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Friday, April 20, 2012

Dick Clark's American Bandstand


Sometimes in life, you’re forced to change your plans in order to do something that you feel is important.  Today just happens to be one of those times.

I initially had another topic of discussion planned for today’s entry, and actually had most of the entry planned out ready for posting.  But then something happened on Wednesday that made me rethink my original plan.  I’m going to postpone today’s planned entry for one week.  You’ll see it on April 27th.

Today, we’re going to focus on a man who many dubbed “America’s Oldest Teenager” and the show that he hosted for almost four decades.


I’m sure by now most of you already know about the death of Dick Clark.  He passed away of a heart attack on April 18, 2012 at the age of 82. 

Dick Clark’s life and career had been nothing short of remarkable and extraordinary, and he always put so much effort and charm into every project he worked on.  Almost immediately after graduating high school in 1947, Clark landed a position in the mailroom of an AM radio station owned by his uncle and managed by his father.  Within a few weeks, he filled in for a vacationing weatherman, and soon began announcing station breaks.  Over the next few years, Clark would work at various radio and television stations, and made his television debut as the host of a show called “Cactus Dick and the Santa Fe Riders” (a country music show).


In Clark’s later years, he took on the role of producer as well as host.  He created his own production company “Dick Clark Productions”, and became the host of several radio and television programs, which included the following.

-      Creator and host of “Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Years Eve”. Clark hosted the program every year except in 2000 and 2004.

-      Creator of American Music Awards, which have aired since 1973.

-      Creator and host of long running radio program “Rock, Roll & Remember”, which ran from 1982-2004.

-      Host of long running game show “Pyramid” off and on between 1973 and 1988.

-      Executive producer of the NBC show “American Dreams” which ran from 2002-2005.

-      Co-hosted “TV’s Bloopers and Practical Jokes” with Ed McMahon.

-      Co-hosted “The Other Half” talk show from 2001-2003.

-      Hosted several short-run game shows including “The Object Is (1963)”, “Missing Links (1964)”, “Scattergories (1993)”, and “Winning Lines (2000)”.

Dick Clark was one busy man, wasn’t he?

When Dick Clark suffered a stroke on December 8, 2004, and was forced to miss Rockin’ New Years Eve and end his radio show, many believed that he would take it easy while he recovered.  Yet, the very next year he returned to Times Square along with Ryan Seacrest to help ring in 2006.


Who knew that Dick Clark’s January 1, 2012 appearance on his own “Rockin’ New Years Eve” special would end up being his final appearance ever on television?  I know I will never look at New Years Eve the same way again with his passing.

Now, some of you may be looking at his list of accomplishments, and thinking that his life was filled with lots of excitement and business dealings.  You would be right.  But, some of you may also have noticed that I left off one of Dick Clark’s major accomplishments.  There’s a reason why I did this.  It’s because I couldn’t think of a better way to honour Dick Clark’s memory than doing this blog entry on the one show that made not only him famous, but thousands of musical artists all over the world.


Of course, I’m referring to “American Bandstand”, a music-performance show that featured the best of Top 40 radio.

I was fortunate enough to have been born in the early 1980s, because at that time, American Bandstand was still on the air.  When I was younger, I would watch American Bandstand on Saturday afternoons after the morning cartoons were over.  Watching performers singing (well, actually lip-synching) on stage while hundreds of teenagers were dancing all around them.  It was like being at a discotheque or a club, but it seemed more intimate, if that description at all makes a lick of sense.

And Dick Clark, as host of the show, was front and center.  But, did you know that Clark wasn’t the show’s first host?


When the show debuted in September 1952 on Philadelphia’s WFIL-TV, it was originally known as “Bandstand”.  The program’s first host was Bob Horn, and its original format was quite different from what it would come to be known for.  The first few episodes focused on short musical films, and occasional studio guests.

Basically, it was like a precursor of MTV, which would debut 29 years later.

And Horn HATED it!

Horn didn’t think that “Bandstand” would become a hit under the original presentation, and came up with the idea to have the program retooled.  Inspired by an idea he heard from a radio station, Horn transformed “Bandstand” into a dance music program, which had a studio audience made up of young people dancing to records in front of television cameras.  The new format debuted on October 7, 1952, and immediately became a bigger hit.  Teenagers went crazy over the chance to appear on television, and the show became a great promotional tool for up and coming artists to release new singles.

TRIVIA:  Because the original studio could only comfortably hold 200 people, the short music clips produced by Snader and Official aired, so that different groups of teenagers could appear on the same show.

The show ran for four years without much incident.  That would all change on July 9, 1956, when Horn was arrested for drinking and driving.  He was fired on the spot as host of “Bandstand”.  It was later reported that Horn was also involved in a prostitution ring during his time as host. 

As a result of Horn’s firing, he was temporarily replaced by producer Tony Mammarella before another host was found to take over.

Dick Clark.


