Boom! The Podcast | Ep 3 | April '63 and '81

Chip Chapman and Tom Robinson look at the month of April, 1963. From Ronald McDonald to Pete Rose, the Easy Bake Oven to General Hospital-it's a snapshot of our lives. If you were born in '63, your Boom Echo year would be 1981-the year you turned 18. You probably remember Rick Springfield, Steven King and the introduction of Bud Light. Sit back and enjoy Boom! The Podcast.

Visit our Facebook page-https://www.facebook.com/groups/1583741972840935 and tell us about your Boom! experiences.

Transcript

SPEAKER_19 0:21

Welcome back to Boom, the podcast. Hey there, I'm Tom Robinson.

SPEAKER_13 0:26

And I'm Chip Chapman.

SPEAKER_19 0:28

And yes, we're doing this. We're doing this again. Um, I think it's uh it it it's it's fortuitous to mention, and I don't want to jinx this now, but we have had over 80 downloads for our first two episodes.

SPEAKER_13 0:45

Well, you know, that's very uh that's impressive, I think.

SPEAKER_19 0:48

Yeah, yeah. I think they're encouraging there, you know, it's it's a it's kind of a thing that you know once you hear it, you just can't unhear it. That's that's part of it. But I'm not gonna say that seeing something you can't unsee. But if you're listening to this podcast and you're enjoying it, I I think the thing we want to encourage most is share it. You know, share it with people that uh that are perhaps boom, like you, uh, or maybe just know someone who's boom and would be interested in hearing what we have to say. But I digress.

SPEAKER_13 1:23

So it's all about the baby boomers, pal.

SPEAKER_19 1:26

That's right. You know, we're talking about that generation from 46 to uh to 64. And if you were born in that generation, welcome. But if you weren't, that's okay too, because well, we I think you'll you'll find we have a lot of things to offer you as well. So uh regardless.

SPEAKER_13 1:41

What we're doing today.

SPEAKER_19 1:42

Yeah, yeah, no, I was just gonna say we have we have to sweep up here from last episode because it got a little messy. Just saying.

SPEAKER_13 1:59

Well, the votes occurred, the statehood for both was not ratified until 1959, which is peculiar, but maybe not really. Apparently, I imply they became states in 1950. One of our diligent listeners uh notified me and said, Hey, I think it was done in 19 uh 59. I'm not gonna mention his last name. All right, thank you, thank you, Jerry. Appreciate that. And I apologize for the faux fucking paw.

SPEAKER_19 2:29

Right? I think we got that straight. No, it's uh I mean, hey, it's so so cool because in 1950 they were recognized as hey, these are gonna be the additional stars on the flag ultimately, but it took another nine years for that to actually occur. So that's good. But uh nonetheless, it still happened in the same generation, the same uh period of time that we will we love discussing. So, regardless.

SPEAKER_13 2:54

But uh thank you for before we get into April 63, which is our boom year. That's it. And the echo of that when you turned 18 would have been April of 1981. We're gonna covering both those years. I got something to talk about for a second, which I found very interesting.

SPEAKER_19 3:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_13 3:13

Have you ever heard of the movie Coyote versus Acme?

SPEAKER_19 3:19

Coyote versus Acme. Now, why does that sound familiar?

SPEAKER_13 3:22

What uh a couple of years ago, Warner Brothers had produced a movie called Coyote vs. Acme.

SPEAKER_20 3:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_13 3:31

It's a combination of live action animated movie, much like Who Frame Roger Rabbit.

SPEAKER_20 3:36

Oh, yes. Okay, yes.

SPEAKER_13 3:38

And of course, basically what happens is Coyote's totally fed up and decides to hire a lawyer to sue the Acme Corporation.

SPEAKER_19 3:49

Sue the Acme Corporation.

SPEAKER_13 3:51

Well, Warner Brothers filmed the entire movie. They they they finished it. Okay, and then they decided, nah, this is like this bad girl debacle that we didn't like. I think we're gonna shelve this and just take the tax write off.

SPEAKER_19 4:07

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_13 4:08

So they basically did that, and then they decided, well, maybe somebody else wants to buy this piece of uh whatever.

SPEAKER_19 4:17

Art.

SPEAKER_13 4:17

So they just they had no, they didn't think it was gonna work. And actually another studio did buy it. Kind of a no-name studio. I can't remember the name. There you go. And it is being released August 28th of this year.

SPEAKER_19 4:34

We'll see it? Like in the theaters?

SPEAKER_13 4:36

The new, yes, and the new trailer is out. I saw the trailer, it's delightful. It's okay, it's laugh out loud, funny.

SPEAKER_20 4:45

Is it? Okay.

SPEAKER_13 4:47

Now, what I think is cool about this, it's a great, it's a baby boomer thing. We all love Looney Tunes.

SPEAKER_19 4:52

Yes, we do. Yes, we do.

SPEAKER_13 4:54

And you know, if you're so inclined, why don't you boomers out there? You got a couple of grandkids driving you crazy. Take them to the new Looney Tunes movie.

SPEAKER_20 5:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_13 5:06

On August 28th. And by the way, I'm not being reimbursed for these accolades. No money for this.

SPEAKER_19 5:16

You're just a fan. That's it.

SPEAKER_13 5:18

No money exchanged hands.

SPEAKER_19 5:20

Chip is just a fan. He's a big fan. He's a fanboy.

SPEAKER_13 5:23

He's that's in fact, those two Coyote and Road Rider are my two favorite Looney Tune characters.

SPEAKER_19 5:29

Really? Yeah. Interesting. Um, it's a toss-up for me when it comes to favorites because you know you have to think about the classics. But I have to say, when it comes to understated um comedy and and the one-liners would be foghorn, leghorn to me.

SPEAKER_11 5:46

I say, boy, I say a boy's so dumb he thinks the standby is candy.

SPEAKER_19 5:51

Exactly. Um, and I think the other thing that that also sticks out to me is the fact that when we were kids watching Looney Tunes, whether it be Saturday morning cartoons or you know, other times of the day, um, we were treated to adult humor that was appropriate for adults in the movie theaters in the 50s and 60s. Uh things that we would never get as kids. Uh, a quick example of that would be uh in in an episode with Bugs Bunny, he's somehow transported into the future, some sort of time warp, and he goes into the future, and it's it's the year 2000 AD. And suddenly it's no longer a shotgun that that Elmer Fudd is carrying, but like a ray gun. And uh Bugs stumbles upon a newspaper laying on the ground, and he picks up the newspaper, and the headline is Bing Crosby's horse hasn't come home yet. And now I don't know that anyone who was in grade school at the time of that, that, you know, time, seeing that, that, uh, that footage, that, that cartoon, would have any idea what the reference would be. Bing Crosby's horse? What are you talking about? What what do you mean? But adults would know that Ben Crosby uh spent time in Saratoga Springs at the the the Thoroughbred horse track, and his uh he was uh he owned horses, and one of his thoroughbreds got away and never came back. So it's in the headlines that you know Ben Crosby's horse is lost and and has not come home yet. So but we wouldn't know that as kids, and yet they still had it in the cartoon as a joke uh for for the adults.

SPEAKER_13 7:38

Well Bing Crosby in another movie, Bunny Lake is missing now with a lake. Yeah, there's Bunny Lake is missing.

SPEAKER_19 7:44

Yeah, yeah, there's yeah, there's that too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, but it's it's just you know, like how would how would we know these things? But it doesn't matter because we still still thought of it as as uh it was Bugs Bunny, so it was cool, yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_13 7:58

But uh so by the way, Foghorn Leghorn is on Coyote's side, so that's pretty hilarious. He is oh there's a scene where he's he's threatening Coyote's lawyer with a golf club, by the way.

SPEAKER_19 8:18

Yeah, I love it. I love it. Um, how are the voices, by the way? Are they good?

SPEAKER_13 8:23

Yeah, they're pretty close.

SPEAKER_19 8:24

Okay, good. Yeah, good, good, good. Nobody will ever be Mel Blank. I'm sorry. That's just you know, there's the way that's the true fact there. Um, he was uh uh the man of a thousand voices and uh did some amazing, amazing work.

SPEAKER_13 8:37

Uh anyway, so help help me help twist my mind all up on hell as you could go.

SPEAKER_19 8:43

I think an entire generation or several generations of kids uh you know found uh found that humor to be appealing, universally speaking, and yet we're all still sort of sane, I guess. Sort of, so to speak. Yes.

SPEAKER_13 9:00

All right, Thomas. Let's get into it. The events, the news of April 1963. This is our boom year in episode number three. Now, if you were born in April 63, you won't remember these news events when they happened. But it's still your history. April 2nd, NASA signed an almost half billion dollar contract with McDonald's Aircraft Corporation to produce 13 Gemini spacecraft, the next generation of capsules designed to carry two astronauts rather than the single-person capacity spacecraft. Now, 5.25 billion in 1963 equates to 5.4 billion in 2025 or 26.

SPEAKER_19 9:44

You mean like 5.2 million would be the same thing as 5.4 billion. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_13 9:50

So yeah, so another another damn misprint.

SPEAKER_19 9:53

Yeah. No, but I get the inference though. You know, 5 million. Good thing you got called I got called out on that by you and not five five million in in 1963 was a lot of money, man. Yeah. Uh spending it on spacecraft. And of course, now uh five billion, you know, for the same thing. Uh by the way, did you happen to see the uh the uh uh the the moon uh shot that just happened recently, the Artemis?

SPEAKER_13 10:19

Oh yes, that that was amazing. Yeah, it was amazing. Just uh it was very ethereal. Um the first time we saw the man walk around the moon, it was kind of you could you know it was you kind of knew it was happening, you could see it was happening, but yeah, it it it was very grainy. The yeah, of course, it was the it was the times, and it we didn't we didn't have the technology.

SPEAKER_19 10:44

Yeah, and and to to to realize, hey, we're finally it was just these pictures were just gorgeous. We're finally going back, you know, and uh to see the uh the dark side of the moon and and of course uh this is the record for the longest distance that any human being has ever been from planet Earth uh in a in a spacecraft. So uh pretty cool stuff.

SPEAKER_13 11:03

And uh it's I'm I'm looking forward to the future as a consequence, but that's uh matter of fact, the surviving members of Pink Floyd were especially uh joyful about that because they were hoping for a surge in uh existing record sales.

SPEAKER_19 11:16

Well, of course, Dark Side of the Moon, one of the greatest selling records of all time, which by the way spent uh I believe it was 200 months on the billboard charts.

SPEAKER_13 11:26

So yeah, but yep. It's it's well worth it.

SPEAKER_19 11:29

Yeah, no question. Well, let's move on to uh April 5th, the the Soviet Union uh they accepted an uh an American proposal to establish a Moscow slash Washington hotline so there could be direct comp you know communication uh between the two leaders of the two nations. Uh it's kind of like the bat phone, right? So Commissioner Gordon to Batman, you know, uh they had a hotline for the uh the uh the the two nations leaders, and of course this would be much more effective because they could directly say, are you gonna push the button down?

SPEAKER_13 12:05

I I found this last sentence extremely well it's it's it's sickingly humorous. Originally the hotline was a teletype system rather than a direct voice line.

SPEAKER_19 12:17

Yes.

SPEAKER_13 12:18

Uh yeah the missiles have bet the missiles are in the air, stop.

SPEAKER_19 12:23

Yeah. Uh-oh. Uh-oh.

SPEAKER_13 12:27

How do you want to? How do you wish to proceed?

SPEAKER_19 12:29

Yeah. Um interesting how even uh after you know the Soviet Union disappeared in 1989, uh, you know, there's still a need for this kind of thing. It it really does seem like we're back to that again. We have to worry about who's gonna press the button down. And um in the news this last couple of weeks there was rumors. I don't know that it was a direct story, but something about um our current leader demanding the codes for nuclear launch and being refused. Anyway, just saying, just a little aside there.

SPEAKER_13 13:02

Yeah. So April 11th, uh Buddy Rogers became the first World Wrestling Federation Federation champion defeating Antonino Rocca at the finals of the first WWF tournament held in Rio de Janeiro in prison in Brazil.

SPEAKER_19 13:22

Were you a fan by any chance?

SPEAKER_13 13:25

I was for 15 minutes. My second wife, who will go nameless, um, she was a big WWF fan and got got me sucked into it. And of course, it was just well, I was really into it with her. It was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_19 13:44

Yeah, I mean it it was it was like a circus. Um, and I've I've gone to a couple of matches myself over the years, and and uh I went with with this the express intent of uh having fun, but also watching the audience. Because the audience is the circus. That's that's their main attraction. What's happening in the ring is is is good and it's acrobatic and it's and it's it's fun to watch, but it's the audience and how they react. That's that's the entertaining part. Um and I still love the the the personalities. Uh George the Animal Steel.

unknown 14:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 14:16

Do you remember George?

SPEAKER_19 14:18

Yeah. George. George, of course, uh uh was uh was famous for chewing chewing on the turnbuckle. He'd just rip it apart with his teeth. Oh, yeah. I knew that. He'd chew on it and uh you know he had uh food coloring on his teeth, so it made him look like he was, you know, he had uh uh I don't know, I've forgotten what color it was, like a bluish color on his teeth. So it made it look like he was actually eating the uh the turnbuckle. But um he was actually a college professor, George the Animal Steel. And uh boy, what a what a what a Saturday Saturday morning thing to do sometimes when you know a bunch of us would get together and watch that together and uh just laugh hysterically. Uh but you know, WWF, Buddy Rogers, the very first champion. Wow, there's a dubious honor.

SPEAKER_13 15:04

Dubious indeed. All right, what do we got next, Al?

SPEAKER_19 15:07

Let's talk about baseball. I mean, baseball, April 13th, you know, uh baseball season's underway, and Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds got the first of a record 4,256 hits in Major League Baseball. Uh he he was quite uh quite the uh very uh pro shall we say prolific at the uh the at the in the batter's box. He really had uh lots of great success. Sadly, unfortunately, you know, we know what happened to Pete. But um, and to this day, uh there's a lot of argument about whether or not he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. But uh regardless, what a performance. And um he had a triple off of uh pitch by Bob Friend of the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Reds lost, lost 12-4. But nonetheless, Pete was uh he had his little moment in the sun there. Oh yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_13 16:01

Okay. April 15th, a White House press release announced the that First Lady Jackie Kennedy was pregnant, that her baby would be delivered in September. Mrs. Kennedy, now I'd forgotten about this, and this is really horrific. Mrs. Kennedy, who had a history of miscarriage, would give birth to Patrick Bouvier uh Kennedy, born prematurely on August 7th. That child would survive for only two days.

SPEAKER_20 16:28

Yeah. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_13 16:29

Now that is in August. Three months later, the first lady would lose her husband.

SPEAKER_20 16:36

Of course, as we know.

SPEAKER_13 16:38

I mean, she was so Yeah.

SPEAKER_20 16:41

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_13 16:42

Uh amazing, amazing woman, just basically didn't let it get to her, didn't let it didn't let it show.

SPEAKER_19 16:49

Right. Well, I mean, I can't imagine in in private situations what uh what she must have been suffering through, you know. Just unbelievable. Uh and especially with uh that double double whammy, that double double uh uh tragedy in in that such a short period of time.

SPEAKER_13 17:04

And it doesn't matter what your politics are. I mean, that's a hor that's a horrible situation to live through.

SPEAKER_19 17:10

Yep, we wouldn't wish that on anyone, of course. And uh of course the 1963, when you think about it, you know, uh we were we were uh completely changed forever as a as a generation because of that year and what happened not just to Jackie Kennedy but to the nation and and uh and the world. So yeah. Uh but yeah, very sad news there. Um April 18th, the Toronto Maple Leafs. They beat the Detroit Red Wings three to one uh in Toronto to win the NHL Stanley Cup four games to one. What a uh now to this day, there's uh still you know a lot of Maple Leaf fans kicking around here in upstate New York where I live. Um and uh, you know, for a good reason, you know, good team. And also on the 18th, we we gotta mention a birthday because well, birthdays are big, you know. This uh on this day and the 18th of April, Conan O'Brien, as we know, uh one of the one of the most um naturally funny people, uh, as an American television host, uh a writer, producer, and yeah, I mean, just just uh to this day. I think he's he's he's one of the greats. And he was born in Brookline, Massachusetts.

SPEAKER_13 18:22

Yeah, April 1963.

SPEAKER_19 18:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_13 18:26

Also on the 18th, 42-year-old Yeta Grodofent. You're going, who? She's the sister-in-law of Carl Walenda. Oh, tightrope walker in the flying Walenda's Highwire Act. She fell 65 feet to her death while performing at the Shrine Circus in the Civic Auditorium in Omaha, Nebraska.

SPEAKER_20 18:49

Wow.

SPEAKER_13 18:49

Two other members of the circus troupe had been killed after falling through the from the highwire in Detroit on January 20th of 1962.

SPEAKER_19 18:58

No, it's it's uh it's it's astounding to to give the ultimate sacrifice for for entertainment sort purposes. Uh what an odd thing. Um but here's the here's a sick commentary when it comes to human nature, but also this generation as well, like every other generation. For some reason, we're attracted to danger. We love uh watching someone else place themselves in in mortal peril. And it's for some reason also uh psychologically it has there's some sort of oh, I don't know, satisfaction from it. But I can't imagine witnessing something like this with uh with a high wire act, you know, and especially in in uh what three people in the space of a year.

SPEAKER_13 19:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 19:47

Unbelievable.

SPEAKER_13 19:48

Oh, the same family. Well, this is but this was a big uh big sports month, very yeah, prolific sports month. April 24th, the uh the Boston Celtics defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 112 to 109 to win their fifth consecutive NBA championship four games to two.

SPEAKER_19 20:08

Boston Celtics. There was uh that your East Coast or West Coast, man, you know, which which one do you uh you go with? Of course, we on this this side of the uh of the country were all you know back in the Boston Celtics back in the day. Um also uh April 30th, New Hampshire. Now, here's an interesting piece. New Hampshire became the first of the United States to legalize a state lottery. State lotteries, now this is so common now. It's it's just we don't even think that there was a beginning or an end. But New Hampshire kind of stepped up front and did this uh thing called a state lottery. And the first drawing for that lottery uh was the New Hampshire sweepstakes, and that happened March 12th of 1964. So it was uh almost a year later before they actually went into practice with this, but they actually legalized it on this day, uh, April 30th uh of 1963. Pretty uh pretty interesting because everybody else followed suit. By the way, you are are you a scratch-off guy or do you like the the regular lottery?

SPEAKER_13 21:11

Oh, back maybe back in the day, but not anymore.

SPEAKER_19 21:16

Yeah, yeah. Um it is pretty shocking when you think about, you know, you're in a convenience store and you notice somebody in front of you is there for the better part of 15 minutes just buying scratch-off tickets, uh thinking, okay, I'm gonna hit it big this day.

SPEAKER_13 21:31

This might be the week. This might be the week.

SPEAKER_19 21:33

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, okay, that's that's gambling for you. That's uh that's what it's all about. But uh it's it's legal. And uh by the way, um, how do you feel about legalizing, you know, this this idea of legalizing gambling in the state of New York? Because we've we've lived here a good portion of the time. What uh what do you think about that?

SPEAKER_13 21:57

Actually don't have a problem with it either way.

