Part Three In 1984, new Paramount producer Ed Feldmen had the idea to update "Mission" as a theatrical feature. Sy Salkowitiz, writer of two season two episodes, was brought in to write and produce the film. After 18 months the script entitled "Good Morning Mr. Phelps (Mission: Impossible - The Movie)", was delivered to Paramount executives, with a planned summer 1986 release date. The mission, this time, is to rescue a kidnapped nuclear scientist and his family from Middle Eastern terrorists and prevent him from building enough reactors that would melt the polar ice caps, raising the sea level and flooding coastal cities. Again, Phelps chooses Barney, Rollin, Cinnamon and Willy plus four proteges for the mission. They include a mimic, an expert on nuclear reactors, a black strongman and an electronics genius. The action ranges from Istanbul, where the IMF liberate the scientist and his family; to the jungles of Bangkok, where they destroy the nuclear assembly facility; to the palace of the South American country Mantiqueira, where the IMF steal the nuclear fuel canisters from a vault located at the bottom of a swimming pool. Leonard Nimoy, fresh off of his directorial debut in "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" was approached to direct; but, studio indecision about whether or not to use the old cast, bring in young faces to portray the old cast, use a mix of both; along with a projected budget of $15 million (a rewrite, along with a proposal to shoot the film entirely in England, bringing the budget down to $10 million) sent the script into "development hell". There "Mission" would remain until the Writers Guild Strike of 1988.
50 Years Ago This Week May 28 The Watergate burglars succeeded in their second attempt to break into the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., placing wiretaps on two telephones, and escaping undetected. When it became clear that the "bug" on DNC Chairman Larry O'Brien was not working, the men broke in again three weeks later and were caught. The botched June 17, 1972, burglary was the beginning of the Watergate scandal that eventually led to Nixon's resignation as President of the United States. [Meanwhile, live from the Kremlin...] The first major accident resulting from the design of the Ford Pinto automobile happened near Barstow, California. Mrs. Lilly Gray and her teenage son, Richard Grimshaw, were severely burned after the gas tank in their 1972 Pinto exploded after the car stalled and was rear-ended on Interstate Highway 15. Mrs. Gray died of her injuries, and her son was scarred for life. A jury awarded $125 million in punitive damages, against Ford Motor, to the family, which was reduced to $3.5 million, and more than $3 million in compensatory damages. The verdict was upheld on appeal in 1981 in the landmark case of Gray v. Ford Motor Company, 119 Cal. App.3d 757. Died: The former King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, later the Duke of Windsor, died at the age of 77 in his home in France, more than 35 years after he gave up his throne in order to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson. King Edward, whose reign lasted from January 20 to December 11, 1936, left no children. May 29 – President Nixon and Soviet leader Brezhnev concluded their summit conference, with the signing of a joint declaration of long-range plans to avoid a military confrontation and to eventually disarm. May 30 – The Lod Airport massacre took place in Tel Aviv after passengers from Air France Flight 132 went to claim their baggage on arrival from Rome. Three of the passengers were members of the Japanese Red Army terrorist group; without warning, they brought out submachine guns and hand grenades from their luggage and fired into the crowd, killing 26 people and injuring another 78. One terrorist was shot by another, while a second was killed by his own grenade. The third, Kōzō Okamoto, was jailed, but eventually released in a prisoner exchange in 1985. May 31 – The 145th and final mission of the CORONA spy satellite program came to an end when its exposed film was recovered. Since 1959, the Corona satellites were launched with Kodak film, then returned to Earth after taking photos over the Soviet Union and its neighbors. Transmission of images from spy satellites made the Corona program obsolete. June 1 Andreas Baader, co-founder of the "Baader-Meinhof Gang" (the Red Army Faction), was arrested after West German police traced him to a warehouse in Munich. Captured also were Holger Meins and Jan-Carl Raspe. The other half of a couple compared to Bonnie and Clyde, Ulrike Meinhof, was still on the run. The Iraq Petroleum Company was completely nationalized by the government of Iraq, through its Public Law 69, making the company part of the state-owned Iraq National Oil Company. Pablo Picasso completed his final painting, The Embrace, at his home in Mougins, France. He