Newsstand, March 1973

Paducah made Ebony!

Meanwhile, Boys' Life has an enthralling depiction on a Catlettsburg, Kentucky, Scout's springing into action to save a neighbor boy's life. (I loved these "Scouts In Action" features in Boys' Life when I was a kid.)

I don't really know much at all about National Lampoon magazine, but its March 1973 cover cracks me up. It's like one of those great overly specific Onion editorial cartoons, and, in this one, the personified magazine is marching into "GOOD TASTE" and "SWEETNESS AND LIGHT" and away from its "BAD TASTE" marked by "VICIOUS ATTACKS," "UNCALLED-FOR SMUT" and--my favorite--"TEARING DOWN WITHOUT BUILDING UP." This last one is represented by a man maniacally smashing birds with a hammer. As it moves toward a future of "MIRTH," "MERRIMENT" and "HARMLESS JOSHING," National Lampoon declares in a sturdy, seriffed font that it is "On the Right Path." Now this is a fantastic cover.

Here are the Nixons, by Norman Rockwell, on a magazine I had never heard of, First Monday. From looking at other eBay searches, it appears to be some sort of GOP-advocacy publication--and maybe even produced by a Nixon-specific organization.

I also was unaware of QST, "The Official Journal of the ARRL," or Amateur Radio Relay League of Hartford and now Newington, Connecticut.

I'm so happy to report that I still so love television, and each of this 1973 month's TV Guide covers--March 3, March 10, March 17, March 24 and March 31--just absolutely makes me want to watch more.

Turning to sports, Action Sports Hockey is taking us “INSIDE THE CANADIENS’ HATE-FILLED DRESSING ROOM;” Carlos Monzon is Boxing Illustrated's fighter of the year, and The Sporting News picks Nate Archibald and Bill Walton for its pro and college players of the 1972-73 basketball season, respectively (and congratulations, William "Bird" Averitt of Hoptown and Pepperdine for his honorable mention!)

More from March 1973 magazines:

-- Music Star, "The Loneliness of Michael Jackson"

-- Country Song Roundup, "who is Jim Ed Brown?"

-- Tiger Beat, "OSMONDS: Will Religion STOP Them From LOVING YOU?!"

-- 16 Magazine, "David--Is He a Phony?!"

-- Seventeen, "the real-life BRIDGET AND BERNIE"

-- Modern Screen, “DISCOVERED! BURT REYNOLDS & DINAH SHORE’S Secret Love Hideout!”

-- TIME, "EUROPE, AMERICA'S NEW RIVAL"

-- Christian Crusade Weekly, “POWs Tell of Religious Experiences” and “US Warming Up To Cuba?”

-- Consumer Reports, “The High-Filth Diet, Compliments of FDA”

The Freakin' Weekend (1972)

I am rooting for the A's ...

Also, I love television ...

I am so thankful that, in this glorious age of Internet, I needn't face this Sophie's choice ...

Spoiler alert ... I already know how this comes out ...

I love these #freakinweekend posts. They are when the HP feels most clubhousey to me ...

Album Review: Live at the Regal by B.B. King

With the passing of B.B. King, Sound Opnions did an episode devoted to King and specifically focusing on the Live at the Regal album.

Listening to that show got me to thinking about the album and the fact that we haven't mentioned it here on the blog. If someone were to come to me and say I need a list of 10 albums that I must have to understand popular American music, this album would have to be on the list. Everything about this album is pretty much perfect. King and his band are at the peak of their powers. The audience is simply wonderful and so you are left with a real treat of a listening experience. Even if you don't think of yourself as a blues fan it is hard not to like this album.

There are only a few live albums that I really love and this is one of them. Following the Rhapsody rating method I give it 5 out of 5 stars for Great.

1975: Today on TV

If we lived in Pomeroy or Middleport, Ohio, today in 1975, here were our TV choices.

If the Family Affair rerun at 7 p.m. Eastern is a snoozer, I'm probably going to give the new Don Adams Screen Test a whirl. He was pretty funny in Get Smart, and I like game shows.

I wonder if that episode is where Adams and James Caan became friends.

I don't know who's supposed to be on the 7:30 Pop! Goes the Country, but, man, I hope it's this fantastic Willie Nelson appearance.

Tonight's episode of Sanford and Son, "The Olympics," is lights-out excellent. And, besides, it's always so great when the precise episode of a 37-year-old TV show that you are interested in is available in full on YouTube, as this one is.

I love how the studio audience cheers for Redd Foxx when he appears in a workout outfit in Part 3. There was a lot of cheering by studio audiences on TV shows in the '70s when their favorite actors and actresses appeared in unconventional costumes.

I'm rolling with NBC the rest of the night. David Brenner is making one of his record 158 appearances on The Tonight Show tonight. (So crazy that Brenner was once engaged to Tai Babilonia.) Also, Michael Caine might be doing more standup.

1975: The new season (Fridays)

Now this is some rock-'em, sock-'em/capital-T, capital-V TV, baby!

With Sanford and Son and Chico and the Man, Nielsen's second- and third-rated shows of last season, respectively, one would think NBC would have locked down the 7 p.m. Central hour. But CBS has No. 5 M*A*S*H right there in the 7:30 rearview, and this season it leads off with rookie Big Eddie, which is led by no newcomer. Producer and director of The Andy Griffith Show and The Dick Van Dyke Show, Sheldon Leonard gets back in the acting game (I'd forgotten he was in It's a Wonderful Life).

But what about ABC? They're giving brilliant Jack Webb a new go. I'll definitely have to give Mobile One a try, too, as I love both Jack Webb and TV shows about media.

It's a solid night at 8 and beyond, too. TV Guide tells us that The Sound of Music and Sounder are among the titles planned for The ABC Friday Night Movie. For me to tune in, however, it will have to be a proven, stellar commodity like one of those two. I am totally in the tank for Rockford Files, and I will happily enjoy a 9 p.m. nightcap with either sultry Angie Dickinson in Police Woman or steady Buddy Ebsen in Barnaby Jones.

What a night--Friday nights in 1975. This is the kind of night that encouraged my dad to write in his American history, The Death of Democracy, "Television continued to provide the working man with dependable and affordable entertainment."

Previous dispatches:

-- Mondays

-- Tuesdays

-- Wednesdays

-- Thursdays