SPEAKER_19 21:59

Yeah, yeah. Um we have a uh I know uh just a quick anecdote in Schenectady, New York, not far from this, uh where the studio is located here. Um there's Rivers Casino. And I have to confess that Rivers Casino, there's a lot of uh consternation, a lot of uh resistance to bringing in a full-size casino, and they're based out of Chicago, by the way. But they came into Schenectady with uh all kinds of grandiose plans of building a hotel and uh a wharf uh in the uh uh marina in uh on the the Mohawk River. And uh really it's actually turned out pretty well for the city of Schenectady, I have to say. Uh the it's brought in more more business, obviously, but also more uh restaurants, locally owned uh businesses in the main uh main section of Schenectady have really popped up and uh it's become like a destination now. Um in fact, there's a a theater called Proctor's Theater, which goes back into the 20s as a vaudevillean theater, and it's been restored, and uh a lot of really good shows have come through there uh in the the last 15 years since uh uh things have really started to turn around, thank goodness, for for Schenectady, New York. But whether that gambling has anything I don't know.

SPEAKER_13 23:15

Yeah, there there are a few casinos around New York State that are you know Native American based.

SPEAKER_20 23:22

Yes.

SPEAKER_13 23:23

I'm sure they will have a problem with it.

SPEAKER_20 23:28

Yep, no doubt.

SPEAKER_13 23:29

But uh well, I shouldn't say they will, but I'm I assume they would. Yeah, what do you want to know?

SPEAKER_19 23:35

But well, regardless, that's the way it was. April 1963.

SPEAKER_13 23:42

That's what I wanted to hear. Okay. All right, Tom, it's time to get into some pop culture here. Oh, some commercials from April 1963.

SPEAKER_19 23:53

What were we buying back in those days? That's what I mean.

SPEAKER_13 23:55

No, you know, they were selling us things like uh McDonald's. Oh, April 63 was the debut of Ronald McDonald's. Really? Portrayed by Willard Scott.

SPEAKER_19 24:11

Willard Scott, that's right. I've forgotten, I've forgotten that he was the first the original Yeah, big TV guy. Yeah, yeah, no. We and we know Willard Scott very well. Um, but yeah, he was the original Ronald McDonald.

SPEAKER_13 24:24

First TV spots appearing as the hamburger happy clown. We'll be hearing that commercial in a couple of minutes here.

SPEAKER_19 24:34

Do you remember the first time you tasted a McDonald's hamburger, by the way?

SPEAKER_13 24:39

No, really, no.

SPEAKER_19 24:40

I do, I do. Yeah, my hometown. Um, it was uh I was still in grade school when it you know when it came to town, and it was a huge event when they opened this uh this this store. And uh there was there was traffic backed up for quite a ways, uh, you know, to get to try McDonald's, you know, for the first time.

SPEAKER_13 25:04

They promoted it quite uh thoroughly beforehand.

SPEAKER_19 25:08

Oh, and and you know what they did is they they offered their their um their basic hamburgers for 10 cents, 10 cents a burger, uh, and fries for 15 or something, I think. So so you could go in and get a bag of of uh burgers, like 10 burgers for a buck. And that that lasted for I think the first weekend that they were open uh in our in our market. But uh I I still remember the only thing I didn't like the burger. I liked the burgers, but the only thing I didn't like was they put mustard on the burger.

SPEAKER_13 25:40

Well, yeah, that's right, they did, yeah.

SPEAKER_19 25:42

And that kind of as a kid, I just kind of turned me, I just not a big mustard fan. Uh regardless though, I thought, hey man, this is you know, it was great. It was I thought it was uh I thought it was awesome, and and people were were backed up for for miles in traffic to to do this just to sample the burgers. Um but yeah, so that that was 1968.

SPEAKER_13 26:03

19 uh 63. I was in Florida, Orlando. Lived in the uh suburbs, way out from the inner city.

SPEAKER_19 26:13

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_13 26:14

I don't even remember McDonald's for years. I mean, I know they were around, but I'm sure they had their products, but yeah, they weren't accessible to me. Not the kind of thing that my parents would probably take us initially uh I mean, I mean I'm sure they did eventually because they ended up with three other kids. So little kids, little kids.

SPEAKER_19 26:38

Right, understood. Anyways, yeah. Well then the uh in in the automotive uh aspect of things we were buying back in the day, uh the Kerbsign Classic notes that uh 1963 printouts heavily featured the 63 Riviera, uh Porsches uh 356 or the 30 356, uh Triumph Spitfar, uh Spitfire, and uh MGs. Yeah, MGs. I remember the MG was such a cool car, man.

SPEAKER_13 27:07

Well it yeah, it always was.

SPEAKER_19 27:08

Yeah. There was uh a moment, uh, no, I had three older sisters, and I was about roughly a decade behind them. So they were born in the late 40s, I was born in the late 50s. And one of my older sisters, who at the time was uh just coming out of high school and going into college, she was dating a guy that had an MG. And M the red MG convertible. And man, as a kid, I just They were always red, weren't they? Oh, they were great. And I couldn't keep my hands off it, you know. He would, he would, uh, he'd get a little upset with me because I'd want to sit behind the wheel and you know, shift the gear. And of course, I was just a a a car fanatic as a kid. Well, one evening he came by to pick up my sister and went into the house to to talk to my folks, etc. And and they were gonna go out on a date. So what did I do? I uh I I opened the door of the of the of the vehicle. Now he had the the top up that evening because it was raining, and I hid behind the seats in the back. There's just enough room for me to hide behind the uh the bucket seats of this MG and had no idea I was there. And they get into the car and they start driving up the up the street, and I pop up. Hey, how you doing? I mean, he slammed the brakes on. I slammed the brakes on and uh ushered me outside of the car, of course. But uh, I'll never forget uh how I almost ruined her date. Almost in a in a you didn't have much of a walk home, did you? No, that was I don't think we made it more than uh maybe half a block or something before I I couldn't help myself. I had to pop up and and scare them.

SPEAKER_13 28:47

So nice, Tom.

SPEAKER_19 28:50

Yeah, huh?

SPEAKER_13 28:51

Well, you remember Captain Crunch?

SPEAKER_19 28:53

Do I? Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_13 28:56

Well, this beloved serial mascot made his debut in April of 63 with animated spots featuring the SS Guppy. The Guppy the signature keeps his crunch jingle.

SPEAKER_19 29:08

I love that serial, by the way. Um, I'm probably among many of the same kids. And of course, in the the uh 1963, what was I? Let's see, think of a quick math. I was five, five years old. Um, and yeah, I definitely uh I was I was a big fan. Incidentally, um, do you remember uh you know going to the grocery store with your folks and and uh grabbing things off the shelf that they weren't necessarily haggling a little bit?

SPEAKER_20 29:38

Uh I'll take one of these, and I'll take one of these, and oh yeah.

SPEAKER_13 29:42

And uh I'm sure I had a few discussions with my uh parental unit.

SPEAKER_19 29:47

We are not buying that. But uh Cap and Crunch, that was uh a classic of its time. Wow. Um, and of course, you know, uh there's lots of other kind of cereals out there. Well, I know we had this discussion before about cereal, uh about you know what was your your favorite. What did but let's let's re-re regroup there. What do you uh what do you think was the best?

SPEAKER_13 30:13

You know, I think it was um the best. It probably had a lot of sugar in it.

SPEAKER_19 30:24

Of course, right?

SPEAKER_13 30:26

I'm just blanking out a billion other names at a time. I wasn't making the captain grunge. Of course. It wouldn't have been brand bran flakes. Probably uh Kellogg's cornflakes.

SPEAKER_19 30:45

Yeah, possibly. Or sugar frosted flakes.

SPEAKER_13 30:49

Sugar frosted flakes, yeah.

SPEAKER_19 30:51

Yep, that was that was kind of like probably that one. Yeah, I think that was the most common box we had in our house was sugar frosted flakes for sure. Well, um, here's here's something else that uh that was kind of interesting. You know, stars of the time, actors who played certain roles, would would uh promote products. Uh and Andy Griffith and Don Knotts uh from the Andy Griffith show played, you know, Sheriff Andy Taylor and uh of course Barney Fife promoting uh post-compact and oat flakes. Oak flakes. Wow.

SPEAKER_13 31:30

Yeah, I'll take some of that. Nope.

SPEAKER_19 31:34

But you know, you have to admit that they they probably made some extra money, you know, on the side. Of course.

SPEAKER_13 31:39

Well, yeah, and also it's a great, it's a great uh it was it was kind of a sign of the times because also Dan Blocker from Bonanza did the same thing we mentioned that previously. Yes, yep, a different episode that Chevy Trucks promoted. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's it's he did a good job too. I mean, it it was it just typical of the times, you know.

SPEAKER_19 32:01

Right, right. Uh and and you know, here's the thing uh television stars in our generation, they were like our best buddies, you know. We knew them. Yeah, we knew them.

SPEAKER_13 32:11

We trusted them, of course.

SPEAKER_19 32:13

Exactly. You know, they're they're in our house on a regular basis, and and we sit around and watch them behave and and do the things we thought were were really cool. And so, you know, w who better to uh promote a product? Because, well, we trust that person, you know. Who wouldn't trust Andy Taylor, the sheriff, with no gun? Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_13 32:33

You know, we yep. Moving on to more health-related products, a common 1963 health-related ad focused on the modern drug for pain, showing how tablets reach the bloodstream faster than other remedies. That, of course, being buffering.

SPEAKER_19 32:52

Bufferin, yeah. Man, everybody had a bottle of bufferin, especially on the nightstand, just in case.

SPEAKER_13 33:00

And getting into uh tires, firestone tires commercials emphasize the reliability of Firestone tires for everything from family travel to heavy steel-carrying trucks.

SPEAKER_19 33:13

And no matter what the weather is, no, they had some sort of odd guarantee that if you got stuck using firestone tires, like if you could like get stuck in mud or the snow or something, they would tow you out for free. That was their guarantee.

SPEAKER_13 33:26

Wow.

SPEAKER_19 33:26

Uh, I can't imagine uh uh a company doing that now. I just can't imagine that doing that that being the case, especially if you're selling to people in upstate New York. Just saying.

SPEAKER_13 33:38

Yeah. Well, if you were born in April 1963, you probably uh would remember these toys later on. You were how old then?

SPEAKER_20 33:50

I was five.

SPEAKER_13 33:51

You're five. What was your toy of choice?

SPEAKER_19 33:55

Oh, my toy of choice. Yeah, I do. 1963, I'm pretty sure. Uh, I got the um what's called the Playmobile. So the Playmobile was like the dashboard of a car uh that was was uh was it had all kinds of you know knobs and buttons and it had the real steering wheel and it had windshield wipers and it had uh lights and things like this, and you know it was battery operated, obviously. You take like these big giant D batteries, but uh it was just big enough to fit, you know, on the on the uh the dining room table, and I could sit at the uh the the the head of the table and and use my playmobile like I was driving a car. That was and it had a oh yes, it had a horn that annoyed uh the hell out of my parents.

SPEAKER_13 34:37

Of course.

SPEAKER_19 34:38

But uh that was my favorite, yeah.

SPEAKER_13 34:41

Uh one of the big ones that came out that was actually very successful was Kenner's Kenner's had a lot of toys out Kenner's easy bake oven. Oh yes. Now this legendary toy was released in 63. Early commercials showing children baking little treats using the heat from two standard light bulbs.

SPEAKER_19 35:05

Just light bulbs. I mean, you know, how much baking can you do with light bulbs? Um so the this not even not even a tan. I remember trying the the the food that came out of that thing uh because one of my sisters had it. And uh yeah. Not great. Um if you had to if you had to apologize to your sisters, you bring them up a lot. I know. I can't help you. They're like, you know, my older sisters were like my surrogate moms, you know, and uh trying to keep me under control as a kid. Yeah, not an easy task by any means.

SPEAKER_13 35:50

You seem to have some uh suppressed anger.

SPEAKER_19 35:58

Let's not get into that now.

SPEAKER_11 36:01

You might want to have that checked out.

SPEAKER_13 36:06

Ben, there's your sister have Barbie's best friend.

SPEAKER_19 36:10

Uh Midge, no, I don't believe so. I don't believe so. I don't recall the Midge doll. Okay.

SPEAKER_13 36:17

Midge was the girl next door, the next door friend who would hear Barbie's clothing because they were the same size. Now, how damn convenient is that, huh? I mean, you couldn't make her a an extra size, so that you'd your parents have to spend more money on the clothes.

SPEAKER_19 36:38

That's great. You know, that's good. Midge, wow. I'm I'm impressed. You know, I I don't um I don't really tell, you know. Did Midge appear in the Barbie movie by any chance when the Barbie movie came out?

SPEAKER_13 36:53

Well, he did. I just watched I I managed to force myself to watch the movie once.

SPEAKER_19 36:57

Did you?

SPEAKER_13 36:57

And I'm I'm sorry, it's a well-made movie. I'm not gonna even go there, but you know, I'm not exactly the fucking audience.

SPEAKER_19 37:03

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I I just um because I wonder, because they they probably featured Ken, obviously, but uh what about Barbie's friends, you know, Midge and uh Yeah, okay, all right. Um, so here we go. Uh Mattel, uh the room engine. A friend of mine had this very thing, by the way. And we were riding these very small bicycles in the time. Um, I remember mine was probably, I don't know, when you look at the size of it, it was just tall enough for me to to sit with my my feet comfortably on the on the ground. But it was a really tiny little bike. But a friend of mine had something just a little bit larger, and he put one of these Mattel vroom engines on the the bicycle itself. It would attach to the bar, uh the uh the crossbar. And uh you could make your your bike bicycle sound like a uh a car or or you know a real motorcycle. And that was big for Mattel back in back in the day. Oh yeah, and it had a key. It had and if you lost the key, you're out of luck, kid. Oh well. And that's usually what happened.

SPEAKER_13 38:11

No more of room for no more of room for you.

SPEAKER_19 38:16

Great stuff though. Wow, creative.

SPEAKER_13 38:19

Oh, okay. So how old how how much younger were you than your your sisters?

SPEAKER_19 38:24

Um, well, let's see. The closest one in age to me was eight years, and the oldest was ten years.

SPEAKER_13 38:28

So they were probably out of the chatty cathy stage, right?

SPEAKER_19 38:33

I well, there was actually something similar to that that I do recall. I think now I did have a younger sister too, and she was about five years younger, so she wasn't even really uh she might have been, let's see, was she born in 64? Yeah, so she wasn't even there in 63.

SPEAKER_13 38:49

But well, I was one of the unfortunate people to have a three-year-old sister who I believe had one of these uh yakity Kathy things. Chatty Kathy, yeah, Chatty Kathy. Now, commercials for this talking doll remained a staple in 1963, featuring new hair color, new hair colors, like threw that in Auburn.

SPEAKER_19 39:12

What's Auburn, by the way? What is Auburn color?

SPEAKER_13 39:16

Brown.

SPEAKER_19 39:16

Is it brown? Okay, yeah, wow. Um, do you do you remember there was um Telly Savalas was uh in an episode of Twilight Zone with a talking doll? Do you remember that?

SPEAKER_13 39:30

Uh yeah, that's that's that's what episode really really creeped me out.

SPEAKER_19 39:36

It was creepy.

SPEAKER_13 39:37

Woo!

SPEAKER_19 39:38

So it was like Chatty Kathy doesn't like you. Chatty Kathy is going to kill you.

SPEAKER_13 39:47

Yeah. Well, they didn't call it Chatty Kathy.

SPEAKER_19 39:51

It was something else, right?

SPEAKER_13 39:52

It was uh yeah, don't go looking for the episode, you know.

SPEAKER_19 39:55

Telly Savalis, though. Um, he might have even still had hair at the time. Uh but just a little bit. Yeah, besides. Yeah. But he was really good at playing a nasty father. He was just not a nice guy in this this episode.

SPEAKER_13 40:08

Well, he wasn't a nice guy in anything he did.

SPEAKER_19 40:10

So well, I think, you know, I think uh uh he was a bit brusque. He was, yeah. He was definitely a different character, and I think that was uh fit his uh his persona. I bet you he was a sweetheart, though. Um we digress. But yeah, so that episode with with uh Tele Savas and the and the the maniacal talking doll. I just never forget that stuff.

SPEAKER_13 40:32

Yeah, my sister had one as far as I can I know like I I I guess some kind of disdain for it from someone, it had to be my sister, you know.

SPEAKER_19 40:41

Okay, okay. I gotcha.

SPEAKER_13 40:43

Constantly playing with the damn thing. Um Lego bricks.

SPEAKER_19 40:46

Oh my goodness, yes. Legos were my favorite, were absolutely my favorite. Um that and and the erector set of the time.

SPEAKER_13 40:54

Yeah, I had an erector set after after bleeding, almost bleeding to death with those little damn screws. I mean, I think I finally gave it up, you know.

SPEAKER_19 41:02

Yeah. Um here's the other thing, too. As I got a little older, we got into uh uh making um models, uh Ertle E R T L, I believe they're uh that was the name of the company that made these these plastic models you would have to use glue to you know to put together. And the and the the glue would get you like kind of kind of stoned. Do you remember that?

SPEAKER_13 41:28

Uh no, I missed that. Never mind.

SPEAKER_19 41:36

But Lego bricks, absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_13 41:38

And well, Barbie and Kent Fashions. I should have mentioned this earlier when we were talking about Barbie Midge advertisements focused on the mix and match fashion bar, encouraging kids to expand their doll wardrobes.

SPEAKER_19 41:51

The doll wardrobes, of course. I mean, you know, how could Barbie go out without a proper wardrobe? I mean, come on. Uh, didn't they even make little miniature uh suitcases and stuff like that for these guys?

SPEAKER_13 42:05

Little shoes.

SPEAKER_19 42:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_13 42:07

Your sister could swallow.

SPEAKER_19 42:13

The things we're gonna do a whole episode. My sister, as far as I know. Okay. Well, we're gonna do a whole episode of Boom eventually that focuses on on very dangerous toys of the time because there are a lot of them. Oh, there was a ton of them. I think we could get into it pretty heavily about you know, just not just swallowing stuff, but things that would burn you and uh, you know, uh leave a permanent scar, you know, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_13 42:40

Milton Bradley board games, Candyland and Time Bomb. I don't know these at all.

SPEAKER_19 42:45

You don't? Oh, Candyland was the best, man. That was awesome. That was that was so cool. Yeah, and and uh it was very colorful. And you know, it was my co-host. Yeah. Uh but no, Candyland. Now time bomb, I'm not too sure about that one. I'm not a hundred percent on that. I think it had something to do with a timer and a bomb, but I it that I you know it's vague that rem that memory for sure.

SPEAKER_13 43:14

Yeah, yeah. Of course, there was uh it was play school magazine advertisements, so a variety of wooden and preschool age toys.

SPEAKER_19 43:23

Now, play school, that here's an interesting little tidbit again. Uh I still remember going to the doctor's office, and I loved it because they had a whole series of the latest, greatest play school magazines. And so, you know, waiting to go in to get your shots. Um, you know, you could sit there and and uh go through play school, and of course, it did feature much more um well built uh type of toys, uh wooden toys that are that are probably still around. They probably have lasted all these years in most cases. Um but yeah, and and mostly for preschool kids. But uh yeah, play school, man. I I love looking at that magazine at uh the doctor's office.

SPEAKER_13 44:05

Well, hey kids, what time is it? Well, we're gonna take a break and uh come back from page two. But before we do that, we're gonna hear some of those commercials about these wonderful toys that you can badger your parents into buying for you, or maybe you did in 1963. Let us know, by the way. We'll be back at page uh two shortly.

