May 1, 1971: The film Billy Jack premieres. Actor and director Tom Laughlin had debuted the character in his 1967 film The Born Losers, in which Billy Jack takes on a motorcycle gang. Through 4 films, the character's last name is never mentioned. Or maybe "Jack" is his last name. There was precedent: In the 1920s and '30s, there was an English soccer star named David Jack. It's just that "Billy Jack" sounds like a hillbilly name, like "Billy Joe" or "Billy Ray."
The character's story is fleshed out in the 1971 film. He is a veteran of the Vietnam War, which was still very much in progress as the film premiered. He was a Green Beret, so he had considerable training in various forms of combat. He had expanded on that by learning hapkido, a Korean martial art. And he is half-Native American, of the Navajo tribe; so, despite his war hero status, he still faces discrimination.
He assists a "freedom school" for Native children, run by Jean Roberts. She was played by Delores Taylor, Laughlin's wife. They had written the script under the names "Frank Christina" and "Theresa Christina," and Laughlin had directed under the name "T.C. Frank." They had run a similar school in real life. Before that, Laughlin, a Milwaukee native, had played football at Marquette University, before the school ended its program in 1960.
In the film, the town's corrupt political boss wants the school closed down, and sends his son and other thugs to break it up. Billy does his best to stop them, including killing the son after catching him in bed with one of the students, a 13-year-old girl. A standoff with the police ends with a deal: Billy gives himself up, and the boss agrees to let the school continue. The film ends with him being taken away in a police car, while the students raise their fists in salute.
The film begins and ends with Coven's recording of "One Tin Soldier." Written by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter, the song has little to do with the plot. There's Hill People, with a treasure that they're willing to share with the world. There's Valley People, who want the treasure all to themselves. The Valley People attack, and kill all the Hill People. They overturn the stone under which the treasure is said to lie. There is nothing there except the words "Peace on Earth."
Canadian band The Original Caste had a minor hit with the song in early 1970. American singer Esther "Jinx" Dawson -- an actual Satanist, who claimed to have invented the "devil horns" hand gesture so popular with heavy metal fans, although Ronnie Dio also claimed to have invented it -- recorded it for Billy Jack, though it was credited to her band, named Coven, and it was a bigger hit in 1971. Country singer Skeeter Davis recorded it in 1972, and it didn't hit in America, but was a big hit in Canada.
Lambert and Potter also wrote "Don't Pull Your Love" for Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds; "Two Divided By Love" for The Grass Roots; "Ain't No Woman (Like the One I've Got)" and "Keeper of the Castle" for The Four Tops; "Rhinestone Cowboy" for Glen Campbell; "It Only Takes a Minute" for Tavares; and "Baby Come Back" for Player. With others, Lambert co-wrote "Nightshift" for The Commodores and "We Built This City" for Starship.
The film was a big hit, and Billy's Navajo hat became an icon of the Hippie era. A sequel appeared in 1974, The Trial of Billy Jack. Over the course of the film, he is tried for involuntary manslaughter, found guilty, and serves 3 years in prison. While he is gone, the school rebuilds, and faces new troubles. When Billy gets out, he has to use his skills to defend the school again.
This film was considerably less successful: It was released after President Richard Nixon resigned, and after he'd concluded major combat operations in Vietnam. The film included a school massacre reminiscent of the one at Kent State University in 1970, and filmgoers were now looking to the movies to escape from real life, not to project their fantasies on it the way they did with Billy Jack and other "antihero" movies like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Billy Jack Goes to Washington was released in 1977. As with the plot of the 1939 Jimmy Stewart classic Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Billy Jack is appointed to a vacancy in the U.S. Senate, as a "token" (very few Native Americans have ever served in Congress), in the hopes that he'll be grateful for the chance and vote the way the bosses want. He doesn't. This film had a very small released, and made very little money. It closes with a new version of "One Tin Soldier," recorded by Theresa Laughlin, Tom and Delores' daughter.
