Ted Lange from The Love Boat, in his pre-acting days as far as I can determine. He has some very insightful things to say in the film.
The Classic/Retro Pop Culture Thread
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Ted Lange from The Love Boat, in his pre-acting days as far as I can determine. He has some very insightful things to say in the film.
I remember this well. I didn’t attend the concert, but I did see the movie. The movie is similar to Woodstock in that it covered Black lifestyle in LA in the early 70’s, the way the counterculture was explored in Woodsrock.
This is what local stations used to do when I was a kid. It was especially egregious with things like the Flash Gordon serials.
How do you send a telegram to someone who wanders around like Caine?
Did we ever pin down the dates in WWW as closely as this episode pins down Branded?
I'm going to take a wild wild guess here....
Nice touch.
Either Jock Ewing or the creator of Garfield.
His second reputation is pummeling people who bring up his first reputation.
Nice. Grant probably enjoyed getting a few whacks in after all those years at a desk job.
Where'd John Carradine disappear to? Was he just a cameo?
It probably depends on the time of day. My Mother turns it on when she gets up in the morning, which is pretty early-- not as early as me, but pretty early.
Pretty much, but I like it better than "Maggie May."
It's like hitting myself with a pain stick.
I thought so. Funny to see him in that context.
Looking at his IMDB and Wikipedia entries, this looks like it was his first on camera appearance in either movies or television. It certainly opened doors for him, because he's been working steadily since then.
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55th Anniversary Viewing That Died at Bitter Creek
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Branded
"The Assassins: Part 2"
Originally aired April 3, 1966
The episode opens with Jason inspecting the knife and offering his grandfather a job helping him run a railroad engineering office out West. Jason takes the dagger to James Swaney and offers to help him get Grant out of the way, but gets socked in the jaw and dismissed. Jason then goes to talk to Senator Ashley and finds him dueling with Dr. Cueverra, who's scheduled to exhibit fencing at a White House gala that night. When Jason shows Laurette the dagger, she identifies it as part of Keith's collection. Jason reports back to Grant at a dental appointment (where the doctor is using a presumably pedal-powered contraption for his tools), and suggests that Cueverra is also a suspect as he would have had access to the stiletto, though Grant is skeptical because he supports Cueverra's cause. Returning to the Ashley residence to escort Socorro Cueverra to the ball, Jason sees that one of Dr. Cueverra's minders has a cut on his hand, and Cueverra quickly knocks him out. Socorro sees this and is horrified to learn that her brother has sold out to the Cuban regime and plans to kill the president with his foil at the event.
While the two of them are being held prisoner in Ashley's cellar, Socorro tells Jason about her brother's plan, then instigates an altercation with their guard in which she's shot so that Jason can take him out and save the president. Jason has trouble at the White House gate, but runs into Ashley, whom he slugs and dons the costume of to get inside. Jason jumps into the middle of Cueverra's exhibition and duels with him, maneuvering him inside and knocking him out while Grant distracts the onlookers. In private--not wanting to risk starting a war--Jason reveals to Grant that the tip of Cueverra's blade was poisoned.
Jason says his goodbyes to the president, Ashley, and Laurette, and prepares to travel back out West with his grandfather.
I neglected to mention last time that Chuck Connors got a story credit for this two-parter.
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55th Anniversary Viewing That Died at Bitter Creek
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Branded
"The Assassins: Part 2"
Originally aired April 3, 1966
Frndly said:
The episode opens with Jason inspecting the knife and offering his grandfather a job helping him run a railroad engineering office out West. Jason takes the dagger to James Swaney and offers to help him get Grant out of the way, but gets socked in the jaw and dismissed. Jason then goes to talk to Senator Ashley and finds him dueling with Dr. Cueverra, who's scheduled to exhibit fencing at a White House gala that night. When Jason shows Laurette the dagger, she identifies it as part of Keith's collection. Jason reports back to Grant at a dental appointment (where the doctor is using a presumably pedal-powered contraption for his tools), and suggests that Cueverra is also a suspect as he would have had access to the stiletto, though Grant is skeptical because he supports Cueverra's cause. Returning to the Ashley residence to escort Socorro Cueverra to the ball, Jason sees that one of Dr. Cueverra's minders has a cut on his hand, and Cueverra quickly knocks him out. Socorro sees this and is horrified to learn that her brother has sold out to the Cuban regime and plans to kill the president with his foil at the event.
While the two of them are being held prisoner in Ashley's cellar, Socorro tells Jason about her brother's plan, then instigates an altercation with their guard in which she's shot so that Jason can take him out and save the president. Jason has trouble at the White House gate, but runs into Ashley, whom he slugs and dons the costume of to get inside. Jason jumps into the middle of Cueverra's exhibition and duels with him, maneuvering him inside and knocking him out while Grant distracts the onlookers. In private--not wanting to risk starting a war--Jason reveals to Grant that the tip of Cueverra's blade was poisoned.
