1970s – Page 10 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

He Likes It! Hey Mikey!

Hello everyone!

I ordinarily don’t like commercials. I do like it when they try to be at least entertaining… This commercial has stayed in pop culture for over 50 years now. The commercial was created by the Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB) advertising agency. This Life cereal commercial appeared in 1972 and ran until 1984. It was one of the longest-running commercials in history.

I grew up watching Mikey’s brothers trying to get their brother who hates everything to eat the supposedly healthy Life Cereal. The phrase “Hey Mikey!” entered pop culture as a phrase used for unexpected approval of something.

Mikey was portrayed by John Gilchrist, and he is alive now and doing fine despite the urban legend that he died. A false rumor spread in the 1980s that John Gilchrist (Mikey) had died from eating Pop Rocks and drinking soda. This was completely untrue. He was alive and well.

Yes, word got around that the kid who played Mikey bought the farm by eating “pop rocks” and drinking soda. His stomach then exploded because of the lethal combination. A friend of his family actually called his mother in tears, saying she was so sorry about the loss of her son…when in reality he just got home from school.

What is interesting about the commercial is that the two kids playing his brothers are John Gilchrist’s brothers in real life.

John today is Director of Media Sales at MSG Network and is living a happy life with his wife and kids…and yes he still enjoys Life Cereal.

D.B. Cooper case solved?

Hello everyone… I’ve missed talking to everyone and I wanted to get this posted before the weekend. I’ll see you tomorrow!

There are mysteries that we all have read about that were never solved. A few were D.B. Cooper, Jimmy Hoffa, and Amelia Earhart. Personally, I had my doubts about anyone solving them. D.B. Cooper was the alias of an unidentified man who, on November 24, 1971, hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft (Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305), extorted $200,000 in ransom, and parachuted out of the plane—disappearing without a trace. It remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in U.S. history. Is this certain that they found the right person? No, but it is sure looking that way.

This is a brief summary of the original hijacking. Shortly after takeoff, at around 3:00 PM, Cooper handed a note to flight attendant Florence Schaffner, who initially ignored it, thinking it was a phone number. He noticed that and whispered: “Miss, you’d better look at that note. I have a bomb.” He demanded 200,000 in cash, four parachutes, and a fuel truck ready at Seattle-Tacoma Airport for refueling. The flight attendant asked to see the bomb, and Cooper opened his briefcase, revealing what appeared to be red cylinders with wires and batteries.

The airline told the FBI what was going on and they met his demands. The FBI got together the money and they recorded the serial numbers so they could track him down. The plane landed in Seattle and he demanded that they go to Mexico City. He told them to fly at a low altitude (10,000 feet) and a slow speed of 200 mph. Cooper knew the Boeing 727 had an aft stairway that could be lowered mid-flight. He knew how to control altitude and speed to make a parachute jump survivable. At 8:13 PM, over southwestern Washington, somewhere near Ariel, Washington, and the Lewis River, the crew noticed a sudden pressure change…Cooper had lowered the rear stairway and jumped out into the night. That was the last known sighting of Mr Cooper. The plane landed in Reno, Nevada and the investigation started.

Through the years, money was found in a creek bed near where he jumped and he left a tie on the airplane. It wasn’t much to go on. There were suspects and one of them was Richard Floyd McCoy and four others but nothing could be proved…until an amateur YouTube documentary maker named Dan Gryder found something. He made a documentary after years of researching and actually traveling to sites. He heard from Chanté and Rick McCoy III and they claim their father, Richard McCoy Jr., was D.B. Cooper.

They had a very unique parachute in their mom’s old things and it matched the one that was given to D.B. Cooper. Gryder said: That rig is literally one in a billion. The FBI marked Richard McCoy Jr. off the list back in the seventies. What took his kids so long to say something? The brother and sister said they waited until their mother died in 2020 to come forward, fearing she could be implicated as the parachute that allegedly belonged to Cooper was found in her storage area outside their house.

The FBI didn’t believe it until they got in touch with Gryder and he took them to the sibling’s parachute AND deteriorated money…some with the serials intact. Although it’s not official… the agents have said they are certain that McCoy was D.B. Cooper. I don’t know why it took them so long. He did the SAME thing the next year (1972) to a different airline. McCoy hijacked a United Airlines passenger jet for ransom in April 1972 and again asked for parachutes. To be fair though…the FBI thought it was a copycat at the time. From the New York Post: Gryder claimed the parachute at the McCoys’ home matched the modified parachute prepared by veteran skydiver Earl Cossey for police as part of Cooper’s demands before he disappeared somewhere between Seattle and Reno, Nevada. DB Cooper sleuths have raised the possibility that Richard Jr. was the fugitive for years given his own criminal past.