died ten months later at the age of 91. Alice Cooper released their breakout album School's Out. June 2 The Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Indian tribes filed Joint Tribal Council of the Passamaquoddy Tribe v. Morton, a suit against the State of Maine in the U.S. District Court in Portland. Attorney Tom Tureen sued for enforcement of a treaty that provided the tribe ownership of 2/3 of Maine. Judgment would be made in favor of the Indian tribes in 1980. The Four Power Agreement on Berlin was signed by the foreign ministers of the Allied Powers in World War II, as Alec Douglas-Home (Britain), Maurice Schumann (France), Andrei Gromyko (USSR) and William P. Rogers (US) met in West Berlin. Major Roger Locher, whose F-4D had been shot down on May 10, was finally rescued after 23 days behind enemy lines. He was 60 miles (97 km) northwest of Hanoi and within 5 miles (8.0 km) of the heavily defended Yên Bái Air Base. 7th Air Force General John Vogt canceled the entire strike mission set for Hanoi that day and dedicated all available resources to rescuing Lochar. The direct task force of 119 aircraft successfully pulled him out of the jungle without any losses. His time behind enemy lines and successful rescue was a record for the Vietnam War. It was the farthest penetration of an American search and rescue operation into North Vietnam. June 3 – Sally Priesand became the first American woman to be ordained as a rabbi, as one of 26 Hebrew Union College graduates ordained at the Isaac M. Wise Temple in Cincinnati. Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week: Leaving the chart: "Baby Blue," Badfinger (10 weeks) "Changes," David Bowie (7 weeks) "Legend in Your Own Time," Carly Simon (10 weeks) New on the chart: "All The King's Horses," Aretha Franklin (#26 US; #7 R&B) "Beautiful Sunday," Daniel Boone (#15 US; #6 AC; #21 UK) "Take It Easy," Eagles (#12 US; #12 AC) "School's Out," Alice Cooper (#7 US; #1 UK; #319 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time [2004]) "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right," Luther Ingram (#3 US; #1 R&B) _______ I should note that they would have been anticipating the Red Dawn / Amerika trend that early in the decade. This is a song that was originally a hit for Jerry Butler & The Impressions in 1958; and made the top 30 in 1963 for Garnet Mimms. All three versions made the top 10 of the R&B chart. Twice in a row, Johnny Rivers inexplicably has a bigger hit with a white-bread cover of an R&B/Soul classic. The epitome of sunshine pop. This is one of those songs from the era that I was exposed to early in life from the easy listening station that my mom listened to in the car when I was little. One of her oldies radio classics. The Doors break on through, though their album has been on the chart for a couple of months now. Between this and Sgt. Pepper coming out in the states this week, 1967 is starting to feel like 1967! Hmm...let me try again... Phelps now has a beard and is taking orders from Danny Bonaduce. If they'd wanted to give the finger to the show's EIW lead, that would have been fair game. The IMF hatch an elaborate scheme to trick him into working on Saturday. He did say that Phelps had a stash. Marvel beat you to the punch in 1974, when Cap unhooded the leader of the Secret Empire to discover that he was (implicitly) Nixon (and he shot himself, FWIW)...leading to Cap's stint as Nomad. But I see that was written by Steve Englehart, so you knew that, right? Is that per month? If so, ye gods, that's most of the way to being a cable bill!
Invasion, USA (1952) Trailer - YouTube And the whole "Soviet Union invades the USA" goes back at least thirty years to this movie. MST3K spoofed this one, and I do believe that is a young William Schallert as the tv news reporter. Just like Pat Boone. Linda Ronstadt's backing band scores their first hit. Album cover lifted almost wholesale from the Hotlegs (soon to be 10cc) album cover "Thinks: School Stinks".
_______ Now Past 56th Anniversary Viewing _______ The Ed Sullivan Show Season 18, episode 26 Originally aired March 13, 1966 Metacritic lists this episode as a St. Patrick's Day Salute, with performances including: Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem (Irish folk singers) perform "The Nightingale" and "Johnson's Motor Car" Jackie Vernon (comedian) - comedy monologue The McNiff Dancers Pearl Bailey (singer) Wayne & Shuster (comedy team) - routine about first class and economy class passengers on Snobbish Airlines Johnny Hart (magician) The Emerald Society Police Pipe Band (of the New York City Police Department) Nadia Nerina (ballet dancer) Three Kims (Swedish acrobats/comedy tumblers) Topo Gigio (Italian mouse puppet) - becomes "Topo O'Gigio" for St. Patrick's Day. _______ An interesting bit of 70th anniversary business, but neither here nor there when discussing a trend of the 1980s.
