If you haven’t heard of ‘Rocky’ or Sylvester Stallone, welcome back from Mars – about the only place where you could not see or hear about this movie about a boxer, and the rags-to-riches story of the guy who wrote it.
Teen guests will swing at a party of food, fun and favors that a young hostess can make herself. Greet your invited ghosts and goblins with a Halloween party!
You liked the side action upstairs in the bedroom during the wedding from the book The Godfather? In the movie, you got it. Liked the horse-head bit? You got it. The restaurant caper with the crooked police captain? You got it, you got it.
Just 18 years old, Aretha Franklin moves flawlessly in her vocals — from spiritual, to blues to jazz and to pop; and her ability as a pianist is something more to reckon with. Aretha is the girl to watch!
‘I seem to be the king of the middle of the road,’ bestselling singer Barry Manilow said in 1976. ‘And that’s a very fine place to be these days!’
This story is about the father of rock ‘n’ roll music. In a decade of American history condemned for its small-mindedness, blandness and apathy, Chuck Berry set the spark. Chuck Berry kindled the flame.
Former Beatle John Lennon shot and killed in New York: The musician who set the beat for a revolutionary youth generation in the 1960s, was shot to death outside his Manhattan home.
‘Family Ties’ has the most enviable time slot in network TV, following ‘The Cosby Show.’ But the four-year-old sitcom has managed to create its own following, and now clocks in at #2.
For two years, Tom Hanks pounded the streets of the city searching for a job. Then he was flown to LA, screen tested, and finally selected for the role of Kip Wilson in ‘Bosom Buddies.’ And so a star was born.
Wherever Elvis Presley goes to howl out his combination of hillbilly and rock ‘n’ roll, the lean, 21-year-old Tennessean is beset by teenage girls yelling for him.
Released in the summer of 1975, Steven Spielberg’s Jaws single-handedly drove more Americans away from the beaches and into the theaters than any storm or other force of nature ever possibly could have.
Set in New York, ‘Taxi’ concerns the lives of folks laboring for the Sunshine Cab Co. Judd Hirsch plays the only real cabbie – the others are just hacking until they get a break in their real calling.
There’s a lot of magic and humor practiced in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Written and directed by John Hughes, this energetic and offbeat comedy captures the best feelings about being young.
While television hardly needs another cop series, ‘Starsky and Hutch’ may be one of the better reasons to turn on a TV set this fall There’s a quality there.
Vintage pinball machines gallery Click on any image to see a larger version, or to start the photo gallery slideshow.
His style at WKRP finds him falling asleep at the turntable as he puts a needle to the station’s current playlist. But then everything changes, and as creatures trapped at a station in transition, the WKRP folk are quite funny.
If you own a radio, you’re acquainted with Charlie McCarthy. He’s the impudent little dummy who sits upon the lap of ventriloquist, Edgar Bergen, his creator, and entertains millions weekly with his comedy
Now 29, Spielberg is ready with his encore, an $18 million extravaganza about UFOs and aliens who come to earth in them, called ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind.’
‘Superman’ star Reeve paralyzed in fall from horse Charlottesville, Va — Actor Christopher Reeve, star of “Superman” movies, was paralyzed and breathing with the help
Gary Coleman stars as Arnold, a street-wise youth from Harlem, who is adopted by a white millionaire and becomes confused and suspicious about his sudden change of fortune on the comedy series, Diff’rent Strokes.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the 1985 TV season is the success of ABC’s “Growing Pains,” a family sitcom starring former talk-show host Alan Thicke as psychiatrist Jason Seaver.
Nominated for 7 Oscars, ‘Love Story’ starred Ali MacGraw as Jenny, the romantic-tragic girl, and Ryan O’Neal as the rich college boy who won her heart.
Bob Crane, a breezy, articulate ex-drummer and recent disc jockey-turned-actor, stars in Hogan’s Heroes, a CBS comedy series which has Col. Hogan (Crane) as the leader of Allied prisoners in a German POW camp in World War II.
Top tips to help you choose and use cassette tapes 1. Advantages of the cassette tape The cassette format has the advantage of being easy
Reel-to-reel tape recorders hit the commercial market in the 1940s — and their evolution was boosted by the financial support of none other than Bing Crosby, who saw great potential in the technology.
If “The Outsiders” looks polished, there’s good reason. The movie was made by the practiced hand of Francis Ford Coppola, responding to a petition sent to him by seventh and eighth graders in Fresno, California.
Playing off the popularity of the traveling exhibit of the Treasures of Tutankhamen, actor and comedian Steve Martin debuted his parody song “King Tut” on an episode of Saturday Night Live in the spring of 1978.
Panic followed an Orson Welles radio broadcast of the book ‘War of the Worlds’, during which armies and navies were wiped out right and left and the real radio audience was frightened as the actors pretended to be.
It is useless to deny that motion picture stars have been getting the best of it (as to immunity from draft). Some have been given special deferments and choice assignments and have been allowed extra months to finish pictures before having to report for active duty.
