The Classic/Retro Pop Culture Thread

Enjoy your Golden Years, Old-Timer! More time to listen to albums!

FWIW, he doesn't appear to have worked on The Rifleman.

In which case, that's a mighty ripe body back there.

There was some sort of brief handwave to the effect that if they did involve the law, they'd target Jason.

I was unclear about a lot of this myself...apparently on both viewings. But I know they suspected Borg regarding the mishap with the decoy airfield and the Germans attacking during the extraction.

Which doesn't make rigid sections of it joined together air-tight.

Well, there was his stickum that would hold a man's weight for ten seconds before letting him fall to his fate...okay, I guess that qualifies.

Max was there first.

General Moore!

Tell me about it.

I wonder...condition being everything when it comes to collectables. I've wondered if the original "butcher sleeve" of the American Beatles album Yesterday and Today is still valuable without the record inside.

There's one way to change that.

 

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55.5th-ish Anniversary Viewing

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The Ed Sullivan Show
Season 18, episode 9
Originally aired November 7, 1965
As represented in The Best of the Ed Sullivan Show

Ed is announced as being just back from a trip to his home town of Portchester, New York.

The duo for whom they invented the term "blue-eyed soul" perform a cover of the 1961 Bobby Bland song "Turn on Your Lovelight":

King's routine centers around his marriage. The clip here is fuller than the Best of edit, which didn't include the introduction of his family.

For once, the YouTube clip uses the same music as Best of, which is one of Best of's standard pieces, so I'm sure that it wasn't the original music. It doesn't seem like something that French pantomimists would use in their act.

The Brothers earn their adjective by indulging their spiritual side with a rendition of "You'll Never Walk Alone":

Peggy does a torchy George Gershwin show tune called "How Long Has This Been Going On," which the Metacritic listing says was part of a medley with "Falling in Love," in addition to a separate performance of "It's A Grand Night for Singing".

The command trio is "Yes Indeed," which has some fun bits of business in it:


Other performances:

• Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass - "A Taste of Honey" & "Zorba The Greek."
• Anna Moffo
• Baby Opal (trained elephant act)

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Branded
"Fill No Glass For Me: Part 1"
Originally aired November 7, 1965

Jason rides to a cantina where he asks for a drink of water for a rose that he's carrying and a bottle of burgundy with two glasses, to be shared with an old friend of whom he speaks in the past tense. At a lone, shallow gravesite, he begins to talk to his friend, Johnny, and then goes all Kwai Chang, flashing back to an earlier but still post-Bitter Creek encounter with Corporal Johnny Macon (Greg Morris!--also doing the rounds in this season before his signature role began), who was singing the title song to his inexperienced unit of black soldiers on their first patrol. Jason warns Johnny that renegade Apaches have been sending smoke signals about his unit, and Johnny is receptive to Jason's advice when he learns that he was a cavalry captain. Just as Macon's giving the order to break camp, the Apaches ambush the unit...and because they're camped in a natural kill box, the men are picked off like fish in a barrel. Macon is strongly affected by losing his first men, and is reluctant to leave his unit when Jason sends him to ride for help.

Just after the corporal departs, Jason is captured by the Apaches, whose leader is an old foe from Bitter Creek, Chief Wateekah (Michael Keep). They have a discussion about their respective outcast roles in their societies. Meanwhile, Macon is taken to task by Major Brackham (Duncan McLeod) for taking orders from the infamous Jason McCord. Brackham has no intention of going to help McCord, writes off the rest of the unit is dead, and gives Macon the McCord treatment, having him placed under arrest to face a court martial for desertion. Back at the Apache camp, Jason explains to Wateekah why the black men fight for the white men. The Chief shares his plan to use Jason as bait to lure in Macon. Jason tries to tell Wateekah that all men are brothers regardless of the color of their skin. But he's still taken out to be tied to a tree. Cut to an announcement to come back next week, in lieu of an onscreen appearance by Those Three Words.

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12 O'Clock High
"I Am the Enemy"
Originally aired November 8, 1965

https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/the-classic-retro-pop-culture-thread.278375/page-79#post-12315657
https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/tre...urprising-roles.205921/page-100#post-12314466

The episode opens with Major Kurt Brown (William Shatner)--whom we learn is nicknamed "The Iron Major"--leading a rough mission in which he shows no empathy or concern for a badly wounded bombardier, and is clearly not liked by his crew for it. Back at Archbury, he chews some scenery over being sent on these costly repeated missions to take out sub pens, but won't take leave as Gallagher suggests. When he's informed of the bombardier's death, he goes into a rant about needing to bomb the German populace to strike terror into them. Gallagher speculates afterward that this has to do with Brown being of German blood. General Britt has Brown in mind for taking command of the 82nd Bomb Group, though Brown's more interested in flying and knows that he's not popular with his men. In the scene mentioned in the original review, he generally acts very intense.

At the Star & Bottle, Gallagher's trying to comfort a woman named Elizabeth Hoffman (Elen Willard) over a personal loss. When Gallagher buys Brown a drink and recruits him to see to Elizabeth while he goes to a meeting, Brown cops an attitude but ultimately complies...only to make the moves on her when he sees her home, to receive a slap in in the face. She can see that something's bothering him and observes that he's suffering from loneliness just as she is, and they seem to be on the road to bonding when we cut back to the airfield, where Brown has returned after aborting a mission because of a navigator with a burst appendix, which makes him feel like a coward, again showing no empathy for his crew. Cut back to Elizabeth's place, where Brown's unloading on her about the situation, and expresses paranoia about Gallagher wanting to undermine him taking command of the 82nd. She admits to being in love with Kurt, then confronts him about his hatred of Germans, confessing that she's a German who lost her British husband in the war; the delivery of the title line comes from her in this scene. Brown confronts Gallagher the next day, assuming that pairing him with Elizabeth was a set-up. Gallagher in turn tries to make him face his self-loathing over being German.