Richard McCoy Jr. was arrested for the hijacking of American Airlines a few days after it happened. They found him with a duffel bag full of money from the hijacking. He received a 45-year sentence but he escaped from prison in 1974 along with other prisoners in a garbage truck. Three months later he was found in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He went inside his home and was greeted by the FBI and he shot at them and was killed in the shootout.

He had the experience because he served two terms in the Army and then another one where he went to Vietnam. He was awarded an Army Commendation Medal and The Distinguished Flying Cross and he also served as a warrant officer in the Utah National Guard…and he did a lot of skydiving.

…

Timmy Thomas – Why Can’t We Live Together

I was searching around for new/old songs to cover and I ran across this title…I knew it sounded familiar. When I heard it…it took me back. WMAK in Nashville played this a lot when I was a kid. It was like finding a favorite shirt (you know…the one filled with holes but feels perfect?) that you had thought was lost. I didn’t know the artist but now I do. A great soul record from a decade that I think produced some of the best.

Thomas was inspired to write the song after watching news coverage of the Vietnam War and the ongoing unrest in the United States at the time. This song was ahead of its time. it was recorded using only a Lowrey organ, a simple rhythm machine, and Thomas’s vocals.

Thomas grew up in Indiana and went to Lane College in Tennessee to study music. He started his career as a session musician for other artists as a keyboardist. This song was his debut and it was a huge success. The song has been covered 35 times by artists such as Steve Winwood, Santana, Maria Muldaur, John Oats, and Sade to name a few.

This song peaked at #3 on the Billboard 100, #6 in Canada, and #12 in the UK in 1972.

Timmy Thomas: “I had just moved to Miami. And I’ll never forget, I was sitting in the study, because I was getting ready to teach school, higher education… I was sitting in my study, and I heard Walter Cronkite. I’ll never forget this. He said, ‘35,000 Viet Cong died today, 15,000 Americans.’ I said ‘WHAT?! You mean that many mothers’ children died today? In a war that we can’t come to the table and sit down and talk about this, without so many families losing their loved ones?’ I said, ‘Why can’t we live together?'”

“Bing! That light went off. And I started writing it then. ‘No more wars, we want peace in this world, and no matter what color, you’re still my brother.’ And then after that, put it on this little tape, and went to WEBF, which was a local radio station. And they played local artists then… they played it, and the phones lit up. They said ‘Man, who is that?'”

“And I did it as a one-man band! That was my foot playing bass, that was my left-hand playing guitar… Could never believe that as a one-man band, something like that would’ve been played that much. But I do believe that the world was ready to start changing a little bit. And that song made the change.”

Here is Steve Winwood and Sanata covering the song.

Why Can’t We Live Together

Tell me why, tell me why, tell me why
Why can’t we live together
Tell me why, tell me why
Why can’t we live together

Everybody wants to live together
Why can’t we be together

No more war, no more war, no more war
Just a little peace
No more war, no more war
All we want is some peace in this world

Everybody wants to live together
Why can’t we be together

No matter, no matter what color
You are still my brother
I said no matter, no matter what color
You are still my brother

Everybody wants to live together
Why can’t we be together

Everybody wants to live
Everybody’s got to be together

Everybody wants to live
Everybody’s going to be together

Everybody’s got to be together
Everybody wants to be together

I said no matter, no matter what color
You’re still my brother
I said no matter, no matter what color
You’re still my brother

Everybody wants to live together
Why can’t we be together

Gotta live together
Together

…

Boomtown Rats – Diamond Smiles

I’ve heard of this band a lot and liked I Don’t Like Mondays but I never knew much about them. CB sent me a few links and I really like what I’ve heard. I hear a good mixture of Pub Rock, New Wave, and Punk. They kept that edge of punk and had a great sound. The more I hear from this UK late seventies era the more I like it. With this band, the sound they had on recordings was huge.

They are an Irish rock band that formed in Dun Laoghaire, Dublin, Ireland, in 1975. They were formed by Bob Geldof, Garry Roberts, Gerry Cott, Pete Briquette, Johnnie Fingers, and Simon Crowe. They were influenced by pub rock and punk and they played their first gig in 1975. Originally, they used the name The Nightlife Thugs. The name “The Boomtown Rats” comes from a gang of down-and-out boys from Woody Guthrie’s autobiography Bound for Glory.

This song was on their album The Fine Art of Surfacing. It was the follow-up single to their biggest hit, “I Don’t Like Mondays.” Bob Geldof said he wrote the lyrics as a critique of superficiality, wealth, and the emptiness of high society life. The song has dynamics that build up from the start.

