I had heard of the Smothers Brothers. They were a bit goofy and looked like they might be escapees from a barbershop quartet. They were actually brothers (unlike the Righteous Brothers) and I loved the way Tom joked but didn’t joke with Dick.
Of course, Dick was a pretty funny word to hear on TV in the 1960s.
Their show began on CBS at 9 PM on Sunday 5 February 1967. They followed the still popular and influential Ed Sullivan Show. Such a lead in spot would seem to make their show a shoe-in success, but keep in mind what was on NBC at the same time: Bonanza.
Who Smash Smothers Brothers
The underdog
Bonanza had been running for eight years already. A hugely popular show that made its viewers feel like cowboys who did the right thing at a time when making America great again was all the rage.
Poking fun at the Establishment was funny only to some Boomers, but for them, what fun it was.
Plus there was music. They had main stream performers like Jim Nabors, Jimmy Durante, siblings Frank, Jr and Nancy Sinatra, and Micky Rooney.
Who Smash Smothers Brothers
Underground music
For so-called “underground music” fans, seeing bands such as the Buffalo Springfield, Jefferson Airplane, the Turtles, the Blues Magoos, the Electric Prunes, and Simon and Garfunkel was a special treat. Such bands were not regularly seen on the few pre-cable TV stations typically available.
Who Smash Smothers Brothers
Follow the Clew
Gustav Metzger (10 April 1926, Nuremberg – 1 March 2017, London) was a German artist and political activist who developed the concept of Auto-Destructive Art.
It was he who inspired Pete Townshend’s guitar and amp smashing, which in turn inspired Keith Moon to follow suit.
Oh, that night!
On September 17, 1967, The Who appeared on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. They played 2 songs, “I Can See For Miles” and “My Generation”.
At the end of “My Generation”, Pete Townshend started smashing his amp.
Keith Moon had rigged his drum set to explode. It did and the explosions cut Moon’s leg & singed Pete Townshend’s hair, along with doing damage to Townshend’s hearing.
Who Smash Smothers Brothers
Try try again
The story is apparently (and not surprisingly) that Keith Moon wanted to have an explosion at the end of their performance. In rehearsals, the explosion wasn’t big enough and he asked for something bigger. It was increased, but Keith added more.
September 15, 1961, the Pendletons, from Hawthorne, California, attended their first real recording session at Hite Morgan’s studio in Los Angeles. The band recorded ‘Surfin’. They soon changed their name to the Beach Boys. (see Dec 8)
Four Seasons
September 15 – October 19, 1962: “Sherry” by the Four Seasons #1 Billboard Hot 100. Written by Bob Gaudio.
From Wikipedia: According to Gaudio, the song took about 15 minutes to write and was originally titled “Jackie Baby” (in honor of then-First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy). In a 1968 interview, Gaudio said that the song was inspired by the 1961 Bruce Channel hit “Hey! Baby”.
At the studio, the name was changed to “Terri Baby”, and eventually to “Sherry”, the name of the daughter of Gaudio’s best friend, New York DJ Jack Spector. One of the names that Gaudio pondered for the song was “Peri Baby,” which was the name of the record label for which Bob Crewe worked, named after the label owner’s daughter.
September 15 Music et al
Otis Redding
September 15, 1965: Otis Redding released his Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul containing his composition “Respect”
From AllMusic: “Otis Redding’s third album, and his first fully realized album, presents his talent unfettered, his direction clear, and his confidence emboldened, with fully half the songs representing a reach that extended his musical grasp. More than a quarter of this album is given over to Redding’s versions of songs by Sam Cooke, his idol, who had died the previous December, and all three are worth owning and hearing. Two of them, “A Change Is Gonna Come” and “Shake,” are every bit as essential as any soul recordings ever made, and while they (and much of this album) have reappeared on several anthologies, it’s useful to hear the songs from those sessions juxtaposed with each other, and with “Wonderful World,” which is seldom compiled elsewhere.”
September 15 Music et al
Fear of Rock
September 15, 1970: Vice President Spiro Agnew stated that American youth were being destroyed by rock music, the drug culture, and underground newspapers. (see March 27, 1971)
September 7, 1927: TV pioneer Philo T. Farnsworth succeeded in transmitting an image through purely electronic means by using a device called an image dissector. [NYT obit] (see July 7, 1928)
September 7 Peace Love Art Activism
Cold War
September 7, 1953: following the March 5 death of Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev becomes leader of the Soviet Communist Party. His main rival, Lavrentiy Beria, was executed in December. [Quora dot com article] (see Nov 13)
September 7 Peace Love Art Activism
LGBTQ
Daughters of Bilitis
September 7, 1957: The Daughters of Bilitis, the first openly lesbian activist organization in the U.S (founded on September 21, 1955) held its first meeting on this date in New York City.
