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 Saturday as we count down "The Top 5 Female Vocalists of the Rock Era!"
Wham-O was the unquestioned king of kid fads during the 1960s. They started hot with the Hula Hoop and finished even hotter with the Frisbee (a fad that never, ever went away). In between, they gave us the SuperBall!
The SuperBall was a compact little piece of toy dynamite. When dropped, it rebounded to nearly 100% of the original height. When thrown with a little (or a lot) of force, it could sail over houses and even reach high enough to shatter lights in school gymnasium ceilings. The ball will also bounce in crazy ways if you put spin on it.
The ball was invented by chemist Norman Stingley in 1964. He created a complex batch of synthetic rubber he named Zectron. He offered his invention to his employer, the Bettis Rubber Company. They couldn’t see much use for it and told Stingley he was free to shop it elsewhere.
He found a buyer at the Wham-O toy company, who instantly saw its potential. They worked with Stingley to improve his formula and created compact bouncing balls about 2” in diameter under 3,500 pounds per square inch of pressure. When Wham-O first released their SuperBall in 1965, it was an instant hit. By December of that year, the company was cranking out 170,000 of the little devils a day!
Wham-O quickly expanded their line of SuperBalls to include different colors – and especially – different sizes.
Believe it or not, the little ball also gave our biggest sporting event its name. Lamar Hunt, owner of the Kansas City Chiefs noticed his kids playing with a SuperBall and wrote a letter to the committee supervising the newly created championship game between the NFL and the AFL suggesting they use the name "Super Bowl." They turned him down. But reporters loved the name and began using it in their stories. The name caught on with the public and by the 3rd year, pro football officially adopted "Super Bowl" as the name of their big game!
Meanwhile back at the fad, SuperBalls had two drawbacks – irate parents tired of seeing household item smashed (and kids with bruises and black eyes) from getting in the way of a SuperBall and the fact that SuperBalls had a tendency to suddenly shatter after only a few days of play.
Other competitors jumped in with their own versions, although Wham-O has a patent on the exact formula for their ball, and the company claims the ones they manufacture today last longer than the 1965 model. But like most fads, sales of SuperBalls fell off as quickly in 1966 as they rose the year before.
That’s just the way the SuperBall bounces!
Part of the initial British invasion, the folk-influenced pop duo of Chad Stuart and Jeremy Clyde went on to rack up 7 Top 40 hits in the U.S. before the shift to progressive rock made their brand of soft standards passé.
As popular as the boys were on this side of the pond, it’s surprising they had very little success in their native England, managing only one hit record (their very first, “Yesterday’s Gone”)!
David Stuart Chadwick and Michael Thomas Jeremy Clyde met while attending school in the UK. It was the future Chad Stuart who taught Clyde how to play the guitar. They performed as a folk duo, then formed a rock band called the Jerks, before finally settling into the musical identity they would hold for the rest of their careers.
As Chad & Jeremy, they landed a contract with the British Ember Records and were assigned to legendary composer-producer John Barry (among his vast repertoire, Barry wrote the soundtrack for Goldfinger). He had them record a song Chad Stuart had written called “Yesterday’s Gone.”
Their trademark “whisper” style of vocals came about because Barry kept telling the boys they were too loud. Take after take, they crept closer to the mikes and dropped the volume of their voices until Barry was satisfied.
The song raced up the UK charts, peaking at #6. They would never land another record in those charts.
In America, they had far more success. “Yesterday’s Gone” was followed by another Stuart composition and the song for which they are best remembered, “Summer Song.” From 1964 to 1966, there was usually a Chad & Jeremy record on most Top 40 stations’ playlists.
While Stuart was obviously a talented songwriter, he wasn’t terribly prolific. So the duo turned to old pop standards (“Willow Weep for Me”) and Broadway (“If I Loved You”) for material.
As their success seemed limited to North America (they were also popular in Canada), the pair spent most of their time in the States. Hassles with their green cards even led the boys to apply for U.S. citizenship, a process they did not complete.
During the mid-60’s, they were also the go-to guys any time an American TV show wanted a generic “British pop group” in that week’s episode. Chad & Jeremy appeared under their own names or various aliases on The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Patty Duke Show, Batman, and even the Western, Laredo.