The songs on this album sound so fresh and alive. That could be because they were produced by Robert John Mutt Lange who would soon produce AC/DC’s Back In Black. The song peaked at #13 in the UK in 1979. The album peaked at #7 in the UK, #10 in New Zealand, #6 in Canada, and #73 on the Billboard Album Charts.

They disbanded in 1986 following a charity concert in Ireland. Most of the band members moved on to solo projects or new bands. They reformed in 2013 going on tour again and released a new best of album Back to Boomtown : Classic Rats Hits which includes two new recorded songs.

Diamon Smiles

“Traffic’s wild tonight”Diamond smiles her cocktail smile.Tonight she’s in heavy disquise.She looks at her wrist to clock the passing time.

“Weather’s mild tonight”She wonders do they notice her eyes,She wonders will her glamour survive,And can they see she’s going down a third time.

Everybody tries,It’s Dale Carnegie gone wild,But Barbara Cartland’s childlong ago perfected the motionless glide.

In the low voltage noise,Diamond seems so sure and so poisedShe shimmers for the bright young boys,And laugh’s “Love is for others, but me it destroys”

The girl in the cakeJumped out too soon by mistake,Somebody said the whole things half bakedAnd Diamond lifts her glass and says “cheers”

She stands to the sideThere’s no more to this than meets the eye,Everybody drinks Martini dry,And talks about clothes and the latest styles.

They said she did itWith grace.They said she did itWith style.They said she did it allBefore she diedOh NoI remember Diamond’s smile

Nobody saw her go,They said they should have noticed‘cos her dress was cut so low.Well it only goes to showHa, ha, how many real men any of us know.

She went up the stairs,Stood up on the vanity chair,Tied her lame belt around the chandelier,And went out kicking at the perfumed air.

They said she did itWith grace.They said she did itWith style.They said she did it allBefore she diedOh NoI remember Diamond’s smile

…

Lite-Brite

One of my favorite toys growing up. To this day I like collecting vintage lighting fixtures like soft drink clocks or signs probably because of this toy. They came with designs that you could use to create different cartoons and clowns but I never used those. I liked to create my own masterpieces.

This toy allowed you to be creative in a very different way. It brought out the artistic side in you. You could design different things and it would light up your room in the dark with colors. Lite-Brite was invented by Joseph M. Burck, a senior designer at Chicago toy and game design company Marvin Glass and Associates. The company licensed Lite-Brite to Hasbro, which officially launched it in 1967. It became a staple toy in the 1970s.

Of course…when I got older I would make crude messages on the Lite Brite for friends. Lite-Brite is recognized as one of the greatest toys of all time by the Toy Hall of Fame. It has become part of our pop culture.

Lite Brite commercial from the 1970s. Did you have one growing up?

My love of Pinball Machines

When I would go skating, the best part was playing all of the pinball machines. I’ve always favored them over the video games at arcades because they were machines instead of a screens. Some took some skill and bumping the machine a little but not too much to tilt. I remember Baseball pinball machines, the Elton John model, KISS model, The Who Pinball Wizard model, and many bicentennial models. Below is a quick history of these works of art.

The start of pinball machines started in the 19th century with a “Bagatelle-Table”, a sort of hybrid between a “pin table” and pool table. Players tried to hit balls with cue sticks and get them into pockets or slots surrounded by nails and pins. Another step towards the modern pinball form occurred sometime at the end of 19th century when inventor Montague Redgrave patented a device called a “ball shooter”, which was based on the recently invented steel spring.

The first coin-operated “pinball machine” was invented in 1931 by Automatic Industries and was called the “Whiffle Board”. But the gaming industry really began in the mid-1930s with the production of a game called “Ballyhoo”. It was invented by one Raymond Maloney, who later started the Bally Manufacturing Company of Chicago, IL.

Pinball machines really grew in popularity after World War II. The ten-year period of 1948-58 is referred to by some as the “Golden Age” of pinball, due to the invention of flippers in 1947 by the D. Gottlieb Co. in a game called “Humpty Dumpty”, and was one of the main reasons for the renewed interest in pinball machines at the time. Humpty Dumpty was the very first pinball machine with flippers!

In 1966, the first digital scoring pinball machine, “Rally Girl” was released Rally. In 1975, the first solid-state electronic pinball machine, the “Spirit of 76”, was released by Micro. In 1998, the first pinball machine with a video screen was released by Williams in their new “Pinball 2000” series machines. Versions of pinball are now being sold that are completely software-based.

