God, How I hated the 70's

Watkins Glen

2011-05-30T08:17:00.001-07:00

It's always the boobs

2011-05-23T10:44:00.000-07:00

Those of us who grew up in the seventies would no doubt remember the Sonny and Cher variety show. We'd also remember the cherubic little blonde two-year-old girl, their daughter Chastity, whom they introduced to us. I remember being struck by Chastity's uncommon good looks, even as she was lovingly held in Sonny's arms. You could tell he adored her. I don't remember her being held by Cher. Not on the show anyway. She tended to model, in matching outfits, next to her insanely beautiful singer mother, Cher of the taut body, perfect olive complexion, bone-straight long black hair. And the clothes! How I wanted Cher's outfits! I recall a white pair of go-go boots that I coveted! Oh, to have a mother as foxy as Cher, who seemed like Chastity's hip older sister, I thought. My own mother was something of a clothes horse but she couldn't hold a candle to Cher's mishmash of bell bottoms, fringe jackets, halter tops, and whatnot. Sure, every once in a while I'd model in my mother's ankle-wraps and cheese-bottom wedgies -- that's what girls did! - but, you know, the hip Cher quotient wasn't truly there.

But I digress... everybody could tell how much Sonny and Cher loved their only daughter. They were the picture-perfect, all-American family. I was a young girl then, so I suppose it was excusable for me to assume their beautiful family would never, could never be touched by shadows.

Then I grew up. And I learned that good-looking families often have some of the ugliest secrets. The Bono family, we saw over the years, had its share. It was marred by divorce, death, chaos, you name it. In short, just another Hollywood family.

Still, there was a sense that in the latter years, things had been put back on an even keel. She'd emerged unscathed from that marriage to Gregg Allman, and Sonny died in that freak skiing accident, but Cher was a survivor. Every decade she'd reinvent herself as a woman and an entertainer so that she didn't fade into irrelevance. And we loved her even more. Chastity, however, remained a fuzzy image in the background one glimpsed occasionally. There was a whiff of scandal when she came out in the mid-90s but, still, it was Cher we fixed our celebrity-trained gaze upon. Did she have another face-lift? Which young boy was she sleeping with? What the hell did she do with all those Bob Mackie gowns she wore in the 90s?

Imagine my shock when, a few years ago, I read that Chastity had begun gender transitioning. Chastity was going to become Chaz. Apparently, being lesbian wasn't the right fit for her either; she felt like a man, not a woman who digs chicks.

Last Monday, in an interview with Oprah, Chaz's appeared in all his portly male glory. I have to tell you, it was a shock. He looks like a man. His voice is now male, and scarily like his late father's. And he successfully removed his breasts, which, according to him, were what offended him most about his former woman's body.

Gender transitioning is an issue that has always made me uncomfortable. Maybe I'm simply not one of those enlightened types who understand the fluidity of gender. To reassign one's gender, I always felt, was to simply be playing God. If the divine design was for me to be female, wasn't I then flying in the face of God to go to the extent of an operation to become a man? But hearing Chaz Bono talk about hating his woman's boobs, I realised that he'd seriously been in the wrong body. That's what sold me on his claim to feeling like he didn't fit in. "Why not just continue being a lesbian, Chaz?" I kept shouting at the TV screen. Why go to the trouble of becoming a man in order to be in a relationship with a girl? (His long-time girlfriend is still with him.)

But, as he tells it, it's not simply about an attraction to women. He feels like he was actually meant to be a man who's attracted to women. Two of the things that had to go were the breasts. I know no woman who would willingly lop off her breasts and celebrate their loss. Even as a pre-emptive strike against breast cancer. Look how many of us lift trembling fingers to do our breast self-examination each month for fear of finding a lump. The idea of having to live without one of the major organs that define our femininity makes us quake with fear.

But transgender talk still makes me queasy. Especially female-to-male reassignment. There are some questions I have that weren't addressed in the interview. For example, how will Chaz's girlfriend characterise herself now? Is she still a lesbian who's in a relationship with a man without a penis? (Chaz admitted he's still a woman below the waist.) Does the girlfriend's image of herself change now because he's changed? Is this fair?

Another question is: how should a parent deal with this? Cher, apparently, is having a rough time coping. She'd no sooner finally accepted her child was gay than had to call on a reserve to summon support for the child she knew to be a girl to become a man.

And my final question, the million-dollar question I guess, is this: if we accept that there are people who feel as though they're packaged in the wrong body, and those who're left to choose the body they most relate to --as what obtains with intersex people, for example -- what does that say about the creationism theory we automatically embrace? How do we reconcile ourselves with the scripture that talks about us being fearfully and wonderfully made? Is there such a thing as divine design? Maybe it's easier to dismiss transgender people as screwed up, unsure of what they want, because it challenges the tenets of our Judaeo-Christianity. After all, if God didn't get it right with them, how else did He strike out with us? Seeing that He loves us all the same? Can we in all sincerity aver that the Creator doesn't make mistakes? And what good is faith, in that case?

Chaz appeared on Oprah because he wanted to get a conversation on a difficult subject going. The truth is, young people are increasingly faced with these and other complicated issues about sexuality. Regardless of whether they make us uncomfortable, they aren't going away. We have to talk about them

Barbra Streisand in The Way We Were: Forties Meets Seventies

2011-05-23T10:32:00.001-07:00

Throughout The Way We Were (1973, directed by Sydney Pollack), Barbra Streisand wears a mix of period authenticity and contemporary fashion, as costumed by Dorothy Jeakins and Moss Mabry. Essentially she is dressed as Barbra Streisand. Scan photographs and footage of Barbra from the time and it is evident that the actress brought more than just herself to the project; she brought her image too.