Laughlin tried one more time, in 1985, with The Return of Billy Jack, taking on child pornographers in New York. Life imitated art: While there, despite already being 53 years old, he broke up a street fight with his martial arts skills. But during filming, he was hit in the head by a prop bottle, which was supposed to "break away" for the actor's safety, and didn't. By the time he recovered, funding for the film had dried up. Only 15 minutes were ever filmed. A 4-minute clip is available on YouTube.
Laughlin wrote books about psychology, ran for President as a Democrat in 1992, then ran as a Republican, but an anti-Iraq War one, in 2004. Apparently, he didn't like either of the George Bushes. By 2007, his health was failing, but he never gave up trying to revive the Billy Jack character. He died in 2013. He and Delores Taylor had been married for 59 years. She died in 2018. As of May 1, 2022, Dennis Lambert, Brian Potter and Jinx Dawson are still alive.
*
May 1, 1971 was a Saturday. This was also the day that Amtrak took over America's national passenger rail service, and Marvel Comics issued their Spider-Man story about drug use. I have separate entries for those events.
These Major League Baseball games were played that day:
* The New York Yankees lost to the Milwaukee Brewers, 1-0 at Yankee Stadium. Lew Krausse Jr., son of another major league pitcher, outpitched Stan Bahnsen. Tommy Harper's 8th inning home run provided the only home run of the game.
* The New York Mets lost to the Houston Astros, 3-1 at the Astrodome in Houston. Larry Dierker outpitched Tom Seaver.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the Boston Red Sox, 7-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Harmon Killebrew went 1-for-3 with 2 walks and an RBI. Rod Carew did not play. Luis Aparicio (not really known as a slugger, or as a Red Sock) and Reggie Smith hit home runs in defeat. Carl Yastrzemski went 2-for-4.
* The Chicago White Sox beat the Washington Senators, 5-3 at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington.
* The Atlanta Braves beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-5 at Atlanta Stadium (later Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium). Hank Aaron hit the 601st and 602nd home runs of his career.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the San Diego Padres, 5-4 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Gene Alley singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 11th inning. Willie Stargell went 3-for-5. Roberto Clemente was a late defensive replacement, and went 0-for-1.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the San Francisco Giants, 3-2 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Pete Rose went 1-for-3 with a walk. Johnny Bench went 1-for-4. Willie Mays only appeared as a pinch-hitter, and did not reach base.
* The Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-4 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Fergie Jenkins outpitched Rick Wise, although Wise hit a home run. Ernie Banks went 1-for-2 with a walk. Billy Williams went 3-for-3 with 2 homers and 4 RBIs.
* The Montreal Expos and the St. Louis Cardinals were tied, 2-2 after 7 innings, when the game at Busch Memorial Stadium was called due to rain.
* The Kansas City Royals beat the Baltimore Orioles, 5-2 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-3 with a walk. Frank Robinson went 1-for-4 with an RBI.
* The California Angels beat the Detroit Tigers, 9-1 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium). Andy Messersmith went the distance, while Dean Chance got knocked out of the box in the 2nd inning. Al Kaline went 0-for-2, then was hit by a pitch and replaced by a pinch-runner.
* And the Cleveland Indians beat the Oakland Athletics, 2-1 at the Oakland Coliseum. Steve Dunning outpitched Diego Seguí. Reggie Jackson went 1-for-4.
Football was out of season. The NBA Championship had been decided the day before, as the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Baltimore Bullets 118-106 at the Baltimore Civic Center (now the CFG Arena) to complete a 4-game sweep of the Finals. The ABA Playoffs were between the Divisional Finals and the Finals. The Utah Stars would win, defeating the Kentucky Colonels.
The Stanley Cup Playoffs were in the Semifinals. The Montreal Canadiens had eliminated the Minnesota North Stars 2 days earlier, and the Chicago Black Hawks would eliminate the New York Rangers in Game 7 the next night. The Canadiens would win the Cup over the Hawks in 7 games.
And in English soccer, Arsenal beat Staffordshire team Stoke City, 1-0 at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury. That should have been their last game of the Football League season. However, an earlier game against their North London arch-rivals, Tottenham Hotspur, had been postponed, and would be played 2 days later. This allowed Arsenal to win the League title at the home of their arch-rivals.
No comments:
Post a Comment