Ethel Merman Gets Your Gun

Sonny and Cher

Sonny Bono was never a hippie and Cher really wasn't either. Sonny was, in fact, a clever producer/songwriter and a bit of a marketing genius who molded teenaged Cherilyn into the other half of THE royal hippie couple of the sixties...at least in the public's eyes. This 16 Mag piece from January of '66 is surprisingly open and accurate about the couple so I suspect they may have actually written it themselves.

It's Always '66

Around here. it's always '66 but somewhere in 2012, I've fallen behind on paid work and need to take a breather of a week or so and try to catch up. 1966 shall return!

Lena Horne-Stormy Weather

Miss Lena's signature song was more than two decades old by '66 but she was still around and by then looked at as a pioneering African-American performer.

The Everly Brothers and Merv

The Everly Brothers were big hitmakers and surprisingly influential in the late fifties. Here they are with Merv Griffin in '66.

The Death Dealers-Mickey Spillane

Next to Mike Hammer, former comic book writer Mickey Spillane's most popular character was probably Tiger Mann. Here's his 1966 novel.

The Campy Champ-by Otto Binder and Carl Pfeufer

Coming at the tail end of '66 was this odd look from two middle-aged men as to what constituted "hip."

Batstuff # 41

The Byrds-Fifth Dimension

In 1966, The Byrds, called America's answer to The Beatles, released FIFTH DIMENSION featuring the hits EIGHT MILES HIGH and MR. SPACEMAN. (Being the sixties, I'm surprised The Fifth Dimension didn't release an album called BYRDS.)

Buster Keaton-1966 R.I.P.

The great silent comic Buster Keaton saw his star career and his personal life fall victim to alcoholism as the talkies arrived. Although he never stopped working, he found himself at smaller and smaller studios, then smaller and smaller roles. He worked in circuses, then early television, slowly building his career back up. In the mid-fifties, his old films, many considered lost, were rediscovered and restored, his reputation for genius along with them.  By 1966, he was no longer considered a has-been but, in fact, a legend. His last appearance was in that year's major comedy release, A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM.

Mame-Bobby Darin

Fifties rocker Bobby Darin was a chameleon, reinventing himself first as a surprisingly good actor, then as a finger-snapping Sinatra-style mainstream singer in suit and tie (and toupee). That's where we find him here in '66. After this he was briefly a hippieish folksinger before finally returning all-out into lounge-singer mode for his own TV variety series briefly before his early passing.