I still like the software-free machines…some were like works of art.

I didn’t know they had a Beatle pinball machine.

I have to close this out… with what else?

Joni Mitchell – Big Yellow Taxi

I heard this song the other day, and I thought to myself, “I would LOVE to post about it, but I probably already have.” I checked, and to my surprise, I had never posted it before. This is one of the first songs I remember from my youth. I was three years old when it was released but I remember it through the seventies.

She wrote “Big Yellow Taxi” in 1970, inspired by her first trip to Hawaii. When she woke up in her hotel room she was struck by the contrast between the mountains in the distance and the large parking lot below her window. The difference between natural beauty and urban development influenced the song’s opening line, “They paved paradise to put up a parking lot.” Mitchell said: I wrote ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ on my first trip to Hawaii. I took a taxi to the hotel and when I woke up the next morning, I threw back the curtains and saw these beautiful green mountains in the distance. Then, I looked down and there was a parking lot as far as the eye could see, and it broke my heart […] this blight on paradise. That’s when I sat down and wrote the song.

This is probably one of the best environmental songs out there. There are a few good ones like Rocky Mountain High, Mother Nature’s Son, Going Up Country, Beds Are Burning, Fall On Me, and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s All I Can Do Is Write About It.

The song appeared on her album Ladies of the Canyon released in 1970. The album’s title references Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles, a hub for musicians and artists during the 1960s, where Mitchell resided at 8217 Lookout Mountain Avenue. Her home became a gathering place for notable musicians, including David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and future boyfriend Graham Nash. Laurel Canyon had a vast array of talent with CSN, James Taylor, Canned Heat, The Doors, Eagles, Linda Rondstadt, and more. My friend Dave wrote a great article about that music scene that happened in the late sixties and early seventies.

The song peaked at #67 (I checked that twice!) on the Billboard 100, #15 in Canada, and #11 in the UK. I would have bet the farm that it peaked higher than 67 here. There is a “but” to this song though…a live version came out in 1974 and that one did better. It peaked at #24 on the Billboard 100. Sometimes though it doesn’t matter where it charts. Some songs become ingrained into pop culture. Songs like In My Life by the Beatles never was released as a single and many artists have songs we all know and love that didn’t chart high or at all. And some charting songs are never remembered anymore.

Her guitar playing is unusual, to say the least. She doesn’t use traditional chords as much as other players. She makes up different tunings in open chords. That is why when you see her play, most of the time she is using a finger to bar all of the strings. I would hate to be her guitar tech. I can’t imagine how many guitars she takes on tour with her. I used an open G chord while playing Rolling Stones songs so I would take another guitar already tuned in G so I wouldn’t have to retune my guitar in many songs.

Big Yellow Taxi

They paved paradise, put up a parking lotWith a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swingin’ hot spot

Don’t it always seem to goThat you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s goneThey paved paradise, put up a parking lot(Ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop, ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop)

They took all the trees put ’em in a tree museumAnd they charged the people a dollar an’ a half just to see ’em

Don’t it always seem to goThat you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s goneThey paved paradise, put up a parking lot(Ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop, ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop)

Hey farmer, farmer put away that DDT nowGive me spots on my apples, but leave me the birds and the beesPlease

Don’t it always seem to goThat you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s goneThey paved paradise, put up a parking lot(Ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop, ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop)

Late last night I heard the screen door slamAnd a big yellow taxi took away my old man

Don’t it always seem to goThat you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s goneThey paved paradise, put up a parking lot (ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop)

I said don’t it always seem to goThat you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s goneThey paved paradise, put up a parking lot (ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop)They paved paradise, put up a parking lot (ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop)They paved paradisePut up a parking lot

…

Raised Eyebrows: My Years Inside Groucho’s House

Steve Stoliar wrote this book about being a student at UCLA and working at Groucho Marx’s house starting in 1974. This book is not about the peak years of The Marx Brothers or Groucho…just the opposite. It’s the decline of Groucho Marx’s health and his eventual death.

Steve was in UCLA heading up a petition to get “Animal Crackers” released again to theaters for which he was successful. The Marx Brothers popularity was on the rise again. Groucho traveled to the campus to help out. Groucho’s PA Erin Fleming eventually hired Steve as a secretary and archivist. Steve worked in Groucho’s house for a little over 3 years. He was a huge fan not only of Groucho but of old Hollywood.

The number of famous people who passed through Groucho’s house was incredible. Old Hollywood stars and also new ones at the time. Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Bud Cort (Harold and Maude), Alice Cooper, Dick Cavett, Woody Allen, Mae West, Queen (they are not in the book though), and many writers from the early days of motion pictures.

