Bobby-Soxers' Gallup

What is the younger generation coming to? Last week a pollster's promise to answer the question out of the mouths of the youngsters themselves produced the country's hottest new syndicated feature. Before its first appearance, Pollster Eugene Gilbert's "What Young People Think," distributed by A.P. Newsfeatures, lined up 271 U.S. and Canadian newspaper outlets with 17 million circulation. In several cities editors vied for the weekly column. The Washington Star snapped it up without even seeing a sample, and the New York Journal-American" splashed a red bannerline atop its masthead last week to herald publication of Gilbert's first column.

Ever since he was in his teens himself. 30-year-old Pollster Gilbert has been a specialist on the U.S. teenager. At 19, a year out of high school in Chicago, he launched the Gilbert Youth Research Organization to sample teenagers' tastes and buying habits for businessmen. He has run 1,900 surveys for clients ranging from candy-bar manufacturers to the U.S. Army Recruiting Service, whose "Retire at 37" slogan stemmed from Gilbert's finding that modern youth prizes security over adventure. He uses 5,000 interviewers--all teen-agers themselves--in 420 U.S. cities and towns.

With his market-research business going at a brisk clip, Gilbert decided to step up to a Gallup, canvassing the blue-jeans set for its views on politics, manners, smoking, necking, military service, family quarrels, juvenile delinquency. In his newspaper debut, Gilbert reported on a political survey: "If today's teen-agers could vote next November, they would favor Eisenhower over Stevenson by more than 2 to 1." Forthcoming findings:

P: Allowances and earnings give the teenage boy an average weekly income of $8.96, compared to only $2.41 a dozen years ago. In some cases, the youngsters have more uncommitted pocket money than their parents.

P: Small-town youngsters do more dating at an earlier age (beginning at 14 for girls) than their big-city cousins. They are also quicker to "go steady." P: Teen-agers laugh at parents' fears that rock 'n' roll is a menace to morals. They regard it merely as a "revved-up version of the Charleston or Lindy hop." What impresses editors more than such findings is Gilbert's pitch, backed by statistics, that "your future circulation depends on this youth market." Gilbert and his newspapers assume that young people are just as curious as their eternally puzzled elders to get the answers on problems of the young.

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