How Does It Feel To Be One Of The Beautiful People?

1970

1973

This "beautiful person" wound up committing suicide in 2008.  She lost all of her money to Bernie Madoff, and she couldn't face being "both old and poor."  She was 73.

An extensive article about Luciana.
 

 

Baby, you're a rich man...

Sounds Good To Me

Please tell me that that is not a white-gloved Black Man serving cocktails to Mr. and Mrs. Whitey as their little brat languishes on Santa's lap.  And was Santa auditioning for a Thomas Dolby video?  "Science!"

From 1965: What In The Holy Hell?

I'm en route to getting ready for Date Night, but I was so appalled by this clip, I had an urge to blog about it immediately!

Karen J., you evil and tortuous soul, how can you claim to be "one of my biggest fans" and then release this piece of fresh Hades upon me, knowing full well that I would have to do a post about it here? Devil woman, you!

Words...fail me. I didn't think even The Sixties were capable of children's toys that could only be played successfully by feigning an epileptic fit. But here it is: Swing Wing.



(Thank you, Karen. XOXOXOXO)

From 1984: When Solid Gold Dancers Are Encouraged To Embrace The Power Of Interpretive Dance

Fifty shades of wrong, and how I love it so.

I mean, should one be honored if your tune is interrupted by an introduction to the entire show by Marilyn McCoo?

A million trillion thanks to my gal pal Amy for alerting me to this horrible, horrible gem. You were so right, Amy: this fits perfectly on the blog.

Of Course, The Question That Begs To Be Answered Is: Which One Is Al Davis?

From 1966: Otis, Go-Go Dancers, And White People With A Pathetic Sense Of Rhythm

Ready, Steady, Go!

1966

The man had so much soul in him, it was a felony.

Remembering Otis

In This Forties Ad, The Link Between Angry Miscreants And Toilet Tissue Is Explored

Because In My Little Corner Of The Universe, You Can Just Never Have Enough Of Michael Jackson Robot Dancing

Okay, I think that I may have stumbled upon a clip that is even cooler than The Official Coolest Clip On The Planet, that of Cher doing a robot dance with Michael and his brothers on a 1976 telecast of the Cher show. (You have to watch until about the 3:50 mark, but it's so, so worth it, and you get to listen to Cher add her vocal stylings to Jackson 5 classics in the process!)

However.

Here is a clip of a Jackson 5 funkdown on The Merv Griffin Show in 1974. And as much as I love Cher and her glittery jumpsuit, I think that this clip might just be a serious contender for the Coolest Clip title (that, incidentally, I just made up as I was washing the lunch dishes...and is still more valuable than an Academy Award, but I digress).

I mean, this clip has it all. My evidence:

Michael doing a robot dance that has finally shown me once and for all what The Youths Of Today mean when they say something is "fucking SICK!"

Jermaine sporting a hairdo that looks like the afro equivalent of a porn 'stauche!

Funky soul brothers wearing pimped-out 1974-style fededoras providing the percussion and the keyboards!

Conga drums, courtesy of a Jackson brother (Randy? Marlon?)!

Stupid White People unable to get the funk going in their hearts for fifteen seconds, even for Michael Freaking Jackson! (I would have completely embarrassed myself by getting up and doing a little White Girl get-down, all totally off beat, of course. But still, that would have been cooler than Merv's All-White Audience Of Blinding Caucasian Lameness.)

And, of course...it's got Merv!