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28-408: In 1962, 14-year-old Walter's irresponsible mother, Mae, sends him to live for the summer on the ramshackle Texas farm of his reclusive, bachelor great uncles, Hub and Garth. They are said to have a secret fortune amassed from past adventures and are the target of every traveling salesman. They, in turn, sit on their porch with shotguns, shooting at the salesmen. Walter is given a room in the attic and

56-572: A lesser extent it has also been used more generally to refer to all Mediterranean , Latino , or Hispanic people. Academic Jennifer Grayer Moore wrote in her book Street Style in America that the term was not used in writing to refer to the American subculture of the mid-20th century until the mid-1960s, though in this sense it still evoked a pejorative ethnic connotation and a relation to machine work. George J. Leonard, who conceived Sha Na Na , coined

84-431: A money-filled room underneath the barn. On another night, Mae arrives with her latest boyfriend, a supposed private investigator named Stan; he claims Hub, Garth, and Jasmine were bank robbers and demanded the money's location. When Walter chooses to believe Garth's stories instead, Stan pins Walter down and beats him. The old lioness emerges from the cornfield and attacks Stan; awakened by the noise, Hub and Garth find that

112-443: Is not welcomed by his uncles until they realize that Walter's presence annoys other gold-digging relatives. Walter persuades his uncles to try spending some of their money. Packets of seeds to plant a vegetable garden turn out all to be corn. The uncles then order a lion for a hunting target but end up with a tame, retired circus lioness, who becomes Walter's pet. While loading 50-pound bags of Lion Chow, Hub faints and briefly goes to

140-489: Is presented as the work of the grown-up Walter, and they also accompany the final credits. The film holds a 60% approval rating from critics on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes based on 137 reviews, with an average rating of 6.1/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "A wholesome but schmaltzy movie." On Metacritic , the film holds a weighted average score of 52 out of 100 based on 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave

168-562: The Folsom, Pompadour , Elephant's trunk, and Duck's ass , while females commonly backcombed , coiffed, or teased their hair. Male greasers typically wore loose work pants such as cotton twill trousers, common among the working class; dark slacks, or dark blue Levi's jeans , widely popular among all American youth in the 1950s. The latter were often cuffed over black or brown leather boots, including steel-toed boots , engineer or Harness boots , combat boots , work boots, and (especially in

196-737: The Southwest) cowboy boots . Other footwear choices included Chuck Taylor All-Stars , pointed Italian dress shoes, brothel creepers , and winklepickers . Male shirts were typically solid black or white T-shirts, ringer T-shirts, Italian knit collared shirts, unbuttoned shirts with sleeveless undershirts underneath, or sometimes just sleeveless undershirts or tank tops (which would have been retailed as underwear ). Choices of outerwear included denim or leather jackets (including Perfecto motorcycle jackets ). Female greaser dress included leather jackets and risque clothing, such as tight and cropped capri pants and pedal pushers (broadly popular during

224-480: The animal has died of heart failure defending her “cub.” The next day, Walter leaves with his mother. Once on the road, Mae explains that Stan will be staying with them to recuperate. Walter asks her to "do something that's best for me for once" and abandons her. While Hub and Garth are delighted to see him back, Walter insists changes must be made: His uncles must involve themselves in his education and live carefully, as he wants them to die of old age. 17 years later,

252-678: The attic. Garth tells Walter the story of their past in the French Foreign Legion , during which Hub married an Arab princess named Jasmine, who was promised to a powerful sheik . After living in constant peril from assassins, Hub spared the sheik's life after a duel on condition that the manhunt ceased. However, Jasmine later died in childbirth, and Hub returned to the French Foreign Legion until he and Garth retired to their farm, where they resignedly waited to die. Late one evening, Walter trails Garth and discovers that his uncles have

280-550: The film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. Greaser (subculture) Greasers are a youth subculture that emerged in the 1950s and early 1960s from predominantly working class and lower-class teenagers and young adults in the United States and Canada. The subculture remained prominent into the mid-1960s and was particularly embraced by certain ethnic groups in urban areas , particularly Italian Americans and Hispanic Americans . The etymology for

308-600: The general domestic shift towards homogeneity in the 1950s. Most were male, usually ethnic or white working-class outsiders, and were often interested in hotrod culture or motorcycling. A handful of middle-class youth were drawn to the subculture for its rebellious attitude. The weak structural foundation of the greasers can be attributed to the subculture's origins in working-class youth possessing few economic resources with which to participate in American consumerism . Greasers, unlike motorcyclists, did not explicitly have their own interest clubs or publications. As such, there

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336-434: The hospital. Later, at a roadside diner, 4 toughs pull switchblades on Hub, but he quickly subdues them. Hub and Garth bring the teens home to patch them up and find that the elderly lioness has escaped her cage, claiming the cornfield her new "jungle" home. Hub gives the teens a speech about growing up and being men before sending them home. A subplot develops around the photograph of a beautiful woman that Walter finds in

364-424: The late 1940s in the United States, though it was certainly established by the 1950s, when it was increasingly adopted by ethnic urban youth. The original greasers (often coming from "ethnic" backgrounds) were aligned by a feeling of working class and lower class disillusionment with American popular culture either through a lack of economic opportunity in spite of the post-war boom or a marginalization enacted by

