Keener 13

For all of you Mad Men fans out there, here is the story behind one of the most iconic ads of a generation.

A big jump for the Beau Brummels this week in 1965. Soupy Sales novelty tune, “The Mouse” is in it’s second week on the charts. And one of the last times you’d see a name like Bert Kaempfert on the WKNR Music Guide.

On this date in 1962, Billboard Magazine reported that last year’s most-played jukebox record was ‘Big Bad John’ by Jimmy Dean. Many stations, including Keener’s predecessor, WKMH, insisted that the line “At the bottom of this mine lies one hell of a man,” be changed to “a big, big, man,” before they would play it.

On this day in Keener history: 100,000 young people demonstrated peacefully in Washington, D.C., demanding the withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Southeast Asia. later, a few hundred militants spread through surrounding streets, causing limited damage. Police used tear gas to disperse the most threatening crowds.

The event was part of the story line in the 1994 Tom Hanks epic, Forrest Gump.

For many of us in the Keener Generation, a pivotal memory was forged in the summer of 1964 when we traveled with our family to the New York World’s fair. It’s theme was “Peace Through Understanding”, dedicated to “Man’s Achievement on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe”. At its center was the 12-story , stainless-steel Unisphere a symbol of the explosion of technology that paralleled the nascent US Space Program. The fair showcased four Disney themed attractions, Ford’s “Magic Skyway” the General Electric, “Carousel Theater of Progress”, The State of Illinois’ “Great Moments” with an animatronic Abraham Lincoln and the perennial “It’s a Small World” attraction, created for UNICEF. An enduring icon of the fair is The Giant Uniroyal Tire that still stands off of I-94, near Metro Airport. The fair enjoyed two six-month seasons, April 22 – October 18, 1964 and April 21 – October 17, 1965. Adult admission was just $2.

As Mad Men winds up, Time Magazine took a look back at some the most iconic ads of the the era.

There are some Keener classics on the list. You probably have some of these.

Here’s a list of the top instrumental hits of the past 50 years or so. Many came after the Keener era, but the list also includes a lot tunes familiar to the Keener generation. Do you recognize any favorites?

For today’s cardio – some very groovy dancing from THE JUDY GARLAND SHOW in 1964. To this great Shirley Ellis hit…..

It’s always interesting to look back at films of many years ago to see what their vision of the “future” was. This is a film from 1967 from Philco-Ford and what they thought the “Home Of The Future” in the far off futuristic year of 1999 would be like. See what they got right and what they didn’t.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RRxqg4G-G4