Upon Dick Clark taking over the host of the program in late 1956, he took the program and really made it his own.  A few months later, ABC was looking for a program to fill their 3:30pm timeslot, and Clark took the opportunity to pitch the program to network executives.  It took some persistence on Clark’s part, but ABC agreed to air “Bandstand” nationally beginning on August 5, 1957.  That same day, the program changed its name to “American Bandstand”.

And, don’t think that the name change was the only thing that Dick Clark did for the program.  He really stepped in and made the program his own with positive results. 

For one, Clark would often interact with the teenagers on the studio floor just as much as he did with the scheduled musical guests.  One feature that became popular was his “Rate-A-Record” feature.  When a new song was featured, he’d ask two people in the studio their opinions.  He’d have them give the single a score between 35 and 98, and he’d average out the two numbers to give a rating for the single.  He’d also ask the people to justify their answers as to why they scored the song the way they did.  Here’s a clip of this in action from 1988.


(Did anyone see the George Michael lookalike in the crowd there?)

Dick Clark also seemed to have a real genuine interest in music.  His style of interviewing was top-notch.  Many artists got their first big breaks on that television show, and I have located some of these performances to post below.

In 1971, then 13-year-old Michael Jackson appeared on the program without his band, The Jackson 5, singing his solo hit “Rockin’ Robin”.  Watch the clip below.


In 1975, one of ABBA’s first television appearances in the United States was on American Bandstand.  Here they are below singing their hit song “S.O.S.”


In January 1984, a young woman named Madonna made her debut on American Bandstand, where she had some rather lofty ambitions.  You’ll have to turn up your speakers for this one, but here she is performing her song “Holiday”.


Who knew that just a few years later, Madonna was well on her way to fulfilling the declaration she made to Dick Clark?

American Bandstand’s popularity would influence the creation of other similar programs including “Soul Train” and “Top of the Pops”, and for the most part, Clark hosted almost every single episode of American Bandstand by himself.  The only exception was the episode from May 27, 1978, when Donna Summer was his co-host to promote the film “Thank God It’s Friday”.

The show would air exclusively on ABC until 1987, when network executives wanted to shorten the length of the program from sixty minutes to thirty minutes.  Clark refused to agree to those terms, and as a result, American Bandstand began airing exclusively in syndication beginning on September 17, 1987.  Clark would stay on as host until April 1, 1989, when he was replaced by David Hirsch, and the show’s final episode appropriately enough aired thirty-seven years after the show’s format was first retooled, on October 7, 1989.


Despite the cancellation of American Bandstand, the show still lives on.  Dick Clark produced and hosted the 50th anniversary of the program in 2002, which featured an exclusive performance by Michael Jackson.  References to the program were made on “American Dreams”, and in 2004, Clark was set to revive “American Bandstand” with help from Ryan Seacrest in time for the 2005/2006 season.  Unfortunately, with Clark’s December 2004 stroke, plans for the revival quickly fell through.  However, one idea that stemmed from the “American Bandstand” revival brainstorming sessions lead to the creation of the reality television competition “So You Think You Can Dance”.

I guess one thing that we can take from the passing of Dick Clark is that his influence will always be around.  Although he is gone, his Rockin’ New Years Eve parties will continue to go on.  His influence on television will forever be present.

And American Bandstand was the one show that made Dick Clark a star...perhaps an even brighter star than the musical artists that featured on his program for the three decades he served as host of the program.

Thank you for the memories, Richard Wagstaff Clark.  You’ll never be forgotten.

In Memory Of Dick Clark
1929-2012

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Smile For The Camera?


I suppose if there was an appropriate song to post that sets the mood for this Thursday confession, it'd probably be this one.



The song that you're hearing (or just heard) is a song by Steely Dan, entitled “Peg”. It was released in late 1977 and just missed cracking the Top 10, peaking at #11 on the Billboard charts. The song's about a woman who makes it big in the entertainment industry, and how she has an admirer from afar (more than likely a fan who has seen her on the big screen).

(Or, at least, that's the meaning that I take from the song anyway. There are several meanings that I've heard, but I won't get into it here.)

Anyway, I want you all to listen to the song, because there is one particular lyric that I want to highlight in this particular part of the song.

I like your pin shot
I keep it with your letter
Done up in blueprint blue
It sure looks good on you
And when you smile for the camera
I know I'll love you better

You see the bit in bold? That bit in bold has to do with my confession for today.

THURSDAY CONFESSION #16: I HATE getting my picture taken!

In the Steely Dan song, “Peg” seemed to really enjoy being the subject of having her photo taken and absorbing the light that came from camera flash bulbs.

Well, I'm not Peg. And, I would rather have gone to the dentist to have all my teeth pulled out than get my photo taken.

I wouldn't say it's because I have a fear of cameras. I may not like getting my picture taken very much, but I do love taking photographs myself. There was actually a brief moment in my childhood where I wanted to become a professional photographer, but I gave that up when my photos appeared way out of focus.

