In the late 1960’s Establishment Hollywood was near panic. All of the old rules about making and marketing movies seemed to be going out the window.

While long-time stars like Gregory Peck and Bob Hope were no longer packing ‘em in, young upstarts like Mike Nichols (The Graduate) and Warren Beatty (Bonnie and Clyde) were turning out blockbusters that their studios frankly thought should be playing the low rent drive-in circuit.

So in 1969, what did Hollywood think was a “can’t-miss” idea? Take a Broadway musical from 1951(!) and cast Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin(!!) as the singing leads!

The result is a spectacular mess of a film, Paint Your Wagon.

The story takes place during the Gold Rush days of 19^th Century California. Casting Eastwood and Marvin makes sense for a Western movie, but a musical Western? And, no, they didn’t dub them. That’s really Eastwood and Marvin attempting to carry a tune. Eastwood at least has a passable, if very thin, singing voice. But Marvin? It’s like listening to the croaking a frog with laryngitis!

Now, the original Broadway musical revolved around prospector Ben Rumson and his teen-age daughter Jennifer. Jennifer falls for a young Mexican prospector while Rumson buys a wife off a traveling Mormon. Most of the musical revolves around the then-controversial “inter-racial romance” between the youngsters.

In the movie, there is no daughter. No Mexican prospector either. Instead, they created a whole new character, a partner for Rumson named – wait for it – “Pardner.” Clever, right?

Instead of an inter-racial romance, we get a mange a trios with Rumson’s Mormon wife turning the tables and taking two husbands (Rumson and Pardner).

The musical’s biggest number was “They Call the Wind Mariah.” On Broadway, the song was introduced after some business about the miners being wandering loners who often had only wind, rain and fire as companions (hence their tendency to call the rain “Tess,” the fire “Joe” and the wind – yeah, “Mariah”).

In the movie, the song just comes out of nowhere, being sung by a character that hasn’t even been introduced in the film yet. (He turns out to be the guy who will eventually own the saloon and cathouse in the boomtown the Gold Rush creates.) He’s played by Harve Presnell, who, thankfully, has a professional singing voice. Although this big number is diminished somewhat when you’re busy thinking, “Who the heck is this guy and why is he singing about naming the wind Mariah?”

Actually, most of the songs seem to come out of nowhere and the contrast between Lerner & Lowe’s Broadway pop and the filmmaker’s attempt to create a realistic, gritty Western setting is jarring.

Marvin plays Rumson, Eastwood plays Pardner and Jean Seberg plays the Mormon wife, Elizabeth. Seberg, at least, had the good sense to have her singing voice dubbed by a professional. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band also shows up early in the film. Why? I don’t know.

Paint Your Wagon cost $20 million to make (very expensive in 1969 dollars). It grossed $31 million, which - when you factor in marketing costs and splits with the movie theaters - means the film probably lost money for Paramount Pictures. But they really should have known better.

Popular lore also has it that in many of Marvin’s drunk scenes, he wasn’t acting. He really was drunk.

If you want to watch Clint Eastwood star in a musical, be my guest. But a word of additional warning. The film has a running time close to 3 hours, so make sure you take a bathroom break before you start watching this.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

There has been so much written about this album since its first release 58 years ago; there’s little we could add. You either still own this album, owned it back in the day, or know many, many people who own it.

So instead of posting an appreciation of it, here are 5 things you might not know about Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band:

The album’s cover bears more than a striking resemblance to an EP released in 1964 –  “Mercblecket Beats the Beatles” was a Swedish orchestral group who recorded 4 covers of Beatles tunes. One of the group has claimed he gave a copy to Paul McCartney when the boys played Stockholm in 1964. McCartney has never commented on the similarity.

Here are some other things you may not know about this classic of classics:

John Lennon wanted images of Christ and Hitler in the crowd – The album’s iconic cover was supposed to represent the fictional Sgt. Pepper’s band standing in front of an audience they had just performed for. Thankfully, cooler heads talked Lennon out of including Hitler or Jesus. Leo Gorcey of Bowery Boy fame wanted $400 to use his image, and so was removed from consideration.

Producer George Martin admits the album was an attempt to outdo Brian Wilson’s “Pet Sounds.” Quite the game of one-upmanship as Wilson claimed “Pet Sounds” was his attempt to outdo “Rubber Soul.”

The cover cost around £3,000 to produce – The average cover costs around £50 to produce. In today’s money, recreating the Sgt. Pepper photo shoot would cost £38,000 (or nearly $49,000).

The song “Good Morning, Good Morning” was indeed inspired by the then-current jingle for Kellogg’s breakfast cereals (“The best to you each morning”).

