Like Whatever
All things Gen-X. Take a stroll down memory lane, drink from a hose, and ride until the street lights come on. We discuss the past, present, and future of the forgotten generation. Come on slackers, fuck around and find out with us!
Like Whatever
Jaunt and Jive back to 75: a Joyful Journey
This episode takes a nostalgic trip back to 1975, highlighting significant cultural milestones that defined the year, including Bruce Springsteen's rise to fame, breakthroughs in sports with Lee Elder's participation in the Masters, and the debut of "Saturday Night Live". We discuss the societal impacts these events had and share personal memories connected to these moments in history, reinforcing the importance of revisiting our past to better understand today.
• The excitement of the Super Bowl and personal anecdotes surrounding it
• The journey of adopting a puppy as a process of healing
• Lee Elder's historical impact as the first Black golfer in the Masters
• The cultural phenomenon of Jaws changing summer cinema
• The socio-political climate with President Ford's declaration on the Vietnam War
• The launch and influence of Saturday Night Live on comedy
• The artistic legacy of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in film history
• Bruce Springsteen's cultural significance with Born to Run
• The unresolved mystery of the Amityville murders and its media portrayal
• Reflections on the familial and nostalgic aspects of the era with insight into personal stories
You can like, share, rate, and review all of the things. You can find us where you listen to podcasts. You can follow us on all the socials at LikeWhateverPod. You can send an email to LikeWhateverPod@gmail.com to tell us about your favorite part of 1975, if you can remember it. I can't. I wasn’t even one. Anyway, send an email, blah, blah, blah. Or don't, like whatever, bye. #genx #90s #80s #1975 #over50
Two best friends. We're talking the past, from mistakes to arcades. We're having a blast.
Speaker 2:Teenage dreams, neon screens. It was all rad and no one knew me Like you know. It's like whatever. Together forever, we're never the best ever Laughing and sharing our stories. Clever, we'll take you back. It's like whatever.
Speaker 1:Welcome to Like Whatever a podcast for. By and about Gen X. I'm Nicole and this is my BFF, heather. Hello, so so the Eagles are going to the super bowl super bowl bound.
Speaker 2:How about it? Oh man, that was a fun game. Look, I know that we controlled the game and it probably, from an outside, hurt. Look like we whipped their ass. Unfortunately, that is not the way it felt. No no. If you were an Eagles fan for as long as we have been Eagles fans and we have had this taken away from us so many times.
Speaker 2:So many Heartbreakingly that it was just you were not safe. I had people texting me oh congratulations, you're going to the Super Bowl. And I'm like, not until there are zeros across the board am I going to be okay with it. It's just.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my son-in-law is a Commanders fan and so last weekend they text me after the games were done last weekend. They were like, let's watch the game together next week. I was like no, no, no, no, like, no, no, no, no, no, it's gonna be stressful enough. I mean, I don't want to watch it with anybody.
Speaker 1:It's not personal against him, but I really don't want to watch it with a commander's fan no so yeah, yeah, now I have two weeks of stress to I know, but then the joke was on me, because I texted them after this game and said all right, let's have a Super Bowl party at my house. And they're like oh, we already made plans with our friends.
Speaker 2:Whatever Screw you, I'll watch it without you. Then, yeah, I just shoo. And then Kansas City. Okay, so you know I'm like superstitious. We literally just had a conversation like five minutes before we started this about me getting little trinkets from my dead friends. Yes, so I'm very superstitious. I would rather play the Chiefs than the Bills, because I'd rather go up against the Chiefs history than the Bills history oh yeah, yeah, they're not going no, they're not going.
Speaker 2:Oh, and what five it's not happening right, just like, and you know, if you think about it, it's you know you're going up against Kansas City and they are the new dynasty and we beat the last dynasty after they beat us once and we came back a couple years later and beat them. So it's you know, we'll see yeah, I. Saquon Barkley's birthday.
Speaker 2:Saquon Barkley, oh my gosh, he just is. I love him. He's magical, he gosh, he just is. I love him. He's magical, he is, and he just is so humble and he's such a team player and it's just been such a shame that he got railroaded.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:I mean, it worked out for him.
Speaker 1:It did. So one of my favorite things about him was when he got treated and he told his little daughter and she said oh, you're going to the Eagles. Does that mean you're going to win now? That's cute.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he didn't know that you got hats and shirts for winning the division. And he didn't know you got shirts and hats and all that. He never knew he got any of that.
Speaker 1:So he was excited about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, it's just. It was a good game. It was only stressful a little bit so I didn't have to like the week before where I had to like have an aneurysm.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Yes, but yeah, super Bowl.
Speaker 1:Super Bowl, super Bowl.
Speaker 2:What else is going on?
Speaker 1:I am looking into getting a puppy. So we had a Doberman named Rocky and he passed away in August of old age and at first we did the recently deceased dog. I'm never getting another dog. And then it was weird because I don't think I've ever not had a dog in my life Like my parents had dogs. My whole adult life I've had dogs. So this is a weird period for me. It's funny. It's little things like you think you hear a noise and you look and you're like well, my cats are sleeping, they're not going to move anyway, so I don't know. So anyway, we, we, um, we found a puppy that's looking to be rehomed because the parent works too much and feels bad that it's in the cage a lot. Because the parent works too much and feels bad that it's in the cage a lot, so maybe next week when we announce.
Speaker 2:That's exciting. You'll hear barking in the background while we record, because we'll have a dog here. That is exciting stuff it is, it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just luck. I have always gone with dogs. Also, there has been a very short period of time in my life that I did not have a dog, and I think it was only like six months when I was a kid and my dad came home with a dog. But yeah, mine's getting older, he's 11. Gray face and I keep saying I think this is probably going to be the last one. It's just, I don't you know, especially last week when it was 20 degrees and I'm outside shivering and he is fucking around in the yard and it's just, I don't you know, especially last week when it was 20 degrees and I'm outside shivering and he is fucking around in the yard and it's like, bro, come on, just hurry it up.
Speaker 1:So I think I'm Well, maybe the bird will suffice you for Well, and that's just it, because she takes a lot of work.
Speaker 2:She does. She is a lot of work. So yeah, and it's the same. You, you know you can't go anywhere. You have to, you know you got to worry about getting home to them and you can't.
Speaker 2:You got to find somebody who'll watch it. You can't cats, you just leave for like four days and they're fine, right. But you can't do that with a dog, and not that I go anywhere ever. But you know, I blame it on the dog and that might be why I get another dog, or I just blame it on the bird from then on, because she's going to be just as hard to leave you even worse, yeah because she she has to have daily, like you can't just leave the bird alone because she has.
Speaker 2:I make her food, so I have to. It's all fresh and so you have to clean it out every day. Right, she's just a and nobody, nobody wants to bird sit, no.
Speaker 1:Please don't ask me to bird sit, because my husband will say yes.
Speaker 2:He wants to see my bird, so bad I send him videos.
Speaker 1:I've had bad experiences with birds. I love birds, I love all animals. You'll like her. They make me skittish.
Speaker 2:You'll like her bad experiences with birds. I love birds, I love all animals, but you'll, you'll like her, they make me skittish. You'll like oh well, she's, uh, she makes a like when they fly this particular kind of bird. When they fly, they make like a their wings. I don't know why, but it they make a whirling sound Like you hear them. You can hear her coming from like, oh why? Oh, far away. So she's, and she's very beaky, like they, they, they do it's called body surfing. And then she will run her beak and her whole face on you and that's just her. You know, right, she does that with literally everybody. She. That's how she gets to know you, I guess I don't know.
Speaker 1:She does that with literally everybody.
Speaker 2:That's how she gets to know you, I guess. I don't know, but she will also just roll over randomly and you have to try and catch her, which she almost hit the floor yesterday because she decided to roll over out of nowhere and then she kept throwing a little ball at me, like when I say throwing it at me, I mean winging it at my head. So she was wound up, so but but she's a good, she's a, she's a cool bird and she's just tiny, so but she's a lot of fun and she's not like your average. She doesn't talk, she's actually not noisy at all.
Speaker 1:So I guess, yeah, we're boring this week, we don't have anything.
Speaker 2:No, I was really stretching to think of what I had done this week, and I have literally not done anything.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I made French toast casserole the other morning with Hawaiian rolls.
