Blackboard Jungle is a 1955 American social drama film about an English teacher in an interracial inner-city school, based on the 1954 novel The Blackboard Jungle by Evan Hunter and adapted for the screen and directed by Richard Brooks. It is remembered for its innovative use of rock and roll in its soundtrack, for casting grown adults as high school teens, and for the unique breakout role of a black cast member, film icon Sidney Poitier, as a rebellious yet musically talented student.
Theatrical release poster
Drive-in advertisement from 1955.
Evan Hunter was an American author of crime and mystery fiction. He is best known as the author of 87th Precinct novels, published under the pen name Ed McBain, which are considered staples of police procedural genre.
Hunter in March 2001
Evan Hunter c. 1953
Hunter's "Silent Partner" was the cover story on the August 1952 issue of Science Fiction Quarterly, credited to S. A. Lombino