Jason says his goodbyes to the president, Ashley, and Laurette, and prepares to travel back out West with his grandfather.
I neglected to mention last time that Chuck Connors got a story credit for this two-parter.
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Some of his jobs are longer term, like the one he's heading out to sounds.How do you send a telegram to someone who wanders around like Caine?
I'm sure that both shows have or would happily run stories completely out of order of actual dates given or implied.
"He's a lily-livered coward...but don't say it to his face, he'll kick your ass!"His second reputation is pummeling people who bring up his first reputation.
He was in the scenes at his home, generally serving as momentary comic relief.
"Please, Donny, may I have another?"
Wiki says that he was in the Broadway and touring cast of Hair...likely his main claim to fame at that point.
They're building exclusive rail extensions for Secret Service use.
And the patient comes pre-medicated.
Looks like my wild wild guess was wrong.
Jason expresses regret that he didn't bring his secret boot knife.
That was a bad plan. Did she survive?
Well, then, he should have tripped and accidentally cut himself and had a horrifying dramatic moment of realization and one last pleading instant of eye contact with Jason before falling down dead.
That's interesting. I wonder if Carradine is in the next story.
Full credit? Good for him.
Yeah, I don't think they obsessed over details like I do.
Kind of a waste of a cool character actor. Good thing John Carradine never said no to a job in his life.
Wow, Isaac was in Hair. Things you never suspect.
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Really Wild Post-55th Anniversary Viewing--and Loving It!
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The Ed Sullivan Show
Season 19, episode 10
Originally aired November 13, 1966
Performances listed on Metacritic:
"The Night of the Green Terror"
Originally aired November 18, 1966
While heading for the famine-struck Indian village of Bright Star, Jim and Artie find a forest with no animals, its fruit-bearing trees dead. An armored knight with a muffled but familiar voice appears on the road and tosses a large boulder to block their path, and the agents are surrounded and taken prisoner by bow-wielding Merry Men. They're taken to the pavilion tent of Dr. Loveless, now assuming the role of Robin Hood, where Antoinette, dressed as Maid Marion, sings while playing mandolin (Phoebe Dorin's last appearance in the role). Jim and Artie make a show of acting uninterested in Loveless's scheme so he won't be able to help but blab about it, which involves being considered a benefactor by the local Indians. Loveless, in turn, allows them take on his men and escape, so they'll proceed to the village, to be followed by Loveless in a wagon that would have borne food, but instead carries sand as leverage against Bright Star Chief (Anthony Caruso) to sic his men on the agents. Artie gets away, but Loveless leaves West to face torture.
Jim tries to convince the chief to embrace the government help with which he was unsatisfied rather than trust the "little warrior" of the Lord of the Forest. The chief leaves West tied up in front of a crossbow set to go off when a thong dries. (This doesn't seem like an authentically Native American form of torture.) Loveless sneaks in through a secret entrance to boast of his formula, which killed all the local insects, causing the plants to die. Mixed for greater potency, he expects it to be capable of killing all animals, fish, and birds, and possibly even man. Meanwhile, Artie has slipped into the village disguised as a dancing Indian maiden, and makes his way to the saddle of one of their horses, where he retrieves a chemical that he slips into food to knock out the braves guarding Jim's tent. The agents are caught outside, and when West tries to take the chief hostage, Loveless--being carried on the back of the chief's large warrior wife (Peggy Rea)--turns the tables on him.
Taking West and Gordon back to his camp, Loveless is confronted by the chief and a group of Indians led by an elder chief (Paul Fix), who demands a powwow with the Lord of the Forest. Ducking into his pavilion, Loveless has Antoinette help him get into his mechanical suit of armor, in which he portrays the requested personage, insisting to his visitors that the little one is a genius and the Indians' benefactor. Resuming his normal identity, he offers to show the Indians how to kill palefaces, and has Jim and Artie led through a passage concealed in a tree to a hidden lab, where he uses a scale model of a town to demonstrate for the agents and Indians how he could deploy his (now confusingly incendiary) formula via balloon to destroy Washington, DC. He then pulls out a slingshot and gets ready to show what the formula will do to West when Jim challenges the Lord of the Forest to a duel. The old chief insists that this challenge be met, promising the Indians' loyalty to whoever wins.
Despite never having seen a mace, Jim considers it important not just to expose Loveless, but to win the challenge in order to earn the Indians' respect. Following a musical interlude with Antoinette in his pavilion, Loveless fills his mace with an explosive powder to give him a special edge over West. Artie realizes this when the armored Loveless reacts to one of his henchmen almost dropping the mace, so Jim is careful to avoid letting it land a blow while getting in several against Loveless, ultimately disarming him so that the mace explodes harmlessly nearby and toppling the mechanical suit. Loveless's Merry Men start to attack the agents, but the old chief sends his warriors after them. Loveless ducks into his lab to send up his display balloon with a payload of the explosive powder, but Jim shoots it back down into the lab with a bow, setting the place ablaze while Loveless and Antoinette take cover in a hollow log. Afterward, the agents are unable to find any sign of Loveless or his female accomplice, but we see a rabbit come out of the log.
