The US National Railroad Passenger Corporation, known as Amtrak, began operation on May 1. It replaced passenger services of private railroad companies that had operated for more than a century. The first official Amtrak service began at 12:05 am, when the Metroliner left New York City’s Penn Station for Washington, DC.
The Harris Poll announced on May 3 that a recent survey of American households found that 60 percent favored withdrawal of US troops from the Vietnam war even if that meant South Vietnam would be defeated. For the first time since the question had been asked, 58 percent of Americans believed it was morally wrong for the US to be engaged in the war.
Also on May 3, “All Things Considered,” National Public Radio’s flagship news program, was broadcast for the first time.
Flip Wilson as “Geraldine”
The Emmy Awards ceremony was held May 9 in Los Angeles. Emmys went to “All in the Family,” best comedy series; “The Flip Wilson Show,” best variety series; and “The Bold Ones: The Senator,” best drama.
The price of mailing a letter first-class rose by one-third on May 16. A first-class stamp cost 8 cents, up from 6.
The Magic Mountain amusement park opened in Valencia, Calif., on May 29. Tickets to ride all of the park’s rides were $5.00 for adults, $1.50 for children 12 and under.
Monday, May 31, was Memorial Day, completing a three-day holiday weekend. It was the first instance of the holiday falling on the last Monday in May, as called for in federal legislation establishing uniform Monday holidays for major observances. From 1868 to 1970, Memorial Day (previously “Decoration Day”) had been observed on May 30, whichever day of the week on which that date fell.
Members of the US table tennis team and their “guides,” in China, 1971
The Peoples Republic of China sent an invitation on April 6 to the US national table tennis team, then competing in Japan, to visit China. They were the first Americans to be so invited since Communists took over in 1949. The invitation was accepted the next day and the team began an eight-day visit on April 10. Thus began an era of “ping pong diplomacy” that opened up relations between the US and the PRC.
US President Richard Nixon announced on April 7 the withdrawal of an additional 100,000 American troops from Vietnam by December 1. At the time, there were 284,000 American troops participating in the war.
The Soviet Union launched and placed into orbit Salyut 1, the first “space station,” on April 19.
The US Supreme Court ruled unanimously on April 20 that busing of students could be ordered to achieve racial desegregation in schools.
Vietnam Veterans Against the War concluded on April 23 a week-long protest against continued US involvement in the war with Operation Dewey Canyon III, as about 700 veterans threw medals and ribbons received for service in it onto the steps of the US Capitol. The Rolling Stones album Sticky Fingers was released the same day.
At least 200,000 people in Washington, DC, and 125,000 in San Francisco marched in demonstrations against the Vietnam War on April 24.
Two US Air Force majors set a supersonic speed endurance record on April 26. Over a period of 10 hours, 30 minutes in a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, they flew more than 15,000 miles, slowing to subsonic speeds only when refueling. The plane averaged 1,429 miles an hour, or Mach 1.86, and exceeded Mach 3 at times.
Hammerin’ Hank hits homer #600.
Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves became only the third player in Major League Baseball history to hit 600 home runs in his career on April 27. Only Babe Ruth and Willie Mays had achieved that feat.
OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, was created on April 28 as part of the US Department of Labor.
On this date 50 years ago, I joined LTJG Fred Palmore and his wife, Pam, to attend a concert by The Faces at the San Diego Sports Arena. I had been in the Arena only 10 days earlier for the Ali-Frazier fight and the setting/atmosphere was more than a bit different.
Previously known as “The Small Faces,” the group featured a gravel-voiced lead singer named Rod Stewart, earlier with the Jeff Beck Group, and a lead guitarist, Ronnie Wood, later of Rolling Stones fame.
Stewart, despite being “just one of the Faces,” had a rousing career going as a single artist at the same time. His breakthrough third album, Every Picture Tells A Story, which included the #1 hit Maggie May, was released only two months after this concert.
Here’s a clip (28:15) of The Faces, live on the BBC’s “Top of the Pops” program, October 1971.