Have patience, Middle Eastern terrorists. The IMF is operating at Bond level now. You would think the continued success of Star Trek, using the original cast, would have settled the issue and put MI on the front burner. Wow, he actually sounds sane compared to the freak show we have now. And he quoted Stan Lee! My Uncle Joe had one of those. Not great. Maybe she should have spelled out H-O-R-S-E-S. Another happy favorite. Great song, with greater to come. Oldies Rock Classic. Birth of a meme. Probably would have enjoyed great success because of it, too. I'm probably gonna hate myself for not Cappin' this, but I'm totally lost. I did a bunch of Googling and everything. But probably nothing on the level of what he had access to before. I sure did, and that connection also occurred to me later. As you say, they had to be coy about it, but it would be cool to do it right out in the open-- maybe even get the real Nixon, like Laugh-In did. Yeah, exactly, and there's not much else there to entice me, aside from BBC America. And maybe History Channel, although that's mostly Ancient Aliens now, I think. They sure didn't waste any time-- just seven years after the war ended. I actually like these guys and got to see them live at a converted movie theater in, of all places, Dorchester. The life of the party. Topo the mornin' to ya!
Pretty much, but I would have expected the mid-to-late '60s to be a little more hip. I probably heard that somewhere, but good to know. It all reminds me of Beggars Banquet. While M:I was the bigger show in its time, maybe they didn't see the same sort of enduring appeal. "And so, in the spirit of peaceful cooperation between our two great nations, and on behalf of myself, 'Tricky' Dick Nixon, 'Spinning' Spiro Agnew, and the whole conspirin' cabinet, I say to you, Excelsior, true believers! 'Nuff said." Her streak of less memorable obscure charters goes on and on. Ugh...I guess this qualifies as something I'd normally get, but it's just so unappealingly lightweight and indistinctive. It seems vaguely familiar from oldies radio exposure...more for the fact that there was a singer who went by the name Daniel Boone than anything about the song itself. Now this new artist debut is definitely neither lightweight nor a one-hit wonder. A classic and a great driving song, especially in the California desert. Not oldies radio in my experience, but classic rock radio and Top 40 stations when it was in season. Pretty much...the name of the song makes more of an impression than the song itself. The titling of the first attempt at a TV revival movie had me making Galactica 1980 cracks. (Wolfman Jack guested on an episode, and Adama had a beard and was taking orders from a kid who'd previously been Cousin Oliver on The Brady Bunch). If you've never seen Galactica 1980...you're good, don't change that. How would that work, given that it was a comic book? Not that Nixon ever would have participated, never mind while Watergate was still happening. And Pawn Stars and shit, yeah. Military History is much better. So Ed Sullivan I figured I could continue covering at an accelerated pace and without my old Best of recordings, given the amount of stuff that's available on YouTube these days. She's definitely got a distinctive schtick with all the banter...which you'll note Ed always stays on stage for. If they didn't use that, they should have.
What I find interesting, according to the book, is that at its height, M:I was syndicated in over ninety countries; yet I don't remember seeing a single episode here in Seattle, until the old FX cable channel started airing it in 1994. I knew the cast and the premise, but up until then, I had only seen Peter Graves in the "Airplane!" movies, Martin Landau and Barbara Bain in "Space: 1999", Greg Morris in "Vega$", and Peter Lupus in "Police Squad!". It's also possible that I only knew of Leonard Nimoy from "In Search Of . . ." instead of "Star Trek".
Also, Trek got bolstered by Star Wars now that I think of it. I had a feeling you wouldn't like it. I'm told that there's some kind of monument or mural or something on a corner in Winslow, Arizona. I meant to say Classic Rock, but I think it showed up on every radio station I ever listened to. I had a feeling it had to do with Galactica 1980 and I did see the Wolfman Jack connection when I Googled. I wasn't a big Battlestar Galactica fan to begin with, and it's possible the only episode of 1980 that I saw was the one with Starbuck. At that point I was back to talking about the first MI script. He loves that sort of thing. I don't think they did, but I didn't understand all of it. Same here. I remember seeing it very occasionally on its first run, and then it was syndicated here briefly, probably on Channel 56 (similar to It Takes A Thief). I liked what I saw, but really didn't see much until the cable era began.
