Boom! The Podcast | Ep 4 | June '62 and '80

From pill box hats to Ballantine Beer; Robert Mitchum gets creepy in Cape Fear. Dee Dee Sharp taught us to do the Mash Potato; while we met Spider Man for the first time. All of this and more were part of life if you were born in June of 1962. Boom! The Podcast episode 4 also looks at the year you turned 18 in June of 1980. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_19 0:20

Yep, here we are again. It's boom.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

All right, all right, all right. The podcast number four. Podcast number four. Four.

SPEAKER_19 0:27

I'm almost running. Hey, hold on a second. I'm almost running out of fingers here to count on one hand the number of episodes. That's it's getting kind of close here.

SPEAKER_02 0:34

Sounds like a personal problem to me.

SPEAKER_19 0:39

Well, my name is Tom Robinson.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

And I'm Chip Chapman, and we are welcoming you to Boom Podcast number four. And our feature year is June 1962, where we talk about the slice of life events and pop culture artifacts of what may have been your birth date. Now on page four, the end of the show, we will jump ahead to June 1980, when you turned 18, if you were born in June 62. And that's your possible coming of age year, you know, in existence in that time and space.

SPEAKER_19 1:13

Mm-hmm. By the way, I just don't want to mention that we we we uh people seem to be listening because we got a we got a mail, we got a like a like an email, like an electronic notification that somebody's actually listening, and they went to great detail to talk about this this last episode we aired, uh episode three. Um I believe his name is Mike.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

Yeah, he's he's a Facebook friend of mine, and actually a little bit of history about him. He went to Morrisville, uh SUNY Morrisville a year after I graduated. Okay. He was a good friend of my uh former roommate, and uh sorry I didn't get to know Mike in person, but he was uh quite a guy.

SPEAKER_18 1:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

And he's a Facebook friend, very much into rock and roll music, and he's a very, very intelligent man, as you can see here. I got this email, and at first I was a little bit uh I don't know how to put it, I was like, whoa, wait a minute. This is really intense.

SPEAKER_19 2:13

He he made some really uh astute observations, by the way. And I think we need to preface this, you know, because we're gonna we're gonna mention what uh Mike talked about. But uh it it is uh it's first of all, we are flattered that you would take the time, Mike, to to spend so much of your your uh your own personal time to respond to things we have mentioned on the air. Now we also m need to mention that as we do boom the podcast and we talk about the the boom generation, you know, we're we're older people, so our our memories aren't quite as good or as sharp as uh as we'd like them to be. So occasionally we miss a fact or we might, you know, not get things exactly 100%. So with that said, Mike, thank you so much for for your your attentive uh your your observations and and uh Jip, if you'd like to share what uh what we got here.

SPEAKER_02 3:08

Yeah, first of all, Mike, I think this was just incredibly insightful. I can't believe the detail that you went to to uh you encompassed everything through the entire show. And I I am really happy to see this, and I hope to see other people do the same thing and go on. Oh, by all means.

SPEAKER_18 3:27

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

So uh he started out with a kind of a comment. Apparently, I kind of nudged the bear when I mentioned that Brando is overrated, because you referred to him as one of the greatest actors. And you know, and sometimes I forget that in the 1950s he actually was one of the first actors to develop, and well not develop, but to um utilize the method acting uh way of conveying his feelings through his art.

SPEAKER_20 4:00

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 4:01

And uh I I tend to forget that. I don't personally find him all that interesting for myself as an actor. A couple things were fine, but art is subjective, so where is that? But I certainly respect your opinion.

SPEAKER_19 4:18

Um I mean Brando being overrated. I mean, there you could probably say that about any famous name in the acting business, right? They they appeal to certain people. I mean, you and I have a certain afflict uh uh affection, shall we say, for like a particular director, take David Lynch, for instance, right? David Lynch, some people they watch his his uh his materialist work and go, what? What the who who what what was that?

SPEAKER_02 4:46

Yeah, but you you and I love it.

SPEAKER_19 4:48

Yes. So there is that, right? So but uh there I can get it. I I totally understand. You know, some people might think of the the TV series Twin Peaks as an absolute waste of time. Like, what was that? But you and I, we got it in a way. You know, it's like I I you know, there is always going to be that. We have to to acknowledge that, you know, it's in the in the eye of the and the ears of the beholder.

SPEAKER_02 5:14

I'm gonna mention a couple couple more things here. Uh he uh said the I failed to mention or make uh the can Alphus connection to Bye bye Birdie, which was based on his induction into the army, which indeed it was. It was a pop star in the movie that uh ended up going to the army. And of course, before he did so, he it was a promotion to get him on the Ed Sullivan show with a teenage girl, and he would sing a song to her. As it turned out, it was Anne Margaret, he was going to be singing the song to. And uh I actually went and I found the movie and I watched it after I had read what Mike had posted, and I thought it was kind of a cute little movie. I really actually enjoyed it. Of course, you know, it's really tough to watch a movie with Anne Margaret in it. Yeah, well that's a real dirge, you know.

SPEAKER_19 6:02

I mean, we uh we have our we have our favorite film, uh Sirens, I guess is the best way to put it, and yeah, and she was uh easier on the eyes than some.

SPEAKER_02 6:15

He mentioned a lot of things. Like one he did say that uh he thought that Double Fantasy when John Lennon uh indicates that had he lived, John Lennon would have produced bland house husband music. Well, I don't agree with that. I think Double Fantasy's music was great, at least John Lennon's portion of it. I'm not gonna speak about Yokohono. But uh and as far as the Who goes, I did see them on tour after uh um Keith Moon died, and frankly, I found it a little lacking because the of the lack of the bombastic drumming. Yes. But once Zach uh Starkey joined the band, it uh kind of gained its momentum again because Keith Moon taught Zack Starkey how to play drums in his sound.

SPEAKER_19 7:07

Yep, yeah. No, it's uh it's a it's an interesting thing because and we'll have conversations like this, conversations like this a lot when we talk about music, that you know, certain bands after a certain point in their history should have just stopped, right? Um but here's the point uh a band like The Who, uh the heart of the band, of course, uh Pete Townsend and uh and his partner Roger Daltrey. I mean, it's kind of it's the Lennon McCartney, right? They're they're they had that that uh that whole heart of the of the sound, the thing that we recognize most. However, it's the layered aspect, that drum beat underneath. If it ain't what it was, then it's not the same product anymore. It's not the same thing that we we be came to fall in love with. I mean, the guy was a madman. And uh aside from what he did off the stage, which was pretty crazy, uh the fact that he when he was he was truly uh original. He was truly the uh a person that uh that that really cared about what he did as an artist. And when he died, it uh you you it's it's hard, it's very difficult to replace that, if not impossible. So uh they did do some music, and I think Pete Townsend actually found his his uh legs as a solo artist. Yeah, amazing album, yeah, empty glass. These are the kinds of things that, you know, we'll talk about stuff a lot that way. And and again, it's subjective because again, it's in the ear of the beholder, but I'm a I'm a I don't know. Uh I think about how many bands have lost members because, well, everybody's human beings. Uh let's go back to if we want to debate it, we could say, how about ACDC? Now, when Bon Scott passed away prematurely in what, 1981, I think, something like that. When he passed away prematurely, Bon Scott was the sound of ACDC. And then, you know, Brian, Brian um oh, I'm trying to think of Brian's last name. Brian comes along to replace him as the lead singer of ACDC, and it's similar, but it's not the same.

SPEAKER_20 9:20

Right.

SPEAKER_19 9:20

But ACDC went on to great heights. They went on to great uh success as as a recording band. So there is there's always going to be that debate. You know, should they should they stop? Should they keep on going? What's what's the deal? And uh the Who, like every other band, has suffered, you know, from this same problem.

SPEAKER_02 9:40

Well, thank you very much, Mike, for for your very insightful and amazing email. And I hope you continue to do such uh such uh homes again. Yeah, I think let's get into it, uh Thomas. Get into the news events of June 1962, our boom year.

SPEAKER_19 9:56

June 1962, but now how old were you at that time?

SPEAKER_02 9:59

Uh I wasn't 12 yet. 11.

SPEAKER_19 10:05

I was three. Three about to turn four. So I'm not I'm not uh gonna be very uh very effective here when it comes to my direct memories. That's okay, buddy. It's all right.

SPEAKER_02 10:19

You probably will you you'll be able to relate to some of the events.

SPEAKER_19 10:22

Oh, sure, sure. Absolutely. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 10:25

So uh why don't you start things out with June 4th?

SPEAKER_19 10:28

Oh yeah, June 4th. Now, this is pretty significant in the sense that uh uh uh the Americans were going to uh well detonate uh uh a nuclear weapon forty miles above the surface of the earth in the atmosphere. But uh thought better of it. One minute and forty seconds before. Very much, very much insane. And somebody said you know, one minute and forty seconds before they actually pushed the button down, somebody said, hang on a second. Let's think about this for a minute. And they and they didn't do it. Thank goodness, you know. Um something did happen. Yeah, so that very the very same time uh the Canadian government uh did uh generate the first or they turned on the first nuclear power uh uh uh shall we say it's nuclear power station. They demonstrated its effectiveness uh in Rolfton, uh Ontario. So nuclear power. Uh everything was nuke this, nuke that, you know.

SPEAKER_02 11:26

All right, June 5th of 1962 in June, Spider-Man, created by Stanley and Steve Ditko, was introduced by Marvel Comics with the publication of Amazing Fantasy number 15 with a cover date of August 1962. That always messed my head up because of three months ahead of the game. Anyways, uh it hits the newsstands on June 5th of 62. That same day, former U.S. Vice President Richard M. Nixon won the Republican Party nomination for governor of California to challenge the Democratic nominee Governor Pat Brown.

SPEAKER_19 12:02

Yeah, that's uh isn't that interesting that uh long before he became president, Nixon was uh was messing around with uh you know with California. And you think about what California means to us these days, you know, Nixon, there's just no way a person like Nixon would ever get elected. Just wouldn't happen. But uh those were different times. Very different times. Um by the way, this is uh a very special time this month in June. Uh that would be June 6th, in fact. Our are uh our moptops, the Beatles, did their first audition for George Martin at Abbey Road Studios. And you know, here's the weird thing. Uh they had been turned away a few times, and uh then George Martin heard or saw something in this this group of guys, these group of uh kids from Liverpool, and said, hmm, there's actually something here. Isn't that interesting?

SPEAKER_02 12:59

And of course they signed them. He signed them, and record uh uh the Please Please Me album was the first one they did back in '62. That was the first one. He asked the uh band in general, yeah. He asked the band in general if they had any thoughts after the recording session was over. And uh George Harrison said, Well, I don't well, for one, I don't like your tie. And that was actually what broke the ice, and George Martin laughed at that. He realized these guys were pretty sharp and they had a great sense of humor. Uh George Martin, by the way, used to produce uh a comedy act in Britain called The Goons.

SPEAKER_20 13:37

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:38

The Goons comedy uh recording. Um so he kind of uh he was open to you know funny guys, funny guys, funny people.

SPEAKER_19 13:48

Oh, and uh and of course George Martin had a classical music background, produced a lot of classical music, and as uh because of that had such an ear when it came to uh just uh the quality of a sound. And to this day, um, and uh and again we can talk about this at another time, but to this day, those recordings that George Martin was uh lauding over uh in the studios were so clean that uh the original master tapes, it's difficult to hear the hiss. It's it's there, but it's so clean, and he was so good at this. And of course he had great uh engineers, uh Jeff Emmerich, and of course Mal Evans, and those guys were all very, very good in the booth, and uh just did a supreme job in recording uh the the Beatles' later records, just uh extraordinary stuff. Just my just my two cents there.

SPEAKER_02 14:38

1962, June 11th, Frank Morris, John Anglin, and Clarence Anglin. Apparently those last two are bro were brothers, became the last prisoners to escape from the Alcatraz Island Federal Penitentiary. Alcatraz? Yeah.

SPEAKER_18 14:53

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 14:53

Wow, they were not recaptured, nor were their bodies ever located by searchers, and they were presumed to be uh to have drowned. Actor Clint Eastwood would later portray Morris in the 1979 film Escape from Alcatraz.

SPEAKER_19 15:08

That's a fascinating story, man. How can you get off the rock? You know, that's uh and to this day, you know, it's it's a foreboding uh place. You know, it's just like, oh my goodness, you know, how could you how could you even imagine trying to get off that place and and uh swim for uh you know, who knows? Um someday, maybe somebody on their deathbed will confess, hey, you know, I know what happened to those guys. But uh yeah, very, very amazing.

SPEAKER_02 15:34

Well, maybe they'll reopen the rock. I heard there was talk about that.

SPEAKER_19 15:39

Don't don't even start, don't even go there. Oh, okay. All right, June 12th. Let's talk about June in 1962. Uh, an odd day in history as uh the mother of the 15-year-old William Jefferson Blythe filed a petition to uh change her son's name at his request to that of her recently divorced husband. Now, uh afterwards, Blythe would be known as Bill Clinton, and we become president of the United States under that name in 1993. So his his actual name, William Jefferson Blythe.

SPEAKER_28 16:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 16:17

I did not know that.

SPEAKER_28 16:18

No idea, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 16:20

Wow. Yeah. Uh that was the same time, uh, three days before graduation, 18-year-old George Lucas, he actually survived a near fatal car crash. Uh that uh was he was involved with uh with a with a fellow student. Now, Lucas would abandon the dream to become a race car driver as a result, and thank goodness became a successful filmmaker. Aren't we lucky?

SPEAKER_02 16:51

Yeah, and uh the funny is his first uh movie of uh of note had a lot of uh cars in it.

SPEAKER_19 17:00

Yes, it did. Um well the uh the other movie before just before that, uh before American Graffiti, THX1138, uh was a sci-fi uh uh thriller, and that featured some pretty awesome vehicles too. That was uh on some big car chases. But uh yeah, George Lucas, go figure, man, almost almost uh got taken out as a student.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

Uh so I guess he was still a motorhead at heart.

SPEAKER_20 17:28

So yeah, absolutely. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 17:31

Well, June 13th, Lee Harvey Oswald arrived back in the U.S. after more than two years away. He was hanging out in Russia. Oswald, who would be accused of killing U.S. President Kennedy less than 18 months later, brought with him his wife and daughter, and future actress Alan Sheedy, known for war games and the Breakfast Club, was born on June 13th in New York City.

SPEAKER_19 17:55

All that same day. Go figure. Um June 17th, a 22-year-old Jack Nicholas, the amazing golfer, 22 years of age. He won the U.S. Open Golf Tournament in a playoff against Arnold Palmer uh at uh Oak County Country Club, and that of course is in Pennsylvania. But uh yeah, I mean, think about Jack Nicholas, man. He won more than just about everybody. And uh is still with us, by the way. Um I I've I I digress, I'm not sure. Let's see. 22 years old in 1962. Uh he's gotta be what, 90 something now? My math is oh yeah, absolutely. Jack is still with us.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

Uh he's the first golfer I remember watching on TV. I mean, I was not that old, but it was for some reason it was something about him that was somewhat compelling.

SPEAKER_20 18:50

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 18:51

For a game that I would not really be interested in that much. It was just, I remember he was my it was the first golfer I remember watching.

SPEAKER_19 18:59

He looked like he could be, you know, in his younger days, he looked like he could have been one of the Beach Boys, you know. Yeah, had that uh that California kind of look, you know. Uh but uh you know uh set the set the tone for professional golf for sure.

SPEAKER_02 19:13

June 19th, future LA Lakers girl and singer choreographer Paula Abdull was born in San Fernando, California.

SPEAKER_19 19:21

Uh June 22nd. The uh the the toxic defoliant called Agent Orange was first tested. And of course, we've heard a whole lot more about that during the Vietnam War generation. Indeed, yeah. Uh what a terrible, terrible thing, this defoliant, and uh it caused a lot of health issues, obviously for the people that that it directly affected in Vietnam, but also among the soldiers and the uh the technicians there uh in the uh the U.S. forces, and uh lots of lawsuits. Lots and lots of lawsuits. So uh infamous day.

SPEAKER_02 19:58

June 24th, a visiting New York Yankees defeated the Detroit Tigers 9-7 in a baseball game that took a record seven hours to complete, running from 1.30 in the afternoon to 8 30 p.m. after being tied seven to seven at the end of usual nine innings.

SPEAKER_19 20:15

That's extraordinary. Seven hours. Um, do you remember the the George Carlin routine? Baseball versus football?

SPEAKER_02 20:24

Vaguely.

SPEAKER_19 20:25

Yeah, so George Carlin has one line uh baseball is pastoral. We don't know when it's gonna end. So there's proof right there. Seven hours. Oh my goodness. Uh after being seven to seven, uh oh man, that's yeah. Anyway, I I like baseball. No, no, no harm on baseball. It's a great, great sport. It's a it's an American pastime. So anyway. Oh man. Um 1962. I'm I'm trying to think now. Uh at the time, uh as a as a very young child, at the age of three, we were not in uh the house that we ended up in ultimately. Uh we were still in a place called West Sand Lake, which is just outside of the Albany, New York area. And uh uh I don't know if it was that summer necessarily. It might have been, but uh I don't know if I told you the story before, but in that summer, uh I wandered as a as a youngster uh into the into the road and stopped traffic in both directions uh without my parents being aware until they started hearing uh hawns, horn the screeching tires and horns honking. I just wandered out into the middle of the of the main thoroughfare in West Sand Lake, New York. Uh thank goodness people saw me because otherwise I w you and I wouldn't be talking today.

SPEAKER_28 21:47

I'm grateful for that.

SPEAKER_19 21:50

And it could have been 1962, right about this time, in fact.

SPEAKER_02 21:53

So Yeah, I actually had a similar uh situation happen to me. I was probably eight years old, though. Okay. And uh my mother asked me to to go to the store, which is about three or four blocks away, and get some soda for my uh younger sibling who was not feeling very well. And I did, and I came back on my I was riding my bike and I came back and uh I got hit by a car.

SPEAKER_19 22:21

Oh, you actually got hit by a car.

SPEAKER_02 22:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 22:24

Oh, no kidding.

