Most of us know about the classic movie National Velvet starring Liz Taylor and Mickey Rooney.

But how many us remember that there was a National Velvet TV series as well?

It debuted on Sunday, September 18, 1960 on NBC. It starred Lori Martin as the young horse lover Velvet Brown. Scottish actor James McCallion played the former jockey Mi Taylor who was helping Velvet groom her stallion, King, for a run in the Grand National Steeplechase.

It would have seemed that the show couldn’t miss. Young girls love horses, but apparently they loved Ed Sullivan more. He was Velvet’s competition on CBS. 

NBC made an effort to save the show. When it was renewed for a second season, they moved it to Monday night. Alas, it did no better there and the show had to be put out of its misery.

Because only 58 episodes were filmed, the show never made it into syndication. There has been no home video release either.

Lori Martin went on the star in the film Cape Fear in 1962, but after that, her career faded out.

Lori resumed using her real name, Dawn Menzer. She eventually married Charles Breitenbucher and together they ran a medical supply business until he passed away in 1999.

Lori herself passed in April of 2010,

1969: The town of Northridge, California hosts the Newport Rock Festival. Acts at the festival included Creedence Clearwater Revival, Ike and Tina Turner, Jethro Tull, Joe Cocker, the Rascals and Steppenwolf.

Jimi Hendrix is the headliner and his $125,000 paycheck sets a record for the most ever paid to a rock act for a single performance up to that time.

1973: In London’s west End theater district, a modest little musical that will come to rock pop culture has its first performance. Tim Curry takes the stage as Dr. Frank N. Furter in The Rocky Horror Show.

1977: On the eve of their wedding, Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and his intended, Silvia Sommerlath receive a special serenade when they attend a Stockholm concert by, who else, ABBA.

1978: Grace Slick takes the stage in St. Goarhausen, West Germany with Jefferson Starship, but is really too intoxicated to perform. Instead, she sings badly and starts taunting the audience with Nazi references.

The crowd doesn’t appreciate it. They riot, causing a million dollars damage. The end result, Slick leaves the band, not returning until 1983.

1970: The promoters of the original Woodstock festival announce that they have lost $1.2 million on the event. However, the subsequent film and soundtrack album eventually gets the promoters out of the red and into a solid profit.

1966: Capitol Records releases the Beatles album “Yesterday… and Today.” The album is a compilation of singles and songs Capitol cut when rearranging the band’s British LPs for American consumption.

The boys’ cheeky “butcher” cover – a sly comment of how their American label was treating their albums – touches off a fierce backlash, forcing Capitol to re-release it with a safer cover. However, a few of the re-released albums are the original butcher cover albums with the new cover pasted over it.

Today, those albums are highly valuable collector’s items (provided the safer cover was removed with great care).

1970: Eric Clapton’s new band, Derek and the Dominoes make their stage debut in the UK. Former Traffic member, Dave Mason sits in on guitar, replacing Duane Allman, who had played on the band’s one and only album, “Layla.”

Interest rates can work for us (when we’re saving or investing) or against us (when we’re buying cars or using our credit cards).

Here are some quick tips to make sure you getting the best rates in either case.

Car Loans: The rate you pay when you pay things like a new car depends on your credit score. If your score is above 740, you should be able to qualify for the lowest rates. Check your score (many credit card companies now furnish your score every month along with their invoice).

If you want to improve your score, visit MyFICO.com for helpful suggestions.

Mortgages: If it’s been a while since you last checked, find out what rate you’re currently paying. If you’re paying 1% or more over the rates banks are currently offering, it may be time to get with your bank or other lender and see if refinancing might lower your rate.

Credit Cards: If you’re a disciplined shopper, it can pay to take advantage of those 0% interest offers on balance transfers that credit card companies frequently offer. Just be aware that the transfer typically involves an up front interst charge, usually 2-3% of the balance being transferred. But if you can pay it off in the time allotted in the offer, you’ll still save far more interest.

Also it pays to shop around when getting credit cards as they can charge asignificantly different rates. To research rates and what card(s) might be best for you, visit credit.com.

Remember the Beach Party movies of the 1960’s? They were made quickly and cheaply with the barest excuse for a plot (and the barest excuse for swimsuits they could get away with in those days.

Somehow, when they decided to make one more trip to beach in 1987 with Paramount Pictures’ Back to the Beach, they made it look just as cheap and feeble as the original films!

Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello are the stars (natch) only instead of being “Frankie and Dee Dee” as they were called in the original series, they’re now named “Annette” and “Annette’s Husband” (no, we’re not making that up).

What little plot there is revolves around a return trip to Malibu where their grown-up daughter is “living in sin” (remember that concept?) with a new generation of surfer. Also along for the ride is their young son, who actually looks like he could be Eric Von Zipper’s kid (although Harvey Lembeck is nowhere to be found). If we were Frankie, we’d get a DNA test. Just sayin’…

Anyway, Frankie’s become a car salesman in Ohio who couldn’t do “surf’s up” if you gave him Viagra, Annette has a serious Skippy problem and Connie Stevens (who was never in the original series) shows up as the divorced woman on the make putting the moves on Frankie.

Along the way, you also get cameo appearances by a whole raft of Baby Boom TV icons: Wally & the Beav, Gilligan, Maxwell Smart and more.

You also get Stevie Ray Vaughn jammin’ on the classic instrumental “Pipeline” with surf music legend Dick Dale.

Just when you think things couldn’t get any weirder, Pee Wee Herman pops up out of nowhere to sing “Surfin’ Bird” (we repeat, we are not making this up).

There are some of those really phony looking shots of the stars riding surfboards inside a Hollywood soundstage, a couple of gratuitous jokes about Annette’s two biggest assets, and a surfing competition where June Cleaver gets to say “crapola.”

If you’re feeling nostalgic or want something to play in the background while you engage in a little mid-life make-out session, you might want to rent or stream Back to the Beach this weekend.

Now, anybody know what happened to Gidget and Moondoggie?