SPEAKER_21 44:26

This is the sound of a human heart. It will beat 72 times in this minute. Every beat can be a painful throb if you have a headache. This pain remedy is bufferin, the one doctors recommend by name more often than any other leading brand. Take two bufferins, and every beat can mean your heart is pumping bufferin' pain reliever through your bloodstream. Why such speed? Because bufferin is the modern drug for pain. It is special antiacids that activate the pain reliever by speeding it into your bloodstream straight to the pain. These antiacids also help soothe an overacid stomach, a common companion to headaches. This message will last 60 seconds. 72 heartbeats. If you had taken bufferin at its stuff, bufferin could already be getting into your bloodstream. Next time pain drops upsets you. Take two bufferin, the fast one. It's worth it.

SPEAKER_03 45:24

All right, crew. Light the old campfire. Get the marshmallows. It's single long time. Campfire? On a boat? Wouldn't that be dangerous? Hmm. I hadn't thought of that. Oh well, let's sing anyway. See the single thing. I wonder if other cannons have these problems.

SPEAKER_02 46:18

Easy bake, easy bake, easy bake. Mix 'em up, mix 'em up. Slide email, slide them in, slide them back up, slide email, slide 'em up, easy bake. Only Kenner's Easy Bake Oven set makes such delicious cakes, cookies, candy, brownies, pizza, pies, and biscuits. It makes like magic with two ordinary light bulbs and has a special cooling chamber. Easy bake by Kenner.

SPEAKER_13 46:44

Thomas talk about movies, the month you maybe were born. If it was April 1963.

SPEAKER_19 46:50

Boom movies from 63. Wow. Um, I don't recall I might have gone to the movies at the age of five. I might, but um, not for these, not the ones we're about to discuss. I don't remember these at all.

SPEAKER_13 47:06

Yeah, these are really questionable, let me tell you. I mean, they were kind of popular. Uh, they were all big in April, the biggest movies. We had uh Elvis Presley and then this monthly movie called This was called It Happened at the World's Fair.

SPEAKER_19 47:23

Oh, wow. Wow.

SPEAKER_13 47:25

It was the Space Needle was prominent in that movie. Yeah. Things like that happened in Seattle.

SPEAKER_19 47:31

And uh was this one of uh how many movies did Elvis actually turn out ultimately? What what uh what what order like 28? 28. Oh my god. So was this one of the the early ones or one of the like mid mid-uh film career? What was that?

SPEAKER_13 47:46

Elvis was getting into toward the mid-sixties, so it was kind of like the last third of his movie career.

SPEAKER_20 47:53

Oh got it.

SPEAKER_13 47:54

Okay, these these were real disposable sing-alongs.

SPEAKER_20 48:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_13 48:00

I mean, but I I will t I won't give the man credit, even even though he was singing these ridiculous songs, and some of them were not very good. Right. He actually never let you down.

SPEAKER_19 48:13

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_13 48:14

You do a good job.

SPEAKER_19 48:15

Yeah. No, he's he um, you know, he's a passable actor, and I think part of the problem was the the scripts that he was dealing with. You know, he wasn't given much much meat on the bones.

SPEAKER_13 48:25

And he and he really wanted to be a serious actor, but they wouldn't allow it. It was it wasn't it wouldn't sell.

SPEAKER_19 48:29

Huh. Interesting. Now who knows?

SPEAKER_13 48:31

These rom-coms.

SPEAKER_19 48:32

Yeah, what what could have possibly been if they had allowed him to develop as an actor?

SPEAKER_13 48:36

Um, but by the way, as a matter of fact, let me interrupt you, but yeah, but the things disappear from my head real quickly here, so I'm an old baby born. Um A Star is Born with Barbara Streisand.

SPEAKER_11 48:51

Yep.

SPEAKER_13 48:52

Did you know that her first choice and she lobbied really hard for this to play her co co a cohort in that movie for love interest was Elvis Presley.

SPEAKER_19 49:03

Really? I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_13 49:05

And he wanted to do it. Huh? But Colonel Parker in his infinite wisdom said, No, you can't do that, you know.

SPEAKER_19 49:12

Oh my goodness. Wow. The part went to Chris Christopher's Yeah, and I mean Chris Christopherson was a great choice and did a wonderful job, and it was an awesome movie. But yeah, Elvis, I uh that that would have made sense, I think. I think that would have made sense.

SPEAKER_13 49:29

I think it would have been I think it would have incredible.

SPEAKER_19 49:31

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh what would have been? Yeah, who knows? Um that's okay.

SPEAKER_13 49:37

This go ahead, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_19 49:38

No, no, I was just gonna say that uh, you know, uh Elvis was not anyone that I've ever seen in a movie specifically. I never went to the theater to see Elvis. Just never did it.

SPEAKER_13 49:49

Yeah. I don't remember. I usually end up watching them on TV. Right. I ended up on TV quite quickly.

SPEAKER_19 49:58

Right.

SPEAKER_13 50:00

Generally a couple years later, you'd see them on TV.

SPEAKER_20 50:03

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_13 50:05

Um I never heard of this movie. Marlon Brando. Marlon Brando. I hate I I just gotta I'm gonna put it out there. How many of you find him? He is a little overrated.

SPEAKER_19 50:27

In in some ways, I guess it depends.

SPEAKER_13 50:29

Um I may mention it before if I did, I apologize if I stepped on Hose here. This like this looked like a pretty much a walkthrough gig here. The ugly American was called.

SPEAKER_19 50:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_13 50:43

Yeah, basically an American, and I think it was in France and broiled some kind of problem.

SPEAKER_19 50:52

Some some controversial incident of some kind. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_13 50:56

Marlon Brando it wasn't a real big thing. It was the biggest thing in the movie was his the fact he was starring in it, I think.

SPEAKER_19 51:02

Right. I mean he uh I mean, what was it? Uh the um I'm trying to think of the motorcycle movie that he was in in the 50s that really kind of sealed his wild bunch, yeah. Uh that really sealed his his career. And uh and yet he went in such different directions after that, you know, divergent uh roles. Which I'm sure as a as an actor, you know, uh he really tried hard not to be typecast. Remember that term being typecast?

SPEAKER_13 51:32

Yes, indeed.

SPEAKER_19 51:33

And so many uh careers ended uh prematurely because they were typecast as a particular, you know, maybe they were so popular, you know, like a like a Sean Connery as James Bond. You know, typecast. And uh although he did recover from that and did lots of other roles, but you know, I can see where Marlon Brando is probably truly trying to make sure that he didn't get typecast. But he is an acquired taste.

SPEAKER_13 52:00

Well, we also have bye-bye birdie another rom-com who's starring Janet Lee and Dick Van Dyke.

SPEAKER_19 52:07

Ah, Dick Van Dyke.

SPEAKER_13 52:09

And uh one of them gonna love Dick. Uh American icon, come on.

SPEAKER_19 52:19

Oh my goodness. And uh really the I mean, as far as uh uh a well-rounded performer, the fact that he could dance and of course would was was really funny, just generally uh a funny guy. Uh, you know, Dick Van Dyke show, of course. Um, and uh this the the movie Bye Bye Birdie, I'm sure didn't hurt to uh to boost his his popularity on TV.

SPEAKER_13 52:42

It's pretty funny. I was I was watching the trailer for this, and I thought maybe it would be basically dialogue, typically dialogue, of you know, give you some idea of the theme of the movie. And you don't I didn't see anything really with Janet Lee and Dick Van Dyke, maybe a few quick scenes. What they did show you was nearly an entire song. Because of course we're gonna hear some audio from some of these movies in a minute. And uh there was nothing about Janet Lee and Dick Van Dyke to speak of maybe a few scenes, right? Weird, that's odd. Basically, of a 60, yeah, some of these some of these commercials went on for like two minutes. What do you get? You get a scene with Anne Margaret singing the theme song to Bye bye Birdie. And first you're like, well, this may be the silliest thing I've ever seen, because she's kind of like a little out there, and then you realize it's Anne Margaret, man. Shut up.

SPEAKER_19 53:46

Who cares? Who cares? It's Anne Margaret.

SPEAKER_13 53:49

Oh man, you know, Anne Margaret, her little you know, doing bye-bye birdie. I can't even describe it. Wow. Look up the trailer, bye-bye Bertie.

SPEAKER_19 53:58

Gotta wonder, gotta wonder what the what the what the philosophy was there. Uh, you go to the movie theater watching the trailer, going, oh, Anne Margaret's in this. And it's Janet Lee and Dick Van Dyke. Okay.

SPEAKER_13 54:09

And they never even, you know, it's funny. Don't don't forget to, you know, don't promote the stars. Let's let's see uh Anne Margaret. All right.

SPEAKER_19 54:18

We all want to look at Anne Margaret, of course.

SPEAKER_13 54:20

Yeah, that went on for quite a while. And anyways, what oh yeah. The day of the triffids. Oh boy.

SPEAKER_19 54:28

April April of uh 1963. This is a movie?

SPEAKER_13 54:32

It's a sci-fi movie about hungry plants that eat people.

SPEAKER_19 54:37

So okay. From out from outer space. I see. Um so plants that eat people. Uh-huh. Um I mean, I guess the the the timing of the launch of the movie in April of tw of uh 63 was probably appropriate because, well, it's springtime and everybody's back in the back in the yard and growing things again, I I I guess. And okay. It's look out though. Uh look those hungry plants.

SPEAKER_13 55:14

Sure, we'll go with that. We'll go with that.

SPEAKER_19 55:16

That works.

SPEAKER_20 55:17

Of course it will.

SPEAKER_13 55:18

I mean, I know it sounds ridiculous. It it really wasn't as bad as I'm making it sound out to be. It's it's it's a but it's a pedestrian sci-fi movie. It's just the concept, if you look at it too carefully, you're going, well, this is kind of ridiculous.

SPEAKER_19 55:32

Um many years later, Frank Zappa did a rap with his audience, a live audience, about it was the song called Cheapness. And he talks about the the sci-fi movies of the 50s and early 60s, where you know you could tell like the the the props were really, really crappy. And you could see like the the monster uh would be attached to a board and you'd see the board behind the monster moving back and forth and and how how cheap that was. But he's like, I love cheap movies. I love those those old monster movies. And I bet you he was referring to the day of the triffids as as an example.

SPEAKER_13 56:07

Yeah, we'll be talking about another ridiculous movie uh uh later on. Not this year, though. Okay, so here's a couple of trailers from April 1963. Uh let's start with It Happened at the World's Fair in Elvis. Oh, thank you very much.

SPEAKER_08 56:24

Here against the fabulous panorama of one of the most glamorous and exciting events of recent times is everything that has made Elvis Presley one of the greatest entertainment stars in the world.

SPEAKER_02 56:34

His song relaxed.

SPEAKER_08 56:38

Kick us relax his romantic elbows, and this guy's weakly ever touched the ground. Yes, the space table rock and the mother rail rolls in a live rocket with explosive meriting and of gorgeous girls, just one day of the preface, when the earth orbits into a nightmare, when the solid world of everyday reality disintegrates, and the whole population is driven by fear towards insanity.

SPEAKER_25 57:43

The day of the preface, when destruction closes in from every side.

SPEAKER_22 57:57

Doesn't seem to have any central nervous system. All plans move. They don't usually pull themselves out of the button to kiss you.

SPEAKER_25 58:13

The day of the preference when the overwhelmed in an avalanche of terror.

SPEAKER_13 58:37

The rest of us watching on the boobtube. What were you watching in April 1963? If you were born then, you probably weren't watching much, but you may have caught this stuff later on. Yeah. So oh yeah, here we go. I want to talk about this for a minute. The long-running American TV soap opera, General Hospital, made its debut on the ABC Network. The same afternoon, the first episode of NBC's Hospital Soap Opera, the doctors also premiered.

SPEAKER_19 59:10

At the same time. Wow. Interesting.

SPEAKER_13 59:13

I'm going to wax nostalgic about General Hospital because I watch it every single freaking day.

SPEAKER_19 59:24

Do you really?

SPEAKER_13 59:26

Yep.

SPEAKER_19 59:27

No kidding.

SPEAKER_13 59:28

Every single day.

SPEAKER_19 59:30

And this is currently a contemporary.

SPEAKER_13 59:33

Yes. I mean, I'm really worried about what's going to happen to Sonny. And uh, you know, I'm really concerned. Let me give you some context here. I'm just not some wackadoo who decides he likes to watch General Hospital. I have a history of watching General Hospital. When I was production director on television back in the 80s, the early 80s. It was an ABC affiliate. And that was the big Luke and Lure era, you know.

SPEAKER_20 1:00:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_13 1:00:06

The big deal. Well, so to speak. You know, you put it in context, okay? Most of you didn't give a damn, but there'd be like four or five of us in the in the what we call the control room, or it's the master control where you do all the operations for the uh studio work and everything, you know, tape taping and all that. It's the it's the control room. And we're in there watching because everybody could come in out of the control room because they always had some business to do in there. So there'd be four or five of us guys in there watching this silly show every single day.

SPEAKER_19 1:00:41

You know, General Hospital.

SPEAKER_13 1:00:45

Off and on, I have continued to watch the show since the 80s. I kind of missed it for a few years, and in the 90s I got back into it again.

SPEAKER_19 1:00:54

Huh. Wow. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_13 1:00:57

Was was that the uh I I I just listen, this is important, man.

SPEAKER_19 1:01:03

Okay. I just can't cope without my soap. You can't cope without the soap. Wow. Wow.

SPEAKER_11 1:01:11

I guess some tell them about some more shows.

SPEAKER_19 1:01:16

What else was what else were we watching later in the day, maybe, uh, when it comes to uh television?

SPEAKER_13 1:01:24

Well, bonanza, oh Beverly Hillbillies, Andy Griffith. He'd been around for quite a while at this point. Previously, Perry Mason, Dr. Gil Kildare, Dr.

SPEAKER_19 1:01:37

Kildare, Dr.

SPEAKER_13 1:01:38

Kildare, and the Jack Venny show.

SPEAKER_19 1:01:42

Those those are all very familiar. All very familiar. I kind of wonder though, and we might have discussed this briefly, but the Beverly Hillbillies, who in the world thought of that? Who thought that was gonna be popular? And I mean it was. But who who thought of it? It just it it cracks me up because you know what it was?

SPEAKER_13 1:02:05

It's uh psychologically they are now.

SPEAKER_19 1:02:08

I know how inappropriate they are. Right, right, right, exactly. But to say we're gonna take the old school American thought of uh agrarian society where most everybody kind of lives off the land, and you know, it's a it's a it's a kind of a pioneering spirit, and then thrust them into modern day uh, you know, uh city life, urban situation with lots and lots and lots of money, uh, and how they react, you know, how those two worlds are completely, completely different. And yet we as as viewers thought of that as, oh, of course. What a what a what a yeah, right. There you go. Um and of course they they didn't they never took off their the the clothing really that uh that they had uh been accustomed to wearing. You know, Jed Clamp had always had that dusty old hat and it's kind of that uh frock coat that he wore that was just seemed like we kind of always wanted LA May to take off some clothes. Well, of course, L.A. May, yeah.

SPEAKER_13 1:03:10

Well did I just say that on the did I just say that?

SPEAKER_19 1:03:12

Yeah, you just said that again. Again. Never mind your your obsession with Patty Duke. Um, you know, that's that's beside the point. But no, it just seems like you know, society was in it in that moment where we're leaving behind the past of being pioneers and and people who worked and lived worked and lived off the land, and then suddenly, boom, movies, movies, movie stars, and and and fancy cars. You know, well, look at that. That was kind of an interesting clash.

SPEAKER_13 1:03:44

Well, we also had some shows leading after many years. Uh huh. Hawaiian Eye was like uh vaguely remember that. It was it was it was a fairly good hit. Uh don't think I watched it a lot myself.

SPEAKER_19 1:03:59

Car 54, where are you? Oh, I love that show. Car 54. That was so good. By the way, here's a really interesting, qu a really interesting tidbit about the casting. Al Burns and Fred Gwynn played the two cops that rode around in Car 54. Guess where they ended up later? What what TV show do they end up later uh also playing opposite one another?

SPEAKER_13 1:04:26

Was it the Munsters?

SPEAKER_19 1:04:27

It was the Munsters. So, you know, Grandpa and and uh of course uh Herman Munster, you know, they they were again on screen, on screen together again. They were kind of like, you know, the old va old vaudevillian style comedians, you know, uh captured their their their chemistry, their magic on Car 54 first, and then carried that over to the Monsters. What a what an odd stretch. And it was it was in with let's say, I think it was maybe three years that they uh they moved off to the monsters. But I really like Car 54. I thought that was that was great stuff.

SPEAKER_13 1:05:05

Yeah, that was that was that was pretty cute. Yeah. And it was the final uh season of The Rifleman, which ended, I think it's probably my as I mentioned, also mentioned you earlier. Oh yeah, Chuck Connors. My my favorite Western of all time on television.

SPEAKER_19 1:05:17

Chuck Connors. And by the way, I looked up uh we talked about this last episode, the fact that Chuck Connors was also on something called Branded.

SPEAKER_10 1:05:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 1:05:26

Which which is actually uh, as I had mentioned, he had been disgraced, he had been actually framed uh uh as a as a soldier uh in a fort in uh in you know the middle of the the the the American West during the American Indian Wars. And uh so he had to go out and prove his innocence and uh they spent the entire series trying to find the person who framed him, but uh Chuck Connors.

SPEAKER_13 1:05:51

Remember the name of the show? I never I never watched that one.

SPEAKER_19 1:05:53

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_13 1:05:54

Well, here's some audio from those April 1963 TV shows you watched later in the syndication. If you were actually born April nineteen sixty-three, hey, it's hard to move here.

SPEAKER_24 1:06:19

General Hospital.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:25

And here come Beverly Hills.

SPEAKER_13 1:07:28

Okay, Tom, I thought I'd sneak in some words about uh topical musicals in April of 1963.

SPEAKER_19 1:07:36

This was actually a pretty good year for that. There was uh there's quite a few of them.

SPEAKER_13 1:07:40

Yeah. Um why don't you lead off?

SPEAKER_19 1:07:45

Okay.

unknown 1:07:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 1:07:47

Welcome back, and yes. It it's so great to reminisce about those old TV shows. But you know, uh in uh April of 63, if you're of of the boom generation, you may be aware that there's a lot of really top top-notch musicals happening in the time. Uh in fact, uh opening uh April 19th of 63 at the Majestic Theater was something called Hotspot with Judy Holliday, and it ran for 43 performances. Uh really great example. And also, and also uh something called Sophie uh it uh opened on April 15th uh at the Winter Garden Theater. Uh that was more short-lived, but um it was based on the life of Sophie Tucker, if you know the name.

SPEAKER_13 1:08:33

And here's what I remember actually with the Boys from Syracuse. I don't know why I remember this one. Yeah. It was a revival, it opened April 15th and 63, off Broadway, by the way. A highly successful revival of the Rogers and Hart musical.

SPEAKER_19 1:08:49

Got it. Yeah. It's funny how The Boys from Syracuse. Um, I know I've heard that title many times before, but I don't think I've ever seen the actual uh this the play or or uh you know the any of the any of the the clips from that necessarily. So very cool.

SPEAKER_13 1:09:05

And look what happened on that month. Speaking of musicals in Broadway, the Tony Awards occurred in April 63. With a funny way happened on the way to the forum, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf dominating the 17th annual Tony Awards?

SPEAKER_19 1:09:23

Yeah, well, a funny thing happened on the way to the forum. That's that's classic, you know. And and of course, uh the Virginia Wolf piece that uh that production, wow. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_13 1:09:33

You can see why they both ended up as movies, of course.