Act III opens with that Trek fanfare-sounding cue while Shat is on screen, briefing his men on the airfield. On the mission, Brown won't turn around after losing an engine, and doesn't flinch as his cockpit gets shot up by a German fighter. Ultimately the plane gets damaged badly enough that he struggles for control of it, and loses some crewmen. Back at Elizabeth's place, though she doesn't want to see him, he tells her how he couldn't remember flying the mission, and opens up about his self-loathing and how he went into the war hoping to be killed so he wouldn't have to commit suicide. Stovall is in a scene, the next day's briefing...following which Brown has a very OTT collapse due to exhaustion. Britt admits that Gallagher was right about him, but Gallagher doesn't want to write the major off, feeling that he needs Brown for the mission. Brown now wants out, however, and Gallagher speculates correctly that he suddenly wants to live because of Elizabeth...but thinks that if he can get Brown to fly while knowing fear, he'll be a better commander for it. (Recall that Gallagher has much experience in this area...it was his origin story.) Thus he tries to persuade Kurt to fly the mission, or at least not to quit for the wrong reason.

Ultimately Brown decides that he does need to fly the mission, and tries to explain to Elizabeth before leaving. She promises to wait for him. Gallagher's leading, and the group struggles with bad weather, then is jumped by fighters. Gallagher has to abort, so he places Brown in charge. The major is successful, but taken out by flak. In the Epilog, Gallagher talks to Brown after surgery, and Kurt admits to his fear, but says that he's getting used to it. Gallagher then talks to Liz, who wants to blame him for what Kurt has become, but Gallagher credits her for his breakthrough.

Was I a little hard on Shat's overacting in the original write-up? Maybe...or maybe I just went in knowing what to expect this time. I didn't catch where Kurt got into the part where he was smuggled out of Germany as described in the original post...just where he referenced having been ready to die since he was 12. Maybe he's been suffering his self-loathing for being German since WWI?

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Gilligan's Island
"Agonized Labor"
Originally aired November 11, 1965

The Skipper and Gilligan practice how Gilligan should inform Mr. Howell. Did the Skipper ever think that maybe he should just do jobs like this himself? The other castaways learn first because of Gilligan's combo of procrastination and a big mouth. Meanwhile, the Howells are planning to faux-industrialize the island. Among the other junk he brought on the Minnow, Howell actually has a trunk full of cash..."a petty few hundred thousand"...I'm not sure if that's come up before. After he gets the news, various physical mishaps with the other castaways follow, apparently tanking his self-respect and contributing to him losing his will to live. He leaves a note for Lovey.

The others search for Thurston as he wanders the jungle trying to determine how to kill himself. Gilligan finds him on a cliff and ends up falling off it himself, hanging onto a jutting branch. Howell is depressed at having to learn to work, so the Professor comes up with the idea of training the Howells in new skills. IMDb points out that Mrs. Howell has been seen cooking and sewing before, though I don't recall the incidents offhand. Howell reverts to form, having Skipper do all the work that he's supposed to be learning to do. The Howells end up trying to prepare and serve a gourmet meal for the others, though her cooking and his waitering leave much to be desired...which culminates in coconuts exploding because she tried to cook them in their shells.

In the coda, both of the Howells are about to jump off the cliff when the radio report comes in with the announcer correcting the previous news flashes, which had caused financial chaos back in civilization.

Another GI theory--maybe the Skipper was actually running a smuggling operation, which would explain why the Howells in particular brought so much stuff...they were trying to move some assets offshore, they just didn't reach their intended destination.

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The Wild Wild West
"The Night of the Double-Edged Knife"
Originally aired November 12, 1965

A group of railroad workers walk off on their boss, Jack Parnell (Tyler McVey), after finding four men hanged, apparently by Cheyenne. Parnell removing an arrow from one of the bodies triggers an explosion, making it five deaths as previously threatened. On the train ride over, Artie offends modern sensibilities by practicing his Indian disguise. At the railroad town, Jim meets his contact, General Ball (Leslie Nielsen), an old acquaintance who's missing a hand. Local officials Adamson (Vaughn Taylor) and Penrose (Harry Townes) brief Jim that the Indians are demanding protection money, but are skeptical of his ability to help. Outside, Jim intervenes in a dispute between some railroad workers, including Mike McGreavy (Elisha Cook), and Parnell's daughter, Sheila (Katharine Ross). When Sheila tells of a bribery attempt and death threat on her father, McGreavy pulls a gun, offering that he works for the man who's responsible for her father's death, and forces them into a cellar. Jim uses some concealed wire to tie the trap door from the inside, and gets very friendly with Sheila while they wait for the bigger fish to arrive.

They later hear knocking and find Artie upstairs in his disguise, who shows them McGreavy's body. Artie switches to the role of an old railroad worker to snoop around on the site. Indians ride up and kill five men on a rail car, and shoot Artie's horse as the agents pursue. Jim continues and is captured by Dartmouth-educated Cheyenne leader American Knife (John Drew Barrymore), who sits down for a talk to inform West that they're not responsible, and shows him that an "Indian" Jim killed in the pursuit is a white man in disguise. But for the sake of his people's expectations, AK has to make a show of subjecting Jim to torture to prove his willingness to help. So he sends in Little Willow (Susan Silo), who has Jim scream and moan and makes a superficial knife wound on his arm, while Jim flirts with her.

