Once upon a time, when you bought a brand new automobile (including cars, trucks, vans, and minivans) from GM or Ford and likely also Chrysler (which was one of the successors to American Motors Corp. best known for its Jeep line of vehicles, preceded by Nash Motors, and as of 2024, was known as Stellantis N.V. which also includes Italy's Fiat, Germany's Opel, France's Citroën and some other auto brands), it was not unusual that if you spent enough money to buy an overpriced sound system from the car manufacturer, the company might also include a "starter" tape (at first they were 8-tracks, and then later, cassette tapes) to accompany their new vehicles in order to show-off their factory audio systems.
Not everyone who bought an auto-maker's sound system received the "starter" tapes, but some did. The starter tapes consisted of licensed popular music for intended for the auto dealers to be able to showcase their sound systems during test drives, and occasionally the auto dealers left the starter tapes in the cars for the new buyers.
Today's post comes from the Internet Archive's audio archive, and it was a "starter" tape from Ford Motor Company in 1976. Apparently, the original tape was found when an heir was clearing out their grandmother's following her death in 1997. The grandmother's husband (the grandfather — had been a salesman for a local Ford, and later Chevrolet dealer until his death in the late 1980's. The Ford "starter" tape was an 8-track from 1976. The music on the tape was classic seventies music (including from stations which played oldies at the time) and a fair amount of this music might have been broadcast on local radio stations at the time.
The track listings are as follows:
A1Hues Corporation*–Rock The Boat A2Chet Atkins–Everybody's Talkin' A3Harold Wheeler Consort*–Feel Like Makin' Love A4Floyd Cramer–Soulful Strut A5Doc Severinsen–Touch Me In The Morning B1Perry Como–For All We Know B2Jack Jones / Susan George–We've Only Just Begun B3The Brothers–Never Can Say Goodbye B4Ed Ames–This Guy's in Love with You B5Henry Mancini–I Can't Stop Lovin' You C1Ray McKinley Director, New Glenn Miller Orch*–In The Mood C2Ray McKinley Director, New Glenn Miller Orch*–String Of Pearls C3Laurindo Almeida–Wave C4Perez Prado–Mambo Jambo C5Joao Donato*–Samba De Orfeu C6Chet Atkins / Arthur Fiedler, Boston Pops*–The Last Waltz D1Anita Kerr Singers*–Love Will Keep Us Together D2Morton Gould–Guantanemera D3Perry Como–The Way We Were D4Arthur Fiedler, Boston Pops*–Les Sylphides: Waltz In G-Flat, Op. 70, No. 1 D5Eugene Ormandy, Philadelphia Orch*–(J. Strauss Jr.) Voices Of Spring, Op. 410
The Paul Lynde Halloween Special aired just once (on October 29, 1976) on ABC. It co-starred Margaret Hamilton in what was her first reprisal of her role as The Wicked Witch of the West since The Wizard of Oz was filmed decades earlier (most of her work at the time this special aired was as spokeswoman "Cora" in General Foods' Maxwell House coffee commercials). Although I missed the original airing, I found the DVD release to be worth a look.
Original ad for Paul Lynde Halloween Special from TV Guide
Paul Lynde was perhaps best known for his role as Uncle Arthur on the seventies TV sitcom "Bewitched" (although he was also the center square on the game show "Hollywood Squares" for many years) and he was also known for his roles on stage (and in the movie) in "Bye Bye Birdie", as well as the voice talent on various Hanna-Barbera cartoons and as Templeton the rat in the animated version of "Charlotte's Web", and as guest star on TV shows ranging from "The Munsters" to "I Dream of Jeannie". Yet somehow, this television special from the mid-1970s made it to DVD. The company that brought that into the digital age was S'More Entertainment, Inc. (http://smoreent.com).
S'More Entertainment's DVD
As Halloween specials go, there really wasn't much competition aside from reruns of Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin, which frankly looked a lot like the Peanuts' gang's Christmas special, so the story wasn't one of those memorable ones. But the Paul Lynde Halloween special is also something of collectors item thanks to the musical guests (remember, this was before MTV or music videos generally): the seventies rock band KISS, which performed "Beth" as well as "Detroit Rock City"and "King of the Night Time World". The reason this DVD remains a collectors item among rock fans, is because it was also the very first network television appearance of KISS in their heyday.
