This Will Make Your Day, Week, Month, Year….Decade!

 

If you’re a baby boomer, male and heterosexual, getting something like the following will make your day, week, month, year…hell, decade! It did for me!
 
Doc Lehman:

What a beautiful tribute, thank you so very much. Any time you refer to me as “classy” I will sit up and purr. Also, thank you for the well-chosen pictures. That takes research or a good eye and good taste. You certainly are very perceptive. I remember how much I used to admire Kaye Kendall, married to Rex Harrison, a short career but, oh, what a dazzler, a comedienne.

Enjoy your work, you are a pleasure to watch and read.

Julie Newmar
 
To which I can only reply: Hubbahubbahubbahubbahubbahubba……!

Julie’s newest book! Buy it! Now!

NOTE: I had been ‘enamored’with Julie Newmar, one of the most beautiful women on the planet, since I first saw her as a kid on the old Love That Bob TV show starring Bob Cummins. My Mom never missed it. And then she appeared on Batman as Catwoman and stole the hearts of millions of boys & men for life. Mine included. I had written an article about her and to get a response is pretty cool! Also, back in 2008 on this website I briefly wrote about her HERE

Click on images to enlarge!

Julie THEN!

  Julie NOW!

Favorite Females Of The 60′s Pt. 6

Putting that post together the other day about Bob Hope’s annual Christmas Show visits to Vietnam, and seeing those photos of Raquel Welch, brought back a pleasant memory. Back in the 1960’s while living out in the country on Millborne Road my kid brother, all of 11 years old I think, spotted an awesome poster of Raquel Welch at a store in Massillon, OH. He bought it!

Cripes, that was cool. A nice poster of Raquel, one of the reigning sex symbols of the 60’s. We were fans of hers from Fantastic Voyage and One Million B.C. movies. Not long afterwards he came across another poster and decided then and there that he would collect Raquel Welch posters. Within a couple years we had moved to Apple Creek and he had assembled a decent collection. Since we shared a room half of the wall space was mine, he asked if he could have extra space to display his Raquel posters.

Duh!

He could have them all.

The one poster that impressed the neighborhood kids and cousins was one of her in skin-tight jeans and a bikini top (see above) that was six feet tall! It covered the bedroom door from top to bottom. Awesome!

Once we moved to Apple Creek we each had our own room for the first time so Raquel and I didn’t see each other much afterwards as my room was filling up with albums, guitars, comic books, rock n roll magazines, paperback books, 8-Tracks, Playboys, ashtrays and anything rock ‘n roll or ‘rebellious’.

But for a few years, Raquel was front and center daily!

I wonder if he still has them? Need to make a call and find out!

(Click on images to enlarge!)

Marketing Rock Old School Style Pt. 2

Back in the 60’s & 70’s, decades before the internet and instant access to information, a lot of us didn’t know when bands were putting pout new albums until we heard them on the radio. Some advanced news would filter in a head of time, minimally, in places like Scene, Creem, Circus, Trouser Press, Rock Scene, Hit Parader, etc…

For those of us who bought all those magazines and tabloids (Rolling Stone, Melody Maker, New Musical Express, Sounds) we’d often get advance word that a new album was being released by the record company advertisements that were placed in the media. They were usually timed to see print just weeks prior to releases so we’d have a heads up on what was coming out.

Here is a second round of some random samples of various advertisements hyping new album releases from back in the day as seen in various music publications.
Click on images to enlarge!

Iconic Images Of My Youth #1

 

Growing up in the 1960’s one thing you could count on every Christmas was Bob Hope’s annual Christmas Show from overseas where he and his annual entourage of stars toured military bases and outposts in areas of war. During the 60’s, of course, that meant Vietnam.Hope’s annual Christmas Show started in 1964 and rain through 1972 and I have vivid memories of watching them year after year.

 

I had that Summer of ’67 vibe going on and all, but still, I had cousins, a brother in law and local guys who were in Vietnam serving, including one cousin who volunteered for three tours! So yeah, I was very, very young when I realized that the politicians and war munitions corporations were manipulating the politicans and public and sacrificing our young solders (mostly through the draft) lives to further their profiteering (which is what President Eisenhower, a Repblican, warned us of!). So yeah, hate the asshole politicians and their puppeteers, but support the troops who really had no choice (especially those who went via the draft) is what I learned very, very young.