A 50th Anniversary Cinematic Special You Can't Refuse The Godfather Directed by Francis Ford Coppola Starring Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Richard Castellano, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard Conte, Al Lettieri, and Diane Keaton Premiered March 14, 1972 1973 Academy Awards for Best Picture; Best Actor in a Leading Role (Marlon Brando); Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola); Nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (James Caan, Robert Duvall, Al Pacino); Best Director; Best Costume Design; Best Sound; Best Film Editing; and Best Music, Original Dramatic Score So this would be one of those films that's so iconic that it permeated the pop culture of my lifetime long before I ever saw it. I began taking an interest in the Godfather films from having seen a good deal of the first two during AMC's Thanksgiving marathons, but this would be the first time I watched one of them all the way through. I thought I'd have to divide it across a couple of nights, but found it so compelling that I stayed up longer than usual to finish it in one sitting. So...would you believe that Fandango managed to select nine clips from the film without any Brando in them!?! Whatever the flying fuck is up with that, I was able to find some from a Paramount account... It's a nice touch that when Vito later calls upon Bonasera (Salvatore Corsitto) to return the favor, it proves to be such a disarmingly benign one...while also possibly providing the undertaker with a lesson about the realities of vengeance. ...giving pop culture the film's most iconic line. A singer of the '40s with shrieking female fans, a film career, and mob ties...I wonder if that might have based on anybody in particular...? Note that Al Martino was a successful trad pop singer of the era we've been covering here. I read that he got the part over somebody else who was favored for it by getting his own godfather involved... ...but you already knew this even if you'd never seen the film, right? Hope you weren't eating anything. I read that they used an actual horse's head, obtained from a dog food company. I wonder if Abe Vigoda was later cast as a character named Fish because it's his character, Tessio, who delivers this famous line? Michael's metamorphosis is the riveting throughline of the picture...it has the viewer simultaneously sympathizing with him for his reluctance to get involved in the family business and rooting for him as he proceeds to. ...giving us another of the film's iconic lines. Richard Castellano, who plays Clemenza, seems very familiar to me, though I'm not seeing anything in his filmography that would account for it. He was in the Naked City episode "Hold for Gloria Christmas," which I've seen, but I don't know if he would have stood out just from that. Clip here. Fandango thought this was more clipworthy than Marlon Fucking Brando...? Sorry, Diane, you're not the one who won an Oscar for this. "I never wanted this for you." Giving us still another iconic line. Guess he's just telling her what she wants to hear...while delivering one last iconic line. _______ Ah. I vaguely recall it being in a late-night syndication timeslot in my '70s TV market. If that was common, it could explain the show having gotten less exposure after its original run than Trek and many other enduring shows of the era.
Indeed. I've never seen it or intend to see it-- gangster stuff is not my thing-- but it's been a bountiful source of jokes over the years. Some sort of a legal thing? Brando was pretty messed up. Frankly, I doubt it. Oh, yeah. That's the iconic scene that comes in way ahead of the others. It just makes me think what a heavy sleeper that guy must be. Head.... Mister Ed (uncredited) I've never heard that, but I really hope so. That may have been how it was here, too. Somehow I managed to see it, but not very often-- unlike Trek, which was on every night at 7 or 7:30 for years.
Ah, you should try it...it's on Paramount Plus. I was thinking legalities/politics might be a factor. I meant to toss in there the trivia bit that neither Brando nor Pacino showed at the Oscars. Brando wouldn't accept the Oscar and sent a Native American rights activist to the ceremony on his behalf. Pacino wouldn't go because he felt he should have been nominated as a lead rather than supporting actor, as he shared top billing with Brando and had a lot more screentime. Took me a second. And I'm all out of jokes about Marley having played David Banner's dad. Heck, now I'm impressed that TIH got somebody who was so highly billed in The Godfather! That, too. It always made me chuckle when he says that.
So many books and DVDs here that I haven't gotten to yet. Plus a couple of TV shows, like Stranger Things. I doubt if I'll ever get around to another gangster movie. Ah, that's right. Let me see if I can remember her name: Sacheen Littlefeather. And Google says I'm right. Weird, the things that my mind hangs on to. My mind had not hung on to that. Barney Miller is another show that one of these retro channels should be airing. It was really fantastic, yet seems mostly forgotten now, like Room 222.
@RJDiogenes Do you get Antenna TV on your cable package or over the air? If so, they air Barney Miller. Of course it's only on late at night/early in the morning, so you might want to set your DVR.