As for the plot, the most diplomatic way of describing it is that it's cheesy. Sure, it's cheesy, but it's only 50 minutes long with 3 KISS performances, combined with a "who's who" of celebrities in the 1970's, including Tim Conway, Florence Henderson, Betty White, Roz "Pinky Tuscadero" Kelly (known at the time for her TV appearance under the name Pinky Tuscadero on ABC's "Happy Days") as well as an unbilled cameo appearance of the ever-perky Donnie and Marie Osmond.
This was entertaining because of the odd mix of stars it featured, kitschy comedy (including one skit starring Mr. Lynde as a "Convoy"-esque trucker with a CB radio), and Mr. Lynde's Hollywood Squares center square comedy. There are worse things that one could watch.
The distributor featured a disclaimer on the back of the DVD box that apologized in advance for the quality of the video, which was from the only surviving master tape of The Paul Lynde Halloween Special. And although there's some video noise and picture quality is inconsistent, as DVDTalk noted (see HERE) "anyone who grew up on dubbed video tapes will feel right at home here with this okay 1.33:1 full screen transfer. Not nearly as bad as S'More Entertainment warns us it will be." DVDTalk's review also happens to be one of the most comprehensive available, and I recommend having a look at it.
While S'More Entertainment has digitized the content, and even apologized for the quality (not exactly meeting the definition of "digitally remastered"), in fact, as TV specials go, the entertainment is funny for the peculiar combination of guests and musical talent, which would be difficult if not impossible to do again today even with hundreds of cable channels available.
As DVDTalk.com wrote in it's review: "... there is a train-wreck fascination with this 1976 TV special. Where else will you see KISS competing with Florence Henderson in a sing-off - and lose? I highly recommend The Paul Lynde Halloween Special."
Even though I was never really a huge KISS fan, I would say the KISS performances beat Florence Henderson without any doubt, but you should judge for yourself!
As I write this, in spite of having digitized the content, S'More Entertainment hasn't yet made this DVD available in streaming video format, but perhaps someday that will happen since it's an easy transfer and Amazon can likely handle that. In the interim, this DVD special can be had for a pretty low price (now selling for like $7, although the official "list price" is $14.98, which again, is relatively cheap), and might be worth getting in time for your next Halloween TV viewing.
Definitely worth having a look at for retro television fans. Although the original video which contained the entire special is long gone from YouTube, its still available on Amazon for purchase in streaming format, which can be accessed at https://amzn.to/2yjQOP4 if you're inclined, or on DVD format if you can still find it, although it may only be used copies available. But I have assembled a brief playlist which consists of an original ABC promo for the special, some commentary from KISS frontman Gene Simmons (the musical guest on that special), and then Bruce Vilanch who co-starred with Paul Lynde on Hollywood Squares, and because he worked for variety show icons Sid and Marty Krofft on their many variety shows (including the Donnie and Marie Show, which Vilanch worked on and Lynde guest-starred on several times) also recorded some comments on the Archive of American Television worth listening to below, or HERE:
In the mid-1970's, Americans were in a pretty bad mood.
Although the Vietnam War had ended a few years earlier, there was still a great deal of bitterness among those who were drafted to fight that divisive war, particularly given the outright unappreciative treatment those veterans received upon their return home to the country that drafted them.
Beyond that, there was a not-so-little matter of the 1973 OPEC Oil Embargo which lead to rationing of gas and oil that was still fresh in people's memories. In fact, I can remember waiting in the long lines at the gas pump with my Mom, and the fact that we had to plan around the days that we could actually buy gas (the government rationed fuel purchases based on the last digit of people's license plates, so even [and odd] numbers could only buy gas every other day). But average cars were not very fuel efficient, so it was a big deal at the time.
