Nothing projects "1960s" more than an Andy Williams TV Christmas special. We can recall so many wholesome nuggets from the decade. It was way pre-digital. We had a shared culture. You might discuss a popular network TV show with someone "at the water cooler." I remember in high school, "Night Gallery" was the kind of show inspiring next-day fodder for discussion. That show was basically a continuation of "The Twilight Zone."
In elementary school I found the boys rather transfixed by "Bonanza." Such westerns were a staple, really to excess. We all had to adapt to the deliberate "de-ruralization" of entertainment TV by the end of the decade. But the Andy Williams Christmas specials encapsulated the innocent side of the '60s. They reflected the best in our nature, their "white bread" quality notwithstanding.
You had "one shot" at watching a show like this. It would surely not be re-run. Imagine that. So it was an "event." It was "appointment TV." The fact it was special served to really buoy the Christmas feeling among us all. I consider the Andy Williams show the best example.
We looked forward to a standard cast around him. His parents got applause as soon as they entered the picture: such wholesome people. They seemed rather aged at the time, would be considered grandparent-like today. People my age sometimes remark how middle-age people of an earlier time just seemed older. Was it fashion? Health factors? Andy was joined by his brothers for part of the show. They sang wonderfully together.
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| Andy Williams, then-wife Claudine Longet |
Oh, and then we saw the Osmond family with Donny as the little one. Many of us had a permanent conception of Donny as the little one.
With golf club in hand
In a completely separate category, we can consider the Bob Hope Christmas specials of the 1960s. All of this can be sampled today thanks to YouTube of course. The Hope specials were a troubling window into the disaster of the Vietnam war. These were not like USO shows during World War II, a war in which we were part of the grand Allied victory. Was the older generation of Americans just expecting a repeat of the WWII glory?
There is nothing nostalgic about war. If it's necessary, it must be done. The Vietnam war was not necessary. The U.S. lost. Just sample some scenes and news reports from the fall of Saigon. As outrageous as I consider Donald Trump, I'm sure he would not countenance war escalation as Lyndon Johnson did.
Johnson could be remembered with great reverence today. Among my generation, he's pretty much the opposite. As for civil rights strides, I'm not sure the forces weren't strong enough for that regardless of who the president was.
Trump says he wants to get us out of endless overseas wars. But then he goes and calls U.S. servicemen "losers" and "suckers." Politicians had decorum in the 1960s. The standard basically held until Trump came along. Public pronouncements were civil and tried summoning the best spirits within us. If Trump apologists/sycophants are actually nostalgic for an America of a previous time, why can't they be more respectful of decorum? Huh? Why not?
The 1960s also gave us the wonderful Don Knotts movies, wholesome and genuinely funny. Knotts you'll remember leaped into fame through "Andy Griffith."
Right in the middle of the decade, 1965, was when Minnesota kids my age, mostly boys, were transfixed by the pennant-winning year of the Minnesota Twins. The team had just gotten started here in 1961. My goodness! Before that, I guess you really could say we were a "cold Omaha." The term, let me remind, used to be trotted out in Minnesota by the likes of Sid Hartman to implore how we needed a new stadium or a team would leave, leaving us a "cold Omaha." (The Gophers wouldn't leave of course.)
Actually before the Twins and Vikings started in 1961, the Gopher football team was the big-time sports thing.
I was ten years old in 1965. I of course soaked up a lot of the popular entertainment. The Christmas shows were an annual staple - "one shot" at watching these. Plan your bathroom beforehand. Amazing how we can see them again all these years later on YouTube.
So 1965 was particularly entrancing for kids in Minnesota, no doubt. Why on earth was it necessary for the U.S. to rapidly increase its military forces in South Vietnam? The South had been losing the war to the "communist" Viet Cong. Well, yawn, any conflict is sad certainly but why was it our business to send so many fuzzy-cheeked young men over to those jungles to die? My Williams family had a family friend who was a victim of friendly fire in 1966. We attended his funeral in Brainerd.
My late first cousin Norman of California won the Bronze Star for his service. We're proud I'm sure but how wonderful if he had never had to go over there, if he could have just lived a normal life.
The U.S. began bombing North Vietnam in March of 1965. It was called "Operation Rolling Thunder." The U.S. Army and Marines began ground operations to ferret out and defeat the communist forces. Sounds horrifying enough on paper. The reality defied description, except to say it was hell. "You asked me, I didn't ask you," Rambo shouted at Troutman in the closing scenes of "First Blood."
The movie has become a classic but I have always been bothered by how the sheriff never showed any remorse about anything he did. I kept waiting for it. "First Blood" was art in cinema - the sequels were comic books.
November of '65 saw the U.S. and the People's Army of Vietnam meet head-on for the first time in the battle of laDrang. Both sides claimed victory. What an abomination. And while this bloody tragedy was unfolding, us kids back home were watching fare like the Andy Williams Christmas special. The Dean Martin Christmas special. The Don Knotts movies. (Morris native Twig Webster loved the "way to go Luther" line from "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken."
My late father was a huge fan of Don Knotts. I think his favorite movie was "The Reluctant Astronaut." We just needed to beat our swords into plowshares. Or, be inspired by the simple innocence and joy of the Andy Williams Christmas special. Why could not that have set the tone entirely?
It's a shame because Spider accomplished so much in his life. Claudine accomplished only two things, marrying Andy Williams and getting away with murder.
- Steve Sabich, brother of Spider Sabich
My podcast: nostalgia
Maybe nostalgia is a nice way of dealing with our current troubling circumstances of the pandemic of 2020. So I focus on the Minnesota Twins of 1965, the year we won the pennant! I also recall accomplishments of our World Series opponent, those Los Angeles Dodgers. Take a step back in time:
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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