On this day in music history: December 19, 1964 -
“Tell Her No” by The
Zombies is released. Written by Rod Argent, it is the second US (third UK)
single for the pop band from St. Albans, Hertfordshire, UK. Having scored a hit
out of the box in their native England with their debut single “She’s Not
There” (#12 UK) which goes on to be even bigger in the US (#2 Pop), The Zombies
UK label Decca Records contemplate what should be the follow up.
The group want
their second release to be “Tell Her No”, also penned by keyboardist Rod
Argent. The song thematically follows the previous one, with the narrative
being about a man suspicious that his girlfriend is about to cheat on him with
one of his friends, he goes to him and tells his friend to resist her advances.
The word “no” is actually repeated a total of sixty five times in the single
running only 2:05.
The band agree that it is as hit, but their producer Ken
Jones and executives at their label prefer a song titled “Leave Me Be” to be
their second UK single.
In spite of the bands’ objections it’s released in
August of 1964, and immediately flops. With “She’s Not There” becoming a smash
on the other side of the Atlantic, and not wanting to make the same error,
“Tell Her No” is released in the US first (on Decca subsidiary Parrot Records)
just a week after their first hit peaks in the charts. The move proves to be a
wise one, as the single quickly enters the Billboard Hot 100 on January 9, 1965
at #81. An instant classic featuring lead singer Colin Blunstone’s pleading
tenor voice, it peaks at #6 on the Hot 100 on February 27, 1965. Surprisingly,
when “Tell Her No” is released in the UK a few weeks after its American
release, it stalls at #42 on the UK singles chart. “No” is covered by a number
of artists over the years, including versions by Smith (“Baby It’s You”) in
1969 and Juice Newton (#27 Pop) in 1983.
Cool Like Steve McQueen cool
Steve Mcqueen & Neile Adams, 1963
Steve McQueen dances the watusi with 16-year-old Luci Baines Johnson (daughter of President Lyndon Baines Johnson) at a “Young Citizens for Johnson” event in Beverly Hills on 8 August 1964.
Steve McQueen driving his 1956 Jaguar F-Type Convertible in California, 1963.
Wanted: Dead or Alive
Lancer fell hard
James Stacy hit the big time in the early 1960s TV western Lancer.
Stacy (Born Maurice William Elias in Los Angeles.) was the second child of three siblings, who grew up in a working-class family, the son of a Lebanese bookmaker. His American-born mother, Lois, was Irish-Scottish was a waitress.
Stacy attended Glendale Community College for a while but dropped out to pursue a career in the Canadian Football League. He played for the British Columbia Lions, but the team cut him after just two months.
Then he turned to acting and kicked around Hollywood for quite a while. He made his film debut in Sayonara in 1957, and his television debut on Highway Patrol and then landed a recurring role as Fred in The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet from 1958 to 1963. Between that, there were dozens of guest appearances in television shows, including Gunsmoke, Hazel, The Donna Reed Show, Have Gun - Will Travel, Combat!, and Perry Mason in the 1964 episode 'The Case of the Simple Simon' and the series finale "The Case of the Final Fade-out" in 1966.
But it was Lancer that made him a household name. Lancer aired on CBS from 1968 to 1970 and cast Stacy as the character "Johnny Madrid Lancer", a former gunslinger, the son of Duggan's character, Murdoch Lancer.
On September 27, 1973, Stacy was taking his girlfriend Claire Cox for a ride on his motorcycle in the Hollywood Hills along Benedict Canyon Road when a drunken driver struck them. Cox was killed and Stacy lost his left arm and leg.
Connie Stevens, his ex-wife (He had also married and divorced actress Kim Darby) organized a 1974 celebrity gala to raise money for his expenses and collected $118,000 (About $600,000 today) for his expenses. Stacy later won a $1.9 million lawsuit ($8.4 million today) against the bar that had served the drunk driver.