SPEAKER_19 1:09:36

Yeah, of course, yeah. Uh it's funny how many times this has happened in the past. Uh I think things like uh Pygmalion, uh My Fair Lady, uh was turned into a movie. Um you know, Mary Poppins. I'm all kinds of stuff that uh that came off the uh the stage and uh into into movie theaters.

SPEAKER_13 1:10:01

Well, that's certainly they certainly deserve a mention. I think you'll have to make sure I include the musical news.

SPEAKER_19 1:10:07

And I think we've we've also mentioned that musicals were also big selling when it comes to music. You know, there there was a lot of uh soundtracks from these these uh productions. Yep. Yep.

SPEAKER_13 1:10:18

Huge in the 60s, yeah. Well, we got some music coming from April 63 here.

SPEAKER_20 1:10:25

Ooh.

SPEAKER_13 1:10:26

Music news. The Kingsmen back in April 1963 recorded their provocative version of Louie Louis in Portland, Oregon. It was released in June of 63. It would become a smash hit and be investigated by the FBI for lewd lyrics.

SPEAKER_19 1:10:46

What now? Here's a quick uh question about that because I know it's difficult to understand what they're saying half the time. You know, it reminds me of, I think we've mentioned this before, it kind of reminds me of just a frat party with a bunch of grunt drunk people, you know, saying silly things or making up their own ill their own lyrics. But they were they the first ever to be investigated by the FBI for lewd lyrics?

SPEAKER_13 1:11:09

Uh probably not. They were the they were the first to be it was I mean, it was just so notorious. Yeah. To this day, people think it's a it's a filthy song, and maybe it is. Yeah. I mean, I think I've I think I've I think I've been told what the lyrics are. I'm not gonna go, I'm not gonna go there. Okay, but uh yeah, they uh it was a huge hit. It was like hit number two on the uh Billboard Shorts, and it was number number two for like six weeks.

SPEAKER_19 1:11:41

We can dance to it, yeah.

SPEAKER_13 1:11:44

The first garage garage band hit.

SPEAKER_19 1:11:47

Garage band, yes, that's exactly right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We talked about the trashman and and uh uh the bird, you know. Uh yeah, yeah. It's uh well anyway. Uh something else that happened in the the same uh period uh time, uh John Lennon and his wife, then uh of course, uh had their first child.

SPEAKER_13 1:12:11

Yeah, Cynthia Powell was his wife.

SPEAKER_19 1:12:13

Yep. So Cynthia and John uh uh welcomed Julian into the world. And uh, of course, he's uh uh quite a talented individual on his own. Uh being the son of a of a legend, that's gotta be difficult. That's gotta be very, very hard.

SPEAKER_13 1:12:30

You don't even try to match the uh parental unit, you know.

SPEAKER_19 1:12:34

Yep. And so he's he's come into his own. I think uh Valach was his first uh solo record. Uh Julian turned out that record after his dad's death, of course. But uh a lot of people said, Oh my goodness, listen to that. He sounds just like his dad. It really was very odd to hear uh his uh first couple of songs off of that that record. And and uh Julian Lennon was really kind of, you know, he was uh can you imagine being raised by the entire band because they were all his uncles, you know. Um he was there being being among all those famous people, and yet uh, you know, uh how do you find your own own identity?

unknown 1:13:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_13 1:13:17

John uh when John and Cynthia uh divorced, um Paul was like Julian's surrogate dad in many ways. They were very close.

SPEAKER_20 1:13:30

Right.

SPEAKER_13 1:13:31

And he wrote Hey Jude for Julian. Originally it was called Hey Jewels.

SPEAKER_19 1:13:38

Mm-hmm. And uh and it was uh I think it was John that suggested that uh Paul make a change and call it Hey Jude, I believe, if I'm not mistaken. But yeah, man.

SPEAKER_13 1:13:48

There's actually a line in the song that Paul thought was a little odd. You know, take take the take your take your move, take the take that move and put it on your shoulder, which doesn't really make any sense, but it's just a nice uh lyric. Yeah. John loved it because it was kind of off-kilter.

SPEAKER_19 1:14:09

Yes.

SPEAKER_13 1:14:10

He goes, No, leave it in there, it's great. It makes it better, it makes a whole song.

SPEAKER_19 1:14:13

What a what a uh a legacy this youngster was born into in '63. You know, it's um, you know, if you had to choose to be born to parents, you you could choose your own parents. Which which set of parents would you choose to be born to?

SPEAKER_13 1:14:31

Spring that on me, huh?

SPEAKER_19 1:14:36

And it could be it could be a fictional couple too. It doesn't have to be uh, you know, a real a real life uh uh pairing, but it could be a fictional couple too.

SPEAKER_13 1:14:48

I I can't think of anybody.

SPEAKER_19 1:14:50

Wow. Well how about you? Oh, I I think I'd like to be uh uh born to uh let's see, uh Samantha and Darren uh from uh Bewitched.

SPEAKER_13 1:15:03

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_19 1:15:04

I think that would be kind of cool. Um and uh, you know, of course, uh Bewitched and of course the uh Elizabeth Montgomery played the the lead character. She was uh rather rather good looking for a mom, don't you think?

SPEAKER_13 1:15:17

Yeah, I I don't I think I have a problem with that. I think I think I would be a little bit mom a little bit too much.

SPEAKER_19 1:15:26

Yeah. Well, anyway, so it with the what was happening when it came to the charts. I mean, there must have been some some great records back in the day.

SPEAKER_13 1:15:35

Yeah, it was pretty interesting, that's for sure. Uh you want to do like number 10 up?

SPEAKER_19 1:15:43

Yeah, that's the beginning of number 10. Yeah.

SPEAKER_13 1:15:46

Was one of those obscure surf bands that played instrumentals.

SPEAKER_19 1:15:53

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_13 1:15:54

It was called the Shantays, and the song was called Pipeline.

SPEAKER_19 1:15:57

Yeah, it's a it's a recognizable instrumental piece. Yeah, um, and uh I'm sure it's been used in a few a few movies all along the way.

SPEAKER_13 1:16:08

Uh Teen Harthrop's Paul and Paula uh of course had that one big hit, hey Paul.

SPEAKER_19 1:16:14

Right Paula Hey Paula, yes.

SPEAKER_13 1:16:16

This was one that snuck into the top 10 in 63 of April, and it was called Young Lovers, and I even I don't remember this song. Yeah. It's very very obscure. Yeah. I have a theory about Aldi's. Um we think we remember them because we probably remember them from when they actually were hits. Yes. At that time period. I don't subscribe to that. I think we remember them because of the repetition on Aldi stations over the decades. And oldies stations never played this song.

SPEAKER_19 1:16:52

Yeah, I don't I've never heard it. I worked in an Oldi station, by the way, for many years and never played this. Never played this record.

SPEAKER_13 1:16:59

Well, you might recognize it, but it's it's pretty innocuous. Yeah. Um a distinct, a very distinctive song in the one-hit wonder. The band was called Ruby and the Romantics. They were uh an RB, a black RB group. A lot of jazz influences going on there, and the song is Our Day Will Come.

SPEAKER_19 1:17:18

Now that one, that one I know very, very well because it's one of my favorite songs of the era. Yeah, I love that song. And it's played it a lot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's got a great, great beat to it, too. Really like it.

SPEAKER_13 1:17:32

Yeah. It was later it was covered later on by uh Frankie Valley in the 70s. So number seven, Peter Paul and Mary. Yes, even the folk trends of the times up into the top ten with this massive hit and somewhat controversial.

SPEAKER_20 1:17:51

Yes.

SPEAKER_13 1:17:51

Because they weren't sure what they were talking about, whether it was an allegory or something, magic dragon.

SPEAKER_19 1:17:58

This is uh this is one of my favorite topics because of the fact that uh yes, uh there was uh, shall we say, uh metaphors, uh things that that were tossed into into lyrics of songs where they could kind of get away with it without people being investigated by the FBI for lewd lewd lyrics. Uh but puff the magic dragon uh and use your imagination here uh with that one. But you know, as a kid uh at the age of five, heard it, loved it, and uh it was it was actually considered you know something for that age group that kids of of that that era would love the song, and they did. You know, we we uh we uh sang it a lot in class.

SPEAKER_13 1:18:41

It has a lot, it has a lot in common with a nursery rhyme, perhaps.

SPEAKER_19 1:18:46

It does, it does indeed.

SPEAKER_13 1:18:47

A motif.

SPEAKER_20 1:18:48

Yep.

SPEAKER_13 1:18:50

Number six, uh, this was a country crossover, Skeeter Davis. She actually had another top ten hit, which no one's ever heard of, one of those songs that it uh is not remembered, including by me. This is the end of the world. This was a big, big song.

SPEAKER_19 1:19:07

The end of the world. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_13 1:19:10

Nice little ballad, innocuous little ballad. Number five, the Orlons, another uh up temple group that was uh a very danceable song, and a lot of songs like this in the in the uh 60 to 63 period. This was South Street, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_19 1:19:28

No, I and I do remember that as well. In fact, the name of the band escapes me, but I always remember South Street for sure.

SPEAKER_13 1:19:35

Yeah, yeah. Number four was Little Peggy March, and I will follow him.

SPEAKER_19 1:19:41

Do you remember our discussion last time, by the way? When we talked about um the song that uh Leslie Gore had turned out You Don't Own Me. This is the polar opposite.

SPEAKER_13 1:19:53

This is the antithesis, okay. Yeah, I was gonna mention this. This is the kind of song that female artists would sing, and there were a million of them. All the girl groups just they just adored, adored their boyfriend. I'll go anywhere he goes. Yes. And I'm like, wow. Really? Then along then along comes Leslie Gordon and says, No, you don't own me.

SPEAKER_19 1:20:20

Yeah, you don't own me. You don't own me.

SPEAKER_13 1:20:22

This is a pre pre uh female lib, okay?

SPEAKER_19 1:20:26

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_13 1:20:27

Big time. But fortunately, things changed.

SPEAKER_19 1:20:33

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, and uh on came the 70s, and everything changed.

SPEAKER_13 1:20:39

Number three, we got Jackson, Jackie Wilson, and he was a great RB artist. Oh fantastic.

SPEAKER_19 1:20:46

Fantastic voice. Uh he and Sam Cook to me are the two greatest vocalists of that era.

SPEAKER_13 1:20:52

Yeah, well, they were. Yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_19 1:20:53

You know?

SPEAKER_13 1:20:54

Yeah. Um the song is called Baby Workout. It's a I think it's a basically a familiar song. It's not it's not one of his most familiar. It was a big hit, though.

SPEAKER_20 1:21:06

Yep.

SPEAKER_13 1:21:07

But uh big dance number. Uh Jackie Wilson died, I believe it was I'm not sure what the year was.

SPEAKER_19 1:21:18

Way too early. Way too early.

SPEAKER_13 1:21:20

He was on stage performing. And this is a true story. On stage performing uh your love is lifting me higher and higher from 2067. He was doing that hit, and he had a heart attack. Oh and then there's a scene, and there's a lyric in the song where he says, My heart is crying, crying, and at that point he had the heart attack and was clutching his chest and going into kind of histrionics, staggering around. But he would do that, his emphasis, because he was a he was a song and dance man. He would do a lot of a lot of moving around, a lot of dancing. And he had he had a heart attack, he ended up with a stroke.

SPEAKER_19 1:22:09

Isn't that that's so ironic. My goodness. Wow. And uh another one of those, those, um, another one of those potential episodes we could do for the future uh of Boom uh when it comes to uh what happened to some of our our favorite artists and how did they how do they leave us in in unique ways? And there's a lot of stories like that for sure.

SPEAKER_13 1:22:32

Number two is Andy Williams, the middle of the road guy. Very, very, very popular.

SPEAKER_19 1:22:39

Yep.

SPEAKER_13 1:22:39

Very popular.

SPEAKER_19 1:22:40

But say what you will, you know, but I Andy was good, but it was of a different era, really.

SPEAKER_13 1:22:47

You know the song he had out there was called Can't Get Used to Losing You.

SPEAKER_19 1:22:51

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_13 1:22:51

And actually, this is one of my favorite. I don't have a lot of favorites with and with Andy Williams, but this is one of my favorites.

SPEAKER_19 1:22:58

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_13 1:22:59

The other one would be the other one be Canadian Sunset. Oddly enough, I don't know why.

SPEAKER_19 1:23:03

Yeah, no, he's a crooner.

SPEAKER_13 1:23:04

I mean he I actually have a yeah, this will this is what an aging, aging baby boomer does, kids. Don't try this at home. I have a uh I have a uh a playlist of what I call middle of the road songs from the 1960s. Okay, this is stuff you would never hear anywhere else. You don't hear it anywhere else, but just songs like this that I like.

SPEAKER_19 1:23:34

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_13 1:23:35

And yeah.

SPEAKER_19 1:23:36

Yeah, that I mean that they certainly have a memorable uh uh shall we say structure as far as the music is concerned. But you think about, you know, within a year, along come the Beatles, and Andy Williams is kind of that that that discount bin, man. Sorry.

SPEAKER_13 1:23:54

Yeah, he was pretty much delegated the television uh show at that point. A lot of variety shows, a lot of variety show activity with him then.

SPEAKER_20 1:24:03

Sure.

SPEAKER_13 1:24:03

Number number one, number one was uh one of those girl groups, uh yes Bonds. And once again, that boy is so fine, he's so fine. I want to make him mine.

SPEAKER_19 1:24:18

And uh, you know, if we if we want to carry this forward, it was such a a popular song, not just for Americans, but also people in Great Britain. Uh George Harrison eventually took the the same sound, that song, and turned it into My Sweet Lord, and was sued for plagiarizing.

SPEAKER_13 1:24:37

Yeah, he he actually tried writing songs for the Beatles a long time before he wrote his first one, and they always laughed at him because, well, that sounds like this song.

SPEAKER_19 1:24:47

Right, right, right. Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_13 1:24:49

But eventually he he became a superstar in his own right.

SPEAKER_19 1:24:53

Of course. And and to take nothing away from George, I mean, a fantastic performer, and of course, a really great lyricist. But uh yeah, he borrowed that tune almost lock stock and barrel. So he's so fine, my sweet lord. Exactly. And I guess I guess it's true. Yeah.

SPEAKER_13 1:25:14

So you go for the pop hits, which are pretty much uh happening songs here, you know. And the albums, well, we're gonna kind of we're gonna kind of blow through this because it's it's for the boom generation, this is this is different. Pretty freaking sad.

SPEAKER_19 1:25:30

Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_13 1:25:32

We we were not into a lot of this stuff at that point in time. We yeah, we were into rock and roll. So I'm not denigrating this stuff, it's fine for what it is.

SPEAKER_19 1:25:42

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's more more, like you say, what we call MOR, middle of the road.

SPEAKER_13 1:25:48

But there were some hits. Four seasons had number 10 with this album called Big Girls Don't Cry and 12 Others.

SPEAKER_20 1:25:55

Oh, 12.

SPEAKER_13 1:25:56

Yeah. Yeah. Number nine was a guy named, this is actually a comedian, Vaughn Meescher. The First Family. I remember the title. The first LBJ and First Family Family.

SPEAKER_19 1:26:12

That's right. I remember that actually. The First Family. Yeah.

SPEAKER_13 1:26:16

I think it was no, that would have been no. I want to say it wasn't. I'm thinking of another album. I apologize.

SPEAKER_19 1:26:25

Yes, no, this is more about the Kennedy family. Yeah, yeah, the Kennedy family. Yeah.

SPEAKER_13 1:26:30

Yeah, he they would go on and make uh uh other comedy albums about you know uh number eight, you had the Kingston Trio. Of course, big folk group couldn't do anything wrong. Sold a lot of, especially on college campuses as they were.

SPEAKER_19 1:26:50

Oh, big time, big time. Yeah, yeah, it was the remember the hoot and annies? Yeah, yeah, they had the oh, there's always hoot and nannies, and they were holding these all over the country. And and of course, back in in uh those days in in uh New York City and the village, all these future superstars are cutting their teeth on on folk, folk music in the in the clubs there, including, you know, none the none none other than Bob Dylan and Phil Oakes and uh some of these others that that emerged from that era. Wow, just astounding.

SPEAKER_13 1:27:21

Yeah. Number seven was Tony Bennett's album containing the hit I Left My Heart in San Francisco.

SPEAKER_19 1:27:29

Yes. Mm-hmm. Well, you still hear the parodies of that every once in a while. Every so often.

SPEAKER_13 1:27:39

Yeah. Yeah. But it's a classic, classic song. Oh yeah. I remember kids, these these albums came out a full year before the British invasion. So this this is mom and dad's stuff.

SPEAKER_20 1:27:52

Oh yes.

SPEAKER_13 1:27:53

Yeah. Number six, Peter Paul and Mary, the Peter Paul and Mary album.

SPEAKER_19 1:27:58

The eponymous album.

SPEAKER_13 1:28:00

Yeah, which uh by the way is I think it also contained Puff the Magic Dragon.

SPEAKER_20 1:28:05

Oh yeah. Yeah yeah yeah.

SPEAKER_13 1:28:06

Yeah. Number five, not not only did he star in Dr. Kildare he sang too.

SPEAKER_19 1:28:14

Richard Chamberlain.

SPEAKER_13 1:28:16

Richard Chamberlain Sings.

SPEAKER_19 1:28:19

Wow. Multi-talented individual. He did some um some other things later on in his career. What was it called? The Thornbirds? That was another series he did.

SPEAKER_13 1:28:30

Yeah, it was um mini-series, right?

SPEAKER_19 1:28:32

Yep, mini-series, the thorn birds. Huge. Yep, very talented guy.

SPEAKER_13 1:28:36

Yeah, that was his resurgence. I mean, that was years after he just came out of nowhere and it was very considered a classic. Uh number four, a another song from Pete, another album from Peter Paul and I recalled Moving. They had a they had a great year in 63. That was probably, yeah, I'd have to say it was their peak year. Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 1:28:58

But they were they were again um one of those bands that were thrown together as a as a as a concept.

SPEAKER_13 1:29:04

Yeah, let's make our own.

SPEAKER_19 1:29:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_13 1:29:06

We're gonna you think you like Dylan? Well, you get a lot of these guys. We don't even know each other. We're gonna make them a hit. And they did.

SPEAKER_19 1:29:16

Indeed. They they blended beautifully, for sure.

SPEAKER_13 1:29:21

Uh number three, Andy Williams again. Moon River and other great movie themes.

SPEAKER_20 1:29:27

Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_13 1:29:28

Yeah, that was a trend of the times. It really was.

SPEAKER_20 1:29:31

It really was, yeah.

SPEAKER_13 1:29:32

A lot of movie themes by done by these these great uh croon. Used to call them crooners. Number two, original soundtrack, West Side Story, which is a classic.

SPEAKER_19 1:29:46

Can't forget that one, man. Wow. Mariah.

SPEAKER_13 1:29:49

I just met a girl named Maria.

SPEAKER_19 1:29:51

Great stuff, great stuff at the time, yeah.

SPEAKER_13 1:29:55

And do you remember Frank Fontaine?

SPEAKER_19 1:29:57

I know the name. I know the name. I don't know necessarily what what uh what he achieved.

SPEAKER_13 1:30:02

Well, he was a double he he was a double threat because first of all, on the Jackie Glease show, he played kind of a goofy guy named uh Frank Fontaine was uh crazy crazy Guggenheimer Guggenheimer, Crazy Guggenheimer, he was crazy Guggenheimer?

SPEAKER_19 1:30:20

I didn't know that. Yeah, wow.