The previous year, Barbra Streisand had experimented with the wilder excess of seventies trends in What’s Up, Doc? with Ryan O’Neal. Although now fondly remembered for upping her ‘cute’ contingent, What’s Up, Doc? was a mere flash in the pan. Streisand was never playful or cute; she was feisty and striving elegance. The Way We Were can seem like an elevated representation of this persona onscreen.

After an introductory prologue, the narrative begins proper in college, probably mid-1930s, Barbra Streisand playing Katie Morosky, dressed in searing bright red while lecturing fellow students about Marxism. Her wild curly hair, presumably in place to signify Katie’s transition to desirable later in the story, is reminiscent of the outrageous perm Streisand revisited in 1976 after an equally shocking Mia Farrow-esque crop two years prior.

When the timeline zips ahead to World War II, Katie now in love with the man who tried to woo her with little success at college, Hubbell Gardiner (Robert Redford), most of Barbra’s look is centred on 1940s tea dresses, with mild colour blocking and inverted pleat jackets. The longer line skirt, wide collar points, Western style patch pockets and high heel court shoes, plus continued love for a Peter Pan neckline, are also indicative of the 1970s rejection of teeny shifts and PVC boots.

During the ‘falling in love’ montage, Streisand noticeably wears a red ring on her finger and then a red dress with matching shrug. Throughout the story she blatantly displays red painted nails – spiky reminders of Katie’s revolutionist tendencies. Streisand has always been very proud of her long, slender fingers. When an under-the-counter pornography film surfaced, apparently featuring her in all manner of sexual scenarios, Barbra checked out the footage first hand, proclaiming “There they were: short, stubby fingers! Definitely not mine… don’t waste your money”.

As The Way We Were moves ahead to Los Angeles, Katie and Hubbell now an outwardly happy couple; him a screenwriter, her playing housewife, there is an obvious change in era to the 1950s. Here Barbra Streisand partakes in a kind of pseudo-futuristic fashion show. In effect she, or Jeakins and Mabry, predict her own off-screen style for the next 2-3 years.

Streisand’s first outfits during Act 2 are a white flared pant suit (a look repeated for several off-screen concerts) worn with lilac vest, followed by purple and mauve patterned short sleeve blouse and flared slacks for the beach. American designer Claire McCardell came to prominence during the 1940s for originating a classic but relaxed style, often featuring gingham, front buttoned cotton dresses and wide leg or ‘Arabian’ trouser suits. On close inspection, Barbra is wearing flares, fitted through the thigh then kicked out from the knee. Redford’s equally well-groomed Hubbell endorses the look in a flared single breasted suit, wide collared shirt and brown patent leather loafers.

There is a paradox concerning Barbra Streisand in The Way We Were, in that she is dressed in costume that influences her own personal style, yet to some degree is already based upon it. Towards the end of the film she is back in padded shouldered dresses, before moving onto her own signature empire line style, on this occasion primarily lightweight tunic tops. That she is pregnant provides narrative justification, but even so it is a shape we are inherently familiar with; so much so it follows a shorthand silhouette for the actress that she may never escape from.

The final scene presents possibly Streisand’s most familiar real life look, from the early 1970s anyway, with corresponding bubble perm. She wears a flared camel coat and brown rollneck sweater. This is a style icon cementing her place in sartorial history.

Knowing the discipline Barbra Streisand has always exerted over her image, it is quite possible she instigated control over her ‘look’ in the film. As with Cary Grant, who in early days had supply his own costumes and was trusted to do so, with Barbra Streisand there is sometimes little differentaion from costume, at least in the more contemporary sense, and clothes.

© 2011, Chris Laverty.

Revealed, 35 years on: The face behind Athena's iconic Tennis Girl poster

2011-03-22T12:12:00.000-07:00

By Lauren Paxman

Last updated at 3:35 PM on 22nd March 2011

She couldn't even play tennis but, back in the late Seventies, Fiona Walker made a lot of men very interested in the sport.

Athena's Tennis Girl poster, which shows Walker's bare bottom as she lifts her short white dress, has been described as one of the sexiest posters ever made.
Now the face behind the iconic pose has been photographed beside the poster, for the first time ever, to help launch Court on Canvas - an exhibition exploring tennis as a subject in art.
Court on Canvas: Fiona Walker poses next to the iconic Athena poster she appeared in in 1976
The exhibition runs from May 27 to September 18 at Birmingham's Barber Institute of Fine Arts, making it a return home for the photograph which was taken at Birmingham University.

