1975–76 Redux

1975–76 Redux

The middle point of the 1970s was for many when the Seventies truly began. It represented a shift away from the years of protest to the concerns of the Me Generation (as defined by Thomas Wolfe in 1976) and the beginning of the aging of the Baby Boomers as they began to enter their thirties. It was the era of the beginning of disco, of arena rock, and summer movie blockbusters such as Jaws. In many ways, it represented something of a return to normalcy as the excesses of the Sixties and early Seventies began to give way to the materialism of the later part of the decade.

1975: The Vietnam War ends

On April 30th, Saigon fell as the American embassy was abandoned in a chaotic evacuation. The fighting had formally ended with a cease-fire in 1973, but the peace had always been tentative and finally broke down in 1974. As the US airlifted Embassy staff and their dependents to waiting aircraft carriers, it became clear that America’s time in what had been South Vietnam was at an end, and with it an era of American diplomacy and combat dating back to the 1950’s.

1975: New York nearly goes broke

The 1970s were not fun times for New York City, which was plagued with job losses, rising crime, and a sense that its best days were behind it. A financial crisis that had been brewing over unpaid debts came to a head in 1975 when banks refused to lend the city more money and Gerald Ford famously told the city to “drop dead” when Mayor Beame attacked the Ford administration for not doing anything to help the city. At the last moment, the city’s Teachers Union agreed to invest their pension funds to stave off bankruptcy, and Ford changed his tune to ask Congress for the money to help New York get back on a sounder financial footing.

1976: Happy Birthday, America

With a turbulent era having recently passed, perhaps it made sense that Americans wanted to feel good about their country again. The Bicentennial, which had actually been in the planning stages since 1966, provided such an opportunity, with “Bicentennial minutes” on TV, the passing of the Tall Ships in New York Harbor, and a number of other events coinciding with that year’s Fourth of July holiday. One of the most memorable moments, however, was probably the day when Rick Monday, a center fielder for the Chicago Cubs, saved the American flag from being burned during an act of protest at Dodger Stadium.

Music, Movies & TV

Music in 1975–76 represented a clear break with the Sixties as disco, which originated in underground clubs in New York and elsewhere, suddenly became mainstream with Van McCoy’s “The Hustle.” On the rock side of things, Peter Frampton’s “Frampton Comes Alive” was one of the best-selling albums of 1976, a year that also included Boston’s debut album, Steve Miller’s “Fly Like an Eagle, Kiss’s “Destroyer” and, from 1975, Fleetwood Mac’s self-titled album which featured Stevie Knicks and Lindsay Buckingham.

Movies included “Jaws,” which was heavily promoted through word of mouth to become Stephen Spielberg’s first major hit film. There was also “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “Dog Day Afternoon,” “Nashville” (which included a subplot about an assassination attempt against a third party Presidential candidate) “Taxi Driver” (which had a similar plot) “Marathon Man,” the satire “Network,” “The Omen,” and “Rocky” which made Frank Stallone an unlikely star.

TV took turns looking back at the past with “Happy Days” and “Laverne and Shirley’ through nostalgic lenses, while the ongoing classic “MASH” continued to show doctors in the Korean War with new additions from Harry Morgan as Sherman Potter, Mike Farrel as BJ Hunnicut, and David Odgen Stiers as Charles Emerson Winchester III. Other popular shows included “The Jeffersons,” “Barney Miller,” “The Rockford Files,” the cult hit “Charlie’s Angels” and “Saturday Night Live” which made its debut in October of 1975.

Technology-wise, this period saw the introduction of the Altair 8800, the Betamax VCR, and Pong. The Cold War thawed a bit with the Apollo-Soyuz program, while the first Viking I probe was launched to Mars. Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen.

In many ways, 1975–76 meant the beginning the Seventies, with signs of what was to come.