By the time they're done, Artie's being given guest treatment at the camp. Artie poses as the body of the killed impostor to catch the men who try to retrieve the corpse, from whom they get the location of the outlaws' camp. Jim eavesdrops on the apparent leader, Farrell (Harry Lauter), planning with other outlaws. They're aware that he's listening, and afterward report to the real big cheese--General Ball. The info they allowed Jim to hear about an impending attack is a trap, but Jim doesn't play into the scheme, advising payment rather than ambushing the outlaws. Outlaws abduct the train's butler, Tennyson (Charles Davis), and Sheila, and take over train. Our heroes and the associates are taken back to the outlaw camp as prisoners, where an obviously well-informed Farrell has all of Jim's hidden weapons and devices removed, tipping Jim off to Ball's involvement. Artie challenges Farrell to a fight to covertly swipe his boot knife.

The general informs Jim of how resentment for his treatment following his dismemberment has motivated his revenge. He takes Jim, Artie, and Shiela to watch as they spring a trap to stop the train with the gold shipment. Jim gets loose via Artie's knife, stealthily overcomes some guards, and uses a rifle to set off the explosives on the track prematurely. The train stops and unloads a contingent of armed Cheyenne who take on the outlaws, while Jim engages in an outdoor set brawl with Ball. When the general trains a gun on Jim, he gets a knife tossed in his back by AK.

The train coda has Jim and Artie hosting the railroad officials and American Knife; after they leave on friendly terms, Sheila and Little Willow come out of the galley with competing dishes they've prepared for Jim.

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Hogan's Heroes
"Go Light on the Heavy Water"
Originally aired November 12, 1965

The truck transporting the barrel has to stop at Stalag 13 because a bombing raid is making the road too dangerous. Captain Mueller (John Stephenson) tells Klink that he's carrying water, and Klink doesn't get the hint. Hogan and Kinch approach the driver, Sergeant Steinfeld (Lawrence Montaigne), to try to find out if it's nitro, but he maintains that it's water. With a distraction from Newkirk, Carter slips in and gets a flask of the stuff. At the barracks he drinks some and confirms that it's water. Hogan radios a sub and is informed what it is and to destroy it at all costs.

Hogan tells Klink that it's water from a Norwegian spa that might restore his hair. Klink thus inspects the truck to sneak a cup and drink it on the spot. With Hogan's encouragement, Klink subsequently proceeds to scheme with Schultz to steal the barrel and replace it. Mueller interrupts, finds out what Klink thinks is in the barrel, and tells him the truth, so the prisoners have to do their own switcheroo. A fire alarm in Klink's office motivates Steinfeld to move the truck, backing it in front of the barracks, where the prisoners pull down a drawbridge-style wall and switch the barrel with a phony.

Hogan does the hat-on-the-helmet thing in Klink's office again. Both Mama Bear and Mueller say that the heavy water is for nuclear experiments...that term wasn't in common use for years to come.

Disss-missssed!

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Get Smart
"Satan Place"
Originally aired November 13, 1965

The Chief is leaving for vacation out his apartment window, as a security precaution. He struggles with and is abducted by two KAOS agents in his own car while Max is looking under the hood. Now Max and 99 say that they can't go to the government because CONTROL is so top secret that even the State Department doesn't know about it! The president isn't helpful either, so they have to resort to a fundraising drive within CONTROL. Harvey Satan's (Joseph Sirola) plan is to ransom the Chief back mind-controlled. After making the drop, Max coordinates a dragnet via phones concealed about his person in a variety of accessories, eventually learning the location of the clearly marked Satan Place Sanitarium. Max and 99 take the place of a doctor and nurse who've arrived for the operation, and find the Chief frozen solid. They end up turning down the thermostat and using a water hose to freeze Satan and his two henchmen (Len Lesser and Jack Perkins). In the coda, the Chief returns to his office to find that all of his belongings where auctioned off in the fundraiser, and that Max won his car in a raffle.

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You mean new vinyl? How much is an album going for these days? Assuming they're selling the British versions of the albums with Past Masters collecting the unattached singles (the recommended listening experience), you've got 12 single albums and 2 double albums, 16 discs total. And there might be a box set out there.

 

55 Years Ago This Week

June 26 – The "March Against Fear", started by one man, James H. Meredith, on June 6, came to a dramatic climax as more than 16,000 African-Americans (and a few hundred white supporters) arrived at the Mississippi State Capitol in Jackson. Although the Capitol building itself was separated from the crowd by police and National Guardsmen who had been ordered to the area, the group packed the grounds and adjacent areas to hear the speakers. Meredith himself, who had been shot and hospitalized the day after he began his quest, addressed the assembly from a platform on a flatbed truck. "It's true that we got some mean white folks in Mississippi," Meredith told listeners, "but these people can be decent. There is only one thing that is holding them back. And that thing is the system of white supremacy." He noted that he had been shot, "but as you can see here, that didn't end a thing."

June 27

• Dark Shadows, a daytime soap opera billed initially as "the first television program styled in the tradition of the gothic novel" made its debut on the ABC television network at 4:00 p.m. Eastern time. On the first installment of the "romantic suspense" series, Victoria Winters (Alexandra Moltke) came to the small fishing village of Collinsport, Maine, to become the governess of a 10-year-old boy, and took up residence at a gloomy Victorian mansion, "Collinwood", operated by the Collins family matriarch (Joan Bennett). The show was initially panned by critics but would feature supernatural plots after its first ten months, with ghosts, a vampire (Barnabas Collins), a witch (Angelique) and a werewolf (Quentin), and the setting gradually shifted from the 20th century to the past and the future, including the year 1995. By 1969, Dark Shadows would become the highest-rated daytime program in the United States, running until April 2, 1971.

