The Early to Mid 1970s: The Last Gasps of the Golden Era

[davidraphael]

Luckily, some of us have the secret government jobs and the bionic technology that will allow us to colour-correct Lady Eastman....

 

[davidraphael]

I agree with the 1970s cinema comments. The 70s was one of the greatest decades for American cinema. Scorsese, Coppola, Cassavetes, Woody Allen, et al. And as I've said before, many movies in this period revisited the golden era

 

[Amy Jeanne]

I'm loving the Color Lady!! I just read this reading up on those SMPTE color bars on TV: In the 1970s and early 1980s, the color bars were often broadcast by local television stations during special "color check" segments. For example, CFQC-TV in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan preceded each nightly newscast with "Color Check", which began with the SMPTE color bars as an announcer identified the colors of the vertical bars encouraging viewers to adjust their TV color settings to make sure the colors were "well separated" and matched the description, after which a photograph (later video footage) of a woman's face was broadcast for a few moments, allowing viewers to adjust their TV color settings further.

And I can't lie when I say this, but Mae West's final film "Sextette" (1978) always reminded me of a 30s musical. I know that was her "day" and all, but take away the 70s suits and hairdos and un-disco-ize the music and it's so 30s!!

 

[Metatron]

As far as movies go, the early and mid 70s were the best period since the '30s for interesting, unusual, provocative pictures. I think "Network," from 1975, is one of the greatest films ever made in the US, and there were plenty of others of similar quality. It was, in a lot of ways, the last gasp for truly adult films from Hollywood -- not adult as in dirty, but adult as in intelligent.

I agree that the 70s were great for cinema! But it think it might be that the films that stood the test of time weren't necessarily the most popular ones, and the same will probably hold true for current films in a few decades.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Another Golden Era institution that continued on into the early seventies: the network radio dance band remote. As much as these broadcasts seem like a defining attraction of 1930s and 1940s radio, few people realize they continued thru the fifties, thru the sixties, and into December 1971 before the final "we take you now to the Such and such room of the Hotel So-and-so for the music of Joe Blow and his Orchestra." A friend of mine was a CBS engineer on many of these final broadcasts, and never knew how many affiliates were bothering to pick them up. But they were there if you knew where and when to tune.

CBS held onto a lot of its Golden Era radio features for as long as it possibly could. Amos and Andy were on the air until 1960, but they were pikers compared to Arthur Godfrey, whose morning show ran into the spring of 1972, and Lowell Thomas -- who didn't retire from his nightly newscast until May of 1976. A number of the Murrow Boys were still on the air into the 1980s, but the longest-lived of all was Robert Trout -- who covered his last election for ABC radio in 1992.

 

[Chowderhouse]

and Lowell Thomas -- who didn't retire from his nightly newscast until May of 1976.

That's amazing. Lowell Thomas made Lawrence of Arabia famous during WWI.

 

[davidraphael]

I was thinking about the GE's revival interest in the early 1970s and, musically, in terms of popular culture, I think we owe it in part to The Beatles.

While the 60s can be defined as finding new forms: the new pop era (ie, Fab Four) and later Hippie/Flower Power movement, from around 1967 The Beatles were actually starting to look back. As Paul McCartney wrote in his lyric for 'Your Mother Should Know": "Let's all get up and dance to a song that was a hit before your mother was born."

While many people started wearing kaftans and grew their hair long, McCartney initially started wearing the clothes of his parents and grandparents. He cut his hair short, grew a moustache, took to wearing classic pre-war fair-isle vests and wrote songs about England of the 1900-40s.

This 'looking back' became most apparent in their album 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'. The band is reinvented as an Edwardian brass band and the concept album itself is designed to be an evening at the music hall/vaudeville with each (novelty) song being performed by or about a different act (Billy Shears, Mr Kite, etc). Audience applause and sound effects are incorporated throughout.
Similarly, Magical Mystery Tour refers to the 'charabanc' (bus) tours of the early 20th century that ferried working class people to the seaside.

At the same time, there were songs that looked back at Liverpool and England of the 1940s ('Strawberry Fields', 'Penny Lane', etc) and other songs that aped music hall/1910s-20s musical traditions ('Honey Pie' from The White Album) - an idea that was picked up by other bands, such as Queen who, in the early 1970s, recorded their own music hall style numbers (Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon, Seaside Rendezvous, The Millionaire Waltz) and Genesis, who tapped into the dreamy surreal aspect of Victorian/Edwardian England in their early albums, such as Nursery Cryme.

 

[Gin&Tonics]

This is a fascinating take on the era of the 70's as the final gasp of the golden era. While the point is well taken that "wispy threads" continue to persist to this day, I believe the OP may be correct in his assessment that the last time when the GE had a strong impact/influence on society at large was probably the 70's. I say this based on second hand knowledge; I was born in 1982. In truth, wispy threads connect us even to the Victorian era, as many of the little traditions and norms we still carry on today had their origins in those long gone days, but as true as that is, that doesn't mean that the era really persists.

I disagree perhaps with the OP's interpretation of the song American Pie. My understanding is that it was very much a lament of the deaths of Buddy Holly, Richie Valence and the Big Bopper in a plane crash, which in turn represented a devastating loss to the "Golden Age of Rock and Roll". Personally, my very favourite era of music was the Golden Oldies expemplified by the late 50's, 60's and very early 70's, and I find that American Pie is a lament of the end of this magical era of music and the certain degree of (mostly) innocent, fun loving attitude that went along with it.

As for All in the Family being a nostalgic look back at the GE, one need only listen to the theme song "Those Were The Days" to be convinced of that!

Boy, the way Glen Miller played. Songs that made the hit parade.
Guys like us, we had it made. Those were the days.
Didn't need no welfare state. Everybody pulled his weight.
Gee, our old LaSalle ran great. Those were the days.
And you know who you were then, girls were girls and men were men.
Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again.
People seemed to be content. Fifty dollars paid the rent.
Freaks were in a circus tent. Those were the days.
Take a little Sunday spin, go to watch the Dodgers win.
Have yourself a dandy day that cost you under a fin.
Hair was short and skirts were long. Kate Smith really sold a song.
I don't know just what went wrong. Those Were The Days.