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This Week in Boomer History: Chubby Checker ... Frisbee ... 'Sanford and Sons'
By Steve Mencher, January 10, 2014 09:01 AM
Fun facts from our shared experience:
1 - Wham-O, the hula-hoop people, manufactures its first "Pluto Platter" on Jan. 13, 1957. The company later changes the name to Frisbee.
2 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules in 1984 that taping on home VCRs does not violate copyright laws. Soon, videotape changes the way we consume entertainment, although we'll never learn to set the clock on those damned machines.
3 - Chubby Checker's "The Twist" tops the Billboard charts on Jan. 13, 1962. Later that year, he asks every limbo boy and girl, "How low can you go?"
4 - Sanford and Son debuts Jan. 14, 1972. Redd Foxx stars as junkman Fred Sanford, after an influential career as a comedian who mostly "worked blue."
5 - Jan. 15, 1967, Los Angeles. The Packers win Super Bowl I. Boomers lead the way in abandoning baseball and its relatively slow pace to become fans of the gridiron.
6 - World War II hero Dwight D. Eisenhower, in his last days as president in 1961, warns against ceding too much power to the "military-industrial complex."
7 - At the Human Be-In in San Francisco, in 1967, the Hells Angels motorcycle gang helps reunite lost children with their mothers.
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Let us read This Week in Boomer History to you:
[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/128343592" params="color=00ff3a&auto_play=false&show_artwork=true" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]
Bonus video:
Credits - Frisbee: Wikipedia: Petey21; Chubby Checker: Harry Hammond/V&A Images/Getty Images; Hells Angels: Bill Ray/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Music - Test Drive: Zapac via ccMixter
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