Shot 46 / 6:33–6:50Select a shot, or shift-click to select multipleSelect a shot, or double-tap to select multiple

Ask Me, Don't Tell Me

196122 min 18 sec190 shots

Against black-and-white scenes of San Francisco street life, young men joke about club rivalries, boredom, fighting, theft, and the obstacles they encounter when seeking work. California Attorney General Stanley Mosk says juvenile delinquency has no single cause or cure and calls on communities to give young people constructive ways to belong. Club members add that the public often treats anyone wearing a club jacket as a thug, although a club can become either a harmful or useful force.

Organizer Carl May recruits leaders of local jacket clubs into Youth for Service, which asks members rather than orders them to help others. Participants work without pay on home repairs for elderly and disabled people, a community-center parking area, a church classroom in Alviso, and a bridge at the Laytonville Rancheria of the Pomo tribe. Their clubs also form a council to settle disputes before they become fights, organize social events, and support a national march for integrated schools.

Work projects, a dance celebrating the first hundred projects, and the completed bridge show how recognition and responsibility can replace suspicion and rejection. Youth for Service does not promise to cure juvenile delinquency; its leaders emphasize accepting individuals, reconciling differences, and giving young people useful work that they can make their own. A member summarizes the approach plainly: he will do almost anything when someone asks him, but resists when someone commands him.

Provenance and rights

Original producer: Myers (David)
Collection: Prelinger Archives
Original title: Ask Me, Don't Tell Me
Date: 1961
Original link: Open on Internet Archive
Rights: public_domain