In the train coda, fighting practice with Artie serves as an excuse for Conrad to get in some shirtless time, and the agents receive a package at a station, containing a statuette of a knight that plays a recording of Loveless and Antoinette performing.
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Get Smart
"The Greatest Spy on Earth"
Originally aired November 19, 1966
Max and 99 go to the circus for a rendezvous with Agent 51, who makes contact in a really fake gorilla costume, but is killed by a knife thrown in his back before he can share his intel. Back at HQ, the Chief fills the agents in on how the circus is a cover for KAOS smuggling industrial diamonds out of countries, and on how multiple undercover agents have been killed. As Max and 99 will be posing as reporters, Carlson gives them some particularly questionable gadgets...a camera with a concealed tape recorder and a tape recorder with a concealed camera.
At the circus, press agent Pepper Hanlon (Paul Dooley) leads the agents to knife-thrower Raymond the Magnificent (Victor Lundin), who after answering questions pays a visit to Gerturde-Gerald. The agents then interview G-G, who's made up and dressed like a blonde female on the right side and a dark-haired male on the left. G-G indicates that they were offered a diamond by little person Tiny Allen (uncredited Billy Curtis), who'd offered the agents some info prior to the meeting, so they proceed to his trailer only to find him dead, having been shot in the back at close range, though the door and windows were all locked from the inside. The agents then talk to Hondo the strongman (Harry Varteresian), who was nearby to help them into the trailer by punching a hole in the door, but all he has to offer are the feats of strength he can perform. After this meeting, a pair of knives are thrown at the agents, matching the ones used by Raymond.
At the Chief's urging via shoe phone, Max is about to search the lion cage for the diamonds when he and 99 are confronted by Hanlon at gunpoint. They manage to overcome him, but quickly find themselves surrounded by Hondo, Raymond, and G-G, all conspirators. Hanlon talks about how he plans to dispose of Max's body by using him as the human cannonball, and to make 99 try lion taming. There's a gag about Hondo not being able to tear apart a letter that Max wrote to the police but didn't have a chance to mail, then we get the annoyingly customary mid-scene commercial interruption from Frndly. We pick up with Max and 99 outside, now costumed for their circus roles and still at the mercy of the KAOS agents. Hondo holds Max while Raymond tosses a pair of knives, which land in Hondo's arms.
Hondo goes after Raymond, and Hanlon is about to plug Max and 99, but they're saved by the Chief and a group of CONTROL agents, all disguised as clowns. Taking the KAOS operatives into custody, the Chief is uncomfortable with Max's insistence that he follow procedure by frisking Gertrude-Gerald.
In the coda, Max implicates Rudolph the mascot chimp as an accessory, as he was used to lock up Tiny Allen's trailer via the transom.
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[Joshua McCord exits scene, followed by sound of gunshot offscreen.]
Really Wild Post-55th Anniversary Viewing--and Loving It!
_______
The Ed Sullivan Show
Season 19, episode 10
Originally aired November 13, 1966
Performances listed on Metacritic:
- The New Vaudeville Band performs "Winchester Cathedral"
- Noel Harrison (actor-singer) sings "Mr. Tambourine Man" & "Don't Dilly Dally on the Way" (with dancers)
- The McGuire Sisters sing a medley of Jerry Herman songs including "Hello Dolly" (with Jerry Herman playing piano)
- Joan Sutherland sings "Sempre Libera" (from "La Traviata")
- Flip Wilson (comedian)
- Alan King (comedian)
- Topo Gigio (Italian mouse puppet)
- The Marquis Chimps (trained animal act)
"The Night of the Green Terror"
Originally aired November 18, 1966
Wiki said:
While heading for the famine-struck Indian village of Bright Star, Jim and Artie find a forest with no animals, its fruit-bearing trees dead. An armored knight with a muffled but familiar voice appears on the road and tosses a large boulder to block their path, and the agents are surrounded and taken prisoner by bow-wielding Merry Men. They're taken to the pavilion tent of Dr. Loveless, now assuming the role of Robin Hood, where Antoinette, dressed as Maid Marion, sings while playing mandolin (Phoebe Dorin's last appearance in the role). Jim and Artie make a show of acting uninterested in Loveless's scheme so he won't be able to help but blab about it, which involves being considered a benefactor by the local Indians. Loveless, in turn, allows them take on his men and escape, so they'll proceed to the village, to be followed by Loveless in a wagon that would have borne food, but instead carries sand as leverage against Bright Star Chief (Anthony Caruso) to sic his men on the agents. Artie gets away, but Loveless leaves West to face torture.