I’m not going to claim I remember all sorts of stuff about the evening or the concert specifically. Were there other groups on the card? I don’t recall. And that’s because of time passed, not intoxication. I just remember feeling very happy to have been there and “had a real good time,” as another Stewart song said.
The Palmores and I attended at least one other concert together at the Sports Arena (which will be reported on in June). Fred remembers a bar that we apparently visited called “That Place Across the Street from the Sports Arena.” It was located . . . well, you know. I don’t really remember the place, though I wish I did. Researching it online, it had a lot of fans. The establishment later became “Foggy’s Notion,” which closed in 1999 after a fire.
I’m biased, but I’m a big fan of music from the ’60s and ’70s. I had seen The Rolling Stones in concert (twice!) in 1965 and frequented the Club 47 in Cambridge, Mass., while in college, where I saw a lot of folk singers from the era (Tom Rush, Judy Collins, Spider John Koerner among them). The Faces was my first concert of the ’70s and the first in as large a venue as a sports arena. Things had gotten more “produced,” but I still liked the show a lot.
As another example of time passing, Rod Stewart has since been knighted. He is officially Sir Roderick David Stewart, CBE (Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire). Whoda thunk?
The referee points Joe Frazier to a neutral corner after he knocked Muhammad Ali down with a left hook in the 15th round.
On this date, 50 years ago, also a Monday, I fretted about attending a closed-circuit pay-per-view telecast later in the day of the heavyweight championship fight between undefeated champion Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali (still “Cassius Clay” to many). The fight would be the third for Ali, also unbeaten, since he had been banned from boxing three years earlier for refusing induction into the U.S. Armed Forces. It was being billed as “the fight of the century.”
The local telecast was to take place at the San Diego Sports Arena, then less than five years old. It was expensive to attend, maybe $15.00 (hey, that’s just under a hundred bucks in today’s money). I wasn’t even sure tickets would still be available.
I decided to go.
Based on the seat I was able to get, I may have bought one of the last tickets available. I was in the top row (I could lean back onto the side of the building), the screen was at the end of the arena, essentially perpendicular to me, with no one to my right. I and many others in my area watched the fight leaning significantly to our lefts to reduce the distorted presentation we saw on the screen.
The event took place at Madison Square Garden, New York City. According to the Associated Press article about the fight, “The stars and the star-struck came in their finest to watch on a Monday night in Manhattan. It was March 8, 1971, and those crowding their way into the Garden were attired in the fashion of the day, which included full-length fur coats, velvet pants, and peacock feathered hats — and that was just the men. There were also plenty of fashionably attired women in miniskirts or long gowns, with enough skin and hair on both sexes to make the crowd watching as good as the fight.
“At ringside, Frank Sinatra had a camera in his hand, chronicling the scene for Life magazine. There were Kennedys in the building, along with celebrities of the day such as Diana Ross and Woody Allen. The moonwalkers from Apollo 14 were on hand, too, still bearded from their trip to space.”
Those attending in San Diego were not so much the “stars and the star-struck.” If there were San Diego notables in attendance, they were nowhere close to my seat.
I wasn’t a huge fan of boxing, but it was a much bigger sport then than now. And one major reason for that was Ali. He had become a cultural figure, admired for his antiwar stance by many and despised by as many, if not more, for the same reason. Frazier, who still referred to his opponent as Cassius Clay, was called an “Uncle Tom” by Ali and, whether it was his intention or not, represented to many the cultural “working class” of America. With the cultural clash of America represented by the two fighters, the event was portrayed as much a fight between those cultures.
I think I wanted to see the fight to see what happened in that clash and to see “history.”
To the disappointment, I think, of most in the San Diego Sports Arena, including me, Frazier won the 15-round fight by unanimous decision. While Ali won the 14th round, Frazier caught Ali flush in the jaw with his best of many potent left hooks in the final round, knocking him to the canvas.
Here is a video (7:52) of the highlights of the fight.
Much of what I remember from the evening was the environment inside the Sports Arena. It became increasingly warm and, as smoking was permitted in those days, the upper levels of the arena, where I was sitting, became quite smoky.