Stacy spent three months recuperating in the hospital, followed by years of learning to adapt physically and emotionally to his new life as a double-amputee. After his recovery, Stacy returned to acting in the 1975 Kirk Douglas Western, Posse, in which he was cast as newspaper editor "Harold Hellman", a part Douglas had written for him. After that he worked steadily, mostly in television up until the 1990s.
In November 1995, Stacy pleaded no contest to a charge of molesting an 11-year-old daughter of a friend after he had invited her to his home in Ojai, California, for a swim and fondled her genitals.
Arrested, he failed to appear for sentencing in Ventura County Superior Court and was arrested the next day in a Honolulu, Hawaii, hospital after having fled California. He attempted suicide by jumping off a 1200 foot cliff. After recovering, (He fell only 45 feet because he tripped on a rock while jumping) Stacy waived extradition and returned to California.
Stacy, who was an alcoholic, was sentenced to a six-year prison sentence, oddly enough he would have been given probation had he not fled. But there were other arrests as well.
In 1981, Stacy was fined $750 and ordered to carry out 250 hours of community service after he broke a waitress’ nose at a La Quinta hotel bar near Palm Springs. The waitress, Sheryl Taffolla brought Stacy the wrong bar bill. He refused to pay. When she insisted, Stacy punched her. At the time he was the Chairman of Californians for Sober Highways.
A few days later, a drunk and belligerent Stacy refused to leave a discotheque at 1:30 in the morning, punched another waitress and wrestled with a security guard to the ground. When the police searched him, they found unprescribed valium in pocket. Even though he failed to appear in court on the original assault charge and was rearrested, he was put on probation and banned from drinking and being at places that even served alcohol.
In June of 1995, he was arrested twice for prowling at the homes of other underaged girls. (12 and 16) who had moved in next door to him. Stacy wheeled himself outside their house and drunkenly yelled into their door, “Come talk to me, I know you’re in there!”
A week later, Stacy accosted the 10 and 11-year-old daughters of a local schoolteacher in their backyard. He was arrested, and following a psychologist’s diagnosis, confirmed to be a pedophile.
He died on September 9, 2016, at the age of 79, of anaphylactic shock as a result of a an antibiotic injection
Barbie dubious background
Barbie’s original design was based on a German cartoon character named Lilli who was a saucy high-end escort. Lilli dolls were marketed to men who gave them as a gag gift at bachelor parties, dangled them from the rearview mirror, or gave them to girlfriends as a suggestive keepsake.
RUPERT MURDOCH'S SON BUYS 'BEVERLY HILLBILLIES' MANSION...
Come
and listen to a story about a man named Lachlan ... a not-so-poor media mogul
who bought a house for $150 MILLION
That's
right ... the L.A. estate known as Chartwell -- best known for being featured
on "The Beverly Hillbillies" -- is off the market, and the mansion's
new owner is Rupert Murdoch's son, 48-year-old Lachlan.
The
real estate transaction is not only the most expensive in L.A. history but in
the history of the entire state of California. And, get this ... it sold for
$200 million LESS than the initial asking price.
Chartwell
was listed off-market about 2 years ago at an astronomical $350 million but
dropped to a slightly more affordable $245 mil when it entered the multiple
listing service. The price dipped again to $195 mil this summer, before
reportedly being sold to Lachlan for the cool $150 mil.
It's
now the second priciest home sale in the U.S. ... trailing only the $238
million NYC penthouse purchased by hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin in
January.
The
exterior was used for the credits of the legendary '60s show ... and it's
become a tourist destination ever since, where people peer through the gates to
get a look. The estate boasts a 25,000-square-foot main house, a tennis court,
a guest house, and of course -- a cement pond ... and another house to go with
that.
There
are also acres of gardens with tall hedges and trees for privacy.
BTW
-- Chartwell is actually located in Bel-Air, not Beverly Hills, and was last
owned by late billionaire A. Jerrold Perenchio, the chairman of Univision. The
new owner is cochairman of his family's company, News Corp.
The
Chartwell Mansion was the most expensive home in the United States in 2018. It
is also known as The Beverly Hillbillies
Mansion, as the exterior once served as a camera shot for CBS television show
The Beverly Hillbillies, which aired from 1962 to 1971.