Dancer Isadora Duncan was killed when her shawl was caught in the rear wheel of an automobile. Unaware, the chauffeur of the car which was being demonstrated to Miss Duncan started moving forward.
The Courtship of Eddie’s Father was a TV sitcom about a widower, Tom Corbett (Bill Bixby) and his son, Eddie (Brandon Cruz), that debuted on September 1969 and lasted for 73 episodes. The memorable theme song, ‘Best Friend, was written and performed by singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson.
The television sitcom Cheers ran on NBC from September 30, 1982 until May 20, 1993 — that’s 11 seasons, and a total of 275 half-hour episodes. Here, see the Cheers theme song from the opening credits, plus the song lyrics, along with a little look back to 1993, at the end of the show’s run.
Airplane! uses disaster movie conventions as platforms to interject humor at every turn. Like a streamlined club act, it’s all over before the welcome gets worn. Stars Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Julie Hagerty, Robert Hayes. Also: See the Airplane movie trailer!
San Francisco’s great old Sutro Baths was a huge structure with several enormous swimming pools, viewing galleries, museums and more, right next to the Golden Gate. See inside the Victorian marvel here!
In her first special, “Diana!” on ABC. Sunday. April 18th, Diana Ross displays not only her exciting singing talent, but a flair for comedy and impersonation. And in her choice of guest stars — Danny Thomas, Bill Cosby and the Jackson Five — she demonstrates sound judgment as well,
NYC 1938: The dramatic entertainment most widely discussed for the past four weeks has been Walt Disney’s first full-length movie, ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.’
Bewitched ‘is for viewers who want to have the fun of losing themselves in fantasy. Our witches, Samantha and Endora, are believable. The audience can identify with them. They are treated as much as possible as humans with special gifts.’
America’s highest-paid film star in the 1930s was a Swedish-born woman we know as Greta Garbo. A legend during the Golden Age of Hollywood, Garbo was one of the most popular actresses of the silent film era, as well as very successful in the early talking films.
Jerry Mathers and Tony Dow grew up in somewhat of a fairytale world on television’s ‘Leave It to Beaver.’ 20 years later, in 1977, both actors talked about what it was like to be childhood stars who had to grow up and cope with the adult world.
‘The Price is Right’ television game show host Bob Barker reckons he’s interviewed 50,000 persons on the air, and concludes very few Americans are smart alecks.
James Garner and producer-creator Roy Huggins are having another try at a wry, tongue-in-cheek series, ‘The Rockford Files.’ Jim Rockford is a modern-day private eye, money-hungry, and a man who gets heroic only if he’s forced into it.
In the tricycle, knee-pants and pigtail league of television fans, the hero of the hour is a loveable, freckle-faced puppet named Howdy Doody. A phenomenon in the business, Howdy has popped up from comparative obscurity to head man of the most popular TV show for children.
“The Odd Couple” TV show recounted the madcap experiences of Felix Unger (Tony Randall) and Oscar Madison (Jack Klugman), two of Neil Simon’s most endearing and enduring characters.
In the ’50s, the love you had for your kitchen paled only in comparison to the adoration you felt for your washer and dryer.
Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, with their progeny David and Rick, are synonymous with the American family image both on and off television. The Nelson boys are perhaps the only people who have literally grown up before the eyes of millions of weekly viewers.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience was too much for the ushers who have managed to confine spectators to their seats during the summer series of rock concerts in the Hollywood Bowl. Hendrix heads one of the best trios in rock music, a trio dominated by his screaming guitar and dry husky voice.
“Safety Last!” was one of the best-known movies of the silent film era — not only because people found it hilarious, but also because of the iconic image of the Harold Lloyd, dangling off the edge of a building — his grip on a clock hand the only thing keeping him from falling.
Adrian Lyne’s ‘Flashdance’ widens the eyes. Equal pans of shamelessness, brainlessness, and perverse energy have been scrambled into a movie that’s laughable, preposterous and truly awful.
Catchphrases have a way of enlivening our lives. Catchphrases become code words for some not-so-secret organization of people whom the catch-phrases have hooked.
Do you remember these classic TV catchphrases of the ’60s — and are there any that you still find yourself saying sometimes?
Do you remember these totally awesome TV catchphrases of the ’80s? Which of these lines from the eighties do you still find yourself saying every now and then?
The year is 1997. On an uncharted planet, somewhere in the infinite reaches of the universe, an American family is marooned while on a voyage to colonize a new world.
Want to remember to remember? Our weekly newsletter shows you the latest vintage, old-fashioned & historic stuff that we have published or refreshed during the past seven days. Sign up here.
Note: ClickAmericana.com features authentic historical information, and is not intended to represent current best practices on any topic. Material on this site is provided for education, criticism, commentary, cultural reporting, entertainment, historical reference, and news reporting/analysis.
Don’t miss out on the latest and greatest vintage stuff!
Sign up for our free weekly newsletter here.