SPEAKER_02 22:25

And uh apparently the car hit me, I slid onto the hood, and then apparently I would have been alright, because he stopped short.

SPEAKER_04 22:35

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 22:37

Just like whacked my bike and I I flipped onto the car.

SPEAKER_19 22:40

Oh, so you're on you're on your bike when you got hit then.

SPEAKER_02 22:42

Yeah, then I fell off the hood and I hit my head on the broken glass.

SPEAKER_19 22:48

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 22:48

Oh, fractured my skull.

SPEAKER_19 22:50

Jeez, wow.

SPEAKER_02 22:52

Yeah, that probably explains a lot. I can't I can't prove it.

SPEAKER_19 22:57

You've done well. You've done well, I have to say. Yeah. So anyway, so hey, lots of um lots of really cool products and commercials back in the day. I always enjoy listening to the old uh spots because they bring back such memories. But of course, in 1962, uh we had uh lots of car commercials out there, like the latest models uh for summer, including the Chevrolet station wagon. Uh their their slogan was see the USA in your Chevrolet.

SPEAKER_02 23:26

Indeed. Yeah, very, very yeah, that's actually very familiar to me.

SPEAKER_19 23:31

Yeah, and they and they brought that back recently. Did you notice that? 2026, they brought back the jingle.

SPEAKER_02 23:37

Oh, I've seen that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 23:42

And they they brought it back. It's now being used in their uh their current campaign.

SPEAKER_02 23:46

Yeah, we're gonna hear some audio from the commercials in a couple minutes here. But one one of the things that was funny that that when I was doing this was the Studebaker lark. Oh, hey, that is a cool car. It was interesting because it it went the way of the dinosaur. Chevy's bigger than ever, but the Studebaker, yeah, not so much.

SPEAKER_19 24:07

Yeah. Well, you know, the Studebaker, I had cousins who had a couple of them, and they were very comfortable, very uh, I as I recall, very um uh modern uh cars. Uh more modern more so than a lot of the cars on the road in those days. But it's just like everything else, economically speaking, they put so much time and effort and quality into the Studebaker, it was very difficult to maintain, very hard to uh to keep that uh going with all the competition with Chevy Ford and and of course Chrysler. So but uh yeah, we we uh lament the Studebaker.

SPEAKER_02 24:40

Yes. Well, we have some summer food and beverages that we certainly enjoyed.

SPEAKER_19 24:44

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 24:44

And uh the spring and summer of 1962. Maybe not you and me, but because we weren't gonna be drinking Valentine beer. That's right. Is that true?

SPEAKER_19 25:01

Yep. I d I remember specifically the name Ballantine beer because that's something that my dad had, you know, the cans of that stuff in the in the fridge. Um and it's funny too, because later on in life, once I became legal when it came to drinking, um, I I did sample some of that, and it was horrible. It was not good.

SPEAKER_02 25:23

Yeah. Well, and on on something for the kids, though, we did enjoy our hostess donuts. Oh, yeah. Very light and fluffy dough.

SPEAKER_19 25:34

Mm-hmm. So remember, let's see, hostess, sugar, sugar, sugar. Yes, hostess donuts, but also hostess ho ho's. Uh let's see, there was um, oh, they had these pies, fruit pies, hostess fruit pies. Uh, I think the apple was my favorite. That was that was great stuff.

SPEAKER_02 25:51

Uh there was Baker's fine-grated coconut. I don't really remember that very much. Moving on, magazines were very, very popular and as as they continue to be since the 60s. June 62, we had Look Magazine and Reader's Digest, prominently featured campaign for uh such things as the Milky Way candy bar. And once you finished your candy bar, you could uh take out a you could enjoy a Newport or a Camel cigarette.

SPEAKER_19 26:23

Ah, yes. Uh yes. By the way, um the f the very first cigarette that I ever smoked uh as a teenager was a Newport. And because it was menthol and it, you know, and it seemed cool. Um, but uh yeah, that in fact my entire crew, all the people that I hung out with in those days, we all smoked the the the Newport, probably for the first six to eight months of our of our foray into tobacco.

SPEAKER_02 26:52

Big my father smoked camel.

SPEAKER_19 26:54

Oh, okay. They were unfiltered and oh yes, yeah. Unfiltered. Uh you remember Lucky Strike? Same same thing.

SPEAKER_02 27:04

It was a man's cigarette.

SPEAKER_19 27:05

Oh yes, it was. Oh, yes, it was. It's funny how they uh they they talked about the camel cigarette Turkish blend. So I'm not sure what that meant in in the sense of tobacco, whether Turkish blend was supposed to be better or more more uh more robust.

SPEAKER_28 27:25

Probably, yeah.

SPEAKER_19 27:26

Yeah. So anyway. Uh do you remember the band-aid? Yes, of course. Yeah. So the band-aid was being highly marketed towards the uh in the summertime because of uh kids you know being out in the in the uh the warm summer air and getting injured. Uh so band-aid was uh was a big thing being advertised in those days, making sure that hey, you you know, scrapes and s and cuts are gonna happen. Just a thing.

SPEAKER_02 27:53

By the way, I have a bone to pick with band-aid right now because I scraped my hand the other the uh about a week or so ago. Okay. And I'm going to find a band-aid that's gonna fit this probably uh half an inch scrape. Okay. And you either have a really tiny band-aid, a tiny pad on this long strip, or you have to go out and get a five-foot band-aid to wrap around your hands. You know, back when I was a kid, they used to be, you know, maybe they were large enough so you would cover the wound, but not anymore. Now you have to improvise.

SPEAKER_19 28:32

I think you're on to something here. I think there's there's gonna be maybe uh somebody in the fashion world needs to say, hey, we need to make band-aids cool again, man.

SPEAKER_02 28:41

You know, I mean, come on.

SPEAKER_19 28:43

And make them but they don't they don't stick.

SPEAKER_02 28:46

They fall right off.

SPEAKER_19 28:49

And we're about to get that cease and desist lawyer law law law letter from the uh the law office is a band-aid, I'm sure, uh, for uh dissing their product.

SPEAKER_28 28:59

No, other than that's agree.

SPEAKER_05 29:00

They're hell.

SPEAKER_19 29:02

They've been around for what, you know, uh 60 years now, something like that or more.

SPEAKER_02 29:07

I hope I didn't I hope uh I hope my friend Mike doesn't have an affinity for band-aids.

SPEAKER_19 29:15

You know, you you should have mentioned uh their their uh their competition, Curat, you know, that would be that would have been a uh a worthwhile thing to do.

SPEAKER_02 29:25

But yeah, let's rub some salt in the wound.

SPEAKER_19 29:27

Yeah, right. Now speaking of fashion, we should probably talk in 1962 what was happening in fashion trends. And dude, I mean, of course, we're in the middle of Camelot, right? Camelot.

SPEAKER_02 29:39

Yes, yes. A true, a true mecca for couture, yes, couture gowns, etc. Women embraced the polished, tailored elegance popular popularized by First Lady Jackie Kennedy, while younger crowds pioneered a new era of youthful, easy-to-wear style.

SPEAKER_19 30:01

Uh pray tell what what exactly we're talking about, easy to wear. Little nothing?

SPEAKER_02 30:06

Sleeveless and slim shift. I have no idea. I can't try to imagine what that looked like. I don't remember.

SPEAKER_19 30:13

That's actually the the name of it, Little Nothing Dress. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 30:17

Um coat dresses and separate matching sleeveless or semi-fitted dresses paired with edge-to-edge duster coats.

SPEAKER_19 30:25

Duster coats. Okay. Now we're speaking uh uh a language uh uh of which I do not understand, but that's okay. I get it.

SPEAKER_02 30:32

I'm sure our listeners don't either, so maybe we'll just leave it at that. Now on the accessories, of course, the pillbox hat was very, very that I know what that is.

SPEAKER_19 30:40

I know what a pillbox hat is, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:41

No, I mean Bob Dylan apparently liked them too.

SPEAKER_19 30:44

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, he did.

SPEAKER_02 30:45

He liked leopard skin pillbox hats.

SPEAKER_19 30:49

Specific kind of pillbox hat.

SPEAKER_02 30:52

Um don't forget the square-toed pumps.

SPEAKER_19 30:55

Oh, yes. Square toes. Now that was kind of a thing too later on in the 70s. I know um, you know, having square-toed shoes and boots uh that seemed to be m very mawed in 1970, 71. But uh 62 is where it kind of kicked in, I guess, right? Square-toed pumps.

SPEAKER_03 31:13

Right.

SPEAKER_19 31:15

How about uh the the guys, the guys in those days? You think about this, you know, it was all about um the buzz cut. You know, you know, they were cutting their hair, and of course, uh if you're wearing, you know, anything for for business, it had to be a classically styled suit, you know. Uh widened shoulders, uh, you know, earth tones, navy brown, oh god forbid, brown, and gray.

unknown 31:39

Right.

SPEAKER_19 31:40

Gray suits. Uh kind of like the the the madman look that we saw on TV uh a few years ago and on Turner Classic movies. It's uh it's funny. Uh I d I just can't imagine wearing a suit for the and and this is something that that men did all the time. It wasn't uh wasn't uh in fact, it was uh if you didn't dress in a suit, you were kind of considered some sort of a schlep.

SPEAKER_02 32:03

So yeah, well, remember the slim ties, button-down shirts of slim ties. Oh yeah. You were you were three years old, I don't think you really gave a damn.

SPEAKER_19 32:12

Well, I I mean in retrospect, I remember the skinny tie, you know, and then it came back, skinny ties came back in 1977-78 for the new wave era, you know. So everything comes around again in fashion for sure.

SPEAKER_02 32:26

At any rate, let's hear some of those commercials that we've been talking about here from 1962, we talked about, and we will move on and return with page two of your boom year, June 1962.

SPEAKER_08 32:39

If you're off on a family vacation, try the Chevrolet Impala wagon. It has room for kids and kids and kids. This Impella wagon carries all the family, and with that handy extra cost top carrier, all the gear for the great time comes with you. Get a new Chevrolet station wagon.

SPEAKER_24 34:02

Know how to make summer worth living? I'm a bear for frozen Milky Way. Somehow, when you freeze the good food candy bar, the rich milk chocolate and the chewy caramel and the fluffy chocolatey center tastes different. Frozen Milky Way. Almost unbearably good.

SPEAKER_02 34:23

Tom, let's talk about movies. Movies 1962? It was June. Yes, June 1962.

SPEAKER_19 34:30

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 34:31

You remember Big Red?

SPEAKER_19 34:32

Big Red, that's a Disney film, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 34:35

You were three years old. Do you remember going to see that?

SPEAKER_19 34:39

I might have been a little young for that, but I'm but but I do remember seeing it as a as a youngster because uh, you know, a lot of those things came onto TV eventually, onto uh the wonderful world of Disney. And uh you know it's funny.

SPEAKER_02 34:51

I don't remember I I I saw a lot of Disney movies, obviously, when I was younger, but I don't remember that one.

SPEAKER_19 34:57

Yeah. No, it's uh odd. It's definitely uh uh I think when we think about Big Red, I mean it was about this uh this Irish setter dog that had been orphaned. You know, Disney was so good at pulling on the heartstrings, right? You know. Um there was another one, I've forgotten the name of it now, but it featured uh an orange cat that uh that was uh somehow injured or or uh hurt.

SPEAKER_02 35:23

Was it that darn cat?

SPEAKER_19 35:25

That might have been it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it might have been that darn cat. But anyway, you know, I I I uh I think that's something that Walt Disney was quite good at, you know, when it came to uh live-action films, especially.

SPEAKER_02 35:38

Now, this is very interesting because I don't I don't I didn't see this movie until probably I don't know, 15 years ago. Oh Stanley Kubrick's acclaimed boundary-pushing black comedy, Lolita. Yeah, yeah, it's from James Mason, Sue Lyon is the young lady in a sh a shockingly creepy Peter Sellers.

SPEAKER_19 36:04

Peter Sellers, man, he was he was uh he was a chameleon. He was really he was a chameleon, he could do anything. Um a brilliant guy. I still remember, you know, obviously, um the the Pink Panther series, you know, with with Peter Sellers, just just his most successful, but this is prior to that, you know. Uh and of course he also we talked about this last episode with how I learned to love the bomb. And uh, you know, that uh that he played five characters in one movie. But uh this one, yeah, especially creepy role for Peter Sellers.

SPEAKER_02 36:42

It's quite shocking, actually. Uh you'll you'll hear that in a few minutes here. That Touch of Me came out on June 14, 62. It's another rom-com. It starred Cary Grant and Doris Day. And it's funny, I've I've watched a couple of these movies now with Doris Day or Carrie Grant in them with a female co-star, and they are pretty much cookie cutter.

SPEAKER_19 37:05

It's uh yeah, yeah. It's interesting. Well, you know, Cary Grant, no matter what he appears in, just classes up the joint. You know, that's just kind of the first thing. And of Doris Day, I mean, she was so uh so well loved and so um dude.

SPEAKER_02 37:20

It's Doris Day, yeah.

SPEAKER_19 37:21

And Doris Day, um, in which Doris gets her oats. Um Wow.

SPEAKER_29 37:32

You actually went there.

SPEAKER_19 37:37

Wow. I couldn't help myself. Good one, Tom. Good.

SPEAKER_27 37:41

But uh Jimmy's start, he was a Mr. Hopps Takes a Vacation.

SPEAKER_19 37:47

Oh, Jimmy Stewart, yes. Uh he was again, you know, he was one of uh America's treasures. You know, you think about all the different people that have come and gone on the big screen. And Jimmy Stewart, if you didn't like the guy, there was something wrong with you. Plain and simple, you know. How could you not like James Stewart? And of course, Maureen O'Hara, another really terrific, uh, terrific co-star there. But uh Mr. Hobb takes a vacation. Mr. Hobbs, I should say, takes a vacation.

SPEAKER_02 38:17

Yeah. So uh Cape Fear.

SPEAKER_19 38:20

Oh wow. Good movie. Oh wow. Good movie.

SPEAKER_02 38:24

Psychological thriller storing Gregory Peck and Robert Mitcham. Uh there had been two versions, actually, now there are three versions of Cape Fear. It was another movie with uh who was in the second movie.

SPEAKER_19 38:38

That was more uh what the 80s, I think. Yeah when Cape Fear was done again. But but oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_02 38:44

Basically, uh a convicted convict is released from prison and he goes on a little revenge tour. It's the lawyer who prosecuted him.

SPEAKER_20 38:56

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 38:57

Uh I gotta tell you something. It's funny, I just I forgot that I had uh I had written this into the events of that uh year. I just watched Kate Fear on uh one of the streaming channels to do uh a new series with Amy Adams playing the the wife. I'm not sure who plays the husband and recognizing.

SPEAKER_20 39:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 39:22

Um it is absolutely uh incredible. I've only watched the first episode. It's actually it's actually a a series as opposed to a interesting but it was a little bit of a slow burn, very much, very much in the same plot as the original movie, but the last scene I'm not gonna say anything, you're gonna need to watch it.

SPEAKER_20 39:45

It's just yeah, stunning.

SPEAKER_02 39:48

I was like, I don't know, I don't know if I'm gonna keep watching this. I don't know, it's all right. Wow, wow, wow, wow.

SPEAKER_19 39:54

Anyway, you know, yeah, and I gotta say, Gregory Pike, you know, he's always the good guy, it seems, but Robert Mitchum was such a great bad guy. He was so good at that, and and just scary as hell. I mean, just you know, I still remember watching that uh when I was younger and just going, man, I had no idea how good that guy, uh, how good Robert Mitchum was as a as an actor. He was great.

SPEAKER_02 40:19

You know, um almost like him, I always enjoyed watching him.

SPEAKER_20 40:23

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:24

Uh Thunder Road, probably my favorite Robert Mitchum movie.

SPEAKER_20 40:28

Yep. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 40:29

Well, going getting back in 62, we got the music man, which was a um uh obviously a musical, beloved musical, and starring Robert Preston as the charming con man, Professor Harold Hill.

SPEAKER_19 40:41

Here's the funny thing about this. I do distinctly remember, you know, watching that movie as a youngster, and I was so enamored by Robert Preston. I thought this guy, you know, and of course, he's supposed to be a bad guy, you know, in in reality, but it's it turns out he's a pretty talented individual, you know, and he gets uh brings music to a community that desperately needed it. And you know, it's kind of um, oh, I don't know, it just the all the songs were so well crafted, and uh his performance is just stunning. Robert Preston, just just amazing.

SPEAKER_02 41:15

Sam Peckenpower went on to do some groundbreaking movies in the 60s. One of his first ones was Ride the The High Country, a classic Western. Yeah. Randolph Scott and Joel McCray. Didn't do all that well at the box office, but it was uh probably a fine movie in its own right. If you get a chance to watch it, I'm sure how how bad it can it be?

SPEAKER_19 41:38

I think you know with Sam Pecken Pie, you know. Here's a here's a quick uh just aside here for us is uh for Boom the podcast. We need to do a special episode just about the Western, just just that by itself and how it impacted us as a generation. Because the Western, you know, it was wasn't that long, you know, after the the West had been settled and uh the boom generation came along. And it was so distinctly woven into our culture. Now you still see it, you know, to this day, but um it's it's depicted in different ways. And of course, more recently you've got all these uh newer TV series, uh you know, um Yellowstone and uh which I'm I'm addicted to all of us. Yeah, exactly. Right. Yeah. So those things. But I think we need to do follow that that history because it really does uh impact us as a generation, uh, and it continues to do so as an echo. But but I think the the Western, we need to do something about that in the near future, just saying.

SPEAKER_02 42:45

Let me ask you a question. Were you were you more impacted by m Western movies or Western TV shows?

SPEAKER_19 42:52

I would say Western movies at times because really they because they could tell uh the arc of a story more effectively. And uh, you know, it's funny because uh even even something as as kind of um homogenized as uh John Wayne in his later years, there are a couple movies he he appeared in which I thought were were pretty good. Rooster Cogburn is one of them. Um but um the uh true grit was also a a really a good film. Um and Kim Darby in True Grit was was quite excellent. But you know, I think it was the movies because my dad and I we kind of had a thing. We'd go to the the the Western movies together because my mother didn't care, you know. So he would take me to to these western movies that he liked. And um, you know, the when Clint Eastwood was introduced into the the shall we say the mix uh in what the late sixties, early seventies, then things took took a more dark turn, you know, when it came to some of those films. But some of those are just great uh tales of of uh morality. Morality and uh and how kind reflected what we were going through as a society. I think that this is uh I think we need to and we need to get somebody who's an expert at it, you know, just to talk to us about, hey, what happened to us? Why do we why we're so enamored by the West, by the the old West.

