare chance to have a peek inside the heavily fortified doors of Grosvenor Square (once you’ve braved the security procedures). But is there a touch of wishful thinking in scheduling a film celebrating a harmonious and fruitful transatlanticism at a time when the special relationship is under strain? ‘I don’t think I can answer that,’ an embassy spokesperson says.

Call 020 7894 0625 by 5pm on Wed 6 to reserve a seat at the US embassy screening on Thur 7. Places are free but limited and photo ID is required for entry. Arrive at 6pm for a 6.45pm start.