August 11, 1973: "American Graffiti" Premieres

August 11, 1973: American Graffiti premieres. It takes people's minds off Watergate and the post-Vietnam hangover, and boosts the nostalgia wave for the 1950s.

Which makes it odd that the film does not take place in the Ike Age. The tagline is, "Where were you in '62?" It had been only 11 years. It would be a film in the Trump years celebrating... the 2nd term of George W. Bush. Something tells me that's not the period they mean when they say they want to "make America great again."

There was already a nostalgia wave for the Fabulous Fifties. Music promoter Richard Nader had been producing "Garden Party" shows at the new Madison Square Garden in New York since it opened in 1968. He sold the place out. One of the surprisingly popular acts at Woodstock in 1969 was Sha Na Na, a bunch of intellectuals from Columbia University who stylized themselves as greased-up doo-woppers. The Hippies loved them. And, of course, 1969 was also the year that Elvis Presley, who owned 1956 and 1957, took over Las Vegas.

That was only 12 and 13 years earlier, but it was nostalgia. People wanted to forget Watergate. They wanted to forget Vietnam. They wanted to forget race riots. They wanted to go back to the era when Dwight D. Eisenhower was America's grandpa, or at least to the era when John F. Kennedy was America's big brother. When the biggest thing they had to worry about was whether they had a dime for the jukebox at the malt shop after school.

And while the film was set in 1962, it leaned heavily on the original rock and roll music of 1955-59: "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & the Comets, "Ain't That a Shame" by Fats Domino, "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" by Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers, "That'll Be the Day" by Buddy Holly & The Crickets, "Johnny B. Goode" by Chuck Berry; plus a cover of "At the Hop" by Danny & The Juniors, done by a group brought together for the film, Flash Cadillac & the Continental Kids.

George Lucas, with science fiction in the back of his mind, directed a film set in Modesto, in central California, with 3 interconnected stories. Ron Howard had already played Opie Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show, but this was before he was cast as Richie Cunningham on Happy Days, which took the nostalgia wave to television a year later.

Also in the cast, and later becoming stars, were Richard Dreyfuss, Harrison Ford, Mackenzie Phillips, Cindy Williams, Kathleen Quinlan, Susan Richardson, Kay Lenz, Debralee Scott, Joe Spano, and, most iconically, listed in the credits only as "The Blonde," Suzanne Somers. Wolfman Jack, based out of Los Angeles, was already a well-known disc jockey in the West, but the film made him widely known in the East. Soon, he would be a regular guest-host of NBC's late-night music show The Midnight Special.

Hot rods. Diners. Rock and roll. It was a sanitized version of 1962, with no Cold War, no worry about getting drafted, no civil rights struggles. And, since it was California, you didn't have to worry about the local baseball team moving: The team had already moved, and had come to you.

(Okay, that's a bit of a stretch. San Francisco is 90 miles west of Modesto, and Los Angeles is over 300 miles southeast. When the A's moved to Oakland, and made Modesto the home of one of their farm teams, they were "only" 70 miles west.) 

The Baby Boomers still embrace American Graffiti, now that they actually are old. But their initial embrace of it, when many of them were still in college, showed that, even then, they were lamenting a lost youth, and afraid of getting old. They were the generation that JFK told to look to the future. Instead, they have spent half a century looking backward.

I don't blame George Lucas, any more than I blame "Cousin" Brucie Morrow, Dick Clark, Richard Nader, Wolfman Jack, or any other person who actively benefited from, and promoted, the late 1950s and early 1960s nostalgia wave. Let's be honest: Even the surviving members of that generation of the Kennedy family did that. But it does seem like, through their devotion to nostalgia, the Baby Boomers (the elder half of them, anyway), if not betraying their former forward-looking ideals, have frequently let them down.

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August 11, 1973 was a Saturday. This was also the day that DJ Kool Herc hosted a party in The Bronx that has become known as "the birth of hip-hop." I have a separate entry for this event.

Kind of a strange combination of events: It's like the past, the present and the future all collided.

These Major League Baseball games were played on that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Oakland Athletics, 7-3 at Yankee Stadium. Vida Blue outpitched Mel Stottlemyre. Gene Tenace hit a home run. Reggie Jackson went 3-for-4 with a walk and an RBI for the A's. He would, of course, later star for the Yankees. It was Old-Timers Day, and 46,293 fans came out. I don't know how many were at Herc's party a few hours later.

* The New York Mets lost to the San Francisco Giants, 8-7 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Bobby Bonds singled home Garry Maddox, off Tug McGraw, with the winning run in the bottom of the 13th inning. Bonds had also hit a home run. Don Hahn and John Milner hit home runs for the Mets.