SPEAKER_02 44:15

Well I suppose uh the superhero movies are the new Westerns. I don't remember actually caring very much about Western movies back in the day. In the early sixties or fifties, I was I I loved the TV shows.

SPEAKER_18 44:29

Oh the shows, of course, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:31

Once this case this speaks about my mentality. Once they got darker thanks to people like Clint Eastwood and others, uh I found myself appreciating them more.

SPEAKER_19 44:44

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah no there's and there's some really excellent uh directors that that were involved as well you know it's just it's uh I think again I think it deserves lots of attention uh in the in the near future here for us one more movie of No Boys Night out June 21st that uh hit hit the movie screens in 1962.

SPEAKER_23 45:03

Romantic comedy starring Kim Novak James Garner and Tony Randall Tony Randall wow Tony Randall he was a movie star before he became a T V star yeah indeed yes huh Tony Randall what do you what do you think of Tony as as uh just overall as a as an actor what do you what are your what are your opinions of him no he he's fantastic he was fantastic yeah I mean he uh to me just he he was the best uh Felix there could ever be yeah yes right his his role as Felix on the TV show uh the odd couple I mean there's just well you know he just nailed it and uh quin quintessential I mean obviously Jack Lemon did a good job in the movie but Tony Randall just uh owned it yeah just owned it so well what do you say we listen to some uh some of the some scenes or here some some audio from some of these movies and uh we'll come back and take a gander at TV in June 1562 just a minute yeah listen listen didn't you didn't you have a daughter didn't you have a daughter with a lovely name yeah a lovely what was it now a lovely lyrical lilting name like uh Lolita quite a lot I noticed when you was checking in you had a lovely pretty little girl with you she was really lovely I as a matter of fact she wasn't so little I'm the thing about she was fairly taller well I mean taller than little you I mean she was really lovely I wish I had a lovely pretty little lovely little girl like that I mean that's what I'm doing your daughter she have a lovely tall pretty little small double like that is really wonderful disgusting I'm kissing if you do mine it's Carrie Grant in affairs of the heart he's an irresistible force and Dora Stay in affairs of the heart she's an immovable object and when they meet a man picks you up off the street drags you up to his office tricks you into taking your clothes off and then propositions you what can you expect from a man like that respect me the year's most sophisticated love is fun affairs whatever your age there's a million laughs for every member of the family as Jimmy Stewart and his family spend the riotous vacation in this beautiful beautiful cottage by the sea if this house was good enough for Edgar Allan Poe it's good enough for us Mr.

SPEAKER_15 47:29

Hobbs takes a vacation as a 1962 comedy film directed by Henry Costum and stars James Stewart as Roger Hobbs there isn't a single same situation in this whole crazy mixed up to be sure I'm adjust from to maintain 50 pounds pressure or else you'll blow up the whole damn place.

SPEAKER_19 47:47

From babysitting to baby from the duck level to the torrent twist from sunbathing the sailboating it's a rubbish feel suspense suspense that grips your heart in the vice feel fear something paralyzing fear hate fear of it hate fear que's most terrifying worst but you you are the lowest you just put the law in my hand and I'm gonna break your heart with it I got a little plan for your wife and kids they're never gonna forget never well what was on the boob tube in June 1962 Pray Tell what was on the boob tube Tom Robinson could look at you saw a lot of variety shows to see color TV you lucky you lucky boy color TV and uh classic sitcoms yeah yeah no and it's it's interesting because some of these had uh you know long a long life a long life um but I wasn't unaware of this one television show it was one of those specials uh CBS musical comedy with Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall now I had no idea at this stage that Julie Andrews and Carol Burnett had worked together. I just didn't know it. I I I wasn't aware of this until I was producer writing this uh segment yeah for the show for the podcaster I don't even remember that and here's the amazing thing they're both still with us yeah you know that is that is publishing Carol Burnett is still active I mean she's out there you know uh making appearances on on on occasions and just uh astounding that to think in 1962 they worked together uh both you know probably relatively young at the time but uh they're still with us and uh what how lucky we are for both of them for sure. Yeah we can thank Carol Burnett for the uh downfall of Saul Goodman Oh if you yeah now if you miss that inference it's okay that's all right because we have little Well I think maybe you better call Saul oh man I would I wish I would love someday if we could just talk about that show but that's that doesn't necessarily reflect the boomer generation. Just saying just saying I know okay uh what about uh Alfred Hitchcock now he had his own show Alfred Hitchcock presentation yeah wasn't that wasn't that amazing they had this like this this uh pencil outline of his of his form you know yeah uh but from to from the side and he would step into that that penciled in form on the screen yeah this really uh really dry sense of humor but it was all meant to be taken you know uh it comically but then the the the shows on that that were featured there were different different uh stories being told every time so you had different actors and different different people appearing in these different weird tales um a little bit of Twilight zone but not quite yeah yeah great drama though oh yeah yeah he he was uh one of the greats um I again I think you know if we ever talk about just great directors of the boom generation he is going to be right there I would say in the top three when it comes to directors you know um but uh yeah Alfred Hitchcock presents man I used to love that as a kid and in reruns especially because I wasn't old enough to know daytime television was hopping morning and afternoon grids relied on classic daytime game shows oh yes game shows yes networks featuring shows like Password Price is right and something called say when say what don't don't remember that I've never heard of that what's the last thing like one say when say when say when by the way though the price is right is still on the air still still going so there's there's longevity. Another thing about password though uh Alan Ludden he hosted the show do you remember Alan Ludden? Oh yeah yeah and uh he was a radio guy yeah that's where he came from a lot of those hosts of those game shows were former radio people uh Wink Martindale you know these these dudes um Bob Eubanks they're all radio people I I I couldn't do that because I I I have a face for radio ditto that's why this podcast is is audio only just saying the for the for the for the benefit of both both me and me and Chip and you and the audience they would be they would be amused no well anyway primetime Tom we had the untouchables the untouchables Robert Stack oh yes oh yes on EBC mm-hmm mm-hmm uh hazel was uh was another one um do you remember hazel oh yeah yeah the mishaps of uh uh a living maid yes you will in DC here's here's the funny thing about this because you know we don't even think about indentured servitude anymore we don't think about maids or or butlers or sure she got paid uh oh no no no doubt but I'm just saying that you know to to base a sitcom around a character who is actually considered a a quote unquote paid helper um and and you know I again you know our generation was getting away from the idea you would be hiring or or uh employing somebody who'd go into your house and take care of your house for you whereas we're more about self-reliance and taking care of our own homes and you know maybe we'll have somebody come over and clean once in a while but we don't have somebody hanging out the entire time. Do you remember what was the name of I'm just gonna say um the oh the TV show uh the Brady Bunch with with uh their maid Alice Yeah yeah it again I it just it it it blows my mind that there was a time uh that we would think of this as being normal or kind of a regular uh ordinary everyday middle class thing to have an indentured you know indentured servant in your house you know well that was a big family well of course I mean six kids but I mean hey uh I just I gotta wonder how much that reflects actual you know uh American life yeah right yeah I don't know nobody I knew had a I mean w I grew up in Orlando which was you know pretty upscale for the time sure and I don't uh nobody had a mate yeah I don't remember it either I don't didn't know anybody that had uh uh somebody who was in the house as a paid uh a paid uh uh indentured servant um anyway so what oh do you remember Red Skeleton oh yeah yeah crazy yeah yeah that was uh very funny man one of my dad's favorite shows yeah you know well you know I want to know Lord what what are we gonna do about the beaver the beaver yes that's the big the big question of the day there's always a big question and that's the big one right there we always had to leave it to beaver and you know here's the other thing too um maybe this is an offshoot of um do you remember the the the little rascals the 30s the 40s yeah oh yeah you know uh spanky in our gang those guys and then there's the the um the bowery boys the bowery boys there they're kind of like uh a gang of kids so uh kids you know became like the focus of of a lot of sitcoms and not the we least of which was the was the The Beaver uh and Leave It to Beaver and um I'm just trying to think now it it it it when did that start? When was when was Leave It to Beaver first aired?

SPEAKER_02 56:53

I think this was like the the fifth season because he was a little he was I was kind of startled I was I was watching a segment from the show and he was probably like thir twelve or thirteen now getting older yeah it would it really was and I forgot and I I don't I don't mean I wasn't sure I was even watching the show at that point.

SPEAKER_19 57:11

Right.

SPEAKER_02 57:12

Because it wasn't quite the same thing. I mean yeah well he he aged out right I mean it just yeah he did he was he start he was starting to age out yeah yeah yeah so it it's like you got a very smart just kind of a smart ass teenager like the like the rest of us.

SPEAKER_19 57:29

Not so endearing after a while. Yeah and you think about um you know shows like Dennis the Menace you know there was uh you know uh Jay um I'm trying to think of his last right jay north uh I hated that show right um and Mr. Wilson you know he was just uh this this cranky old uh neighbor um and just seemed so and apparently from what we're told later on Jay North came out to say he was being abused it's like oh okay that's not good um so um and I've been hearing he he was a Bennis you know right right did they ever refer to you as Dennis the Mattis I'm just curious okay you ready for this by the way obviously my first name is Dennis Dennis Chiptop I actually had somebody a month ago say to me oh do they call you Dennis the Menace like you've never heard that my whole flippin' life why you chip yep that's and uh and and uh rightly so rightly so that isn't that interesting you know like I try to rise above it which you've done successfully you know thank you very much yes absolutely um so uh Richard Chamberlain was Dr. Kildare on NBC back in the day and uh I think the heartthrob of many a many a lady of those and you know we thought back at the time after after the uh the end of Dr. Kildare which probably ended like in what 64 maybe even I wasn't sure exactly 65 maybe but he had a second life in the 70s as star of the uh a couple of mini series the Thornbird Thornbirds yes yeah and uh what was the other one um oh the name of Shogun Shogan yeah yeah yeah yeah go figure right amazing yeah yeah good actor good actor by the way was was he actually English I don't know I always kind of um he kind of had a little bit of an affectation in his voice at times maybe he was just uh uh taking that on as a character trait or something like that when he was in uh certain things anyway um who could forget now we talked about this earlier you know westerns and of course who could forget little hoss or big or big haas big hospitals uh Michael Landon and Lauren Green and Dan Packer uh the family oh there was also what was the uh the older brother's name let me think about this in Bonanza uh he wasn't on the show after a while he he drifted off uh what was his name he always wore a black hat and I can't think of his name now I can see his last name his his actual name was Dr is it Drury Drury? I've forgotten now I've forgotten but you know he was a pretty good actor you know in his time and I think he maybe he just felt you know maybe typecast uh in the uh in the role on Bonanza but uh they found less and less for him to do as uh as one of the family but uh regardless you know the main three Lauren Green and uh and of course Haas Pernel Roberts Purnell Roberts there you go Purnell Roberts Pernel Roberts just he played Adam Adam that's it and dri drifted away ultimately uh from the show itself and it was just it's funny near the end of Bonanza as it got closer and closer to the end of the decade uh it was more about uh about little Joe you know right uh uh the the the Michael Landon character uh for some reason and I'm not maybe that's because they was a he was a pop star oh of course of course yeah that's uh I gotta tell you a funny I don't have I have I told you this story when I met I met him you met him Michael Landon have I mentioned this on the show no you have not okay it was in Orlando I was well I was probably I don't know thirteen okay wow a teenager maybe four maybe fourteen okay and they and they had a telethon in downtown Orlando and a buddy and I went went down there to see it and they had Michael hand in there for my meeting where you could just go in basically stand in line and go through the line and he'd shake his hands and say hi to him and you you'd move on he'd move on he'd give you his autograph if you wanted and I've never I've never been starstruck by anybody on that in radio whatever I've never really been starstruck per se and I wasn't with him but I walked up to him and I was kind of like look I'm looking at him and I'm going I'm thinking he's got the bushiest eyebrows I've ever seen in my life and he's talking to me and I'm like having an out of body experience looking at his freaking eyebrows you know and I shake his hand and I walk away I'm like that's hilarious the bushiest eyebrows yeah oh man well um there there someday we'll have to talk about you know who's the who's the most disappointing celebrity you ever met.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:25

Well I thought I thought he was interesting oh okay nice guy right not for the reason I thought I would find him interesting but he's bushy eyebrows that's great and uh and and only a kid like staring at a forest oh that's great that's the best oh my goodness no we have not heard that before um all right on that note um there's a we're gonna take a break here we'll go back we're gonna be back after page three and do some more pop culture from the boom year in June 62 but first let's get a taste of the audio from TV shows that aired that month that year June 1962 we'll be right backing ladies and gentlemen and welcome to a new season of Alfred Hitchcock Presents Good night this is the talented star of stage and screen young and beautiful Jane Fonda thank you and this is my partner Chester Kimball from Woodbury New Jersey this is the distinguished film star of two continents James Mason hello and this is my partner Noreen Richtenwald of Jackson Heights and now we are all assembled to play the game Password and now here's your host on Password Alan Ludden the Untouchable Decimal production tonight's episode The Getting War starring Robert Staff S L F Mess co-starring Victor Bonough Bruce Gortz John Timothy by Walter Witchell leave it to beavers starring Barbara Billingsley Hugh Bauman Tony Daw and Jerry Mathers as the beaver I hope you're all wondering what I'm going to do on the new

SPEAKER_06 1:06:00

Red skeleton hour next season. So I thought I'd just answer that question for you right now. I don't have the slightest idea. One thing is for sure that I'm going to be just myself. I'm just going to be completely honest with myself. Um whoever I am, um, that's kind of what the show is gonna be like. Check me out, boys. Okay, black.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:52

Okay, it's June 1962, our boom year, and uh this is podcast number four. So like just like a stroll down Broadway.

SPEAKER_19 1:07:02

Broadway. Yeah. Of course.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:04

And the top Broadway shows that were happening in that month, in that year, you may have been born at uh particular time.

SPEAKER_19 1:07:13

Yep. Mm-hmm. This is our era. This is the boom year. Um, boy, you know, if you're if you're um in the know and really in it when it came to uh Broadway shows, you had to, had to, had to go to go to see uh Zero Mastel in uh in uh A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Uh and what a brilliant piece, you know, uh with music and of course the uh just the the whole plot line. Uh funny thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:43

I didn't know this, but that was Stephen Sondheim's first writing of music and lyrics for a Broadway score. I mean, really gig. Oh wow, his very first. No idea.

SPEAKER_19 1:07:55

Geez. Uh what a great what a great way to launch a career. My goodness. Geez, that's intense.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:03

That's quite a long time ago, actually. So he's been doing this stuff a long time.

SPEAKER_19 1:08:07

Yeah, Sunheim, I mean, you know, how many we have to go look it up, I think. We know see how many he's actually produced, how many things he's done when it comes to music and and uh just songs for for Broadway plays, etc. He's gotta be one of the top, probably one of the top five um of all time when it comes to success. So wow, very cool. What else is on stage?

SPEAKER_02 1:08:30

Um No Strings. I've never heard of this. It was a Richard Rogers, uh, I believe he was half of the Rogers and Hammerstein team.

SPEAKER_19 1:08:39

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:40

We wrote the music and lyrics, both the music and lyrics for this uh musical set in Paris, starring Diane Carroll.

SPEAKER_19 1:08:47

Diane Carroll, no, she was terrific. She was a really, really extraordinary performer and great actor. She was wonderful. Yeah, yeah. Uh a lot of a lot of uh, of course, in those days, uh setting a lot of precedence when it came to African American uh performers. And uh she was one of them. So and uh there's another one called I Can Get It For You Wholesale, which sounds like I don't either. Sounds like quite quite a line though. Maybe uh maybe somebody uh maybe a con man or something, you know. Uh but Bob Bob Baba Babwa Streithand, I'm sorry, Barbara Streisand.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:28

It started Barbara, yeah.

SPEAKER_19 1:09:30

Babwa. Um and uh was directed by Arthur Laurentis or Lorentz, sorry, Arthur Lorentz. I gotta gotta pre-read this stuff. Um anyway, it's uh it you know, Broadway to this day, you know, just so many great things. Did you watch the Tony Awards recently?

SPEAKER_02 1:09:50

No, I did not see that.

SPEAKER_19 1:09:51

Yeah, it's it's pretty astounding how many remakes uh were given Tony Awards. Um I'm I don't know uh the the names escape me, but a few things that uh that came around again uh that uh that have been you know reproduced on stage and and again receiving accolades and awards. But um it's like what it's like fashion. What goes round comes around. And uh there's nothing original in entertainment. Um at least not uh usually anyway. But uh just seems to be the state of things, especially when it comes to uh to Broadway plays.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 1:10:25

Well, all right then.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:26

Let's you know, let's let's uh let's check out what's happening in the bookstore.

SPEAKER_19 1:10:32

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:33

Now the New York Times only released a combined bestsellers list during the newspaper strikes that was going on then. Uh these works led to widespread sales charts and cultural discussions throughout the whole summer of 1962. I want to mention one thing, Tom. All of these books, every one we're gonna talk about here briefly, all became screenplays and were produced as movies. Really? Every single one.

SPEAKER_19 1:11:02

Every single one. No kidding.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:04

It was all within the next seven six or seven years.

SPEAKER_19 1:11:06

Huh.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:07

All in the sixties. Well, I think that's one of them was actually remade in 1998.

SPEAKER_19 1:11:13

Huh. Okay. Okay. Well.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:19

That became a Stanley Kramer directed uh movie in 1965. Uh Young Blood Hawk by Herman Woke.

unknown 1:11:29

Woke.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:31

The Reavers by William Faulkner. That was 1969, the film was starring Steve McQueen. Seven Days in May by Fletcher Nebel, Charles W. Bailey II, the second. That was, of course, a big movie in 1964. Failsafe by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, Cindy Lamette, and that was a 1964 film. So some of these things were turned around pretty quick, quickly. Yeah. No kidding. Huh. Irving Stone's The Agony and the Ecstasy, the story of Michelangelo, 1965 film starring Charlton Heston. The prize by Irving Wallace with the 1963 film. That was the one's really turned around.