(Though to be fair, I WAS using a disposable camera that came free with the purchase of a combo from McDonald's.)

If you were to take a look through my family's photo album at home, and counted all of the photos of me in there, you'd find it a challenge to locate any. It isn't because I happened to take all of my old photographs and burned them in a bonfire. Whenever the camera was brought out, I always found a hiding spot in the house to avoid getting my photo taken.

My dislike of cameras didn't start right away. During the first two years of my life, I had dozens of photos taken of me as a baby. Mind you, I didn't learn to speak until I was almost three years old, so I was unable to voice my displeasure about getting my picture taken. Even so, you can tell in some of my earliest baby pictures that I did my best to hide from the camera. Let's just say that it was convenient that some of my favourite toys back then were much larger than I was.



That was a cool inner tube.

Apparently when I was younger, I also liked wearing oversized shirts...and yes, I refused to smile for this photo as well.



I don't remember when that photo was taken, but since my T-shirt says '82 on it, I can only assume that I was around a year old at the time.

This next photo had to have been taken around Christmas 1982. I had that rocking horse when I was a year old, and I loved that thing. The two people standing behind me are my paternal grandparents. My grandfather died in 2000, but my grandmother is still alive.



I just found it funny that I never looked at the camera lens. I just wanted to ride my horsey.

But then came the fateful day in which my parents came up with the “brilliant” suggestion to have my picture taken professionally at the Sears Portrait Studio. That was a day that I'm sure they wouldn't forget.

I've probably talked about this beforehand, but my family was one that basically lived from pay week to pay week. With three kids in the family, my parents had very little disposable income for luxury items. But, somehow, my mother was dead set on making sure that I had a professional photo taken when I was little. Both of my sisters had it done, so my mother wanted me to have the same treatment.

So, my mother dressed me up in a little outfit that she and my father picked out, and we went to Sears to get the portrait done. The photographer set me up in front of a festive autumn background (I think I had the photo taken in September of '84), and I sat on the stool, and my parents were hoping against all odds that I would be good for the poor photographer.

But when the photographer asked me to smile, and I saw that huge camera, I ended up bursting right into tears, and there was no cheering me up. I don't doubt that my parents and the photographer tried to get me to calm down, but I just wanted to go back home and play with my building blocks and crayons. From stories that my parents told me about that day, I was inconsolable, and they told me that after ten minutes, I was still crying. My parents eventually gave up, and told the photographer to go ahead with the photo shoot.

And, well...here was the final result.



(And yes...the overalls really did say “Buck Shot”. What can I say? It was the early '80's.)

To tell you the truth, there were actually two different shots that were taken. The second shot was much better, and naturally, it was blown up to portrait size and is now hanging up in my parents dining room. But, in both shots, I was visibly upset. I didn't want to be there at that moment, as you can tell by the tears in my eyes and the weird expression on my mouth.

It didn't get any better as time passed either. Some of my worst memories of school surrounded class picture day. For most class pictures, I was stuck wearing those big huge Bill Cosby sweaters, and most of my class pictures looked like this.



But that was one of my better class pictures. I hated all the other ones. Take this lovely one from 1990.



Apparently this was taken during the time in which neon colours were huge. I specifically chose that sweater because I liked to blind people with day-glo coloured clothing. Oh, and did I mention that on that particular class photo day, I overslept, and literally got ready for school in five minutes? This explains why I was suffering from a major case of bed head.

The following year wasn't much better. This was from 1991.



Now, I know what you're saying. This is a not bad picture. I agree. It wasn't bad if you looked at it from far away. What you might not see is the fact that I had lesions of cold sores all over my lips and around my nose. They were painful to deal with, and I suffered with discomfort throughout the 1991/92 school year. The cold sores weren't noticeable in the wallet sized photos...but they were clear as a bell in the portrait sized photo. The kids were very relentless about making fun of my mouth that year, giving me yet another reason to hate getting my picture taken. Let's face it. Kids could be cruel.

I also rarely showed my teeth when I smiled for the camera. For whatever reason, I never liked my smile. Maybe it was all in my mind, but whenever I attempted to show my teeth, it always seemed as though I was faking it for whatever reason. And, I'll admit it. Sometimes I did fake that smile.

There were instances in which I did try to make my photos as cute as possible. When I went to see the Easter Bunny at the mall, I made it work.



At my sister's wedding in 1989, I made it work.



But, there were so many times in which I was asked to say cheese for the camera, but I didn't feel like smiling. Sometimes it was because I was in a really bad mood. Sometimes I was feeling sad. Sometimes they snapped a picture while I was doing some weird activity, as evidenced by this childhood snapshot.



(Not sure why I had so many balloons back then, especially since I don't really like them much these days.)

But, I think a lot of it was self-consciousness and low self-esteem. I hate to say it now, but back in my childhood, I really didn't like myself very much. It's definitely not the best way to go through childhood, but I ended up surviving it. It's not easy to deal with other people making fun of you for your physical appearance. Because those words do quite a lot of damage, and as a result, they do things that can be harmful.