After the fight, Ali’s jaw was heavily swollen, but x-rays showed it was not broken. Frazier would eventually need hospitalization for injuries he suffered in the fight.
March 8, 1971 may well have been the high point of Frazier’s career. He lost the next two fights with Ali and was then knocked out twice by George Foreman. After reclaiming his title from Frazier, Ali later defeated Foreman in the 1974 “Rumble in the Jungle.”
Led Zeppelin performed “Stairway to Heaven” live for the first time on March 5 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. According to bassist John Paul Jones, most of the listeners at the time “were all bored to tears waiting to hear something they knew.” The video below doesn’t show the first performance, but it’s still in the 1970s.
World heavyweight boxing champion Joe Frazier defeated previously undefeated Muhammed Ali (known earlier as Cassius Clay) on March 8 by unanimous decision in what had been billed as “the fight of the century.” (More on the anniversary of this fight, as I attended a telecast of the bout.)
The 672nd and last original episode of The Red Skelton Hour was telecast on March 15, bringing the end to a 20-year run.
The Boston Patriots, new members of the National Football League (NFL), announced on March 22, prior to a new stadium opening in Foxborough, Mass, that a temporary name of “Bay State Patriots” would be changed to “New England Patriots.”
With a vote of 401 to 19, the US House of Representatives approved on March 23 a measure submitting the 26th amendment to the Constitution, which would lower the nationwide voting age to 18, to the states for ratification. The Senate had approved the same measure unanimously on March 10. The amendment was ratified more quickly than any other amendment, before or since, becoming effective 100 days later on July 1.
The Beverly Hillbillies was broadcast for the last time on March 23, after 274 episodes and nine seasons. The show had been rated #1 in its first season and finished among the top 20 most popular shows in each of the following seasons, except its last.
UCLA defeated Villanova, 68-62, to win the NCAA collegiate basketball championship on March 27. The game was played in the Houston Astrodome in front of a then-record 31,765 fans. It was the Bruins’ seventh NCAA crown in eight seasons. Led by consensus all-Americans Curtis Rowe and Sidney Wicks, UCLA had lost only once, to Notre Dame, in compiling a 29-1 record.
The Ed Sullivan Show had its finale on March 28. Debuting in 1948, the Sunday night fixture was telecast 1,068 times over 23 seasons. On the same day, Hogan’s Heroes ended its six-season run.
A US Army court martial on March 29 found 1st Lt. William Calley guilty of 22 murders in the 1969 My Lai massacre. He was sentenced to life in prison. The Army later reduced his sentence to 20 years and he was paroled in 1976 after serving a third of that sentence.
The first Starbucks coffee shop opened in Seattle, Wash., on March 30.
On this day, 50 years ago, I and millions of others experienced what was the strongest earthquake to hit a California urban area for nearly 40 years. The San Fernando Earthquake, also referred to as the Sylmar Earthquake, hit the Los Angeles area at a little after 6 am.
It was the first earthquake for me, and it was a big one. I remember being awakened by the swaying of the building in which I had been sleeping. I, however, was among the fortunate. The earthquake, measured as magnitude 6.6 and centered in the San Fernando Valley east of LA, led to the deaths of 64 people and more than $500 million in damages.
I was in Los Angeles because a friend had come west on business and I took a short leave to spend some time with him. He was a staff member of the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and was attending a conference. I had something of a guest pass to attend as well.
The quake was, of course, a topic of conversation at the conference, but, media being the way it was 50 years ago, most of us were unaware of the terrible impact it had.
Rescue efforts at the San Fernando VA Hospital in Sylmar.
Forty-nine people were killed at the San Fernando Veterans Administration Hospital, where two buildings were completely destroyed. Others died at Olive View Hospital, under collapsed freeway overpasses, and at other locations. At Olive View, four five-story wings pulled away from the main building and three of them collapsed. Here is a gallery if images showing earthquake damage. Click on the image to see larger images and to advance the slideshow.
Eighty thousand people were evacuated from the area of the Lower Van Norman Dam, above the San Fernando Valley, which was in danger of collapse.