Speaker 1:But other than that, I made art lobster lasagna rolls. I saw that homemade meatballs yeah, homemade cheese mixture my soul homemade sauce I saw that they're gone.
Speaker 2:I know I figured they did not last.
Speaker 1:They look so good they were so good.
Speaker 2:I need to make meatballs. I haven't made meatballs in a while. Oh, there's so much work I just never get to cook anymore. I don't know. My boss the other day asked me if I missed it and I was like I really really do, I really miss it a lot. I don't know.
Speaker 1:At least you have that to fall back on when you lose your job at the post office, that's true.
Speaker 2:And I will have to go back to restaurants and hopefully they will pay me handsomely for my expertise, because for a little while there I could have made just fat money right after COVID started and stuff and they were trying desperately. Cooks were. I mean they were paying. I had several very handsome offers. I had a very handsome offer over the summer or the spring. I had a very handsome offer to jump. But you know, pensions.
Speaker 1:Pensions.
Speaker 2:Health insurance. You know I can't be without my happy pills.
Speaker 1:Yeah, being an adult sucks, it really does. But man, I can't be without my happy pills. Yeah, being an adult sucks, it really does.
Speaker 2:But man, I would go back and I would just get tired of it again in six months. I wouldn't remember how hard it was and how my feet hurt all the time. And I'm 50 years old at this point, right, and I don't know if I can work those hours anymore and in that heat anymore. And it wouldn't be my kitchen, not that that matters, but whatever.
Speaker 1:I don't know. Well, speaking of being 50. Yes, See how I did that for you, See how I caught that my husband will be 50 on Monday, February 3rd. Um, so this week was my week, um, to pick the topic. So I decided to fuck around and find out about 1975. 1975. So my husband has yet to listen to the podcast. Every time it comes up he's like I'm sorry, I'm like whatever, I don't care, Loser. But I told him I was like so you're going to have to listen this week so you can find out the things that happened the year you were born. But he probably still won't. But that's okay.
Speaker 2:I'm going to tell him.
Speaker 1:We talked about the bird that might get him in. So I just I went and I found some, just some fun things that happened back then and I kept it light and fun because we've been a little heavy the past few weeks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we needed a little lightness.
Speaker 1:So anything bad that happened in 1975, like really bad I excluded from this.
Speaker 2:We're just going to disregard anything negative that happened in 1975.
Speaker 1:All sunshine and roses, alright. So, first thing, wheel of Fortune debuted. Yeah, wheel of Fortune was one of the longest running syndicated shows, game shows, or well, it is one of the still was. Yes, See, I screwed up already, we just got started, yeah on American television.
Speaker 1:It premiered on NBC on. It was yes, see, I screwed up already. We just got started. Yeah, on American television. It premiered on NBC on January 6th 1975. It was created by television legend Murph Griffin and hosted since the early 1980s by Pat Sajak and Vanna White. Wheel is one of the most popular television shows in the world. I'm not a fan of the Wheel.
Speaker 1:I'm not. When I was younger I used to love it. Then I became an adult and people hated watching with me because I'm one of those that can solve it really quickly, like one letter and I can figure it out. And then it just became dumb, like some of the phrases they put. I'm like that's not a phrase. You're just throwing words together and try to confuse people.
Speaker 2:I always liked jeopardy better, so oh yeah, always.
Speaker 1:And of course I loved will fortune back in the day more when they'd win. And then that turntable, that large stage turntable thing would turn and they'd have to pick.
Speaker 1:I always wanted the dog statue. There was always a Dalmatian dog statue. I was like, get the dog, but they'd get like the refrigerator. Yeah, something dumb, but anyway Something useful. Yeah, a dog statue. I was a kid, so Griffin, who had already created another iconic game show, jeopardy conceived of wheel as a combination between hangman and roulette, contestants guess letters as they attempt to solve a hangman like puzzle, spinning the wheel to determine how much money they will earn for a correct guess, with the ultimate goal being to solve the puzzle and accumulate as much money as possible. Since the show's inception, the price of a vowel has stood at $250 and has not been adjusted for inflation.
Speaker 2:Well, that's because $250 for a vowel is just expensive. Imagine that in real life, I mean what is that In 80s money, that's like a lot.
Speaker 1:It's a lot, yeah, but I didn't realize that it had never changed. It's like the waitressing wage that's $2.23. An hour. Since I was doing it in the 80s, the phrase I'd like to buy a vowel and I'd like to solve the puzzle have entered the American cultural lexicon. Sajak and White, who joined in 1981 and 82 respectively, have become some of the most famous hosts in game show history. White, who operates the board and reveals letters as their guest, often contributes her own puzzles to the show In more than 6,500 episodes. She has apparently never worn the same gown twice. Wow, yeah. The show's producers claim that more than 1 million people have auditioned to be contestants and the show has paid out a total of more than $200 million, which I thought was kind of low.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for being on the air for 50 years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I don't know, who knows. Painfully awkward or incorrect guesses by contestants have also been comedic fodder for generations of americans wheel of fortune. There was that one recently, like in the past year I think, a guy said like put it in your butt or something is what he guessed Everybody on the show is like what.
Speaker 2:I'm surprised they didn't edit that one out. They film like seven or eight of them in one day. But wow, and she's never. You know that's. I did not know she contributed that much to the show. That's good for her.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I didn't know that either. Yeah, so yeah, pat Sajak has. Yeah, I didn't know that either. Um, yeah, so yeah, pat say jack has retired. I, I did know that. And now it's ryan seacrest. He's fucking everywhere.
Speaker 2:I did not know until, like the other day, I called it because I didn't feel like browsing through netflix or any of those. So I was like I'll just put the regular channel on and I was like, is that Ryan Seacrest?
Speaker 1:Is this a?
Speaker 2:new version of the wheel.
Speaker 1:What is happening, I know In some places. I know Wheel of Fortune comes on first and then Jeopardy. Here, jeopardy comes on first, then Wheel of Fortune.
Speaker 2:Yes, At my house it was always. Wheel came on first and then Jeopardy. That's how.
Speaker 1:I was when I was young. Yeah, yep, it's like a mad race to change the channel before that. Get it off, get it off. Fun fact number two about 1975. Barry Manilow's Mandy goes number one. I love that song. I like Barry Manilow, love Barry Manilow. My mom was a big Barry Manilow fan so his album played often in the house. Barry Manilow scored his first number one single with Mandy on January 18th 1975. He would go on to sell more than 75 million records over the course of his career, at the height of Barry Manilow's popularity. None other than Frank Sinatra himself said of Manilow he's next.
Speaker 2:Was that a threat If I had heard that, if I was Barry Manilow, I would be watching my back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for real If.
Speaker 2:Frank said, you were next.
Speaker 1:I just watched a documentary on Gotti last night, so my brain went right where he is. Yet even in his heyday and more youthful arbiters of cool were not kind to him. They called Manilow's music boombastic and schmaltzy. Which what's wrong with boombastic and schmaltzy?
Speaker 2:I don't know that I would use that really to describe Barry Manilow's music.
Speaker 1:Definitely not boombastic to describe Barry Manilow's music, but definitely not boom-bastard, Even as the Americans devoured his every release. But critics may have missed the point. Barry Manilow never fancied himself hip or cool, far from it. I have purposely tried not to stay in sync with the times. He said I just do what feels good. Even as a teenager in the 1950s, Barry preferred pop standards and Broadway show tunes to Elvis Presley's records, and it was his love of this style of music that led to his big break At the Copa, copa Cabana, copa Cabana, go ahead.
Speaker 1:I love Barry Manilow. I know I also watched a show the other day. I can't remember what the name of the show oh no, that wasn't it Anyway. Elvis Presley just reminded me of it and it was about Jerry Lee Lewis.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:I was watching it with my husband and my nephew and I was like, yeah, he you know it first comes on and they play Great Bells of Fire and they're dancing. I was like no, please, please don't. He's very problematic, he's very gross, and I don't care what the times were like, it's never okay to marry a 13-year-old.
Speaker 2:Cousin, he was her cousin.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, anyway, if you don't know about him, look it up he. Anyway, if you don't know, about him.
Speaker 2:look it up, he's gross. Also played by Dennis Quaid in the movie Great Balls of Fire.
Speaker 1:I do like Dennis Quaid though.
