Sunday Showcase Review September 24, 1972

This week's Sunday Showcase comes from September 24, 1972 with a delightfully silly cover featuring William Conrad, star of CBS's Cannon, making a guest appearance as Captain Amazing on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In which ran on NBC. Conrad was an interesting guy. He was a fighter pilot in World War II. He was the radio voice of Marshall Matt Dillon in Gunsmoke. He narrated the Rocky and Bullwinkle show.

Narrator William Conrad is featured

The music people at WMAK 1300 dropped an ad with their new fall line-up. Coyote McCloud was looking good! He would be one of my favorite disc jockeys when he was on in the mornings for KX104 in the early 80's. Scott Shannon was their primetime deejay and I've read many comments waxing nostalgic over him. I was still a few years away from becoming an avid radio listener, but I love listening to old radio spots posted on YouTube. 

Scott Shannon on WMAK

Some more Scott Shannon on WMAK

Tuesday nights in the Seventies was a great time to turn on ABC, which in this case was still channel 8 in the Nashville viewing area, and see an all new made for television movie. Moon Of The Wolf was premiering this week. I watched many of these growing up and I get excited just to hear the the Burt Bacharach tune "Niki" which was the music used in the theme.

ABC Movie of the Week intro

He's saying werewolf.

Fall television was in full swing and WSM TV 4 has a nice big ad, probably provided by the NBC network, showing what was going to be on that Sunday night. I remember being outside on Sunday afternoons when my mother would call for me just to let me know the The Wonderful World of Disney was coming on. I would sprint to the back door as quickly as possible. It would be time for a bath and bedtime but first the NBC Sunday Night Mystery Movie would begin. I remember the intro of the anthology show as I would act like I was walking toward the television set with my own flashlight. 

Everywhere you look unrest...

Loved this theme

The 8th Annual Festival of Music was happening at the Grand Ole Opry House. This would have been held at the Ryman. Chet Atkins, Floyd Cramer, Boots Randolph, and Jethro Burns are the big attractions with tickets available at Harvey's and 100 Oaks Mall.

Stanley Kubrick's movie version of A Clockwork Orange was coming to play Green Hills.

It's a stinky world because there's no law and order anymore

The Top 10 Records have Elvis on top with "Burning Love" which had replaced the Raspberries "Go All The Way." Sam Neely is a singer/songwriter who's overdue to be rediscovered so it's cool to see his biggest hit "Loving You Just Crossed My Mind" hit number 8 in Nashville. It got up to 29 on the national Billboard chart. He would later get the song "Long Road To Texas" in my favorite movie about pinball called Tilt. 

Sam Neely

Raspberries going all the way on the Mike Douglas Show

it's not the 45 single, but here's Elvis doing "Burning Love" in Hawaii

Film Flashback February 28, 1972

There was a time when Murfreesboro was reduced to just two movie screens. There was the Martin Theatre in its pre-Twin days and there was the Marbro Drive-In with its one huge screen. The Princess Theatre had closed its doors and the Cinema One was several years away. It would open April 17, 1974 with The Three Musketeers. You could go see if a movie was playing on campus at M.T.S.U., but the the theatre and screen was very small. Your other best option was to drive to Nashville, but luckily on this night in 1972 there are a couple of great movies playing. 2001: A Space Odyssey is at the Martin Theatre playing for just three days. The movie had been out for 4 years at this point and it was to re-released in 1974, 1977, and 1980 so I'm perplexed why it would be playing in 1972. Gone With The Wind which had been re-released in 1971 had run from February 23-26. Diamonds Are Forever would follow it. 2001: A Space Odyssey is a stellar (get it) movie. Even if you've never seen it there are parts of it that have become pop culture totems. HAL-9000 may be fictional, but Siri and Alexa owe him some respect. Stanley Kubrick is often credited with filming the "faked moon landing" based on his direction of this sci-fi classic. If you have never seen it, you should set aside an afternoon to do so. 

The Marbro Drive-In had future cult favorite Two-Lane Blacktop which starred rock musicians James Taylor and Dennis Wilson. One of my favorite character actors Warren Oates is also a big part of this enigmatic film. Laurie Bird is wonderful as The Girl. Yes, that's right. She's just called The Girl. James Taylor is The Driver. Dennis Wilson is The Mechanic. Warren Oates character drives a brand new Pontiac G.T.O. Judge model so he's known as G.T.O.. His is perhaps the most developed character in the movie. Taylor and Wilson don't have many lines and what few they have are about the car The Driver drives. It's a 1955 Chevrolet. There were three used for the film and one of those became the 55 Chevy rolled in the American Graffiti drag race scene at the end. The main characters just drift from town to town looking to win enough money to keep going. There doesn't seem to be much purpose in the Monte Hellman directed film. When The Driver and The Mechanic run into Warren Oates's G.T.O. character he talks them into racing across the county to Washington D.C. for the pink slips of the cars, but as the movie goes on you see there will be no final scene showing who gets there first. The moment is the only thing that matters and it's exemplified by Laurie Bird's The Girl who plays all of the male characters off each other before leaving with a guy on a motorcycle. She's just drifting too. A hippie haze hangs over the film, but in a mild buzzed out way. I love its aimlessness and the rootlessness of the characters. Universal Pictures was probably hoping it would be the next Easy Rider, but it was a flop. Laurie Bird would tragically commit suicide in 1979. Dennis Wilson would drown in 1983. I have the Criterion DVD release of Two-Lane Blacktop. The movie is definitely not for everyone, but I love its languid pace when its about the speed of automobiles. The racetrack scenes were filmed at Memphis's now long gone Lakeland Racetrack. There's also a scene at Deals Gap on the Tennessee-North Carolina border. What a treat it would have been to have seen this movie at a drive-in. 

A Wonderful Night For A Moondance

So we didn't go to the moon - judge the proof for yourself.