1960's Archives - Page 2 of 26 - Retro Reminiscing Video and Pictures

Who Remembers “The New People”?

I remember The New People, but oddly enough I remember the sound of the show more than I remember the stories. There was this strange little segue or transition sound they used between scenes that somehow stuck with me all these years. Hearing it again instantly brought the show back.

The New People premiered on ABC in September 1969 with a very late-’60s premise: a group of college students survives a plane crash on a deserted South Pacific island that had been prepared for an atomic test. The island came complete with buildings, supplies and even nuclear-test mannequins, giving the young survivors everything they needed to try building a new society from scratch.

There were some impressive names behind it. Aaron Spelling helped create the series, and Rod Serling wrote the original pilot. ABC also gave the show an unusual 45-minute time slot and paired it with The Music Scene in an effort to attract younger viewers.

The series only lasted 17 episodes, airing from September 1969 to January 1970, but it had some interesting future stars pass through. Richard Dreyfuss, Billy Dee Williams, Tyne Daly, Susan Howard and A Martinez all appeared during its short run.

The regular cast never produced a huge breakout star, although Tiffany Bolling went on to become a familiar face in cult films and television.

And then there’s that sound.

Does anybody else remember The New People — and do you remember that strange little transition sound too?

Pepsi’s “You’ve Got a Lot to Live Campaign

Do you remember this Pepsi jingle? Because this one was designed to do a lot more than sell you a bottle of soda.

This 1970 commercial, called “Portrait of America,” was part of Pepsi’s “You’ve Got a Lot to Live, and Pepsi’s Got a Lot to Give” campaign. Watching it again, what strikes me is how little time they spend actually selling Pepsi. Instead we see racing, boats, city streets, beaches, children, couples and ordinary Americans simply living their lives.

And then there’s that song.

The music was written by Joseph Brooks, who years later wrote “You Light Up My Life.” Pepsi described the sound as “gospel rock” or “jubilation rock,” with a big communal chorus meant to sound hopeful and uplifting. It reportedly grew out of a protest song Brooks had written before being reshaped into the Pepsi theme.

That makes a lot more sense when you remember what America felt like around 1970. BBDO realized that the carefree “beautiful young people doing beautiful things” advertising of the earlier Pepsi Generation no longer completely reflected a country watching war and social unrest every night on television. Their new goal was to be real and involving, even searching the country for real people doing real things.

Maybe that’s why this jingle stuck. It didn’t tell us Pepsi tasted better. It told us we had a lot to live for.

Do you remember hearing this one on television?

Lunch At Woolworth’s….What Are You Having?

Remember when a trip to Woolworth’s could include lunch at the counter and still leave change in your pocket? This F.W. Woolworth menu appears to date to 1960 — the tiny print at the bottom reads “REV. 4-60,” suggesting it was revised in April of that year.

The prices are a time capsule all by themselves. A bacon and tomato triple-decker sandwich was 45¢, a baked ham and cheese was 50¢, a milk shake was 25¢, a slice of apple pie was 15¢, and the “Super Jumbo Banana Split” was just 39¢. Even a king-size Coca-Cola was only a dime.

For a lot of people, the Woolworth lunch counter was every bit as memorable as the store itself — sandwiches, fountain drinks, sundaes and pie served right in the middle of a five-and-dime shopping trip.

It’s also worth remembering that 1960 was a major year in Woolworth history. That February, the Greensboro sit-ins began at a segregated Woolworth lunch counter in North Carolina, becoming an important moment in the civil rights movement.

Did you ever eat at a Woolworth lunch counter — and what did you usually order?

SHOW THE GRANDKIDS HOW IT WAS DONE!

Before stretchy fabric book covers and plastic sleeves, we had the brown paper grocery bag!

Every September, out came the scissors, tape, and a stack of supermarket bags. You cut the bag open, folded the top and bottom to fit the textbook, tucked the covers into the ends, and somehow ended up with a perfectly serviceable book cover.

And the best part? That plain brown paper became your personal bulletin board — your name, doodles, band names, phone numbers, crushes, class schedules and whatever else you could squeeze onto it.

