A singer who landed 16 songs in the Top 40 and 4 in the Top 10… 22 songs in the British Top 40… a songwriter who penned Top 10 hits for 3 other artists… an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame… yet he is almost forgotten today.

He is Gene Pitney.

Pitney was born in 1940 in Hartford, Connecticut. By high school he was singing with a local doo-wop group called the Embers. By 1959, he was recording with a young woman named Ginny Arnell under the name Jamie & Jane.

Pitney also started working as a songwriter and actually had his first success there, writing “He’s a Rebel” for Darlene Love & the Blossoms (recording as the Crystals), “Rubber Ball” for Bobby Vee and “Hello, Mary Lou” for Ricky Nelson.

Curiously, Pitney only wrote one of his own singles, “(I Wanna) Love My Life Away,” which gave him his first taste of Top 40 success in early 1961. He achieved his real breakthrough by singing the title song for the movie “Town Without Pity.” His follow-up was also supposed to be from a movie. However, a dispute over publishing rights caused the studio to cut the song from the film. It didn’t matter. “(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valence” was the first of Pitney’s songs to break into the Top 10.

“Liberty Valence” and many of Pitney’s next records were written by a young songwriting duo also just getting started, Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

Pitney was one of the few American artists who continued to perform strongly even after the British invasion. In fact, Pitney was in the UK and sat in on the recording sessions for the Rolling Stones first album, where he contributed some work on the piano. He also had success on the country charts recording with George Jones.

However, as the 60’s wore on, the hits became less frequent. Gene last reached the Top 40 with an up-tempo rocker called “She’s a Heartbreaker” in 1968.

He continued to release singles that charted overseas where he was more popular (particularly in the UK and Australia).

Gene married his high school sweetheart, Lynne Gayton. Together, they had 3 sons.

Pitney continued to tour, finally reaching the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. Just 4 years later Pitney died of an apparent heart attack while on tour in Cardiff, England. The night before, he received a standing ovation at his final concert when he closed the show with “Town Without Pity.”

Few rock singers had his vocal range or his understanding of music. At Boomtown America, Gene Pitney will always be remembered as one of the greats!

Pits Hits

• “(I Wanna) Love My Life Away” (1961) #39
• “Town Without Pity” (1961) #13
• “(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valence” (1962) #4
• “Only Love Can Break a Heart” (1962) # 2
• “Half Heaven Half Heartache” (1962) #12
• “Mecca” (1963) #12
• “True Love Never Runs Smooth” (1963) #21
• “Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa” (1963) #17
• “It Hurts to Be in Love” (1964) #7
• “I’m Gonna Be Strong” (1964) #9
• “I Must Be Seeing Things (1965) #31
• “Last Chance to Turn Around” (1965) #13
• “Looking Through the Eyes of Love” (1965) #28
• “Princess in Rags” (1965) #37
• “Backstage” (1966) #25
• “She’s a Heartbreaker” (1968) #16

If you were a Baby Boomer who got up at the crack of dawn on Saturday mornings, poured yourself a big bowl of Sugar Smacks, and plopped yourself down in front of the family TV, you were up early enough to catch The Mighty Mouse Playhouse, which opened the kiddie programming for CBS.

Among the supporting players on that show were the unusual comic teaming of a goose and a cat named Gandy & Sourpuss. In case you were wondering, whatever became of them after CBS cancelled the show...

The feasting season is here! From Thanksgiving to New Year’s, there will be ample opportunity to become, well, more ample in the weight department!

This year, making smart choices at holiday parties and dinners may help you avoid the yearly weight loss resolutions on New Year’s Day. Here are the foods you should be looking for…

Veggies – Everyone knows that our green and yellow buddies in the vegetable kingdom can fill us up without filling us out
Shrimp Cocktail – High in protein and low in fat
Pork Tenderloin, Turkey or Ham – For the meat-lovers, nutritionists say these are your best choices for maintaining balance in your diet
Swedish Meatballs - Another protein-rich option

Of course, none of these foods gives you a license to over-eat. They just give you a fighting chance to make it through the holidays without packing on the pounds

The girl from "King Kong" is starring with Connie Stevens in this epic now playing at the Boomtown America Drive-In!