SPEAKER_18 1:12:15

I guess so. Jeez.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:17

And the Thin Red Line by James Jones, the m the uh another uh story. Film came out in 1964 and 1998.

SPEAKER_19 1:12:29

So it was remade in 98, the thin red line. Yeah, that definitely is familiar to me, that uh the title. Now it's funny, there's let's see, uh, eight eight books in this list in 1962 all being turned into movies. Wow, that's I mean, that's actually a really good thing because uh really well-crafted films are often based on really well-crafted books, uh stories that are written and uh are compelling. And uh, you know, unfortunately, we're not seeing enough of that these days. We don't see uh not really, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:01

But this was this this was quite this was quite a uh quite a month for uh for books. Oh yeah. Amazing.

SPEAKER_19 1:13:08

No question about it. Well, we gotta we gotta talk about uh we gotta talk about uh music, but uh we'll be doing that in just a bit. The hit songs of 1962.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:21

We're gonna play some uh music from the top ten of that month. We're gonna talk about it in just a minute.

SPEAKER_21 1:14:23

Liberty Ball. He was the bravest of them all.

SPEAKER_19 1:14:37

That was toe tapping, I do have to say.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:41

All right, this is of course the top songs of June 1962, which I compiled based on the highest position reached. It's not necessarily in the order, but that's okay. You're gonna you're gonna get some information about each of them. And it was it was a pretty good uh pretty good month, I guess.

SPEAKER_19 1:15:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:02

Rach Ray Charles did I Can't Stop Loving You, which was a cover of I didn't know this until I actually uh did some research on it. I was doing this list. It's a cover of Country Western artist Don Gibson. It's one of his songs.

SPEAKER_19 1:15:17

Huh.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:18

And it was featured on Charles' album Modern Sounds and Country and Western Music, which was also a number one album.

SPEAKER_19 1:15:25

I mean, Ray Charles during that month. And Ray Charles really has been thought of as a as several kinds of artists. I mean, he's he's been a blues guy, he's been a jazz guy, um, you know, standards, you know, pop standards, but uh also country and western. I mean, the guy did everything. He's uh what a terrific voice.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:43

Yeah, exactly. And then the girl groups we've got the Sherrels. Yes. And Soldier Boy, it was originally entitled I'll Be True to You.

SPEAKER_19 1:15:54

Mm-hmm. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:54

And I think Soldier Boy is better.

SPEAKER_19 1:15:56

Yeah, no, it's it's uh uh it's a standard, you know, and I still hear it and go, yeah, that was that was a great song.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:03

Yeah. So what do we got next?

SPEAKER_19 1:16:05

We have Dion, uh Lovers Who Wander. I'm not a hundred percent sure uh about that song. I know that uh I'm I've probably heard it, but I just it doesn't uh stand out to me as uh you know one of one of his top songs, but it was in the the top ten.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:21

The funny thing about Dion was you remember The Wanderer, yes, of course. And uh what was the other one? That's probably his most recognizable songs that everybody will remember, but he had a lot of hits. He actually had upwards of ten top ten songs between the 1958 and 62 or 63.

SPEAKER_19 1:16:48

Yeah, he's more prolific.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:50

People just don't remember a lot of that stuff.

SPEAKER_19 1:16:52

Yeah. I mean, it it is uh it was a time, of course, because we're just about to cross into the Beatle era, you know, and things were kind of crowded when it came to that kind of performance. You had those uh the the the uh clean-cut uh uh kids that were coming through, you know, the the uh the Frankie Avalons and the the Paul Ancas and those guys, they're all kind of crowding that the the top of the charts. And so Dion kind of you know he he got some attention, but it was very difficult to shine in those days, of course.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:24

Yeah. He actually was one of the few people, uh most of the people on this list that did survive the uh British invasion.

SPEAKER_20 1:17:32

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:33

Dion did not, which was oddly enough. Now the other thing is I don't know if this is ri widely known, but he was addicted to heroin.

SPEAKER_19 1:17:41

Is he? Or was he? Huh. Huh. Um boy, that's early on.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:48

But he got clean and he stayed clean and he still produced he's still still with us. He's still singing and still releasing albums.

SPEAKER_19 1:17:56

That's great. Good for him. Yeah, that's uh that's difficult to think, you know, to think that he was in it that early because uh really heroin and and uh harder drugs really didn't become part of the vernacular until the mid to late 60s.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:09

He would be you know subject to that kind of horror, you know, with his success, but hey, you never know. Yeah, yeah. People, the demons that people have. Um Dee Dee Sharp, she's pretty good, but she basically kind of cashed in on the dance craze, given dance craze of the moment. There was a song called Mashed Potato Time. She did that.

SPEAKER_19 1:18:37

I do remember it though, because as a kid, uh I I've mentioned this a few times. I had older sisters and they listened to the radio all the time. And they were trying to teach me the mashed potato as a kid. I still remember that.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:51

It was similar to the twist. By the way, the the the actual move, the dance move, was created by James Brown in 1959. It was one of his choreographed movements. Well, her follow-up, then she dropped off the face of the earth, was gravy for my mashed potatoes.

SPEAKER_19 1:19:10

Isn't it now? Here's the weirdest thing. Um, you know, you had uh Chubby Checker's Twist, right? And then Let's Twist Again. So uh they're kind of like playing off the big, you know, huge success of one song. And it's like they have to do sequels of the same song. I mean Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:28

Yeah. We're not done with that yet. You're gonna do something in a couple of minutes here. You're gonna be like, wait, what?

SPEAKER_20 1:19:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:37

Uh Gene Pitney, oh yeah, who shot Liberty of Ellence, was his big hit in June 62. Now, this guy, he had one of the most powerful voices in pop. Uh very similar operatic style to Roy Orberson.

SPEAKER_19 1:19:53

Yes, very much so. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:55

I saw Gene Pitney uh actually for free at the New York State Fair.

SPEAKER_19 1:20:02

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_02 1:20:03

About uh 15 years ago. Nice, okay. Since passed on, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_19 1:20:08

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:08

He was great. He was great then.

SPEAKER_19 1:20:10

Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of these guys kept their kept their chops, you know. They they kept their their signature sound. It's uh, you know, it's obviously everybody gets older and things change with the voice and stuff, but yeah, uh, if he was able to do that 15 years ago, that's that's impressive.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:25

Yeah, yeah. But um well we got now ahead.

SPEAKER_19 1:20:29

This one I remember very much. Uh Freddy Boom Boom Canon. Yeah. And uh Palisades Park. And of course, as a kid, you know, you can't you just can't avoid that because it's just like I love you know, amusement parks and and uh and rides and stuff, and of course, that just that's a summertime song, by the way, to me.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:49

Oh yeah. That's uh he ate great songs.

SPEAKER_19 1:20:53

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:54

Palisades Park, Tallahassee Lassie.

SPEAKER_19 1:20:56

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:57

Boy on Yonder in New Orleans. I mean, it's I love his stuff. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_19 1:21:01

Real name is Freddie Picker Piccariello, I believe it is. Uh Piccoliello. And uh yeah, he just uh he just rocked it. I mean that and some so much fun, you know. This this is this is the stuff that that you kind of think, okay, the man who shot Liberty Valance, kind of down tempo, you know, a little bit a little depressing. But this guy, you know, he brought he brought the uh the the fun. That's that's what it was all about.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:27

Yeah, this man's singing style was inspired by Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and Bo Diddley.

SPEAKER_19 1:21:32

Really? Yeah. Interesting. Well, there you go. That's why. Um man, there's some other stuff though. Back in those days in '62, again, we're crossing because this is the top of the pop charts, right? This is the what people, but there is still kind of that influence of the 40s and 50s kind of uh instrumental orchestral kind of stuff still dominating at times. Uh, and this is no exception, you know. Um Mr.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:01

Ackerbilk Strangers on the Shore was an instrumental, it was it was the biggest international hit of 1962.

SPEAKER_19 1:22:10

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:10

He's a British clarinetist. He kind of a breathy low register when you played uh the instrument style.

SPEAKER_19 1:22:19

Oh uh yeah, I mean I I know the name and I it wasn't my jam, but yeah, you know, yeah, a lot of people love that song. Well, you think about this the people that that uh of the the World War II era who were you know in their 40s and fifties at this point were still listening to radio, they're still listening to music, and and uh that's why they influenced the charts pretty heavily. And that's why something like that would be popular for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:42

Yeah, yeah. Yep. And who oh, this next song is pretty interesting. What'd you tell them about the oh The Marvel Atts?

SPEAKER_19 1:22:49

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. Now, this is the follow-up of that. David Rose Oh, David Rose. Oh, I'm sorry. This one actually uh I've heard many, many, many, many times. Uh it's called the stripper. And uh it's got those trombone slides. Yeah. And how many times, you know, have we seen this accompanied with a striptease artist?

SPEAKER_02 1:23:13

Yeah, yeah. Used in a lot of movies.

SPEAKER_19 1:23:15

Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:16

A little titillation, yeah.

SPEAKER_19 1:23:18

Yep, exactly. Kind of like the the soft porn of its time, so to speak. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:26

Um but those were the two big instrumentals. They actually they actually both, I think, were in the top ten for the year.

SPEAKER_19 1:23:31

Yes, exactly right. No, it's uh again, you know, we just don't see that kind of stuff anymore in the in the pop charts. Well, um, what about the Marvelettes?

SPEAKER_02 1:23:42

Yeah, this was a girl group that really influenced John Lennon. He loved their music, and in fact, he did a cover of one of their hits called Police Mr. Postman on uh early Beatle album.

SPEAKER_19 1:23:55

So it was good too. They did a nice job with that. They they really uh did it service. Uh although the original's still the best.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:02

Yeah. Playboy was uh the hit that uh was being on the radio, uh was on the radio in June 62. And uh this is a very interesting group. I was looking at their their uh discography and they uh for a Motown group, they really didn't like to stand still. They kind of had like different styles and different approaches to hit songs as the as the uh decade progressed. Yeah. I mean, they actually had a hit called My Baby Must Be a Muj A Magician, and that was a very quirky little song. Nothing like their earlier stuff, but it was a top ten song. Every once in a while they gave uh free reign to their somebody in their stable and said, Yeah, okay, that'll that'll be all right.

SPEAKER_19 1:24:53

Yeah, you know what it's and this is the era really of the girl group. The girl group, uh Chiffons, the the Ronettes, uh I mean, they're all over the place, the Supremes, um just just one after the other. And they were so popular and so good. They're they're all unique to themselves. And uh, you know, we have to kind of uh tip our hat to people like uh Barry Gordy and Phil Spector for uh for being behind the sound of those groups. Um but uh yeah, it's that was a great era, you know, when it comes to just uh women and and music for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:29

Okay, this next one I I I'm not gonna say too much about Bobby Venton. He is what he is.

SPEAKER_20 1:25:35

He is what he is.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:36

But he was he was a man who just women loved his songs.

SPEAKER_20 1:25:42

Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:43

Every I mean he had so many number one songs just over over the uh over probably a 10-year period.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:50

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:51

And uh I mean they were not unsimilar to each other, but it was just something about that yeah.

SPEAKER_19 1:25:57

He was just he was yeah, well he was a star. It uh he he hit the right note, you know. He was a crooner, you know, in in a sense, in essence. You know, uh crun crooners are you know are usually going right to the uh to uh well where where it all lives for uh for romance, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:26:15

Yeah so I I've got a funny story about about one of his songs, uh 1973, I believe. He hadn't been he hadn't had a hit since 1968 or 69.

SPEAKER_20 1:26:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:28

And I was the music director of a radio station in South uh in southern New York and I heard this next song I'm gonna mention on CKLW.

SPEAKER_20 1:26:42

Oh, out of Detroit.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:44

Yeah, yeah. And I'm going, you've gotta be kidding me. You've gotta be kidding me with a song. It did it sounded so out of place, and I'm going, and I and I I found a song, we had come into the station. I'm listening to it, and I'm going, oh, this is gonna be a hit. This is gonna be a hit. So I added it. And it was a smash, yeah, of course, and everybody in the station thought I was nuts. My melody of love was a song, and of course, it's basically a polka.

SPEAKER_19 1:27:21

Oh, yeah. Right, right, right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:24

And uh they looked at me like, how did you know? I said, Well, it's no freaking mystery. I heard it on the big eight.

SPEAKER_19 1:27:31

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_18 1:27:32

Yeah, C K L W.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:34

Yeah, no, that was uh gonna play some off-the-wall song like this from it from a a long gone you know, crooner, I said, Yeah, it's it's inevitable. Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 1:27:45

Well, here's a here's another thing, and we should probably, you know, not do beleaguer the point too much, but uh in those days, in in the sixties and and uh course the seventies, when it came to broadcast radio and music, there was a lot of Subjective choosing going on. There was, you know, you had to follow your instincts sometimes. Of course, you could look at the charts. The charts would tell you, you know, what's a what's a popular song. But at least, like in your situation, you have the ability to say, hey, this is a great record. I think it's gonna it's gonna work. And you went with your instinct. Now, forward fast to more contemporary times, all that's taken away. There is no longer the ability for a local person like yourself or a local disc jockey to say, hey, I really believe in this tune, let's play it. That stuff no longer happens. It's not possible because it's all pre-programmed.

SPEAKER_20 1:28:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 1:28:43

And you can't you can't go into the computer and say, I want to play a blah, blah, blah song. It just isn't there. There, there's no way of doing it. So uh we've taken away an aspect, like you just said, of our instincts. What's going to be big, what's going to be popular, what's going to be what what are people going to really like? You use your instinct, and uh there you go. Success story.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:06

But now I'll be honest, I I I I've in my brief tenure as music director, I did I picked a few hits of my own, but yeah, I never would have had that song without impetus from one of the 50,000 watt giants.

SPEAKER_19 1:29:19

Well, of course. I mean, you heard it, but you had to hear it first before you said, hey, this is I mean, I just know this is gonna be huge. So, you know, this this the human element of what made radio great was it was taken away. It was removed, uh sterilized, you know, basically excised. So I don't get me started here. Um but that I'll I'll get off my soapbox. Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:46

Well said, though. Well said, my friend.

SPEAKER_19 1:29:48

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:49

All right, we got some albums that came out in June 62. Interesting little uh thing about this uh top these top tens that came out in June. Uh there's a lot a lot of soundtracks here. Yes, oh yeah, we were around for a long time. A couple of these actually came out were released in 1961 into the year.

SPEAKER_19 1:30:12

Uh huh. And there's a couple of surprising, surprising uh albums here. I'm very, very shocked I didn't realize that the sound of music came out in 62 with Julie Andrews. But wasn't that a movie in 65? Uh because the sound of music as a movie came out in 65, but uh the soundtrack or the sound of music, the song, was that a stage play?

SPEAKER_02 1:30:39

Might have it yeah, it may have been. Okay. Now that you mention it, yeah.

SPEAKER_19 1:30:43

Okay. Got it. Yeah, I I I should look into that because I'm I swear to goodness that uh I went one of my one of the first movies I remember going to in 1965 was The Sound of Music, and it was a uh it was definitely a brand new movie that year. Um, and uh that's all I talked about for for days afterwards was the movie Sound of Music. My my mother's like, hmm, you seem to like that movie. Like, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:09

Hold on a second.

SPEAKER_19 1:31:11

We can we can do the uh we can do the the the the research behind it instantaneously today, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:18

I have a bad feeling about this.

SPEAKER_19 1:31:20

You have a bad feeling, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:22

I do, okay. 62 June. Hold on, bear with me here.

SPEAKER_19 1:31:26

And uh you know again, we talked about Julie Andrews earlier uh working with Carol Burnett of all people uh on uh this uh television series, a special television series. Uh clearly a very popular, popular artist, no doubt about it, and it's in her time. But uh yeah, Sound of Music, 1962. Um just uh I'm curious. Yeah, you should be, because I correct in 1965? Is that when uh Sound of Music was uh okay?

SPEAKER_02 1:32:14

Well, my side story, practice attempt those were those were all pretty accurate.

SPEAKER_19 1:32:24

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's just sound of music. I thought, hmm, that's uh interesting. Was it a stage play? But uh apparently I it was just it was one of those things that happen, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:32:34

When we do the research from behind this uh when you when you're sitting here mapping out an entire year like this, it can be very uh I apologize.

SPEAKER_19 1:32:41

No, no, no, no. I don't uh don't apologize. I think it's I think it's valuable that we that we can say, oh, this happened.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 1:32:49

Right? So but anyway.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:51

Hey, I'm not getting any younger. I'm not getting any younger here.

SPEAKER_19 1:32:56

But but the West Side Story soundtrack was definitely big in 62, that for sure. Uh Bernstein and Sondheim, you know, an Emmy winning album. Uh that I I still remember uh hearing that West Side Story soundtrack with my sisters around the house. Listen to it continually. Um lot of a lot of really good songs from that uh that track, that uh that whole collection. Um what about Elvis?

SPEAKER_02 1:33:27

Blue Hawaii.

SPEAKER_19 1:33:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:29

There's some couple of some good songs on that uh soundtrack.

SPEAKER_19 1:33:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:34

Uh can't help falling in love is from there.

SPEAKER_19 1:33:37

Oh, that's right.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:38

And there's hey, listen, you you gotta love Rocka Hula Baby.

SPEAKER_19 1:33:45

You do? Okay. I'm I'm glad you told me that because now I feel better.

SPEAKER_29 1:33:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 1:33:56

Um wow. So now here's the other thing that I that that's on this list of uh top albums of 62. Kingston Trios, college concert. Um this obviously was recorded live. Correct? And uh now Kingston Trio, that was one of many of these these uh groups of troubadours that were you know bringing the the folk sound to to the forefront in the uh of the time. And then of course that uh evolved into the protest sound of the folk movement movement uh from New York City and the the village. Uh think about all the people who are just forming their uh their uh their careers at the time, not the least of which would be Bob Dylan. But uh the folk thing, you know, Joan Baez and uh and uh oh my goodness, Pete Seeger. Um just just uh uh a plethora of of really great people, great artists, including the Kingston Trio, College Concert. So that was what one of the top-selling albums of the year.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:06

Yeah, yeah. They had a lot of they had a lot of a lot of albums like this. They would, of course, like you mentioned, all these folk artists were very, very big on the college circuit.