 

 

But Hope, love him or hate him, he was old school of the oldest order, but for decades, starting in 1941, he left his family and went to where the troops were, usually in the midst of fighting and bombing. So you gotta give the old hoofer credit.

 

Plus Hope, a well known womanizer, always had the prettiest, sexiest and hottest female celebs with him, sizzlers like Ann Margaret, Connie Stevens, Raquel Welch, Jill St.John, The Golddiggers, Joey Heatherton and many others. That surely brought Hope and NBC ratings. It didn’t keep me from watching!

 

Each stop in South Vietnam was filmed life and then editied to a 90-minute special, usually aired in January, with sponsorship by Chrysler which allowed the show to run commercial free.

 

 

Seen here are images from Hope’s 1967 tour in which he took along Raquel Welch who thrilled the troops and boosted morale to the extreme. By 1967 over 500,000 USA soldiers were over there and at some shows attendance reached 25,000, as was the case in these images from 1967.

Chuck Berry Donates One Of His Prized Cadillacs

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture has acquired a 1973 red convertible Eldorado Cadillac belonging to legendary rock ‘n’ roll musician Chuck Berry. The car is part of Berry’s personal fleet of Cadillacs and was driven during the filming of Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll, a 1987 documentary directed by Taylor Hackford that chronicles two 1986 concerts celebrating Berry’s 60th birthday.

In the film, Berry drove this Cadillac onto the stage of the Fox Theater in St. Louis–the same theater that turned him away as a child because of his race.

The acquisition will enter the museum’s musical history collection and help illustrate Berry’s impact on rock ‘n’ roll and popular culture. The car will be on view in the “Musical Crossroads” exhibition when the museum opens. Other items in the collection include Michael Jackson’s fedora, a dress worn by Lena Horne in the film Stormy Weather and Louis Armstrong’s trumpet. The museum is expected to open in Washington, DC in 2015.

The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture is expected to open in Washington, DC in 2015 on a prominent space on the National Mall near the Washington Monument. Created by an Act of Congress in 2003, the museum will feature a variety of exhibits and educational programs on topics such as slavery, post-Civil War reconstruction, the Harlem Renaissance, and the civil rights movement. The building design will take up to three years, with construction to begin in 2012. The museum’s total cost is estimated to be $500 million.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture has launched its website, www.nmaahc.si.edu  prior to the construction of its building giving the public the opportunity to help shape the museum’s collections and exhibits. This is the first major museum to use the internet to help create a new museum by gathering input from the public.

A Date That Will Live In Infamy

I should save this for my birthday, but that’s not until October and who knows what will happen between now & then? Anyway, and I may have mentioned this a few years ago here, but the rock n’ roll fever has been burning deep within me as far back as I can remember. Just love the stuff, you know? And I can’t play a note!

Anyway, confirmation I was born under the ‘R & R Sign’ is the fact that the very day I was born (as well as my good pal, Jeannie!) Elvis Presley had the #1 hit in the USA with ‘Jailhouse Rock’. Pretty appropriate. For me, not Jeannie! (I’m a sinner, she’s a saint!)

(Aside: Jeannie is a sweet, sweet person who I went all through high school with. We were born on the same day, in the same hospital and delivered by the same doctor! I just had dinner with her & her husband, Kevin, earlier this evening!)

More proof I was destined to be a rock ‘n roll fanatic is the fact that besides Elvis having the number one hit the day I was born, I also share the same birthday as Chuck Berry (October 18, different year of course) and according to one of my Beatle books the day I was born John Lennon & Paul McCartney perfomed in public together for the very first time as McCartney made his debut as a guitar player in Lennon’s Quarreymen, the forerunner of the Silver Beatles and then of course, The Beatles.

Promoter Charlie ‘Mac’ McBain held regular skiffle and rock events at his venues and on Friday October 18 he ran one such event at the New Clubmoor Hall in Norris Green, Liverpool where McCartney made his live debut with Lennon.

