The Tennessee State Fair took place at the State Fairgrounds which makes sense. I often see people lamenting the loss of Opryland, but I don't think as many miss Fair Park which was located at the fairgrounds. Which is a shame as I always enjoyed going there with all of the carnival rides and the awesome wooden rollercoaster the Skyliner.
There were several food related ads in the insert like this one for Big Tex who had been selling pizza at the fair for 10 years.
The big musical attraction for the 1976 State Fair was ZZ Top. This was part of their World Wide Texas Tour where they brought lots of actual critters from Texas with them.
Nick Gulas and NWA wrestling was a fixture at the Fairgrounds Arena and it would have been a thrill to have seen some matches while attending the fair.
Up With People were very popular back in the Seventies and they are still going strong now. "Up, up with people, they're the best kind of folks to know."
Up With People from 1976
Insert Centerfold
Here's a coupon for a free game on the midway.
Here's another food ad for "The Most Tantalizing Flavor On The Midway!" which a pineapple whip.
If a pineapple whip isn't your thing how about a fiddlestick instead? You can enjoy your ice cream treat while the Tennessee Farm Band from Summertown tickles your eardrums.
That's it for the State Fair insert so let's check out the cover of the Sunday Showcase. Channel 2 news was getting some nice publicity here with an all new look promised. We usually watched the Channel 5 news in our house though sometimes we took in the hour long WSM news.
Here's the color version for you.
Frank Sinatra was going to play M.T.S.U. on October 21st, but (spoiler alert) this concert never happened. Sinatra cancelled his planned Southern tour due to the flu with dates in Norfolk, Richmond, Atlanta, and Birmingham all falling to the wayside. Rumors would swirl around that the shows were cancelled due to poor ticket sales instead of the flu, but I would guess that the Chairman of the Board, Mr. Sinatra, would have had guaranteed money regardless of attendance. 8,000 people were projected to attend the gig in Murfreesboro, but they would have to settle for a refund and the local radio station WMTS broadcasting a two hour special of Sinatra's music.
The Spinners with super guests Brass Construction would play September 24th at Municipal Auditorium. If you didn't get your tickets through the mail you could get them at the box office, Fast Ed's, Music City One-Stop, and Haddox Pharmacy according to the September 24th Tennessean.
Brass Construction on Soul Train
The Spinners were one of a kind
ZZ Top was coming to the State Fair so a full page ad was taken out in this week's Sunday Showcase. The World Wide Texas Tour had been a smash all across the USA. Note it says "Special Guests to be announced." Those special guests turned out to be The Band in their first ever Nashville appearance!
The Band live 7-20-1976
ZZ Top live 11-11-1976
The Bod Dylan Hard Rain concert was going to be broadcast by Channel 4 on Tuesday night.
Shelter From The Storm
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis had reunited briefly on the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon the week before and everyone was still buzzing about it.
I had to go and this was the closest place
Captain Kangaroo and Dolly
Dolly in downtown Nashville 1976
Now for my one of my favorite things to do with these reviews: look at what I would have possibly watched on Saturday. I was an only child and I probably did spend way too time with my eyes glued to the television, but it wasn't like it's how I spent all my time. I usually would watch several hours a day if I had the free time, but I generally would be outside if the weather was nice so this is just a list of what I possibly saw.
The day begins at 6:00 with the adorable Sally Field in the The Flying Nun. I was most likely asleep since there was nothing at 6:30 really to see. I wouldn't be too interested in the cartoons that aired at 7:00, but if I was up I suppose I'd turn on The Sylvester & Tweety Show. It may just be me, but I always hoped Sylvester would eat that annoying bird. I would stay tuned to Channel 5 and watch The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour every week. I'd switch the dial at 8:30 to Channel 2 for the The Scooby Doo/Dynomutt Hour.
Dynomutt promo
The Krofft Supershow came on at 9:30 and I would watch parts of this show. I thought Kaptain Kool and the Kongs were lame, but I did like "Dr. Shrinker", "The Lost Saucer", and "Electra-Woman and Dynagirl." Land of the Lost would always get my full attention at 10:00AM even if it was the weird 3rd season where the father gets back, but Uncle Jack ends up in the land of the lost. I'd probably tune back into The Krofft Supershow. Sid and Marty Krofft were making bank back in the Seventies!
the land of dreams they are leading you to is Atlanta
Season 3 intro
11:00AM is loaded with choices ranging from the awesome Zoom, the once beloved Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, teen detectives The Kids From C.A.P.E.R., and a kids gameshow I had completely forgotten about Junior Almost Anything Goes.
Junior Almost Anything Goes promo
It would be American Bandstand and then NBC's baseball game of the week for me or perhaps I'd look in on the 4 hours of tennis showing on PBS. Channel 17 WZTV had recently started airing and we may have been able to pick up their feed. I remember when we lived out on Manson Pike my father purchased a rather big used Zenith TV and I could watch a blurry Spiderman on it. I would want to see Return of the Giant Monsters, Roller Superstars (go LA T-Birds!), and wrestling if Channel 17 was coming in good, but most likely my parents would switch over to Hee Haw at 6:00PM. Emergency! was a childhood favorite, but comic books trumped everything for me so I'd be watching Wonder Woman at 7:00. It would have been a rerun of one of the first 3 episodes as October was when the next first run episode ran according to IMDB. I do know I liked Wonder Woman best when it was set in World War II.
Lynda Carter rules
My parents would next watch The Mary Tyler Moore Show and the The Bob Newhart Show. I don't know if I stuck around to see the 2nd annual Rock Music Awards or if either of my parents kept the television tuned to Channel 5, but I hope they did. I probably went to bed around 10:00PM, but if I managed to stay awake I might have tuned into Saturday Night Live without understanding much of the humor or more likely I would have watched the local Nick Gulas promoted championship wrestling show.
The Rock Music Awards were wacky
Time to wrap up this post with a look at the Top 10 Records in Nashville from the past week. Wild Cherry had gained the top spot with "Play That Funky Music" which would end being the 5th most popular Billboard hit of 1976. The 2nd most popular tune of the year, "Don't Go Breaking My Heart", had dropped to number 4 and had been in the top 10 for 9 weeks. Rick Dees & His Cast of Idiots novelty song "Disco Duck" comes on the local chart for the first time at number 5 with a bullet. My favorites from this chart would be The Bee Gees and Heart.
flapping my arms I began to cluck
Kiki Dee is cool and Elton was mega
lay down the boogie
what you doin' on your back
Heart - Magic Man live
That's all for now. I'll be back next week, but remember, there is a limited shelf life to these posts as I plan on stopping these full Sunday Showcase reviews at the end of the year. I'll keep on blogging, but a little over a year's worth of these should be plenty.
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