In an appearance at the launch was tinged with sadness as Martin Elliott, her ex who took the picture, died last April following a ten-year battle with cancer. Both Walker and Elliott had married others since the photo was taken.
Tennis Girl was immediately a top seller for poster producers Athena back in 1976 - although Elliott held onto the copyright and was still getting royalties more than 30 years later.
A teenage boy's bedroom was not complete without the image in the late Seventies and early Eighties, and today the original posters sell for up to £300 on eBay.
Celebrity fans include Jonathan Ross and Ricky Gervais. Both Kylie Minogue and Alan Carr have recreated the pose - to varying degrees of success.
Elliott took the picture in the summer of 1976 after persuading his 18-year-old girlfriend, who was called Fiona Butler at the time, to pose with some borrowed tennis equipment.
Timeless image: A teenage boy's bedroom was not complete without the poster in the Seventies
Elliott said of the original picture: 'People say this image is timeless, and while I'm not sure how long timeless lasts, over 30 years is a good start.'
He also dispelled rumours about the image that claimed the model was male or androgynous saying: 'I can confirm the image is as it seems.'
Walker, on the other hand, always encouraged different theories.
'It gave me quite a buzz because I could secretly smile and say "no you're wrong", every time someone guessed.
"I remember going to a party with my husband and people were saying "is that the girl in the photograph?".
No quite as cheeky: Fiona puts her tennis whites back on in 1980
'They looked me up and down and said "I don't think so".'
Walker's pose today is all the more significant because she has only agreed to being photographed, in relation to the tennis photo, once - back in 1980 when she posed in her whites again but kept a black jacket on throughout the shoot.
The absence of other photos has contributed to creating an air of mystery around the image.
Elliott says: 'If I had a pound for ever model that has laid claim to being the girl, and every photographer that has claimed they took the photo, I'd be a very rich man.'

CHARACTER ACTOR KENNETH MARS DIES

2011-02-16T19:31:00.000-08:00

Sid Vicoius and Nancy Spungen

2011-02-14T11:56:00.000-08:00

The Sex Pistols

2011-02-14T11:55:00.000-08:00

Rod Stewart

2011-02-14T11:54:00.001-08:00

Quicksilver Messenger Service

2011-02-14T11:53:00.001-08:00

Rita Coolidge

2011-02-14T11:52:00.001-08:00

Queen

2011-02-14T11:51:00.002-08:00

Pointer Sisters

2011-02-14T11:51:00.000-08:00

Olivia Newton John

2011-02-14T11:50:00.001-08:00

Mungo Jerry

2011-02-14T11:49:00.003-08:00

Meat Loaf

2011-02-14T11:49:00.001-08:00

Led Zeppelin

2011-02-14T11:48:00.000-08:00

The Faces

2011-02-14T11:45:00.001-08:00

Led Zepplin

2011-02-12T10:36:00.000-08:00

Robert Redford, a film fixture of the decade

2011-02-12T10:31:00.000-08:00

Small Faces

2011-02-12T10:29:00.001-08:00

Stevie Wonder

2011-02-12T09:59:00.000-08:00

Pointer Sisters

2011-02-12T09:50:00.000-08:00

Lou Reed

2011-02-12T09:47:00.001-08:00

The Police

2011-02-12T09:38:00.001-08:00

Kiss

2011-02-12T09:34:00.000-08:00

Kieth Moon

2011-02-12T09:31:00.001-08:00

Joni Mitchell

2011-02-12T09:24:00.000-08:00

Jefferson Starship

2011-02-12T08:32:00.000-08:00

Jeff Beck

2011-02-12T08:22:00.001-08:00

James Taylor and Carol King

2011-02-12T08:18:00.001-08:00

The Jackson Five

2011-02-12T08:16:00.000-08:00

Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull

2011-02-12T08:12:00.000-08:00

Heart

2011-02-12T08:09:00.000-08:00

The Ramones

2011-02-12T07:55:00.001-08:00

Grand Funk Railroad

2011-02-12T07:46:00.001-08:00

genesis

2011-02-12T07:42:00.000-08:00

Frank Zapa

2011-02-12T07:37:00.001-08:00

Foreigner

2011-02-12T07:32:00.000-08:00

Feda Payne

2011-02-12T07:28:00.000-08:00

Emerson Lake and Palmer

2011-02-12T07:24:00.000-08:00

Elvis Costello

2011-02-12T07:21:00.000-08:00

Elton John

2011-02-12T07:19:00.001-08:00

ELO

2011-02-12T07:18:00.001-08:00

Donna Summers

2011-02-12T07:01:00.001-08:00

Don McLean

2011-02-12T06:57:00.000-08:00

Denny Laine, the Moody Blues

2011-02-12T06:50:00.000-08:00

Blondie

2011-02-12T06:42:00.001-08:00

Davi Cassidy

2011-02-12T06:34:00.001-08:00

Cat Stevens

2011-02-12T06:31:00.001-08:00

The Carpenters

2011-02-12T06:29:00.001-08:00

Santana

2011-02-12T06:27:00.002-08:00

Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band

2011-02-12T06:27:00.000-08:00

Bay City Rollers

2011-02-12T06:25:00.000-08:00

Billie Joel

2011-02-12T06:24:00.001-08:00

Barry WHite owned the 70s

2011-02-12T06:12:00.001-08:00

2011-02-12T06:10:00.000-08:00

Stevie Nicks

Elvis in the 70s

2011-02-12T06:07:00.000-08:00

The Duke win the Academy Award in 1970 for True Grit

2011-02-12T06:05:00.000-08:00

Bowie

2011-02-12T06:03:00.000-08:00

The Beatles in the 70s

2011-02-12T05:57:00.000-08:00

'Last Tango In Paris' Actress Maria Schneider Dies At 58

2011-02-11T09:04:00.000-08:00

French actress Maria Schneider has died

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Schneider passed away in Paris on Thursday following a lengthy illness. Further details aren't currently available. She was 58 when she died.

Schneider, the daughter of actor Daniel Gelin, enjoyed a film career that touched upon more than two dozen movies, most of which were in French. But it was Schneider's turn as a 19-year-old actress opposite "The Godfather" and "On The Waterfront" icon Marlon Brando in "Last Tango in Paris" that she's best remembered for.