The Doobie Brothers chose an image from the earthquake damage for the cover of an album.
The earthquake helped result in state and federal legislation setting stricter standards for buildings to withstand shaking, etc.
Personally, I experienced several more earthquakes when I returned to live in California 1984-1996 and have since moving in Southern California at the beginning of 2012. Personal record is the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake. Rated at 6.9, it struck the California coast south of the Bay Area at 5:04 pm on October 17. I was in my office at UC Berkeley, about to head home to watch the third game of the World Series matching the Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants (the series was postponed for several days). Suddenly, I heard a loud, weird noise far away to the southeast, like a freight train rushing toward me. Then it hit. Again, the building swayed and I held onto my conference table until it subsided.
Again, too, I was fortunate. No one in my family was harmed. We lost only the chimney on our early-20th-century home in Berkeley. More unusual to me was an aftershock a couple of days later. I was in my car, waiting on a light on San Pablo Avenue in Albany, a town just north of Berkeley. The rear of the car suddenly started bouncing up and down. I looked up at my rear view mirror to see who was jumping on my rear bumper. There was no one there. It was just the road bouncing up and down.
Current Mammoth trail map. More trails than in 1971. Not relevant to my experience. I stayed within area circled in red.
I grew up in Western Massachusetts, but the first time I ever snow-skied was in California, in 1970-71. It was not a pleasant experience.
Sometime likely in January 1971, but it could well have been February, a bunch of guys at Naval Special Warfare Group, Pacific decided to take a ski excursion. I figured it would be a great time to try it. We were going to go to Mammoth Mountain for a two-day, two-night outing. I volunteered to drive.
Even today, with an interstate highway now in place from San Diego to north of LA, the route is 400+ miles each way, 7+ hours on the road. We left, I believe, on a Friday afternoon. We were going to go directly to a lodge at Mammoth, sleep that night, ski on Saturday and Sunday, and head back Sunday afternoon.
I remember driving through the San Bernardino Valley east of LA. Suddenly, as we drove higher in elevation, I was startled to see a clear sky. Looking in my rear and side mirrors, I saw a dingy brown cloud hovering over the valley behind us.
We got to Mammoth late, time just to check in and get to sleep. The next morning, I got to see Mammoth for the first time. It was big. The mountain summit is just over 11,000 feet in elevation. The base is at 9,000 feet elevation. This was now a new personal record for highest elevation.
Back in those days, the manner in which to select the length of your rental skis, I was told, was to raise your hand above your head. The tip of the skis standing parallel to your body should match the top of your fingertips. Big mistake by me.
Mammoth had its normal huge amount of snow. During the previ0us night, however, there had been a warm spell and rain. By morning, the surface of the snow had turned to ice. Rather thick ice. When I put on my skis and attempted really to do anything on them, I slipped and slid. I tried to use my poles, but had to pound the “snow” surface several times to get through the ice.
Aiming just to use the “bunny slope” for my first efforts, I tried to go on the ski lift there, which I believe was a T-lift. After several embarrassing falls within a couple of feet, I decided not to prevent others from getting on the slope. I tried then just to sidestep a few yards up the bunny slope and attempt to “ski” down. I fell to my left sometimes and to my right sometimes, but I always fell, landing most prominently on the ice on either of my hips.
I likely tried that for a couple of hours before a lunch break and probably a beer. I think I was the only person in our group in my predicament. The others were more advanced than me in their ability to ski, a status easily achieved. A few more hours of the same in the afternoon brought my first day of “skiing” to a close.
If we partied that night in the lodge, I don’t recall. I may well have been too tired and sore. If I tried to ski on Sunday, I also don’t recall. I do remember feeling very sore. I believe that after driving us home and getting up Monday morning, I saw that each of my hips featured a dinner plate-sized purple bruise.
So yes, I skied California 50 years ago and I still remember the pain. I’ve skied California since, in the 1980s, when we lived in the Bay Area. With two granddaughters born in New Hampshire living in SoCal with me now, who say they miss the snow, maybe I’ll try again. With shorter skis.
News from the US and around the world 50 years ago.