It protected the school’s textbook, cost absolutely nothing, and gave us something to do during a boring class.

Who remembers covering all their schoolbooks this way? And did yours stay neat — or was it covered in writing by the end of the first week?

MIGHTY MOUSE & ZESTABS — WHEN CARTOON HEROES SOLD VITAMINS

Seeing Mighty Mouse selling vitamins takes me right back to an era when our Saturday-morning cartoon heroes seemed capable of selling just about anything. In this commercial, Mighty Mouse gets clobbered by a cat, takes a Zestabs chewable vitamin and suddenly turns the tables — not exactly subtle advertising, but certainly memorable!

There’s actually much more history behind this little commercial than I expected. Zestabs came from Sauter Laboratories, a division of pharmaceutical giant Hoffmann-La Roche. That strange “Mighty Mouse — Nutley, New Jersey” slate at the end makes sense once you learn that Roche’s longtime American headquarters and research complex was in Nutley.

The campaign also arrived just as people were beginning to question how products were marketed to children. Zestabs came in fruit flavors and later chocolate, and groups such as Action for Children’s Television objected to advertisements that made vitamin pills look and taste too much like candy. By 1972, Hoffmann-La Roche said it had stopped placing its vitamin commercials inside children’s programs, although Zestabs advertising continued elsewhere on television.

And here’s one connection I never expected: years before Pretty in Pink or Two and a Half Men, Jon Cryer says his first paying acting job at age four was a Zestabs commercial.

Before Comic-Con: When Batman Took Over Shea Stadium

This ad feels less like a concert promotion and more like somebody accidentally invented a pop-culture convention four years before San Diego Comic-Con began.

It’s 1966, Batman is one of the hottest shows on television, and Shea Stadium is advertising Adam West appearing in person as Batman, Frank Gorshin as the Riddler, 26 Batusi Girls, Cousin Brucie, and then, almost casually, throws in the Young Rascals, the Temptations, Jr. Walker & the All Stars, the Chiffons and Skitch Henderson’s Tonight Show Orchestra.

What gets me is the mixture. Today we’re used to conventions combining television stars, characters, music, celebrity appearances and spectacle under one roof. In 1966, that idea must have seemed completely bizarre — yet here it is at Shea Stadium.

It wasn’t technically a “Comic-Con,” and comic-book fan conventions were already beginning to appear in the 1960s, but this sure looks like an early glimpse of the kind of TV, comics, music and celebrity mash-up that would become commonplace decades later.

And I have to know: if you were a kid in 1966, would Adam West and Frank Gorshin have been enough to get you to Shea Stadium — or were you going for the 26 Batusi Girls?

FUNYUNS — THE SNACK THAT ALMOST WASN’T CALLED FUNYUNS

This commercial takes me right back to when a bag of Funyuns seemed like one of the strangest snacks in the chip aisle. They looked like little onion rings, tasted like onions and even had a name that sounded like somebody made it up on the spot. As it turns out, somebody pretty much did!

Funyuns were introduced by Frito-Lay in 1969, created by employee George Wade Bigner. But here’s something I never knew: Funyuns weren’t supposed to be called Funyuns. The original name was OnYums, but that name was already taken. Advertising copywriter Jim Albright came up with “Funyuns” instead, and more than half a century later we’re still calling them that.

And listen closely to the music in these early commercials. The tune came from “I Love Onions,” a wonderfully odd 1966 novelty song recorded by Susan Christie. The song actually made the Billboard Hot 100 before its melody was adapted to help sell Funyuns.

Another great connection: in 1971, a young Roger Enrico went to work marketing Funyuns. He eventually became CEO of PepsiCo and was one of the men behind Pepsi’s blockbuster Michael Jackson era. Not a bad career beginning for a guy working on onion-flavored rings!

And yes, Funyuns are still around today.

From Frosty to the Lennon Sisters — Jimmy Durante in 1969

Most of us probably know Jimmy Durante’s unmistakable voice as the narrator of Frosty the Snowman. What I didn’t realize was that Frosty first aired in 1969 — the very same year Durante was appearing on ABC with the Lennon Sisters.

