I was just poking around in the Christmas Eve 1976 edition of The New York Times, looking for something else, and I ran across:
And this pair of ads on the facing page caught my eye:
Two competing images of sexiness from late 1976. Who knew then that the Rocky image would be the much more enduring one. The man, alone with his armpits. Not the man and the woman, with hands thoroughly entangled in curly hair. Rocky even has the more enduring font. And they tried so hard with all those futuristic serifs stabbing their way through the adjoining letters in "A Star Is Born."
Anyway, after finding what I'd actually been looking for — news of the concerts Lou Reed played in NYC in the 70s — I went in search of The Wind in the Willows. I hope you enjoyed that hippie, trippy sojourn into the land of the gentle people, that canyon of if-not-your-then-my mind that was the 1960s, before the mean old 70s came along and made everything so harsh and cruel.
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And then... Blondie!
So, did that video cost $50 or $75 to produce?
people riding bicycles without helmets? Women wearing dresses, without irony or angst?
She was better looking as a brunette although in the 70's she was pretty hot as a bottle blonde.
1968 was a very good year.
I appreciate how the editors at the Times could use "flashy-girl-punk persona" in 1976 and not feel the need deploy an explanatory parenthetical for the squares.
Remember, the "sixties" that everyone "remembers" only began with the introduction of the Beetles to our shores in 1964--the first five years of the "sixties" being naught but an extension of the 50s--and even then many would say this "decade" did not truly begin until "the summer of love" in 1967, the "decade' thus seen as a truncated one ending circa 71/72 with the "70s" truly beginning at that point.
She looks a lot like the young Althouse.
Maybe it is revisionist history, but Rocky was always going to be big and everyone knew it. The remake of A Star is Born? I don't recall being surprised that no one watched it. Heck, Bette Midler in "The Rose" was better than A Star is Born. Pure shlock.
The bike seats are way too low.
Is Kristofferson pausing to be sure he has permission to touch her breast?
Wow, that video was a masterpiece of imitation and copycat.
A good reminder of the conformist undertones of the late 1960's.
Just imagine what the current decade is going to look like 45 years from now. The authoritarian strain is going to be hard to miss in retrospect. Unless they win of course.
I will not be around to see it. It's the only reason I'd like to get very old. See how it turns out.
The hairstyles for young women today are similar to those in the video.
Not so much for the men.
I was actually looking for Toad of Toad Hall star of the Wind in the Willows.
But I did see the Twin Towers in the distance.
Streisand has looked extremely ugly many times, but that curly hair was really a... mistake.
Twin Towers (not completed till 1970 I believe) appear to be falling down.
An angel appeared and said, "Leave California. Get thee to a dark and dank NYC nightclub."
In those two iconic images from the 70's are embedded two different politics.
Stallone is the right image of masculinity, while both Kristofferson & Streisand were both well known lefties. Kristofferson, in spite of his C&W roots, was always much more of a touchy-feelly kind of guy in his romantic roles, while Stallone was always more of a hulky-smashy kind of guy.
I never, ever, could understand why anyone saw Steisand as a sex star. At least her ethnic looks fit in "Funny Girl" or "Yentl", but, jeez! She had one hell of a set of pipes, but that punim -- oy!**
** Yes, north Alabama natives use Yiddish words all the time. Why do you ask?
Well, that was horrible.
DH looked much better later in her 30's-40's. Not too often women look better then, but she did.
Maybe it was the hair, makeup, etc. I'm clueless about these things.
Streisand as a sex symbol was always a stretch. That nose.
"Not too often women look better then, but she did."
I think women who are actually beautiful, look more beautiful when they're in their 30s and 40s.
Simply looking young is a kind of beauty, widely shared. But that extra age divides the true beauties from the rest of the crowd.
Videos of the 60s and 70s were so artsy and meaningful, you know? Kind of like the artsy modern dance troupes of the 1920s, who wanted to be jejune or something.
