A Thursday in 1970

Thursday, September 10th, 1970

Once again at school all day, followed by the usual after school daily routines and shows before primetime.

At 7:30, Billy Graham once again preempted ABC's feed on Channel 12 but I have no idea what I missed this time as Oral Roberts cut it off on the Dayton ABC channel as well! Oh, well. More than likely we would have watched FAMILY AFFAIR no matter what, in spite of a highly touted NBC science special, THE ICE PEOPLE.

At 8, Glenn Ford hosted a one hour musical (!!) salute to America with guests that included Lou Rawls, John Hartford, Connie Stevens, Mac Davis, Bill Medley (from the Righteous Brothers) and Mark Lindsay (then briefly estranged from Paul Revere and the Raiders). Don't know if we would have watched that but of we did, we probably tuned out halfway through to catch BEWITCHED, a family favorite.

In retrospect, I wish I had watched MIDSUMMER ROCK, a 90 minute NBC special that had been filmed in Cincinnati in July of 1970. My dad worked at the Post Office at the time that was just down the street from the Reds' by-then abandoned Crosley Field where the Midsummer Rock Festival had been held. He came home complaining of long-haired hippies and loud motorcycles and tons of trash everywhere throughout the whole neighborhood.

Ultimately, it became an important bit of rock history as the first time Iggy Pop had done his geek act--cutting himself, smearing himself with peanut butter and then spontaneously walking out across the top of the crowd on the hands of concert goers. In the TV coverage, one can hear staid veteran announcer Jack Lescoulie wondering just what the heck was happening!

Besides the Stooges, the groups appearing briefly on air--edited down from 15 hours of he Festival--included Traffic, Mountain, Alice Cooper and Grand Funk Railroad. At 11 and having just discovered AM radio not long before, I had, I'm certain, never heard of any of them except Grand Funk Railroad.
 
Legendary MGM musical star Gene Kelly had a variety special on at 9 that we probably saw. His major guests were Barbara Eden and James Garner. Based on the ad, though, its main reason to exist was to introduce the brand new Chevrolet Vega! Other than the skipped rock concert, Gene and Chevy's only competition consisted of three old movies--a Rock Hudson Western, a Robert Ryan spy flick and a Betty Grable musical.

THE GOLDDIGGERS London variety series with Marty Feldman aired its final episode at 10 and then I'd have gone to sleep, missing that evening's chat show guests that included Rich Little and Glenn Ford.