The
house was designed by Sumner Spaulding in 1933 in the style of a French
chateau. It was built for engineer Lynn Atkinson, who commissioned the property
for his wife. She found it "pretentious", so the couple never lived there.
The house, located on 10 acres, with gardens designed by Henri Samuel, later
was owned by Arnold Kirkeby and Jerry Perenchio.
In
2019, the mansion was reported to have been sold to Lachlan Murdoch for about
$150 million, which is the highest sale price for any house in California
history.
Viet Nam...that war tore this country apart and the rift it caused has never really been bridged
Soldiers from the Army of the Republic of Vietnam resting with US Army advisor in the jungle 40 miles outside of Saigon on a January morning in 1965.
What John Lennon Was Singing About on 'Happiness Is a Warm Gun'
Eric Schaal |
If you wanted to pick the most
baffling Beatles song, “Happiness Is a Warm Gun” should be a contender. Whether
you go by the shifting musical styles, the obscure lyrics, or the insane final
passage (“Bang, bang! Shoot, shoot!”), John Lennon just about emptied the tank
writing this one.
The Beatles themselves loved the
track. John spoke of what fun they had recording it, and his bandmates spoke
glowingly of it. In fact, as The White Album was headed to record stores, Paul
McCartney said he wanted to talk about it because it was a favorite of his.
But when talking about the song’s
meaning, there was little consensus. Some said the title came from an NRA
magazine; Paul said it came from a gun advertisement. And to confuse things
further, John said “I need a fix” wasn’t a drug reference.
But another quote from Paul, when
he described it as “just good poetry,” might come the closest to getting it
right.
“John said he had written half a song and
wanted us to toss out phrases while Neil [Aspinall] wrote them down,” Taylor
said. One came from a couple Taylor met on holiday. The man told Taylor he wore
moleskin gloves because he liked “the sensation when I’m out with my
girlfriend.”
That suggestion turned into
someone “acquainted with the touch of the velvet hand.” When Taylor brought up
a man arrested for looking up women’s skirts with mirrors attached to his
shoes, John turned it into “a man in the crowd with multicolored mirrors on his
hobnail boots.”
The night’s conversations also
gave John the idea for the soap impression someone “ate and donated to the
National Trust.” (This was a reference to public defecation around Liverpool.)
As for the part when John sang, “Mother Superior jumped the gun,” that was
John’s nickname for Yoko Ono.
As for the unusual song title, John
pulled that verbatim from yet another source. Someone had a copy of American
Rifleman magazine in the recording studio and it was opened to an article under
that headline.
“It said, ‘Happiness is a warm
gun,” John recalled in Beatles Anthology. “I thought it was a fantastic, insane
thing to say.” Despite writing “the junkie” next to his second section of
lyrics, he maintained the references weren’t to heroin.
“They said it was about shooting
up drugs,” John said. “But they were advertising guns and I thought it was so
crazy that I made a song out of it.” So why did he sing the last section with
that over-the-top vocal? Next to the final section of lyrics, John wrote
“satire of ’50s rock ‘n’ roll.”
“It was such a great line that
John sort of took that and used it as a chorus,” Paul said in Many Years From
Now. “It’s just good poetry.” Later, he described where John’s mind was at.
“It’s a piss-take of all the people who really do think happiness is a warm
gun.”
‘Brady Bunch’ father Robert Reed was a drunken diva behind the scenes of the show
By Reed Tucker
America’s favorite dad was livid.
The man who played Mike Brady,
Robert Reed, paged through the latest script for “The Brady Bunch” and lashed
out at the show’s creator, demanding that his part be rewritten.
And what had so incensed the
actor?
The smell of strawberries. Or the
lack thereof.
In Season 4’s episode, “Jan, the
Only Child,” Brady mom, Carol, and the family’s housekeeper, Alice, hold a
competition to see who can craft the tastiest strawberry preserves.
As the competition raged in the
Brady’s formica kitchen, the script called for Mike Brady to arrive home and
remark that the house smelled like “strawberry heaven.”