Jim tries to convince the chief to embrace the government help with which he was unsatisfied rather than trust the "little warrior" of the Lord of the Forest. The chief leaves West tied up in front of a crossbow set to go off when a thong dries. (This doesn't seem like an authentically Native American form of torture.) Loveless sneaks in through a secret entrance to boast of his formula, which killed all the local insects, causing the plants to die. Mixed for greater potency, he expects it to be capable of killing all animals, fish, and birds, and possibly even man. Meanwhile, Artie has slipped into the village disguised as a dancing Indian maiden, and makes his way to the saddle of one of their horses, where he retrieves a chemical that he slips into food to knock out the braves guarding Jim's tent. The agents are caught outside, and when West tries to take the chief hostage, Loveless--being carried on the back of the chief's large warrior wife (Peggy Rea)--turns the tables on him.
Taking West and Gordon back to his camp, Loveless is confronted by the chief and a group of Indians led by an elder chief (Paul Fix), who demands a powwow with the Lord of the Forest. Ducking into his pavilion, Loveless has Antoinette help him get into his mechanical suit of armor, in which he portrays the requested personage, insisting to his visitors that the little one is a genius and the Indians' benefactor. Resuming his normal identity, he offers to show the Indians how to kill palefaces, and has Jim and Artie led through a passage concealed in a tree to a hidden lab, where he uses a scale model of a town to demonstrate for the agents and Indians how he could deploy his (now confusingly incendiary) formula via balloon to destroy Washington, DC. He then pulls out a slingshot and gets ready to show what the formula will do to West when Jim challenges the Lord of the Forest to a duel. The old chief insists that this challenge be met, promising the Indians' loyalty to whoever wins.
Despite never having seen a mace, Jim considers it important not just to expose Loveless, but to win the challenge in order to earn the Indians' respect. Following a musical interlude with Antoinette in his pavilion, Loveless fills his mace with an explosive powder to give him a special edge over West. Artie realizes this when the armored Loveless reacts to one of his henchmen almost dropping the mace, so Jim is careful to avoid letting it land a blow while getting in several against Loveless, ultimately disarming him so that the mace explodes harmlessly nearby and toppling the mechanical suit. Loveless's Merry Men start to attack the agents, but the old chief sends his warriors after them. Loveless ducks into his lab to send up his display balloon with a payload of the explosive powder, but Jim shoots it back down into the lab with a bow, setting the place ablaze while Loveless and Antoinette take cover in a hollow log. Afterward, the agents are unable to find any sign of Loveless or his female accomplice, but we see a rabbit come out of the log.
In the train coda, fighting practice with Artie serves as an excuse for Conrad to get in some shirtless time, and the agents receive a package at a station, containing a statuette of a knight that plays a recording of Loveless and Antoinette performing.
_______
Get Smart
"The Greatest Spy on Earth"
Originally aired November 19, 1966
Wiki said:
Max and 99 go to the circus for a rendezvous with Agent 51, who makes contact in a really fake gorilla costume, but is killed by a knife thrown in his back before he can share his intel. Back at HQ, the Chief fills the agents in on how the circus is a cover for KAOS smuggling industrial diamonds out of countries, and on how multiple undercover agents have been killed. As Max and 99 will be posing as reporters, Carlson gives them some particularly questionable gadgets...a camera with a concealed tape recorder and a tape recorder with a concealed camera.
At the circus, press agent Pepper Hanlon (Paul Dooley) leads the agents to knife-thrower Raymond the Magnificent (Victor Lundin), who after answering questions pays a visit to Gerturde-Gerald. The agents then interview G-G, who's made up and dressed like a blonde female on the right side and a dark-haired male on the left. G-G indicates that they were offered a diamond by little person Tiny Allen (uncredited Billy Curtis), who'd offered the agents some info prior to the meeting, so they proceed to his trailer only to find him dead, having been shot in the back at close range, though the door and windows were all locked from the inside. The agents then talk to Hondo the strongman (Harry Varteresian), who was nearby to help them into the trailer by punching a hole in the door, but all he has to offer are the feats of strength he can perform. After this meeting, a pair of knives are thrown at the agents, matching the ones used by Raymond.
At the Chief's urging via shoe phone, Max is about to search the lion cage for the diamonds when he and 99 are confronted by Hanlon at gunpoint. They manage to overcome him, but quickly find themselves surrounded by Hondo, Raymond, and G-G, all conspirators. Hanlon talks about how he plans to dispose of Max's body by using him as the human cannonball, and to make 99 try lion taming. There's a gag about Hondo not being able to tear apart a letter that Max wrote to the police but didn't have a chance to mail, then we get the annoyingly customary mid-scene commercial interruption from Frndly. We pick up with Max and 99 outside, now costumed for their circus roles and still at the mercy of the KAOS agents. Hondo holds Max while Raymond tosses a pair of knives, which land in Hondo's arms.
