March 25, 2010

Prom 1977: All In The Family


Kids in 1977 knew that prom traditions often involved the family, be it borrowing your old man's Chevy for an evening of revelry, or posing with your mother under a tree for a photo.

Mom in the second picture incarnates why I love vintage things so damned much. Did she go to the beauty parlor herself that morning to have her hair teased so that a good foot was added to her overall height? Did she use spit to style her bangs?

As for the youth in the first picture, did his family move onto the Clutter Family farm after the cops and Capote left, or something? Talk about a desolate prairie. It looks like perhaps some sort of shantytown exists in the background. Perhaps this young man was going to prom at Jonestown! How did he get such a fashion-forward tuxedo in Guyana?

How could I forgotten today's prom tune? Here's The Sylvers with "Hot Line." This song peaked at #5 on the Billboard chart for two weeks in January/February 1977.



3 comments:

  1. That's not a shantytown...those are boxcars going down the train track. I wonder if he was from the right or wrong side of said tracks?

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  2. "Did his family move onto the Clutter Family farm after the cops and Capote left, or something?"

    LOL! Yeah a desolate train track is a rather depressing backdrop for the tux. Maybe he couldn't get a prom date and was planning an Anna Karenina-style leap after the photo was snapped...

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  3. HOTLINE - one of my favorite 45s ever.
    Best when played back-to-back with WHODUNNIT?

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