Speaker 2:I like that movie. That's a good movie. Is it Winona in it? I don't know. I think Winona plays his wife. I'm going to Google it while you're talking. Okay, I'm going to Google it while you're talking.
Speaker 1:Okay, so while working as a commercial jingle writer and performer and pursuing a recording career with limited success, manilow met a kindred spirit named Bette Midler. He first became her piano player, then graduated to musical director, lending his arranging and orchestration talents to her Divine Miss M album and tour, on the condition that he would be allowed to perform a short set of his own songs during her intermission.
Speaker 2:Surprised he didn't try to open for her. I know I wonder if that was not a thing. Not a thing, it was 1-0-0, by the way. Oh, okay, good, it was 1-0-0, by the way.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, good, it was this experience that landed Manilow a gig as Dionne Warwick's opening act. Oh, there were opening acts, and I love Dionne Warwick as well.
Speaker 2:I saw her over the summer. Oh At the Freeman's thing.
Speaker 1:She's awesome, which in turn led Clive Davis to take him under his wing at the newly formed Arista Records. Then came Mandy. It's a Miracle.
Speaker 1:I write the songs that make the world go round Looks like we made it and a string of 21 more top 40 hits between 1975 and 1983. Hits that helped earn Barry Manilow recognition by Billboard and Radio and Records as the top contemporary chart artist of all time. His days as a chart artist may now be behind him, but Barry Manilow continues to fill concert venues around the world with fans whose enjoyment of his music seems undiminished by the jokey barbs of the pop critical establishment.
Speaker 2:I think it's yeah, he gets a lot of, but everybody knows the Copacabana and everybody knows Mandy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and his followers are called Fanalos, so that's a pretty cool name. So I think he's cool. I don't care what anybody else says.
Speaker 2:I like Barry Manilow. But I got to say, like I know we all have that guilty pleasure that we listen to. That's like completely outside of what you would think we would listen to. And I have to say that mine is Lionel Richie and I will die on the Lionel Richie hill.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Yes, I love Lionel Richie.
Speaker 1:Every time I hear a Lionel Richie song while I'm in the grocery store shopping.
Speaker 2:I think of Heather because she loves him. I do. I love it so much I would dance on the ceiling for Lionel Rich, Alrighty.
Speaker 1:So next we're going to go back and just do a little brief recap of Microsoft.
Speaker 2:If you would like to know how Microsoft bailed Apple out, you can listen to one of our previous episodes. I don't remember which one it is, but it is Bill and Steve's Nerdy Adventure.
Speaker 1:Someone just listened to that one recently, I know today.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I saw that.
Speaker 1:All right. So on April 4th 1975, at a time when most Americans use typewriters, childhood friends Bill Gates and Paul Allen found Microsoft, a company that makes computer software. Originally based in Albuquerque, new Mexico, microsoft relocated to Washington State in 1979 and eventually grew into a major multinational technology corporation. In 1987, the year after Microsoft went public, 31-year-old Gates became the world's youngest billionaire. Earl Gates became the world's youngest billionaire. Gates and Allen started Microsoft, originally called MicroSoft.
Speaker 2:Dash, I guess the dash MicroDashSoft.
Speaker 1:Yeah, For microprocessors and software. In order to produce software for the Altair 8800, an early personal computer, Allen quit his job as a programmer in Boston and Gates left Harvard University, where he was a student, to focus on their new company, which was based in Albuquerque, because the city was home to electronic firms, MITS, maker of the Altair 8800. By the end of 1978, Microsoft sales topped more than $1 million and in 1979, the business moved its headquarters to Bellevue, Washington, a suburb of Seattle where Gates and Allen grew up. The company went on to license its MS-DOS operating system for IBM for its first personal computer, which debuted in 1981. Afterward other computer companies started licensing. I guess it's MS-DOS.
Speaker 2:MS-DOS.
Speaker 1:I heard it when I did it the first time which had no graphical interface and required users to type in commands in order to open a program. In 1983, allen departed Microsoft after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. He was successfully treated for the disease and went on to pursue a variety of other business ventures. In 1985, microsoft released a new operating system, windows, with a graphical user interface that included drop-down menus, scroll bars and other features unused scroll bars and other features. The following year, the company moved its headquarters to Redmond Washington and went public at $21 a share, raising $61 million.
Speaker 1:I can't even imagine paying $21 a share Ugh by the late 1980s, microsoft had become the world's biggest personal computer software company based on sales. Microsoft had become the world's biggest personal computer software company based on sales. In 1995, amidst high-racketing purchases of personal computers for home and office use, windows 95 made its debut, boo. It included such innovations as the Start Menu, and 7 million copies of the new product were sold in the first five weeks. During the second half of the 1990s, internet usage took off and Microsoft introduced its web browser, internet Explorer, in 1995. In 1998, the US Department of Justice and 20 state attorneys general charged Microsoft with violating antitrust laws by using its dominance to drive competitors out of business. In 2001, the company reached a settlement with the government that imposed restrictions on its corporate practices. Also in 2001, microsoft joined the video game market with the launch of its Xbox console.
Speaker 2:That lawsuit is also why he helped Steve Jobs I digress. I knew that you would love getting to rehash that a little bit. That's why I put Steve Jobs I digress.
Speaker 1:I knew that you would love getting to rehash that a little bit.
Speaker 2:That's why I put it in. It's like a little jab every time.
Speaker 1:All right enough about Microsoft. The next thing that happened in 1975, lee Elder is the first black man to win the Masters. On April 10th 1975, 41-year-old Lee Elder becomes the first black golfer to play in the Masters, considered the most prestigious event in the sport. By the way, do you know how you get Masters tickets? I do not. It's a lottery. So once a year I get an email and I go in and I do the. It's a lottery, oh. So once a year I get an email and I go in and I do the lottery and I haven't won yet. It's been like 10 years now. Where is it?
Speaker 2:Augusta.
Speaker 1:Georgia, I can't remember, but I would sell my left arm to get there. If I were to win tickets.
Speaker 2:I used to follow up. My dad and I would watch golf. I haven't watched in a really long time. I am a huge golf fan I want my I. I you know when. Actually why I stopped watching? Because chichi rodriguez was my favorite golfer and when he retired him, and arnold palmer, I was like well yeah I don't want to watch anymore see.
Speaker 1:And now lives messed it up for me because john rome was my favorite and he went to Liv, but I do have video of him. We went to a PGA Tour event in Wilmington. The BMW Tour, or BMW Tournament, is in different cities every year. So I was there and I went and I stood by a bridge and just videoed, like a big, dumb dork, as John Rahm came walking up past the bridge, right past me, and I was just like I'm so excited. But it's so funny because before we went my husband and I were like we are not going to be those people, like you see them on TV and the ball goes out of the playing field and everybody rushes it and you're like we're not doing that.
Speaker 2:The first ball that came at us. You know what my favorite movie is? One of my favorite movies too, caddyshack. No, happy Gilmore. Yes, freaking love that movie. I can line for line. Price is wrong bitch.
Speaker 1:Alright. So Elder shoots a 37 on the front. Price is wrong bitch, All right. So Elder shoots a 37 on the front and back nine for a 74 at Augusta National Golf Club and trails leader Bobby Nichols by seven strokes. I didn't have any nervousness whatsoever, Elder said after the round. In round two Elder shot a 78 and missed the cut. In the tournament won by Jack Nicklaus, Elder had qualified for the Masters by winning the 1974 Monsanto Open. Many considered Elder's historic achievement, long overdue for the Masters and Augusta National and for a sport that had never been known for racial tolerance. Yeah, Pretty much the whitest sport there is. Yeah, it really is. The Professional Golfers Association, the organizer of the main professional tours played by men in North America, didn't approve participation of African-Americans in events it co-sponsored until 1952. And I know that was the time. I just can't wrap my head around.
Speaker 2:I mean, isn't it still true that there were some places Tiger couldn't play?
Speaker 1:That does sound like, or at least it was a big deal.
Speaker 2:I think in the beginning, when he was coming up, I think there were courses he could not play.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's nuts.