There was also a feeling of disgust with the Federal government, since President Richard Nixon had resigned just a 3 years earlier after the Watergate scandal (news of that was broken by two young reporters for the Washington Post named Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein who recently wrote that the deceptions and lies they uncovered were actually worse than originally believed, see that article at http://wapo.st/LulCz4).
As a result, many Americans weren't feeling particularly patriotic, and with good reason. In short, people were p!$$ed off and felt the nation's leadership was unable to manage much of anything.
Yet Congress felt the time was right for the country to celebrate, and what better reason than the nation's 200th birthday, or the "bicentennial"?!
There was a debate about what the country should do, as some argued that events should really be held in either Boston or Philadelphia, but in the end, a decision was made to allow local events to be held across the country, which in hindsight, was actually a wise decision. Besides, Boston and Philly weren't the only places involved, as many other places played important roles in making the American "revolution" happen.
The U.S. Bicentennial was a bunch of celebrations and observances that paid tribute to the events leading up to the birth of the U.S. as an independent republic. It culminated on Sunday, July 4, 1976, with the 200th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.
At the time, I was just seven or eight years old, so much of it is a somewhat vague memory. I seem to recall a discussion of it in my first-grade class (before we left for summer break!), but my recollections were of stuff like the history lessons. I do remember picnics on the 4th, however (I spent the 4th in the Seattle area with my uncle, aunt, cousin and grandmother)!
But the celebration went beyond this. All over the country, cities were painting things like fire hydrants red, white and blue, and there were many other things intending to recognize the anniversary. Notably, my first grade class picture had a flag featuring only 13 starts (for the original 13 colonies-turned-states, along with "76" noted, see the photo at the bottom). Some stuff lingered for quite a while after!
On March 30, 2010, ABC News digitized a piece of it's historical news coverage of Americans' Bicentennial Celebrations on the nation's 200th birthday (July 4, 1976) with the various parades and parties. It's a nice piece if you can tolerate the annoying singing in the early part of the news clip, which is narrated by former news anchor Harry Reasoner.
A short movie tribute to the country's 200th birthday funded by a Bicentennial Project Grant was animated by Vincent Collins (who made other psychedelic cartoons). The film's producer was Deborah Lastowka. This film was produced by the United States Information Agency ("USIA") which existed from 1953 to 1999. The USIA was devoted to "public diplomacy", particularly outside the Untied States. But in 1999, USIA's broadcasting functions were moved to the newly created Broadcasting Board of Governors, and USIA's functions were folded into U.S. Department of State.
In any event, the USIA produced this short (but fun) clip called "200" which is arguably a very "trippy" tribute to our country's 200th birthday which came out in 1976! (It has a look from the drug-laden 1960s reminiscent of The Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds", but I digress).
Beyond this stuff, there was an official "logo" (see above) which was a star made from red, white and blue ribbons (although the British flag is also red, white and blue, so in hindsight, that choice didn't seem particularly "independent") for the bicentennial, which I recall mainly because of the postage stamps which featured it (this was pre-email, folks!).
Even today, you might still have al remnant from the bicentennial in your pocket: the Treasury issued coins with special designs as part of the Bicentennial. An open contest was held to select the designs for the quarter, half dollar, and silver dollar and reportedly, more than 1,000 designs were submitted. The quarter featured a colonial drummer and a torch encircled by thirteen stars, the half dollar had Independence Hall, and the silver dollar had the Liberty Bell superimposed over the Moon. These coins bore the date "1776-1976."
Class Pictures Commemorating the Bicentennial With 1976 Flags
Elementary schools, including mine, also commemorated the Bicentennial with special, flags with '76 emblazoned on them and stars for each of the 13 colonies-turned-states. As I understand it, that was permitted by the Bicentennial Committee that coordinated the events around the country.
Writer, speaker, brother, son, friend, spouse, advocate for people with autoimmune (type 1) diabetes, thinker, dreamer. Reading and writing is becoming a lost art, but we can learn a lot from reading the medical and scientific literature before drawing conclusions. The press publishes abbreviated facts to fit into limited space, I don't mince words or omit facts.