It was quite an unusual pairing.

Durante was 76 years old, with a career that stretched back through vaudeville, radio, movies and early television. Dianne, Peggy, Kathy and Janet Lennon had literally grown up on television after joining The Lawrence Welk Show as children in 1955. By the time they left in 1968, they were young women with families and wanted more freedom to pursue other opportunities.

I never realized money was part of their decision too. Kathy Lennon later recalled that for their first ten years with Welk they earned only $110 a week at group scale.

Then ABC gave them their own showcase.

Jimmy Durante Presents the Lennon Sisters combined their beautiful harmonies with Durante’s raspy voice, comedy and piano, backed by Nelson Riddle’s orchestra. Guests included Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Sammy Davis Jr., George Burns, Glen Campbell, Jerry Lewis, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.

There was also terrible tragedy behind those smiles. Just weeks before the weekly series premiered, the sisters’ father was murdered by a deranged stalker. They eventually returned to work under heavy security.

The show ultimately lasted just one season, with its final broadcast airing July 4, 1970. Ratings were never strong enough, and the attempt to appeal to both younger viewers and Durante’s older audience apparently left the show caught somewhere between the two.

The Lennon Sisters certainly didn’t disappear, though. They continued performing for decades and later spent years working with Andy Williams.

For me, this clip feels like two generations of entertainment meeting on one stage — and hearing Durante now, it’s almost impossible not to picture Frosty coming to life.

Do you remember Jimmy Durante from shows like this, or will he always be the voice of Frosty the Snowman to you?

THE JERRY LEWIS TELETHON — A LABOR DAY TRADITION

For a lot of us, Labor Day weekend wasn’t complete without the Jerry Lewis Telethon. You could turn it on Sunday night, go to bed, wake up Monday morning, and somehow Jerry was still there — surrounded by ringing phones, celebrities, Ed McMahon and that famous tote board.

The Labor Day telethon began in 1966 and eventually became a huge national television event. Over the years, stars including Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Johnny Cash, Cher, Michael Jackson, Johnny Carson and Robin Williams stopped by. John Lennon and Yoko Ono even appeared in 1972, with Lennon performing “Imagine.”

But the moment almost everyone remembers came in 1976. Frank Sinatra surprised Jerry by bringing Dean Martin onto the stage. The former comedy partners had gone their separate ways 20 years earlier, and Jerry clearly had no idea Dean was coming out. Watching his face when Dean walks onto that stage is still one of those great live-TV moments.

And if you watched all the way to the end, you knew what was coming — an exhausted and emotional Jerry singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”

For me, that song always seemed to signal that Labor Day was ending… and so was another summer.

Do you remember watching the Jerry Lewis Telethon? Who do you remember seeing on it?

The Joey Bishop Show: Taking On Johnny Carson With a Young Regis Philbin

I remember The Joey Bishop Show as one of those late-night programs that always seemed to live in the shadow of Johnny Carson, but there was a lot more to it than I realized.

ABC launched the show in 1967 as a direct competitor to The Tonight Show, and Joey Bishop was no stranger to that world. He had already guest-hosted for Carson many times, so putting him behind his own late-night desk made plenty of sense.

Sitting beside him was a young Regis Philbin, long before Live! or Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? made him a household name. One of the strangest moments came in 1968 when Regis dramatically quit on-air after saying he believed ABC executives thought he was hurting the ratings. Years later, Regis revealed that the whole thing had actually been planned with Joey as a publicity stunt.

Then came an even stranger ending. On the final broadcast in December 1969, Joey said goodbye and walked off the set early, leaving Regis and the guests to finish the show without him.

The series also had an incredible parade of guests, including Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Johnny Cash, Sonny & Cher, the Three Stooges, Debbie Reynolds and many more.

And the music had its own pedigree. Johnny Mann served as musical director and wrote the opening theme, “Joey Is the Name.”

It only lasted a little over two years, but between Joey, Regis, the celebrity guests and some very unusual television moments, it left behind quite a story.

Do you remember staying up late enough to watch Joey Bishop and Regis Philbin together?