[First thing we see of Roger, he's hitting the brandy!]

• Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention's debut album, Freak Out!, is released. It is an initial failure, but gains a massive cult following in subsequent years.

June 28 – Argentine Revolution: In Argentina, a military junta calling itself Revolución Argentina deposes president Arturo Umberto Illia in a coup and appoints General Juan Carlos Onganía to power.

June 29

• At 1:50 p.m. local time, 16 A-6 Intruder fighter-bombers and 12 support aircraft took off from the aircraft carriers Constellation and Ranger to carry out the first American bombing of North Vietnam's largest cities, striking at fuel and oil facilities near Haiphong, the nation's second biggest city. Twenty-five minutes later, at 2:15, the U.S. Seventh Air Force struck at the capital, Hanoi fuel storage tanks with 25 F-105 Thunderchief fighters. However, a CIA report two months later would conclude that the daring raids had escalated the war, but failed to have the expected impact, noting "there is no evidence that the air strikes have significantly weakened popular morale."
• The strike by the National Union of Seamen in the United Kingdom is called off.

June 30

• The Beatles became the first musical group to perform at the Nippon Budokan Hall in Tokyo, in the first of five concerts in Japan during a tour of Asia. The performance ignited protests from local citizens who felt that it was inappropriate for a rock and roll band to play at Budokan. [Both this and a second show on July 2 are filmed in color for Japanese television.]
• France formally leaves NATO.
• The National Organization for Women (NOW) is founded in Washington, D.C.

July 1

• The Medicare program went into operation in the United States, as the new federal health insurance program for people 65 years and older started. Patients who were already in American hospitals became the first persons to be transferred over to the new system. That date, and the implementation of the Medicaid program for low-income families and disabled younger individuals six months later, one author notes, "were the key dates after which Americans began outspending the rest of the world on health care".
• Joaquín Balaguer becomes president of the Dominican Republic.

July 2

• France began the first of 44 atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons in the South Pacific Ocean, detonating a 28-kiloton weapon that had been mounted on a barge in the lagoon of the Mururoa Atoll in an experiment codenamed "Aldebaran". Two more tests would be performed that month, on the 19th and the 21st of July. Atmospheric tests would continue until September 14, 1974. On June 5, 1975, the French started underground testing.
• Billie Jean King of the United States won the first of her six Wimbledon singles championships, and her first of 12 events in the "Grand Slam" of tennis, defeating Maria Bueno of Brazil, 6-3, 3-6 and 6-1.

Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:

Leaving the chart:

• "(I'm a) Road Runner," Jr. Walker & The All-Stars (12 weeks)
• "It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World," James Brown & The Famous Flames (9 weeks)
• "Monday, Monday," The Mamas & The Papas (12 weeks)

New on the chart:

"I Want You," Bob Dylan

(#20 US; #16 UK)

"Love Letters," Elvis Presley

(#19 US; #38 AC; #6 UK)

"The Work Song," Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass

(#18 US; #2 AC; #51 UK)

"I Saw Her Again," The Mamas & The Papas

(#5 US; #11 UK)


And new on the boob tube:

• The Ed Sullivan Show, Season 18, episode 39
• Dark Shadows, episodes 1 through 5

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Timeline entries are quoted from the Wiki pages for the month or year.

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Pahk yah cah, we gaht a really big shewww!

What are you, a Millennial?

Air mandolin.

True!

Exactly the man we need in charge of the 82nd!

While in the line of duty? That's a good question.

They never mention the character's age...but in the very next episode, according to my original brief write-up, they're trying to pass Frank Aletter off as 10 years younger.

I assumed it was just a day cruise and they were returning to the same port.

Just don't call him Shirley. I didn't mention it here, but the other week Decades had Police Squad! in its Binge (alongside Sledge Hammer!, because PS only ran six episodes). I hadn't seen the PS TV series since it originally aired.

He was a trusty, loyal steed, ol' Whatshisname...

Maybe he was out paying his respects to ol' Whatshisname...

I looked it up, too. Apparently "nuclear" was more accurate and in use by scientists in the day, but they were perturbed that everyone else insisted on using "atomic"...which was still all over the pop culture going well into the '60s. "Nuclear" started being more commonly used by the late '60s.

 

50 Years Ago This Week

June 27 – Concert promoter Bill Graham closes the legendary Fillmore East, which first opened on 2nd Avenue (between 5th and 6th Streets) in New York City on March 8, 1968.

June 28

• Assassin Jerome A. Johnson shoots Joe Colombo, boss of his eponymous crime family, in the head in a middle of an Italian-American rally, putting him in a coma.
• By a vote of 8 to 0, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously reversed the conviction of heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali, four years after he had been found guilty of refusing induction into the U.S. Army, and after Ali's world championships had been revoked by boxing commissions. The Court concluded that Ali had been improperly drafted despite his claim to be a conscientious objector to military service based on his religious faith as a Muslim.

June 30

• After a successful mission aboard Salyut 1, the world's first manned space station, the crew of the Soyuz 11 spacecraft die after their air supply leaks out through a faulty valve.
• New York Times Co. v. United States: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Pentagon Papers may be published, rejecting government injunctions as unconstitutional prior restraint.
• The U.S. State of Ohio approved ratification of the 26th Amendment to the United States Constitution by a vote of 81 to 9 in the state house of representatives, one day after the state senate had voted 30 to 2 in favor of approval. In so doing, Ohio became the 38th of the 50 U.S. states to ratify the amendment to lower the minimum voting age nationwide from 21 years old to 18 years old, providing the necessary three-quarters majority necessary for the 26th Amendment to become law.
• The classical musical fantasy family film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, based on the novel Charlie & the Chocolate Factory and starring Gene Wilder and Jack Albertson, is released.