Speaker 1:Augusta National didn't have a black member until 1990, and that was businessman Ron Townsend, or a female member until 2012, which was former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Elder was greeted with applause 31 times during his round, wrote New York Times columnist Dave Anderson. But it was polite applause, not really enthusiastic, and at no time was Elder's name on the leaderboard where he belonged. Because of his historic round, elder returned to play the Masters from 1977 till 81. His best finish was a tie for 17th. In 1979, 22 years after elder's groundbreaking achievement, tiger woods became the first black golfer to capture the green jacket, launching one of the greatest careers in golf history. At the 2021 masters, elder was given the honor of hitting the ceremonial opening tee shot alongside six-time champion Nicholas and three-time winner Gary Player, but he was not well enough to hit a shot. Elder died on November 28th 2021. He was 87. The game of golf lost a hero. Nicholas said yeah, I thought that was interesting. I didn't know that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is interesting. I would have never guessed Condoleezza Rice.
Speaker 1:I know.
Speaker 2:She didn't seem like the golfing type.
Speaker 1:Well, apparently she is, which is kind of cool, all right. Next, president Ford says the war is finished for America. President Ford says the war is finished for America. At a speech at Tulane University. President Gerald Ford says the Vietnam War is finished as far as America is concerned. Today, americans can regain the sense of pride that existed before Vietnam, but it cannot be achieved by refighting a war.
Speaker 1:This was devastating news to the South Vietnamese, who were desperately pleading for US support as the North Vietnamese surrounded Saigon for the final assault on the capital city. The North Vietnamese had launched a major offensive in March to capture the provincial capital of. Good luck, ban Maidu Sure in the Central Highlands. Good luck by both Presidents, richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, to provide support. The United States did nothing. Yeah, richard Nixon wasn't a good president either. In an attempt to reposition his forces for a better defense, south Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thai ordered his forces in the highlands to withdraw to more defensible positions in the south. What started out as a reasonably orderly withdrawal soon degenerated into a panic that spread throughout the South Vietnamese armed forces. Armed forces. The South Vietnamese abandoned Clicu and Can Thoam in the highlands with very little fighting, and the North Vietnamese pressed the attack from the west and north In quick succession.
Speaker 2:I don't know why you put all these in there.
Speaker 1:Quang Trai, hu and Danang that one I know and the north fell to the communist onslaught. The North Vietnamese continued to attack south along the coast, defeating the South Vietnamese forces at each encounter. As the North Vietnamese forces closed on the approaches to Saigon, the Politburo in Hanoi issued an order to General Van Tien Dung to launch the Ho Chi Minh campaign. I do know Ho Chi Minh. The final assault on Saigon itself. Dung ordered his forces into position for the final battle. The South Vietnamese 18th District made a valiant final stand at Bixan Loc.
Speaker 2:Somebody's listening that knows the name of these towns they're like oh, lord, look if you came here for pronunciation you are in the wrong you need to find a different podcast to listen to, I will definitely give it my best go. But if you're here for facts, you should probably just move on.
Speaker 1:Forty miles northeast of Saigon, in which the South Vietnamese soldiers destroyed three of Dung's divisions. However, the South Vietnamese finally succumbed to the superior North Vietnamese numbers. With the fall of Aung San Suu Kyi on April 21st and Ford's statement at Tulane, it was apparent that the North Vietnamese would be victorious. President Thao resigned and transferred authority to Vice President Tran Van Hung before fleeing Saigon on April 25th. By April 27th, the North Vietnamese had completely encircled Saigon and began to maneuver for their final assault. On the morning of April 30th, the North Vietnamese had completely encircled Saigon and began to maneuver for their final assault. On the morning of April 30th, it was all over when the North Vietnamese tanks crashed through the gates of the president's palace in Saigon. The South Vietnamese surrendered and the Vietnam War was officially over. I didn't know. That's how the war ended. I didn't On to the next one.
Speaker 2:This one I'm excited about. Yeah, I'm actually going to do an episode of this around.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep, and I knew that you were, which is kind of why I did it, because I was like, yeah, this would be a little precursor, yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm going to do it like around Memorial Day weekend, perfect.
Speaker 1:All right. So, what we're talking about is on june 20th 1975 jaws was released.
Speaker 2:It's only one of my favorite movies. I can't move my like. My favorite movies just very rarely move out of the 70s I do love jaws I mean, do you know that in dewey they do every year they play it in um on the water. They have a big screen they pull out and you can float around in.
Speaker 1:I didn't know they did that. I've seen that before. I've actually thought about doing it out here at the pool, like just being in any water would be.
Speaker 2:I know, but in the bay.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:I'm scared of sharks in the bay in the daylight. I won't go into the bay anymore because I spent so much time as a child in there, but I would do it for that I've been trying to. Yeah, I need to do it, It'll be fun.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Go on.
Speaker 1:So it was a film, directed by Steven Spielberg, that made countless viewers afraid to go into the water. Countless viewers afraid to go into the water. The story of a great white shark that terrorizes a New England resort town became an instant blockbuster and the highest grossing film in movie history until it was bested on 1977,. By 1977, star Wars Jaws was nominated for an Academy Award in the best picture category and took home three Oscars for best film editingiting, best Original Score and Best Sound. The film, a breakthrough for director Spielberg, then 27 years old, spawned several sequels. He was young.
Speaker 2:That's such a cool story too. How that movie got made is a really cool story.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can't wait for you to do it.
Speaker 2:And real quick too. Um, there is a. There was a cold case that has something to do with jaws and it was just solved. Um, maybe two years ago. Oh yeah, exciting. I can't wait for your episode.
Speaker 1:The film starred Roy Schneider as principled police chief, martin Brody, richard Dreyfuss as a marine biologist. I had the biggest crush on Richard Dreyfuss back then yeah, his name was Matt Hooper and Robert Shaw as a grizzled fisherman called Quint it was set in the fictional beach town of Amity and based on a best-selling novel released in 1973 by Peter Benchley.
Speaker 1:Subsequent water-themed Benchley bestsellers also made it to the big screen, including the Deep in 1977. With a budget of $12 million, Jaws was produced by the team of Richard Zanuck and David Brown, whose later credits included the Verdict in 1982, Cocoon in 1985, and I loved Cocoon.
Speaker 2:I did too. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:And Driving Miss Daisy in 1989. And of course, I loved Driving Miss Daisy. Sure Filming, which took place on Martha's Vineyard, massachusetts, was plagued by delays and technical difficulties, including malfunctioning mechanical shortcuts.
Speaker 2:That's why you that's the best. That would be a completely different movie if that shark had worked when it was supposed to work. You're supposed to see that shark in the beginning of the movie. They could not get it to work, so the whole time the studio kept trying to shut it down because they were like the thing doesn't work, blah, blah, blah. And so the whole reason and the best part of the whole movie is the suspense up to seeing the shark Was totally by mistake, because the thing didn't work.
Speaker 1:That's awesome.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of cool stuff about that movie and the speech about the USS Indianapolis. There's a great story behind that.
Speaker 1:And we're going to need a bigger boat. Next, in 1975, Son sunny and cher got divorced after 13 years together as a couple and six years of marriage, the last three for the cameras. The last three years of their marriage were for the cameras pop singers and TV entertainers Sonny and Cher are legally divorced on June 26, 1975. With a string of pop hits in the mid-1960s that began with the career-defining I Got you Babe in 1975. 65., 65. What'd I say?
Speaker 2:75. You're 10 years old.
Speaker 1:Sonny and Cher. Bono established themselves as the most prominent and appealing married couple in the world of pop music, Hipper than Steve Lawrence and Edie Gourmet and far more fun than John and Yoko. Sonny and Cher projected an image of marital harmony that a lot of people could relate to, An image not so much for perfect bliss but of a clearly imperfect yet happy mismatch. Mr and Mrs, Bono traded, Bono traded, got mixed up with. You two traded on that image professionally for a solid decade, even several years past the point that it was true, I remember.
Speaker 2:I used to watch the Sonny and Cher show.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I used to watch it too, and I like Cher, because my mom had long dark hair and she would use an actual clothing iron on it to flatten it.
Speaker 2:My mom did too.
Speaker 1:She kind of looked like Cher.
Speaker 2:My mom had the same look.
