It’s 1979 again! I was sweet sixteen (well, almost) and it was a great time to be alive. I remember looking forward to the 80’s! Here is what was happening this week in 1979:
In national news, President Carter said he hoped the gasoline shortage was over and took some actions to relieve the problem in hotspots like California. Rioters hit the streets of San Francisco after the killer of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk is found guilty of manslaughter and not murder in what is dubbed the “Twinkie defense.”
May 21 – San Francisco gays riot after hearing the verdict for Dan White who assassinated Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.
Kerr-McGee Corporation was ordered to pay $10.5 million dollars to the children of their late employee Karen Silkwood. The settlement was due to her 1974 plutonium contamination by the company.
Who was playing in Las Vegas? There were some big, big names – Burt Bacharach and Raquel Welch were at Caesars, Tony Bennett and David Brenner were appearing at the Desert Inn, and Shirley MacLaine and Fred Travalena were at the Riviera.
This was one of my favorite years for television! “Mork and Mindy” was hot and there were few guys cuter than Tony Danza, who was starring in the quirky hit “Taxi.” This week, there was a Leif Garrett Special on CBS (followed by “Dukes of Hazzard” of course!), over on ABC you could see “The Mackenzies of Paradise Cove” (yeah, I don’t remember that one either!), and one of my favorite short lived 70’s sitcoms “Hello Larry” with McLean Stevenson, was on NBC.
What about music news? Well, DJ Rick Dees broke my heart when he made the jump from Memphis station WHBQ to KHJ in Los Angeles. This was after his success with “Disco Duck.” Like it or not, disco was still alive in 1979, although its run was about to end. Anita Ward was on the charts with “Ring My Bell,” Donna Summer had “Hot Stuff,” and Sister Sledge was singing “We Are Family.” And, how can I forget – it was at this time that the Village People (the band that might have single handedly killed disco) were charting with “In the Navy.”
If it wasn’t the Village People’s fault that disco died, then another band (charting this week with their second album), Van Halen, certainly had a hand in the death. New Wave had also begun, spelling the end for disco, with Blondie’s Parallel Lines album charting this week.
If you went to the theater, you could take in Dawn of the Dead, Love at First Bite. Deer Hunter, or Norma Rae.