The controversial 1972 film, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, centered on Paul, a middle-aged American man who is deeply in mourning over the suicide death of his wife. Paul travels to France and meets Jeanne, a young woman who is engaged to be married, when they both express interest in renting the same apartment. The encounter leads to a secretive sexual affair, one that has grave consequences for both individuals.

"Last Tango in Paris" caused quite the outcry in the United States when it first came out — let's just say it had something to do with butter and leave it at that — but the film nevetheless garnered several Oscar nominations, including nods for Brando and Bertolucci. Although the film provided her most famous role, Schneider acted opposite several other acting legends including Jack Nicholson in "The Passenger." May she rest in peace.

Farrah Fawcett's swimsuit hits the big time

2011-02-10T17:54:00.000-08:00

The red maillot she wore in her iconic 1976 poster has been donated to the Smithsonian's popular culture history collection.
Surely you noticed this urgent news item over the weekend: The red swimsuit worn by Farrah Fawcett in her iconic 1976 poster has been donated to the Smithsonian's popular culture history collection. Along for the ride were some of Fawcett's "Charlie's Angels" scripts, a Fawcett doll, a hairstyling kit called Farrah's Glamour Center and, of course, the poster itself.
Do such artifacts belong at the Smithsonian? That's the question, all right; but seeing the famous photograph has a way of making you forget, for a moment, to ask it. It's pure, perfect 1976. The heedless tan, the cascade of hair (lightened with real lemons, we're told), the thin gold chain and, of course, the shocking outline of a nipple through the damp one-piece suit — it all looks as dated as the avocado-colored kitchen appliances in vogue at the time, even a little cheesy. But it somehow remains as titillating as ever, a kind of cultural template for the post-Nixon-era definition of "hot."
Which is why it's interesting to contemplate another image associated with the story, an Associated Press photograph of the suit on a mannequin, as it officially entered the Smithsonian collection. The Norma Kamali maillot now appears more burnt orange than red, and it looks shockingly plain, like something you'd see on a competitive swimmer instead of on a pinup model in the bestselling poster of all time (in fact, the brand of the suit has sometimes been misreported as Speedo).
And while Fawcett could probably have worn a grocery bag and still dominated the wall art of teenage boys' rooms everywhere, it's hard to imagine that a bestselling swimsuit poster these days would be such a no-frills affair.
Not that there's anything new about that. Sexiness just keeps getting sexier, or at least more revealing. Clara Bow, the first It Girl, in the 1920s, looks like a veritable librarian compared with her 1930s successor Mae West, who in turn seems positively matronly compared to the 1940s' Betty Grable, who might as well be invisible next to come-hither Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot.
Having arrived at a moment when the line between pinup girl and porn star has been blurred into near invisibility (the celebrity sex tape, once a potential career buster, has become a valuable piece of media real estate), it's tempting to look at Fawcett's one-piece bathing suit, lanky golden limbs and unaugmented breasts as emblems of a simpler time — or at least a time before the culture became obsessed with weight training, plastic surgery and sunscreen.
But here's the problem with trying to compare that swimsuit poster to its modern equivalent: You can't. There is no equivalent, and not because no woman in the last three decades has ever hit quite so perfect a pose as Fawcett with that one shutter click during that one photo shoot. (Madonna was in line for the title in the 1980s, but she was too much of a shape shifter to truly assume it.) It's because the concept of iconic sex symbol just isn't compatible with the Information Age.
There is no longer one ubiquitous It Girl; there are many It Girls. They're found not only on bedroom walls but also on countless cable channels and deep inside the hard drives of anyone who can type "hot chick" into a search engine. They're not just models and actresses but socialites and reality stars and people who don't do anything much.
I could name names — Megan Fox, Jessica Alba, Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton — but even though they all popped up when I Googled "biggest sex symbol 2011," I suspect many readers of this column won't even have heard of some of them.
And that's why Fawcett's swimsuit may well deserve a place in the Smithsonian (bearing in mind that its collection already includes a Phyllis Diller wig, Fonzie's leather jacket from "Happy Days" and the infamous "puffy shirt" from "Seinfeld"). Fawcett may not have been the biggest sex-symbol pinup of all time, but she was the last of her kind — the last one we could all agree on, or at least the last one we all shared.
And sharing, in a sense, is what we'll now be doing with her suit. Let's just hope it stays on that mannequin.