The sad part of this story is Erin Flemming (no relation to Harpo’s wife Susan Flemming). She was mentally unstable and both helped Groucho and hurt him. She would scream, berate, and push Groucho to make appearances he had no business doing in his condition. She convinced Groucho that his kids were terrible and she actually tried to get him to adopt her as his daughter. She would fire people for any reason and be very unpredictable.

After Groucho passed on it took years before the court case between Erin and Groucho’s son Arthur Marx to settle. Erin ended up losing and she was in and out of mental hospitals and wandering the LA streets for the rest of her life.

Steve slowly builds a friendship with Groucho and many of the celebrities who pass through the house. Steve didn’t seem to embellish anything in the book. There are only a couple of celebrities he said anything bad about. One was Barbara Streisand…which I totally can see after hearing other stories about her.

As a matter of fact, there’s really only one time that I can recall being officially snubbed at Groucho’s house. It was when Elliott Gould arranged for his ex-wife, Barbra Streisand, to come with him one Sunday afternoon along with their young son, Jason. Streisand never made eye contact with me the whole time she was there nor acknowledged my presence in the room even when I was speaking. It was as though I didn’t exist. Others spoke to me and Streisand made comments to the people around me, but to her I was, apparently, invisible.

Groucho had a number of mini-strokes and year by year he worsened. He would have good days and bad ones but he never lost his wit. Steve was/is a true fan. He relished working there with his hero. Imagine being nineteen years old and working for a celebrity you really admire. That would have been like me working for John Lennon (or Groucho)…which would have been incredible.

Groucho’s health was fine until around 1972 when he had his first stroke. That is when he started to really age. In the early seventies, he would appear on talk shows with his quick wit and singing songs. After the stroke, you could tell a difference.

Steve was there until the very end and ended up as a television writer and a cartoon voiceover actor.

This is a very interesting book. I will say again that Steve is about as fair as you can get retelling stories. Groucho’s daughters would go on to say that he was very truthful. Some say he was too easy on Erin and some said he was too hard on her… I would say it’s only for Groucho fans but you get a lot of Marx Brothers stories and some information about old Hollywood.

Steve and Groucho

Rob Zombie wants to make a movie out of this book. That kind of takes me by surprise…not that a movie could be made…but that Rob Zombie wants to do it.

https://1428elm.com/2018/06/16/waiting-for-groucho-marxs-raised-eyebrows-from-rob-zombie/

As it just so happens, in an interview Zombie mentioned that his favorite book was Raised Eyebrows written by Groucho’s former assistant, Steve Stoliar. It details the last years of the comedian’s life through Stoliar’s eyes.

Flatlanders – Tonight I Think I’m Gonna Go Downtown

I first blogged about these guys last year. I keep listening to their music and it’s all very likable. It’s something about this song that I can’t put my finger on that has stuck with me for days. It could be the unique lead vocal or it could be

Jimmie Dale Gilmore wrote this song with John Reed who was in a band at the time called Frieda and The Firedogs. Gilmore said: “It was inspired by this feeling I had one night having to do with, Well, I just want to go downtown, everybody knows that feeling. I think that’s why that song resonates with people because it kind of conjures an emotion that you can’t quite put your finger on.”

The track is featured on their album All American Music, which was their debut album and a great example of Americana and Texas music. Over the years, the song has been covered by various artists, including Joe Ely in February 1978 and Nanci Griffith in March 1982…Mudhoney also covered it.

With their All American Music… they issued a few hundred copies on 8-track cassettes. The group broke up the following year but would reform continually. In the 1990s, as Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Butch Hancock gained recognition as individual artists, interest in The Flatlanders’ early work grew so this album saw the light of day.

They were formed in 1972 by three singer-songwriters: Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely, and Butch Hancock. The band was born out of the music scene in Lubbock, Texas, where all three members grew up. They recorded this album in Nashville. Initially, the album was released only as an 8-track tape by Plantation Records, with the title “Jimmie Dale and the Flatlanders.” This limited release received little attention at the time, and the band members soon went their separate ways to pursue solo careers.

They then released an album in 1980 called One More Road. Their debut album was re-released in 1990 as More a Legend Than A Band after all of them had some success during their solo careers. They have released 9 albums including a live album in 2004 from 1972 to 2021. Their last album was released in 2021 called Treasure Of Love. They started to chart in the music charts in the 2000s.

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend and I hope you enjoy these songs.

I’m adding an extra bonus Flatlanders song called Pay The Alligator

I Think I’m Gonna Go Downtown

Tonight I think I’m gonna go downtown.
Tonight I think I’m gonna look around
For something I couldn’t see
When this world was more real to me.
Yeah tonight I think I’m gonna go downtown.

