2008: To celebrate April Fool’s Day, soon-to-be disgraced Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich declares the day “Cheap Trick Day,” honoring the band that originally hailed from that state. 
We're all about the history of rock & roll at BoomtownAmerica.com!
Every week, we present “ROCK REMEMBERED,” a deep dive into the hidden history of rock & roll, the stories behind the artists and songs that changed the world. Join host, “Boomtown Bill” Cross each Wednesday at 7 pm (Eastern) with an encore broadcast on Saturday at noon (Eastern).
Join us this Wednesday as we give "More Classics That Are Actually Cover Songs!"
No doubt your dentist tells you to floss, but is there any research to back up that advice?
Surprisingly, no.
There has never been a study to test the benefits of flossing. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you should stop flossing. No research simply means, we have no scientific evidence one way or the other. The American Dental Association still recommends flossing as well as brushing twice daily to maintain healthy teeth and gums.
The best-selling American band of all time is the Eagles. And their best-selling, non-greatest-hits LP is Hotel California. Released in 1976, that album has racked up sales of over 30 million certified copies and ranks #3 on the worldwide list of best-selling albums of all time (right behind their own Greatest Hits LP at #2).
The title song is one of the reasons for its enduring popularity. But what was the inspiration for the song and what do its cryptic lyrics mean?
Well, like most great rock songs, the composers have been very vague, allowing each listener to define the song’s meaning for themselves. Glen Frey said that he and co-authors Don Henley and Don Felder wanted to create a song that was like a Twilight Zone episode. Weird when you think that the Twilight Zone attraction at Disney theme parks is also based on a hotel where guests check in but “never leave.” But as to its exact meaning, Frey says he doesn’t really know himself.
For his part, Henley says the song is about “a journey from innocence to experience…that’s all.”
Whatever it means to you, “Hotel California” was released as the second single from the album and went straight to #1 in the U.S. and Canada, also reaching the Top 10 in the U.K. and several other countries. It remains a staple of classic rock radio stations and is in the rotation here at Boomtown America. Plenty of room and any time of year, you can find it here.
A.K.A. The Danny Thomas Show
Virtually forgotten now, Make Room for Daddy was one of TV’s earliest and most successful sitcoms.
But it took a long and winding road to get there and along the way, it created some television firsts.
Danny Thomas had already flopped hosting a variety show, but ABC was willing to give him a try in a sit-com. So, Danny Thomas the entertainer played an entertainer named Danny Williams (quite the acting stretch, eh?), who juggled his career, wife (Jean Hagen) and two kids, Rusty (Rusty Hamer) and Terry (Sherry Jackson).
The show debuted 1953 and limped through 3 seasons of mediocre ratings. Hagen, not fond of her part or of Thomas, left the show. Instead of re-casting the role, Make Room for Daddy went in a new and untried direction. The show simply explained that Danny’s wife had died. He spent season 4 dating various women and finally proposing to an Irish nurse, Kathy O’Hara, played by Marjorie Lord, in the season 4 finale.
Viewers in the mid-1950's apparently did not like the concept of a single dad. Rating slumped and ABC cancelled the show. Then something unusual happened. CBS was looking for a show to replace I Love Lucy, which was ending its long run. They decided to move Danny’s sit-com, lock, stock and punch lines to CBS.
Season 5 opened with Danny and Kathy already married and added her young daughter Linda (Angela Cartwright) to the cast. Suddenly, TV’s first “blended family” was ratings gold, soaring to #2 in the ratings.
In all, Make Room for Daddy or The Danny Thomas Show as it came to be known ran for 11 seasons, remaining a top 10 show from season 5 on. It featured many recurring characters who became audience favorites including Sid Melton as Danny’s manager Charlie Harper and Pat Carroll as Charlie’s wife, Bunny. Far and away the most popular of the recurring characters was Hans Conried as Uncle Tonoose.
Perhaps its most lasting contribution to TV history was that its success allowed co-producers Danny Thomas and Sheldon Leonard to bankroll other TV series.
Among the other series produced by the team of Thomas and Leonard: The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Andy Griffith Show.
Shazam!
The True and (Mostly) Untold Story of America’s #1 Teenager
In the days before cable TV, DVDs, and video games, no summer vacation was complete without at least one afternoon (and probably many more) spent leisurely going through a stack of Archie Comics. Yes, they were just fictional characters, but in those days, it seemed like Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead, Reggie, and the rest were as close to us as the actual kids we went to school with.
His misadventures have entertained people for over 8 decades, but few know the real story behind the creation of this cultural icon.
While talented cartoonist Bob Montana is most often credited with creating Archie Andrews and the gang at Riverdale High (more on that in just a bit), few know that the real inspiration for Archie was actually Mickey Rooney. Rooney had starred as America’s first typical teenager, Andy Hardy, in a series of extremely successful M-G-M movies in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s.
As mentioned above, Archie’s “parentage” has been a matter of some controversy for years. In addition to Montana, two other people also had a hand in creating one of the most successful pop culture icons of the 20th Century. Comic book publisher John Goldwater claimed the idea to do a strip based on the Andy Hardy films came from him. In addition, journeyman comic book scripter Vic Bloom deserves a nod as the actual writer of the very first Archie comic book story.
It’s doubtful any of these guys knew what a sensation Archie would be when the freckle-faced teen made his debut in Pep Comics # 22, published in the fall of 1941. That book was mainly concerned with the exploits of various super-heroes, then as now, the glamour boys of the comics industry. Archie was a simple 6-page back-up feature, buried way back on page 49 of that particular issue.
Nonetheless, readers quickly made Archie the most popular feature in the magazine. By the winter of 1942, Archie received his own comic book and has been the mainstay of the company ever since.
As you can see from the title page of his very first story, our hero initially didn’t even want to be called “Archie,” preferring the nickname “Chick.” Betty was right there with him from the start, moving into Archie’s neighborhood in that first story. Jughead also appears in that first story. But the rest of the cast would take some time to get on stage. Veronica moved to Riverdale in Pep Comics # 26. Reggie Mantle, Moose Mason, Pop Tate, and the rest would follow.
No matter who created Archie, Montana is most associated with the character. He drew the daily Archie newspaper comic strip from its inception in 1946 until Montana’s passing in 1975.
Montana claimed that most of the characters we all loved were modeled on people he knew during his youth in Massachusetts. He said he based Jughead and Moose on his friends Skinny Linehan and Arnold Daggett. Miss Grundy was inspired by his school librarian, Elizabeth Tuck. Betty Cooper was modeled on Montana’s girlfriend in New York, and her arch-rival, Veronica Lodge, was created by combining then-popular movie star Veronica Lake with Boston’s top political family of the day, the Lodges (who gave us Henry Cabot Lodge).
Archie’s runaway success has translated well across all media. There was a long-running radio series in the 1940’s as well as several popular cartoon series beginning in the late 1960’s (admit it, you’re humming “Sugar, Sugar” as you read this).
There was even a made-for-TV movie, To Riverdale and Back Again (released on home video with the title Return to Riverdale) in 1990, but live-action success in either the movies or as a TV series eluded Mr. Andrews until the debut of Riverdale on the CW network in 2017. The series, which ran for 7 seasons, was a dark-edged teen soap opera that borrowed the names of the Archie characters while their personalities and adventures bore almost zero relationship to the comic book characters.
How many of the titles do you remember, and who was your favorite character(s)? We were always rooting for Betty, although Archie definitely seemed to prefer Veronica (despite the fact that, outside of their hair, both girls were drawn exactly alike). Perhaps there’s a message in that!