July – Nordic Council secretariat inaugurated.

July 1 – The semi-independent United States Postal Service (USPS) began administration of U.S. postal delivery of letters and packages through thousands of post offices, succeeding the cabinet-level United States Post Office Department. Winton M. Blount continued as United States Postmaster General, but was no longer a member of the Presidential cabinet nor part of the presidential line of succession.

July 3 – Jim Morrison, 27, American singer and leader of The Doors, was found dead in his bathtub in Paris, France; the cause of death remains uncertain, but an unintentional heroin overdose was the most popular theory.

I couldn't find a good vintage news announcement clip, so I guess our coincidental chart entry below will have to be his tribute...that, and the fact that its album is the next one up...


Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:

Leaving the chart:

• "Caught in a Dream," Alice Cooper (3 weeks)
• "I Am...I Said" / "Done Too Soon", Neil Diamond (14 weeks)
• "I Don't Know How to Love Him," Yvonne Elliman (10 weeks)
• "Me and You and a Dog Named Boo," Lobo (13 weeks)
• "Right on the Tip of My Tongue," Brenda & the Tabulations (13 weeks)
• "Superstar," Murray Head w/ The Trinidad Singers (31 weeks total; 12 weeks this run)

New on the chart:

"Hot Pants, Pt. 1 (She Got to Use What She Got to Get What She Wants)," James Brown

(#15 US; #1 R&B; #51 UK)

"Riders on the Storm," The Doors

(#14 US; #11 AC; #22 UK)

"Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get," The Dramatics

(#9 US; #3 R&B)

"Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)," Marvin Gaye

(#4 US; #34 AC; #1 R&B; #51 UK)

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Timeline entries are quoted from the Wiki pages for the month or year.

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Fun bit of Dylan word soup, and like the rest of the album, conveys a Dylan who's become more confident and well-adjusted to what he is and where he's at.

I'm the guy who can't think of how one song goes when I'm listening to another, and I was playing "That's All Right" in my head while listening to this. (Coming our way in 70th Anniversaryland in three years!)

Good point in this case.

From what I saw of it, I didn't think Sledge Hammer! was as funny, though it was spoofing the vigilante cop genre...and had Anne-Marie Martin in it, who was quite a looker in the day, though she was going through a gamut of very '80s hairstyles. As for Police Squad!, I was tickled to find that Peter Lupus was a regular...I wouldn't have known who he was back in the day.

Only within the nitpicky nuclear research subculture.

 

55 Years Ago This Week Overflow Special

Also recent and new on the chart the week of July 2, 1966:

"Where Were You When I Needed You," The Grass Roots

(June 18; #28 US)

"Pretty Flamingo," Manfred Mann

(#29 US; #1 UK)

"Trains and Boats and Planes," Dionne Warwick

(#22 US; #37 AC; #49 R&B)

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55th Anniversary Fly-on-the-Wall Listening

A couple of performances from the June 30 Budokan concert:


The Budokan shows are noteworthy for having provided some of the best recordings and footage of the Beatles in concert, in part because the Japanese audiences were more reserved in their accompaniment. The selections also show the disparity at this point between what they were playing in concert and what they were doing in the studio...though the setlist was only eleven songs long, and did include two from Rubber Soul and "Paperback Writer".

A really awesome Paul factoid...when he started touring again in 1989--for the first time since John's death--he dug out the old Hofner bass, which he hadn't used since this period. It still had (and I presume has) the Beatles' 1966 setlist taped to its side!

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Did the verdict rhyme?

I'm tentatively planning to watch it; never have as an adult, and as a kid it was one of those that I'd turn away from segments of. I was scaredy-fraid of the Oompa Loompas. Is Jack Albertson supposed to be British in this? 'Cause that's a stretch.

Now...you gotta love this one for the subtitle alone!

It has an appropriate atmosphere for the unfortunate occasion.

On Jim's death, he reportedly told somebody, regarding Jimi and Janis having died, "You're drinking with number three."

Not too familiar with this one yet.

Nope, they covered this album with "What's Going On?," in addition to three songs from other points in his career.

I was familiar with that backdoor pilot at the end of The Rifleman...I think they were going for a Beverly Hillbillies knock-off; and caught some of that Grizzly Adams movie in the background on Decades not long ago. Decades back I caught on TV a schlocky 1979 horror film called Tourist Trap with him as the killer and pre-Charlie's Angels Tanya Roberts as one of the victims.

ETA: Today's 50th anniversary Doonesbury has a particularly good times-signy gag:
Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for June 27, 1971 - GoComics

 

50th Anniversary Album Spotlight

L.A. Woman
The Doors
Released April 19, 1971
Chart debut: May 8, 1971
Chart peak: #9 (June 5, 1971)
#362 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2003)

Historically, this has been my least favorite of the Doors' original six studio albums with Morrison. Revisiting it in immersive retro context, I think that maybe I'd been a bit hard on it. I was perhaps put off by the blues-centricness of the album, but it plays better in the context of its time, surrounded by contemporaneous works by other artists, than it did for me as the last album in a strictly Doors listen-through. And it definitely has a more distinct identity than any of the band's albums since their definitive first two.

Some background on the album:

The albums kicks off on a funky note with "The Changeling":

Next is the album's upbeat lead single, "Love Her Madly" (charted Apr. 10, 1971; #11 US; #29 AC):

The album takes a hard turn into the blues with original composition "Been Down So Long".