Max: Missed me by that much...twice!
Hondo goes after Raymond, and Hanlon is about to plug Max and 99, but they're saved by the Chief and a group of CONTROL agents, all disguised as clowns. Taking the KAOS operatives into custody, the Chief is uncomfortable with Max's insistence that he follow procedure by frisking Gertrude-Gerald.
In the coda, Max implicates Rudolph the mascot chimp as an accessory, as he was used to lock up Tiny Allen's trailer via the transom.
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What would those dollar bill-guarders need moving telegraph communications for?
Actually, he refused to take the cigar out of his mouth--"Work around it!"
Or some plastique in his heel.
Nope.
I assume you mean Cueverra and not Grant.
According to IMDb, he will be in the episode that airs as the series finale. If the intervening two episodes don't deal with Jason and Joshua's new job together out West, that's likely the old production vs. airdate order thing. Hopefully we'll see for ourselves eventually, but in the meantime, here's something to remember General McCord by:Kind of a waste of a cool character actor. Good thing John Carradine never said no to a job in his life.
[Joshua McCord exits scene, followed by sound of gunshot offscreen.]
No, it was "based on a story by....".
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Tonight I'd thought I'd do a little soul/funk. Starting with Billy Preston
And finish with Edwin Starr. Sorry Sly, this is what the song should have sounded like, not drugged out and slurred vocals.
And finish with Edwin Starr. Sorry Sly, this is what the song should have sounded like, not drugged out and slurred vocals.
Now there's a time travel song.
Wow. Looks like Topo is feeling the heat from Jim Henson.
Coming this Fall on HBO: Deadwood Forest. Hm. Too obscure?
A Steampunk Western with a dwarf arch villain pretending to be Robin Hood who has also adopted a secret identity as a mechanical knight to manipulate a tribe of American Indians. Life is good!
They got the technology from Loveless. America is a melting pot.
Is this part of some greater scheme, or is he just getting mean in his old age?
Doctor Bartender!
"Normal" being a relative term.
You've got to admire the effort he puts into these things.
What th--?
"Say, Artie, do you like Zoetropes of gladiators?"
Ah, that special relationship between a hero and his arch enemy.
Sometimes it's hard to avoid the impression that KAOS is winning.
He's getting closer to inventing the Smart phone, though.
"Are you people blind? He's female on the left... and male on the right!"
Is this the CONTROL equivalent of "go play in traffic?"
Did they all pile out of a little car?
He can frisk half and 99 can frisk the other half.
Somebody's been reading Poe.
That's for them to know and us to watch on TV in color a century later.
Ouch. That never would have happened on Wild Wild West.
Indeed.
How can you not love this guy?
Ah, okay. Still pretty cool, though.
Hmm...maybe. Can't be upstaged by some darned Newsomecomer!
I'm sure it was the usual extortion/revenge/ruling thing.
No, that was John Hoyt. Fix was Piper in WNMHGB...and before that, the marshal on The Rifleman.
Exactly.What th--?
Correcting my slight anachronism, eh?
That's the shoe.
No, they just came running up from a tent after the Chief shot the gun from Hanlon's hand.Did they all pile out of a little car?
She got a dramatic death scene, bidding Jason to save the president with her dying breaths.
"You'll pay for that, Senator Ashley...or should I say, Mister Briggs?"
"Phelps."
"Whatever!"
You can bet Ed never forgot Topo's name. Jim should have kissed him more.
Oh, man....
Kinda building on it.
Imagine Max with an electronic shoe phone. He'd be foot dialing the Chief thirty times a day.That's the shoe.
She died a hero.
Whoa. Disco Zorro.
"Call me Jim. I like your shirt."
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55 Years Ago This Week
August 27
August 29
August 30 – By a vote of 69 to 11 in the United States Senate, Thurgood Marshall was confirmed as the first African American Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Ten of the eleven votes against him came from the southern states, joined by Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia. On the other hand, six U.S. senators from the Deep South — James Fulbright of Arkansas, William Spong of Virginia, and both from Tennessee (Howard Baker and Albert Gore) and from Texas (John Tower and Ralph Yarborough) — voted in his favor. Marshall's confirmation had taken 78 days to be completed, nearly three times as long as any other appointee by President Johnson to the High Court....Marshall would be sworn into office on September 1 and would take his seat on the bench on October 2.
September 1
September 2 – Roy Bates, a retired British Army major, staked a claim on HM Fort Roughs, an abandoned anti-aircraft platform in the North Sea, that had not been used since World War II, and that was located outside of the United Kingdom's territorial waters. Learning that British courts had ruled that the UK had no jurisdiction over the 660 square yard (550 square meter) platform, Bates proclaimed the location as the Principality of Sealand, an independent micronation. The sovereignty of Sealand, located about 7 1/2 miles away from Felixstowe off the coast of the English county of Suffolk, is not recognized by any other nation.
Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:
Leaving the chart:
Re-entering the chart:
Recent and new on the chart:
"Lady Friend," The Byrds
(Aug. 19; #82 US; #55 UK)
"The Cat in the Window (The Bird in the Sky)," Petula Clark
(#26 US; #9 AC)
"Expressway to Your Heart," The Soul Survivors
(#4 US; #3 R&B)
"Little Ole Man (Uptight, Everything's Alright)," Bill Cosby
(#4 US; #18 R&B)
And new on the boob tube:
* If I'd realized, I would've listed Part 1 last week. And while we're well into where I'd previously watched Dark Shadows, I decided to add it at this point because I'd been listing it when we were at this point in 50th anniversary business.
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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.
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55 Years Ago This Week
August 27
- Electronic Video Recording (EVR), a high quality, film-based video format, was announced by CBS Laboratories in a press release, with a goal of being marketed worldwide "in late 1969 or early 1970". The system used a 7-inch wide film cartridge that could provide "an hour of black-and-white visual material or a half-hour of color programming" and that would have retailed for as little as seven dollars, "a fraction of the cost of today's magnetic tape recording widely employed in commercial TV", and could be seen with the aid of a "playback machine [that] could be put on top of a TV set and connected to the antenna terminals of one or a dozen receivers". The machine, "roughly the size of a kitchen bread box" would have an initial manufacturing cost of $285 before markup for retail sale. Although the EVR player could not be used for recording, its resolution was high enough that its individual book pages could be read clearly in freeze frame. "The contents of a 24-volume encyclopedia could be recorded on a cartridge," the release noted, "with an index lever enabling the viewer to pick out the particular reference material he required."
- Died: Brian Epstein, 32, manager of The Beatles, died of an overdose of barbiturates.
- Brian is found dead in his bed at 24 Chapel Street, London. Paul McCartney answers the telephone in Bangor to receive the news, and after a quick press conference in which the Beatles appear numb and dumbstruck, they hastily return to London.
August 29
- The final episode of The Fugitive aired on ABC. It was seen by an estimated 78 million viewers, the largest audience for a single TV series episode in U.S. television history up to that time, a record that would not be broken until November 21, 1980 with the broadcast of an episode of the TV drama Dallas.
- The Arab Summit opened at Khartoum, and was attended by representatives of most of the Arab nations with the exception of Syria. On the first day, the oil-producing members voted to lift an embargo against exports to the United States and the United Kingdom. The bar had been imposed less than three months earlier following the outbreak of the Six-Day War with Israel.
- Former child actress Shirley Temple, now Shirley Temple Black, announced her candidacy for U.S. Congress as representative of California's 11th District.
- The funeral for Brian Epstein is held. It is strictly a family affair and none of the Beatles attends.
August 30 – By a vote of 69 to 11 in the United States Senate, Thurgood Marshall was confirmed as the first African American Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Ten of the eleven votes against him came from the southern states, joined by Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia. On the other hand, six U.S. senators from the Deep South — James Fulbright of Arkansas, William Spong of Virginia, and both from Tennessee (Howard Baker and Albert Gore) and from Texas (John Tower and Ralph Yarborough) — voted in his favor. Marshall's confirmation had taken 78 days to be completed, nearly three times as long as any other appointee by President Johnson to the High Court....Marshall would be sworn into office on September 1 and would take his seat on the bench on October 2.
September 1
- The Khartoum Resolution was passed by the eight member nations of the Arab League as their leaders met in Khartoum, the capital of the Sudan. The United Arab Republic (Egypt), Syria and Jordan, all of whom lost territory in the Six-Day War, were joined by Algeria, Lebanon, Iraq, Kuwait and the Sudan in approving a series of pledges regarding a common policy toward the nation of Israel. In the process, the existence of a common enemy brought the Arab states closer together and allowed them to resolve their own disputes. Egypt's President Gamal Abdel Nasser dropped further plans to overthrow the monarchies in Saudi Arabia and its neighbors. The adherents to the resolution agreed on seven points—continued planning for war against Israel, ending the boycott of oil exports to the United States and the United Kingdom, ending participation in the Yemen Civil War, rebuilding of Egypt and Jordan, and "the three no's"—"no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, and no negotiations with the Israelis".
- At the close of a nine-day meeting in Prague, the delegates to the International Astronomical Union voted to delay the naming of locations on the far side of the Moon for three years, and to set up a special committee that would consider names and deliver its recommendations at the next IAU conference, scheduled for 1970 at the University of Sussex in England.
- Died: Ilse Koch, 60, German war criminal known as "The Bitch of Buchenwald", hanged herself in the Bavarian prison of Aichach.
- All four Beatles have a meeting at Paul's house in St John's Wood to discuss their future and the imminent Magical Mystery Tour project.