Only Reed, who had a habit of
meticulously fact-checking each script, discovered while poring over the
“Encyclopedia Britannica” that strawberries supposedly give off no smell while
they’re being cooked.
So Reed went to “Brady” creator
Sherwood Schwartz and told him he would not say the line.
Attempting to placate the actor,
Schwartz invited Reed down to the set where strawberries were actually being
cooked and pointed out that the berries did indeed give off a scent.
Reed wouldn’t hear it. He’d read
that they didn’t, and he refused to say the line.
So Schwartz offered a compromise:
Mike Brady could say it “looks like strawberry heaven in here,” and Reed
reluctantly agreed.
(Although the line he ultimately
delivered in the filmed episode was, “I do believe I’ve died and gone to
strawberry heaven.”)
Reed was famous for being
difficult on set. In another episode in which youngest Brady boy, Bobby, sells
hair tonic in a get-rich-quick scheme, Reed objected because the product wasn’t
FDA-approved. In yet another, Reed whined about the implausibility of his
character slipping on a broken egg. He even once disapproved of the quality of
the fake ink that stained Alice’s uniform, prompting the actor to pen an angry,
multi-page memo to the show’s executives. Reed blasted the prop department for
its choice and called the ink scene so “unfunny that even a laugh machine would
balk” at it.
“I don’t feel like anyone thinks it’s a great
show. This is not the sitcom version of ‘Breaking Bad,’ ” author Kimberly Potts told The Post. “It’s more
that it’s a sweet show. Now so many generations have
watched it, it’s a good memory and makes
them feel good.”
Schwartz, the creator of “The
Brady Bunch,” always wanted his show to be more than a quick laugh.
In 1966, he happened across a
newspaper article stating that 29 percent of families now included a child from
a previous marriage. The stat got Schwartz, who had created 1964’s “Gilligan’s
Island,” thinking. He began crafting a show about a blended family that would
serve as a parable for his personal belief that different people could always
learn to live together.
The networks weren’t initially
wild about the idea, and the series was shelved.
Then in 1968, “Yours, Mine and
Ours,” a film about a blended family starring Lucille Ball, became a huge hit.
ABC came calling about Schwartz’s sitcom idea, and the creator set about assembling
his cast.
“Schwartz did a lot of smart
things when he cast the show,” Potts says. “He cast kids and created the
characters based on their personalities. That’s something that came through and
helped people identify with them and made the group of siblings resonate with
people.”
He also stocked the family with
six kids; a boy and a girl occupying three different age groups. A full range
of kid viewers — from young children to teens — could find someone to identify
with.
Susan Olsen was chosen out of 454
hopefuls Schwartz personally interviewed to play youngest daughter Cindy. She
won the part because of her charming lisp that had her pronouncing horse as
“horth” in her audition.
Maureen McCormick was at first
eyed to play middle daughter Jan, but when Schwartz tinkered with the ages of
the kids, McCormick became eldest daughter
Mike Lookinland got the gig of
Bobby, even though Schwartz demanded that he dye his light hair brown to match
that of his TV brothers: Christopher Knight, as Peter, and Barry Williams as
Greg.
Competition was fierce to play
parents Mike, an architect, and Carol, a stay-at-home mom with creative
pursuits. One actress vying for the matriarch role sent Schwartz nude photos.
Another, when Schwartz went to shake her hand, instead grabbed his crotch.
Neither got the part. It went to
Florence Henderson after Shirley Jones passed on the role.
Reed, who fancied himself a
Shakespearean actor, took the part simply for the money and quickly became a
distraction. The unhappy actor would frequently spend his lunch breaks getting
sloshed and when he returned to the set drunk, Schwartz would have to end
filming for the day. Luckily, the child actors were usually done at that point
and avoided witnessing most of his bad behavior and angry outbursts.
In fact, Reed had a close, almost
paternal, relationship with the Brady kids.
“He took his responsibility as
the TV dad seriously,” Potts says. “He famously took the kids on a trip to
England because he wanted to expose them to culture and Shakespeare. He also
famously gave them Super 8 cameras for Christmas. He wanted to help them the
same as a father would.”