Here's Deborah in 1981 as a brunette again. An interesting talk hosted by rock writer supreme Lisa Robinson with Cris Stein, violinist Walter Steding and Studio 54's Steve Rubell.
Ann Althouse,
"Simply looking young is a kind of beauty, widely shared."
It's the big eyes and head, like in those Keane paintings.
So my deal unraveled in (what's becoming the usual) spectacular fashion - leaving a psychological mess, everywhere, for me to ponder into the night - but I press on:
Maybe if I exploit my sexuality,...
It's said that Harry never looked bad in a picture. Almost true. Of course I liked her better as a blonde.
The 70's were a drag...but still better than 1968. What a shitty year that was...
virgil xenophone--what event happened on 7-1-1972 to end the 60s? I always thought the "60s decade" ended in 1974.
OK, the music in the sixties was pretty good, apparently up to 1968 (which is the way I remember it), but this was the decade of Viet Nam, the Kennedy assassinations, the (endless and useless) war on poverty, etc. When you realize that the high point (the HIGH POINT!) of the '60's was the election of Richard Nixon, it makes you think, ya' know?
Oh, come on. The 60s had their own very special variety of suckitude, but the 70s were without peer. I mean, we're talking about the decade that gave us Watergate, wage and price controls, disco, Detroit's lousiest cars ever, Jimmy Carter, and the most ridiculous hairstyles I ever hope to see on a human being.
Granted, the 80s weren't exactly paradise, either. But in comparison ...
Deborah Harry was always surprisingly old. (The Grace Slick/Cassandra Wilson phenomenon.) But she has a net worth of $16 million.
Oh, come on. The 60s had their own very special variety of suckitude, but the 70s were without peer.
Good music, though.
"So my deal unraveled in (what's becoming the usual) spectacular fashion - leaving a psychological mess, everywhere, for me to ponder into the night - but I press on…"
I'm sorry to hear that.
"I think women who are actually beautiful, look more beautiful when they're in their 30s and 40s."
Yup.
I will always remember one of the first eps of Marcus Welby, MD. A woman is wheeled out of the hospital 1)after a week in the hospital after giving birth, 2) walks down the steps at the front door of the hospital, 3)gets into the front seat of the car with the baby in her arms 4)without putting on a seatbelt. And the doctor smiles and waves ... Good times.
@MDK,
I disagree with you on the 70's. I think the 70s were the apex of free speech in the US. The 60s counter-culture had injected a strain of really pissed-off Marxism into a culture that still valued personal liberty (think Barry Goldwater). The country was still run mostly by WWII veterans, who knew what courage meant, and in some strange way that courage was passed down to their kids. The counter-culture was resolutely male, and if the chicks wanted to come along for the ride, well, fine. But there was shit that needed to be done, and no one gave a tinker's damn about "feelings".
The 80's brought the rise of post-Marxist political correctness, and we had to start giving a shit about what every ticked-off, depressed, or even insane minority, gay, or woman had to say about, well, basically anything, because they had the "lived-experience" of being the oppressed minority de jour. And each and every one of them made sure to wear their feelings on their sleeves, just so we'd know.
Get an issue of Ramparts, The Realist, National Lampoon, Playboy, underground comics, etc from the 70's & read it. The atmosphere is completely no holds barred, with no respect shown to any sacred cow. It would be impossible to reproduce now, least of all on the ultra-prissyfied Left.
The modern world thinks it's liberated because you can turn on TV & see Lena Dunham's tits. In the 70's there'd never be a breast on TV, but what you found in the National Lampoon available at your corner drug store for sale to any buyer more than made up for it.
Debbie Harry Forever! Blondie's Auto-American album is a masterpiece. Even my 87 year old Big Band Dad (when he was 53) said so.
Fab Five Freddy.... is that really your reflection in there? Yeah? Alright!..... Let's dance to Angels on the Balcony.
Heart of Glass was also my first 45" purchase when I was 10. I danced to that in my 1970s clogs. xo
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