SPEAKER_13 1:30:22

Then at the end of the show, Jackie would come out and introduce him, and he would do this incredible standard, you know. This is a great vocalist.

SPEAKER_19 1:30:34

Wow, go figure.

SPEAKER_13 1:30:36

I do vaguely remember that on the Jackie Gleason show, huh?

SPEAKER_19 1:30:40

Frank Fontaine, Crazy Guggenheimer. I know his character was really out there, man. Um, and as a kid, I uh laughed hysterically at Crazy Guggenheimer. Yeah, wow, huh? Had no idea.

SPEAKER_13 1:30:53

And who knows what happened to him.

SPEAKER_19 1:30:55

So yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_13 1:30:56

Well, listen, we have a medley of the top singles from 1963, and we're gonna listen to that right now.

SPEAKER_19 1:32:20

I really enjoy hearing them. I'd love to hear the entire thing, but well, time is kind of a restriction, but also yeah, eight seconds or less is all we're allowed to play.

SPEAKER_13 1:32:32

It's challenging, but it's worthwhile.

SPEAKER_19 1:32:35

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_13 1:32:35

Maybe someday we'll because I can offer you the best part of the song.

SPEAKER_19 1:32:42

Yeah, and you're good at that, by the way. I should mention that uh uh that that that uh Chip is actually our our producer. He produces many of the sounds you hear during this podcast called Boom. And uh we we appreciate your your efforts. I know it takes a long time to uh to put these things together, but it seems like a labor of love for you.

SPEAKER_13 1:33:06

Thank you very much for bringing the idea to me, saying, hey, let's talk about our generation.

SPEAKER_19 1:33:12

Yeah, this generation that we are. Yeah, and we need to talk about this because well, who knows how much longer we're gonna be around. So this is essential. Um, so wow, yeah, we're talking about April of 63. Uh, this is the part of the boom generation, of course. Uh the latter parts thereof, but it's still part of the boom generation. And and here we are celebrating April of 63. So, what were we reading back in those days, by the way?

SPEAKER_13 1:33:40

Well, um in the fiction category, on Her Majesty's Secret Service by Ian Flying. Ah, yes. And you're going, I know that title. Yeah. That's what the movie was based on. It was one of the first James Bond books.

SPEAKER_19 1:34:01

Yes.

SPEAKER_13 1:34:06

Whenever I see this, and we've mentioned it a couple of times. I think we mentioned Dr. No previously being a published book. I remember somebody let me borrow, or they had a collection of the James Bond books. It was very thick.

SPEAKER_20 1:34:21

Yes.

SPEAKER_13 1:34:22

Um I read Prometheus with Love. And it was one of the I read, I believe, maybe it may have been Dr. No. And it was really nothing, not much like the movie, but it was great stuff. And I wish I had read more of them. Because there were like 13 of them.

SPEAKER_20 1:34:44

Ah.

SPEAKER_13 1:34:45

You know, but yeah, this was one of the big ones.

SPEAKER_19 1:34:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_13 1:34:49

The movie colours came out in 1969.

SPEAKER_19 1:34:51

And this really, when you think about it, launched into the era of the spy thriller. So spy thrillers popping up on in the movie theater and then suddenly on television. Um I I you know, I think one of the greatest uh uh approaches to this genre, you know, of course, somebody always has to look at it with a sense of humor. And I think get smart was to me in the in the 60s, one of the one of the best conceived of uh uh comedies, sitcom comedies with uh Don Adams as uh as uh well uh what was his his his uh Maxwell Smart Maxwell Smart, exactly. And uh his his uh Agent 99 companion. And and man, that was the funniest show on TV at one point. And and it was all based upon making spoofing James Bond and the spy thing, you know, which was which is just great.

SPEAKER_13 1:35:48

And yeah, the shoes of the fisherman by Morris West. That one I don't remember. Well, I was only I was only 12, so right.

SPEAKER_19 1:35:55

Shoes of the fishermen, yeah.

SPEAKER_13 1:35:58

Um we've all heard of JD Salinger's Catcher on the Rise.

SPEAKER_20 1:36:03

Of course.

SPEAKER_13 1:36:04

Okay. He actually had other best sellers. One was called Raise High the Roof Beam Carpenters. I had no idea what that was about. Um I'm intrigued, I didn't even know we had any other any other big big uh sellers. Big uh books.

SPEAKER_19 1:36:22

When you've got Catcher and the Rye in your list, uh it's probably gonna kind of crush anything else that ever comes along by you as an author, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_13 1:36:34

Uh children's books we have Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss. Uh that was actually published in 1963 in uh periodicals.

SPEAKER_19 1:36:44

Interesting.

SPEAKER_13 1:36:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 1:36:47

Something else I remember now that we mentioned this uh Dr. Seuss uh series. There was uh books by Dr. Seuss at our doctor's office.

SPEAKER_20 1:36:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 1:36:58

And uh, you know, again, you know, sitting down and you know, reading uh Cat in a Hat and uh uh Sam I Am and all these others, you know, that that was uh very common uh to go to the doctor's office and have those there to to read.

SPEAKER_13 1:37:14

Yeah, I think Dr. Seuss was a really uh influence on me.

SPEAKER_19 1:37:18

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_13 1:37:20

You know, a child's twisted version of life.

SPEAKER_19 1:37:24

And uh the illustrations were uh phenomenal, but just really, really well done.

SPEAKER_13 1:37:29

Yeah, great wonderful stuff. Yeah. Uh some nonfiction titles, Fire Next Time by James Baldwin. It was a major work addressing the race alert relations in America, and it's often associated with the early civil rights movement.

SPEAKER_19 1:37:46

Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is this was this was a hot time, uh, especially with uh with Dr. Martin Luther King and and others that were uh doing a lot of work, very hard work, to uh push forward civil rights.

SPEAKER_13 1:38:00

We weren't talking about civil rights, we were talking about the Holocaust, which was the subject of a book, Bikemen in Jerusalem, a report on the banality of evil by Hannah Arendt. A an influential and debated study on the nature of evil and the Holocaust.

SPEAKER_20 1:38:20

Got it. Yeah, good stuff.

SPEAKER_13 1:38:23

The feminine mystique by Betty Friedman, released in early 1963, it is credited with sparking I don't know why they refer to it as second wave feminism. I'm not sure what the first wave would have been.

SPEAKER_19 1:38:38

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, uh suffrage, you know, the the the era of suffrage. Oh yeah, there yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, so that was uh early 1900s.

SPEAKER_13 1:38:47

We're talking dec decades later. Yeah. Um and finally, anti-intellectualism in America Life by Richard Hofstadter, a Pulitzer Prize-winning examination of American culture.

SPEAKER_19 1:39:03

Boy, that's a that's a that's significant. And we're still suffering from such a thing these days. Uh, you know, uh, and it's pertinent to our to our times, no question about that. Wow. So what what uh what do we have in front of us now?

SPEAKER_13 1:39:20

What what's uh up next we got page three, we're getting into our time machine, and we're zooming ahead to the year you turned 18 if you were born in April 1963. April 1981.

SPEAKER_11 1:39:34

Ooh.

SPEAKER_13 1:39:35

Is what we call your boomer echo year. Let's say goodbye to April 63 with some more commercials from our featured boom year.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:44

Introducing the world, Ilius, and hamburger eating his wow! Hey, isn't watching TV bottom? First thing we gotta deliver the double hamburgers.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:06

You can't be on TV and watch it at the same time. Come on and meet the boys in the girl.

SPEAKER_05 1:40:12

I know we're gonna be playing because I like to do everything like to do. Everything with a full thing, you're gonna be able to do this.

SPEAKER_24 1:41:26

See your Firestone Man now. For safety's sake, get rid of winter, snow, and ice with your free plastic ice scraper. No obligation, it's free wherever you see the Firestone sign.

SPEAKER_13 1:41:36

Okay, if you were born April 1963, welcome to April 1981. Your boom echo year, as we call it, it's the year you turned 18.

SPEAKER_12 1:41:48

18.

SPEAKER_13 1:41:49

And guess what? You're gonna remember everything.

SPEAKER_19 1:41:54

Maybe. All right, possibly.

SPEAKER_13 1:41:57

Let's tackle some news items here, shall we, Tom? April 1981.

SPEAKER_19 1:42:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_13 1:42:02

What was the first thing we see?

SPEAKER_19 1:42:04

Oh my goodness, on the first of April, it was the Soviet Union yet again uh implementing daylight savings time for the first time since 1930, where the clocks are being set forward uh an hour at midnight uh when they uh converted to daylight savings time. So Soviet Union is getting on board, basically.

SPEAKER_13 1:42:23

Yeah. April 9th in San Francisco, Dr. John Gullett made the first confirmed diagnosis of AIDS, a sexually transmitted disease causing Kaposi's sarcoma, which of course is a form of skin cancer. Dr. Gullett reported his findings to the centers for disease control two weeks later.

SPEAKER_19 1:42:44

Yeah, and so and then later on in the 80s, uh, we became uh very aware of how this was affecting uh the general population and of course the gay community. So uh yeah, this was the very beginning of that.

SPEAKER_13 1:42:56

Um the true l live horror stories of the 70s.

SPEAKER_19 1:43:02

Yep, yep, 80s. 80s, yeah, the early 80s. Uh also April 9th of 1981, Fernando Valenzuela is a 20-year-old rookie for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He pitched a uh 2-0 win over the Houston Astros, the first of eight consecutive wins and one of five shutouts. Ah, that that ain't easy to do, that is for sure.

SPEAKER_13 1:43:25

You know, it's funny, you you forget all of these sports figures that figured so prominently in our in our history. Uh one after another, there's another one.

SPEAKER_19 1:43:35

Yep, yep, exactly right.

SPEAKER_13 1:43:38

Okay. April twelfth, the world's first reusable spacecraft, the space shuttle Columbia, was launched from Kennedy Space Center for the first time at 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, beginning the STS-1 mission.

SPEAKER_19 1:43:53

Well, the shuttle sys the shuttle uh uh project was really fascinating, I have to say. Uh, it really grabbed the imagination because we had been, you know, it had been several several years since we had uh you know landed on the moon, um, and nothing really happened other than there was a brief space station foray for for a period of time. But the the STS, the shuttle, that was huge because hey, we can actually look at this thing and say, this thing is meant to fly in space. You know, it it looks like a spaceship. And uh just a quick anecdote there. Uh in one of my college roommates was a Bachelor of Science Technology uh major. And uh I remember he made fun of me for becoming uh, you know, getting into the radio and television industry because he was so he was so lofty in his goals. And the first job that he got out of college, he graduated and was hired almost immediately for Rockwell International, uh helping to build the first space shuttle.

unknown 1:44:54

Wow.

SPEAKER_19 1:44:54

Yeah, this guy, we used to call him Mr. Spock, um but uh he uh was super, super smart. He was uh just a natural-born engineer, but I still to this day remember him saying to me, why are you bothering to get into radio? You know, in in in 30 years, they're gonna be, you know, using computers to make human voices anyway, so why would you bother doing that?

SPEAKER_13 1:45:19

So he actually said that.

SPEAKER_19 1:45:21

He did. He did. He actually did say that.

SPEAKER_13 1:45:24

How prophetic that was.

SPEAKER_19 1:45:25

I know. And uh that's how that's how uh forward-thinking he was as well. But yeah, he his first gig was working on the space shuttle. Um he came home on vacation. I was still in college at the time, he came back to uh to visit, and he brought with him several pieces of the space shuttle, the those new tiles they were experimenting with that you would, you know, they would line the whole exterior of the ship with these tiles, which were meant to absorb all the heat of uh of re-entry. And he gave me three of them, and I took them back to my dad because he was a physicist and a and a professor, and he nearly his jaw nearly hit the floor when I must have been seven to heaven.

SPEAKER_13 1:46:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 1:46:08

He just said, What? Where did you get these? And I said, Well, my roommate is working on the space shuttle. He goes, Do you mind if I borrow these? I said, Of course, go ahead. And uh he took them to to uh show his colleagues at uh at the college, and they did experiments with them to test how hot they could actually make it and actually still touch it. Um yeah, and uh, well, I never saw them again. So well, you know what?

SPEAKER_13 1:46:34

That's that's probably the coolest thing I've ever heard that a son doing for a father.

SPEAKER_19 1:46:40

He was he was uh he was rather happy about it.

SPEAKER_13 1:46:43

I mean, can you imagine how happy you made him?

SPEAKER_19 1:46:45

Yeah, he was he was uh pretty ecstatic at the time. And uh I I I'm pretty sure that they ended up in somewhere uh buried in the laboratory uh on the campus where he worked. But uh that's okay. I'm I'm happy with that, you know. Anyway, so it's April 12th.

SPEAKER_13 1:47:01

Also on April 12th.

SPEAKER_19 1:47:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_13 1:47:03

Yeah, we another another event occurred that day. We uh lost a uh major sports star, American heavyweight boxing champion. From 1937 to 1949, Joe Lewis died at the age of 66.

SPEAKER_19 1:47:17

Far too early, far too early. Um, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if Joe Lewis wasn't suffering from some of the things that we've discovered since about uh head trauma. So being uh impacted uh in in the head many times as a boxer, uh probably uh had something to do with this shorter lifespan. Um here's a here's a great one. Now, this one, I think to me, uh to this day, is one of those um, I don't know, uh you gotta be a fan of of vehicles, I guess. But this is uh April 27th of 1981. We were introduced to something called Bigfoot. And now we're not talking the mythical monster now. We're talking the a monster truck, which was created by uh Bob Chandler. Uh and he envisioned a vehicle with tires so large that it would crush anything in its path. So this this takes us back to, you know, even the WWF, you know, how how entertaining that was, but the monster truck. And to this day, they still have these big exhibition shows that travel around the country with monster trucks doing all kinds of bizarre, uh challenging things uh in an in a in arena settings.

SPEAKER_13 1:48:34

Decades later.

SPEAKER_19 1:48:35

Yeah, yeah, still going on, still going on.

SPEAKER_13 1:48:38

Oh, by the way, you may have noticed we jumped from April 12th to April 27th. It was a pretty slow uh there was really nothing of any kind of memorabilia going on between the 12th and the 27th. So you didn't lose your minds and have a blackout or something. We skipped a whole uh week or two, but no, it it was uh it's the best of the best of the month. So anyways, April 28th, for the first time, Israel intervened directly in the war between Syria and Lebanese Christians as a real Israeli jet shot down two Syrian helicopters, killing four crewmen.

SPEAKER_20 1:49:20

Wow.

SPEAKER_13 1:49:21

Well, she was why does it sound familiar?

SPEAKER_19 1:49:24

Yeah, right. Yeah, this is uh you know, especially now, it's uh you know, it uh kind of reminds us around comes around. This has been around for a while. This has been happening for some time. Um, April 30th of 1981, Anheuser Busch began uh test marketing for its low calorie beer, Bud Light. Um, I'd always thought about this as like at the time because I was kind of into beer in those days. Why would I drink this again? I'm sorry. You you want me to do what again? Um Um I was what uh twenty-three years old and uh and I you know certainly spent some time consuming beer, alcoholic beverages, and I just could not fathom why this would be necessary to to have a bud light.

SPEAKER_13 1:50:18

Is that the beer that was referred to as Panther Piss?

SPEAKER_19 1:50:22

Yes, exactly right. Exactly. Panther Panther Piss. Yeah, but it came out uh uh nationwide in the summer of 82. Uh so yeah, but they were test marketing, and I just can't imagine why.

SPEAKER_13 1:50:36

Yeah, well, whatever. I'm sure it's it's still around, right?

SPEAKER_19 1:50:40

Oh yeah. Oh yeah, oh no, no, no doubt.

SPEAKER_13 1:50:42

You know, there's well obviously it's got something.

SPEAKER_19 1:50:47

I guess. Well we'll leave at that and that's the way it was. Yeah, and that's the way it was April 1981. Your boom echo year.

SPEAKER_13 1:51:00

Okay, hey kids, let's talk about commercials in April 1981. What were they selling us the year you turned 18? What if you go out there you couldn't wait to go and buy? Now you had some money in your pocket.

SPEAKER_19 1:51:15

Really? Money? What by the way, when when you were 18, I just have to ask you this question because you just raised the issue. What were you doing for a living? What were you making money in that at that point at uh at the age of 18?

SPEAKER_13 1:51:29

Oh, let's see, 18. I was working on a farm.

SPEAKER_19 1:51:34

Mm-hmm. Okay.

SPEAKER_13 1:51:39

I was a year behind in school, quite frankly. So I was I was still in high school.

SPEAKER_19 1:51:43

Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.

SPEAKER_13 1:51:45

My stepbrother just remarried. My father, by the way, died in the early 60s. Got it. She married a farmer.

SPEAKER_20 1:51:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_13 1:51:59

And so I was working on a farm.

SPEAKER_19 1:52:01

Got it. Got it, got it, yeah.

SPEAKER_13 1:52:03

Well at least at least at least in the summer. Well, oh yeah, I'll tell you something else idea, which is which I don't think you ever knew this. Uh no, I wasn't 18 yet, so that came afterwards.

SPEAKER_20 1:52:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_13 1:52:19

Um I turned 18 in this year, I joined the Valentine Fire Department.

SPEAKER_19 1:52:26

Oh, nice. Okay.

SPEAKER_13 1:52:27

Now you'll nobody most people won't know what this place is. You ever heard of Skylar Lake?

SPEAKER_20 1:52:32

Yes. Yes. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_13 1:52:34

Between Richfield Springs and Cooperstown.

SPEAKER_19 1:52:36

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_13 1:52:37

Yeah, I was a member of the Skylar Lake Fire Department.

SPEAKER_19 1:52:39

Wow. How cool is that?

SPEAKER_13 1:52:41

Well, that's pretty cool. I saved a couple of sellers. Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 1:52:44

Yeah. Nice. Nice, nice. Well, anyway, we were eating some great food back in the day, you know, 1981.

SPEAKER_13 1:52:52

Hardy's came out with a chicken filet sandwich.

SPEAKER_19 1:52:56

Hardy's chicken. That's uh it was actually pretty good. I do remember. Um here's a another just an observation. Um, and I think this has become more common, but uh when new products came out from these fast food chains, you you name it McDonald's, Burger King, uh Hardy's, Wendy's, you name it, when they first come out with a new product, it's really good. You know, they have like this really tasty and it's and it's and it's a really good portion, etc. But little by little, as time goes on, it dissipates. It dissipates, and it's no longer as big, it's no longer as good. They change the the formula or whatever they do, and it becomes a whole lot less palatable.

SPEAKER_13 1:53:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 1:53:44

Is that a thing?

SPEAKER_13 1:53:45

Yeah. Um actually, I'll tell you a funny story, just quick. I haven't been to a fast food restaurant in years.

SPEAKER_19 1:53:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_13 1:53:55

And I was watching the new ads that have come out for Burger King, where we rule. Okay.

SPEAKER_19 1:54:06

Have you seen them? I I think so. I think it's a good thing. Basically, we're the we're the king. We're the kings. We are the king, yes.

SPEAKER_13 1:54:14

And I thought, this is such a cool ad. They finally got it right. You see, you see them firing the clown with the uh, you know, with a crown the clown with the crown. And basically they're making the customers king. Okay. You know, I I've always enjoyed their uh fish sandwiches until I didn't. As you mentioned, things go downhill. So I thought, well, I'm gonna try another a fish sandwich. This was like a month ago.

SPEAKER_20 1:54:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_13 1:54:51

And you went to the driver's room, and the first thing they say is, how can we help you today? You're and you're you're king. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_20 1:54:59

I can choose.