His relationship with the show
continued to be less collegial, and he was completely absent from several
episodes, including the 1974 series finale, because of his objections to
material.
Had the series returned for a
sixth season, Schwartz was planning to kill off Mike Brady and have the plots
revolve around the kids helping Carol find love again.
Enlarge Image
But the show only lasted five
seasons. While never a critical or ratings darling (its best finish was 31st,
in Season 3), Schwartz quickly began receiving letters from real kids
threatening to run away in order to live with the Bradys.
The show had clearly struck a
chord and unlike many sitcoms of its day, it didn’t disappear after it was
canceled.
Instead, it found a new life in
syndication starting in 1975, often airing in blocks in the afternoon, which
breathed new life into the program, making it a classic.
By 1976, reruns of “The Brady
Bunch” actually beat the vice-presidential debate in ratings. At the time of
its 30th anniversary, each of the 117 episodes was estimated to have aired more
than 100,000 times around the world.
“These airings were chances for viewers
of every changing age group to memorize the show, identify with the characters
and their problems and allow ‘The Brady Bunch’ to become a permanent part of
their culture and childhood memories,” Potts writes.
Today, all six actors who played
the Brady kids continue to be defined by roles they performed half a century
ago. Just recently, they appeared on HGTV’s “A Very Brady Renovation.”
Meanwhile, Reed died at 59 in
1992, after being diagnosed with colon cancer. It was later revealed that he
had long lived a closeted gay life and was HIV-positive.
In a 2000 ABC News interview,
Henderson talked about Reed’s homosexuality, which she learned about while
filming the “Brady” pilot, and explained some of the reasons behind his bad
behavior on set.
“Here he was, the perfect father of this
wonderful little family, a perfect husband. Off camera, he was an unhappy
person — I think had Bob not been forced to live this double life, I think it
would have dissipated a lot of that anger and frustration. I never asked him. I
never challenged him. I had a lot of compassion for him because I knew how he
was suffering with keeping this secret.”
Cowboys and Bealtes
Before the Beatles’ film, A
Hard Day’s Night was released in America, an executive asked the director to
dub the voices of the group with mid-Atlantic accents. Paul McCartney angrily
replied, “Look, if we can understand a fucking cowboy talking Texan, they can
understand us talking Liverpool.”
10 Most Culturally Influential Movies Of The 1960s
BY LACEY WOMACK
DEC 01, 2019
Even
though there are great movies coming out all the time, a lot of these
contemporary films have been heavily inspired by movies that were released
decades ago. Movies, TV shows, and generally the way that we live our lives and
the things that get huge in the world of pop culture have been inspired by what
was released in the past. Many people still love to watch movies that came out
decades ago, sometimes even before they were born, and we definitely see why.
Movies are a form of media that have a huge
impact on pop culture. The 1960s was a decade that saw a huge turn in the way
people lived their lives and what was popular in media consumption. This decade
was a turning point in a lot of ways, and the movies of the times definitely
reflected that. These are the most culturally influential movies of the 1960s.
10 NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)
If you
watch TV shows like The Walking Dead or basically any movie that features
zombies, you can thank this 1968 film for popularizing the monster. Zombies
have been a subject of myths and legends in different cultures for a long time,
but they didn't see much attention in the cinematic world until George A.
Romero released this cult classic, Night of the Living Dead.
This movie follows a group of people who find
themselves trapped in a Pennsylvania farmhouse when a group of terrifying
"living dead" creatures rise from the grave and descend upon their
home. On top of inspiring movies and TV shows for years to come, this movie was
groundbreaking at the time of its release because of the fact that the
protagonist was played by Duane Jones, a black actor, which was seen as a
controversial choice at the time.
9 DR. NO (1962)
James
Bond has become an iconic character in the world of movies. When many people
think about spy films, they immediately think of 007 himself. James Bond has
appeared in 27 movies and references to this spy have appeared in tons of other
movies and TV shows over the years.