Speaker 1:By the time they were divorced, sonny and Cher were primarily known as television stars thanks to their hugely successful NBC variety show, but their romantic and professional relationships started in the Southern California music industry in the early 1960s. In 1962, salvatore Sonny Bono was working as a producer, gopher and sometime percussionist for the legendary producer Phil Spector when he met Sherilyn Sarkeesian in a Los Angeles coffee shop. Just 16 years old and recently dropped out of her Fresno California high school, sherilyn was soon singing back up on such legendary Spectre-produced hits as You've Lost that Lovin', feelin' by the Righteous Brothers. Do Do Ron Ron by the Crystals. Feeling by the righteous brothers to do Ron Ron by the crystals and be my baby by the Ronnets. The couple released one unsuccessful single under the name Caesar and Cleopatra before landing a number one pop hit in 1965 with I got you babe under their new name Sonny and Cher.
Speaker 2:I got you Caesar and Cleopatra. That's terrible.
Speaker 1:That's awful. It is awful. Ultimately, Sonny and Cher had only a few career, for the pair were fondering, floundering I think it's supposed to be floundering. I moved to Las Vegas where they developed a nightclub act featuring playful between. Song bickering is what ultimately resurrected Sonny and Cher's career. By 1971, they were starring in a top 10 television program built around that act that would run off and on in various incarnations until 1977. Two years later they would be living in separate homes and with new romantic partners. But it was not until two years after that that their split became public and their divorce final.
Speaker 2:I like Cher.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:I think she probably is. She's a very good actress. Yes, mask is one of my favorite movies also. Yep, yep, because I just never can move out of the 80s.
Speaker 1:Well, at least you're out of the 70s, oh, okay. So next, arthur Ashe is the first black man to win Wimbledon. So it was a big year for black athletes in 1975. On July 5th 1975, arthur Ashe defeats the heavily favored Jimmy Connors to become the first black man ever to win Wimbledon, the most coveted championship in tennis. Again, another very white sport traditionally.
Speaker 1:Arthur Ashe began playing tennis as a boy in his hometown of Richmond, virginia. After winning a tennis scholarship to UCLA, ashe was taken under the wing of tennis star Pancho Gonzalez, who recognized the young player's potential. In 1968, ash became the first Black man to win the US Open. Two years later he captured the Australia Open for his second Grand Slam title. Over the next seven years, Ash won his share of tournaments, but no more majors, and, frustrated, he set his sights on victory at Wimbledon, one of the most celebrated championships in tennis. Having grown up in the segregated South, ash became the first Black man to win the US Open in 1968. The victory helped him find his voice on a wide array of social justice issues.
Speaker 1:Arthur Ash was 31 years old in 1975 and seemingly well past his prime, so his advancement to the 1975 Wimbledon finals came as somewhat of a surprise to the tennis establishment, probably in a lot more ways than one. While Ashe's best finishes at Wimbledon had been losses in the semifinals in 1968, 1969, his opponent, the brash 22-year-old Jimmy Connors, was the defending Wimbledon champion. In their three previous meetings, connors had handled Ash easily. Furthermore, connors was coming off an impressive semifinal win against Roscoe Tanner, whose intimidating serve observers called the hardest hitting ever at Wimbledon, though many thought he didn't have a chance. Ash formulated a game plan for the match Hit nothing hard. He planned to serve strongly and then give Connors nothing but junk, as Ash himself described it. And then give Connors nothing but junk, as Ash himself described it.
Speaker 1:Connors won the first game of the first set but then dropped the rest of the set in just 20 minutes, 6-1. Although Connors won just one game off Ash in the second set, he took the third set at 7-5. His confidence restored, connors strutted around the court while Ash closed his eyes between sets, concentrating on the moment at hand. Finally, with the shocked crowd cheering him on, ash finished Connors off in the fourth set, 6-4. Ash retired from competitive tennis in 1980 after suffering a heart attack. For his career he won 51 tournaments In retirement. Ash wrote the three-volume book 51 tournaments in retirement. Ash wrote the three volume book a hard road to glory, first published in 1988, which detailed the struggle of black athletes in America. In 1983, after double bypass surgery, ash was infected with HIV during a blood transfusion.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I forgot about that. After revealing his disease to the world in 1992, he said about educating the public about HIV and AIDS. He died of AIDS-related complications on February 6, 1993. In 1997, the US Open's new home court was named Arthur S Stadium. I totally forgot about that. I know when I read it I was like oh, yeah, jimmy Connors, oh yeah, yeah. Jimmy Connors, though man, did you have a crush on him?
Speaker 2:No, but I just loved how angry he would get and he threw shit all the time.
Speaker 1:And he's the one that, yeah, I can respect that I threw a lot of shit too In your professional career, Not in this professional career, but in my previous professional career yes.
Speaker 2:Indeed.
Speaker 1:All right, and what was the number one song in America in 1975? What was the number one? It was Van McCoy's the Hustle. To the hustle To the hustle.
Speaker 1:On July 26, 1975, van McCoy's the Hustle topped the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Soul singles charts, simultaneously signaling the beginning of the disco era. For, as popular as it was during much of the first half of the 20th century, couples dancing seemed poised to go by the wayside of American popular culture by the early 1970s, that is, until the arrival of a dance called the Hustle, along with a number one song by the same name. The Hustle would earn Van McCoy a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance and give him the biggest hit by far of his tragically shortened career. He died of a heart attack in 1979. The impact of the record went well beyond its commercial success, however. As the hustle climbed the pop charts, it took an already substantial dance craze and turned it into a cultural phenomenon, with variations like the Latin, the line and the New York hustles popping up on dance floors nationwide. So you know my dad?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do, you know my dad. You all don't, but well, a couple of you might. But my mom talked my dad into taking disco lessons in the 70s, if you can picture my poor dad.
Speaker 1:I can't even fathom that Doing the hustle.
Speaker 2:Oh can he, my poor dad doing the hustle.
Speaker 1:Oh, can he still do it? I don't know.
Speaker 2:You know what he does, though. He just refuses to acknowledge that whole time period. But if you ask him to do the mummer strut, he will mummer strut all over everywhere.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because he used to perform in the mummer's parade. He's a saxophone player Just like you were. Just yeah, because he used to perform in the Mummer's Parade. He's a saxophone player, just like you were.
Speaker 1:Just like me. Next up for 1975, labor leader Jimmy Hoffa is reported missing. What yeah?
Speaker 2:Where did he go?
Speaker 1:Giant Stadium Wouldn't you like to know?
Speaker 2:You know, I think they looked for him. I think when they tore it down, they were looking for him. They didn't find him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, was it Geraldo that had the open some vault that Hoffa was supposed to be in there?
Speaker 2:was nothing in there, yeah.
Speaker 1:On the morning of July 31st 1975, James Riddle Hoffa Riddle I've never heard that name, it was his middle name, but still One of the most influential American labor leaders of the 20th century is officially reported missing after he failed to return home the previous night. Though he is popularly believed to have been the victim of a mafia hit, conclusive evidence was never found and Hoffa's fate remains a mystery.
Speaker 2:I still think that, because Lake Mead is slowly draining all of its and they're finding all these people in there that the mafia got rid of. I wonder if that's where he is. Ooh, that would be fun. Either that or Giant Stadium.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Born in 1913 to a poor coal miner in Brazil, indiana, jimmy Hoffa proved a natural leader in his youth. At the age of 20, he helped organize a labor strike in Detroit and remained an advocate for downtrodden workers for the rest of his life. Hoffa's charisma and talents as a local organizer quickly got him noticed by the Teamsters and carried him upward through its ranks. Noticed by the Teamsters and carried him upward through its ranks. Then a small but rapidly growing union, the Teamsters organized truckers across the country and through the use of strikes, boycotts and some more powerful though less legal methods of protest, one contract demands on behalf of its workers.
Speaker 1:Hoffa became president of the Teamsters in 1957 when its former leader was imprisoned for bribery. As chief, hoffa was lauded for his tireless work to expand the union and for his unflagging devotion to even the organization's least powerful members. His caring and approachability were captured in one of the more well-known quotes attributed to him you got a problem? Call me, just pick up the phone. Hoffa's dedication to the worker and his electrifying public speeches made him wildly popular, both among his fellow workers and the politicians and businessmen with whom he negotiated, and the politicians and businessmen with whom he negotiated. Yet for all the battles he fought and won on behalf of American drivers. He also had a dark side.