This was a picture taken of me five years ago. It was the picture on my health card. That was when I weighed over three hundred pounds. Hands down, it was the worst picture I've ever taken. Granted, most identification cards make almost everybody look like a serial killer, but this one was just terrible. I was blotchy, puffy, and let's get the obvious out of the way. The picture makes me look as if I have NO EARS! My goodness, it was awful.

For about an eight year period, I refused to get my picture taken at all. There are no photos of me taken between 2000 and 2008 because I absolutely refused to be photographed at all. I didn't think I looked good at all, so why would anyone else tell me that I did. That's what rude comments do to people. They completely eat away at them until they believe the lies that others tell them about themselves.

But while I can't get that time back...I can make what time I have left really shine. And since I've made healthier choices for myself, and have found a group of people who I can really trust, my confidence has grown in a big way. I've even started to even like getting my picture taken now...and I've even gotten more comfortable with showing my teeth off more. Never thought I'd see the day that would happen.



Who knows? Maybe someday, I'll flash my smile, and someone will say the very same thing Shanice did twenty years ago...


Wednesday, April 18, 2012

The Guinness Book Of World Records


In elementary school, one of my all-time favourite places to be in was our school library. Back in those days, our library was located in the basement of the school, so admittedly, the aesthetics of the library decor were somewhat on the creepy side. With exposed pipes on the ceiling and walls made of brick and concrete, it wasn't exactly the most child-friendly library in the world.

Yet some of my fondest memories took place there.

The way our school library was set up was like this. The bookshelves for the lower grades were at the front of the library. Next to those shelves was a carpeted area complete with a couple of sofas for children to read books on.

For some reason, in the center of the library was a giant red bathtub where we could sit down and read books in. (If I remember correctly, almost every kid in my class fought for the chance to sit in the bathtub.)

And, finally, the back of the library contained reading tables, the card catalogues (keep in mind that I attended elementary school before the Internet became popular), and the shelves that contained books for the older children.

As far back as I can remember, most of the kids in my class (particularly once we were past the fifth grade) used to crowd around the shelves with the books made for older children. For some of them, they were looking for sports books, and others wanted to catch up on the “Sweet Valley High” series. In my case though, I was looking for a specific kind of book. A book that, unfortunately for me, other kids had checked out of the library before I had the chance to.

The good news about our library was that there was a rule that stated that you could only check out a book for two weeks at a time. As little patience as I had as a child, I knew that if I waited long enough, I would eventually get the chance to read the book that I had my eye on all year long.

Mind you, I had to wait until the school year was almost OVER before I managed to get my hands on the book I wanted. By that time, almost everyone else in the class had read it from cover to cover. It was worth the wait though.



The book that I had waited to get my hands on was the 1991 Guinness Book of World Records.

As it so happens, today's blog topic also happens to be on The Guinness Book of World Records (or Guinness World Records as it has been known since 2000).



The reference book has detailed all the various records that have been broken all over the world since 1954, and the book has been updated each year as new records are created and broken. The most recent edition of the book was released in September 2011.

The story behind the creation of the Guinness Book of World Records is a fairly interesting one. It began approximately four years before the creation of the book, in May 1951. Sir Hugh Beaver, the managing director of the Guinness Breweries (where the book got its name) attended a shooting party by the River Slaney in County Wexford, Ireland. He had gotten into an argument about whether the grouse or the koshin golden plover was the fastest game bird in all of Europe. Toiling through several reference books on birds, Beaver was unable to come up with a definitive answer. He then began to wonder if maybe there were other questions that were debated at pubs all across Ireland that happened because there was no way to look up the information.

He then came up with the solution. What if he wrote a book that answered every one of the questions asked, putting an end to the arguments and debates once and for all?



With assistance from Norris and Ross McWhirter, the first edition of The Guinness Book of World Records was compiled throughout 1954. What was interesting about the first edition of the book was that only one thousand copies were made. Even more fascinating was that those thousand copies were given away. No profit was made through the book.

I wonder how much one of those 1954 edition books would cost now?

The following year, The Guinness Book of World Records set up an office at 107 Fleet Street, in London. The 1955 edition of the book was printed on August 27, 1955. It contained 197 pages, and unlike the edition before, this one was actually sold in stores all over London. It had reached the British bestsellers list that Christmas, and when the book was brought over to the United States in 1956, seventy thousand copies were sold.

The book became a surprise hit, and eventually, the decision was made to publish the book annually. The book was released in September or October of each year to ensure that it was available for holiday sales, and was updated each year. For the first twenty years of the publication's history, the McWhirter brothers were at the helm, using their near encyclopedic memory to their advantage. But sadly, the partnership ended in 1975, when Ross McWhirter was assassinated by the Provisional Irish Republican Army. Norris continued on with The Guinness Book of World Records until he was let go from the publication in 1996. He passed away in 2004.