_______ Really Big Anniversary Viewing _______ The Ed Sullivan Show Season 18, episode 27 Originally aired March 20, 1966 Performances listed on Metacritic: The Young Rascals - "Good Lovin'" Brenda Lee - "Time and Time Again" Abbe Lane - medley of songs from Brazil Peter Gennaro (choreographer) - dances to "King Of The Road." The cast from "Wait A Minim" (South African dancers) Senor Wences (ventriloquist) Jean Carrol (stand-up comedian) Des O'Connor (stand up comedian) Des O'Connor & Jack Douglas (British comedians) Walter Cronkite (CBS newsman) The Magid Triplets (tap dancers) The Olympiades (acrobats painted gold) Audience bow (cameo): Mayor Barr _______ Don't think of it as a gangster movie, think of it as perhaps the most acclaimed film of our lifetimes. I was gonna say, but from my experience watching other shows on Antenna, they've probably hacked the episodes to pieces.
I'm pretty sure we don't get Antenna, but I'll check. Thanks for the tip. Good one. Nice. Nice set, too. He's good. I love the creepy head in the box. Not bad. Doing... stand up tragedy? And they censored Elvis's pelvis. Mrs Sullivan must have booked these guys and not told anyone. I wonder if there are Olympiadettes, by any chance. Wouldn't I have to wait till the afterlife to be sure? Ugh. I hate that.
I don't think they edit the episodes as much as they speed them up to fit in more commercials Sometimes they sound like chipmunks and there's motion blur.
55 Years Ago This Week June 4 Stockport air disaster: British Midland flight G-ALHG crashes in Hopes Carr, Stockport, killing 72 passengers and crew. Brian Epstein presents Jimi Hendrix Experience, Denny Laine and His Electric String Band, The Chiffons and Procul Harum at the Saville Theatre. Hendrix opens his set with a truncated version of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band title track. Paul McCartney, in the audience with Jane Asher, George Harrison, and Pattie Boyd, is much impressed. June 5 The Six-Day War began as Israel launched a surprise preemptive strike on Egypt shortly after dawn. At 7:10, sixteen Magister Fouga jet trainers began a routine patrol. Four minutes later, the first of 183 Israeli Air Force fighter planes took off from all over Israel, and by 7:30, all but twelve of Israel's 212 fighters were airborne. The armada of jets flew westward over the Mediterranean Sea for 18 minutes, and at 7:48, they turned south for an attack on Egypt. A radar operator in Jordan radioed Egypt with the word Inab ("grape" in Arabic), the code word for an imminent enemy attack, but Egyptian intelligence had changed the code the day before without notice. Attacks began simultaneously at ten Egyptian bases, then on 14 others, and 189 of the Egyptian Air Force's airplanes, more than half of its fleet, were destroyed on the ground. Most of the others were unable to take to the air because of the destruction of the airfields. Without air support, the Egyptian Army in the Sinai was quickly overwhelmed by Israeli bombing. The allied armies of Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, and Iraq invaded Israel in retaliation. The Battle of Ammunition Hill became the start of Jordan's ill-fated campaign. As late as 12:30 pm, five hours after the war began, Israel sent a proposal to Jordan's King Hussein by way of the UN Truce Supervisor, General Odd Bull, giving Jordan one final chance to avoid becoming involved in the war. Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban would tell the United Nations two weeks later, "Jordan tragically answered not with words but with a torrent of shells....Surely this responsibility cannot fail to have its consequences in a peace settlement." The Moscow–Washington hotline between the President of the United States and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was used in crisis for the first time since its inauguration August 30, 1963. White House Press Secretary George Christian disclosed three days later that the first message sent over the teletype between the Kremlin and the White House had been a message from Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin to U.S. President Lyndon Johnson, with Johnson responding later in the day. Christian told reporters later that exchanges between the two leaders had taken place throughout the war. Kosygin's initial message, which reached the U.S. Department of Defense at 7:15 a.m in Washington (3:15 p.m. in Moscow) was a request that the U.S. exert its influence on Israel to call a cease-fire. June 6 East Jerusalem was captured in a battle conducted by Israeli forces without the use of artillery, in order to avoid damage to the Holy City. Egypt's President Gamal Abdel Nasser narrowly missed being killed after ordering a plane to fly him over the battlefront in the Sinai. When Nasser's advisers were unable to persuade him not to risk his life, they arranged for him to make the inspection in an unmarked small plane in hopes that the "lumbering, flimsy craft, more for Sunday joy riding than battlefield inspection, would fly too slow and too low to be nailed