September 2 – Roy Bates, a retired British Army major, staked a claim on HM Fort Roughs, an abandoned anti-aircraft platform in the North Sea, that had not been used since World War II, and that was located outside of the United Kingdom's territorial waters. Learning that British courts had ruled that the UK had no jurisdiction over the 660 square yard (550 square meter) platform, Bates proclaimed the location as the Principality of Sealand, an independent micronation. The sovereignty of Sealand, located about 7 1/2 miles away from Felixstowe off the coast of the English county of Suffolk, is not recognized by any other nation.
Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:
Leaving the chart:
- "Baby You're a Rich Man," The Beatles (5 weeks)
- "Bluebird," Buffalo Springfield (7 weeks)
- "I Take It Back," Sandy Posey (12 weeks)
- "Lady Friend," The Byrds (2 weeks)
- "Little Bit o' Soul," The Music Explosion (16 weeks)
- "More Love," Smokey Robinson & The Miracles (11 weeks)
- "Soul Finger," The Bar-Kays (15 weeks)
- "White Rabbit," Jefferson Airplane (10 weeks)
- "Windy," The Association (14 weeks)
Re-entering the chart:
- "The Look of Love," Dusty Springfield
Recent and new on the chart:
"Lady Friend," The Byrds
(Aug. 19; #82 US; #55 UK)
"The Cat in the Window (The Bird in the Sky)," Petula Clark
(#26 US; #9 AC)
"Expressway to Your Heart," The Soul Survivors
(#4 US; #3 R&B)
"Little Ole Man (Uptight, Everything's Alright)," Bill Cosby
(#4 US; #18 R&B)
And new on the boob tube:
- The Fugitive, "The Judgment: Part 2"*
- Dark Shadows, episodes 306-310
* If I'd realized, I would've listed Part 1 last week. And while we're well into where I'd previously watched Dark Shadows, I decided to add it at this point because I'd been listing it when we were at this point in 50th anniversary business.
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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.
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Or maybe Topo's original name was something else and they just rolled with it...
Now I'm picturing young people hobbling around while transfixed with one of their shoes...Imagine Max with an electronic shoe phone. He'd be foot dialing the Chief thirty times a day.
Well, it was his in the first place...
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One of the first signs of dissension within the ranks was that David Crosby wanted this to be included on the forthcoming album "Younger Than Yesterday" and the others vetoed it because the album was already top-heavy with Crosby-penned tunes.
Best stick to stand-up Bill.
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Slight detour back to 1971. Here's Ike and Tina Turner. Notice how her dress changes between clips; possibly to spread the performance out over several shows.
My homeboy:
Billy played piano YEARS ago at the first church I have any memory of attending, Victory Baptist, in LA. We’re on the same page. I started watching the vid befoew evading your comment, and after the first chorus thought, Sky’s original could have used Edwin’s attangement, He put some stank on it.
Wow, this is weird, like a strange early hybrid of videocassette and data disk. It's like something from the Burgess Shale of home entertainment.
That seems odd. I wonder if the family had some kind of ill will toward the Beatles or something.
This is a fantastic story. In fact, I just mentioned it recently, but I forget if it was this thread or elsewhere. Anyway, it's very cool, like something out of a William Gibson novel.
Simple but nice, basically a poem set to music.
Same for this one and even moreso. I wonder what the record for shortest single is.
Oldies Radio Classic. Also surprisingly short, though.
He should have formed a Supergroup with William Shatner and Greg Morris.
Micko.
Hopping on one foot. That's hilarious.
I think it had more to do with the family and the Beatles wanting it to be about Brian and not a media circus with the four of them attending. I don't believe any of the Stones attended Brian Jones funeral for the same reason.
According to Guinness World Records, the shortest single to ever enter the Top 100 chart in American is 45 seconds, achieved by PPAP (Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen), created and performed by Kazuhito Kosaka AKA Pikotaro (Japan).
50 Years Ago This Week
August 27 – At the "Western White House" in San Clemente, California, the President and Mrs. Nixon hosted 400 Hollywood celebrities, including Frank Sinatra, John Wayne, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Susan Hayward. Vice-President Agnew and Henry Kissinger, with his date Jill St. John, attended as well.
August 28
August 29
August 30
August 31 – The last game of the chess "match of the century" between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky started. After the 40th move, the game would be adjourned. Fischer would win the next day, as Spassky did not even resume play.
September 1
September 2 – The Confederation of Arab Republics was created between Egypt, Libya and Syria.
Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:
Leaving the chart:
New on the chart:
"For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her," Simon & Garfunkel
(#53 US; #27 AC)
"Listen to the Music," The Doobie Brothers
(#11 US)
"Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues," Danny O'Keefe
(#9 US; #5 AC; #63 Country)
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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.
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With all respect to Brian Epstein, I can't help getting a bit of a giggle watching that footage of the Beatles reacting to the news, because it always reminds me of this.