SPEAKER_19 1:35:16

Yeah. Mm-hmm. So uh and Hootin nannies. There was a thing called the Hootenanny back in the day, you know, people get together and just play guitar and sing around, and you know, it's uh uh kind of anything.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:28

I just I just was kind of eating away at me here. I was looking up there was there was the Sound of Music soundtrack that was in the top ten very well. It was the original cast from the um uh musical.

SPEAKER_19 1:35:45

Oh, got it. Okay, the movie. So you were correct. You were correct.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:48

Well, I was partially correct.

SPEAKER_19 1:35:50

Yeah, it wasn't Julie Andrews, right? But the original soundtrack from the stage play.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:55

Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 1:35:56

Oh, very cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:57

I apologize for that.

SPEAKER_19 1:35:59

Well, I I wouldn't uh I wouldn't think of it in uh as a as a real uh serious issue because you were partially correct, so not not to worry. But see Mike, my friend.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:09

This is my friend here. He's still sticking up for me, though I screwed up.

SPEAKER_19 1:36:14

But our uh our uh our our our listener Mike, you know, now he's he's got no recourse.

SPEAKER_29 1:36:19

He's got to kind of go boy, he's got something to talk about now.

SPEAKER_19 1:36:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_29 1:36:23

Why can't I be doing that? Hey, you're welcome to take over anytime you want to, but you should join us.

SPEAKER_19 1:36:30

One of the things uh that's on this list of albums, uh Joey D and the Starlighters, um doing the twist at the Peppermint Lounge. Yeah, that was a whole record, a whole 33 and a third.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:45

That was his gig. He just wow he played the start peppermint lounge, you know?

SPEAKER_18 1:36:50

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Uh that's that's good stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:57

Young Rascals were in that band.

SPEAKER_19 1:36:59

Oh, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:01

And I think Jimi Hendrix played guitar briefly with him.

SPEAKER_19 1:37:06

Really? Yeah. Huh. Now I knew Jimmy was also part of um uh Ike Turner's band as well at one time back in the early days. But uh wow, Jimi Hendrix, isn't isn't that interesting? He kind of had to have cut his teeth on some of these earlier 60s, uh, 60s style records. Pretty pretty interesting stuff. But Joey D and the Starlighters, man, I still still remember that uh those songs, you know. That uh that as a kid, again, you know, really, really like that.

unknown 1:37:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:39

Well, well, there we go.

SPEAKER_19 1:37:41

What do you say we listen?

SPEAKER_02 1:37:43

Yeah, listen. We're gonna return to wrap things up on page four with your coming of age year. That's what we call the the year you turned 18.

SPEAKER_20 1:37:52

Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:52

In June 1980, if you were born in June 1962. Here's some of that soundtrack audio from June 1962.

SPEAKER_26 1:38:06

I just met a girl named Maria.

SPEAKER_17 1:38:09

I'd like to be in America.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:10

Okay, everybody, welcome back. This is uh Chip Chapman. I got Tom Robertson at my side here, and we are going over June 1980, which was the uh the year you would have turned 18 if you were born in June 1962. Yes. So I confused you already. I should finish it off. Oh man.

SPEAKER_19 1:39:35

This is dangerous territory. I'm sorry, just because uh I was in college in 1980 uh in New York City, and uh I was you know getting I was I was shall we say um learning about life in general, just you know, and we all go through these phases of life and uh experimenting and trying new things and meeting new people and uh well you know forming our our I guess you'd say our own futures. And so I don't want to get too much into it because you know it might offend somebody, but um nonetheless.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:10

Yeah, God forbid.

SPEAKER_19 1:40:11

Yeah, right, exactly. But uh June 1st of 1980. Now this is momentous because it was the first 24 hours new 24-hour news channel uh called Cable News Network. Now we call it CNN, of course. Uh they they they kicked it off at 6 o'clock Eastern Time from Atlanta, Georgia, with an original staff of 170 employees and 130 more in bureaus in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. Um, and now that that inaugural broadcast on the channel was an introduction. Uh, there was an introduction by Ted Turner, who just, you know, we we lost Ted. Um but uh wow, that that was it changed everything, dude. And I mean, think about that. 1980, June 1st of 1980, CNN kicks off.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:08

I remember, I don't know if it was the it was it wasn't ex exactly the uh it was in the it was in a in the 80s, probably maybe a year and a year later, a couple years, where I was listening about a it was a huge fire somewhere in Europe. Okay and they were they were actually covering it for like C CNN was covering it. Okay and it was the first time that I was aware of a an international event being covered live at that time. Yes on site. I mean they were right there broadcasting. And I and I thought to myself, this is going to change everything.

SPEAKER_20 1:42:00

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:02

It's truly an international news cycle now.

SPEAKER_19 1:42:06

Oh, and uh and and a lot happened.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:08

Not to mention 24 hours, already, but yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_19 1:42:11

No, it's uh uh we are are we're so different because of it. And uh as a as they say, the the phrase would be we are now living in a global village. Uh because of places our our uh uh uh organizations like CNN and of course people like Ted Turner who had the foresight and the uh and the uh prophetic thought, hey, we need to cover the whole thing. This is uh this is one big world. So uh that that's a big undertaking, by the way.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:41

Indeed. So well, June 3rd in uh 1980, would you like to play a game? A computer communications device failure-caused warning messages to sporadically flash at North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Air Force command posts around the world that a Soviet nuclear attack was taking place. Malfunction happened again on June 6th. The false alert provided inspiration for the 1983 film War Games.

SPEAKER_19 1:43:15

Yeah. Yeah. Would you like to play a game?

unknown 1:43:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 1:43:20

Uh how many times? You know, here's there's this is gonna happen, probably, I'm sure, in a hundred years, but you know, 100 years down the line, somebody's gonna go back and do the research and find out how many times we came close to pressing the button down and and just ending the whole thing. That is if we don't do it in a hundred years. So uh but that that's pretty compelling. Pretty compelling stuff.

SPEAKER_28 1:43:44

That wasn't wet, wait, that wasn't funny.

SPEAKER_19 1:43:46

Yeah, right. So June 3rd of 1980, uh the primary elections, you know, the Democratic Party, uh there were they were doing it in eight different states uh that month. Of course, uh Teddy Kennedy defeated uh Jimmy Carter in California, uh in New Jersey, Rhode Island, uh South Dakota. Uh Carter uh wins in Ohio, West Virginia, New Mexico, and Montana, and that yielded him the 334 delegates, putting him past the 1,666 needed to capture the nomination on the first ballot at the Democratic National Convention. And incidentally, later that same year during the election, I voted for the very first time in 1980.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:32

Very first time.

SPEAKER_19 1:44:34

But here's the other side of that. That same day I I I voted, I I went into New York City on assignment with my college radio station to cover the John Anderson campaign, who was running for president against uh Reagan and Carter. And let me tell you something. John Anderson may have come in a distant third, but man, those people knew how to party. Whoa. I mean, and it was in this beautiful hotel in in the middle of Man Midtown Manhattan. And man, I gotta say, it I well, um yeah. I did some, you know, some live reporting for my college radio station, but I think by the time I did my maybe third or fourth report, I was so in the bag. I'm I'm I'm shocked that I actually was allowed to do the job at that point. I was just feeling feeling the uh the the party atmosphere. And some of some of those people there, man. I mean, there are clearly some some uh high-end, you know, political types who are just I mean, they were much worse off than I was. That's that's for sure. Just saying, 1980.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:47

Yeah, I understand. Hey, it took it was it was your year, man. Oh June, June 4th, Metro Golden Mare Film Company MGM, as we call them, and the Columbia broadcasting system, CBS, announced the formation of MGM CBS Home Video. Oh, a joint venture to sell VHS and Betamax videotape.

SPEAKER_19 1:46:11

I think we need to back up for one second.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:13

Remember, VHS.

SPEAKER_19 1:46:15

That's it. Is there there there is this format fight that was going on? Yeah, you know, VHS tapes, which were kind of big and clunky, and the Betamax tapes, which are smaller, but actually a better quality. Yeah, but for some reason VHS won out.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:32

So video disks too, they had those as well. Yeah, a friend of mine who had he owned like a hundred of those suckers. No kidding. And I think he played them once, yeah, and then yeah, yeah, very expensive.

SPEAKER_19 1:46:46

Very expensive.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:46

Well, anyways, it kind of uh added to MGM 1600 films and CBS's television shows for customers to view at home on their own TV sets. It all started then.

SPEAKER_19 1:46:58

What a revolution, what a revolution that uh that was. And I still remember the first time I saw a VHS, you know, machine that played in stereo, right? Yeah, two channels. Wow, that's really sophisticated, man. That's uh and uh in so many of the original shows, anyway, were not recorded in stereo, but uh to to see that, and then of course everything moved from there.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:21

Um by the way, a fun fact about VHS is you well know, many of the movies that were on VHS they were not upgraded to uh compact discs.

SPEAKER_20 1:47:35

Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:36

Okay, okay they one of them was actually the first three Star Wars movies. They were available on VHS, but on no other format. When they came out on the uh discs, they were actually upgraded by our friend. Uh forget his name now. We talked about him earlier. The director of Star Wars.

SPEAKER_19 1:48:02

Oh you're talking about George Lucas.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:03

Yeah, George Lucas actually added more uh footage and did some correction as far as just special effects.

SPEAKER_18 1:48:12

Like a director's cut.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:13

Yeah, well, not really. It was just it just he just upgraded the special effects in the existing movie.

SPEAKER_20 1:48:19

Oh, I gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:20

So to my knowledge, at this point, you could only find the original movies on VHS.

SPEAKER_19 1:48:28

Which I have a copy of, by the way. Yeah, I have three of them.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:32

Now that will probably change, but yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_19 1:48:35

And by the way, the the this uh collection of three, it's uh it's like a an anniversary collection. Uh it is signed by James Roll Jones.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:45

Yeah, well, you gotta get some money in there.

SPEAKER_19 1:48:48

Well, yeah. So um uh and it's packed away. I have no idea exactly where it is. You think I'd have it on display? No, it's someplace in a box, like everybody else in this this country. We have just too much junk. Uh anyway, so yeah, but a momentous occasion for sure. Um also June 9th of uh 1980, Richard Pryor was burned. Yes, he he uh uh accidentally setting fire to himself at his home in Northridge, California. Uh he burned himself. It was pretty bad, over half of his body. And um an emergency room physician at the the Sherman Oaks Community Hospital said that Pryor had told him that the fire had been caused by an explosion while Pryor was freebasing cocaine in a crack pipe.

unknown 1:49:38

Yep.

SPEAKER_19 1:49:38

What a tragedy. What a rough, what a what a terrible thing. And what a brilliant guy. I mean, Richard Pryor, one of the greatest comedians of all time.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:47

Indeed. Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 1:49:48

Um I mean he had demons, you know, like like so many. Um, but but uh truly tragic, I gotta say. You know, it's uh we we um we personally, you know. I think you and I as as uh people who are in entertainment or media, you know, you can't help but uh but coin the the idea that that Richard Pryor was responsible for so much of what what uh especially when it came to great movies but great comedy, the things we laughed at the hardest. Uh he was uh truly, truly brilliant.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:19

But um he was indeed, yeah.

SPEAKER_19 1:50:22

Tough day. Tough day for Richard Pryor. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:25

Well, we have some interesting commercials coming out in June 1980. Mm. Yes. Ford Mustang was was big on the uh television uh slate.

SPEAKER_19 1:50:36

Now can I can I get can I uh can I just interrupt briefly in the sense that now the Ford Mustang is iconic, right? It's just to me the one of the one of the greatest 60s cars of all time. And you know, people love the car. Uh you get into the even into the earlier 70s, the Mustang was still great. But I got to tell you something, 1980 Mustang, uh not good. Not not great. Well, the I mean here's the thing. You know, the entire decade of the 70s, they were they were forced to put in a bunch of pollution controls, and you know, they had to change the fuel efficiency. And then the the styling that we were so accustomed to of the Mustang back in in the 1960s and early 70s, it just it looked like a really, really cool car, you know, really cool. And then suddenly they're adding these plastic body panels and weird kind of shapes inside. Now, I I I'll grant you this, it was okay, but it was nowhere near the legendary uh aspect of of what was uh truly Americana of the 1960s, you know. And I here's the thing, I'm a car guy. And uh I I'm gonna call it I'm gonna call it like I see it, because it's just that's how I feel. Um I now I'm not saying that I would turn down a 1980 Mustang, you know, if it's something that uh that was in really fine condition because it would be worth some money, but still, I just it ain't the it ain't the car for me necessarily.

SPEAKER_02 1:52:13

Yeah, yeah. I mean cars are subjective. Yeah.

unknown 1:52:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 1:52:19

So but of course they were getting you know, they were being advertised, you know, like everything else. And uh, and it was uh it was a great car for uh like a first car for uh for for youngsters who are just you know getting on the road in those days. It was and it was a safer car, no doubt about that. Um what about Dutch Boy Paints back in the year?

SPEAKER_02 1:52:37

Some home improvement man.

SPEAKER_19 1:52:39

Yeah, right. You know, this is uh Dutch Boy paints have been around for I don't know, mm decades. Um and uh you know we always remember the the image. The they had this uh young kid uh who looked Dutch with the paintbrush in the pail. Uh that was their that was their uh moniker, their image.

SPEAKER_02 1:53:03

Montgomery Ward.

SPEAKER_19 1:53:05

Monkey Ward. Monkey Ward.

SPEAKER_02 1:53:08

It was a uh one of the biggest stores of all time. I don't think they're not even around anymore, are they?

SPEAKER_19 1:53:17

Uh no. Aren't they gone? Nope. They they actually what happened was you know, Montgomery Ward was was a direct competitor of Sears, and in a lot of towns you had both. I know in my my hometown we had both, but um Montgomery Ward's their local storefronts closed down and then they went to just the catalog stores where you could you know you just walk in and make an order, and sometimes they would have it on on uh on the you know in the back room where they would bring it out and give it to you, but uh, a lot of times they'd have to order it specially and send it to your house. Um, but yeah, uh and then they would just disappear altogether. So, you know, um I don't know how many decades that uh Sears and Montgomery Ward went head to head, that might be something worth looking into because it really was. Uh it was those those two retail competitors that had these big catalogs that would come out during Christmas time. And remember as a kid, you know, the Sears catalog would show up and then the Montgomery Ward catalog would show up. Yeah. And when you're, you know, you're just a kid, you're gonna fly through those pages of all the toys and start circling stuff and saying, This is what I want. I want this one and I want that one, you know. And of course, your parents ignored it. Um but that was a ritual. Do you remember that?

SPEAKER_03 1:54:30

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_19 1:54:31

The Montgomery Ward catalog is here. Oh, let me see it first. No, no, no, I want to, you know, and uh by the time it's done, it's all dog eared and and uh ready to be thrown out. But uh yeah, part of our vernacular, monkey ward.

SPEAKER_02 1:54:46

Do you remember Kellogg's sugarcorn pots?

SPEAKER_19 1:54:50

Um, you know, it's kind of like that kind of 1980 was sort of beyond my my uh my cereal times. I mean, I was into cereals in the 60s and probably you know mid-70s, I think was probably when I stopped eating cereal.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:04

But I'm not even sure they still, I'm not even sure they make this this uh cereal now. I don't I don't recognize it.

SPEAKER_19 1:55:11

I don't either. Uh yeah, and their mascot was Porky? Was that Porky from from uh Looney Tunes?

SPEAKER_02 1:55:17

I don't know. I don't know. I didn't research that.

SPEAKER_19 1:55:24

Oh boy. Now I do remember the 7-Eleven, and uh in New York City, 7-Eleven was everywhere, and of course they had this thing they introduced called the Big Gulp. And by the way, do you remember not more not back in 1980, but later on in history where the big gulp was being questioned as a as a uh I think it was in some what was like 64 ounces or something like that? It's just this massive big cup, yeah, you know, with ice and and fill that with a you know with with soda. And I guess they were saying, hey, we don't want to encourage people to do this, so we're gonna ban the big gulp or or something like that, or these larger uh uh beverages.

SPEAKER_02 1:56:07

Yeah, yeah. I mean I remember uh in growing up in Orlando with 7-Elevens when they they broke out big time in uh Central Florida and they had a frozen drink. I think that was the Slurpee.

SPEAKER_18 1:56:21

The Slurpee, yes. Yep, yep, the Slurpee, yep, yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:56:25

By the way, I have to tell you a quick story.

SPEAKER_18 1:56:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:56:29

My adventure with my own big gulp. Okay. When I was in radio sales back in the 90s, there was a uh uh a sub place, which was a real a regional location in central New York. Okay, and uh myself and another rep pitched them a campaign for their fountain drinks.

SPEAKER_20 1:56:57

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:56:59

And we nicknamed it the BFD. Okay.

SPEAKER_20 1:57:11

BFD.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:12

B BFD, big fountain deal. And we're thinking, this is gonna put them on a map, right? And we actually went to Rochester with this campaign.

SPEAKER_20 1:57:29

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:31

And came in and we're presenting it. It's like four or five people just sitting there, and uh one thing that I had to say, this this was like a family-owned business.

SPEAKER_20 1:57:46

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:47

This wasn't this this wasn't a corporate business. And I'm telling them it's a you know big fountain deal, and they're looking at me. Of course, and they're just looking at me, and we're thinking, I'm we're I we're obviously dying on the vine here. This is not something you're gonna jump on, right?

SPEAKER_19 1:58:08

Yeah, and you're and you were sober.

SPEAKER_02 1:58:10

We were sober, yeah. And I'm going, we get done. They just looked at us and said, Well, thank you very much for coming in. We really appreciate your time. And we'll get back to you.