SPEAKER_13 1:55:00

Wow, okay. Well, of course you can choose. Anyways, I said, I'll have a uh fish sandwich. Alright. And I got the fish sandwich, and I'm like It was fantastic. Really? Big and plump and wow good portion? Yeah, good portion. Huh. Um because I'm a big fish guy, but the problem is fish fries are extremely expensive. Yes. Where we are here in central uh York.

SPEAKER_20 1:55:31

Yep.

SPEAKER_13 1:55:31

And I can't justify all the uh at my advanced age, I can't justify all those French fries that come with it.

SPEAKER_19 1:55:39

Rice, the fried foods, yeah.

SPEAKER_13 1:55:41

Not that there's no calories, there's calories in this thing, but of course a couple of times a month at school. So yeah. So I gotta hand it to Burger King. They did it. They did it. The free plot guys. Well, I guess I am games.

SPEAKER_19 1:55:57

So other stuff we were eating back in the day, you remember Carvel Carvel and Cookie Puss? I don't remember Cookie Puss. Cookie Puss was uh like an uh an inverted ice cream cone with a face on it on top of a cake.

SPEAKER_11 1:56:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_19 1:56:12

It was uh that was kind of one of their specialties. And the guy uh Tom Carvell. Tom Carvell uh was the guy who did all the commercials because he was the owner of the the company. And he kind of talked like Tom Carvel, you know, cookie puss. Uh not very appealing, um, but Carvell was famous, you know. They they uh they're uh very well known for their ice cream cakes and this kind of thing, and and it was good, you know. Uh but cookie puss was uh was kind of like their thing. They came out with that and and it's cookie puss. And I still remember Tom Carvel's voice. And as you as you and I have experienced many times before, ladies, Carvel, you're an expulsion.

SPEAKER_11 1:57:05

Tom Robinson right here. Come on, you still cookie put.

SPEAKER_19 1:57:13

I could never quite get that. It couldn't make the connection. But uh, how many times had can you think of uh working in a in a regional market in broadcasting and media where a client, a person, an advertiser, wanted to do their own commercials? And uh this became kind of to tell you stories? Of course, we could go on for a long time about this, but inevitably they still live there. Yeah, they uh you know they would uh they would do their thing. It would become kind of a a joke uh in some way in some circles with with uh listeners and people that heard these commercials, but they'd buy their products regardless, because even a negative publicity was enough for people to say, oh, I'm gonna go try and buy that mattress or whatever, you know, from from that person.

SPEAKER_13 1:58:00

Yeah, Hershey's syrup was big too when it was a big game.

SPEAKER_19 1:58:03

Oh, yes. Hershey's syrup is still a thing. I I can tell you right now, my refrigerator I've got a bottle of that stuff. Uh what about uh other things? What about other things we were putting on our bodies?

SPEAKER_13 1:58:16

Well, we had this very obscure gander shampoo called Tagrin.

SPEAKER_19 1:58:22

Tagrine. I don't remember that.

SPEAKER_13 1:58:25

Well, apparently it has some problems because it didn't stay on the shelves very long. It wasn't because it was selling out.

SPEAKER_19 1:58:32

Okay, gotcha.

SPEAKER_13 1:58:33

I didn't remember the name. Apparently it didn't do very well. Also, peanut butter, peanut butter, which is still huge.

SPEAKER_19 1:58:41

Yep, oh yeah. They're all big. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_13 1:58:43

Yeah, yep. Come on, peanut butter is a breakfast of champions.

SPEAKER_19 1:58:47

Of course. Whatever. Spoonful of that, and you're set to go.

SPEAKER_13 1:58:51

Yeah, Klondike bars. Oh, Klondike bars. Very interesting. Uh little ice cream tidbits, you know.

SPEAKER_19 1:58:57

I like those. I like the Klondike bars. Uh it was uh very, very tasty. So uh in in the uh field of uh energy and industry, uh there was something called marathon oil, uh which was introduced in April of 81. Long distance gasoline. Now, I'm not sure exactly what that means, um, but I guess it burned more efficiently, so you got more out of a tank. Um I assume so. Something tells me that's probably more of a marketing thing than practical, more than likely. Although maybe it's more refined, I don't know.

SPEAKER_13 1:59:35

Sounds a little bullshitty, yeah.

SPEAKER_19 1:59:38

Um, and Exxon coal. Exxon coal. Uh was that their foray into the coal industry? I wonder. Gotta wonder.

SPEAKER_13 1:59:49

Um I don't remember this next one.

SPEAKER_19 1:59:52

Do you? No. Vinyl wood siding. You mean it looks like wood, but it's actually vinyl. Is that is that what we're talking about here?

SPEAKER_13 2:00:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 2:00:04

I mean, it's kind of what we have on our house now. Uh I mean the house was built in '92, I want to say. Uh so several years later, but it kind of looks like wood from a distance, sort of. Kind of.

SPEAKER_13 2:00:17

Yeah. Yeah. Okay, we got some toys here, and like everything else, just uh toy upon toy upon toy. The Rubik's Cube in 1981. The world by storm.

SPEAKER_19 2:00:31

Rubik's Cube. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's uh there's actually competitions based upon Rubik's Cube. Of course there are. Where you can, you know, win money for solving the Rubik's Cube faster. I think I've forgotten what the world record is now. It's like six seconds or something. It's something ridiculous like that, where you take the Rubik's Cube, it's all mixed up, and then you solve it in one, two, three, four, five, six, and boom, you're done. It's like, whoa. There apparently there's a generation, a whole generation of kids that were raised on Rubik's Cube, and they're very, very, very, very good at uh solving that puzzle.

SPEAKER_13 2:01:08

Well, Star Wars was continuing its dominance of the toy market with Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, yeah. Figures.

SPEAKER_19 2:01:18

Of course. Uh, we this goes back to what we talked about in our previous episode about G.I. Joe. Uh, you know, the the the action heroes uh were turned into figurines, dolls. Yeah, uh, and of course, this is uh this continues to this day.

SPEAKER_13 2:01:35

There was a uh item called at at A-T-A-T, All-Train Armored Transport. It was highly sought after in 1981. I don't know a thing about this one.

SPEAKER_19 2:01:48

It's probably something military, something that uh military, it's kind of a military toy. Or is it like an urban assault vehicle, something like that?

SPEAKER_13 2:01:56

Well, anyway. I don't think it lasted very long.

SPEAKER_19 2:02:01

Yeah. Uh I'll tell you what did last. What was that?

SPEAKER_13 2:02:06

Strawberry shortcake.

SPEAKER_19 2:02:07

Oh, oh, strawberry short, of course, yeah. Um yeah, those scented dolls. Hmm.

SPEAKER_13 2:02:14

Once again, thank you very much, Kenner.

SPEAKER_19 2:02:16

Kenner, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Here's a funny thing.

SPEAKER_13 2:02:20

Uh we are cursing you.

SPEAKER_19 2:02:23

Yeah. Um, by the way, uh I some some friends of mine uh back in 1981 that I met, uh, they were very young parents, and uh their kids, as they were raising their children, especially in the early 80s, just couldn't get enough of He-Man. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. So that's the only reason I even know that this thing existed, because I was so beyond the you know, the the cartoon thing uh at that point, being 23 years old. But but uh people that were very, very uh young when they got married and and uh I think they were like 18 when they first got married, and their kids were being raised with He-Man and Masters of the Universe. That's the only reason I know about this uh this particular uh aspect.

SPEAKER_13 2:03:08

They're releasing a He-Man and Masters of the Universe movie this year.

SPEAKER_19 2:03:12

Are they really? No kidding.

SPEAKER_13 2:03:14

Well I only anticipated in the genre field, I understand.

SPEAKER_19 2:03:18

Yeah, well, I guess if you were raised in the 80s, you'd be a big fan and you'd want to go go see that for sure.

SPEAKER_13 2:03:23

Yeah, I'll I'll go, I'll go see uh Coyote versus acting the younger second go see uh E-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

SPEAKER_20 2:03:34

Oh yes.

SPEAKER_13 2:03:35

Yeah. So Fisher Price. Boy, oh boy, oh boy.

SPEAKER_19 2:03:39

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_13 2:03:40

Yeah. Fisher Price School favorites remain staples, including the little people line.

SPEAKER_19 2:03:46

Was there was there any other company that was bigger than Fisher Price, really, when it comes to you know young young kids uh preschool uh type toys? I don't think uh there's any bigger company, really, uh than Fisher Price.

SPEAKER_13 2:04:02

We had uh music box record player.

SPEAKER_19 2:04:08

Oh yes, I do remember that, of course, being interested in in records in general, but uh wow. Uh what was this thing called? Three men in a tub.

SPEAKER_13 2:04:21

Bath toys?

SPEAKER_19 2:04:22

Bath toys, okay.

SPEAKER_13 2:04:24

Rather questionable.

SPEAKER_19 2:04:25

It does indeed. Let's market it as three men in a tub. That'll that'll get them every single time. Oh wow. Oh no.

SPEAKER_13 2:04:37

Some of the stuff is better left unsaid.

SPEAKER_19 2:04:40

I think so. I think so. Wow.

SPEAKER_13 2:04:42

That one I would have publicly apologized for throwing that in there. Uh Clash of the Titans, action figures, Snoopy themed items, my pretty pony. You know, once again, Kenner.

SPEAKER_19 2:04:57

Right, Kenner. With uh with the they seem to uh definitely do well uh when it came to uh uh images, dolls, uh especially for the younger girls. Uh they definitely had a uh uh a cornered dep market for sure.

SPEAKER_13 2:05:14

Well, Toys R Us was rapidly expanding at this time, really growing to 120 stores and reaching nearly 750 million in sales for the 1981 school year. It was everywhere.

SPEAKER_19 2:05:27

It was everywhere. Um, it's like a grocery store for toys. You know, you walk in, the place was packed, jam-packed with just stuff for kids. I just can't imagine if you know, uh living in a in a in a town with uh with young kids and uh they're probably begging constantly. Let's go back to Toys or Russ again, you know, because they could run up and down the aisles and just you know, it's like a like a giant treasure.

SPEAKER_13 2:05:52

Tell me a funny story. This may explain why my family doesn't talk to me anymore.

SPEAKER_19 2:05:57

Why your family doesn't talk to you anymore?

SPEAKER_13 2:06:00

Yeah. Okay, so I had two nieces, when my sister's daughters, okay, they were like five or six, six and seven like that. They're little girls, and I didn't know what to get them. And of course, nobody was helping me, I bought it with my sister wouldn't give me any ideas. Okay, well, I'll just I don't know. I went in and I went wait a minute. I want to get that Uncle Dennis is gonna get them. That's my actual yeah, Uncle Dennis, yeah. Uncle Dennis is gonna get them some gift certificates. Now that's what every five-year-old wants, right? So, yeah, Christmas Day, and I have these envelopes and I give them to the two girls, and they're already looking at me like giving me a card?

SPEAKER_20 2:06:52

What is this?

SPEAKER_13 2:06:55

You can't play with this, and they open them up, they're like the older one goes, Oh this is a piece of plastic. No, I had to try to explain to them you're gonna go to Toys R Us, and you're going to be able to trade these, it's like money for toys, and you have a certain amount that you will you that you can spend. What can possibly go wrong? Well, they were like the younger one who was a smart ass, and she still is, I guess. She was like, you're pretty sharp, she goes. Uncle Dennis? Yes, we are. Where's my real present? Okay, so that's Christmas. That's Christmas Day. Well, okay. Oh boy. That's tough to live that one down. Hello, there's more. So I'm living in Utica then, they're in Skyler Lake. Okay, so I didn't, you know, of course, and then you have winter, you don't go anywhere. It's kind of like March, decent day. I go back out. My sister's standing there, she goes, Don't you ever do that again? We spent an hour in that damn store. And they were running up and down the aisles, they couldn't make up their mind. They want to buy one thing, then they changed their mind and want to buy something else. I said, wow.

SPEAKER_19 2:08:42

Here you were.

SPEAKER_13 2:08:43

Then we ended up spending a hundred dollars more than the money, than the money you gave cards.

SPEAKER_19 2:08:48

Of course. That's that's the whole thing.

SPEAKER_13 2:08:50

Once you get them in the door, you know, I thought it was so cool, Tom. Yeah, well, people are in line. It's Christmas Eve. They're they're in line and they're pissed off and angry because they're trying to get through the line and get these toys paid for. Yep. I stroll over to customer service, I buy two, I buy two cards and I'm out the door.

SPEAKER_19 2:09:06

Out the door.

SPEAKER_13 2:09:07

Yep, I'm done shopping.

SPEAKER_19 2:09:12

Oh, how uh yeah, that would be what was me, and uh, you know, uh they'll never forgive you for it. What can I tell you?

SPEAKER_13 2:09:22

And I guess they haven't. Anyways, let's these are all commercials, by the way. Yes, it was a big year for commercials. Check it out. Here's some of those spots from April 1981. We'll be back with page four, by the way, in the second segment of your boom echo year. Echo, echo, echo, April 81, and then we'll wrap up today's show.

SPEAKER_07 2:09:43

Orion Pictures presents John Bowman's Excalibur. They are the warriors, lovers, men of swords, horserate and design. Excalibur radar. Now playing check newspapers for local listings.

SPEAKER_09 2:10:11

The dawn of civilization dangerous. Exciting. If the human race is ever going to amount to anything, it needs a leader. It is strong. Is out of sight. Um a took. A took sounds good. A took will be the leader of the stone. Ringo Starab. Dennis Quaid. Shelly Lama. John Mato is a man. Avery Schreiber. And with Jack Guildford.

SPEAKER_01 2:12:22

You never know what you can do. The unconscious is capable of anything.

SPEAKER_18 2:12:25

A man rocked in a nightmare. Rock in the grass bowl. Michael King in a hand.

SPEAKER_13 2:12:36

Okay, so we're back with boom, and we are doing your boom year. You turned 18 years old if you were born in April of 63. And what were you watching on the BoobTube in 1981, Tom?

SPEAKER_19 2:12:53

Well, I mean, there was well, it was uh I was a little older, but I still dug TV. I loved, you know, shows like Taxi, uh, you know, um, and of course, uh the the same company eventually went on to uh to to do Cheers. These were great, uh, a great production company. But in those days, uh 60 Minutes, of course, one of the longest running TV shows of all time, the Jefferson's Three's company, and it was the premiere the actually the the finale for the uh thing called Soap. If you remember Soap, which was a really interesting show. Really good, really good. Um, and uh it uh finished up on uh April 20th of 1981. Um and it it just you know there's so many other things happening in those days. I do you recall watching Falcon Crest?

SPEAKER_13 2:13:48

I tried it because I was a big Dallas fan. You know, I'll I'll yeah I mean I I I I will watch some very good things, but I'll also watch some pretty crappy things too. I love Dallas. Yes, it was it is what it was. I tried Falcon Crest, but I couldn't get it.

SPEAKER_19 2:14:09

It just it kind of like it was a spin-off really uh of Dallas.

SPEAKER_13 2:14:14

So it kind of had a sort of a feeling yeah rather than being uh in the Texas oil fields, it was it was California basically.

SPEAKER_19 2:14:24

Yeah, yep, California and and uh I believe I mean some of the people that were on there were were good, but you know, it just seemed like a pale imitation. You know, who could who could match uh Larry Hagman and uh Dallas? I mean, just it's uh it's deaf it was it was kind of like the era of the evening soaps. You know, they take those c concepts that we had during afternoon TV for years and put it on the air on t on e on evening shows.

SPEAKER_13 2:14:52

But did we mention the Dukes of Hazard?

SPEAKER_19 2:14:54

Oh, Dukes of Hazard, oh man, almost forgot those guys. Um not a fan. Not a fan.

SPEAKER_13 2:15:02

Well, you know, uh like Daisy.

SPEAKER_19 2:15:06

Yeah, yeah. Well, Daisy, Daisy Dukes, you know. Yeah, um, yeah. I don't know. The car, people seem to be a nice, likable girl.

SPEAKER_13 2:15:17

Yeah, yeah. And people seem to be the car was cool.

SPEAKER_19 2:15:20

I mean, it was uh I don't know what like a seven 1970 Plymouth something, something.

SPEAKER_13 2:15:25

You know, it was very aerodynamically sound.

SPEAKER_19 2:15:29

Yeah. By the way, I understand they use like six different versions of the same car uh and uh put them in various conditions of uh of uh destruction. And uh I think there is still one left, apparently, from that series that's uh worth you know millions of dollars now because of its of its status as a as a TV car. Um Magnum PI. Magnum PI.

SPEAKER_13 2:15:52

That was uh boy was he buying it.

SPEAKER_19 2:15:55

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Magnum Sellick. And do you want do you know what kind of car he drove?

SPEAKER_13 2:16:03

I remember seeing the car.

SPEAKER_19 2:16:05

Yeah, yeah, he drove a Ferrari of all things.

SPEAKER_13 2:16:08

And uh he was the one of the first choices to play uh Indiana Jones.

SPEAKER_19 2:16:13

Was he really? Tom Sellick?

SPEAKER_13 2:16:15

He had to turn it down because he was doing the pilot for this.

SPEAKER_19 2:16:19

No kidding. Interesting. Um one of the one of my favorite all-time sitcoms was Barney Miller. Barney Miller.

SPEAKER_13 2:16:30

I think it's the best. Quite easily one in the top five best sitcoms of seven. Oh no. It was so smart and so funny. Yep. I mean, you you get through watching three's company and you want to wow. I mean, can these people be any more stupid?

SPEAKER_19 2:16:51

Yeah, right, right, right, right.

SPEAKER_13 2:16:53

I I mean I was it's played for it's it's played for laughs. Well, you know, here's the thing.

SPEAKER_19 2:16:58

You know, Three's Company was here here we go. Let's put a a gay guy in the middle of TNA. That's that's funny. I'm sorry. It's just whatever. He wasn't I don't think he was gay, he was more than well, but but more more or less kind of that was the implication in a way, that that you know, this guy living with these two, you know, model quality women, yeah.

SPEAKER_13 2:17:20

It's just let's Barney Miller was uh Barney Miller was the best man.

SPEAKER_19 2:17:23

That was that was awesome. Um, I did not get it when it came to the greatest American hero. I didn't get it. I still don't get it.

SPEAKER_13 2:17:33

Well being a big being a big comic book fan is is a is a youth and I've always liked superheroes in the middle of age here. The greatest American hero was kind of interesting. Well, I can see why. I'm surprised it was actually as popular as it was. Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 2:17:52

It did okay. I mean the the theme song, of course, everybody knows that. Um but yeah, I don't know. Um NBC had a couple of good stuff stuff, good pieces, uh, Flamingo Road and Real People. Um I really don't remember those two, actually.

SPEAKER_13 2:18:09

Yeah, I remember those. We we uh I was married there and we watched uh Real People. Okay. It even had a uh segment Real People in Utica. Oh, really? Okay, wow Utica being the place where I live. Yes, yes, right now. Central New York. Uh Flamingo Road was kind of a another nighttime soap. Oh, what's her name? Uh Blond's Blonde actress.

SPEAKER_19 2:18:40

Someone familiar at the time, like a like a Ferra Fawcett type, that kind of thing. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_13 2:18:46

Oh, Bosom Buddies was also uh Tom Hanks premiere.

SPEAKER_19 2:18:50

Oh, that's right. Yeah, Bosom Buddies on ABC. Um that was pretty good. Um and uh Peter, trying to think of Peter, Peter, uh trying to think of his last name now. Uh, was was uh pretty good, you know, pretty good as a comedic actor. Uh but they they uh yeah, Peter and Tom did a pretty good job with Bosom Buddies.

