Tag Archives: YouTube

Jimmy Savile, Long Time “Top of the Pops” Host (& Pervert) Is Dead at 84

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Jimmy Savile, Zany British TV Host & PERVERT
(see update at end of article.)

Jimmy Savile was found dead at his home in Leeds October 29. He was just two days shy of turning 85.

In the United States Jimmy Savile is a relatively unknown name except to die-hard music fans or those who might have spent time in the United Kingdom.

In the UK you could not help but know Jimmy Savile. For twenty years, from its inception in 1964, Savile hosted Top of the Pops, a television music countdown show featuring hit singles.   Think of a British version of a cross between Casey Kasem’s radio program American Top 40 and Dick Clark’s television show American Bandstand and that was, Top of The Pops. Savile ended his reign as a regular host in 1984. Continue reading →

New York City Middle Schools – As They Were Fifty Years Ago

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1961 Documentary – New York City Junior High Schools

The New York City Junior High Schools or Middle Schools as they are called now,  were once the breeding ground for a well-rounded education. My parents and grandparents were the products of the old New York City public school system and they never went to college. Yet they could read and understand Latin, had beautiful handwriting, could type, played and studied music and developed “the lifelong habit of turning to books for the information they needed.”

Brooklyn, NY Walt Whitman JHS 1961 Yearbook page

In 1961 students learned how to make things because the U.S.A. was still an industrial society and could actually design and manufacture useful products.

As shown in this 20 minute film, everyone learned about electricity, the elements of printing and participated in the novelty shop; where they could “build things for use and for pleasure.” There was what would now be termed sexism – girls learned millinery work, domestic arts, dressmaking, respect for manual labor and “neatness,” while boys learned the manly arts of metal, wood,  print, plastics and electrical wire. But up until the 1970’s gender work roles were applied in most of the fields of employment.

The children were taught “ideas and facts in citizenship, current affairs, history, geography, and government, to appreciate democratic ideals.”

Okay, maybe they were brainwashed.

But compared to today’s middle schools, they got a fine education. Continue reading →

AC/DC Riff Raff – Live in Glasgow 1978

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Bon Scott and Angus Young With A Blistering Version of Riff Raff

Rock n’ roll was meant to be dangerous and a live performance should reflect that.

In the late 70’s as AC/DC were on the way to conquering the world with a relentless tour schedule and knockout performances, they filmed a few shows for posterity. This one at The Apollo Centre Theatre in Glasgow Scotland on April 30, 1978 does not have great footage, nor is the sound quality all that good. What is exceptional is the dynamic tension that is displayed in this show. AC/DC is ready to blow any other band off the stage. And you can feel it. Continue reading →

Classic Hollywood #8 – Marilyn Monroe & Edward R. Murrow

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Marilyn Monroe and Edward R. Murrow Share a Smoke, April 1, 1955

The caption for this press photo is:

News Commentator Edward R. Murrow holds a match to the cigarette Marilyn Monroe extends to her puckered lips, during discussions at the Ambassador Hotel in New York regarding the luscious actress’  forthcoming appearance on Murrow’s “Person To Person” television show.  Scheduled for April 8th, the TV show will be the second one Miss Monroe has ever done.

Here is interview that aired live April 8, 1955

http://youtu.be/NBGIL7-ah1U

Hush – Deep Purple with Playboy’s Hugh Hefner

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Playboy After Dark –  Featuring the Original Deep Purple

Hugh Hefner’s swinging, late 1960’s TV show, Playboy After Dark had a wide variety of musicians, comedians and interesting people appear as  guests. This clip recorded in late 1968,  is one of the earliest television performances and one of the last to show the original Deep Purple performing their breakthrough song Hush.