When “psychedelic rock” became the newest trend in 1967, Chad & Jeremy tried to keep pace with their own concept album, Of Cabbages and Kings. While favorably reviewed, the album’s sales were anemic. They followed that with The Ark (1968) and the soundtrack to Three in the Attic. Then, they threw in the towel and disbanded.
But not forever. They reunited in 1983 and have toured and recorded off and on again since then.
You can find out more about the group at their official website: chadandjeremy.net.
If you get in a Chad & Jeremy mood from reading this little piece, here’s Boomtown America’s suggested “Greatest Hits” playlist for Chad & Jeremy:
- “Summer Song”
- “I Have Dreamed”
- “Before and After”
- “Distant Shores”
- “I Don’t Want to Lose You, Baby”
- “Four Strong Winds”
- “Willow Weep for Me”
- "The Girl from Ipanema"
- “Fare Thee Well”
- “If I Loved You”
- “Like I Love You Today”
- “Yesterday’s Gone”
- “My Coloring Book”
- “The Way You Look Tonight”
- “September in the Rain”
No, exercise snacking does not mean doing arm curls to get the Doritos to your mouth. It means approaching exercise like you approach snacking. It means exchanging one prolonged period of intense exercise for several shorter, less strenuous sessions throughout the day.
A 10-minute walk or light jog at one point of the day, followed by 10 minutes of stretching, followed by 10 minutes of aerobic exercise can help improve joint movement as well as reduce your risk of injury. It can also help regulate your blood sugar if you’re diabetic or afraid that you may become diabetic.
Every Baby Boomer remembers Mister Ed, the talking horse who caused trouble for his owner Wilbur Post. But Ed was actually a rip-off, a cheap TV imitation!
Before Ed ever opened his mouth there was Francis the Talking Mule!
Frances was created by U.S. Army Captain David Stern III. He was in charge of an Army newspaper during WWII. Bored by a lack of news one afternoon, Stern wrote four pages of fanciful dialogue between a U.S. solider and a stubborn Army mule. Intrigued, he expanded the idea into a series of short stories that were subsequently published by Esquire magazine. Stern wrote the stories in the first person and adopted as a pen name, Peter Stirling, the 2nd lieutenant who Francis befriended in the stories.
After the war, Stern adapted three of them into a Francis novel. Universal Pictures bought the film rights. In 1950, Francis (no, “the Talking Mule” was not a part of the title) debuted in movie theaters and became a solid money maker for the studio.
The first film set the formula for the series. Legendary song and dance man, Donald O’Connor played Peter Stirling. Veteran cowboy actor, Chill Wills (uncredited) provided Francis’ voice. Initially in each picture, Francis would only talk to Stirling. Stirling would take advice from Francis, complications would arise, hilarity would ensure, only to resolve itself when Francis would finally speak in front of others. Closing credits. Fade out. At the start of the next picture, the world would conveniently forget there was ever a talking mule and the cycle would repeat itself.
The initial Frances film spawned 6 sequels:
- Francis Goes to the Races (1951)
- Francis Goes to West Point (1952)
- Francis Covers the Big Town (1953)
- Francis Joins the WACS (1954)
- Francis in the Navy (1955)
- Francis in the Haunted House (1956)
Stern actually wrote a sequel to his first Francis novel called Francis Goes to Washington, but for reasons long forgotten, that novel was never adapted into a movie.
O’Connor and Willis left the series after Francis in the Navy with Mickey Rooney and Paul Frees assuming their roles. Most agree that Francis and the Haunted House was the weakest of the series.
Francis was actually played by a female mule named Molly, who got the part because she was easy to train and had a very gentle personality.
The Francis series was popular enough to spawn a bit of merchandise including a Dell comic book that ran for 17 issues.
After the series ran out of gas in movie theaters, the director Arthur Lubin and trainer Les Hilton wanted to bring Francis to TV. When they found they couldn’t secure the rights, they discovered another series of books about a talking animal. Those rights Lubin was able to purchase. The character in those books was a talking horse named “Mister Ed.”
And the rest in television history!
All 7 Francis films are available on home video. While not on the level of, say, Abbott & Costello’s best, they are serviceable little comedies made in a time when talking out of an ass was not such a bad thing!
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