As the great Detroit News sports columnist Lynn Henning wrote, “you had to have been there to appreciate the ’68 Tigers.” We were, we did and we do! It was a different time. There was no free agency. The parsimonious GM, Jim Campbell was always looking to save money; the team each earned $4,000 and a ring for the championship season and many needed second jobs to make ends meet. The season had its ups and downs and as the World Series began, it seemed like the St. Louis Cardinals were invincible. As every true Detroiter knows, the Tigers did what they had done all season, they stayed in the game and ultimately prevailed. Here’s a link to the Ernie Harwell / Ray Lane documentary, “The Year of The Tiger” along with this link to Ernie’s complete play-by-play of Game 7.
52 years ago this week, Star Trek burst onto television screens on WWJ and NBC. The space opera, created by Gene Roddenberry and starring William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy was cancelled after 3 years and 79 episodes, but found it’s perennial audience in syndication. It became the first bonafide multimedia franchise spawning 13 films and 6 television series. Star Trek made household names of the original series stars and caused us to examine our prejudices through a sci-fi lens not unlike Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone. A bit of Star Trek trivia: The series was actually first seen on Canada’s CTV network (not the CBC affiliate, CKLW/Channel 9, which we could get in much of the Detroit area) before it’s US premiere on September 8, 1966.
Bill Daily and Burt Reynolds left us this past week. Daily was a television fixture as Larry Hagman’s sidekick on “I Dream of Jeannie“. Burt was a versatile and underrated actor who played a variety of roles, becoming a giant star at the height of the CB craze when he teamed up with Sally Field, Jerry Reed and Jackie Gleason in “Smokey and the Bandit“. While he claimed to have been born in Georgia, Burt was actually a native of Lansing, Michigan. Everyone has a favorite Burt Reynolds film. Ours is 1978’s tribute to the life of Hollywood stunt people, “Hooper“. Here’s a scene from that film, also featuring Brian Keith and a toupeed Terry Bradshaw.
Paul McCartney streamed a live concert from Grand Central Station over YouTube this week. His voice now reflects his mileage, but the crowd loved every minute of his review of more than 5 decades of Paul’s musical artistry. The set list was a mixture of both Beatle classics and the best of McCartney’s solo career.
Grand Funk’s Don Brewer, Beach Boy Al Jardine, Al Stewart and Gloria Gaynor are among this week’s Keener birthday celebrants. The sitcom “The Flying Nun,” (Video) starring Sally Field, Marge Redmond, Madeleine Sherwood, and Alejandro Rey, began its three-season run on WXYZ and ABC this week in 1967.
This week in 1959, Dick Clark‘s “Caravan of Stars” opened the Michigan State Fair with performances by Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Duane Eddy, LaVern Baker, Jack Scott, the Coasters, and Jan & Dean. During a 1967 television interview, Michigan Gov. George Romney claimed he had undergone “brainwashing” by U.S. officials while visiting Vietnam two years earlier. And this week in 1968, Eric Clapton became the first non-Beatle to appear on one of their recordings when he overdubbed his guitar solo for “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” (Video)
Keener Number Ones for this week include:
(1964) Last Kiss, J Frank Wilson
(1965) Eve of Destruction, Barry McGuire
(1966) Cherish, Association
(1967) The Letter, Box Tops
(1968) Harper Valley PTA, Jeannie C Riley
(1969) Sugar Sugar, Archies
(1970) Cracklin’ Rosie, Neil Diamond
(1971) Go Away Little Girl, Donny Osmond
Keener on Spotify: 13 Hits from September 5, 1968.
Our deep dive into the WKNR Music Guide comes from this week in 1968. “Hey Jude” was rocketing toward the top, where Jeannie C. Riley‘s tale about an uptight parent teacher association held sway. The eclectic tastes of the Detroit radio audience can be seen with diverse chart entries from the 1910 Fruit Gum Company, Deep Purple, Iron Butterfly, The Association and Fats Domino. With Jim Jeffries departure for Atlanta, Dave Forster took over the all night shift on Keener, and the Funny Cars were still stars at Detroit Dragway (Sibley at Dix).
We leave you with the images we saw that fall day in 1968 when the Tigers won the Series. Enjoy this video of the final inning of the final game and remember where you were and what you were doing.