My love, my love has gone away.
My love, my love what can I say.
My love would never see
That this world’s just not real to me
And tonight I think I’m gonna go downtown.

I told my love a thousand times
That I can’t say what’s on my mind,
But she would never see
That this world’s just not real to me
And tonight I think I’m gonna go downtown.

Tonight I think I’m gonna go downtown.
Tonight I think I’m gonna look around
For something I couldn’t see
When this world was more real to me.
Yeah tonight I think I’m gonna go downtown.

…

Hey Kid, Catch Commercial

If I had to name my favorite commercials, it would be a really short list. This Mean Joe Greene and Kid commercial would top the shortlist, though. People talk about famous Super Bowl commercials. This one is probably remembered the most. I loved it as a kid…watching Mean Joe Greene, who just by name alone would scare you…but to see him as a kind person giving a kid a jersey? It made me root for the Steelers at the time…although I pulled for the Rams in the Super Bowl…that didn’t help.

This ad debuted on October 1, 1979. It showed an injured Mean Joe headed for the locker room to encounter a star-struck kid (Tommy Okon) who offered Mean Joe a coke. Greene eventually took the coke and while limping away pitched his jersey to the kid.

The commercial spot aired repeatedly through Superbowl XIV where the Steelers beat the Rams 31-19. It took 3 days to film the commercial and Joe ended up drinking around 18 cokes to finish it.

When Greene found out Tommy Okon didn’t get to keep the jersey from the commercial, he mailed him an autographed jersey for Christmas. This says a lot about Greene’s character. Why didn’t the commercial people let the kid keep the jersey?

Coke looked at Roger Staubach, Tony Dorsett, Ed “Too Tall” Jones, and teammate Jack Lambert but Joe Greene won out. The right man got the job. The commercial helped to soften Joe Greene’s reputation. Before it aired, Greene said people were intimidated by him. This is a quote from Greene. “I was suddenly approachable, little kids were no longer afraid of me, and older people – both women and men – would come up and offer me a Coke.”

It was directed by Roger Mosconi, and produced by McCann Erickson for Coca-Cola. Tommy Okon was a nine-year-old child actor at the time. It was later remade multiple times, including versions featuring soccer star Zico in Brazil and other athletes worldwide.

Greene was injured at the time of filming. His limping in the commercial wasn’t entirely an act…he had been dealing with real knee pain. Between that and all the soda he drank, he later joked that it was one of the toughest things he had done in his career.

It also should be said how popular the Steelers were in the 1970s. They were the first team to win 4 Super Bowls and were without a defeat. They had one of the best defenses ever, and their offense was run by Terry Bradshaw. By this time, the team was aging, and they would win their 3rd Super Bowl against the Rams a few months after the commercial was filmed. They are considered one of the greatest teams in the NFL ever. Greene was nearing the end of his career. He was drafted in 1969 and would retire in 1981.

Reunion 36 years later.

Spinners – The Rubberband Man

I was so surprised, I was hypnotized
By the sound this cat’s puttin’ down

I had this single in the late seventies. I bought it at the dime store in a discount rack for 10 cents. I didn’t know what I was buying but it was the best dime I ever spent. The song has had a resurgence in popularity recently with the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack. It’s a great piece of 1970s soul music.

The Rubberband Man peaked at #2 in the Billboard 100, #7 in Canada, and #16 in the UK in 1976. The Spinners had 7 top ten hits and one #1 with Then Came You. Once you hear it…it sticks with you.

The Spinners’ producer, Thom Bell, wrote this song for his son with help from his songwriting partner Linda Creed. Bell wrote theme songs for all of his children, although this is the only one that was ever recorded. “The Fat Man is what it was called at first since his son Mark was rather large, and that’s what his schoolmates called him.

Bell wanted to change the perception of this nickname, so he wrote a song about a big man who could really move. He’s the guy everyone waits for at the party since it can really get going when he arrives.

Thom Bell: “It was written for big people who were hip, to change the whole idea of a person being large being sloppy, slow.”