Alan Shepard on the Moon.
Lunar landings kept happening. On February 5, Apollo 14, commanded by America’s first astronaut Alan Shepard, made the US’s third landing on the moon. The mission returned to Earth on February 9.
On February 6, Gunner Robert Curtis became the first British Army soldier to die in the Northern Ireland conflict between the majority Protestants and minority Catholics, known as “The Troubles.” The conflict went on for almost 30 years.
Swiss male voters approved on February 7 a referendum giving Swiss women the right to vote in national elections and hold federal office. Women remained ineligible to vote in local elections in eight of Switzerland’s 22 cantons.
The First Division of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) moved into Laos on February 8, many in American-piloted helicopter troopships.
The 6.5 Sylmar earthquake, also known as the San Fernando earthquake, struck Los Angeles at 6 am on February 9. Fifty-eight people were killed by falling debris, many of them in the collapses of the Olive View Hospital and the VA Hospital in Sylmar.
Rescue efforts at the VA Hospital in Sylmar.Alexander Butterfield testifying before Congress.
President Richard Nixon ordered on February 10 installation of voice-activated recording devices in the Oval Office and on its telephones. Nixon and three White House aides, including Deputy Assistant to the President Alexander Butterfield, were the only ones to know of the system. In 1973, Butterfield made the explosive disclosure of “the tapes” in Congressional testimony related to the Watergate investigation.
An agreement reached on February 14 between 23 oil companies, facing an embargo on their product, and six oil-exporting countries in the Middle East changed the initiative in oil-pricing from the companies to the exporting nations. Thus began years-long increases in the price of oil and gas.
For the first time, “Presidents Day” was celebrated in the US on February 15. The new holiday conflated previous holidays honoring the birthdays of George Washington (February 22) and Abraham Lincoln (February 12).
Tornadoes, primarily in Mississippi, on February 21 killed 123 people. Nineteen storms raged through northeastern Louisiana, Mississippi, and southern Tennessee.
Golfer Jack Nicklaus won the PGA Championship on February 28, becoming the first golfer to win all four major tournaments — the Masters, British Open, US Open, and PGA — more than once. Earlier that day, male voters in the European principality of Leichtenstein voted not to allow women to vote. The margin was 80 votes, 1,897 to 1,817.
The last cigarette commercials on U.S. television and radio were broadcast on January 1. Just before the midnight deadline, a commercial for Virginia Slims showed on NBC’s The Tonight Show. Not sure if the ad below is the very last commercial, but it is reflective of the time.
In the only known instance of the Harlem Globetrotters being defeated by the designated losers in their exhibitions, the New Jersey Reds beat the Globetrotters 100-99 in Martin, Tenn., on January 5. The owner of the Reds said his team played under contract with the Globetrotters but they were not instructed to lose. On the same day, former world heavyweight boxing champion Sonny Liston was found dead in his home in Las Vegas. A coroner surmised that Liston had died on December 30 after falling while alone.
The drama anthology television series Masterpiece Theatre, produced by Boston’s WGBH, debuted on the Public Broadcasting System on January 10. The initial series was The First Churchills, a BBC drama, introduced by series host Alistair Cooke.
L-R: Ethel, Meathead, Archie, and Gloria.
The iconic television series All in the Family premiered on January 12. Criticized as vulgar and unfunny, it was also praised for its boldness and brashness. Initially not that popular, reviews and popular word helped make it the #1-rated show by the end of the 1971-72 season.
The Baltimore Colts defeated the Dallas Cowboys, 16-13, in Super Bowl V on January 17. It was the first Super Bowl after the merger of the National and American football leagues.
U.S. Senator George McGovern of South Dakota became the first person to announce his candidacy for the Presidency in the 1972 election on January 18. It was, at the time, the earliest date such an announcement had been made.
Charles Manson and three “Manson Family” members were convicted of murder on January 25 in Los Angeles. Manson, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Susan Atkins were found guilty of committing the Tate-LaBianca murders of August 9 and 10, 1969, in which seven people were murdered, while Leslie Van Houten was found guilty of five killings.