Running out the string for the Mets, Willie Mays doubled to lead off the 9th in a pinch-hitting appearance for his former team. It was the 3,286th hit of his career. There would be only 7 more, plus 3 more in the 1973 postseason.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the California Angels, 2-1 at Fenway Park in Boston. Roger Moret outpitched Nolan Ryan. Carl Yastrzemski went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Frank Robinson went 1-for-3 with an RBI.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 9-3 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Dusty Baker hit 2 home runs, Darrell Evans 1. Hank Aaron went 1-for-4, but it was a single, not a home run. Willie Stargell went 2-for-3 with a walk.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Baltimore Orioles, 9-4 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-2 before being replaced by a pinch-runner. George Brett had made his major league debut for the Royals 9 days earlier, but did not play in this game.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-2 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Al Kaline went 3-for-3 with a home run, a walk, and 2 RBIs.

* The Houston Astros beat the Chicago Cubs, 6-4 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Minnesota Twins, 7-6 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Tony Oliva went 2-for-4 with a home run, a walk and 3 RBIs. Rod Carew went 1-for-5 with an RBI. Harmon Killebrew did not play.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-5 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. The Reds led 4-1 going into the bottom of the 9th, but Lou Brock's 3-run home run sent the game to extra innings. The Reds scored 3 in the top of the 10th, including an RBI triple by Johnny Bench. The Cards were only able to respond with 1 run, on a home run by Ted Simmons. Pete Rose went 3-for-5 with an RBI.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Texas Rangers, 5-2 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 3-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* And the Montreal Expos and the San Diego Padres were not scheduled. 

August 10, 1948: “Candid Camera” Debuts

Allen Funt

August 10, 1948: Candid Microphone debuts on ABC. It is renamed Candid Camera the next year. It has been on and off the air ever since, including on all 3 of the classic U.S. TV networks: ABC in its 1st season, NBC until 1951, in syndication from then until 1958, on NBC again for 1958-59, CBS from then until 1967, then off the air until 1974, back on in syndication from then until 1979, a comeback on CBS in 1987, a season in syndication in 1991-92, and most recently on cable network TV Land in 2014.

The show involved concealed cameras filming ordinary people being confronted with unusual situations, sometimes involving trick props, such as a desk with drawers that pop open when one is closed or a car with a hidden extra gas tank. When the joke was revealed, victims were told the show's catchphrase: "Smile, you're on Candid Camera."

Allen Funt created the show, and hosted it until 1992. He died in 1999. Among the show’s writers and "correspondents" were Arthur Godfrey, Durward Kirby, Bess Myerson, John Bartholomew Tucker, Woody Allen, Fannie Flagg, Phyllis George, Joann Pflug, Dom DeLuise and Eva LaRue. Funt’s son, Peter Funt, revived it from 1996 to 2004, with correspondents including Suzanne Somers, Dina Eastwood (one of Clint’s ex-wives) and Mayim Bialik.

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August 10, 1948 was a Tuesday. These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox, 9-6 at Yankee Stadium. Bucky Harris took starter Eddie Lopat out after 2 batters and Frank Hiller out after 4, allowing 3 runs. He then let Tommy Byrne pitch through the 7th. Then he let Vic Raschi pitch the 8th, and he allowed 5 runs. In other words, Harris, who had led the Yankees to the World Series the year before, was managing in 1948 like Aaron Boone in the 2020s.

Don't blame the loss on Joe DiMaggio: He went 3-for-5 with an RBI. Or Yogi Berra: 2-for-4 with an RBI. Or Phil Rizzuto: 2-for-4. Blame Joe's brother, Dom DiMaggio, going 3-for-6 with 3 RBIs; Vern Stephens, 2-for-4 with a walk and an RBI; and Ted Williams, 1-for-4 with a walk and an RBI.

* The New York Giants beat the Boston Braves, 6-5 at Braves Field in Boston. Bobby Thomson went 3-for-4 with 2 RBIs. It was the most productive day of his career. But it would not remain the best one. Alvin Dark went 4-for-5 with an RBI for the Braves. After the 1949 season, the Giants acquired him in a trade.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-2 at Ebbets Field. Rex Barney outpitched Lynwood Rowe -- the "Schoolboy" was 38 at this point. Pee Wee Reese hit a home run. Jackie Robinson went 2-for-4 with a stolen base and an RBI.

* A doubleheader was split at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. The Washington Senators won the opener, 8-2. The Philadelphia Athletics won the nightcap, 11-2.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-1 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Ralph Kiner hit a home run.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians, 7-3 at Briggs Stadium (later renamed Tiger Stadium) in Detroit. Ted Gray outpitches Bob Feller.

* The St. Louis Browns beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-1 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.

* And the Cincinnati Reds and the St. Louis Cardinals were rained out at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. The game was never made up.