SPEAKER_29 1:58:28

Oh, that's we were we were crushed. We know we were so proud of our fountain deal.

SPEAKER_02 1:58:39

It was so far ahead of its time.

SPEAKER_19 1:58:41

Oh, of course, of course.

SPEAKER_02 1:58:42

That would that would somebody out there is writing the shit down now, going, this is a freaking idea. We can do that now.

SPEAKER_19 1:58:51

It's it's clever and it and it's and and for a certain generation it works, but not everybody necessarily.

SPEAKER_02 1:58:58

It'll work now.

SPEAKER_19 1:58:59

Yeah. Oh, of course.

SPEAKER_02 1:59:02

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_19 1:59:03

BFD, you can have it. My permission, I'm done. I thought you were gonna say big frosty deal, but uh but what was a fountain drink? Fountain drinks, yeah. Gotcha, big fountain deal.

SPEAKER_02 1:59:19

That's funny.

SPEAKER_19 1:59:20

Yeah, well, why wouldn't you do that? I don't understand.

SPEAKER_02 1:59:23

Come on, what's wrong with you people?

SPEAKER_19 1:59:24

You can lead a horse to water. You can make a drink, you can make them gulp. Oh my goodness. Okay. Well, there was uh there was other beverages that we consumed, of course. Maxwell House coffee. Maxwell House. Um, I think everybody had a can of Maxwell House in someplace, you know, in their house. If they're coffee drinkers, they had Maxwell House. Did did you have that in the house?

SPEAKER_02 1:59:51

Oh, I I'm pretty sure we did.

SPEAKER_19 1:59:53

Yeah, yeah. Big blue can. Um, and that was for for decades and decades and decades.

SPEAKER_02 1:59:59

Um, great, big, great big letters on the can. You could read it you you half a block away, you know.

SPEAKER_19 2:00:05

Yep. And uh, you know, had a plastic lid that you could reseal it with so you'd have, you know, always have uh fresh coffee. Um and it was the first thing I ever tried as coffee as a kid. Uh I think I started drinking coffee probably the age of 17, maybe 18, something like that. And I've been a fanatic ever since. I mean, I drink coffee every day, uh, sometimes twice a day. But it's uh, you know, uh Maxwell House. It's uh what can I tell you? It's uh it's iconic.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:36

Triskets are still very popular on Nabisco.

SPEAKER_19 2:00:39

Nabisco. Here's a quick tale about Nabisco. Uh, do you remember back in the era when when jingles were everywhere? Everybody had a jingle, right? Including the company called Nabisco. And so they had this uh for every commercial would be Nabisco. So three letters, three, three or three notes, nah, bisco. And they had three jingle singers doing each part. So one had the one, the nuh, then there was b and then co or bisco. Um, and those three jingle singers, by the way, made so much money on the royalties for that jingle, they each bought themselves a Rolls-Royce, and on the license plate of each Rolls-Royce was nuh bis co. So each one had their own license plate, had their own their own part of the jingle uh for their Rolls-Royce. That's what a good jingle does.

SPEAKER_02 2:01:36

Yep, exactly.

SPEAKER_19 2:01:38

Very simple, but Nabisco, like so many of these other these other companies, have uh come up with wonderful marketing schemes.

SPEAKER_02 2:01:46

And if they'd only known about BFD, if they'd only known I know it's it's a lost opportunity, but I hey guys, I think it would work now. Come on, jump on this. I want this DB. Something just fell out. How was that?

SPEAKER_19 2:02:04

Oh don't don't BFD, go for it. Come on. Well, okay. 1980.

SPEAKER_04 2:02:13

Get out there and sell this.

SPEAKER_19 2:02:15

I gotta ask you, when you were you back in 1980, what were you wearing as far as like the fashion back in the day? What what was uh what what were you into?

SPEAKER_02 2:02:24

Oh well let's see. Because I was basically in radio then and I just wasn't T. I was in T was in television. Yeah, I was in television then.

SPEAKER_19 2:02:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:02:41

I actually wore a suit every day.

SPEAKER_19 2:02:43

Every day.

SPEAKER_02 2:02:44

Yeah, suit.

SPEAKER_19 2:02:46

Wow, no kidding. Um I was in my, let's see, uh I was doing some part-time work uh professionally as a as a broadcaster, although still in college, but on my college breaks I would go home and and work in a local radio station. But um they wouldn't didn't require us to wear anything other than jeans and t-shirts, you know, that was kind of like the thing. Um, but you know, as far as fashion was concerned, um, you know, there was polo shirts and uh, you know, pleated trousers, that kind of became a thing. Um, which, you know, kind of I think with that for especially for people working in retail, you know, that became an acceptable sort of uniform, uh, trousers with pleats, and of course the uh the polo shirt. Um but you know what? Um I don't know, unless I was playing golf, I just you know, I didn't wear a polo, didn't do it. But uh, I mean, there was uh what do they call it for women? Power dressing? Yeah, so padded shoulders. Remember padded shoulders?

SPEAKER_02 2:03:49

You know, it's funny. I was uh remember the movie network?

SPEAKER_18 2:03:53

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 2:03:54

Fade on away and she's got the she's got she had these blouses that the shoulders were so padded that they looked like the like wings, something like I don't know, a Carol Burnett show.

SPEAKER_19 2:04:09

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 2:04:10

Remember the one where she had the curtain hangers? Curtain hanger blouse.

SPEAKER_19 2:04:16

Oh yes, oh yes, yeah, and the and the hairstyles too. Like there was a point where remember with Farah Fawcett, because she was one of Charlie's angels, she had a specific like way of twirling her her hair. There's like a like a big giant twirl on the side of her side of her face, and that was big for a while. You know, women were kind of twirling their hair backwards. Um it was longer, but it just looked kind of funky, you know. You think about it now. And of course, then there was the uh this the Cinnabon thing with uh with uh Carrie Fisher when she played the part of Princess Leia, and that was sort of a thing for a while.

SPEAKER_02 2:04:53

But uh I thought that was incredibly unattractive.

SPEAKER_19 2:04:56

Oh my god, yeah. Completely, completely unattractive. But uh anyway, no, I mean men and women back in the day. It was it was kind of weird. At least it wasn't polyester suits, I can tell you that. You know, nine 1980 we got away from that uh the discount a lot of things. Oh my goodness. Wow free of that that decade of oh geez, just not not good. No, not good.

SPEAKER_02 2:05:26

Um, we just pissed somebody off of that remark.

SPEAKER_19 2:05:30

Uh well, of course. But hey, if we're not doing that, we're not doing our job.

SPEAKER_02 2:05:34

Um I guess not.

SPEAKER_19 2:05:37

But uh man, I forgot this in the movies of 1980. The Empire Strikes Back. Yeah. Right? It was the second, the second movie. And man, I mean, I must have seen it that year at least four or five times. At least. How many times you see the the second episode?

SPEAKER_02 2:05:59

Um I saw I think I may have seen I've I actually I watched it uh recently.

SPEAKER_19 2:06:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:06:05

At least part of it.

SPEAKER_19 2:06:06

But I mean that year when it came out in the theater, or did you go to the theater? You know, seat in the theater. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:06:11

I like I like Star Wars. Um I wasn't as crazy about it as other people were, but then I was a little older. Right. I had been a big I'd been a big horror sci-fi buff since the 50s, so I mean I saw everything. After seeing 2001 and and Close Encounters, I was Close Encounters for Star Wars.

SPEAKER_20 2:06:34

Right.

SPEAKER_02 2:06:36

Uh I uh anyways, Empire Strikes Back was was the best one of the three, I think. I think.

SPEAKER_19 2:06:45

Yeah, me too. Me too.

SPEAKER_02 2:06:46

It was it was really a great movie.

SPEAKER_19 2:06:48

Yeah, there was uh so many, so many great tw uh uh twists in the plot and uh the the the idea that you know this is uh it looks very, very dark, especially at the very end of the film. You know, it's like, oh man, that was that was geez, that wasn't a happy ending. I don't what happened there? Um, you know, of course that that kind of opened the door for the third the third and final uh part of the series. But um, yeah, I mean, just oh great stuff. Really, really enjoyed that.

SPEAKER_02 2:07:15

Yeah. Um it's it's I did enjoy the Imprint of Strikes Mac for the Blues Brothers movie. Oh, yes. And it you know, it's funny. I I also watched that recently. I watched about a half hour of it. Okay, and then it doesn't really hold up. Yeah, it is being kind of dated now.

SPEAKER_19 2:07:35

It's sort of a it was more of more of a vessel, right? Yeah, it was it was just a way to to showcase Belushi and Aykroyd together as a team. And I and I I you know the skit, the the routine they did on SNL with uh the Blues brothers, I think, you know, wonderfully, wonderfully done, and and they had uh an incredible backup band, you know, those guys were awesome. But uh, you know, the movie in and of itself, we're on a mission from God.

SPEAKER_02 2:08:04

Yeah, and that last that last uh 15 minutes with that car, those that car chase was just insane.

SPEAKER_20 2:08:11

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:08:12

I mean, it was it was pretty epic, but wow.

SPEAKER_19 2:08:16

Right, yeah, yeah. Well, they they went they went all over the top, you know. What was it, John Landis? Was it was he the one?

SPEAKER_02 2:08:23

John Landis was but he I guess he kind of had a uh a thing about bigger is better.

SPEAKER_18 2:08:29

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:08:30

Then he ended up uh doing the Twilight Zone movie segment that was that was his, he was directing one segment of three segments, and he it ends up ultimately causing the death of three people.

SPEAKER_19 2:08:42

Yeah, right. Oh, yes. One of my favorite actors. Yep, yep, yep, with the helicopter thing. Yeah, yeah, that's just you know what? There's some pretty tragic moments in in movie history right there. But uh the blues brothers, I mean, and then the the very end, of course, uh Carrie Fisher gets her her uh her moment, you know. Yeah, um and she she um you know was already riding high with the Star Wars thing anyway. Yeah but you think about what you know what it did for her career, and it's like uh I gotta say, there are moments though in the Blues Brothers movie, like with Aretha Franklin. Um that was just so good. That that scene, just so good. Um you know, there's just those moments and it's all strung together. It's like a bunch of skits, you know, that are woven together. And uh, you know, uh sadly, I I was just watching an interview uh with Dan Akiroyd talking about that era and how much he and uh and and uh Belushi were so close at the time. And he predicted that if John Belushi had not died, that uh he'd be he'd probably be doing uh stage plays, uh directing and and producing stage plays, because he was really into uh the stage and and really appreciated uh fine fine acting. So who knows? You know, sometimes uh a character like John Belushi, he he lives so fast and so and so um so brilliantly uh you know he he burned out so quickly. But uh nonetheless, you know, you always wonder if those guys were still together, still would they do like a reunion movie, you know, for the Blues brothers and something like that. Wouldn't that be funny?

SPEAKER_02 2:10:18

Yep. Well, this one we had a um actually I don't know, I don't have much about Brew Baker. That was another movie that was out. It was a prison movie featuring Robert Redfords, right?

SPEAKER_19 2:10:28

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:10:29

Did okay, I guess.

SPEAKER_19 2:10:30

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 2:10:31

Bronco Billy was a real change of pace for Clinton Eastwood, and it was an unusual kind of story. Yes, it wasn't a typical cop, cowboy, and every man role. He was he played the leader or ringmaster of a Wild West show.

SPEAKER_19 2:10:49

It was a comedy, yes, and uh he didn't do comedy well, I can say. I mean, it he did uh what was the other one, Every Which Way But Loose?

SPEAKER_02 2:10:58

In any Which Way You Can.

SPEAKER_19 2:11:00

Any Which Way You Can or whatever, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um yeah, but Bronco Billy, I went to see that.

SPEAKER_02 2:11:13

It was like, yeah, it's all right.

SPEAKER_19 2:11:15

So can I um can I uh preface this next movie by saying that it's it's almost singly responsible for my my uh early demise and my my my uh my suicide?

SPEAKER_02 2:11:27

Can I just say okay, you better explain that.

SPEAKER_19 2:11:30

Okay, so um when I was working in broadcast I was working in broadcasting, and it was um not 1980, we're talking a couple years later, but the soundtrack to this movie, Urban Cowboy, uh I played it to death when I was working for a country format, and I wanted to commit suicide. It was the worst year of my life. I was so so over it. I just cut I like, oh my God. And we had the you know the vinyl record in the studio, and the program director just said, Hey, you gotta play this, this, this, and this. And it was there, must have been six or seven different songs from that one, that one soundtrack of Urban Cowboy that got played to death. And I wanted oh man. Um, John Travolta goes from Brooklyn, New York as a the disco king to now he's the cowboy. I'm like, come on.

SPEAKER_02 2:12:31

Um it worked, I guess.

SPEAKER_19 2:12:33

Don't ask me how it worked, but well, we still have country line dancing as a consequence. So I mean, I wanted to end it. Uh a year of of country music. And now, again, I'm probably offending so many of our uh loyal you know listeners, but it was just not if you if you put yourself in my shoes and that's what you have to play every single day for a year, that's yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:13:04

Well you had uh let's see, Lion Eyes was on there. It was uh Oh, there was uh stand by me.

SPEAKER_19 2:13:12

That was uh well Mickey Gilly. Mickey Gilly, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 2:13:16

Looking for love. That must have been one of your favorites.

SPEAKER_19 2:13:24

Yes, and uh oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I tell you, it's it's uh I don't have that in my collection. Just saying. Just saying.

SPEAKER_02 2:13:34

I think you're missing the boat. I don't know, man. Or or the or the uh mechanical bull.

SPEAKER_19 2:13:44

Never mind. I'll use the words bull if you want me to.

SPEAKER_02 2:13:50

We've we've beaten this into the ground. Yes, we have. Uh yes, we have. There's some TV shows to talk about though.

SPEAKER_19 2:13:56

Ooh, yes, indeed. Oh boy. Um, you know, funny thing about this is uh there's this this series, a spin-off uh uh from from All in the Family called Archie Bunker's Place, in which they killed off Edith.

SPEAKER_02 2:14:12

Well, that was a Yeah, that was shocking. Yeah, and I wasn't a big I wasn't a big uh uh fan of the first show on the family. I wasn't really a big fan. I I appreciate what they were trying to do.

SPEAKER_19 2:14:26

Oh, sure. Quite it was quite uh historical, revolutionary for its time.

SPEAKER_02 2:14:31

But I just didn't watch I I couldn't watch it all the time. It got it got it got too cloying to me. It was like, oh man.

SPEAKER_19 2:14:38

I know, I know. Um well you know it's funny because and people liked All in the Family for different reasons, which we don't have to go into. You know, some people just thought Archie was right.

SPEAKER_02 2:14:48

Archie was right, they loved him, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_19 2:14:51

Yep, yeah, and then others were like, oh, what a what a what a buffoon, you know. I love watching the buffoon get his his uh his his uh his reality handed to him. So there's a couple of reasons. But Archie Bunker's place, it almost smacked of desperation in a way.

SPEAKER_02 2:15:08

I didn't I couldn't understand the success of that show, though. Yeah, yeah. What wasn't around for like two or three years?

SPEAKER_19 2:15:15

Uh I yeah, I think it was a couple of years. Um, and he had a co-star, a young lady, a young uh uh young girl. Uh I believe was it supposed to be his granddaughter? Something like that.

SPEAKER_03 2:15:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 2:15:27

Forgotten exactly what what the story was. But anyway, I mean, Carol O'Connor, say what you will, great actor, very good, and you know, very, very good actor, very, very smart guy, by the way. Um, but uh yeah, Archie Bunker's place. I never quite understood, even when it was on the air, what what's going on there.

SPEAKER_02 2:15:43

So Carol O'Connor was in a great movie that I saw back in the uh late 70s called Law and Disorder.

SPEAKER_19 2:15:50

Oh, sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:15:51

I love that movie. Do very well, and I've never been able to find it since.

SPEAKER_19 2:15:56

Huh. Interesting. Now I've I'm familiar with the movie itself. Yeah, I don't I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 2:16:00

I don't know what about this group of el elder elder statesmen who take they take the law into their own hands.

SPEAKER_19 2:16:08

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 2:16:09

So to speak.

SPEAKER_19 2:16:10

It's a good plot, a good plot and well well acted, no question. Uh but yeah, I have no idea.

SPEAKER_02 2:16:15

Well once vaunted 60 minutes was, of course, a staple of Sunday Night Investigator Journalism.

SPEAKER_19 2:16:23

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 2:16:24

Uh I'm gonna mention what it is now. Uh unfortunately.

SPEAKER_19 2:16:28

Oh, I know. Well, this is this is a tragic end to a phenomenal show that was on the air for longer than any other show. Uh 60 Minutes, of course. Um, you know, just we've we've heard the stories of late with uh some of their their uh their major people are either th shown the door or walked out voluntarily because of what's happening within the the the family of CBS. Um boy, I just hope that um that uh if you're listening to this podcast, you know, that you understand that uh this is the end of an era. This is the end of a of a time when when uh uh shall we say honest and sincere journalism has come to a crashing halt.

SPEAKER_02 2:17:10

Yep, I'm afraid so.

SPEAKER_19 2:17:11

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 2:17:12

Uh The Love Boat was a very interesting show on ABC. The Love Boat would spotlight everybody to go on there for one episode. I mean, it had everybody in the world on there.

SPEAKER_19 2:17:27

Yep, yep, yep.

SPEAKER_02 2:17:28

It was very kind of it was kind of it was a fun show. Yeah, for what it was.

SPEAKER_19 2:17:31

It had its moments, I mean, and it's uh it's all about just cameos, you know, just just uh bringing people on to say, hey, you know. I mean, the the casting crew of the love boat, uh the the captain, I've forgotten his, you know.

SPEAKER_28 2:17:45

They were there, they were what they were.

SPEAKER_19 2:17:46

Yeah, they were.

SPEAKER_28 2:17:47

And it was it was the it was the guest stars that were uh of course, of course.

SPEAKER_19 2:17:50

And of course, the there's lots of um again, um how do we call we refer to this as um uh uh television titillation.

SPEAKER_02 2:18:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 2:18:00

Right. So that was the whole idea.

SPEAKER_02 2:18:03

Yeah, nobody could titillate.