Court martial charges related to the My Lai massacre against Army Major General Samuel Koster, accused of trying to cover up the mass killings of Vietnamese civilians by U.S. soldiers in March 1968, were dropped on January 29 by the commanding general of the U.S. First Army.
The UCLA men’s basketball team beat UC Santa Barbara, 74-61, on January 30, beginning what would become an 88-game winning streak lasting three years. That first win came a week after the Bruins had lost to Notre Dame. On January 19, 1974, Notre Dame would also end the UCLA streak, 71-70.
For the first time in my life, 50 years ago, I experienced Christmas and New Year’s in a warm locale — San Diego. Besides the obvious contrasts, e.g., greater physical comfort, less coats, etc., I don’t remember particular differences, however.
I assume that I and others of my ilk — single males — mooched as much as possible during the holidays from those like Fred and Pam Palmore, couples that provided us loners a sense, at least, of family life.
The particular memory I have of the time, however, is a holiday party. Actually, events surrounding it more than the party itself.
It was at CDR Robinson’s house in Coronado, located right across the street from the main entrance to NAS North Island. I don’t know if it was a Christmas or New Year’s Eve party.
A bunch of us attended, likely after some baseline fueling at the North Island Officers Club. My vague recollection is that it was attended by “older” folk, in their 30s and 40s, and was “proper.” Not at all the demographic and style I and my cohort represented. I recall we didn’t stay long.
We left to find more and better fun. On leaving, me in my Plymouth Barracuda 340S and my boss, LT Webber, in his Corvette, we decided to see who could get to our destination first. Hence, the North Island-to-Mexican Village race began.
We ripped through quiet Coronado streets. Reaching Orange Avenue, the main drag, I watched Webber’s ‘Vette roar through the green light and careen to the left. As I went through the intersection in a similar manner, I noticed a police car on the right waiting at the light. Sh*t!
He lit up immediately and pursued me. I pulled over to the side of the street. Webber just took off.
Sitting there, waiting for the officer to walk up to me, I considered the situation. I hoped I would not be given a sobriety test. Duh. I was in a car with Virginia license plates and I held a Massachusetts driver’s license. I wondered if that was going to be a problem.
The officer came up to my car and asked for said license and registration. No problem with the variances. Most military at the time had similar situations. No sobriety test, either.
“If I could have gotten the Corvette, too,” he said, “I’d have cited the two of you for street racing.”
Instead, he cited me for “following too closely.”
After all was said and done, he took off and I proceeded to my original destination — the Mexican Village cantina. I recall entering to a raucous volume of ridicule from compatriots awaiting me, including the particularly smug LT Webber.
The Mexican Village was, for many of us, our base. I later learned it had served that purpose throughout the ’60s and ’70s for personnel stationed in Coronado. There is even reference to it being called “Mex-Pac” and that was later the brand name of the restaurant’s commercial line of food. I was not at all an aficianado of Mexican cuisine at the time, but I suspect that the quality of the food was not the attraction. Maybe it was the margaritas.
Nonetheless, the Mexican Village was our place. And by that I also mean it was an unofficial officers’ club. I don’t remember it specifically at the time, but I’ve read that it was a place in which enlisted personnel would not be welcome. Nothing “legal” about it, just social pressure.
The food was the gringo version of Mexican food (indeed the owners at the time were Canadian hockey players), but for many of us it was an introduction to an entirely new cuisine. Here is a menu from 1967. Note there are “Mexican” and “American” dinners.
The original Mexican Village, located in what had been Coronado’s original fire house, closed in 2009. When I lived in San Diego in 1982-84, I took my family to eat there and it looked pretty much as it had 12 years earlier. I was very disappointed to learn when I moved again to San Diego County in 2012 that it was no longer in operation. A new Mexican Village opened a few years later at a nearby location. That site is now the Coronado Brewing Company.
A few weeks following my traffic violation, I appeared in court, wearing service dress blues. Based on my clean record (I’d been in California about five months), the judge said that if I had no other violations in the next six months, my record would be expunged. Case closed.
Happy new year to all! And, 2020, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
