Glenn Ford

BEFORE GREASE

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The loss of actor Glenn Ford immediately brought to mind one of our favorite movies of ALL time – Blackboard Jungle. It was a shocking sensation in the fifties and every kid HAD to see it. It was the first movie about juvenile delinquents and featured the first hit rock n roll song – Bill Haley’s Rock Around the Clock. It became the theme song of the greaser generation. When that song played at the start of the movie, the audience was ready to rumble. Glenn Ford played a mild mannered teacher assigned to tame a classroom of greasy inner-city thugs including young Sidney Poitier. They nicknamed their teacher Daddy-O and when Vic Morrow pulled a knife on Ford in class – he was sent to the principal’s office! We’ll miss you Daddy-O.