With Spring right around the corner, it's the start of vacation season! If you're planning on renting a car when you reach your destination, the rental company is sure to try and sell you rental car insurance. Do you really need it?

In a lot of cases, the answer is no!

If you own a car and have car insurance, many of those policies automatically cover you when you're driving a rental car. Check with your insurance company before you take your trip and see if you're covered!

Few people realize that it IS possible to overdose on certain vitamins. Here's a few you might want to watch out for:

Vitamin B6: More than 100mg a day might cause nerve damage

Vitamin C: One study indicated that consuming high doses of Vitamin C increases the risk of developing kidney stones among men

Vitamin D: Taking over 10,000 IUs a day may lead to problems like loss of appetite and kidney problems

As always, consult your medical professional about any vitamins you may be taking.

In November, 1956, NBC became the first network to build a variety show around a black headliner when they debuted The Nat “King” Cole Show.

Nat "King" Cole was already an extremely popular singer, with 17 Top 10 hits. His show was well-received an attracted big name talent like Tony Bennett and Ella Fitzgerald as guests. Yet, by December of 1957 the show was gone!

Why?

It wasn’t lack of ratings. Nat “King” Cole competed well. The problem was advertising. The New York agencies were afraid to place their sponsors on a show headlined by an African-American. They feared negative reaction to their clients’ products in the South. The show was only able to attract sponsors at the local level, like Reingold Beer in the New York area.

For a short time, Cole and his guests all agreed to work for AFTRA scale, the equivalent of minimum wage for TV performers. But after a year, Cole became disillusioned and quit, telling reporters, “Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark.”

NBC kept trying, bringing Bill Cosby in to co-star in the hit spy series Ispy beginning in 1965. Three years later they would launch Julia, a sit-com that starred Diahann Carroll.

But it wasn’t until 1970 that the network was finally able to create a variety show starring a black entertainer that could attract national sponsors. That was The Flip Wilson Show.

Our teeth get more sensitive to things like hot and cold foods as we age. That’s because, like it or not, your gums will recede as you grow older.

Here are some tips to combat that:

• Use a “Sensitive Toothpaste”
• Avoid Acidic Food – Like orange juice and tomatoes
• Don’t Brush So Hard!
• Avoid “Whitening Toothpastes – They can be very abrasive

We all know how fast tech devices seem to age. But don’t just chuck them out. There is a market for older cell phones, tablet, laptops and the like.

Online sites like uSell and Gazelle will buy your items, saving you the trouble of finding a buyer. Best Buy, Apply and Target will exchange your old devices for gift cards. Other sites like Swappa and Glyde will let you list old items for sale for a percentage of the sale price.

While newer and better conditioned items will fetch higher prices, there are buyers out there for older and somewhat damaged goods as well.

But remember! Make sure you wipe the device of any personal information before you sell it!

In 1965, Michael Brown was a 16-year old classically trained musician who had formed a rock band (like many classically trained young men and women of the day). He also had become infatuated with a young girl. His problem was the young girl was dating the bass player in his band.

So Michael Brown did what many young men facing hopeless romantic prospects did. He wrote a song about her (with help from co-authors Bob Calilli and Tony Sansone). Here’s where Michael and the rest of those lovesick boys part company.

Brown’s band was the Left Banke, the girl was named Renée Fladen and the song he wrote about her was “Walk Away Renée.”

“Walk Away Renée” almost didn’t get recorded as Renée was in the control room during the sessions and Brown was so nervous he had to come back after hours and re-dub his parts.

The song became an instant smash – although the lyrics were nearly indecipherable on first listen.

Unfortunately, Brown still didn’t get the girl. So he wrote another song about her. “Pretty Ballerina,” which reached as high as #15 on the charts.

And then…nothing.

Brown never got the girl. The Left Banke never had another hit and soon after, broke up. Brown never managed to write another hit record. He was a member of a group called Stories, but left before their recording of “Brother Louie” topped the charts.

Brown stayed in the music business as a talent scout and occasional performer before succumbing to heart failure in 2015 at the age of 65.

Renée Fladen never married the bass player. She did marry a guy named Howard Kamm in 1967. She divorced him in 1974, but retained the name Renée Fladen-Kamm and found success as a singer, vocal coach and authority on medieval music.

“Walk Away Renée” is now regarded as one of the top rock songs of all time – the Four Tops also had a hit with it in 1967. It has also been covered by a variety of artists including Linda Ronstadt and Southside Johnny.

How many Boomers had their first taste of pizza (or frankly, something sort of, kind of close to pizza) via this cook-it-at-home kit?