The Daughters of Bilitis sponsored a lesbian and gay rights conference in New York City, on June 20, 1964, at which two doctors attacked the idea that homosexuality was a disease. [NY LGBT Historic Sites Project article] (see January 13, 1958)
Trail Life USA
September 7, 2013: Trail Life USA formed for those who disagreed with the Boy Scouts of America decision to allow openly gay Scouts. The group stated that it was founded to “counter the ‘moral free fall’ of the nation, and raise a generation of faithful husbands, fathers, citizens and leaders.” It added, “The genesis of the new group was the [Boy Scouts of America] leadership’s closely watched decision in May to change its membership policy and admit youth regardless of their sexual orientation or sexual preference.” (Trail Life core values) (LGBTQ, see Oct 18; BSA, see February 27, 2014)
September 7 Peace Love Art Activism
Nuclear/Chemical News
September 7, 1964: the most famous of all campaign commercials, known as the “Daisy Girl” ad, ran only once as a paid advertisement, during an NBC broadcast of Monday Night at the Movies. Without any explanatory words, the ad used a simple and powerful cinematic device, juxtaposing a scene of a little girl happily picking petals off of a flower and an ominous countdown to a nuclear explosion. The ad was created by the innovative agency Doyle Dane Bernbach, known for its conceptual, minimal, and modern approach to advertising. The memorable soundtrack was created by Tony Schwartz, an advertising pioneer famous for his work with sound, including anthropological recordings of audio from cultures around the world. The frightening ad was instantly perceived as a portrayal of Barry Goldwater as an extremist. In fact, the Republican National Committee spelled this out by saying, “This ad implies that Senator Goldwater is a reckless man and Lyndon Johnson is a careful man.” That was precisely the intent; in a memo to President Johnson on September 13, Bill Moyers wrote, “The idea was not to let him get away with building a moderate image and to put him on the defensive before the campaign is old.”
The ad was replayed in its entirety on ABC’s and CBS’s nightly news shows, amplifying its impact. (see Oct 16)
September 7 Peace Love Art Activism
Vietnam
September 7, 1965: US Marine Corps Lance Corporal Richard B Fitzgibbon, III killed in action from an explosive device while serving in Quang Tin, South Vietnam. He was the son of Richard B Fitzgibbon, Jr, the first US casualty in Vietnam. (see Sept 11)
September 7 Peace Love Art Activism
Feminism
September 7, 1968: New York Radical Women protested the Miss America contest in Atlantic City by picketing, yelling “Women’s Liberation!,” and throwing bras and garter belts into a trashcan. Although nothing was actually burned, the event brings the feminist movement media attention and begins the “bra-burner” stereotype. [Smithsonian article] (see Nov 5)
September 7 Peace Love Art Activism
September 7 Music et al
Waiting for the Sun
September 7- 27, 1968: The Doors’ Waiting for the Sun the Billboard #1 album. Their first #1 album.
John Lennon assassination
September 7, 2010: authorities denied parole to Mark David Chapman for the sixth time. Chapman, held at Attica Correctional Facility in New York State, could not ask for parole again for two years. (see August 22, 2012)
September 7 Peace Love Art Activism
Black History
Joseph Woodrow Hatchett
September 7, 1976: Joseph Woodrow Hatchett was elected to a seat on the Florida Supreme Court, becoming the first black person elected to any statewide office in the South since the end of Reconstruction nearly a century before. A year earlier, in September 1975, Governor Rubin Askew appointed Judge Hatchett to a seat on the Court, making him the first black Florida Supreme Court justice in state history. [Black Past article] (see Sept 28)
SOUTH AFRICA/APARTHEID
September 7, 1986: Desmond Tutu became the first Black Anglican Church bishop in South Africa. [UPI article] (see December 7, 1988)
September 7 Peace Love Art Activism
Cultural Milestone
September 7, 1979: ESPN made its cable TV debut. (see June 1, 1980)
September 7 Peace Love Art Activism
Iraq War II
September 7, 2004: death toll of U.S. soldiers in Iraq reached 1,000 [CNN.com, 9/8/04] (see Oct 7)
September 7 Peace Love Art Activism
Nuclear/Chemical News& ICAN
September 7, 2006: the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, the 1985 Nobel Peace Laureate, adopted International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons [ICAN] as top campaign priority at its world congress in Helsinki, Finland. IPPNW’s Australian affiliate, MAPW, commits to fundraising and providing coordination for a campaign launch in 2007. (Nuclear & ICAN, see April 30, 2007)
September 7 Peace Love Art Activism
Sexual Abuse of Children
September 7, 2007: the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego agreed to pay $198m to settle 144 claims of sexual abuse by clergy. [Prolades dot com article] see May 2009)
September 7 Peace Love Art Activism
Terry Jones bigotry
September 7, 2010: Jones says he “understands the government’s concerns, but plans to go forward with the burning.” He left “the door open to change his mind, however, saying that he was still praying about his decision. (see Sept 8)
September 7 Peace Love Art Activism
Immigration History
September 7, 2017: the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Trump administration’s limited view of who is allowed into the country under its revised travel ban.
A three-judge panel decided that grandparents, cousins and similarly close extended family relationships of people in the U.S. shouldn’t be prevented from coming to the country. The court also said refugees already accepted by a resettlement agency shouldn’t be banned. The appeals court decision upholds a decision from a district court judge in Hawaii (July 14), who said the administration’s view was too narrow. The decision impacts the revised travel ban, which temporarily suspends new visas and travel for people coming from the Muslim-dominated countries of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
“Stated simply, the government does not offer a persuasive explanation for why a mother-in-law is clearly a bona fide relationship, in the Supreme Court’s prior reasoning, but a grandparent, grandchild, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, or cousin is not,” the ruling said. [CBS article] (see Sept 12)
September 7 Peace Love Art Activism
Native Americans & Cannabis
September 7, 2023: the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) passed a referendum in favor of legalizing marijuana, becoming the first jurisdiction within the borders of North Carolina—or any of its surrounding states—to commit to the policy change. But it would be a while before would-be customers could make a purchase.
According to unofficial results posted by the EBCI’s Board of Elections, members approved the measure by a margin of 70 percent to 30 percent. Although the referendum does not legalize cannabis automatically, tribal leaders have said they’ll follow voters’ lead when they ultimately take up the issue. [MM article] (next NA, see Nov 17; next Cannabis, see Oct 9 or see CAC for broader chronology)
What's so funny about peace, love, art, and activism?