"Cars Hiss by My Window" is another original blues number...one with a good, evocative atmosphere.

What sounds like a harmonica toward the end is Jim's voice.

The first side closes with the album's titular, longest, and strongest track, "L.A. Woman"...one of those stone-cold classic album cuts that's as well known as the band's hit singles:

(A section that was also deliberately played to sound orgasmic.)

Side two opens on a relatively low-key note with "L'America".

"Hyacinth House" is a modestly pleasant bit of side two business with improvised lyrics.

The album's sole cover is the Doors' rendition of John Lee Hooker's "Crawling King Snake".

"The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)" was a poetry piece of Jim's that the Doors had been performing live years before this album...they used to use a softer, slower version of it as an intro for other songs, including "Love Me Two Times" and "Hello, I Love You".


The album closes on an apt note, with the last song that Morrison recorded with the Doors, the magnificently moody "Riders on the Storm" (charted July 3, 1971; #14 US; #11 AC; #22 UK):

I always wondered, though, if somebody had a sale on rain effects in 1971. Paul was also using one on "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" at the same time (which hasn't charted yet, but is already out on Ram at this point). And there may be another example that I'm not remembering.

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A decent, modestly charting debut single.

Nothing terribly distinctive about this one.

It's pretty, but doesn't stand out among her hits or Bacharach/David compositions.

Not bad.

There's no such rule that I'm aware of...it's just my speculative reasoning as to why one song was included and the other wasn't.

 

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55.5th-ish Anniversary Viewing

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The Ed Sullivan Show
Season 18, episode 10
Originally aired November 14, 1965
As represented in The Best of the Ed Sullivan Show

The info for the clip below says that it's from September 19, but I'm sure that Metacritic is right in this case, as Ed is wearing a suit and tie rather than his Hollywood tux.

Not shown in the clip, when Gali comes over to shake Ed's hand, Ed quips about the magician having stolen his wristwatch the last time he was on!

Also appearing, as listed on Metacritic:

• The Dave Clark Five perform "Over And Over" and "Catch Us If You Can."

• Jerry Vale sings a medley: "Nothing Can Stop Me Now," "Have You Looked into Your Heart" and "If It Isn't In Your Heart."
• The Barry Sisters (singers-dancers) - "Nature Boy," "King of the Road" and, later in show, "Every Street's a Boulevard."
• The 1965 Harvest Moon Ball dance contest winners (from various categories).
• Virginia O'Brien ("deadpan" comedienne) - sings "Ramona."
• Woody Allen (comedian) - stand-up comedy monologue.
• Bert Lahr (comedian) with other performers - do a routine titled "The Policeman."
• The cast from "You Don't Have to Be Jewish" (Frank Gallop, Lou Jacobi, Betty Walker, Jackie Kannon, and Arlene Golonka) perform excerpts from their comedy album.
• Audience bows: two Vietnam War women Navy Lieutenants

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Branded
"Fill No Glass For Me: Part 2"
Originally aired November 14, 1965

Recap? We don't need no stinkin' recap! They don't even bother reminding us that the story is a flashback. Instead, we go straight to Johnny Macon (Greg Morris for those of you who missed last week) trying to interest his cell guard, Hawkins (Davis Roberts), in his antique pocket watch so he can lure him close enough to put him in a choke hold and knock him out. Mission: Accomplished. He leaves the watch for Hawkins, rides out to find Jason tied up in the tree...and is promptly trounced by the Apache renegades. Don't worry, it must all be part of Jim's plan! (Or would it be Dan's in the 19th century?) Held prisoner together in a teepee, Jason and Johnny discuss why Macon came after Jason, and Johnny offers that he doesn't see anything wrong with Jason's name, which got him on charges. Questioned by Wateekah, Johnny offers that he's proud of his uniform, and exhibits confidence in what he learned from Jason last week. The chief proposes a contest--Jason against his strongest warrior...and if Jason wins, his prize is getting to fight Johnny to the death! The first duel is in the form of a knife fight while the opponents swing back and forth on cords. Shirtless Jason takes out his nameless opponent with his usual bladed weapon of choice.

The comrades have another discussion in the teepee, which looks way too roomy for Macon. Johnny offers that all he has to gain by living is a firing squad, and shows Jason the tattoo of a rose on his arm, telling the story of how as a kid he broke both his arms while climbing up a cliff trying to get to a beautiful one...an experience from which he learned that he couldn't always get what he wanted, but that didn't mean it wasn't worth trying for. They agree to draw straws, and Jason gets the short piece of kindling. This time there's no swing set, the opponents fight Johnny Cash style, in a blazing circle. But Johnny tries to reneg on the deal, arguing that a white man winning will make the renegades more afraid of the cavalry. Jason tries to taunt him to prove that he's got the guts to kill, which includes slapping him a couple of times. Finally Johnny approaches and pulls Jason's saber into himself, to Jason's shock. Cut back to the story's present, with Jason placing the rose on Johnny's grave and filling his glass with burgundy.

In the coda, Willy digs up the grave just as Barney was starting to really enjoy himself.

