This week in, 1933, in Camden, New Jersey, the first drive-in movie theater opened. The price of admission was 25 cents for the car, plus 25 cents per person, and no group was charged more than one dollar.
A little reality check about how far the women’s movement still hast to go when you get outside of the US. In Japan, Labor Minister Takumi Nemoto said high heels are a “necessary” accessory for women in the workplace, and companies should enforce dress codes.
Today in 1962, The Beatles met producer George Martin at Abbey Road Studios. He was not impressed, and said so, finishing his rant with, ‘Is there anything you don’t like?’ George quipped, ‘I don’t like your tie!’ Martin, charmed, agreed to work with them.
Today in 1954, Bill Haley and His Comets record Big Joe Turner‘s, ‘Shake, Rattle and Roll.’ It had a 27 week chart run, peaked at #7, and became the first rock record to sell a million copies. Here’s Big Joe’s rendition, performed live in 1954.
We asked the Scott Owens Show audience this morning about their most vivid memories of owning a Kodak Instamtic Camera. Media Maven, Fred Jacobs shared this: “Getting the pictures back from the drugstore, and finding out that 20 of the 24 pictures were out of focus, poorly framed, or otherwise useless. Digital photography was made for a hack like me.”
At right, promotional ad from the Detroit Free Press, touting tonight’s late movie on WJBK, TV 2. “Bye Bye Birdy” is still in regular circulation on both linear and on-demand video. Remember the days before the networks owned every day-part, when local stations bought film packages for personalities like Rita Bell and Bill Kennedy?
A family photo of Elton John with his mother Shelia and stepfather Fred Farebrother in their apartment, 1971. Note the “Tumbleweed Connection” LP poster on the wall. Photog John Olson shot it.
Coca-Cola‘s golden anniversary, commemorated in an ad in The Saturday Evening Post, June 6, 1936. 133 years later it’s still soda pop’s most iconic brand. Earlier this week, we featured the very first Coke ad, which talked about the benefits of “coca leaf” extract. Yup, there was a little cocaine in the original Coke formula.
There were a lot of wonderful posts surrounding the 75th anniversary of D-Day. The CBS Radio Network broadcasts from that historic moment in time are part of our personal audio collection. Now you can hear them too at Archive.org.
Today in 1955, Dwight D. Eisenhower became the first U.S. president to appear on color TV. No digital records of that broadcast exist, but we found the oldest known color videotape in existence, featuring President Eisenhower at WRC in DC. The back story on how an engineer restored an Ampex 2 inch quadraplex tape machine to make the transfer is fascinating reading.
Happy Keener Birthday to:
1909 Actress Jessica Tandy (d. 1994)
1917 Rat Packer Dean Martin (d. 1995)
1940 Welsh Superstar Tom Jones
1946 Former talk show hostess, Jenny Jones
1952 Actor Liam Neeson
1958 The late artist, once, formerly and again known as Prince (d. 2016)
And here’s the WKNR Music Guide from today in 1971. Midday Announcer Mac Owens had that perfect radio voice that bespoke a lifetime of smoking Camels. Mac had a long radio resume, working at WKY (as Johnny Dark), KOMA Oklahoma City, KFRC San Francisco, WOR-FM New York (As Johnny Bridges), and WFIL Philadelphia. He was a Marine veteran and owned an auto dealership later in life. Born, April 2, 1940, he passed away on August 28, 2008 at the age of 68.