The Rubberman Man

Hand me down my walkin’ cane
Hand me down my hat
Hurry now and don’t be late
‘Cause we ain’t got time to chat
You and me we’re goin’ out
To catch the latest sounds
Guaranteed to blow your mind
So high you won’t come down

Hey, y’all prepare yourself
For the rubberband man
You never heard a sound
Like the rubberband man
You’re bound to lose control
When the rubberband starts to jam

Oh, Lord this dude is outta sight
Everything he does
Seems to come out right

Once I went to hear them play
At a club outside of town
I was so surprised, I was hypnotized
By the sound this cat’s puttin’ down
When I saw this short fat guy
Stretched a band between his toes
Hey, I laughed so hard ’cause the man got down
When he finally reached his goal

Hey, y’all prepare yourself
For the rubberband man
You never heard a sound
Like the rubberband man
You’re bound to lose control
When the rubberband starts to jam

Got that rubberband
Up on his toes
And then he wriggled it up
All around his nose

Guaranteed to blow your mind
Playin’ all that music, yet keepin’ time
Where in the world did he learn that, oh, Lord
Lord, help him get away

Hey, y’all prepare yourself
For the rubberband man
You never heard a sound
Like the rubberband man
You’re bound to lose control
When the rubberband starts to jam

Rubberband man, rubberband man
How much of this stuff do he think we can stand
So much rhythm, grace and debonair from one man, Lord
And then he had the nerve to wiggle his left toe
To his knee, got the feelin’ in his head, y’all
Ah, come on baby

Hey, y’all prepare yourself
For the rubberband man
You never heard a sound
Like the rubberband man
You’re bound to lose control (and he likes to jam)
When the rubberband starts to jam

Rubberband man starts to jam
Movin’ up and down across the land
Got people all in his ways
Everything about him seems out of place
Just a movin’, just a movin’, just a move-move-movin’
Just a, a rubberband, rubberband man
Just a movin’, just a movin’, just a move-move-movin’
Just a rubberband, rubberband man

Get down
Oh, get down lover
Uh-huh

The Iron Eyes Cody Commercials

People start pollution. People can stop it.

Maybe the most famous tear in pop culture is Iron Eyes Cody, an actor in Native American clothing who shows us the tragedy of littering. He debuted Earth Day, April 22, 1971, at the close of a public service advertisement for the anti-litter organization Keep America Beautiful.

The ad contributed to increased environmental consciousness in the U.S., particularly during the 1970s. The commercials helped spur the passage of anti-littering laws and programs such as The Clean Water Act (1972), The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (1976), and the creation of recycling initiatives in cities nationwide.

At the time of the commercial’s debut, the counterculture was starting to embrace Native American Culture. Iron Eyes Cody could be seen in printed ads, television, and billboards. He was known by the press as the “Crying Indian.”

Born on April 3, 1904, as Espera Oscar de Corti, Cody’s parents were both Sicilian immigrants (Antonio de Corti and his wife, Francesca Salpietra). He grew up in Gueydan, Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, where his parents ran a grocery store.

He portrayed Indians in television shows and movies dating back to 1926. His last appearance was in the 1970s spoof movie The Spirit of 76 released in 1990. He played the role on-screen as well as off…He would deny he wasn’t Native American as late as 1996 and until he passed away in 1999 at the age of 94.

Real or not he did have an effect on me…To a young kid, this hit home. I remember this commercial rather well and there is another anti-littering commercial that I remember. Only people in Tennessee would probably remember it was called “Tennessee Trash.” I have it below the Iron Eye’s Cody video.

The ad remains one of the most memorable and emotionally impactful of all commercials to be made.

The below commercial in 1976 was so popular that they remade it twenty-two years later. I have to say the song will stay in your head. It was filmed on an unopened stretch of I-24 at the time. The theme was sung by country singer-songwriter Ed Bruce and features Irving Kane as the ultimate litterbug.

Van Morrison – Caravan

Just a perfect song. I listen to it and can’t believe it wasn’t a hit. When I bought the Moondance album I zeroed in on this song. I then heard Van Morrison on The Last Waltz singing it and it was a clincher.

The performance of this song on the Last Waltz for me may have been the best performance in the film and that says a lot. I’ve seen Van live one time and his voice seemed stronger in person than on record…if that is possible. This song blends folk rock, R&B, and jazz styles perfectly.

The album is one of his great ones. It has some great songs like And It Stoned Me, Moondance, These Dreams of You, Brand New Day, Crazy Love, and Come Running which all sound like they belong on the radio. Morrison’s love of radio influenced this song heavily.

This was his second album for Warner Brothers following up the critical smash Astral Weeks. This album peaked at #29 on the Billboard Album Charts, #46 in Canada, #36 in New Zealand, and #32 in the UK in 1970. His albums never charted too high. The highest in the 70s was for Saint Dominic’s Preview at #15 on the Billboard charts in 1972.

