50 years young
It's the sole novel in the English language whose title in its entirety went straight into the dictionary: ''Lolita, n. (lo-LEE-tah), a seductive adolescent girl." The dictionary isn't the only place Vladimir Nabokov's ''Lolita" has gone. Stanley Kubrick made a movie version in 1962 (earning Nabokov an Oscar nomination for best adapted screenplay). Adrian Lyne directed another, in 1997. Azar Nafisi's ''Reading 'Lolita' in Tehran" was an international bestseller in 2003. Even so, sales of Nafisi's memoir are dwarfed by those of the original: 50 million copies in 20 languages.
''Lolita" was published 50 years ago next month, Sept. 15, 1955. It has been called many things: a landmark in world literature, a celebration of pedophilia, a metaphor for the New World seducing the Old (and vice versa), even the greatest paean to the modern American motel. What has not been previously noted is that the sensation surrounding Nabokov's novel presented final, definitive proof that youth had conquered the culture.
Think of 1955 as the turning point, the year demography become destiny. Young moviegoers rioted at screenings of ''Blackboard Jungle." The film's theme song, Bill Haley & His Comets' ''Rock Around the Clock," spent eight weeks atop the Billboard charts. Teen hysteria ensued when James Dean died. RCA bought out Elvis Presley's contract from Sun Records. Disney's ''Mickey Mouse Club" debuted.
The most popular Mouseketeer was a 12-year-old named Annette Funicello. Yet it was another 12-year-old who sealed the deal for the dominance of America's youth: jeans-wearing, comic-book-reading, soul-stirring Dolores Haze. If even so lordly a master of high culture as Nabokov (and his besotted narrator, Humbert Humbert) could be held in thrall by the likes of Lolita, then the battle was over. Farewell Hester Prynne, Isabel Archer, Sister Carrie, Lily Bart -- mature women all. Make way for a new kind of heroine. Even literature now deferred to the young. There was no turning back.
''She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock," Nabokov writes. ''She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms, she was always Lolita."
Britney, Jessica, Paris, (Mary Kate and Ashley, you, too): Say hello to your grandmother and wish her an early happy birthday.
MARK FEENEY
Abdul to remain on 'Idol'
Fox has decided to keep Paula Abdul as a judge on ''American Idol" after an independent investigation concluded there was ''insufficient evidence" that the former pop star had an affair with contestant Corey Clark, as the second-season finalist charged. The probe determined that Clark's claims ''had not been substantiated by any corroborating evidence or witnesses." But as a safeguard against further scandal, ''Idol" makers said they'll beef up the ''non-fraternization policy."
Imagine that
Yoko Ono and son Sean Lennon (inset) attended the premiere of the new Broadway musical ''Lennon" at the Broadhurst Theater in New York yesterday. Others spied entering the theater included Al Sharpton, Roberta Flack, Ralph Nader, Eartha Kitt, and Geraldo Rivera.
Tuning in to Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton on CD? Sort of. The Clinton Presidential Foundation is putting out a compilation called ''The Bill Clinton Collection: Selections From the Clinton Music Room," featuring 11 of his favorite tracks. The songs include ''Harlem Nocturne" by David Sandborn, ''My Funny Valentine" by Miles Davis, ''I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free" by Nina Simone, and ''Chelsea Morning" by Judy Collins.
FROM WIRE REPORTS 