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12 O'Clock High
"Grant Me No Favor"
Originally aired November 15, 1965

https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/the-classic-retro-pop-culture-thread.278375/page-81#post-12326611

Lt. Col. Bill Christy (Frank Aletter) aborts a costly mission against a target in Norway so heavily protected that the German fighters are attacking through their own flak...having lost half his planes while still five minutes from the target. Back at Archbury, Gallagher makes noise about wanting to know what they're bombing so he can tell his men. The death of Christy's co-pilot (Don Spruance, I think--the character was billed under a name I didn't catch being used) drives home to Gallagher the cost on his men. Britt, who just got his second star, wants an explanation for the abort. Gallagher goes to see Pritchard and Britt to find them at a party whose guests include Lt. General Max Gallagher (Barry Sullivan), who's taking a call from Preston, whose birthday is the following day. Note that Pa Gallagher also calls Joe "Danzo". Britt bursts the bubble by informing Joe that Christy's facing a court-martial. General G tries to intervene on both ends, advising his son to roll with things for the time being. Privately, Britt expresses his confidence in Joe's command ability to Max, and sniffs out that General G is trying to get his son a promotion to Brigadier General. Nevertheless, Britt warns Max that if Joe keeps making noise about wanting more information about the target, they'll have to lop his head off as well.

Joe goes to check out Christy's badly damaged plane, the Hundred Proof, in a fillerish scene with audio flashbacks to scenes we just watched. Joe learns from his father about the promotion opportunity, and is persuaded to stop asking for more information. But he still insists on fighting for Christy, and things don't go well in an informal hearing presided over by Pritchard. Afterward Britt informs Joe that the court-marital is proceeding and that he's hurt himself considerably in fighting for Christy. Gallagher subsequently learns that the mission has been reassigned to the 815th. Joe goes to Wing Command and neither Britt nor Pritchard will see him. Getting the sense from his father that he's being protected, he tries to persuade the old man to help him get back in, as he doesn't think that his entire group should be punished and he's come up with a plan for hitting the target...and expresses his willingness to play ball on the Christy matter in return. Joe's tactic is one used in a previous episode (which he seems to reference, though I don't recall if it's the same target name)--to have most of the group fly a diversion while two planes go for the target at a lower altitude. It's still not a given that the 918th will be assigned to the mission, but Joe argues that he and Bill Christy are the men most dedicated to seeing this job done.

Christy seems less enthusiastic, however, having been worn down by the consequences of his actions...but Gallagher persuades him to do it for him and the group. Max sees his son off on the airfield. Up in the air, the rest of the group takes the heat as planned, but a German fighter spots them a minute from IP. The bombers are jumped, Christy's takes a hit, and he has an engine shut off and drops back to serve as an easier-to-go-after decoy so Gallagher can get to the target. He does, and drops his bombs to dubious success, but is then jumped himself, so Christy turns his engine back on and goes after the target a second time. This time success is certain, and Gallagher stays with Christy to see him home.

In the Epilog, General Gallagher is able to tell his son that the target was a heavy water installation, which neither Gallagher fully understands, though Max does use the term "atomic" to describe the weapon that it would have produced. He also agrees to stop pushing for the promotion. And while the court-martial is still formally on, Joe has put Bill Christy up for a decoration, and Britt admits that he'll probably be acquitted without any further help from Colonel Gallagher.

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Gilligan's Island
"Nyet, Nyet -- Not Yet"
Originally aired November 18, 1965

Gilligan sees the capsule descending at night and thinks it might be a UFO...he's not far from wrong, but it looks awfully far away to be landing in the lagoon. When he and the Skipper see the cosmonauts getting out the next day, they assume that they're men from Mars.

The Professor: They're not Martians!
Gilligan: They're not the Smothers Brothers!​

The castaways don't trust Igor (Vincent Beck) and Ivan (Danny Klega) (the latter of whom pretends to not speak English) because they claim to only have a one-way radio; while the cosmonauts assume that they castaways aren't really shipwrecked, but part of a secret program...Igor citing that Gilligan is "too stupid to be stupid". Yet Gilligan is the only one insightful enough to figure out that the lack of trust is mutual. Agent 36-26-36 is recruiting to lure Igor away from the capsule so the Professor can find the radio, but they're caught just as Gilligan accidentally shorts out the electrical system. The castaways help the cosmonauts fix the radio and the cosmonauts use it to signal a sub.

Gilligan overhears the cosmonauts planning to get the castaways drunk to tie them up and leave them behind, and the guys decide that they have to somehow drink the cosmonauts under the table, but they all have issues with vodka...including the Professor being allergic to alcohol (note if drinking comes up later). Gilligan inspires the idea of switching the vodka in one of the bottles with water and marking it. Their plan succeeds, and they drag the cosmonauts to the beach so the sub will see them, but Gilligan screws it up by having his watch set three hours behind, so that the cosmonauts are picked up while none of them are present.

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The Wild Wild West
"The Night That Terror Stalked the Town"
Originally aired November 19, 1965

Jim is attacked on the street in Denver, and the ensuing fight is observed by a blonde named Marie Pincher (Jean Hale), who follows him and Artie into restaurant. Artie tries to pick her up, but she gives him cold shoulder; Jim is much more successful, but when he leaves with her, he's gassed in the coach. He wakes up in the ghost town with its inanimate population. The sound of a woman crying leads him to the tombstone maker's, where Dr. Loveless is sitting on what turns out to be a stone made for him (which gives Jim's year of birth as 1842). Loveless is accompanied by Voltaire and a new henchman named Janus (Chuck O'Brien). Jim tries to make a break, but is stopped by an electrified fence.

Jim wakes up in Loveless's current lair, where Antoinette (Phoebe Dorin) is still playing harpsichord and singing for the doctor.
Loveless plays recordings of Jim's voice for Janus and they observe West in his room through a two-way mirror...including when he attempts to seduce Marie while she's bringing his food. Loveless also shows Jim the recently deserted town, which he provides appropriate sounds for via his "speaking machines" (phonographs). Jim is unable to attack Loveless because the doctor is wearing an electrified suit with rubber underwear. Eventually Jim is taken to an operating theater where he's strapped down and used as a model while Loveless works on Janus's face. Loveless shares that his plan is to still to demand that half the state of California be given to him, which means undermining the Secret Service with Jim's double.