Van Morrison: I could hear the radio like it was in the same room. I don’t know how to explain it. There was some story about an underground passage under the house I was living in, rumors from kids and stuff and I was beginning to think it was true. How can you hear someone’s radio from a mile away, as if it was playing in your own house? So I had to put that into the song, It was a must

Caravan

And the caravan is on it’s way
I can hear the merry gypsies play
Mama mama look at Emma Rose
She’s a-playin with the radio
La, la, la, la…

And the caravan has all my friends
It will stay with me until the end
Gypsy Robin, Sweet Emma Rose
Tell me everything I need to know
La, la, la…

Turn it up, turn it up, little bit higher radio
Turn it up, turn it up, so you know, radio
La, la, la, la…

And the caravan is painted red and white
That means ev’rybody’s staying overnight
Barefoot gypsy player round the campfire sing and play
And a woman tells us of her ways
La, la, la, la…

Turn up your radio and let me hear the song
Switch on your electric light
Then we can get down to what is really wrong
I long to hold you tight so I can feel you
Sweet lady of the night I shall reveal you
Turn it up, turn it up, little bit higher, radio
Turn it up, that’s enough, so you know it’s got soul
Radio, radio turn it up, hum
La, la, la, la…

Purina Chuckwagon Commercials

I loved these commercials when I was a kid. I wasn’t allowed to have a dog in the house (which is probably why I’ve had three Saint Bernard house dogs). Some poor dog would be bewildered by a miniature chuck wagon, then scurries through the home and into the kitchen cabinet or tv after it.

In 1967, Purina launched “Chuck Wagon” as their latest dog food innovation. Packaged as dry dog food, adding warm water would rehydrate the serving to some extent, as well as cause the meal to produce its own gravy

The commercials had a Western theme, playing into Chuck Wagon’s branding as a hearty, wholesome meal for dogs. The animated mini chuck wagon would appear from unexpected places—such as behind a cabinet door, under a table, or from inside a dog food bag…creating a playful and imaginative effect. I can’t tell you how much this worked during that time period.

In some shots, stop-motion animation was used, where the wagon was moved frame by frame to give the illusion of self-propelled motion. In other cases, puppetry techniques such as invisible wires or rods helped guide the wagon across the floor.

Now… this was hard to believe but in 1983 Atari released a video game based on this commercial called “Chase the Chuckwagon.“

Magic 8 Ball

I was told as a kid that a Magic 8 Ball could predict the future. I bought it hook line and sinker…I was also told by my older sister (8 years older) that snakes bite the second person in a line while I was merrily leading the way hiking in the woods as a 5-year-old…so I caught on pretty quick after I stepped on a snake…didn’t get bit though…but I never let her forget it.

I bugged my mom till she got me the mysterious Magic 8 Ball. I was amazed at this toy…well it wasn’t a toy to me. I thought this was great. So being 5-6 years old I thought I would put it to use… Oh, Magic 8 Ball should I color in the encyclopedias with my crayons? I shook it up and waited for the triangle to give me the answer… “signs point to yes”…those signs must have pointed in a different direction than my Mom… she wasn’t a fan of the Magic 8 ball after that.

Abe Bookman invented the Magic 8 Ball, a fortune-telling toy currently manufactured by Mattel.

During World War II, a man named Alfred Carter in Cincinnati created a tube-like fortune-telling toy. To help him he got his brother-in-law to help…that would be Abe Bookman. they created a 7″ tube device with glass on both ends with a pair of floating dice with responses. It was sold as the “Syco-Seer: The Miracle Home Fortune Teller.” Their company was called Alabe Crafts.

Carter died in 1948 and Bookman revised it into a crystal ball but it still didn’t sell really well. Then the Brunswick Billiards company commissioned Bookman to make them one shaped like an 8 ball as a promotional giveaway.

After the giveaway was finished Bookman kept producing them shaped like an 8 ball.

The Magic 8 Ball that we have known since then has contained a 20-sided polygon inside a hollow plastic ball, floating in a liquid-filled, 3-inch diameter tube. The liquid largely consists of dark blue ink and alcohol. The predictions, yes, no, or non-committal, appear on each triangular face of the polygon.

Bookman marketed it as a conversation piece, a paperweight and then a toy.

Ideal Toys bought Alabe Crafts in 1971. Next, Tyco Toys bought the ball in ’87. Mattel owns it today and sells one million units a year.

Here are the magical statements of the Magic 8 Ball

As I see it, yes
Ask again later
Better not tell you now
Cannot predict now
Concentrate and ask again
Don’t count on it
It is certain
It is decidedly so
Most likely
My reply is no
My sources say no
Outlook good
Outlook not so good
Reply hazy, try again
Signs point to yes
Very doubtful
Without a doubt
Yes
Yes, definitely
You may rely on it.