What started off as a small project quickly grew into what is now considered to be the most sold copyrighted book (ironically enough becoming a world record in its own book), and the book has spawned several television shows based on the book's content, including one that ran on the FOX Channel between 1998 and 2001. You can see some clips of the show in action by clicking on the links below. I warn you though, some of these records are not for the overly squeamish.


(That last clip still makes me look away in fear, I have to admit.)



But that's one of the beautiful things about The Guinness Book of World Records. There was never a shortage of records to be found. There were records on animals, human achievements, natural and man-made disasters, entertainment and music trivia, sports records, and much more.

If one was lucky enough to actually break an existing record, and had concrete proof of this being fact, they would have their name published in the book, and receive a certificate of authentication. But, be warned...some records have conditions, and some records have been stricken from the book out of safety concerns.

What I mean by that second statement is that there used to be a record for the heaviest pet fish, and reports of owners deliberately overfeeding their own fish, which sometimes lead to the death of the pet. Records involving mass consumption of liquor and alcohol were also removed, as the publication felt that leaving them in promoted binge drinking. Whenever records were submitted for large food items (such as the largest hamburger or heaviest cake), the rules stated that the food had to be completely edible, and distributed to the public for consumption to avoid food waste.

So, before you attempt to break a record, you might wish to look over the guidelines and rules listed in the preface of the book as well as on the official website (http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/ ) before you embark on your quest. You don't want to be wasting your time on a record that the book won't even recognize as a record, do you?



The book has even spawned a spin-off book, designed especially for video game players, called “The Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition”. The latest version of the book was released in early 2011, and offers up records for various video games past and present, including high scores, marathon gaming sessions, and most successful game characters.

There was even a Guinness Book of World Records museum built inside the Empire State Building in 1976. It remained open at the location for nineteen years. Since then, several smaller museums have opened up in cities all over the world including Tokyo, Japan, San Antonio, Texas, U.S.A, and Copenhagen, Denmark.

Before I close off this entry, I have one more trivia fact for you. Do you know who holds the most Guinness World Records of all time?

It happens to be this man.



Ashrita (Keith) Furman, born September 16, 1954 in Brooklyn, New York, currently holds 133 different records in the book, and has set an estimated 300 records since 1979. Some of the records that he currently holds include the following;

  • fastest mile on a kangaroo ball
  • jumping rope on a pogo stick, longest duration
  • doing 27,000 jumping jacks (his very first record)
  • underwater juggling, longest duration
  • piggyback running, fastest mile
  • kangaroo ball racing, fastest mile
  • racing against a yak while hopping in a sack


(That last one isn't a joke.)

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

April 17, 1998


Are you all ready for another exciting trip back through time in the Tuesday Timeline?  I know I am, so let’s get started right away!

Today is April 17, and looking at my list of facts about that date, it was a very memorable date in history over the years.  Let’s take a look back at some of the significant events that took place on the seventeenth day of April.

1397 – Geoffrey Chaucer tells the Canterbury Tales for the first time at the court of Richard II

1492 – Christopher Columbus and Spain sign the Capitulations of Santa Fe for his voyage to Asia to acquire spices

1524 – Giovanni da Verrazzano reaches New York Harbor

1797 – Sir Ralph Abercromby attacks San Juan, Puerto Rico in what would become one of the largest invasions of the Spanish territories in America

1897 – Aurora, Texas UFO incident

1907 – Ellis Island immigration center in New York City processes 11,747 people, the record for most immigrants arriving in America on any given day

1942 – French prisoner of war Henri Giraud escapes from his castle prison in Festung Konigstein

1946 – Syria obtains independence from French occupation

1961 – A group of CIA financed and trained Cuban exiles lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the intent of overthrowing Fidel Castro

1964 – Jerrie Mock becomes the first female to circumnavigate the world by air

1969 – Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy

1970 – Apollo 13 returns safely to Earth following ill-fated mission

1975 – Cambodian civil war ends

2003 – Dr. Robert Atkins, founder of the Atkins Diet, passes away at age 72

April 17th just also happens to be the date that quite a few famous people celebrate a birthday today.  If you’re celebrating a birthday today, I hope it’s a good one.  You share the day with the following people.  Olivia Hussey, Michael “Maniac” Sembello, Sean Bean, Boomer Esaison, Lela Rochon, Kimberly Elise, Timothy Gibbs, Liz Phair, Redman, Jennifer Garner, Victoria Beckham, Gabriel Soto, Monet Mazur, Lindsay Hartley, Rooney Mara, Jacqueline MacInnes Wood, and Paulie Litt are all blowing out candles on their cakes today!

Sadly, the date we’re going to go looking back on happens to be one woman’s last day. 


The date we’re flashing back to is April 17, 1998.


On April 17, 1998, the world said goodbye to Linda Eastman McCartney.