392-402: The local sheriff alerts Walter that his uncles have died after a failed stunt in their biplane . Walter returns to the farm and is given his uncles' will, which leaves everything to him. A helicopter bearing the logo Western Sahara Petroleum touches down near the farm, and a man steps out with his young son, explaining that he heard about Hub and Garth's deaths on the radio. He had recognized

420-406: The lower classes into two. The contemporary division used by Gilbert divides the lower class into the working poor and underclass . Service and low-rung manual laborers are commonly identified as being among the working poor. Those who do not participate in the labor force and rely on public assistance as their main source of income are commonly identified as members of the underclass. Overall

448-579: The mid-to-late 1950s, to whom greasers epitomized the connection between rock music and juvenile delinquency professed by several important social and cultural observers of the time. American lower class In the United States, the lower class are those at or near the lower end of the socioeconomic hierarchy . As with all social classes in the United States , the lower class is loosely defined and its boundaries and definitions subject to debate and ambiguous popular opinions. Sociologists such as W. Lloyd Warner, Dennis Gilbert and James Henslin divide

476-418: The names as the two Americans in tales told to him in his youth by his grandfather, "a very wealthy sheik." When the man's young son asks Walter if his uncles lived, Walter confirms, "Yeah. They really lived." Director Tim McCanlies, who was an admirer of cartoonist Berkeley Breathed , wrote requesting work of his to feature in the film. Breathed sent the drawings of a strip called Walter and Jasmine , which

504-493: The racial distinction between poor Italian Americans and Puerto Ricans in New York City during the 1950s and 1960s. Greasers were also perceived as being predisposed to perpetrating sexual violence , evoking fear in middle-class males but also titillation in middle-class females. Though the television show American Bandstand helped to "sanitize" the negative image of greasers in the 1960s and 1970s, sexual promiscuity

532-479: The subculture during the 1950s was hoods , in reference to their upturned collars, with many also calling them J.D.s (abbreviated from juvenile delinquents ). Within Greater Baltimore during the 1950s and early 1960s, greasers were colloquially referred to as drapes and drapettes . The greaser subculture may have emerged in the post– World War II era among the motorcycle clubs and street gangs of

560-506: The term greaser is unknown. By the time of the Civil War , the words "greaser" and "greaseball" were understood to carry racist and segregationist meanings. It is speculated that the word originated in the late 19th century in the United States as a derogatory label for poor laborers, specifically those of Italian, Greek or Mexican descent. The similar term "greaseball" is a slur for individuals of Italian or Greek descent, though to

588-457: The term "greaser" in 1967 after he heard Gilbert Highet read the line "The glory that was Greece " from Edgar Allan Poe 's poem " To Helen ". However, S. E. Hinton , author of the novel The Outsiders , an influential portrayal of greasers, claimed to know the term from her youth in 1950s Tulsa, Oklahoma . The name was also applied to members of the subculture partly because of their characteristic greased-back hair. The dominant name for

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616-425: The term describes those in easily filled employment positions with little prestige or economic compensation who often lack a high school education and are to some extent disenfranchised from mainstream society. Estimates for how many households are members of this class vary with definition. According to Dennis Gilbert roughly one quarter, 25%, of US households were in the lower classes; 13% were members among

644-497: The time period). In the early 1950s, there was significant greaser interest in doo-wop , a genre of African-American music from the industrial cities of the Northeast that had disseminated to mainstream American music through Italian American performers. Greasers were heavily associated with the culture surrounding rock n' roll , a musical genre that had induced feelings of a moral panic among older middle-class generations during

672-430: The top quintile, 76% of whom had two or more income earners. Lacking educational attainment as well as disabilities are among the main causes for the infrequent employment. Many households rise above or fall below the poverty threshold , depending on the employment status of household members. While only about 12% of households fall below the poverty threshold at one point in time, the percentage of those who fall below

700-436: The working poor while 12% were members of the underclass. While many in the lower working class are employed in service jobs, lack of participation in the labor force remains the main cause for the economic plight experienced by those in the lower classes. In 2005, the majority of households (56%) in the bottom income quintile had no income earners while 65% of householders did not work. This contrasts starkly to households in

728-409: Was no business marketing geared specifically towards the group. Their choice in clothing was largely drawn from a common understanding of the empowering aesthetic of working-class attire, rather than a cohesive association with similarly dressed individuals. Many greasers were in motorcycle clubs or in street gangs—and conversely, some gang members and bikers dressed like greasers—though such membership

756-528: Was not necessarily an inherent principle of the subculture. Ethnically, original greasers were composed mostly of Italian Americans in the Northeast and Mexican American Chicanos in the Southwest . Since both of these groups were mostly olive skinned , the "greaser" label assumed a quasi-racial status that implied an urban, ethnic, lower-class masculinity and delinquency. This development led to an ambiguity in

784-542: Was still seen as a key component of the modern character. By the mid-1970s, the greaser image had become a quintessential part of 1950s nostalgia and cultural revival. The most notable physical characteristic of greasers was the greased-back hairstyles they fashioned for themselves through use of hair products such as pomade or petroleum jelly , which necessitated frequent combing and reshaping to maintain. Males sported coiffures adopted from early rock 'n' roll and rockabilly performers such as Elvis Presley , among them

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