SPEAKER_13 2:19:11

Um I just I found the show kind of inane and it just astonishes me that he went on to become the superstar actor at the time.

SPEAKER_19 2:19:19

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_13 2:19:20

Wow.

SPEAKER_19 2:19:21

Well, um here's a quick trivia question about Tom Hanks. What was the first walk-on that he ever had uh in TV, TV series history? Do you remember that?

SPEAKER_13 2:19:34

No, I don't.

SPEAKER_19 2:19:35

It was uh Taxi and late 70s, and uh he appeared in a flashback episode for Reverend Jim. And Reverend Jim, of course, everybody knows as the guy who is constantly stoned on taxi and uh had trouble remembering things and just you know was kind of out of it most of the time, but uh an endear, you know, an endearing character, love the character, you know, and there's so many great scenes with Reverend Jim. But in this case, they're reminiscing about his early days in college. And in the scene, uh Reverend Jim is a rather straight-laced, very smart straight A student in college, and he's in a dorm room, and he's uh he's you know uh sitting there studying, and uh the door opens and in comes his college roommate with friends, and the first person to enter the room once the door opens is Tom Hanks, but he falls into the room because he's so drunk, he's so he's so partied out, and he's just laying there laughing hysterically, and that's Tom Hanks' uh first appearance on TB walk-on. Um and it doesn't have a lot of lines, but he still kind of grasped the uh the the whole the whole scene. And ultimately, the the the the reason for the flashback is tracing back to the moment that Jim, Reverend Jim, first got stoned. And it wasn't smoking, but they asked him to to they convinced him to eat a brownie and didn't tell him what was in it. And that's where Reverend Jim emerges from. He starts to have that contorted looking face as soon as he bites into the brownie, and that's where the the history of Reverend Jim uh being a straight straight A student in college suddenly gets influenced by these uh other students, but Tom Hanks is is one of those one of those people. Just saying.

SPEAKER_13 2:21:34

Wow, wow.

SPEAKER_19 2:21:36

So anyway, we got some music and some uh some things to talk about still, but uh so how but some clips from the uh those 1981 TV shows.

SPEAKER_13 2:21:46

Oh yeah, you're gonna like this. These are these are actually in many cases the clips, the the the theme songs for the shows are iconic and they're better than the shows were in some cases. Nice. Enjoy.

SPEAKER_17 2:22:00

Where we're moving on now to the time, to a tea lunch apartment in the sky.

SPEAKER_12 2:23:45

This is the story of two sisters, Jessica Tate and Mary Campbell. Jessica lives in a neighborhood known as Rich. Jessica likes life. The only thing about life she would change if she could is that she would set it all to music. The Tates have more secrets than they do money. We're approaching Mary Campbell's house. Mary too likes life. Unfortunately, life doesn't seem to be too crazy about her. As you can see, the Campbells don't have nearly as much money as the Tates. They do, however, have as many secrets. This is the story of two sisters, Jessica Tate and Mary Campbell. These are the Tates, and these are the Campbells.

SPEAKER_10 2:24:49

And this is so Just a good old boy.

SPEAKER_06 2:25:14

Never mean it all.

SPEAKER_13 2:28:56

This is the echo year of uh April nineteen eighty-one. If you were born in April 1963. Of course, it's the year you turned 18. That's the premise we use here, where we kind of celebrate both sides of your life when you were born, and when you became of age.

SPEAKER_19 2:29:14

Of age.

SPEAKER_13 2:29:15

Got some music news for you. Actress Valerie Bertinelli did the most improbable thing a woman could do. She married rock musician, especially her, married rock musician Eddie Van Halen.

SPEAKER_19 2:29:30

Oh, she was such a darling of America's sweetheart. Yeah, exactly. Just a a a sweet person, but you know, I'm very attractive, of course. But at the same time, you'd you never uh imagined that she would be stuck with this this uh rough and ready, you know, guitar player who clearly, as we learned later on, had some serious uh substance abuse issues, but but uh nonetheless, they uh they uh got married. Go figure.

SPEAKER_13 2:30:00

Well, let's check out some music. Let's do some singles. This is uh of course based on uh the month of April 1881. I tabulated the top ten most popular songs from that one as I did previously a couple of hours ago with 1963. So our number 10 is a one-hit wonder wonder, kind of uh celebrating the uh era of uh the 40s movie stars.

SPEAKER_19 2:30:32

Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, Key Largo. Uh Bernie Higgins. Wow. This is actually here's a here's a funny thing about this. This uh are you familiar with a format called Yacht Rock?

SPEAKER_13 2:30:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 2:30:49

This is one of those songs.

SPEAKER_13 2:30:51

By the way, there's an excellent, excellent music documentary about that.

SPEAKER_19 2:30:57

Really?

SPEAKER_13 2:30:57

Yeah, and I know I don't mean to interrupt you, but it is so well done. I think it's one of the best music documentaries I've ever seen. It actually made me appreciate Yacht Rock to a certain extent. In fact, did you know? And you're never gonna be able to unhear this, most of Yacht Rock is based on the Doobie Brothers, What a Fool Believes. Yes, yes, the tempo and the arrangement.

SPEAKER_20 2:31:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_13 2:31:27

Because a band called Toto, they were all session musicians.

SPEAKER_20 2:31:34

Yes.

SPEAKER_13 2:31:35

And they played on all these songs. It became what was considered this easy breezy jazzy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_19 2:31:44

Jeff Picaro and his brother. Um, I've forgotten Jeff's brother's name, but Jeff Picaro is part of Toto. And yeah, that whole that whole line of songs. Yeah, you're right. It's all based upon that uh Michael McDonald lead in uh What a Fool Believes. Um yeah, so Bernie Higgins number 10.

SPEAKER_13 2:32:04

Yep. Number nine, Huey Lewis in the news. Do you believe in love? That's one of his first hits. It's just a great fun, loving song. It is a good song. It is a good song. Yeah, good time rocking.

SPEAKER_20 2:32:16

It is good, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_13 2:32:18

Number eight, the the The Endless Journey, as I call it. Uh this band couldn't do anything wrong.

SPEAKER_19 2:32:28

I mean, they could well, you know, Steve Perry's voice, and you got uh of course Greg Raleigh on guitar. I mean, they they really did have a a super group, you know. They they were but they were so polished and so homogenized and so uh commercialized that it very it was very difficult to to really see the actual talent there because it was so uh so artificial in a way.

SPEAKER_13 2:32:51

Yep. Everybody loved Journey. Uh they were just the arena rock at its best. They had a hit uh Open Arms was a song that was a ballad. Yep. Number eight. Olivia Newton-Shawn, and this is kind of at the tail end of her career, no pun intended. Um she did a song called Make a Move on Me. Kind of a she got into this physical fitness uh trend with her. Right. Let's get physical promotion. Yep. It got it kind of a little risque.

SPEAKER_19 2:33:23

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_13 2:33:24

But uh, well, she had to example of that.

SPEAKER_19 2:33:27

She had to kind of keep people interested. And and uh I mean she did some great early records. Uh we talked about this in a previous episode. Uh I love the the fact that she covered the George Harrison song. But um, you know exactly, yeah. But uh later on it just got to be a little bit much after she was in Greece. Um, you know, great stuff in Greece, but then her overall uh pattern of of songs became very predictable, sadly.

SPEAKER_13 2:33:54

Yeah, but boy was a huge amazing run.

SPEAKER_19 2:33:58

Yep.

SPEAKER_13 2:33:59

Number six. Was uh Stevie Wonder a song called That Girl. Wow, it's a strange song to be a hit. It's good though. It's a good, it's a good remote. It's somewhat melodic. It's just very well produced. You might not remember the title, but uh I think you're gonna remember it when you hear our medley. Rick Springfield.

SPEAKER_20 2:34:24

Uh huh.

SPEAKER_13 2:34:26

He had a hit back in the 70s. It reached number like number 15 or 16 on Billboard. And reached, it's called Reach to the Sky. Reach for the Sky.

SPEAKER_20 2:34:35

Reach for the Sky, yes.

SPEAKER_13 2:34:36

And no one's ever heard of it. Well, he had a big comeback in the 80s, big rock comeback. He played on uh album rock stations. Yes. And uh he was also on my uh wonderful general hospital. Your soap opera.

SPEAKER_19 2:34:54

He was uh he was he was a good looking guy, you know, he played the part well. Um, but don't talk to strangers, you know. Again, it was a it was a smash hit at its time, but kind of that was it for him, you know.

SPEAKER_13 2:35:07

He had a string of them though.

SPEAKER_19 2:35:08

Yeah, a couple, you know. Um, but uh yeah, I think he was a better actor than he was uh performer as a singer.

SPEAKER_13 2:35:15

I think so.

SPEAKER_19 2:35:16

I think so. Yeah.

SPEAKER_13 2:35:17

Okay, uh I can't agree with that. Okay, never mind. We're not gonna see eye to eye on it.

SPEAKER_19 2:35:28

I don't want to be, I don't want to dis disparage anybody's career because he's he's good, but it's just like okay, whatever.

SPEAKER_13 2:35:34

Okay. I think I liked it more than he did. Uh anyway, so a band that never really made it big as far as top 40 radio goes, but they were a huge album band and a huge rock band as far as album rock radio goes. They finally hit it big at the tail end of their careers, and it pretty much destroyed them because they couldn't.

SPEAKER_07 2:36:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_13 2:36:02

They were they weren't, they were pretty tired, they were quite tired by that. Yeah, they've been around for 10 years. Yeah, actually more than that, more like 1015.

SPEAKER_20 2:36:10

Oh, 15 years, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_13 2:36:13

Was uh their uh second big hit in the room. This is Jay Giles band with Freeze Frame.

SPEAKER_20 2:36:21

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_10 2:36:22

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_13 2:36:23

Pretty innocuous compared to some of the other stuff they did. But uh follow-up to Centerfold.

SPEAKER_19 2:36:29

Yeah, Centerfold was their was the previous uh top 40 hit, uh which was good, you know, but it wasn't quintessential Jay Giles because Jay Giles was raw, edgy, they were they were a great stage band, you know. You want to go see these guys, and you know, uh they had some amazing, amazing players, uh and and great lead singing, you know, great stuff.

SPEAKER_13 2:36:53

But I'm gonna ask you a question.

SPEAKER_19 2:36:56

Yes.

SPEAKER_13 2:36:57

You work in all of your radio, of course.

SPEAKER_19 2:36:59

Correct.

SPEAKER_13 2:37:00

And did we go to see Jay Giles at Saratoga? I went with somebody. I couldn't remember who I went with.

SPEAKER_19 2:37:08

I think we might. I think we might have. I I think we might have, in fact. Jay Giles. Yeah, yeah. I think we might have.

SPEAKER_13 2:37:15

For all of probably a minute.

SPEAKER_19 2:37:17

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_13 2:37:18

They actually came out to the stands.

SPEAKER_19 2:37:20

Right. Was that you? I think that was. I think that was us. Yes. Yeah. Uh, but but yeah, no, that must have been uh summer of 94. Something like that.

SPEAKER_13 2:37:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 2:37:34

So, but yeah, yeah, though they're they're quintessential, man.

SPEAKER_13 2:37:37

They were just uh it was a it was a re was I think it was a reunion. Yeah, yeah, it was a reunion.

SPEAKER_19 2:37:42

Yep. Uh Peter Wolf, you know, the the the guy's just got a great voice, uh just meant meant for rock and roll, and just you know, to to to play live. They're they're just awesome, just uh just fantastic. But you know, um it is what it is, and of course they had to make hits hit records to keep going and to do their thing. And I don't begrudge them that, but these were not their best, best work.

SPEAKER_13 2:38:06

Yeah. Well, I've been in all all formats of radio. I've done top 40, I've done Mark. But there are the thing about top 40 is it's been some real crap. I mean, songs that are so bad, it it's just amazing how they got it on the air.

SPEAKER_20 2:38:27

Right, right.

SPEAKER_13 2:38:28

And then I'm sure there are people who are not gonna agree with me, but it was this it was a movie called Chariots of Fire.

SPEAKER_20 2:38:34

Yes.

SPEAKER_19 2:38:36

Yeah, and uh the movie itself was a movie itself is okay. It was you know, it was uh relatively you know, okay. But this was the theme by Van Jules. Oh it's like, oh man, forgettable.

SPEAKER_13 2:38:51

Well, you're gonna hear it in the middle, and you're gonna go, Yep.

SPEAKER_19 2:38:55

I remember.

SPEAKER_13 2:38:56

I don't think so. Maybe, maybe you like, maybe you love it. Hey, you know, art is subjective. Okay, don't listen to me. What the hell do I know? Just an opinion, you know. If you do like it, then you need, you know, you need to get checked out.

SPEAKER_19 2:39:12

Yeah, I guess so. Um anyway.

SPEAKER_13 2:39:16

Uh uh, yeah, it was a there's a quick funny story about this. I'm not gonna mention any names. I'll tell you what it was after we get get off the podcast. But okay. I I I went to we went to the movies to see this movie. My then my my then wife, Mary, and my myself, and one of my coworkers from the radio station I was at, and his wife, and it was a Saturday night, we went to see this movie. And this particular individual would did the morning show. Okay.

SPEAKER_20 2:39:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_13 2:39:53

And there's the you know, there's just some really really quiet scenes in this movie where they're you know, they're running in slow motion, yes, you know, to the music, you know, this insipid theme song, and all of a sudden I hear somebody snore snoring. And I look over to my left and my my my co-worker, you know, the head to head, the head's back, and he's just sonologue.

SPEAKER_19 2:40:23

Wife's trying to wake him up. Okay. It must have been a thrilling moment in theater.

SPEAKER_13 2:40:32

That was the best part, but that was the best part of the movie.

SPEAKER_19 2:40:38

Well, you know, I've been to a few that I think I've had trouble uh nodding off to as well. So I, you know, it happened.

SPEAKER_13 2:40:45

I shouldn't talk. I fell asleep during James Taylor.

SPEAKER_19 2:40:47

So oh, dude.

SPEAKER_13 2:40:48

That's probably why that relationship didn't work, yeah.

SPEAKER_19 2:40:51

Uh I guess not. I guess not. Well, um, for the rest of the chart, I gotta say the ladies ruled the day.

SPEAKER_13 2:40:59

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_19 2:41:00

Ruled the day.

SPEAKER_13 2:41:01

Double header, man.

SPEAKER_19 2:41:02

Yep, yep, yep. Um, go ahead. Yeah, no, I was gonna say, uh when I was uh in my my it was my second, yeah, my second uh full-time gig, uh this record was a big hit. And uh it was uh it got played a lot. And I have to say that after a while I didn't appreciate it as much, but initially it you heard too much. Yeah, yeah, that was the problem. It was played over and over. But the go-go's we got the beat. You know, they they uh they did some other records afterwards, which you know I I appreciate as well. But this one, you know, it was it was kind of based upon that new wave thing, the new wave, so uh upbeat, kind of quirky, nutty kind of thing. And I appreciate it for its energy and and uh what it did. But we eventually came up with a nickname for this band. Uh in in private circles, we refer to them as the Yah Yas. Uh but that that's uh not to say they don't weren't weren't talented because they were, and it was an all-girl group. But we got the beat, yeah. Uh number two.

SPEAKER_13 2:42:10

Yep, number one, and I'm so happy she had a hit with us. Oh, yeah. Sick of it, but oh sure. I mean, this sums up snotty, sarcastic, in your face, rock and roll from a great, great female guitarist. Yes, Joan Jett and the Black Hearts.

SPEAKER_20 2:42:31

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_13 2:42:36

I love this song.

SPEAKER_19 2:42:37

It's an anthem.

SPEAKER_13 2:42:39

I love rock and roll.

SPEAKER_19 2:42:40

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_13 2:42:41

So you must love it too.

SPEAKER_19 2:42:42

Yep, yeah. Yep, it's an anthem. It's uh it's something it's for a generation, in fact. Uh, and I think boom, the boom generation can appreciate it because that's kind of where we come from. And the fact that it's Joan Jett, um, who got to start with a band called The Runaways. Um you know, she she uh really, as a solo artist, just transcended everything she'd done, you know, uh previously in a band. Um, just you know, really, really good. And she's still out there, by the way.

SPEAKER_13 2:43:10

Yep, she is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 2:43:12

So good for her. Yeah, number one, Joan Jett and the Black Arts.

SPEAKER_13 2:43:15

Way to go, Joan.

SPEAKER_19 2:43:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_13 2:43:17

Okay, we got some albums to check out. This is a pretty diverse group of things. It was actually music album on album. Albums were great then. It was a great time. Listen to albums. Number 10, you had uh Neil Diamond doing the jazz singer. The movie actually was actually a movie soundtrack, right?

SPEAKER_19 2:43:39

Which uh, by the way, the movie features Neil. Um it it was a bit it was panned by by critics. Um, it wasn't bad. Uh the sentiment was good, um, but it was just I think the script could have used a little tweaking.

SPEAKER_13 2:43:57

Yeah, yeah. Number nine, we had Eric Clappman in his album Another Ticket.

SPEAKER_19 2:44:02

Mm-hmm. Okay.

SPEAKER_13 2:44:04

After a while in the 80s, I mean they were well-made albums, they were very slick, but he kind of lost the his he lost his blues in the year.

SPEAKER_20 2:44:15

Right.

SPEAKER_19 2:44:16

Everything was just it was good, but it was just very kind of his pomp, his pop era. Um, yeah, it was it was it wasn't until much later when he started doing uh covers of Robert Johnson and and worked with B.B. King.

SPEAKER_13 2:44:30

He he got back to his roots, yeah.

SPEAKER_19 2:44:33

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So my one of my all-time favorite bands of of the 70s and 80s, I have to say, came in at number eight uh with a with a record called Zanyara Mandara. And of course, the police. Those guys, irreverent, crazy, insane. Uh, one of my all-time favorite interviews in the business was with Stuart Copeland, the drummer. And wow, what an incredible band.

SPEAKER_13 2:45:03

What were some of the songs on there? I'm trying to remember what was on there. The song titles, they they I can never remember what songs were on.

SPEAKER_19 2:45:10

Don't stand so close to me was huge. Yeah. Right. Okay. So that was uh probably one of the reasons that the the the album made it to the top 10. Yeah. Um, but yeah, just uh it's the that time, that era, they were here's the thing, and and Stuart uh does explain this in the interview, but he said, hey, listen, uh when we were first hit with a with a record called Roxanne, uh we you know suddenly were thrust upon the the the big the big time, the mainstream, and we had we dyed our hair blonde. So we're called the blonde ones. But uh he said suddenly, without their permission, a corporation erected itself around them. And they were signed to AM Records, um, and they had very little control over what was going to be happening to the band in the near future, and they they realized pretty quickly after a few more records that this wasn't working out. This is what this was not their of their making. So that's where and a lot of bands ended up this way, you know, uh being struggling against the the interests of the record company and uh and uh being artists and uh doing what they love to do. And there's a certain shelf life for every band, of course, but uh that's where they actually made the conscious decision of not breaking up, but just going their separate ways and not uh complying with uh what the record company demanded. So sad, sad thing, but but it's uh for them, you know, kudos dudes, you know. They they uh they certainly have uh have done well. Um and uh he's done a lot. Uh Stuart Copeland has done a lot of mute movie soundtracks, um, and he's also uh done some other brilliant stuff. So um, yeah, but what a great band when they were together. They were just phenomenal.