It seems unbelievable that if she was living today, she would be seventy years old.  She was born on September 24, 1941 in New York City, and grew up in the area of Scarsdale, in Westchester County.  She was the second of four children to Lee and Louise Eastman.  Linda’s father was the son of Jewish-Russian immigrants, and his original name was Leopold Vail Epstein, which he changed to Eastman.

TRIVIA:  Eastman was an attorney who worked with songwriter Jack Lawrence, who at Eastman’s request wrote a song called “Linda”, when Linda was just one year old.  It was published in 1946, and recorded by Buddy Clark in 1947.

Linda’s mother, Louise, was tragically killed in a plane crash when Linda was twenty years old, and Linda later revealed that the incident made her very cautious about travelling by air.

Three months after her mother’s death, Linda married her first husband, Joseph Melvin See Jr. (they had met while Linda was taking classes for fine arts at the University of Arizona).  The couple had a daughter, Heather, on the last day of 1962, and their marriage lasted for approximately three years before Linda filed for divorce.  Linda’s first husband would later take his own life in 2000.

Around the time of her divorce, Linda had gotten a job as a receptionist for the offices of “Town & Country Magazine”, and it was through this position that she developed the first of her many careers throughout her lifetime.


Photographer.

Linda was the only unofficial photographer allowed to take photos of the Rolling Stones, at one of their promotional parties.  Over the next few years, Linda would take photographs of some of the most popular artists and bands of the late 1960s.  Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and even John Lennon were early photographic subjects. 


A photo that she had taken of Eric Clapton back in 1968 even made it onto the front cover of Rolling Stone magazine, the first time that a photo taken by a woman photographer made the cover.  Six years later, she herself would be the subject of a Rolling Stone cover, making her the first (and so far only) person to have taken a cover photo AND been the cover subject of the magazine!

But when it came down to Linda’s 1974 photo shoot, she didn’t exactly take all the credit.  She shared the cover with the man who became her second husband.

The love affair began on May 15, 1967.  Linda was at a Georgie Fame concert at the Bag O’ Nails club in London, when she ended up bumping into a man who had already made a name for himself on the music charts just five years earlier.


His name was Paul McCartney, of the Beatles.

After a few meetings (including at the launch party of the Beatles “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album), Linda and Paul soon fell in love with each other, and after a whirlwind courtship united in marriage on March 12, 1969.  It was Linda’s second marriage, and Paul’s first.  The couple would eventually have three children together...two daughters, Mary (b. 1969) and Stella (b. 1971), and one son, James (b. 1977).

TRIVIA:  Mary McCartney is now a famous photographer, Stella McCartney is a famous fashion designer, and James McCartney has taken up a singing and songwriting career.

It was right around Stella’s birth that the resume of Linda Eastman McCartney grew to include a second career.


Musician.

After the Beatles had broken up in 1970, Paul had taught Linda how to play the keyboards, and the following year, Paul and Linda released an album together entitled “Ram”.  Shortly thereafter, Paul had asked Linda to join a new project that he had formed.  It was a band that he had called “Wings”.  As far as Paul McCartney was concerned, lightning struck twice as “Wings” became one of the most successful bands of the 1970s, and songs like the one below this paragraph became huge hits on the charts.



ARTIST:   Wings
SONG:  Band On The Run
ALBUM:  Band On The Run
DATE RELEASED:  June 28, 1974
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  #1 for 1 week

“Wings” would release eight studio albums between 1971 and 1979, and the band was nominated for and won several Grammy Awards during their time together.  However, critics were quick to dismiss the singing skills of Linda McCartney as being off-key and out of tune...an allegation that surprisingly enough, Linda owned up to as being true!

At least Linda took it all in stride, and for what it was worth, I believe that her singing improved with each subsequent “Wings” release.  Linda even appeared in the music video that Paul McCartney filmed with Michael Jackson back in 1983 (back in the days in which “Mac & Jack” were still friendly with each other).  Watch it below, I say, say, say...



In later years, Linda would add another hat to her wardrobe of career ambitions.


Vegetarian cookbook author.


Linda McCartney had been a vegetarian for years before marrying Paul McCartney, and she was the one who convinced Paul to become a vegetarian in the mid-1970s.  Since then, Linda and Paul have teamed up to write a selection of cookbooks featuring hundreds of vegetarian friendly appetizers, entrees, and desserts.  In 1991, Linda began her own line of frozen vegetarian meals, which allowed her to amass her own personal fortune, completely independent of her husband’s.  Linda and Paul McCartney even appeared on “The Simpsons” in 1995 on the episode “Lisa the Vegetarian”.  According to Paul McCartney on that episode, if you play the song “Maybe I’m Amazed” backwards, you can hear a recipe for lentil soup.  Has anyone tried this and confirmed that this is true?  Please let me know!  But, vegetarianism and animal rights were platforms that Linda McCartney really believed in, and she really did a great job in her cameo on The Simpsons.


Sadly, “The Simpsons” episode would end up being one of Linda’s final performances.

The same year she appeared on “The Simpsons”, she was given a sobering diagnosis by her doctor.

She had breast cancer.