by the near-supersonic Israeli jets". Twenty minutes after it crossed the Suez Canal at Ismailia, the plane found itself over a procession of Israeli tanks at an altitude of only 50 feet. An Israeli fighter pilot, unaware that the enemy's President was on the plane, dived at it twice in a strafing run but was unable to shoot it down. Nasser then had the pilot fly north to inspect Bir Hassana and, seeing the ruins of Egypt's armored division, ordered the pilot to return to Cairo. The eleven oil-exporting Arab nations announced a halt of shipments to the United States and the United Kingdom, with Iraq and Kuwait halting oil exports, Lebanon banning the loading at its ports of oil from Saudi Arabian or Iraqi oil, and Algeria placing six American oil companies there under state control. Egypt announced the closure of the Suez Canal to all ships in retaliation for American and British support to Israel during the Six-Day War. It would not reopen until 1975. United Nations Security Council Resolution 233 was unanimously adopted without debate, expressing concern "at the outbreak of fighting and with the menacing situation in the Near East", and calling upon the participants in the Six-Day War "to take forthwith as a first step all measures for an immediate cease-fire and for a cessation of all military activities in the area", but did not demand that either side withdraw from captured territory. The next day, Resolution 234 was adopted, clarifying that the UN was asking all parties to discontinue fighting by 2000 hours UTC (midnight in Egypt, 11:00 pm in Israel, Jordan and Syria). Starting with Jordan, the Arab nations began accepting Resolution 233 and would halt fighting with Israel by the end of the week. June 7 "The Israeli Defense Forces have liberated Jerusalem," Defense Minister Moshe Dayan announced to the nation. "We have reunited the torn city, the capital of Israel. We have returned to this most sacred shrine, never to part from it again." For the first time since 1948, the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem was open to Jewish worshipers. Chief Rabbi Solomon Goren joined 150 Israeli paratroopers who had recaptured the eastern half of the city from Jordan. Five minutes after the Israeli Army broke open the brass-covered doors of the Damascus Gate at the walls outside the Dome of the Rock, the Jordanian governor of the city surrendered and promised that the 25,000 residents inside the walls would offer no resistance. Over the next few weeks, "approximately 160 Arab houses facing the Wailing Wall were demolished...to make way for a large prayer area." Israeli photojournalist David Rubinger took the iconic photograph Paratroopers at the Western Wall, depicting Israeli soldiers Zion Karasenti, Yitzhak Yifat and Haim Oshri. At noon, Israel and Jordan agreed to a cease-fire called for by the United Nations Security Council. Israel's Foreign Minister Abba Eban informed the Secretary-General of the agreement 45 minutes later. A few hours before the cease-fire had gone into effect, Israeli jets attacked King Hussein's personal residence in an apparent attempt to assassinate him. Two days earlier, when the war started, Israel followed up its raid on the Amman airport with an attack on the Basman Palace, and struck the former location of his office. Two members of the American rock group Moby Grape are arrested for contributing to the delinquency of minors. Plans for the Yellow Submarine animated film are announced. Died: Dorothy Parker, 77, American satirist and literary critic, died in her room at the residential Volney Hotel at 23 East 74th Street in New York City. June 8 Thirty-four U.S. Navy sailors aboard the spy ship USS Liberty were killed, and 171 wounded, when the vessel was strafed by Israeli jet fighters and then torpedoed by Israeli gunboats while in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea about 15 miles from the Sinai peninsula. The air attack by Mirage jets began at 1210 UTC (2:10 p.m. local time) and the ship was torpedoed 25 minutes later. Eight American attack planes from the aircraft carriers USS America and USS Saratoga were en route to engage the Israelis in combat when the word came from Israel that the attack on the Liberty had been made by mistake. The United Arab Republic (Egypt) agreed to the United Nations resolution calling for a cease-fire with Israel, shortly after Israeli forces defeated the remaining Egyptian soldiers fighting in the Sinai peninsula and blocked their escape routes back across the Suez Canal. According to the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, the Israeli Defense Forces had massacred hundreds of Egyptian prisoners of war or wounded soldiers in the Sinai peninsula, earlier in the day. Survivors alleged later that about 400 wounded Egyptians were buried alive outside the captured El Arish International Airport, and that 150 prisoners in the mountains of the Sinai were run over by Israeli tanks. Two Soviet warships "darted in and out" of a group of American warships that were part of the Sixth Fleet task