SPEAKER_19 2:18:04

Like it's I know. One how about the wonderful world of Disney? Now, now this of course is had been around for a long, long time, you know, at that point and was run nearing the end of its reign. Uh, but I remember the wonderful world of Disney, of course, as a as a child, every Sunday evening. What was it, uh seven o'clock, I think. Seven o'clock on on uh on NBC. And you know, uh always, always, always had to watch The Wonderful World of Disney at seven o'clock on Sundays, much to my parents' chagrin. And uh but but hey, man, you know, it was it was an era, it was uh it was a generational thing, uh, especially for the boom generation. We were so lucky to have the wonderful world of Disney. And uh yeah, but uh they were nearing the end.

SPEAKER_02 2:18:52

It's funny. I don't remember chips being being on the on the air this late. I thought maybe I thought that I was surprised when I saw this.

SPEAKER_19 2:19:03

Well, it's the same group that did the show Emergency, yeah, and um Adam 12 and those other those other ended sooner than this. Yeah, me too. I didn't know that maybe this was the last year for chips, uh hard to say. Um and you know, there was a couple of I don't know, I here's the thing. There's certain TV shows that followed formulas, uh, and and of course, certain networks were better at it than others. And every once in a while you'd get something that was really, really different. Uh give you an example, Hill Street Blues. Yeah. When they came on the air, they were so completely different from anything we'd seen before, and they kind of broke the mold a little bit. So chips was kind of like the old formula, like a a a buddy, a buddy thing, you know, two guys uh fighting crime together on the back of their motorcycles, and just I don't know. It just it seemed very contrived. Uh and doesn't hold up, you know, at all.

SPEAKER_02 2:20:07

Do you remember the David Letterman show in in the daytime?

SPEAKER_20 2:20:11

Daytime.

SPEAKER_02 2:20:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_20 2:20:12

Daytime.

SPEAKER_02 2:20:13

Yeah. Now I'm not of course he he took over the tonight show ultimately, but this is I don't I vaguely remember. I mean, obviously he had some kind of notoriety before he took over the uh the tonight show.

SPEAKER_19 2:20:29

You know, it's it's uh interesting. I I know he had been uh a weatherman uh out in the Midwest um before he became the David Letterman we know.

SPEAKER_02 2:20:38

Um it didn't last very long.

SPEAKER_19 2:20:42

Don't let me don't don't let me get you get you in a in a in a tizzy here, but uh it sounds like you're across the room. You're where are where you're there you are. Well I'm over here. There you are. Okay. Um no that the David Letterman show, um, because it was on NBC, it was actually a daytime show, but it couldn't have been more than what, six months?

SPEAKER_02 2:21:04

It was a very short period of time.

SPEAKER_19 2:21:06

Yeah, yeah, very, very short. Uh interesting though.

SPEAKER_02 2:21:09

I thought it was worth noting, huh?

SPEAKER_19 2:21:11

Oh, yeah. No, when he finally went to nighttime, I would say one of the things that I remember most about that that early, very early time as as uh as he stepped into the late night uh arena was the night that uh he featured um Andy Kaufman and Jerry Lawler together. Jerry Lawler.

SPEAKER_02 2:21:34

Oh yes, they had they they got into a fight?

SPEAKER_19 2:21:36

Yeah, there was this like knockdown drag out. Now, Jerry Lawler was a professional wrestler or one of those, you know, uh world wrestling dudes, and uh he and Andy had become with nuts. Well, of course. Now, in in the circumstance, they're on Letterman, and uh there is this argument that breaks out between Andy and Jerry Lawler, and Andy is screaming at him, you know, and uh then Lawler punches him and knocks him down. Now, it was so convincing. Now, now here's the thing, David Letterman had no idea. He he didn't he wasn't keyed in on this. And and it here he is in live television, and and someone has just been you know hit and and is now laying on the ground and then jumps up and starts screaming the F bomb over and over and over and over again. Uh Andy Kaufman screaming how he's gonna sue Jerry Lawler, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it goes on. And then they go to commercial and Letterman looked like it, like a deer in headlights. Like, like, oh my goodness, what just happened? Now, after Andy passed away.

SPEAKER_02 2:22:40

Welcome to nighttime, sucker.

SPEAKER_19 2:22:41

Yeah, exactly. After Andy passed away, uh, we heard, you know, Jerry Lawler confess hey, that that was a routine we worked on and we we came up with uh to to to do for their specifically for the show and didn't tell anybody. So uh interesting. But that was uh Andy Kaufman was brilliant, brilliant when it came to that kind of uh that kind of work. Uh and just you know, really gotta say, you know, kudos to David Letterman for hanging in there and doing doing what he had to do uh to get by. So but uh anyway. So David Letterman was a daytime show to start with. Go figure.

unknown 2:23:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 2:23:23

Well, okay. Now we gotta we talk about the stage, we always do, so we gotta we gotta talk about 1980 and what was happening on Broadway. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:23:32

I think the return of the music man. We remember we we mentioned in '62 it was a movie.

SPEAKER_19 2:23:36

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 2:23:38

Well, it was uh a stage revival.

SPEAKER_19 2:23:42

Wow, huh? Isn't isn't that interesting? Uh back on stage. But that's cool because it was such a great collection of music, the music man. Um, here's the thing. I used to see the the the commercials uh on New York television when I was in college. Yarm's too short to box with God. And I always thought that, man, that sounds pretty. But it was a gospel uh musical. And it was reopened.

SPEAKER_02 2:24:13

I didn't see that coming. Yeah. Uh and it's so nice to be civilized. Why can't we all just get along?

SPEAKER_19 2:24:23

That's another another classic Broadway um and West Side story. Yeah.

SPEAKER_29 2:24:29

I mean, really, another girl name and Evita.

SPEAKER_19 2:24:37

Yeah. Evita. Uh something that that they still talk about.

SPEAKER_02 2:24:42

You know, it's too much to explore.

SPEAKER_19 2:24:46

Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice combining their musical talents for that one. Uh of course, the it was probably the most that was the most sought-after ticket on Broadway in the day, uh, especially uh because it was had just opened the year before, but was still going, it was still hot and strong. Now I'm wondering when it comes to Broadway productions, you know, typically what is what are most of them do? They s they hang in there for a few years. I mean, what's what's what's the deal?

SPEAKER_02 2:25:12

I mean Well, you never know, you know.

SPEAKER_19 2:25:15

Right. If it's popular, it's popular.

SPEAKER_02 2:25:19

Yeah. Yeah. And uh I know obviously I don't remember uh yeah, I'm too short, the box of gut, or it's nice to be civilized hanging around all that long.

SPEAKER_19 2:25:29

No, no.

SPEAKER_02 2:25:30

The West Side story and Evita, they're I mean, they're perpetual.

SPEAKER_19 2:25:34

Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, we're gonna continue in the vein of culture here. We may as well talk about the books of 1980. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:25:45

Uh Rage of Angels by Sidney Sheldon, a thrilling legal drama about a brilliant young defense attorney.

SPEAKER_19 2:25:52

By the way, did that become a movie too?

SPEAKER_02 2:25:56

No, I don't know. I don't remember the title of that.

SPEAKER_19 2:25:59

Well, uh I can tell you there are two on the list that did.

SPEAKER_02 2:26:02

One of at least one of them did. There's Princess Daisy by Judith Kranz. I remember her as an author. I don't remember this book. The Born Identity by Robert Ludlum.

SPEAKER_19 2:26:14

Of course.

SPEAKER_02 2:26:15

And I think, you know, I'd like to read that. I need to look to see if I can find that in my library.

SPEAKER_19 2:26:19

Yep, and then of course the Bouries of movies uh came out later.

SPEAKER_02 2:26:23

And you get billions and billions of books across the universe.

SPEAKER_19 2:26:27

And billions.

SPEAKER_02 2:26:28

Carl Sagan.

SPEAKER_19 2:26:29

Carl Sagan. He's uh to me is a is a is a folk hero. Uh a folk hero in the sense that yes, he was a scientist, but he was kind of the face of science and and really brought his passion uh very effectively to to uh you know to media. Um and of course his era parents, Neil deGrasse Tyson.

SPEAKER_02 2:26:48

Yes, exactly. Very yes, almost an identical scenario. It's so refreshing to see him.

SPEAKER_18 2:26:55

Yep. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 2:26:56

Because I really I really for some reason I can't explain, when Carl Sagan, I think he died at quite young, right?

SPEAKER_19 2:27:03

Well, he was in his uh late 50s, I believe, 50s or maybe early 60s. Yeah, pretty young. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:27:09

And I and I felt the impact of his passing. It's like the only person who took the time to explain science to every man.

SPEAKER_19 2:27:20

Yep. Yeah. Yep, and he was so effective at it.

SPEAKER_02 2:27:23

Then nobody came along to replace him for decades.

SPEAKER_19 2:27:27

Until Neil deGrasse Tyson, who who, by the way, uh was a was a a protege. Um, when Neil deGrasse Tyson was still living in New York City, uh, he was invited to Cornell University, where Carl was a professor, and Carl specifically invited him to tour the campus uh as a as a teenager. And then uh now he he didn't attend Cornell. Uh uh Neil deGrasse, I believe, went to Columbia, if I'm not mistaken. But but it inspired him in so in such a way. You know, uh Carl Sagan really got him, gave him that impetus to say, I'm gonna do this. This is what I'm gonna do. And uh that's that's what the results are are obvious. Uh Carl Carl Sagan just uh inspired so many people, but Neil deGrasse Tyson in particular.

SPEAKER_02 2:28:15

Yep, yep, indeed.

SPEAKER_19 2:28:17

Well, off we go with the hit singles, man. There's there's uh there's some good stuff and there's some not so good stuff here. I'm just gonna say um I'm just gonna hold back and um I'll let you let you fly with this one. Pardon the pun.

SPEAKER_02 2:28:34

Yeah, sure. Okay, let's let's talk about wings, shall we?

SPEAKER_19 2:28:38

You mean like Paul McCartney and Wings?

SPEAKER_02 2:28:40

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the one. That's the guy, yeah. That's the guy. That's the guy. Yeah. Now this uh it's interest, this is kind of interesting in a vague sort of way. Um he came out with a single coming up, okay, which was a live song.

SPEAKER_20 2:28:56

Right.

SPEAKER_02 2:28:57

Now, oddly enough, he also had an album out called McCartney 2.

SPEAKER_20 2:29:03

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 2:29:04

Which was his own, he played every instrument because Wings had broken up a few months before.

SPEAKER_20 2:29:11

Got it.

SPEAKER_02 2:29:12

Now, this followed his unfortunate uh event in Japan where he got busted for pot.

SPEAKER_20 2:29:21

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 2:29:22

He almost ended up in jail for a long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long time. And I mean, who puts a pound of pot in his own suitcase?

SPEAKER_19 2:29:34

I know, I know. Yeah. Come on. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:29:37

Right? Anyway. So, at any rate, anyway, so he puts out this solo album. And there is a kind of a very quirky version of coming up on there.

SPEAKER_04 2:29:47

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 2:29:48

Very electronic sounding. He alters his voice. And he didn't release that as a single. He released a version that the wings had played.

SPEAKER_20 2:29:59

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 2:30:00

And which became a number one song.

SPEAKER_19 2:30:04

Go figure. Go figure. Um yeah, I'm not a fan. Just saying. Yeah. I know it's sacrilegious to say because I'm a big fan of the Beatles in general, but he had he had a hit he had hit and miss situations.

SPEAKER_02 2:30:19

Yeah. Come on.

SPEAKER_19 2:30:20

Yeah, you know, it's that the way the way it is with most artists, right? They have great, great, brilliant moments and then other times.

SPEAKER_02 2:30:28

Yeah, since 1964.

SPEAKER_19 2:30:30

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 2:30:31

The guy does, but this was a hit though. You may not like it, but it's catchy.

SPEAKER_19 2:30:38

It's got a it's got a hook, you know.

SPEAKER_02 2:30:40

Um you can dance to it.

SPEAKER_19 2:30:46

You can dance to it. Um, it's it's uh to me. We're getting we're getting tired. I know. But it's it is true that uh, you know, Paul he's he's forgiven. You know, he's he's he's done contributed so much to to uh what we know of uh especially with for the boom generation, more than his share of uh of great music. And and you can't fault fault him for uh for uh uh an egg here and there.

SPEAKER_02 2:31:12

Yeah, well, he he's the man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Love you take is equal to the love you make man.

SPEAKER_19 2:31:17

Mm-hmm. There you go. Yeah. Well, uh how about the middler. Yeah, the Divine Miss M. Right. Yeah, wow. She was something else. Um now I didn't realize this, but when she was playing The Rose, uh that it was based on the life of Janice Joplin. Is that correct? Yeah, no, I didn't know that. I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_02 2:31:38

It was a great movie. She was incredible.

SPEAKER_19 2:31:40

Yeah, oh, no doubt.

SPEAKER_02 2:31:42

She's been great in a few movies, actually.

SPEAKER_19 2:31:44

Well, oh well, my goodness. I mean, and when it comes to stage performances, my goodness, there are very few, very few women who can say that they have that kind of uh that kind of uh dynamic uh performance. Uh she's just really, really amazing. Um what what do you how do you feel about the Detroit sound? First of all, I know you know Motown is one thing, but Bob Seeger. What what uh what are your opinions on Bob Seeger?

SPEAKER_02 2:32:10

Well, I'm glad you asked me that because actually it's quite it's it's quite storied. My my uh knowledge of Bob Seeger goes back a lot further than most people's. Unless you grew up in Detroit or gr or lived in Orlando.

SPEAKER_19 2:32:28

Right.

SPEAKER_02 2:32:29

Now, isn't that peculiar that you should say the chip should say that?

SPEAKER_19 2:32:32

Huh.

SPEAKER_02 2:32:33

Let me explain. God, you had to ask, didn't you?

SPEAKER_20 2:32:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:32:37

Bob was from Detroit.

SPEAKER_20 2:32:39

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 2:32:40

Bob had a number of hit singles in Detroit in as early as 1966 that no one's ever heard. Besides story, heavy music, two plus two equals. And then, of course, 1969 he came out with uh Ramlin's Gamblin' Man.

SPEAKER_18 2:32:57

Right, Bob Seeger's sister.

SPEAKER_02 2:32:59

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. When I was living in Orlando in 1966, I heard all these singles. Okay. So I knew about Bob Seeger. In fact, Bob Seeger sold out only two cities in the US in the mid-60s. Detroit and Orlando.

SPEAKER_19 2:33:16

Really? Huh. Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 2:33:19

And uh, of course, he broke out in the mid-70s about the same time as Peter Frampton, both with live albums, which regurgitated previous songs that had been released that nobody knew about.

SPEAKER_20 2:33:35

Right. Okay. Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 2:33:37

So I mean, you and I both went through the eighties video, and I quite frankly I I can't listen to Bob Seeger anymore. Yeah. Because I've played these songs so many times. You don't go back and listen to the old singles nobody else has ever heard of.

SPEAKER_19 2:33:58

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:34:00

But yeah, I mean it just a guy could do he could do no wrong.

SPEAKER_19 2:34:03

Yep. I mean he he really did uh quintessentially uh capture uh an entire generation of of uh of songs that that uh that we still remember. We you know, like like the back of our hand. It's so it's so ingrained. You know, I put them right up there with uh you know folks like Springsteen uh or Mellencamp, those individuals, and even you know, uh more famous bands like uh Boston, you know. Uh but the the music was so overplayed, it got to be such uh such a a tedium after time that it just it it worked against him. Um not the least of which people love him, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean you can say the same. Yep, absolutely. And you can say the same thing about Billy Joel. Um you know, I I was in college at the time and Glass Houses was huge. And of course, he was right there right next door to us in uh, you know, in the college that I was going going to and uh was well known among a lot of the students there because some of them had actually older brothers and sisters who went to school with him in Hicksville. And uh so yeah, so Glass Houses was actually to me one of his better records because he he took some more chances. Of course, he had the the the pop record still rock and roll to me, you know, that which was was certainly um uh you know catchy. Um but uh there were some other things that uh to me really were actually much better songs on Glasshound. Oh yes, much better songs, yeah. Uh don't ask me why, you know, the television on. Yes, exactly. And these are these are things obviously we we as uh fans of of Billy Joel. I think he's he's a phenomenal artist. Uh but again we talked about McCartney having his stinkers and and Billy had some of his own.

SPEAKER_02 2:35:54

So it's funny. I I I still I always I always gravitate to his 1970s catalog. Even I I can't listen to PM. I'm just a little burned out on that song.

SPEAKER_20 2:36:05

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 2:36:06

But the the songs in that era, uh New York State of Mind.

SPEAKER_20 2:36:11

Mm-hmm. Yep.

SPEAKER_19 2:36:14

Yeah, there's uh and all those. You know, yeah, there's there's some real uh you know incredibly well-written and produced records there that they just will live on forever and ever and ever. You know, anthems basically. And uh and Glasshouses, man, was uh he was he was trying to be more of the rock guy on that on that record. Yeah, yeah. Yep, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 2:36:37

Probably one of the great greatest album covers of all.

SPEAKER_19 2:36:40

Oh, I know.

SPEAKER_02 2:36:41

Yeah, and he's standing there on the such a snotty, snurky sort of uh Long Island screw you uh attitude.

SPEAKER_19 2:36:48

Oh, and this is like right after his big divorce. Yeah, yeah. He's ready to break the window in his own house, you know. Uh but uh yeah, really interesting character and and uh from what I've been told, uh a gracious human being, very, very decent human being. So and uh by the way, there was a time, especially in those days, with uh with what we refer to as new wave music. Uh we were so into some of the really quirkier artists of the time. Gary Newman, this guy was uh quite literally a freak. He was just so weird. Um he dressed in uh you know, like sometimes all black, and he put on like really white makeup. So he looked like a robot at times.

SPEAKER_02 2:37:36

Yes, he did.

SPEAKER_19 2:37:37

And uh boy, I still remember he had a couple of records. Um one was called Our Our Friends Electric, which which was really out there. I mean, I still I like the music, you know. I still think I still listen to some of that. Um, but then he had this huge hit in 1980 called Cars.