1972 murder of blind homemaker heads to trial

2011-02-10T17:52:00.000-08:00

(AP) – 4 days ago

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — Tommie Cray was 9 years old in 1947 when his father, a single parent with three sons, brought home a new companion who was raising three boys of her own. Annie Mae had a sweet Southern drawl and an easy laugh, and an emotional bond took hold right away.
"She brought everybody's spirit up, she was so lovable and friendly," reminisced Cray, now 72, as he sat on the edge of his bed in a cluttered studio apartment adorned with fading family portraits. "From day one, I loved her."
After a 38-year hiatus, twice-convicted sexual predator Willie James Kimble, 78, is headed to trial on March 3 on charges of bludgeoning to death Cray's stepmother at her home on Oct. 29, 1972 — the week before Richard Nixon was re-elected president.
Her death would be one of the nation's oldest cold-case murders to be solved by DNA.
Kimble, distantly related to the Crays, had lived in Rochester most of his life but hurriedly left town in 2009 while the slaying was being re-examined.
That summer, police Investigator C.J. Dominic — the son of a detective who had questioned Kimble as a potential suspect in 1973 — obtained a DNA match from a semen-stained blanket that had somehow survived an evidence-room overhaul. After a lengthy search, he tracked down Kimble in his native Sarasota, Fla.
Kimble was extradited last spring, pleaded not guilty and was being held without bail. If convicted of murder, he could draw a life sentence. He's already spent two decades in prison, including seven years for the attempted rape of a 6-year-old girl in July 1973 and 10 years for raping a 17-year-old girl in 1981.
Genetic profiling came into widespread use in crime detection in the 1990s. While DNA evidence has been used to overturn 86 wrongful murder convictions since 1989, it has become an equally vital tool in closing dozens of murders many years after they happen, said Lawrence Kobilinsky, head of forensic science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. "Time doesn't matter — as long as the DNA is somewhat preserved you can generate information," he said.
By age 52, Annie Mae had gone blind from untreated glaucoma, and was largely confined to home. She'd stopped working as a domestic and her husband, Ezra, a construction worker, was unemployed and struggling with alcoholism.
Police said she answered a knock on the front door at 6 a.m. that fall morning, evidently recognizing the caller's voice because she was ultra-careful about strangers in a careworn city neighborhood. The intruder clubbed Ezra unconscious with a firewood log, then sexually assaulted and battered her to death.
Dominic, a 25-year police veteran, said his boss got an anonymous call about the murder in 2009 and had him check it out since Dominic's long-retired father, Joe, was one of the original investigators. Uncovering Kimble's criminal trail, police got him to come in and volunteer a palm print on the pretext of checking his sex-offender status. But his print couldn't be conclusively tied to the murder scene.
Dominic thinks Kimble realized police were on to him because he left a 5 a.m. voicemail soon afterward saying, "'I'm just letting you know I'm leaving Rochester and I'll let you know where I land.'
"At that point, the bells and whistles go off for me," said Dominic, who promptly ordered an evidence search at a property clerk's office.
"Years earlier, they consolidated everything and ended up getting rid of a lot of old homicide stuff," he said. "In the Cray case, everything was gone except, lo and behold, one piece of property buried in a cardboard box that was still sealed."
Inside was a dirty, beige blanket from the victim's bed. Six weeks later, lab technicians called to say they'd recovered semen spots on the blanket matching DNA that Kimble, as a felon, had been compelled to surrender in the 1990s.
Ezra Cray, who died in 1990, told police he didn't see his attacker but suspected Kimble, a nephew who lived a few blocks away. Even though the elder Dominic had poked holes in an alibi Kimble provided, authorities were unable to find physical evidence tying him to the attack.
"My father was drinking pretty heavy," said Tommie Cray, his youngest son. "I more or less blamed him for not being able to defend her or himself."
Raised in Georgia, the Crays moved in 1946 to Sarasota — where they met a young Kimble through an uncle's marriage to Kimble's aunt — and then to Tampa, where Georgia-born Annie Mae became part of their lives. In 1951, their newly enlarged family crammed into a 1949 Chevrolet and relocated to Rochester.
"I was so glad to be around her," said Cray, one of two surviving children. "There was nothing I ever asked her for that she didn't do. She treated me just as well as she did her three boys."
In the 1960s, Cray ran into Kimble, who'd also moved north, and found him coldly distant in contrast with the fun-loving boy he knew briefly in Florida. Fired from a factory job for beating a co-worker, Kimble was acquitted of raping a woman in 1970. Months later, he was jailed for a year for drunken driving.
"He just had an attitude about him. He couldn't get along with people," said Cray, a lens technician at Eastman Kodak Co. for 25 years who remained close to his parents after his marriage in 1965.
"Our kids were crazy about their Grandma Mae," said his former wife, Helen. "She would always give them money. And she was a joker. She would have people dying laughing."
In January 2010, Kimble was arrested bicycling in a park in Sarasota. Dominic, who'd just flown in, went to interview him. He said Kimble denied ever having an affair with Annie Mae or sleeping in her house.
"We asked him, 'Is there any reason your DNA should be in that house, at all?' He said, 'No, absolutely not.' In the end, we basically said we have your semen in that house. That's where he said, 'You know what, maybe I should talk to an attorney.'"
Defense attorney Kevin Karnyski, a public defender, declined to comment.
Tommie Cray, who attended every pretrial hearing, said he'd be overjoyed to see justice prevail after years of dreadful anguish.
"When I heard that they caught him, 'Oh Jesus, thank God, thank God!'" he said. "She was my heart."

Producer of 1970s Superman films found beaten and confused after going missing in Mexico

2011-02-10T17:50:00.001-08:00

A Hollywood producer behind the hit Superman film franchise of the Seventies and Eighties is recovering in hospital after his mysterious disappearance last week.