group on training maneuvers in the Mediterranean, south of the Greek island of Crete. A Soviet patrol craft sailed between the U.S. Navy destroyers USS Sampson and USS Byrd to come within 800 yards of the USS America as it was launching jets, while Soviet destroyer No. 626 cut in the path of the America. On the same day, the Soviet Union commenced an operation to intervene on behalf of Syria, with plans to drop paratroopers "between and advancing Israeli army and Damascus," but the plan became moot two days later with the loss of the Golan Heights and Syria's acceptance of the UN cease-fire. June 9 Israel took control of the Golan Heights from Syria by 6:30 in the evening, after routing the Syrians who had been firing mortar shells from the high ground. Gamal Abdel Nasser announced that he was resigning as President of Egypt, in an address broadcast on nationwide radio and television, and said that he was turning over the presidential duties to one of his vice presidents, Zakaria Mohieddin. After he finished his broadcast, tens of thousands of supporters marched to his residence and urged him to reconsider. Another statement followed on Cairo radio that evening, credited to Nasser, saying "The feelings shown by the masses of the people since my broadcast this evening on the development of the situation have profoundly touched me," and that he would discuss the matter with the National Assembly the next day. When the legislators told him that they would not accept it, Nasser withdrew his resignation. June 10 The Six-Day War ended five days after it started, as Syria and Israel agreed to a United Nations-mediated cease-fire at 6:00 in the evening. Having taken the Golan Heights, Israel seized the Syrian town of Kuneitra and was in a position to take the capital, Damascus, 40 miles (64 km) away. During the war, Israel's losses were 777 dead and 2,586 wounded; Egypt, Syria and Jordan had suffered 15,000 deaths and lost hundreds of tanks and airplanes, along with the Sinai peninsula, the Golan Heights, and the West Bank, respectively. Thousands of Israelis spent the Jewish Sabbath crossing into places in Jerusalem that had been closed to them for nearly 20 years until being captured from Jordan a few days earlier. They encountered no hostilities and finding that "Arabs in the old city were cautiously friendly with the swarms of Israeli tourists." The Soviet Union severed diplomatic relations with Israel with the delivery of a diplomatic note to the Israeli ambassador in Moscow, declaring that it was acting "in light of Israel's continued aggression against the Arab states and its flagrant violation of the decisions of the Security Council". Princess Margrethe, heir apparent to the throne of Denmark, married French count Henri de Laborde de Monpezat. Died: Spencer Tracy, 67, American film actor Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week: Leaving the chart: "Casino Royale," Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass (9 weeks) "Dead End Street Monologue/Dead End Street," Lou Rawls (11 weeks) "I Think We're Alone Now," Tommy James & The Shondells (17 weeks) "Sunshine Girl," The Parade (8 weeks) "Too Many Fish in the Sea & Three Little Fishes," Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels (6 weeks) "When I Was Young," Eric Burdon & The Animals (9 weeks) "Yellow Balloon," The Yellow Balloon (10 weeks) "You Got What It Takes," The Dave Clark Five (10 weeks) Recent and new on the chart: "Pay You Back with Interest," The Hollies (June 3; #28 US) "Step Out of Your Mind," The American Breed (June 3; #24 US) "I Take It Back," Sandy Posey (#12 US) "C'mon Marianne," The Four Seasons (#9 US) "I Was Made to Love Her," Stevie Wonder (#2 US; #1 R&B; #5 UK) And new on the boob tube: The Ed Sullivan Show, Season 19, episode 37 The Saint, "The Fast Women" _______ Timeline entries are quoted from the Wiki pages for the month or year and Mark Lewisohn's The Beatles Day by Day, with minor editing as needed. _______ Their drummer was certainly quite the spotlight-stealer. Eh. But it's kind of odd when he's throwing his voice to unseen characters. Impressive physical comedy routine. Seriously. This is one of those things that seems more risqué/suggestive now than it probably did in more innocent times.
The current generation probably wouldn't even notice-- unfortunately the current generation doesn't watch Classic TV. This was perhaps an error in judgment. Somebody lost his job over that one. Remarkable. I wonder if this is what Nixon was expecting. Minor, but not bad. Sorry, I prefer journeying to the center of my mind. Otherwise known as The Wishy-Washy Song. I like this one. Catchy, and once a staple. And here's Stevie to save the day with a Stone-Cold Classic. I was thinking that it would be funny if they started playing the generic tumbler music over the song. I imagine a lot of jaws were dropping in Middle America.
"I Was Made to Love Her," Stevie Wonder I Was Made To Love Her (Long Version) - YouTube Here's the Beach Boys version. Sorry Stevie, I think Carl trumps you vocally on this one.