Over the next three years, Linda McCartney tried to fight the spread of the disease, but it quickly spread to her liver.  By the first few months of 1998, it became clear to everybody that Linda McCartney was dying.

Just before Linda McCartney passed away, Paul’s last words to her were reportedly these. 

“You’re up on your beautiful Appaloosa stallion.  It’s a fine spring day.  We’re riding through the woods.  The bluebells are all out, and the sky is clear-blue.”

On April 17, 1998, at the McCartney family ranch in Tuscon, Arizona, Linda Eastman McCartney passed away at the age of 56.  Her memorial service attracted a congregation of more than 700 people, and was attended by Peter Gabriel, Elton John, and McCartney’s Beatles bandmates George Harrison and Ringo Starr.


It’s been fourteen years since Linda McCartney’s death, and since then, her name still lives on.  A tribute concert was held in April 1999 in Linda’s memory, in which Paul McCartney performed with artists such as George Michael and Elvis Costello.  In 2000, Paul McCartney donated two million dollars for cancer research and that same year, the Linda McCartney Centre opened up at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, dedicated to the treatment of cancer.  And in November 2002, the Linda McCartney Kintyre Memorial Trust opened up a memorial garden complete with a bronze statue of McCartney in memory of her.  The design of the statue came courtesy of Jane Robbins, a cousin of McCartney.

As for Paul, he has moved ahead in his life.  Aside from various musical projects, he has remarried twice since Linda’s death.  He married former model Heather Mills in 2002, but they ended up divorcing six years later in what could be considered one of the ugliest celebrity divorces in recent years.  In October 2011, he married his third wife, Nancy Shevell.

But I think deep down, Paul McCartney will always have a permanent place in his heart for Linda.  They were married for almost thirty years, and shared so much together.  In the entertainment industry, marriages begin and end more often than the average person changes their underwear.  For Paul and Linda to have a marriage that really did last until death did them part, was remarkable and romantic.

That was our look back on April 17, 1998.  In memory of photographer, musician, vegetarian cookbook author, and devoted wife and mother, Linda Eastman McCartney.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Saturday Night Fever


I was born in 1981.  By that time, the musical genre known as disco was dead and buried.  Disco music was the music that dominated the charts during the latter half of the 1970s.  Between 1974 and 1979, millions of people all over the world were doing the hustle, pretending to be dancing queens, and wondering if people thought they were sexy.  By the summer of 1979, it became clear that disco was the subject of major backlash from fans of rock and roll music.  People wore T-shirts with slogans such as “Disco Sucks”, and rock stars such as David Bowie and Rod Stewart were accused of being sell-outs for releasing disco themed singles.


It all came to a head on July 12, 1979.  Many who lived through that date in history will recall it as “the day disco died”.  That was the day that a huge anti-disco demonstration known as “Disco Demolition Night” took place in Chicago’s Comiskey Park.  The event was arranged by Steve Dahl, Garry Meier, and Michael Veeck, and was booked on the same date as two scheduled baseball games featuring the White Sox.  The event had a huge turnout.  Thousands of rock and roll fans gathered at Comiskey Park to destroy disco records in a multitude of ways.  Unfortunately, the event lead to a massive riot, in which many were injured, and several were arrested.  The riot caused so much damage to the park that the White Sox were forced to forfeit the second game to the Detroit Tigers. 

It was a terrible end to the event, yet it seemed to do what it set out to do.  A few days after the riot, the top six singles on the American music charts were disco tracks.  Just two months later, no disco song was in the top ten.

By the time I was born, the music charts were a weird hybrid of genres.  You had a combination of rock and roll, country, soul, jazz, and even bubblegum pop.  As far as disco went, there was not a disco song to be found on the 1981 pop charts.  However, when I was a toddler, I would hear disco music all the time.

You see, when I was really little, my mother played a certain soundtrack to a movie that had come out three and a half years before I was born.  The soundtrack was hugely successful, selling fifteen million copies worldwide.  The soundtrack was the number one album in sales between January and July 1978, and stayed on the album charts for 120 consecutive weeks, finally dropping off the charts in early 1980.  Until the soundtrack for “The Bodyguard” was released in 1992, this movie’s soundtrack was one of the highest selling albums from a motion picture of all time.

I think that I must have heard the songs from the soundtrack a hundred million times over the first four or five years of my childhood.  For some reason, I loved it, even though my feelings for disco music now are kind of mixed.  Eventually, the record got scratched, and we were forced to throw it in the garbage one day.  Years later though, I bought my mother another copy of the soundtrack (this time on CD), and she still plays it on occasion.

Of all the songs that appear on the album, there are many classic songs, but I think this one happens to be my favourite.



ARTIST:  Bee Gees
SONG:  Night Fever
ALBUM:  Saturday Night Fever: The Original Movie Soundtrack
DATE RELEASED:  February 7, 1978
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #1 for 8 weeks

And this wasn’t the only song that the Bee Gees recorded for the movie “Saturday Night Fever” either.  But, more on that a little bit later.