A health official in Mexico says Ilya Salkind was admitted in a state of disorientation and suffering facial and head injuries on Sunday last week.
Mr Salkind had been staying at a home near Mexico City and his friends said he had gone out for a dental appointment and to run some errands.
When he did not return they reported him missing early on Tuesday.
Unbeknown to them Mr Salkind had been admitted to Jose G Parres General Hospital on the day he went missing.
Because he had no form of identification with him when he was admitted, hospital staff were unable discover his identity until later in the week.
Arturo Torres of the Morelos state medical office said that the 63-year-old Mr Salkind was admitted in a critical condition in the hospital in Cuernavaca.
Morelos Attorney General Pedro Luis Benitez Velez says Mr Salkind was hurt while in Tepoztlan, a town about 55 miles south of Mexico City.
It was unclear how he was injured.
Mr Salkind produced Superman in 1978 and two sequels.
Salkind, born Ilya Juan Salkind Dominguez in Mexico, purchased the film rights to the Superman property as far back as August 1974 with his father Alexander and their business partner Pierre Spengler.
At one point, Muhammad Ali, Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, James Caan, Clint Eastwood and Steve McQueen were all considered for the leading role of Superman.
It eventually went to Christopher Reeve.
Salkind's last foray into film was with 1985's Santa Claus: The Movie. As of 2010, the Ilya Salkind Company had been

1970’s ROCK STAR DIES IN SPAIN

2011-02-10T17:49:00.001-08:00

(LONDON) -- Rock guitarist Gary Moore, a former member of the hit 1970’s Irish band Thin Lizzy has died at the age of 58, according to the BBC.
Moore was found dead Sunday at a hotel on Spain's Costa del Sol, where he was on vacation. The cause of death was not immediately known.
Thin Lizzy had huge global hit records in the 1970s with songs like "The Boys are Back in Town" and "Whiskey in the Jar."
Band frontman Phil Lynott died in 1986, but with a different lineup the band continues to tour today.
Moore was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1952 and joined Thin Lizzy in 1973, playing on tracks for the "Nightlife" album.
He left after four months but rejoined the band again four years later and played on the band's "Black Rose" album before going solo once again.
Moore had a successful career as a solo artist and was well respected among rock musicans.
In December 2008 A German court ruled that the licks in Moore's record “Still Got the Blues” had been plagiarised from the 1974 song “Nordrach”, written by little known German band Jud's Gallery.
Moore was ordered to pay damages to band leader Juergen Winter.

BELL OF THE BALL

2011-02-10T17:47:00.000-08:00

What to avoid? While Jerry Hall and Ali MacGraw looked amazing in a headscarf, if you wear one today people will think you’re covering your grey roots. Avoid turbans, too, and anything gold. Avoid jumpsuits and hotpants.
But I’m glad this feminine, elegant style is back, and I hope it sticks around long enough to see in autumn. It is a hugely influential look, but was actually around only for a very short time, as by 1976 punk was taking hold, and women started to want to look less wafty and more asexual.
This in turn gave way to the power dressing of the early Eighties: kaftans and going to the disco were cast aside in favour of primary-coloured skirt suits and walking to the office in trainers. The flowing hair became ¬bubble permed.
Seventies hair has to be long, and centre-parted. Rickracked hair, as seen on the spring/summer 2011 catwalk at Topshop Unique (pictured above left) is achieved by winding the hair around a long kirby grip while damp, ¬leaving it to dry, then gently teasing out the chunks.
In the late Seventies, I always had my hair cut at Molton Brown. I bought Molton Browners (£7.20 for 12, which in those days was a fortune!) — ¬padded pieces of wire you would wind your long hair in, sleep in, then unleash Andie Mac¬Dowell curls the next day . . .

FIVE TOP SEVENTIES BUYS

Something chambray
This was the fabric of the Seventies: it has to be very soft and pale. H&M has lots of chambray, and while the tiered maxi skirt is lovely, and cheap at £14.99, it’s a bit overpowering. I like the chambray trousers from Very with a high waist for £28.

A denim shirt
It has to look worn and be soft — but it can be quite dark and inky. My favourite is by Ralph Lauren, which costs about £1 million. But a close runner-up is the shirt by APC, one of my favourite classic brands, for £145. Gap has lots of really good denim shirts for about £30.

A halterneck maxi dress
Nothing, not even a Marvin Gaye record, screams Seventies more than this garment. I love this Halston Heritage dress (above). Cheaper, but just as lovely, is a green slinky maxi with a tie fastening at the waist by Mango, £89.90, from Asos.com.

Bag and shoes
In the Seventies, we didn’t really have ‘it’ bags. I had a knitted shoulder bag with fringing. But we did have ‘it’ shoes. As well as my Maud Frizons, I wore giant wedges by Midas. This spring, I like French Connection’s denim fringed saggy suede bag, £115, and Topshop’s pale blue suede peep-toe platforms with an ankle strap, £70.

A floaty kaftan
As long as you don’t wear a ¬turban, it will be fine! The best are from tallulahandhope.com. I love the 100 per cent silk ¬African-print brown and cream kaftan, great for summer evenings, £240. Asos.com has this short, chiffon navy sheer kaftan that is so ¬Seventies, mainly due to the price tag: £35.

Seventies style is back (again!)

2011-02-10T17:45:00.000-08:00

Often, it’s very easy to assume that those of us who grew up in the Seventies always looked amazing: a mixture of Bianca Jagger and Anjelica Huston. But if you lived in Essex, the amount of Halston you could get your hands on was limited. I was generally seen in brown loons, brown wedges, a purple smock and, in 1975, a denim jumpsuit. Even in this frightful outfit I was crowned Miss Talk of the South at the premier disco on Southend seafront.
And so I started to make my own clothes. Even before I bought Vogue, I bought Vogue Patterns. One photo, of Jerry Hall in a multi-coloured kaftan, imprinted itself on my brain. That’s who I wanted to look like. The Seventies look began as a reaction against the girly look of the Sixties. The hippie style was all about being liberated and the long, floral, droopy look was anti-fashion. But it took only a couple of years to become co-opted by the big brands such as Halston and Yves Saint Laurent.
I remember wearing purple harem pants and purple wedges to nightclub Legends, which was just off Piccadilly, and dancing to Love Hangover by Diana Ross.
I owned a pair of Fiorucci jeans. By 1978, I had graduated to ¬Mulberry, Margaret Howell and Joseph. Flicking through a 1979 Vogue, I notice how beautiful model Janice Dickinson was. I remember that recipes used to be published in these hallowed pages. Those were the days.
But now the Seventies are back for spring / summer. I can’t help but notice these new clothes are much easier to wear than the originals, made in the days before Lycra or machine-washable wool.
This new crop of Seventies clothes is fabulous, but you don’t want to look as though you are playing dress-up. So how can you make it modern?
While it’s fine to wear a safari jacket, bring it up to date with three or four narrow, fluorescent belts (as seen at Burberry Prorsum).
Don’t wear Seventies head to toe. Mix it up a little: a halterneck maxi, but worn with flat Grecian sandals, not platform patchwork boots.

