"Your Lucky Strike Hit Parade" (born: Monday, July 10, 1950)...
The series that began on radio in 1935 and ran for 15 years, moved to television on this date and gave us our first taste of a national countdown of hits. Although there were other countdowns on local radio, this was the first national countdown. And in addition to hearing what the top 7 tunes were, we also received a bonus - several "Lucky Strike" extras (whatever the American Tobacco Company paid to sponsor both the radio and tv shows, just the mention of the sponsor and the name of the show together was priceless). And that went on for a quarter of a century (talk about naming rights). Unfortunately so did the singers of the hits who numbered Eileen Wilson, Dorothy Collins, Gisele MacKenzie, Russell Arms and his favorite and yours, the one, the only...Snooky Lanson. In all fairness, Collins and MacKenzie were not bad, Wilson was nondescript but Arms and especially Snooky couldn't carry a tune if they were handed one with velcro...
The television version of the show would run for 10 years and its demise was rock and roll. I mean the thought of Snooky Lanson singing "Hound Dog" is horrifying. "How Much Is That Doggie in the Window" and "Shrimp Boats" were bad enough. I used to love the skits they created to set up each song, right out of the second grade. Actually that's giving second graders a bad rap they don't deserve...
As bad as the renditions of the hits of the day were on "Hit Parade", nothing compares to seeing and hearing Bert Parks sing "Let 'Em In" on a "Miss America" special. Bert with the plastered-back hair and permanent smile, while strutting with a chorus of Miss America wanna-be's let loose with his version of the Paul McCartney hit: "Someone's knockin' at the door-uh, Somebody's ringin' the bell-el..." and somewhere the former Beatle lost his dinner...
Ten Timeline Memories...
1866] Edison P. Clark of Northampton (MA) patents his indelible pencil (his name will be indelibly etched into my memory bank forever)...
1900] RCA Victor registers "His Master's Voice" a.k.a. "Nipper", the dog looking into the horn of a gramophone machine which the Victor Recording Company would use (and I believe still is in use with RCA)...
1962} The U.S. launches "Telstar", a communications satellite which will relay television and telephone signals between the U.S. and Europe...
1968] Eric Clapton makes it official, Cream is kaput...
1969] The National League breaks into 2 divisions (baseball purists will really kvell when both leagues split into 3 divisions and don't look now but down the road in 1995 guess what ? We'll have a wild card in each league. Get over it !)...
1971] Red Sox slugger Tony Conigliaro, victim of one of the worst baseball beanings in August, 1967 (by pitcher Jack Hamilton) announces his retirement at 25. Tony C would try to come back in 1975 but he was never the same (the beaning was front-page news with a picture of Tony's black eye which was shut. Not a pretty picture. There's no telling what accomplishments Tony would have ended with if not for that beaning. Tony died way too early also, at 45 in 1990 from a heart attack)...
1984] Dwight "Doc" Gooden of the Mets becomes the youngest player (at 19.7) to appear in an All-Star game...
1985] Coca-Cola cans its old formula, renaming it "Coca-Cola Classic" and continues to sell "New" Coke (however the public says "take your new Coke and shove it"). The original Coke comes back...
1992] Former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega is sentenced to 40 years in prison on drug and racketeering charges (it was the playing of loud rock and roll outside his compound that did him in)...
1999] Women of the world...Unite: The U.S. wins the Women's World Cup in soccer. Brandi Chastain whips off her jersey, twirls it over her head and men all over the world get a gander of her black bra...
[To ensure accuracy of dates and content, multiple reference sources are used in the timeline]...
#1 on this date...
"Beatles VI" LP (goes to #1 and stays there for 6 weeks in 1965) and The Rolling Stones get their 1st #1 single with "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" the same year...
"Happy Birthday...happy birthday"...
Jessica Simpson (26), Arlo Guthrie (59), David Dinkins (79), Eunice Kennedy Shriver (85), Jake "The Raging Bull" LaMotta (85)...
People we lost...
1979] Boston Pops conductor, Arthur Fiedler, who led the orchestra for half a century, at 84...1989} Mel Blanc who provided the voices of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and countless other WB characters, from complications of heart disease, at 81...
Welcome...
J.J. Jeffrey, one of the best jocks in Boston radio history, joins our happy (I hope) readers...
[Today is the 191st day of 2006 with 174 days left in the year and 57 days until Labor Day]
...