SPEAKER_13 2:47:02

Well, one of the biggest albums of the year was John Lennon and Yoko, and it was Double Fantasy, of course, it preceding uh the month of April. Right, it was uh a number one album over the oh my goodness, yeah. We were still in mourning at the time, you know, still in the way this this this was such a uh a special album for many people, including me. Because uh there were some great, great Lennon songs on here. I think I think actually his most listenable album.

SPEAKER_19 2:47:30

Oh, sure.

SPEAKER_13 2:47:31

Yo Yoko's side, sorry.

SPEAKER_19 2:47:33

Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_13 2:47:36

I don't mean to be a Yoko basher. I'm trying to be.

SPEAKER_19 2:47:39

No, no, but I I agree with you. It's uh it is it's very listenable.

SPEAKER_13 2:47:43

They were so down to earth, they they were not overproduced at all. They were perfect with John Lennon's solo songs, and I think they're the best things he ever did. Yep. This is my favorite John Lennon album, probably the only one to this day that I can listen to.

SPEAKER_19 2:47:58

I'm I concur. I think that's uh it's uh phenomenal, great stuff.

SPEAKER_13 2:48:01

Very, very bittersweet. He was my hero.

SPEAKER_19 2:48:05

So number six, uh, this this record face stats is from Who? The Who. Um how do we say? Uh now you go from double fantasy, which is was phenomenal stuff, to eh, it's okay. Um very disappointing in so many ways. Uh, but again, you know, you're dealing with the loss of a member, Keith Moon. Um, you know, it it was it was difficult, challenging for them to to continue with uh with the what they were doing. And I get it, right? It's uh the the original lineup is done, and uh there's uh this this kind of their mourning as well. They're going through that that period, and they just had to turn something out for some reason. I would have just chosen not to do it.

SPEAKER_13 2:48:53

Yeah, well, it they it was it was a disappointment. The problem with the band then without Keith Moon and Kenny Jones was the replacement drummer, a very fine pedestrian drummer for what he could do. I mean basically been around since the mid-60s. He played with uh uh Small Faces, yep.

SPEAKER_20 2:49:15

Yep, yep, yep.

SPEAKER_13 2:49:16

Became the faces, and he uh he was just a regular drummer, he didn't have the flair. Oh it's a little weird, the song sounded a little that off-kelter because he didn't have that dynamic.

SPEAKER_19 2:49:30

Well, here's the thing the the idea of of of uh the concept and the the reason for the who was was certainly Keith Moon.

SPEAKER_13 2:49:38

Keith Moon You know, but let's face it, the the band's sound was based on chaos.

SPEAKER_19 2:49:43

Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_13 2:49:45

That was 19 freaking 64.

SPEAKER_19 2:49:47

Yep, yep, yep. Yeah, yep, and uh so yeah, I mean all through that favorite bands of all time. Yeah, a fantastic, you know, stadium band that that uh packed him in, you know, and and uh was the most successful rock act of the of the early 70s, no question about it. But you know what? It's just when you lose that the heartbeat of your of your band, it's kind of like you have to you have to find a uh a way of continuing or just break up, just stop. Yeah, you know?

SPEAKER_13 2:50:16

So yeah.

SPEAKER_19 2:50:18

Well, Grover Washington Jr. now that now here's the thing, you know, if you're into into into any kind of um you know sappy romance type type stuff, you know, if you're looking to to appeal to a lady, this would be the record on your turntable. Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_13 2:50:36

Simple as that.

SPEAKER_19 2:50:37

Grover Washington Jr. wine light, just the two of us. Just a uh just a very recognizable uh hit uh with uh the lead vocals, I believe, was um Dobie Gray. Was it Dobie Gray?

SPEAKER_13 2:50:52

I didn't know.

SPEAKER_19 2:50:53

I believe it was Doby Gray that uh that sang on uh Just the Two of Us from uh Grover Washington Jr. Grover, of course, uh the the basically the the musician on the record. Uh but Wine Light was was uh big in the romantic circles, no question.

SPEAKER_13 2:51:12

I bet looked that up.

SPEAKER_19 2:51:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_13 2:51:15

Talk about Steve Winwood kind of had a massive comeback.

SPEAKER_19 2:51:19

Oh, wait, but we're missing something here. Hold on.

SPEAKER_13 2:51:21

He hadn't really done much of any album's out in the 70s.

SPEAKER_19 2:51:24

Hold on a second, though. Before we get to Steve Winwood, we've got to talk about Rush, my all-time favorite Canadian band.

SPEAKER_13 2:51:29

Oh, I'm sorry. I skipped.

SPEAKER_19 2:51:31

They were number four.

SPEAKER_13 2:51:33

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_19 2:51:34

Moving Pictures. Uh again, those guys progressed from being kind of an obscure Canadian uh ripoff of uh of Yes uh into their own entity. Uh, you know, they were doing some some amazing stuff. Uh again, great stage band. Uh three three really extraordinary players, not the least of which being Neil Pertz, again, uh an extraordinary drummer. But uh, and and some people you know had trouble with Getty Lee's voice. I get that, but still in all, Moving Pictures, one of their one of their best records, no question about it, from Rush at number four in April of 1981.

SPEAKER_13 2:52:14

Yeah, yeah. Huge album.

SPEAKER_19 2:52:17

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_13 2:52:19

It just came out of nowhere. It was I mean, we played it for months and months and months on the I'm looking up uh Rover Mush and Jr. to see what he uh vocals was on that song. Written by Bill Withers, by the way.

SPEAKER_19 2:52:38

Bill Withers, maybe it was Bill Withers on the song. I I could have uh mixed uh mixed up Bill Withers with Doby Gray. I think it might have been Bill Withers, actually.

SPEAKER_13 2:52:50

Yeah, Bill Withers was on vocals.

SPEAKER_19 2:52:52

Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_13 2:52:53

Umers.

SPEAKER_19 2:52:57

My bad, but I'm glad you I'm glad you got the right answer. Yep.

SPEAKER_13 2:53:00

That's cool. Okay, number two. Well, this was kind of uh one of the last stands for Sticks, I think. Um kinda.

SPEAKER_19 2:53:10

But it was kinda massive hit. Yep, yep, yep. Paradise Theater. Yep. Yeah. And uh I was uh again ambivalent about sticks. Not bad. Um, they had some good, I I liked some of their earlier records. Um Too Much Time on My Hands is a great song. Um, but uh by this time it was kind of like okay, uh let's uh let's move on to something else, dudes. Let's let's let's do something else. Um and then number one, my goodness.

SPEAKER_13 2:53:44

Oh boy, this this this was the album that just put that on the map.

SPEAKER_10 2:53:50

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_13 2:53:51

It and it yeah, I got so tired of this band. We I think we played the we played like seven songs off this album.

SPEAKER_19 2:54:02

Yes, yep.

SPEAKER_13 2:54:03

It had what five hit singles?

SPEAKER_19 2:54:05

Mm-hmm. Yep. Yep, yep. High Infidelity from Oreo Speedwagon. Uh Oreo Speedwagon, if you you know you say that that name to uh anybody who worked in rock radio back in the day, it got overplayed.

SPEAKER_13 2:54:19

Oh yeah, you know, I can't listen to them because it was just yeah, except for a couple of song early songs that weren't really that big. Uh like uh Back on the Road Again is one that comes to mind.

SPEAKER_19 2:54:34

Yep. I mean Roll of the Changes was always a great record for those guys. Yeah, but uh Keep on Loving You. It was, you know, it just I don't know. I don't need to hear it again.

SPEAKER_13 2:54:48

Don't need the band with the best album title of all time. You know, Speed Wagon.

SPEAKER_19 2:54:57

Yep, high infidelity.

SPEAKER_13 2:54:59

Uh it's you can tune, not that, you can tune a piano, but you can't tune a fish.

SPEAKER_19 2:55:05

That's right. Agreed. That is correct. That is that is uh that's a great title.

SPEAKER_13 2:55:13

I know.

SPEAKER_19 2:55:14

And that was Roll of the Changes, right? That's that was the song on uh that was the big hit off that record. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, no, it's uh uh Oreo Speedwagon again, can't take anything away from these guys, talented as all get out, but at the same time, once they hit that pinnacle and they got overplayed, I I think it kind of just took away the the the the edge. They were no longer considered, you know, that uh they didn't have that revered sort of uh uh image. Um Sticks and Oreo Speedway Speedwagon kind of went the same direction. They they went in that uh let's make hit records and uh make a lot of money, and then that'll be that.

SPEAKER_13 2:55:52

Yep. Well, what do you say, kids? We listen to some top ten singles here. This is Joan Jet Go Go with Van Jellis, J. John Jurney, Huey Lewis, and Bernie Higgins. Right here on boom. Okay, those are the top ten songs of 1981, April, and uh the singles. I didn't do a met with the albums.

SPEAKER_20 2:57:32

That's okay. That's okay.

SPEAKER_13 2:57:37

Maybe sometime. We'd only be then we'd only be here for six hours.

SPEAKER_19 2:57:41

Yeah, right, right, right. Well, uh, moving on to uh books of the time. Of course, this is the echo year, 1981. If you were born in 63, you're 18. And who of that era did not read at least one Stephen King novel? Come on. I mean, Stephen King, uh, just I still remember uh reading uh cover to cover the book Christine um about a car that's possessed. But uh in the in the fiction titles of uh of April of 81, Cujo by Stephen King was was a biggie. Yeah. Was a biggie.

SPEAKER_13 2:58:15

I I ruined the movie. That's a problem with Stephen King. Okay. Um you know they say you shouldn't. You should see them. I how's that work?

SPEAKER_19 2:58:28

If you see the movie first and read the book, well, it's it's I th I think it's kind of like m see the movie first, then read the book, because otherwise you'll be disappointed after you read the book and go see the movie. Not so good.

SPEAKER_13 2:58:41

That happened with so many of his books.

SPEAKER_19 2:58:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_13 2:58:46

The movie, the movie just doesn't stack up. Correct, correct.

SPEAKER_19 2:58:51

Yeah. I I read Christine and then saw the movie and went, oops. Oops.

SPEAKER_13 2:58:58

Um, but yeah, um Stephen King's novel was a little bit like that because in the movie the dog, even though it was rabid, it was still somewhat sympathetic.

SPEAKER_20 2:59:09

Right.

SPEAKER_13 2:59:10

Uh it it was weird because you'd like okay, the dog needs to be down, but I don't want the dog, the dog would be the book, the book was a the dog is uh was just ruthless, you know.

SPEAKER_19 2:59:22

Yeah, well, we could do a whole show about Stephen King, just in just because he's a boomer, he's a boom writer. Yeah, yeah. I mean, he was so prolific in so many, so many different directions this guy went in. But uh, and I've read a lot of his material. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, what other what other books uh James Clavell uh came out with Noble House that same year in April, and John Irving, as we know. John Irving, of course, prolific writer, just like Stephen King. That year was The Hotel New Hampshire.

SPEAKER_13 2:59:56

And uh again, that may have been one of the biggest books of the year.

SPEAKER_19 3:00:01

Yep, I think so. I think you're right. Absolutely. Of course, uh paperbacks had suddenly become a thing. You know, paperbacks were well, I guess always good, but you know, now you've got hardcover books being transferred into a more uh commercial status and more uh easily transported, I guess you could say. Accessible, yeah. Yeah, accessible uh paperbacks. Yeah. Uh Garfield.

SPEAKER_13 3:00:27

Read it and read it and throw it on the shelf somewhere. Nobody cares.

SPEAKER_19 3:00:30

Yeah, and and uh Jim Davis, as we know, who's uh big with uh the strip Garfield, uh came out with a piece called Garfield at Large, uh, which uh of course Jim Davis uh uh he's uh got a great sense of humor, and uh the strip Garfield we always remember as a as an amazing cat. Could wouldn't it be cool to own Garfield? You know, or have Garfield in the household mostly. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_13 3:01:03

They wouldn't eat with all design though.

SPEAKER_19 3:01:06

Yeah. Um are you uh are you a Western fan? Do you like Westerns generally?

SPEAKER_13 3:01:14

Um not as much as when I was a kid. I loved it when I was a kid, but yeah, I mean there's only like three two or three westerns that I uh I I really considered uh my my jam.

SPEAKER_19 3:01:27

Well, there's there's uh I still recall uh as a kid seeing this big stack of books on my dad's nightstand uh in his room, uh, and they were all Louis Lemoire books. Louis Lemoore. Uh probably one of the more prolific writers of Western tales. Uh and he had one in 1981 called Comstock Load. No doubt my dad read that one cover to cover as soon as it came out. No doubt. Interesting.

unknown 3:01:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 3:01:54

Uh Stuart Brandt, uh the next whole earth catalog. Do you remember that one?

SPEAKER_13 3:01:59

Vaguely. Yeah, that was big.

SPEAKER_19 3:02:03

Yeah, that was uh really encouraging for uh saying, hey, we got to get back to eating naturally, you know, and I think that that really uh helped that that uh that process. And we're still talking about that today. And finally, uh the uh Pulitzer Prize announcement of the year, Pulitzer uh went to uh John Kennedy O'Toole. I was uh awarded the 1981 Prize for Fiction for a Confederacy of Dunces. Confederacy, I never I confess I never read it, but uh uh Confederacy of Dunces sounds very familiar to me.

SPEAKER_13 3:02:43

Yeah. Never heard that one.

SPEAKER_19 3:02:46

Well, hey, you know, we could be living that in real life right now. I don't know. You and me. Yeah, yeah. So uh nonfiction, you know, the the stuff uh true to true to life. Uh Norman Cousins uh wrote Anatomy of an Illness. Don't know enough about it to really make comment. Um Skip Morrow did the official I hate cats book, and uh Skip and I have been uh had been divorced ever since. We we have not spoken since.

SPEAKER_13 3:03:20

I think I can skip Mr. Morrow's book.

SPEAKER_19 3:03:24

We'll skip Morrow.

SPEAKER_13 3:03:26

By the way, have you ever it's a little it's a little tiny book, but it's got all these little vignettes about cats from a cat's point of view. Yes. I can pee on this.

SPEAKER_19 3:03:44

Is that is that anything like uh sorry I barfed on your bed?

SPEAKER_13 3:03:51

It's it is hilarious.

SPEAKER_20 3:03:56

Oh, love it.

SPEAKER_13 3:03:57

I mean, it's just gotta be here somewhere. Uh that means anything. Uh but the uh the the vignette, I was bit I had a I had a Siamese cat at the point that I read that. Oh and or I had had one and uh one of the vignettes is like a page, each with each page, it's a tiny book, it's like five inches wide.

SPEAKER_19 3:04:20

Right, right, right, right.

SPEAKER_13 3:04:22

And the vignette about Siamese cats, they sounded like they're a psychotic nightmare. They have like personalities.

SPEAKER_19 3:04:41

They have attitudes, there's no doubt about that, and uh and personalities. Um so don't I'm gonna stop talking about a couple of stories, uh a couple of sorry, a couple of uh nonfiction titles of the day in 1981. Scary Story Sterry Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz. Uh sounds like something for a younger audience, no doubt. Uh and then Goodnight, Mr. Tom, uh Michelle Mog Maggorian. Uh that was published uh in April of 81. And uh so yeah, so uh again, I'm not familiar with Goodnight, Mr. Tom, but I guess that's probably a great great way to come to our conclusion to our to our uh our episode uh three of Boom, the podcast.

SPEAKER_13 3:05:29

Yep. Uh I do want to mention as kind of the unofficial producer and and uh editor of the Boom podcast, I've got some very important personal issues to deal with in the month of May. Not nothing serious, just some city stuff. I don't know if we're gonna be able to get Boom out by uh by the end of May. End of May. So May. I think we can probably do it like to the middle of June. So we can let's say we're gonna say we're gonna kind of gonna skip the month of May, and let's say we're gonna do June.

SPEAKER_19 3:06:07

Okay, I think that makes sense. That makes sense. Yeah, we'll start gonna do that.

SPEAKER_13 3:06:11

It'll probably be 1962 and 1980. Nice, the the boom year of 62 and 1980.

SPEAKER_19 3:06:21

Excellent. I'm looking forward to that. And uh yeah.

SPEAKER_13 3:06:25

We'll promote that of course before before it comes out. So we'll keep you posted. Yes, please. And uh so Tom, what do me a favor? Tell tell them what you got going on. Tell them about your your foosball stuff.

SPEAKER_19 3:06:39

Foosball? Oh my goodness. Um, well, there is another podcast that uh that happened prior to this one, uh, which is helping us, I think, in in uh designing what we're doing. But uh it's called Foosball Radio, and it's a podcast about the professional sport. By the way, foosball is a sport for those who are uninitiated, uh, which I've been playing since 1974. So it goes back, well, just even further than my my uh interest in in broadcasting. But the uh the foosball thing for me started in 74 at a local Italian restaurant in my hometown, where the uh the owners of the of the restaurant had uh come from Italy and brought with them something called a foosball table and introduced us by uh summarily beating us to pull to a pulp on the on the table on a regular basis. But we as kids in the neighborhood just couldn't get enough. And so I got addicted and uh stayed addicted until probably 1982, 81, 82, when I discovered women, and then of course uh had a career in broadcasting and forgot about the sport until, well, things came to a summary end for broadcasting, and then suddenly got interested in foosball yet again, and uh became addicted, uh, this time forever, uh permanently. And so I play on a regular basis and uh travel across the country uh doing podcasts and broadcasts about the topic of foosball uh with all the the professionals and the promoters and the people that are that are the movers and the shakers in the field of professional foosball. So if you're interested, um it's called foosballradio.com. That's our website. And uh we are about to do 290 or 296th episode of something called Foos Talk Live, uh, which is happening uh happened or is is has happened by the time you hear this, has happened uh this week uh when it comes to the latest greatest episode. But 296 episodes so far and still going. So but that's uh kind of it in a nutshell. Yeah. And uh foosball is something I'm I'm very passionate about, and I think that's kind of a boom thing, although there's a lot of really top players now who are under the age of 25, uh, who are considered best in the world. So there's that.

SPEAKER_13 3:09:03

And you can also catch us on Facebook, of course, on uh Boom the Podcast. Type that in. Uh you can you can access the episodes there on the on the actual podcast itself. Yep. And I'm working on doing some special features, special graphic features that I we can insert based on each of the episodes. Uh yes on that page. You can also comment, make any comments you want. Please do. Get that get get that chapman guy uh off the whatever the hell you call podcasts.

SPEAKER_19 3:09:35

Yeah, yeah. Join the Facebook, uh yeah, join when you're on the Facebook group, just just say what what's on whatever's on your mind. We want to hear about it. Uh, and and the after all this time of being on this this planet, there's nothing much that anybody could say to us that would ever offend us. So yeah, just saying.

SPEAKER_13 3:09:51

You can also catch me on uh on Facebook uh Dennis Chip Chapman, my own Facebook page.

SPEAKER_19 3:09:58

There you go.

SPEAKER_13 3:09:59

Look at cat memes.

SPEAKER_19 3:10:01

Yeah, we all do, man. We all love the cat memes, they're they're great. But uh, yeah, anything else you wanted to add?

SPEAKER_13 3:10:10

Closes us out. It's uh by the way, it's your boom year, April of 1963. If you were born that day, and it's echo when you turned 18, you heard all about uh April of 1981. There you go for joining us, everybody.

SPEAKER_19 3:10:25

Absolutely. And guys, uh hope that uh the rest of your the the the the uh the rest of your day, wherever you are, whatever you're doing, is a great one. And thanks for tuning in to Boom, the podcast.

SPEAKER_13 3:10:37

Take care.