Of that event, McCartney commented on the Anthology DVD:

“For my first gig, I was given a guitar solo on Guitar Boogie. I could play it easily in rehearsal so they elected that I should do it as my solo. Things were going fine, but when the moment came in the performance I got sticky fingers; I thought, ‘What am I doing here?’ I was just too frightened; it was too big a moment with everyone looking at the guitar player. I couldn’t do it. That’s why George was brought in.”

                     Lennon & McCartney’s stage debut – October 18, 1957

And on that very same day, unknown to me until today (thanks M. L.!), was a, what I would presume, huge concert in Sacramento, CA with nearly every superstar and big star of the day performing at the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium in an event promoted by the Sacramento J. C. Student Association. I now know where Chuck Berry celebrated his birthday on the day I was born!

Nope, I never had a chance as the stars were aligned in perfect harmony that autumn Friday to birth me into a rock ‘n roll world. The cruel irony is there was no talent to go with the passion!

‘Electric Warrior’ Gets 40th Deluxe Packaging

Coming for world wide release on May 1, 2012, Polydor will release the reissued 40th Anniversary edition of the iconic T.Rex album Electric Warrior as a 2-CD/1-DVD deluxe box set. Legendary producer Tony Visconti has done the remastering of the LP. The special Disc #2 will include Demos & Out-Takes with 20 of the tracks previously unreleased. The third disc will be a special 40th Anniversary DVD that spotlights ten rare performances as well as promotional videos.

Elton John is seen with the band for “Get It On” from a 1971 Top of the Pops episode. Other performancesncluded are from the aforementoned Top of the Pops TV program and Germany’s Beat Club. Also included will be out-takes from the Empire Pool Wembley, which are out takes from the Born To Boogie film.

The set comes packaged in a lavish box containing a 32-page hardcover book containing new liner notes by Mark Paytress, along with a multitude of photos, memorabilia, a coaster, a poster and a press release replica.

T. Rex, Electric Warrior: Deluxe Edition
Fly Records HIFLY 6, 1971 – reissued Universal/Polydor, 2012

CD 1: Original Album plus Single A & B Sides
Mambo Sun
Cosmic Dancer
Jeepster
Monolith
Lean Woman Blues
Get It On
Planet Queen
Girl
The Motivator
Life’s A Gas
Rip Off
There Was A Time / Raw Ramp (from Bug single BUG 10, 1971)
Hot Love (from Bug single BUG 6, 1971)
King Of The Mountain Cometh (from Bug single BUG 6, 1971)
Woodland Rock (from Bug single BUG 6, 1971)

CD 2: Demos and Outtakes
Electric Warrior Poem – Rare US Radio promo
Mambo Sun – Instrumental 
Cosmic Dancer – single-vocal version
Jeepster – single-vocal version
Monolith – no backing vocals version
Lean Woman Blues – single-guitar track – Work in Progress
Get It On – Full Length version
Planet Queen – acoustic version
Girl – New York demo
The Motivator – Work in Progress
Life’s A Gas – Studio out-take
Rip Off – Instrumental
Raw Ramp – London demo version
Electric Boogie – London demo version 
Honey Don’t – Studio out-take / Work in Progress 
Planet Queen – Acoustic solo / London demo version 
Girl – Acoustic solo / London demo version 
Jeepster – Electric home demo version 
Get It On – Acoustic home demo version 
Untitled instrumental – studio out-take 
Electric Warrior Poem and radio advert. US Radio promo

DVD:
Hot Love from Top of the Pops, 24th March 1971. First time on DVD
Get It On from Top of the Pops, 20th December 1971 featuring Elton John
Jeepster from Beat Club, Germany. Previously Unseen Blue Screen Version
Life’s A Gas from Beat Club, Germany. Previously Unseen Blue Screen Version
Girl, Live at the Empire Pool Wembley, 18th March 1972
Cosmic Dancer, Live at the Empire Pool Wembley, 18th March 1972
Get It On, Official Promo
Jeepster, Official Promo
Jeepster from Beat Club, Germany. Broadcast version
Life’s A Gas from Beat Club, Germany. Broadcast version