50 Years Ago This Week June 4 African-American activist Angela Davis was acquitted by an all-white jury in San Jose, California, after a 14-week trial. Davis, formerly a 28-year-old instructor at UCLA, had been charged with conspiracy for murder and kidnapping in a 1970 murder of a judge in Marin County. Jurors, who deliberated over the weekend, said later that they had doubted her guilt throughout the trial. [A good example of how quickly John and Yoko's Some Time in New York City album became dated--one of the songs was about freeing Angela Davis. The album came out a week after she was released.] Soviet author Joseph Brodsky was summoned to the Leningrad office of the Ministry of the Interior, where he was told that he was being expelled from U.S.S.R. immediately. He was then put on an Aeroflot flight to Vienna. Brodsky settled in the United States, where he later became the American poet Laureate, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1987. June 5 The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, also called the Stockholm Conference, convened in Sweden, with representatives from 113 nations in attendance for the largest international meeting ever held on ecological issues. The twelve-day conference led to the creation of UNEP, the United Nations Environment Programme. June 5 is now observed annually by the U.N. as World Environment Day. G. Gordon Liddy spoke with James W. McCord Jr. about problems with getting anything useful from wiretaps planted more than a week before on the phone of DNC Chairman Larry O'Brien. Liddy recounted later that if the problem were not fixed, McCord's team would get no further money from the Committee to Re-Elect the President, "because the job should have been done correctly the first time". The Watergate burglars were caught after breaking into O'Brien's office again on June 17, 1972. George Harrison and Ravi Shankar are awarded with the Child Is the Father of the Man honor by UNICEF in recognition of their efforts to aid the refugees in Bangladesh. June 6 U.S. Senator George McGovern of South Dakota won the Democratic primary in California, along with 274 delegates, putting him far in the lead for his party's nomination for president. U.S. Patent No. 3,668,658 was granted to the IBM Corporation for the first "floppy disk" (officially, "diskettes" for the IBM 3330 computer). June 7 The U.S. Department of Labor issued the first regulations in America to limit exposure to asbestos. At the time, there were 200,000 workers in the asbestos industry. The 1950s nostalgia musical Grease began the first of 3,388 performances on Broadway, running until April 13, 1980. June 8 – A South Vietnamese village outside of Trang Bang was bombed with napalm in an errant air strike by the South Vietnamese Army, shortly after 11:30 a.m. Nick Ut took a photograph that became an iconic symbol of the horrors of war. The wirephoto, published on the front pages of newspapers that evening and the next morning, showed children crying in pain from their burns, including a 9-year-old girl, Phan Thị Kim Phúc, who had torn her clothes off after catching fire. The image would win a Pulitzer Prize. June 9 At 10:45 p.m., the Canyon Lake Dam at Rapid City, South Dakota, gave way under the pressure of a downpour, sending millions of gallons of water through the city. The results of the Black Hills flood were 238 people killed, and 3,057 more injured. More than 5,000 vehicles and 700 homes were destroyed, and the total damages were $165 million. Bruce Springsteen received his big break as he was signed to a ten-record deal by CBS Records. June 10 – Barbara Jordan, President Pro Tempore of the Texas State Senate, was sworn in as Acting Governor of Texas for one day as Governor Preston Smith and Lieutenant Governor Ben Barnes were absent, becoming the first African-American woman in history to serve as a state Governor. Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week: Leaving the chart: "Back Off Boogaloo," Ringo Starr (10 weeks) "Day Dreaming," Aretha Franklin (12 weeks) "Doctor My Eyes," Jackson Browne (12 weeks) "Rockin' Robin," Michael Jackson (13 weeks) "Smilin'," Sly & The Family Stone (7 weeks) "Vincent" / "Castles in the Air", Don McLean (12 weeks) New on the chart: "Sealed with a Kiss," Bobby Vinton (#19 US; #2 AC) "Too Young," Donny Osmond (#13 US; #23 AC; #5 UK) "Coconut," Harry Nilsson (#8 US; #42 UK) "Where Is the Love," Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway (#5 US; #1 AC; #1 R&B; #29 UK) _______ Timeline entries are quoted from the Wiki pages for the month or year and Mark Lewisohn's The Beatles Day by Day, with minor editing as needed. _______ Not in the short term. This one sounds to me like a mid-'80s song, like Bruce Hornsby or Mr. Mister or something. They're trying to bend you, shape you... The third of her #12 singles about the trials and tribulations of being a woman...she comes off as a bit of a doormat in this one. The Seasons go psyhedelicish. I wasn't familiar with this one from oldies radio before I got it. Yep. That's it, he was auditioning for a solo gig on the show! Umm...nope. Sounds like a whiny white guy trying to sound like Stevie Wonder.