Woody Allen's Films of the Seventies

2011-02-10T17:43:00.000-08:00

If you've seen Woody Allen's Stardust Memories, you may have the phrase: 'Why doesn't he make those funny movies anymore, like he used to' racing around your head. If you haven't seen Stardust Memories, then be sure to do so. Allen plays a famous director making more serious films than he used to. Some claim that this is his most autobiographical film, and to a certain extent it is. Anyway, it was in the seventies when Allen made his stylistic change from the straight comedies like Sleeper, to the more sophisticated serious films like Interiors. However it was Annie Hall where the change really occurred, and that film as many know, is his most popular film to date.

Allen in the Early Seventies

Bananas was his first film of the seventies, made in 1971. With Chaplinesque military gags and humour, an over the top storyline, mixed with a touching romantic sub-plot. The romantic aspect of the film, is like a preliminary sketch for his future romantic comedies. In 1972, Allen goes into romance mode even more with Play it Again, Sam, this time however, he takes the back seat and doesn't direct, but plays the main character. This is the first time that we see Diane Keaton and Allen together on screen, and the chemistry is already there, another staple for his romantic comedies to come. This film is really a prototype for films like Annie Hall and Hannah and Her Sisters. It's also where Allen hones his nuerotic character and his acting skills. Another, more unconventional film he made in the same year was: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask), possibly the longest film title in history. Which is a series of vignettes based on a book of a similar title, and influenced by Fellini's films. It's wildly creative and supremely funny, no serious stuff here.

Through the Mid-Seventies

In 1973, Allen reverts back to the formless comedies, with Sleeper. Teaming up with Keaton once again, who plays the pretentious poet. Love and Death in 1975 is one of the first films of Allen's to focus on Bergmanesque themes, mainly death, as a character in the film is called death; a reference to Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal, which is one of Allen's most treasured films. Allen always refers to Bergman as an influence on his own work. However, the film doesn't have a morbid bone to its body, as Allen adds plenty of humour and gags to mask the subject matter.

Ending the Decade With A Bang

In 1977 Allen made his masterpiece: Annie Hall (originally titled Anehdonia meaning the inability to have fun, the film's central theme). He clearly wanted to move away from the Lubitsch-like films and give the audience a more meaningful experience - and boy, does he do that. It's a superb piece of cinema, which created a whole new genre. The following year Allen made his first straight drama Interiors, which was clearly influenced by Bergman again; with little to no comedy to be found. A beautifully crafted film, with superb acting, and neat cinematography. Allen then rounded of the deacde with Manhattan, I always think of it as a sister to Annie Hall, certainly on a par with that film. Stylish cinematography, and a romping classical jazz film score. It's clear to see what leaps and bounds he made in this decade, that would have been a great career by any film-maker's standards.

J. Paul Getty III, kidnapping victim and heir to oil fortune, dies at 54

2011-02-08T05:47:00.000-08:00

Washington Post

J. Paul Getty III, an oil-fortune heir known as the "golden hippie" whose kidnapping in Italy at 16 made international headlines and whose captors severed his ear when his family didn't initially pay his ransom, has died. He was 54.
Mr. Getty had required intensive medical care since 1981, when he suffered a narcotics-induced stroke that left him paralyzed and nearly blind. He died Feb. 5 at his home in Buckinghamshire, England, according to British news reports.