Two weeks later Loveless has Janus attack Voltaire as a test. Jim tries to persuade Marie to help him again. Loveless introduces Jim to the new Janus, demonstrates how much homework they've done on West's background, and shares his plan to detonate the government stockpile of his explosive, which will destroy half of Washington. As a test, Janus is sent to the train to see if he can fool Artie. Janus seems to do well, but there's a conspicuous bit of business about a great aunt of Artie's. No longer needing West, Loveless announces that his execution is scheduled for sundown. Artie follows Janus to the town and devises a way to blow the lock on the fence without electrocuting himself. Meanwhile, Jim pretends to be Janus, and Marie tests him with a kiss; she intends to lie to Loveless, but at his whispered request she identifies Jim as Jim, and Loveless, expecting a double-cross, assumes that Janus is West. West breaks for it while Voltaire and Janus are tussling, runs into Artie, and overloads the electric fence panel. Outside, Jim ends up in a brawl with Janus, and Artie momentarily doesn't trust that the winner is Jim.

In the train coda, we're told that Loveless and Voltaire are back in jail; and Jim puts on an act of being Janus to fool Artie while slipping in some time with Marie.

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Hogan's Heroes
"Top Hat, White Tie and Bomb Sights"
Originally aired November 19, 1965

LeBeau circumvents a nighttime inspection by Schultz with strudel while Hogan takes a call from London. Hogan has to go to Hammelburg to reestablish contact with an agent named Willie. Hogan tries to volunteer the men for construction work, but Klink informs them that the camp's wire is being electrified, and the activity surrounding this project makes using the tunnel too risky. Afterward, the prisoners find bugs in Hogan's barracks office, which Hogan decides to use to their advantage. They enact some scripted escape planning that Hogan isn't in favor of. Schultz walks in and doesn't notice what they're doing, but Hogan points out the bug when he starts to badmouth Klink. Klink makes a recording and calls Burkhalter, who's now a general (though he's listed as a colonel again in a yet-to-air episode). At the general's order, Klink has breakfast with Hogan to butter him up, and Hogan pretends to be of German heritage. A scripted confrontation with the hostile prisoners ensues, in which Hogan drops a teaser that he knows top secret info about the Norden bomb sight. Klink calls Burkhalter again and asks him to come to the stalag.

When Burkhalter arrives, Klink tries to show off his new "escape-proof" gates, but Kinch uses a remote to open and close them, making them seem to be malfunctioning. Klink relays a request from Hogan to go to dinner in town, which Burkhalter sees as an opportunity to wine and dine him. There he gets flirty with Klink's date, Gretchen (Sigrid Valdis, who'll be Klink's secretary Hilda in all future seasons). Hogan tries passing around his arranged code phrase with various parties...eventually making contact with the waiter (Monroe Arnold). Back at the stalag, he briefs Burkhalter, Klink, and a major presumably from intelligence (Edward Knight) ostensibly on the bomb sight, but ends up describing a vacuum cleaner, which leaves egg on Klink's face. In the coda, Hogan hands Klink all of the now-removed bugs.

Dis!Missed!

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Get Smart
"Our Man in Leotards"
Originally aired November 20, 1965

The Chief introduces Max to his tricked-out new car...which is the Chief's car that Max won in the raffle last week, though they're treating it like Max is being assigned the car Bond-style. A thief runs out of CONTROL (which has signage outside, though it looks like a studio lot), having stolen the Immobilo, and Max and the Chief pursue...but when Max tries to blow the horn at somebody blocking an alley, it riddles their car with bullets. They're told by the gate guard that the thief jumped clean over the rather high gate. They come to suspect a ballet dancer named Naharana whom 99 is investigating. Windish explains that the Immobilo places somebody into a temporary state of paralysis, freezing them like a statue. It doesn't work on Max because he ate a peach for breakfast, but Max uses it successfully on the Chief. In the lab, Max tries to use a phone disguised as a pair of test tubes and just spills the contents of actual tubes on himself. When he and the Chief need to talk in private, they do so in the firing range...in front of the targets, while they're being fired at.

Max goes to the Pinerovian Embassy disguised as a repairman, though he has to try multiple times concerning what he's there to fix to get past the doorman (Nestor Paiva). Max ducks into an instrument storeroom where 99 is also hiding, and they hold a conversation with each other over communications equipment before figuring out that they're on opposite sides of a bass drum. When Naharana (Michael Pate) wants in, Max hides inside the drum, and overhears the dancer plotting with a man named Julio (Robert Carricart) to stop the signing of a trade pact by injecting the ambassador with the Immobilo. Max injects a dancer (Fernando Roca) with Immobilo via a ring that Windish gave him, and takes his clothes to disguise himself. He's quickly found out, and rushes into the signing to try to get the ambassador (Edward Colmans) to eat a peach. He and 99 figure out that the Immobilo is in the pen that Naharana gives the ambassador for the signing, and when the dancer is exposed and lunges toward the ambassador with a sword, Max stabs him with the pen so he can deliver a well-known adage. In the coda, Max is honored with an award by the ambassador, but accidentally injects everyone present with the Immobilo ring while shaking hands.

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I'm a bit surprised that you know "The Changeling," but it was on at least one major hits collection.

As is "Rhythm of the Rain" by the Cascades.

 

Jim was already diverging into recording spoken poetry, which was released in the late '70s as An American Prayer. I was under the impression that he wasn't likely to stick with the band much longer.