SPEAKER_02 2:37:56

I love this song. Yeah, I love this song. Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 2:38:01

Yeah, yeah. And just so quirky, so different for its time. And uh, you know, we're we're um Gary Newman, by the way, still tours. He's still out there.

SPEAKER_03 2:38:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 2:38:10

After all this time. Uh I'd like to see him. I think I'd like to see him live just uh just to get an idea. Um, there's probably not too much time left now, but but uh yeah, boy, that that was quite a quite a hit record for him. Uh cars. And and not a hit one-hit wonder.

SPEAKER_02 2:38:28

Elton John at this point in time pretty much abandoned rock and roll in the as of June 1980. He kind of did. He became a uh embraced the career of ballads and easy listening hits.

SPEAKER_19 2:38:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:38:42

Like Little Genie. But songs. Well good songs.

SPEAKER_19 2:38:46

Yeah, yeah, good songs, but at the same time, not his uh not his peak by any means.

SPEAKER_02 2:38:51

Well, I mean, he had quite he had quite a decade in some of these well uh two or three of the biggest albums of all time.

SPEAKER_19 2:38:59

Oh yeah. Oh yeah, yeah. Uh I still have my copy of Don't Shoot Me. I'm only the piano player, you know, on vinyl. Yeah. Um just the just the things that he did that that nobody else was able to do. Um his his his uh team uh teammate or his his partner uh Bernie Taupin, uh he and and uh Elton came up with some of the some of the most iconic records, uh songs of all time. You know, uh Daniel and uh don't just um uh oh my goodness, uh just endless lists of of uh fantastic, fantastic records. Um I think uh I think one of my my all-time favorites is kind of a thing that wasn't a hit record, but it was called Texas Love Song. And it's about uh, you know, uh killing all the hippies.

SPEAKER_28 2:39:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_19 2:39:59

It is uh is sung from the perspective of some, you know, well, shall we say, uh conservative white um working class guy from Texas who who hates hippies. And it's a it's a really well-crafted song. It's very it's meant to be funny, I think. You know, it's meant to have a sense of humor, but it's all about killing all you hippies. Uh and uh you're drinking all our beer. And and uh but but Elton John, he just had that, he embraced that, you know. That to me, that was just that was so daring for its time. And uh that that was on that uh don't shoot me, I'm only the piano player.

SPEAKER_02 2:40:40

I don't remember that song. I'll have to listen to that.

SPEAKER_19 2:40:42

Yeah, Texas Love Song.

SPEAKER_02 2:40:43

It's uh not not not that I wanted to see the demise of any hippies, but any old ones.

SPEAKER_19 2:40:51

But uh anyway, so we were also treated that year, uh 1980, to Blondie. And uh the lead singer, Debbie Harry.

SPEAKER_02 2:41:01

Anytime I can be treated to Debbie Harry, I was an aunt.

SPEAKER_19 2:41:06

Oh yes.

SPEAKER_02 2:41:06

Uh I never want to hear this song again.

SPEAKER_19 2:41:09

Yeah, call me was a was an anthem.

SPEAKER_02 2:41:12

Pretty tired.

SPEAKER_19 2:41:12

Yeah. I mean, it it it was of course in the American Gigolo soundtrack, which was you know, the the movie itself uh was pretty disturbing, really. Um, but uh Call Me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's um by the way, Debbie Harry is uh from our neck of the woods. Uh her parents, in fact, were maintaining a home right up until probably around the time this song came out in Cooperstown, New York.

SPEAKER_02 2:41:39

I met them.

SPEAKER_19 2:41:40

You did?

SPEAKER_02 2:41:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 2:41:42

No kidding. No kidding.

SPEAKER_02 2:41:44

She l I think actually they they when they moved to Cooperstown, she was already on the West Coast at that point. She didn't live in Cooperstown.

SPEAKER_19 2:41:53

Right, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 2:41:54

But yeah, I went I stopped and introduced myself and nice. They were very very charming people. I mean, gave me you know, we talked for a few minutes.

SPEAKER_19 2:42:05

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 2:42:06

So what was the occasion where you're just uh I happened to be in town and I heard that they were they owned the bakery there.

SPEAKER_19 2:42:13

Oh, gotcha. Understood. Yep, yep. So what a what a what a claim to fame that their daughter was so so uh so sought after and so successful, you know, as a as a singer.

SPEAKER_02 2:42:25

Um again from that was surprised when they told me, well, you know, Debbie never lived here.

SPEAKER_19 2:42:29

Right.

SPEAKER_02 2:42:30

Well, I said, you know, somehow that doesn't surprise me because I think she I don't think she would have liked living here. We both laughed and said, no, she wouldn't have enjoyed herself. It was a pretty quiet little town.

SPEAKER_19 2:42:44

Not her vibe. Yeah. Oh, she was very much a uh a woman of of the world and a metropolitan style, you know. She she was quite glamorous, I gotta say. Uh but it's so funny how she started out in that punk scene at CBGB's way back when, uh in those uh the early early times of of that new wave era. Uh and and punk, you know, punk and new wave was really uh the thing. Uh of course, uh CBGB's and uh the mud club, those were you know uh birthplaces of so many great names that we we talk about these days. You know, we talk about the Ramones and and Talking Heads and and uh this oh geez, I the the list goes on. But um yeah, Debbie Harry.

SPEAKER_02 2:43:28

Do you know that she she was in a band called Wind in the Willows?

SPEAKER_19 2:43:33

Really?

SPEAKER_02 2:43:34

In 1969, they put an album out, actually charted.

SPEAKER_19 2:43:37

Really?

SPEAKER_02 2:43:38

Uh kind of a folk folkish album.

SPEAKER_19 2:43:41

Huh. No kidding.

SPEAKER_02 2:43:43

Wind in the Willows.

SPEAKER_20 2:43:44

Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 2:43:45

But yeah, coming up the Rose, we got uh Rock and Roll, just Rock and Roll to Me, Cars, Little Genie, Call Me, those are all uh among the big top ten hits in June of 1980. So a couple albums to talk about, though.

SPEAKER_19 2:44:01

Oh yeah. Well, you know, um I lament the loss of the of the album. I lament uh I'm saying I lament it because of the fact that you know, before CDs and before downloads and stuff, you have to buy the album. And the album is a is a full, you know, it's a big piece where the artwork is is prominent. Um and you you know, there's gatefolds where you open it up and you there's more surprises inside. And that was to me more the it was as much of the experience of the music as it was. Uh you know, just and and having it, possessing it. It just, I don't know, man. I lament the the loss of that. Although I know vinyl records are back. You know, I see them being sold in in uh record stores and and uh bookstores and stuff, but it just seemed to me that's what it was all about, man. You know, yeah, having that record in your hand.

SPEAKER_02 2:44:55

Interesting point because I like I'm on YouTube all the time. I look at a lot of mu uh music and yeah uh historical musically historical documents and so on. And I and I've noticed that there's a lot of interest in old music. In particular, the Beatles, Beatles albums and roll and the Rolling Stones are two two big ones. All right. Um even in today, like you said, even even today, you don't hear about albums in general, but you do hear about specific albums from heritage players. Like Paul McCartney's new new album is actually celebrated as an album.

SPEAKER_20 2:45:40

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 2:45:41

As is the upcoming, I mean, the the the anticipation for the new Rolling Stones album.

SPEAKER_19 2:45:48

Mm-hmm. Which, by the way, I don't know. Have you heard any tracks from that? Yes. Have you heard any of the new The Rolling Stones?

SPEAKER_02 2:45:54

Fantastic. It's it's derivative to a certain extent.

SPEAKER_19 2:45:58

No, it's it's really good.

SPEAKER_02 2:46:01

It's still rock and roll of me.

SPEAKER_19 2:46:03

Oh my goodness. Uh, there's something called, I think it's called um twisted or crooked road. I forgot which wow. It's yeah, it's quintessential, and and mix sounds amazing. Sounds amazing.

SPEAKER_02 2:46:16

Yeah, he does. He does. It's great. It's great. Yeah. He wants to go out on tour, and I don't think Richard's it up for it. He didn't got arthritis and everything else.

SPEAKER_19 2:46:27

Right, right, exactly. Well, you know, we'll see. Uh I mean, I'm sure Ron could handle, you know, uh what they need to handle. He has been too, yeah, obviously. Yeah. But still.

SPEAKER_02 2:46:40

I think uh I think Mick summed it up best during the uh Academy, the last Academy Awards, when he was uh introducing the uh uh Oscar for Best Song of the Year from the move from a movie. And he came out and the crowd went lost, they lost their shit. They were going crazy.

SPEAKER_20 2:46:57

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:46:58

And he's he's just like, thank you, thank you very much. He goes, uh I just want to let you know that I wasn't the first choice. They were gonna have Bob Dylan come out, but they want to have they wanted to have somebody younger.

SPEAKER_19 2:47:16

Oh smirk on his face. That's hilarious. That's funny stuff. Man, Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan is is turning 85 this year, by the way. So that's uh that's saying something. Um but yeah, so the albums, you know, of 1980. I mean, we had some some pretty extraordinary moments, again, talking about, you know, how the experience of a record came down to the fact that it was uh, you know, a presentation, the the the the album itself. And I still remember the very first time I heard The Wall uh that that year, 1980. In fact, I was I was home on vacation and I was uh at a friend's house, and he was one of these fortunate few who had a full-time job. And so he could afford not just uh, you know, to buy records, but also had a really amazing stereo, really good stereo. So, you know, we all gathered together, and uh there were some other ingredients involved, but he said, Hey man, you gotta hear this record. And we all sat there and he dropped the needle on the record, and the atmosphere in the room changed. I mean, it changed. And suddenly we're listening to this incredible collection of of just uh music that you just never uh we just it just blew our minds. I think we listened to it twice that night, all the way through. And it's a double album set. And uh it was the the pinnacle, I think, of of what Pink Floyd had come to be. Uh sadly, the end of their their careers as a as a group, but wow, just incredible.

SPEAKER_02 2:48:53

Do you think it needed to be a double album?

SPEAKER_19 2:48:56

Not necessarily.

SPEAKER_02 2:48:58

And a musicologist, one musicologist to another.

SPEAKER_19 2:49:01

Yeah, I I mean in retrospect somebody off right now. I mean, it it's it's funny because it's the the parts in between, you know, the the little tracks, the little the sound effects and the things that happened in between the the tracks. Sometimes it's a bit overwrought. And I and I'll grant you this. I mean, it's the creative process, right? You know, what do you leave in? What do you take out? How do you edit it down? How do you keep the the continuity? And it truly is, you know, what we came to recall uh refer to as uh a concept album, concept records. Uh Sgt. Pepper's, um you know, those are those are records, you know, uh the wall obviously we consider to be quintessential concept records. But the wall, I don't know, man. It's hard to say. Um, would it be the same? Yeah, if you if you edited things down.

SPEAKER_02 2:49:59

Um I I the reason I say that is it's not it's not one of my favorite uh Pink Floyd albums. I just couldn't really embrace embrace it to the extent that many, many, many, many, many other people have done.

SPEAKER_19 2:50:10

Oh, sure.

SPEAKER_02 2:50:11

But uh it's just just a thought.

SPEAKER_19 2:50:13

Well, here's the thing too. When you look at a record in its entirety, how many how many hits, first of all? Um, how many you know um uh pinnacles of of you know, let's say the the careers of the of the the band itself, how much of that is reflected in the record? Now, sometimes, you know, here just to take an example. Um, I love the band Yes, right? So, yes, they had great records like uh uh things like Roundabout, umer of a Lonely Heart. I mean, there's a bunch of records they've done over the decades. Now, there's one particular record that is kind of out there. Uh, it's called Tales of Topographic Oceans. And again, it's a concept record, and it goes on for two discs. And I mean, I can listen to it over and over and over again, but it didn't have a single hit song.

SPEAKER_02 2:51:06

Now it's interesting that like we're kind of meandering off the subject here, but there's a uh YouTube pod uh YouTube podcast called Taste Like Music, where these two guys discuss music, and they actually put together a list of albums. I think a lot. And they put they made a list of each of their top ten double albums that could have been single albums.

SPEAKER_20 2:51:37

Right.

SPEAKER_02 2:51:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_20 2:51:38

Right.

SPEAKER_02 2:51:39

And that was one of the ones that actually wanted them mentioned was the Yes album. Tales of Topographic.

SPEAKER_19 2:51:46

Yeah. It's uh, you know, I was I was uh uh a Devotee, you know, most of the 70s. I just that's one of that was my band, you know. Now my other my other friends, some of them are really into The Grateful Dead, man, every single dead record that came out, you know, and that's all we listened to. But uh I was, you know, on in my own time, my own private, you know, situation where I was listening to records, yes, was number one for me. But uh very few people could say necessarily that would be the case. Um and it wasn't until many years later I got a chance to see them. But it's still to this day, that was really a very early, you know. Uh, if I if I had to say, okay, is there an ultimate band that you would say you know it influenced you most, that would be it right there. Um and Tales of Tobographic Oceans, man, it's not approachable for most people, it just isn't. So I get it. It's out there.

SPEAKER_02 2:52:42

So we had the wall, we also had uh Pete Townsend had his biggest solo album. Empty Glass. I'm sure, I'm sure that his uh his cohort in the band was pretty pissed off when this came out because Empty Glass was huge.

SPEAKER_20 2:52:57

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 2:52:58

Um, I keep hitting my mic with my face. I'm sorry about that.

SPEAKER_19 2:53:01

We can still hear you.

SPEAKER_02 2:53:02

Um I get so excited, you know. Um D Glass was we played uh then the rock station that you and I both worked at. We played like we were like six or seven cuts deep in that thing.

SPEAKER_19 2:53:17

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 2:53:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_19 2:53:18

Mm-hmm. Yep, great record. Great record. I mean, the genius of Pom Pete Townsend, right? He's he's he's generally, if you look at uh the number of people in the the field of rock and roll, especially from that era, he was one of those standouts. He just was a genius, plain and simple. You know, it was his writing and his and his uh his lyricism just incredible.

unknown 2:53:39

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 2:53:40

And of course, the top 10 uh of that month, June 1980, also included a couple of soundtracks, The Empire Strikes Back, and your favorite soundtrack album of all time, homeboy.

SPEAKER_19 2:53:54

You lucky boy. Oh my uh who knows? I would not have been here had I continued to to work in that that part of the field and had to listen to that ever again. Sorry. Hate to hate to blurst. I mean, here's the thing about what we do here with with Boom, the podcast. Uh, we express our our our heartfelt feelings about things in general as as far as this generation goes. And I have no compunction whatsoever, and I don't want to offend, and I'm sorry if you are, but urban cowboy Well, art art, once again, art is subjective.

SPEAKER_02 2:54:28

I mean, we're not gonna sit here and talk politics ever because for obvious reasons. Correct. But it's unnecessary, first of all.

SPEAKER_19 2:54:36

Right. Well, um we've got enough to divide us as it is, so yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:54:40

But I mean, music is uh in the ear of the beholder.

SPEAKER_19 2:54:44

So oh yes. And by the way, uh, in the ear of the beholder, uh just like Mike, our friend Mike, who took the time to really go into depth about things that he heard us talk about. If you feel the same way as Mike, we're we're the it's wide open, man. Just you know, go to our Facebook page, uh make the comments, you know, long shortcast. Boom the podcast, yes, on Facebook. Boom the podcast, and uh share with us how you feel. Um, yes, we're long-winded. Yes, we tend to go on, but at the same regard, if it's something that uh you want us to just shut up finally, you could say that too. I mean, we can handle it. We're adults. I'll crumble one of us is I'll I'll crum in my Wheaties, but that's necessarily me.

SPEAKER_02 2:55:32

I'm old and I'm stupid.

SPEAKER_19 2:55:36

Well, uh uh we could all uh at moments of our day, especially once we get to this part of our lives, we can all say that about ourselves for sure. So well, uh I gotta say, man, I this is an experience, it's an experiment, it's a it's a it's a process. I love it. I'm just saying, I love doing it.

SPEAKER_02 2:55:56

Well, you know, it's it's like anything uh when you're working on it to prepare for the the event, um sometimes it gets a little but you know once I'm here with you and we're we're doing this thing, it's it it it becomes new again.

SPEAKER_19 2:56:17

Yeah, yeah. It's uh that's yeah, that's the idea. And again, don't misunderstand us here. We're not here as a couple of old folks just reminiscing about the good old days. Um, we're making some points here, whether you you agree with them or not. We're trying to make some points about the here's a generation that needs to be in some way, shape, or form commemorated for what occurred and what we endured and what we learned as as a group of people. Uh, that's that's our feeling on this, and that's why we do this.

unknown 2:56:48

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 2:56:48

And we uh we want to know what you think. Yeah, you really need to know that because Mike's feedback was so absolutely it was amazing.

SPEAKER_19 2:57:00

Insightful. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:57:02

Very, very I mean, I I swear to God, he stopped he stopped the podcast, was making notes, and then went back to start listening again. I mean, you couldn't absorb all that stuff without going back and right, right, right. That's that's that's dedication. Thank you, my friend. Mike, thank you very much for uh impressing the shit out of me, man. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_19 2:57:23

Shout out to Mike. Yep. It's uh we're we'll we're we're looking forward to the you know the fifth episode coming up in in uh this next month. Uh but meanwhile, you know, by all means uh spread the word, tell people about us, you know, tell us tell tell people about the you know, boom the podcast and turn them on to us. Um the more the merrier. And uh boy, you know, we just crossed over what was it, uh 200 uh listens just recently. So uh that's that's cool. We'll take it. But uh anyway.

SPEAKER_02 2:57:54

So yeah, tell us what you think, tell us what you want to hear about. If we're not if there's something that you think is a waste of time, let us know because we are evolving this, it evolves every single show. So exactly right and quality show because I used to be in radio.

SPEAKER_19 2:58:10

There you go. The show. But uh, thanks again for tuning in and listening to us, and of course, uh again, we we'd love to hear from you. And uh meanwhile, we'll be back next month, the month of July. Uh we'll talk about uh uh a moment in your life when it comes to the boom generation.

SPEAKER_02 2:58:29

So take care buddy. Be fine, everybody.