This line-up is known as Deep Purple Mark I.  By the time this segment aired November 14, 1969, original vocalist Rod Evans and bass player Nick Simper, both founding members of the band, had been out of the band since July 1969 and were replaced by Ian Gillan and Roger Glover.  The new incarnation of Deep Purple would go on to have worldwide commercial success and set a standard for other hard rock and heavy metal bands to follow. Continue reading →

Vintage Photos – Stealing Home

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Or Jackie Robinson Makes Stealing Home Look Easy

One of the most famous film highlights of a baseball game is from September 28, Game 1 of the 1955 World Series where the Brooklyn Dodgers star Jackie Robinson stole home against the New York Yankees. The photograph above captures the bang-bang action. The play was incredibly close and you could look at the film 100 times and still not be sure of the outcome. Robinson was called safe by umpire Bill Summers. To this day, Yankees catcher Yogi Berra vehemently Continue reading →

Ghost Video At Smith Building In Corpus Christi, Texas

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Why Are Ghost Videos Always Poor Quality?

If you are going to record paranormal activity you should remember three things:

1- Have good video equipment, preferably with a good lighting system.

2- Don’t run away if you encounter something strange.

3- Don’t scream.

It always seems that  people who claim to have video proof of ghosts, always have poor evidence. Continue reading →

I Recognize That Scream

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The Story Of “The Wilhelm Scream”

Coming across weird, useless things like this, is what makes life fun.

When films need vocal sound effects, professional voice actors are frequently called in to a recording studio to create them.

For the Warner Bros. 1951 film “Distant Drums” the sound needed was “a man being bit by an alligator. ” Instead of the actor being “bit” by the alligator recording the scream of pain, someone else at the studio, did the screaming. Continue reading →

Baseball Theme Songs

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When Baseball Teams Had Their Own Unique Songs

Dodge Dart radioWhen my Dad and I would drive places at night in the 1970’s, my father would put on the Baltimore radio station, WBAL-AM to hear the Orioles games. At night the radio signals were stronger and you could pick up most of the bigger radio station’s broadcasts within a 400 mile range, so he would listen. I vividly remember the upbeat song that used to be played to start the O’s broadcast. I searched the internet and have had no luck finding “Orioles Baseball” which is what I believe the title was. But I have collected a number of baseball theme songs and thought I would share them.

For every baseball fan who can remember…

(click on link to hear the mp3 of the song)

Yankees Theme Song

In the 1970’s when I was listening to the radio, before the start of every ball game, the New York Yankees would have their theme played. The Yankees announcers, Phil Rizutto, Frank Messer and Bill White would eventually talk over the song and it would fade out. At the end of the game they would play the theme again. The Yankees still play a truncated version of the song at the beginning and conclusion of games on the radio, but they rarely play this version with the lyrics.

Mets Theme Song

Musically well constructed and simply the best song ever written for a team with its catchy lyrics. The “Meet The Mets” song still holds up nearly 50 years after the Mets introduction to New York. This version is the original version. (ed note: strangely enough I wrote this article on June 30 and originally scheduled it to be posted on July 5. I moved it up to July 3 after seeing that the writer of the Mets theme song Ruth Roberts passed away Friday, July 1 at age 84.)

Cubs Theme Song

If you grew up in Chicago you may remember “Hey, Hey Holy Mackarel” which was the Chicago Cubs song.

White Sox Theme Song

Now, if you were a Chicago White Sox fan, the song dear to your heart would be “Let’s Go, Go, Go White Sox.”

Tigers Theme Song

In the late 1960’s this is what the Detroit Tigers were playing – “Go Get ‘Um Tigers.” Continue reading →

New York Jewish Cemetery Vandalized

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Washington Cemetery in Brooklyn Had Over 200 Monuments Desecrated and Toppled in December 2010 – Crime Still Unsolved in April 2011

Somehow or other this story did not make much of an impact in the news when it occurred in December 2010. This was done by a group of vicious, uneducated creeps. The words I would like to use to describe the vermin who did this I will not publish here.

The damage probably amounts to hundred of thousands of dollars. It also looks like more than 200 graves were harmed from the video posted below. With all the evidence Continue reading →