“Saturday Night Fever” was released in theatres on December 14, 1977, and what was interesting about the film was that it was one of the few films to receive two different ratings.  Initially, the film was rated “R” and had a lot more nudity, drug use, and even an attempted rape scene.  The film did exceptionally well, but because of the rating many younger fans were missing out on seeing the film.  A second cut of the movie was released in 1978 with a PG rating, which cut down on the profanity and some of the more adult scenes.  It turned out to be a good move upon hindsight, as the eventually box office for the film between the two versions topped upwards of over $282 million, making “Saturday Night Fever” one of the most seen movies of 1978.

Of course, you all know that this was the film that made John Travolta a star, and if you watch the opening credits of the film, you can tell by the way he uses his walk, he’s a woman’s man, no time to talk.


(The background music happens to be the Bee Gees’ hit “Stayin’ Alive”, which just happens to be one of SIX songs by the band that appear on the soundtrack.)


Travolta plays the role of Tony Manero, a girl-crazy Italian-American teen living in the heart of Brooklyn, New York.  When he’s not fighting with his parents, or working at his job at a nearby hardware store, he’s donning the dance duds and hitting the flashing dance floor at 2001 Odyssey, a popular nightclub in the area.  He could usually be found there every weekend with his four friends, Bobby C (Barry Miller), Double J (Paul Pape), Gus (Bruce Ornstein), and Joey (Joseph Cali), and the five usually hang out at the club to hit on women, drink, and do drugs.  Also hanging around 2001 Odyssey was a woman named Annette, who harbours feelings for Tony, and wants to have a stable relationship, although Tony doesn’t quite feel the same way.


TRIVIA:  Annette was played by Donna Pescow, who purposely gained 40 pounds to get the role.  Once filming wrapped up, she lost the excess weight just in time to star in the short-lived ABC sitcom, “Angie”.

When a dance contest is hosted by 2001 Odyssey, Annette expresses interest in entering, but since the contest is for pairs only, she immediately asks Tony to be her dance partner.  Tony agrees to her request, and Annette is on cloud nine.

At least until SHE came into Tony’s life.


The “she” being Stephanie Mangano (Karen Lynn Gorney).  Poor Annette was kicked to the curb as Tony decided that he’d rather enter the contest with Stephanie instead.  Stephanie agrees to be his dance partner.  As far as romance, however, she made it clear that she wasn’t interested in that.


But as Stephanie and Tony get to know each other better as they practice for the dance contest, Tony’s friends seem to get into major trouble during the movie’s various sub-plots.  Bobby C, for example, has discovered that he has gotten his girlfriend pregnant.  And, since his girlfriend also happens to be very Catholic, she intends on keeping the baby.  Bobby C isn’t ready for the responsibility of being a father, so he seeks advice from Tony’s older brother Frank (Martin Shakar).  Not liking the answers that he has been given, he sinks into a deep depression, and ultimately makes some dangerous choices which lead to his ultimate fate at the end of the film.

Gus happens to become the victim of a gang attack, and is hospitalized.  At first, Gus reveals that the gang that attacked him was a Hispanic gang known on the streets as the Barracudas, so his friends set out to even the score.  But, did Gus really remember everything as it happened?

A terrible fate also strikes Annette, and somehow it involves Double J and Joey in what could be the most shocking plot development in the whole film.

(And yes, I am being quite vague in describing these, as I want you all to watch the movie yourselves.  I don’t post many spoilers in the Monday Matinees).


Besides, the plot of the movie was just one of the things that made “Saturday Night Fever” stand out.  The disco soundtrack was a masterpiece of disco favourites.  The Bee Gees may have had the bulk of the soundtrack, but there were songs by Yvonne Elliman, K.C. and the Sunshine Band, Tavares, Trammps, and Kool & The Gang, just to name a few.


I guess the timing of this entry is somewhat timely as well, given what’s happening right now in the world of music.  As of right now, Robin Gibb is in a comatose state after contracting pneumonia in his hospital room.  He had been battling liver and colon cancer since 2011.  His health problems had actually began one year earlier when he was rushed into the hospital for emergency surgery to clear a blocked intestine (a condition that killed his twin brother Maurice in 2003). 

Nobody knows for sure how bad Robin’s condition is, but his brother Barry (the other surviving member of the Bee Gees) has stated that he is “fighting for his life” at this moment, and he is currently surrounded by his brother, his wife, and his three children as he continues to fight for his life. 

I had planned to do this entry on “Saturday Night Fever” today anyway, but knowing what we know about the condition of Robin Gibb, it takes on a whole new meaning.


It’s hard to say what will happen.  From news reports I’ve heard, Robin Gibb is in critical condition, and it’s unknown whether he can survive this.  As a result, I’ll be editing this entry as more news comes.  In the meantime, all we can do is offer our sympathy and prayers to the Gibb family, and hope that a miracle takes place.