All those references started with a single
movie. Dr. No was released in 1962 and stars Sean Connery as the iconic James
Bond, a British spy who was originally created in the novel of the same name by
Ian Fleming. This movie had a relatively low budget, considering what a success
it was.
8 PSYCHO (1960)
It's hard to think about movies from this part
of the 20th century without immediately thinking about Alfred Hitchcock. Films
like Rebecca, Rear Window, and Vertigo are classics from the 1940s and 1950s.
But when it comes to the 1960s, Psycho is among the most famous horror movies
ever made.
This movie was released in 1960 and follows a
secretary named Marion who finds herself at a hotel run by a man named Norman
Bates. Her stay goes horribly wrong and introduces us to one of the most
infamous characters in horror movie history.
7 IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (1967)
In the
Heat of the Night is a movie that was released in 1967 and is based on a novel
of the same name by John Ball. This film is set in a fictional southern town
and follows a black police detective who is tasked with investigating a heinous
crime.
This movie's plot, cast, and the time period in
which it was released all lead to it becoming critically acclaimed and the
winner of five Academy Awards. In 2002, In the Heat of the Night was selected
for its cultural significance to be put in the National Film Registry.
6 DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP
WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB (1964)
Released
in 1964, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
is a political satire and black comedy film that was directed by Stanley
Kubrick. This movie is a satirical take on the Cold War and follows a US Air
Force General who orders a strike on the Soviet Union and the aftermath of this
order.
After it was released, this movie was nominated
for and won several awards, including multiple nominations for Academy Awards.
It's Stanley Kubrick's highest rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes and has gone on
to serve as an inspiration for satirical comedies for decades.
5 THE APARTMENT (1960)
The Apartment was released in 1960, the same
decade in which Fred and Wilma Flintstone became the first couple to be in bed
together on primetime TV. Because of the fact that this was a time period in
which personal relationships like that were still pretty taboo in media, The
Apartment is a movie that really broke some boundaries.
This movie follows an insurance clerk who
allows his co-workers to use his New York City apartment to host their
extramarital affairs in the hopes of getting ahead in his own career. This
movie touched on taboo subjects and has since become a classic, even securing a
spot in the National Film Registry.
4 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)
2001: A
Space Odyssey is a science-fiction movie that was directed by Stanley Kubrick
and released in 1968. This movie is regarded as a classic and has even been put
into the National Film Registry.
The movie deals with themes of human evolution
throughout time and into the future. Considering the fact that it was released
in the late 1960s, this movie had some pretty incredible and ambitious special
effects that, paired with the unique narrative methods, made this movie
incredibly influential.
3 THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (1966)
The
Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is a Spaghetti Western that was released in 1996
and stars Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, and Lee Van Cleef. It was marketed as
the third and final installment in the trilogy of movies that include A Fistful
of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More.
The movie follows three gunslingers who are all
competing to try to find a buried cache of gold during the American Civil War.
This movie is a classic example of the Spaghetti Western genre and is among the
first movies to launch Clint Eastwood into stardom.
2 BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S (1961)
Breakfast
at Tiffany's was released in 1961 and stars Aubrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly,
a naive and eccentric New York City socialite. The movie is based on a Truman
Capote novella by the same name and, along with winning multiple awards when it
was released, was put into the National Film Registry.
The movie became a classic, with the images of
Hepburn in the film among the most iconic images from mid-20th century cinema.
The movie has also received some negative attention and has become a common
example of racial insensitivity in cinema for Mickey Rooney's portrayal of I.
Y. Yunioshi.
1 EASY RIDER (1969)
Easy
Rider was released in 1969, closing out the 1960s. It was an incredibly
influential film that went on to inspire a new movement in Hollywood known as
New Hollywood. This movie stars Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper and was written,
produced, and directed by them as well.
The movie may have come out at the tail end of
the 1960s, but the plot of these two bikers traveling across the US in order to
do a nefarious deal really touched on a huge part of the culture of the decade,
as people began to change their lifestyles from the way that people lived in
the '40s and '50s.