Alas, Lum’s Restaurants, purveyors of those beer-steamed dogs are no more. A shame,too. At their peak they had 450 stores across America and threw off enough cash that the corporate owners were able to purchase Caesar’s Palace in Vegas.

That’s where the problems began. Once they acquired the resort, they sold off the Lum’s chain to the guy that was running KFC. He got the company moving in the wrong direction and then sold it to Weinerwald, which completely ran Lum’s into the ground many years ago.

Beyond the hot dogs, many of us fondly remember their hamburger, the Ollieburger. Invented by Oliver G. Gleichenhaus, a restaurateur himself, who sold his recipe to Lum’s. The burger proved popular enough that Lum’s also spun off a smaller chain of Ollie’s Trolleys that also served the burger.

If reading this has you jonesing for an Ollieburger, there is a company on the internet that claims to sell the original seasoning for it and other Lum’s delicacies. We have not sampled their products so we are not endorsing them, but simply making you aware. You can find them at:https://ollieburgerspices.com/. 

The number of scam artists trying to con you via your phone or over the internet is increasing. They pose as IRS agents, anti-virus tech support, jury duty managers, bank/credit card verifiers and more.

Think you can spot a fraudsters? Most of us think we can, yet more people are getting scammed every day.

AARP has a special web page devoted to keeping you up-to-date on the latst scams.. You can check it out at https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/

From our family to yours!

Once upon a time, people relied on magazines like Consumer Reports before making big purchase decision. Now, people increasingly rely on online reviews. But most experts give those kind of ratings low ratings!

There are several reasons for this. One is that if people have a bad shopping or shipping experience, they tend to blame the product and not the retailer. Second, many consumers are swayed by brand name recognition and are hardly putting these products through scientific testing - the way the consumer magazines do.Thirdly, some products actually have paid people and/or employees to post favorable reviews online. (What? I can't believe everything I read on the internet?)

Those who know say smart shoppers still rely on consumer testing experts and NOT online reviews.

Hazel was a very popular sit-com that ran for 5 seasons (4 in full color), producing 154 shows, that was also quite popular in syndication.

The show was based on a popular one panel cartoon drawn by Ted Key that ran in The Saturday Evening Post magazine. Hazel was a no-nonsense live-in maid that basically ran her household and also functioned as mother and father to her employer’s son.

In making the move to television, producers scored a real coup when they signed Academy Award-winning actress Shirley Booth for the title role. Her employers, the Baxters, were played by Don DeFore (who spent many seasons as Ozzie & Harriet’s neighbor Thorny) and Whitney Blake (who would go on to co-create the sitcom One Day at a Time). Whitney Blake was actually married to a guy named Baxter for several years before she was cast in Hazel. She’s the mother of actress Meredith Baxter. Bobby Buntrock rounded out the cast as the Baxters’ son, Harold.

Hazel referred to the Baxters as “Mr. B,” “Missy” and “Sport.”

No one ever asked why the Baxters needed a live-in maid (who also did all the cooking) as Mrs. Baxter was always around the house doing things like arranging flowers in a vase. Most of the plots revolved around a battle of wills between Hazel and Mr. B with Mr. B usually losing in the end.

After four seasons on NBC (and two Emmys for star Booth), the show’s rating began to decline. NBC cancelled the show only to see CBS decide to pick it up for a fifth season. CBS, in their wisdom, decided that the Baxter parents were “too old” (Whitney Blake was all of 38 when the decision was made). So, Harold was shipped off with Hazel to live with Mr. Baxter’s younger brother (Ray Fulmer) and his wife (Julia Benjamin). Apparently, viewers didn’t agree with CBS’ opinion as the re-tooled show quickly sank to the bottom of the ratings and was cancelled.

As we moved into the 1970’s, wholesome family sit-coms fell out of favor (with the singular exception of Leave It to Beaver) and Hazel disappeared from syndication.