Speaker 1:In Hoffa's time, many Teamster leaders partnered with the mafia in racketeering, extortion and embezzlement. Hoffa himself had relationships with high-ranking mobsters and was the target of several government investigations through the 1960s. In 1967, he was convicted of bribery and sentenced to 13 years in prison. While in jail, hoffa never ceded his office, and when Richard Nixon commuted his sentence in 1971, he was poised to make a comeback, released on condition of not participating in union activities for 10 years. Hoffa was planning to fight the restrictions in court when he disappeared on the afternoon of July 30th 1975 from the parking lot of a restaurant in Detroit, not far from where he got his start as a labor organizer. His family filed a missing persons report to the Bloomfield Township Police the next day. Several conspiracy theories have been floated about Hoffa's disappearance and the location of his remains, but the truth remains unknown Unknown. Yeah, I think he definitely got cinder blocks tied to his feet. Oh yeah, thrown in the water somewhere, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Or he's in a bridge or a highway or giant stadium or the bottom of Lake Mead.
Speaker 1:The big drums, oh yeah yeah, yeah. Yeah, we were watching a murder show the other day.
Speaker 2:That guy put his kids in there. Yeah, that guy's an ugh. Did you see the video of him talking to the body cam footage of him. I don't think so, because anyway, he killed his wife and two children and put them in oil drum. That's crazy. They couldn't even have a funeral. They couldn't even put them in caskets because they were afraid of a fire. Their bodies were saturated. Ew, yeah, it was pretty bad.
Speaker 1:Anyway.
Speaker 2:I only know about murders, I don't know. Yeah, I know my thing I only know about murders, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know my thing. I know I've been watching a lot of it too.
Speaker 2:You know I like disasters too, and that's the thing of it. You know, because today is the Challenger yeah, you'd think because I'm such a fan of disasters that I would be into that one, but I'm not. You know how much I love the Titanic and the. Hindenburg. Yes, I like a big disaster, uh-huh yeah, mount St Helens, mm-hmm, that's good.
Speaker 1:Anything, any other death and destruction you'd like to talk about?
Speaker 2:I'm sure we'll find some more.
Speaker 1:On to the next one. President Ford survives his first assassination attempt.
Speaker 2:Look at that. There's going to be murder in this one, because I know who shoots him.
Speaker 1:September 5, 1975, president Gerald R Ford survives an attempt on his life in Sacramento, california. The assailant, a petite, red-haired, freckled-faced young woman named Lynette Fromm, approached the president while he was walking near the California Capitol and raised a .45 caliber handgun toward him. Before she was able to fire a shot, secret Service agents tackled her and wrestled her to the ground. Shame on her. You gotta be faster than that. Lynette, from nickname squeaky, was a member of the notorious Charles Manson family, a group of drug addled groupies who followed cult leader Manson. Manson and other members of his family were convicted and sentenced to prison for murdering former actress Sharon Tate and others in 1969. Do you plan on doing a Charles Manson?
Speaker 2:I would love to. But if you really would like to know a really good podcast on episode on Charles Manson, well, they did several. His last podcast on the left does an amazing and Charles Manson. Well, they did several. His last podcast on the left does an amazing. And Charles Manson, I don't know. I think he gets a little bit of a bum rap on that one. I don't think it was so much Charles Manson that was leading that train.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, all right.
Speaker 2:I think Tex had a lot more to do with it than Tex was to I think. Don't get me wrong, Charles Manson is nuts.
Speaker 1:I mean, you can look at his eyes and see that he was.
Speaker 2:Yes, I just think he was more in it for the fame and Tex was in it for the fame and Tex was in it for the murder. Yeah, Him and Big Patty, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Subsequently, fromm and other female members of the cult started an order of nuns within a new group called the International People's Court of Retribution. The group terrorized corporate executives who headed environmentally destructive businesses. Fromm herself was still so enamored of Manson that she devised the plot to kill President Ford in order to win Manson's approval. Fromm was convicted of attempted murder and was sentenced to life in prison in West Virginia of attempted murder and was sentenced to life in prison in West Virginia. She escaped in 1979, but was caught within 25 miles of the prison. After Fromm's assassination attempt, ford stoically continued on to the Capitol to speak before the California legislature. The main topic of his speech was crime.
Speaker 1:Next fun fact from 1975 is President Ford survives second assassination attempt. It's a busy year for him. On September 22nd 1975, sarah Jane Moore aims a gun at President Gerald Ford as he leaves the St Francis Hotel in San Francisco, california and San Francisco, california. The attempt on the president's life came only 17 days after another woman had tried to assassinate Ford while he was on his way to give a speech to the California legislature in Sacramento. Moore's attempt was thwarted by a bystander, oliver Sipple, who instinctively grabbed Moore's arm. When she raised the gun she was able to fire off one shot, but it failed to find its target. Secret service agents quickly hustled Ford into a waiting vehicle and sped him to safety.
Speaker 1:So Fromm was a Charles Manson follower and Moore was a mentally unstable former FBI informant and accountant who fell into fringe revolutionary politics. Both targeting both targeted Ford as a symbol of their hatred for the political establishment. Moore served time in the same prison in West Virginia as Fromm. Fromm escaped the prison in 79, but was caught and transferred to a higher security facility. Strangely, ford's second would-be assassin, moore, was imprisoned in the same facility and escaped in 1989. Seems like they have a real problem. Maybe get that shit on the rock. Second would-be assassin, moore, was imprisoned in the same facility and escaped in 1989.
Speaker 2:Seems like they have a real problem. Maybe get that shit on the rock. Put some barbed wire up or something. What's up with that?
Speaker 1:She turned herself in two days later and, like Fromm, was transferred to a higher security penitentiary. Moore was released on parole in 2007 and Fromm was released in 2009. I'm surprised, when you shoot at a president, that you don't stay in jail forever. Anyway, simple received a written letter of thanks from ford, I think what's his name is out too, manson.
Speaker 2:No, no, he's dead. Um no, the one that took a shot at Reagan. Oh yeah, I remember that.
Speaker 1:I think he just got out, Huh. So Sipple, the guy who stopped the first lead or the second more, got a handwritten letter of thanks from Ford Later, some critics claim that the White House initially hesitated to publicly thank Sipple, a former Marine and Vietnam veteran, because he was gay. How some things never change. I think that's the worst thing about doing a podcast on Gen X is we have to go rehash.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:I mean, like I said, not that things have gotten a lot better but they have gotten a little bit better. Yeah, a little bit, it's not as blatant.
Speaker 2:Well, and you know a lot of the things from our childhood. You look back now and you're like, Ooh, that was a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Problematic, oh yeah, for sure?
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right. So if you watch TV and you've seen commercials, you might know this. Saturday Night Live is 50 years old this year.
Speaker 2:Live from New York.
Speaker 1:It's Saturday night. On October 11th 1975, saturday Night Live. A topical comedy sketch show featuring Chevy Chase, john Belushi, dan Aykroydner, garrett morris, jane curtain and lorraine newman makes its debut on nbc. The 90-minute program, which from its inception has been broadcast live from studio 8h at rockefeller center, includes a different guest host and musical act each week. The opening sketch of each show ends with one actor saying, live from New York it's Saturday night. Created by the Canadian-born comedy writer Lorne Michaels, snl has introduced a long list of memorable characters and catchphrases, from Gilda Radner's Rosanna Rosanna, dana to the Coneheads. To Billy Crystal's Fernando, you look marvelous. To Dana Carvey's church lady, isn't that special. To bodybuilders Hans and Franz, we're going to pump you up To Coffee Talk host Linda Richmond, like butter A marvel clamp.
Speaker 2:The Madonna one was the best one it was. I miss all verklempt. The Madonna one was the best one it was.
Speaker 1:I miss all of those sketches. They've become part of pop culture history. The show, whose cast has changed continually over the years, has also launched the careers of such performers as Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Mike Myers, Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, David Spade, John Lovitz, Julia Louise Drivers, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Kristen Wiig. Some SNL sketches have even been turned into feature films, the two most successful examples being the Blues Brothers in 1980 and Wade's World in 92. And you're thinking of them? What's that one called? I don't know. The show was originally known as NBC's Saturday Night because there was another show on ABC called Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell. However, NBC eventually purchased the naming rights and since 1977 the edgy comedy program has been called Saturday Night Live. Lorne Michaels served as the show's producer from 1975 to 1980, followed by Gene Domanian from 1980 to 81. Dick Ebersole helmed the show from 91 to 95, and 81 to 85. Michael's returned to the program that year and has remained executive producer ever since.