He was a grandson of billionaire J. Paul Getty Sr., who founded the renowned California museum that bears his name and was once the world's wealthiest man. Young Getty spent much of his childhood in Rome, where he gravitated to the world of artists and left-wing bohemians and where, in July 1973, he disappeared.
His family at first thought it was a hoax. Mr. Getty, who had been expelled from several schools, had been known to joke with friends about staging his own kidnapping to squeeze money from his tightfisted grandfather. In fact, he was being held chained and blindfolded in a series of mountain hideouts.
The media deemed Mr. Getty the "golden hippie" as much for his long reddish-blond locks as his family fortune.
His kidnappers sent word that they wanted $17 million, an amount J. Paul Getty Sr. refused to pay.
"I have 14 other grandchildren," he said, "and if I pay one penny now, then I'll have 14 kidnapped grandchildren."
Mr. Getty's father, J. Paul Getty Jr., was in no position to pay the ransom. After years of lavish living and drug addiction, he had holed up in London, where he was undergoing rehabilitation.
The stalemate broke only after an Italian newspaper received a package containing a lock of red hair, a severed ear and a typewritten warning. "This is Paul's first ear," the note read. "If within ten days the family still believes that this is a joke mounted by him, then the other ear will arrive. In other words, he will arrive in little bits."
The captors agreed to release Mr. Getty in exchange for $2.8 million in cash. Getty Sr. arranged for stacks of Italian lira to be bagged and left by the side of a highway near Rome. He told his son, the teenager's father, that the money was a loan that he expected to be repaid at 4 percent interest.
Soon after, a truck driver noticed young Mr. Getty standing by the side of a road about 100 miles south of Naples. Shivering and frail, he had been held captive for five months. When he phoned to thank his grandfather for his help, the elder Getty reportedly refused to take the call.
"He will need time to learn to believe in love and affection once again," said his mother, actress Gail Harris, who was divorced from Mr. Getty's father by that time.
John Paul Getty III was born in 1956 and was the first of J. Paul Getty Jr.'s five children. He spent most of his childhood in Rome, where his father ran the Italian branch of the family company, Getty Oil.
After his parents' divorce, Mr. Getty grew up largely with his mother. The younger Getty had a wild streak and was said, according to a news report at the time of kidnapping, "to frequent hippie hangouts in Rome."
After the kidnapping, two of Mr. Getty's captors were convicted in an Italian court and sentenced to prison, according to news accounts. Several other defendants were acquitted in the kidnapping but convicted on narcotics charges. The bulk of the ransom money was never recovered.
Mr. Getty was left with his hearing mostly intact, and he underwent reconstructive surgery on his ear. He married his girlfriend, the German-born photographer Gisela Martine Zacher. They had a son, actor Balthazar Getty, before divorcing.
A complete list of survivors could not be confirmed.
In the 1970s, Mr. Getty briefly joined the family business as a field worker in Bakersfield, Calif., but he continued to struggle with the aftereffects of his terrifying experience.
He was troubled by nightmares and was, according to Newsweek, arrested for public indecency in London's Hyde Park after he was "found in a compromising position with a female companion." He descended into the cocaine and heroin addiction that led to his 1981 stroke.
If Mr. Getty's kidnapping had revealed intergenerational tensions among the Gettys, his new medical needs exposed gaping rifts. He needed $25,000 a month for around-the-clock nursing care. His father, who had become extraordinarily wealthy after the 1976 death of Getty Sr., and who was known in his adopted Britain as a generous philanthropist, refused to help pay.
A California judge forced Getty Jr. to assist his son. "I think Mr. Getty should be ashamed of himself," the judge said at the time. "He is spending far more on these legal details than it would cost him to measure up to his moral and legal obligations." Getty Jr., who was knighted in Britain for his charitable work, died in 2003.
John Paul Getty III lived with his mother in California and Ireland before settling outside London at Wormsley Lodge, a 2,500-acre estate previously owned by his father.

1973 Pringles Newfangle Chips Commercial

2011-01-16T14:49:00.000-08:00

1970's commercial- York Peppermint Patty

2011-01-16T14:48:00.000-08:00

1970 Dodge Charger 500(Banned Commercial)

2011-01-16T14:47:00.001-08:00

Hilarious commercials from the 1970's

2011-01-16T14:47:00.000-08:00

1971 Ty-D-Bol Commercial

2011-01-16T14:46:00.001-08:00

Classic 1970's Television: 1970 Promo for ABC-TV's Friday Line-Up

2011-01-16T14:46:00.000-08:00

1970 Pinto Commercial "Introducing the Pinto"

2011-01-16T14:45:00.001-08:00

Top 30 Best rock songs of the 70's

2011-01-16T14:45:00.000-08:00

1970s

2011-01-16T14:44:00.000-08:00

Deep Purple - Smoke On The Water (From "Live At Montreux 2006" DVD)

2011-01-16T14:39:00.000-08:00

Paul Revere & the Raiders - Indian Reservation

2011-01-16T14:37:00.000-08:00

Cher - Gypsys Tramps And Thieves

2011-01-16T14:36:00.001-08:00

One Tin Soldier - The Legend of Billy Jack

2011-01-16T14:36:00.000-08:00

ARIZONA / MARK LINDSAY

2011-01-16T14:35:00.000-08:00

Another pretty good film from the Seventies

2010-11-24T10:33:00.000-08:00

In the 1970s, Bob Fosse was the thing

2010-11-24T10:29:00.000-08:00

Rich Man Poor Man

2010-11-23T07:50:00.000-08:00

Um...Uh...yeah..well things change

2010-11-23T07:49:00.000-08:00

Bob Newhart roasts Don Rickles

2010-11-23T07:48:00.000-08:00

Yeah, yeah that'll do it

2010-11-23T07:47:00.000-08:00

Carol Burnett Show Blooper Reel

2010-11-23T07:46:00.000-08:00

Um....I don't know

2010-11-23T07:45:00.000-08:00

Mary Tyler Moore Show- Bloopers Pt. 1

2010-11-23T07:41:00.000-08:00

WTF?

2010-11-23T07:40:00.001-08:00

Steve Martin on the Gong Show

2010-11-23T07:39:00.000-08:00

This borders uncomfortable to creepy

2010-11-23T07:38:00.001-08:00

Mixed 70s

2010-11-19T23:27:00.001-08:00

Serpico, a great, gritty film

2010-11-19T23:23:00.000-08:00

Animal House holds up through the decades, doesn't it?

2010-11-19T23:15:00.000-08:00

Never really got the whole Neil Young whining thing

2010-11-19T23:08:00.000-08:00

Don't you eat that yellow snow..I miss Frank Zappa

2010-11-19T23:00:00.000-08:00