August 27 – At the "Western White House" in San Clemente, California, the President and Mrs. Nixon hosted 400 Hollywood celebrities, including Frank Sinatra, John Wayne, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Susan Hayward. Vice-President Agnew and Henry Kissinger, with his date Jill St. John, attended as well.
August 28
- Captain R. Stephen Ritchie became the first American ace fighter in the Vietnam War after downing his fifth enemy airplane in combat. Charles B. DeBellevue would down his fifth and sixth planes the following month. All five of Steve Ritchie's victories were of MiG-21 fighters. He retired in 1994 as a brigadier general. [I just watched an episode of Dogfights about this last week. This was in spite of the routine missile failures.]
- Died: Prince William of Gloucester, 30, cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, and fourth in line for the British throne until 1948, was killed when his airplane crashed during a race
August 29
- Pitcher Jim Barr of the San Francisco Giants retired his 39th, 40th and 41st consecutive batters in a game against the St. Louis Cardinals, breaking a record held since 1959 by Harvey Haddix. The last 21 batters in his last game (against Pittsburgh), and the first 20 of the Cardinals, were all kept from reaching first base. The record stood for almost 37 years. Bobby Jenks tied the record in 2007, and on July 28, 2009, Mark Buehrle set a new mark of 45 straight.
- President Nixon announced that 12,000 more American soldiers would be withdrawn from Vietnam over a three-month period, with only 27,000 remaining by December 1. The withdrawal would represent a 95% drop since the peak of 543,400 in April 1969.
August 30
- The Brown Berets, a group to promote the rights of Hispanic-Americans, staged its most visible protest ever, as 26 men staged a peaceful occupation of California's Santa Catalina Island, which they claimed as being sovereign territory of Mexico. After arriving on the ferry in separate groups, the "Caravana de la Reconquista" changed into their military-style uniforms, and, shortly after 10:00 am, unfurled the Mexican flag over Avalon Bay. The group's leader, David Sanchez, said that the Channel Islands of California had never been ceded by Mexico to the United States, because the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo referred only to "the division line between Upper and Lower California to the Pacific Ocean", and would not apply to the islands 27 miles offshore. The Berets eventually wore out their welcome, and were forced to leave by an American court order on September 22. The "Campo Tecolote" occupation was the last of the Brown Berets' publicity stunts, and the group disbanded the following year.
- John Lennon and Yoko Ono host two One to One concerts at the Madison Square Garden, New York, heading an all-star bill and raising $1,500,000 for [developmentally disabled] children and adults. John and Yoko personally donate $60,000. A television special taped at the concerts is shown on US television on 14 December 1972. In 1986 Yoko releases an album and video of the event, entitled John Lennon: Live in New York City.
August 31 – The last game of the chess "match of the century" between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky started. After the 40th move, the game would be adjourned. Fischer would win the next day, as Spassky did not even resume play.
September 1
- In the 21st game of chess for the World Chess Championship 1972, Bobby Fischer of the United States won the title, as defending champ Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union resigned. Under a system of one point for a win and ½ for a draw, the first to get 12½ points would win the matches played at Reykjavík, Iceland. Fischer's prize money was $154,677.50.
- "Bye, Bye, Blackboard", the last Woody Woodpecker cartoon and last cartoon produced by Walter Lantz Productions was released.
September 2 – The Confederation of Arab Republics was created between Egypt, Libya and Syria.
Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:
Leaving the chart:
- "Hold Her Tight," The Osmonds (9 weeks)
- "Lean on Me," Bill Withers (19 weeks)
- "School's Out," Alice Cooper (13 weeks)
- "Starman," David Bowie (9 weeks)
- "Too Late to Turn Back Now," Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose (14 weeks)
New on the chart:
"For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her," Simon & Garfunkel
(#53 US; #27 AC)
"Listen to the Music," The Doobie Brothers
(#11 US)
"Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues," Danny O'Keefe
(#9 US; #5 AC; #63 Country)
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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.
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You like to make me look things up, don't you?Wow, this is weird, like a strange early hybrid of videocassette and data disk. It's like something from the Burgess Shale of home entertainment.
Without looking it up, that would be my guess as well. I don't recall reading anything about animosity between the Beatles and Brian's family.
With all respect to Brian Epstein, I can't help getting a bit of a giggle watching that footage of the Beatles reacting to the news, because it always reminds me of this.
I knew it had come up recently, though I don't recall the context.RJDiogenes said:
Sounds nice, but relatively unremarkable as the Byrds go.
I vaguely recalled this one being better than I think it is now. It's a bit of a mess musically.Same for this one and even moreso. I wonder what the record for shortest single is.
Yep.
I think this is pretty interesting, and not too far out of his wheelhouse.
A mutual co-star is currently on the chart in 55th Anniversaryland:He should have formed a Supergroup with William Shatner and Greg Morris.
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First thig that came to mind upon reading.