Speaker 2:Have you watched any of that documentary? They've got going on.
Speaker 1:No. It's really good yeah, I totally intend to.
Speaker 2:It's really good.
Speaker 1:I've always been like it's really good. I've always been a saturday night live fan.
Speaker 2:I just can't stay up that late anymore. Yeah, and we do record it. I was gonna say you can watch it anytime we do. I know it's not a thing anymore I'm busy watching murder I know well, I mean take an hour out of your day and we'll see um.
Speaker 1:So the influential, influential comedian george carlin hosted the debut episode of saturday night live. Later that year, candace bergen became the first woman to assume snl hosting duties. She went on to host the program four more times. In 1982, seven-year-old drew barrymore hosted the show, becoming the youngest person to ever do so. Snl is known for its topical parodies and impersonations and for pushing boundaries with its sketches. The show is also recognized for its political humor. Chevy Chase famously portrayed President Gerald Ford as a klutz, while Dana Carvey spoofed President George HW Bush and his read-my-lips line. George HW Bush and his Read my Lips line. Amy Poehler played Senator Hillary Clinton in numerous skits, including one with Hillary Clinton.
Speaker 1:Later, Kate McKinnon played her as a presidential candidate. Tina.
Speaker 2:Fey memorably portrayed the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominations.
Speaker 1:They could be freaking twins. She was so good and Alec Baldwin played President Trump, and several cast members have played President Biden.
Speaker 2:The last season. This past season it's been Dana Carvey.
Speaker 1:Oh, really, did you see that? They everybody was demanding that McKinnon come back to play the pastor that implored the new president to be compassionate? Oh did they Because they do look exactly alike.
Speaker 2:The episode after Trump won and beat Hillary. That was one of the saddest. Like her performance on that was yes it was very good.
Speaker 1:I remember that episode yeah, she's, she sang hallelujah yes, it was, that was really it was very moving yeah, but my favorite skit from that was everybody sitting around the apartment and they're excited we're gonna have to have our first woman president and then, it keeps coming in, keeps coming in, and they're like no wait. And that's exactly how it went down for a lot of us. All right Onto the next one. This one's here for your mom.
Speaker 2:I was just going to say, did my mom write this?
Speaker 1:Bruce Springsteen scores first pop hit with Born to Run. I don't think I knew that was his first number one hit. Oh, I did.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, on October 11, 1975, the epic single Born to Run became Bruce Springsteen's first ever top 40 hit, marking the first of his eventual transition from little-known cult figure to international superstar.
Speaker 2:Bruce Springsteen. My mom has forced my dad to see Bruce Springsteen so many times. They even saw Live Aid.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so my parents have seen Sting and. Bono and anybody who played Live Aid, but they were there for Bruce, but they were there for Bruce Springsteen.
Speaker 1:By 1975, 26-year-old Bruce Springsteen had two heavily promoted major label albums behind him, but nothing approaching a popular hit Tapped by Columbia Records as the next big thing. Back in 1973, he'd been marketed first as the new Dylan and then as America's new street poet. But unless you were a rock journalism junkie or had been witness to one of his raucous three-hour live shows. He still plays three hours.
Speaker 2:He does not, he still plays three hours. He does not, he still plays three hours.
Speaker 1:Yes, Dude, he's old.
Speaker 2:That's why my dad hates it, because he's like, oh God, I'm going to sit there for three hours.
Speaker 1:You had probably never bought one of his records if you weren't when he was a cult figure. Born to Run would change all that for the poet laureate of the jersey shore, born in 1949 in long beach, new jersey, bruce springsteen grew up during the golden age of american rock and roll, and it was his devotion to the music of that era that marked him as a breath of fresh air during his rise to fame in the early 1970s. Writing for Rolling Stone magazine in 1973, the legendary rock critic Lester Bang said of Springsteen he sort of catamumbles his ditties in a disgruntled mush mouth, sort of like Robbie Robertson on Quaaludes with Dylan barfing down the back of his neck.
Speaker 2:That's very accurate. Having had to listen to nearly every Bruce Springsteen song there is, I would agree with that.
Speaker 1:I have to get a video of my dad doing his impression.
Speaker 1:That was in a positive review of Springsteen's debut album, greetings from Asbury Park, the first of many positive reviews to come during the legend building phase of his career. In 1974, a Rolling Stone editor named John Lando, writing in Boston's Real Paper, bestowed this now famous praise upon the boss I saw Rock and Roll's future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen. One year later, lando would co-produce Springsteen's third album and eventually take over management of his career. That third album was to be springsteen's breakthrough and an american classic, born to run, which another giant of rock criticism, grill marcus, likened to a 57 chevy running on melted down crystals records, whatever that means. While Thunder Road and Back Streets from the same album may be as beloved among devoted fans as the title track, it was the Phil Spector-inspired Born to Run. That was the first exposure most Americans got to Bruce Springsteen on this day in 1975 was followed less than two weeks later by simultaneous cover articles of Springsteen and Time and Newsweek magazines. Now was your mom a pre-Born to Run fan?
Speaker 2:Yes, Was she? Yes, my mom has been a. Well, she would have heard of him because she was in Philly and he was in South Jersey. She also, when she came out of her coma, said that we were like, oh yeah, and she said that she, my dad, was not as good as bruce springsteen, my poor dad love you too um we.
Speaker 2:I think the reason for that is when she was in the icu we played, we brought cds and stuff when we played um first spring scene all the time and the icu nurses were so excited because they were like we are so sick of hearing classical music and all that and I we brought my mom first springsteen and Metallica.
Speaker 1:So she could listen to her boyfriend Pink.
Speaker 2:Floyd yeah. She's got a thing for James Atfield too.
Speaker 1:Well, he does look a lot like your dad, really, I think so. Yes, I never noticed, all right. Next, I actually watched a documentary on this recently. Trial begins for the Amityville murders. Do you know this story? Of course I do. Okay, I figured you do. Ronald DeFeo Jr goes on trial for the killings of his parents and four siblings in their Amityville New York home on October 14th 1975. The family's house was later said to be haunted and served as the inspiration for the Amityville horror book and movies.
Speaker 2:All lies.
Speaker 1:All lies.
Speaker 2:Somebody made a lot of money off of it. It was all made up.
Speaker 1:Yep, all of it. They admitted it. On the evening of November 13, 1974, ronald Butch DeFeo Jr entered an Amityville bar and told people his parents had been shot inside their home. Several bar patrons accompanied DeFeo back to his family's home at 112 Ocean Avenue, where a man named Joe Yeswit called Suffolk County Police to report the crime. When officers arrived, they found the bodies of Ronald DeFeo Sr, age 43, his wife Lois Louise, age 42. Louise Louise and their children, dawn 18, allison 13, mark 11, and John 9. The victims had been shot dead in their beds.
Speaker 1:Ronald DeFeo Jr, 22 years old, initially tried to say the murders were a mob hit. However, by the next day he confessed to committing the crimes himself. Now the thing that they never knew was they were all lying on their stomachs and shot in the back of the head. Yes, do you think he must have told them to lay like, if you don't roll over on your stomach and shot in the back of the head? Yes, do you think he he must've told them to lay like, like, if you don't roll over on your stomach, then I'm going to go kill everybody else? Cause the whole thing was how did nobody hear any gunshots? Why didn't anybody else wake up. Why were they on their beds? But I'm sure he came in shock and awe.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:Killed the parents first yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, killed the parents first. Yeah, well, that's what you got to do. Yeah, yeah, get the adults out of the way. One aspect of the case that puzzled investigators was the fact that all six victims appeared to have died in their sleep without struggle, and neighbors didn't hear any gunshots, despite the fact that the rifle DeFeo used didn't have a silencer when DeFeo's trial began in October 1975. His attorney argued for an insanity defense. However, that November he was found guilty of six counts of second-degree murder and later sentenced to six consecutive sentences of 25 years to life in prison. Defeo, who gave conflicting accounts of his story over the years, later claimed that his sister, dawn, and two other accomplices were involved in the murders. He died in prison on March 12th 2021. I like how he accused his sister who died also.
Speaker 2:Last podcast on the left also does a several part series about this. If you check that podcast out. They're really hilarious. They're hilarious.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I need to remember, because sometimes on on socials they want you to name podcasts that you like and I always forget to do. I always just say, mr paul, yeah, but um, another thing, too, that always strikes me with this and and other stories is they're always like how did nobody hear any gunshots? How many times in your life have you been like that's not like gunshots? And then you just ignore it.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean A. We came from a rural background, so it was not unusual to hear gunshots.
Speaker 1:To hear guns right. And cars backfiring.
Speaker 2:Two days ago, Sunday, I was sitting and I was like, oh, it must be duck season, right, it must be hunting geese or ducks or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I live in Fenwick.
Speaker 1:But you wouldn't think a second thing of it though.
Speaker 2:I never do.
Speaker 1:Right. So anytime I hear that they're like I mean people and plus they were asleep in this one, so yeah, they'd wake up maybe and be like did I hear something? What the hell? But yeah, I feel like I hear things all the time.
Speaker 2:I all the time, I always think about that, with screaming too, like you'll hear somebody, like sometimes when you're playing around, you're screaming like somebody's chasing you through the house. We have this set of freaking foxes that live right behind where and they scream. They are, it's awful yes, it's awful.
Speaker 1:We had one in the last place that we lived and it it's awful we had one in the last place that we lived and screech, screech. Yeah, awful, awful. The DeFeo house was sold to George Lutz, who moved in with his wife and three children in December 1975, which is just crazy.
Speaker 2:I would do it in a New York minute, of course would. I would live in a murder house today if you gave me one. Well, they're so cheap, nobody wants that, is true, that is true.
Speaker 1:The new owners resided in the house for 28 days before they fled, claiming it was haunted by the spirits of the DeFeo family. Critics accused George Flutz of concocting the story to make money, but he maintained he was telling the truth. In 1977, jay Anson published a novel titled the Amityville Horror. The book became a bestseller and inspired a 1979 movie of the same name, as well as a 2005 remake. So I think it was the wife who confessed that they made it up, wasn't it?
Speaker 1:If I remember correctly, it was I think it had to do with the realtor.
Speaker 2:Some other people came in to I forget what their names are. Yeah, they have like a cult thing, and they made most of the money off of it and they were fakes. Yep, I remember that it's a husband and Right and they were fakes.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep, I remember that. Now it's a husband and wife. I can picture their faces.
Speaker 2:I remember that. Now I'm going to Google it because it's like on the tip of my tongue.
Speaker 1:But yeah that, and then a family bought it after that and they had no problems whatsoever. I can't remember if I saw that movie. I'm sure I did back in the day, all right, so I think this is my last little fun fact about 1975. It is, and it's another very, very favorite movie of mine. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, opened in theaters. Have you ever seen that movie?
Speaker 2:I have seen pieces of it. I haven't seen the whole thing. It's so good.
Speaker 1:So One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, a film about a group of patients at a mental institution, opened in theaters, directed by Mylos Forman and based on a 1962 novel of the same name by Kenny Kessie. The film starred Jack Nicholson and was co-produced by the actor Michael Douglas, and was co-produced by the actor Michael Douglas. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest went on to become the first film in four decades to win all five of the major Academy Award categories Best Actor for Nicholson, best Actress for Louise Fletcher, who played Nurse Ratched, best Director, best Screenplay and Best Picture. Have you ever seen Nurse Ratched? I watched the first episode of it. Ugh, I love her. First of all, sarah, whatever, I don't know what- her name is Sarah something?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a great show. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest marked Jack Nicholson's first Oscar win, although the actor, who was born April 22, 1937 in Neptune, new Jersey, had already received four other Academy Award nominations by that time. Nicholson's first nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category came for his performance as an alcoholic lawyer in 1969's Easy Rider, which co-starred Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda, which co-starred Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda. He earned his next Oscar nomination for Best Actor for 1970's Five Easy Pieces, which he played a drifter in 1973, the year I was born. The last detail Nicholson earned another Best Actor Oscar nomination. His fourth Best Actor Oscar nomination came for his performance as Detective Jake Giddey's in director Roman Polanski's Chinatown, 1974.
Speaker 1:In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, nicholson played Randall McMurphy, a convict who pretends to be crazy so he can be sent to a mental institution and avoid prison. Work detail once in the asylum, mcmurphy encounters a buried cast of inmates and clashes memorably with the authoritative nurse ratchet. That movie is so good. Like I'm a huge psychology, yes, uh, buff, and oh man it it's amazing.
Speaker 2:I've seen pieces of it. I've never sat down and watched the whole thing I highly recommend it I try I think joe would even like it.
Speaker 2:I'm sure he, oh he, I know he's watching, because that's how I've seen pieces of it where I just go to bed, oh, he puts, he stays up all night and watches movies and I go to bed, um, but yeah, I've not watched the whole thing straight through. I'm sure I. I don't know, I don't know why, like I have an aversion to it, some movies that I just can't, and I don't know why yeah, and sometimes it's hard to go back and watch old movies like as great as they were back then.
Speaker 1:It's the nostalgia and yeah, and that you were watching it in the time yeah and now I don't know.
Speaker 2:I just thought. I don't know what my aversion to that. I have read the book. I don't know.
Speaker 1:I don't know what my deal is.
Speaker 2:I'm a weirdo. What can I say? Hater, hater. I like to be contrary, and that could just be it. Like I just don't want to watch it because I'm supposed to watch it. I've never watched any of the Harry Potters. I have only seen the three Star Wars from our time. I have not watched the prequel. I haven't watched any of those. What's the other one I haven't watched? Oh, the Twilight ones.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I don't like vampire stuff.
Speaker 2:First of all, no, vampires don't sparkle.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:That's not right. It's not okay.
Speaker 1:Well, that's a lie. I do like the Lost Boys, but besides that I don't like any.
Speaker 2:Oh, there was a great thread I read the other day about the Lost Boys and how it ties in with Stand by Me, okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I could see that how he becomes the vampire he gets recruited. It was a good one. Stand by Me is one of my favorites too. I actually not see that one either. Oh, Jesus Christ, I know it's because I'm supposed to, so I just don't.
Speaker 1:Well, I haven't seen Forrest Gump, so Well, there you go.
Speaker 2:That's the movie you're supposed to see. I did see that one. I don't hate that one, like everybody else does.
Speaker 1:I have a good reason for not watching it. Oh, it's what was someone to divorce? Oh, so now it's just kind of part of the legend of my divorce is that I don't watch it. I get that. So again, not an aversion to the movie, I'm just going to be a stickler and not watch it.
Speaker 2:Supposedly they're making another one Good for them, mm-hmm. Well, that was good.
Speaker 1:1975 wrapped up thank you, happy birthday to my husband happy birthday 50 huh 50 it's an ugly number it is and he's not excited about it?
Speaker 2:No, I wasn't. I wasn't at all. I think I hid in the house the whole time you did. I know you did, I think I just shut all the blinds and closed the door and turned out all the lights.
Speaker 1:I went out and had a lovely brunch on May 50th and then had a surprise birthday party.
Speaker 2:I was going to say that you had a surprise party.
Speaker 1:And I truly was surprised, yeah.
Speaker 2:That was all her daughter. Yeah, and all that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she crushed it. That was awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she's all right. Yeah, she's okay. Well, now that we've gone on for almost an hour and a half again, oh Lord, I know we're going to have to figure out how to get these shorter. I guess that's the problem, because we don't.
Speaker 1:I don't know, we just I don't know. Yeah, yeah, I think we do good, though, that we get it around the same time every time, I know right. Really with no sort of plan or schedule. Like I said, if you're here for some, kind of structure. You're just in the wrong.
Speaker 2:That's not us, that's not us If we didn't write a script. It would just be like a stream of consciousness that just flows through just the weirdest timeline.
Speaker 1:Yeah, nobody wants to hear that.
Speaker 2:No, so we have to write things down. Yes, thanks for listening. You can like share rate. Review all of the things, please. You can like share rate review all of the things. You can find us where you listen to podcasts. You can follow us on all the socials at LikeWhateverPod. You can send an email to LikeWhateverPod at gmailcom to tell us about your favorite part of 1975, if you can remember it. I can't. I was only one, no, I wasn't even one. Anyway, send an email blah, blah, blah. Or don't like whatever, whatever, bye.
