Insight: Party like it’s 1975

By Ed Pierce
Managing Editor

Next week marks an anniversary for me as 47 years ago I wrote my first published professional article for a newspaper. On May 16, 1975, I was assigned by United Press International to cover the world heavyweight championship fight in Las Vegas, Nevada between the challenger, Ron Lyle, and the champion, Muhammad Ali.

It seems like an eternity ago as so much has happened in my life and career since then but celebrating 47 years as a print journalist is certainly a milestone that not many are able to reach. I attribute my career longevity to lots of luck, some wonderful mentors, and having been blessed with an opportunity to tell some exceptional stories through the years.

In celebrating my career anniversary, I thought it would be interesting to look back at some of the news, events and newsmakers taking place during this week in May 1975 at the start of my career.

Gasoline was selling across America for 57 cents a gallon. Electronics manufacturer Sony announced the creation of a new video cassette recording system it called Betamax.

The game show Wheel of Fortune made its debut as part of the NBC daytime television lineup.

The top movies of May 1975 are “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” with Ellen Burstyn, “Breakout” with Charlles Bronson, and the Academy Award winner “The Godfather Part II” with Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro. On television, the top-rated show is “All in the Family” followed by the ABC miniseries “Rich Man, Poor Man,” and “Laverne and Shirley.” 

The pull tab ring for aluminum cans is discontinued by American manufacturers after a series of injuries and deaths caused by people who swallowed the metal tabs. Gerald Ford was serving as the U.S. president.

Newly released products on the market included the Mood Ring, a jewelry item which contains a thermochromic element or a mood stone that changes colors based upon the temperature of the finger it’s worn on, and the Ford F-150 pickup truck.

For three consecutive weeks, the song “He Don’t’ Love You (Like I Love You)” by Tony Orlando and Dawn tops the popular American music charts in May 1975. The top country song during that same time period is the crossover hit “(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song” by B.J. Thomas.

The top bestselling novel of May 1975 is “Ragtime” by E.L. Doctorow and the first issue of “Soldier of Fortune” magazine is on sale at newsstands across the U.S.

Gourmet jellybeans are introduced in America by the Herman Goelitz Corporation. Original flavors are licorice, lemon, grape, root beer, cream soda, green apple, tangerine and very cherry. The company was rebranded in 2001 as “Jelly Belly.”

The “two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun” jingle is introduced to the American public in a television commercial for McDonalds in May 1975. The minimum wage for American workers was $2.10 an hour.

Milk was priced at $1.57 a gallon in May 1975, while eggs cost 70 cents for a dozen and ground beef was 99 cents per pound. A 1.05-ounce Hershey’s chocolate bar was 15 cents, and a 12-ounce box of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes was 45 cents.

Pillsbury acquires Totino's frozen pizza for $20 million in May 1975 while Wally Amos introduces his “Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookies” for the first time to American consumers. A Kentucky Fried Chicken “Family Bucket” meal containing 15 pieces of chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, and six rolls was selling for $4.90.

The U.S. merchant ship Mayaguez and its crew were seized by the Kymer Rouge Cambodian forces and held for three days before being freed during a daring rescue by U.S. Marines.

The Milwaukee Brewers held first place in the American League East baseball standings on May 16, 1975, leading the eventual A.L. champion that year, the Boston Red Sox, by four games. The Los Angeles Dodgers were in first place in the National League West standings by five games over the Atlanta Braves and 5.5 games ahead of the eventual N.L. and 1975 World Series champion, the Cincinnati Reds.

The top selling automobiles in America in May 1975 are the Oldsmobile Cutlass, the Ford Granada, the Chevrolet Chevelle, the Chevrolet Nova and Chevrolet Monte Carlo and the AMC Pacer.

The theme park Busch Gardens officially opened in Williamsburg, Virginia with television personality Ed McMahon on hand for the dedication ceremony.

In women’s fashion, platform sandals, mini dresses and turtlenecks for layering were the top trends, while men were wearing bell-bottom and wide-leg pants, platform shoes, vests, long collared shirts, turtleneck sweaters, and leisure suits. For full disclosure, I wore a new brown plaid leisure suit when I interviewed Muhammad Ali before his knockout of Ron Lyle in Las Vegas.

Yes, May 1975 turned out to be a memorable month for me that I will not ever forget. That was truly a different world than the one we live in today and in many ways a simpler and less complicated way of life.

In looking back, I wish I knew then what I know now, but I wouldn’t change a thing about how my life or career turned out. <

Insight: A glimpse at predictions, prognostications and projections

By Ed Pierce

Managing Editor   

Back in 1975, I purchased a book that still holds a prominent place on the bookshelf in my office to this very day. It is titled “The People’s Almanac” by David Wallechinsky and Irving Wallace and is a fascinating collection of trivia, obscure facts and information and untold true stories from history.

In 29 chapters and 1,475 pages, the authors compiled one of the best sources of esoteric knowledge in my lifetime and it spawned two sequels, “The People’s Almanac 2,” “The People’s Almanac 3,” and best-selling chapters from “The People’s Almanac” were turned into books of their own called “The Book of Lists,” “The Books of Lists 2” and “The Book of Lists 3.”

That’s a lot of reading which I highly recommend but focusing on one particular chapter in “The People’s Almanac” has always fascinated me the most. In it, the authors gathered input for the future from popular psychics of the day, psychics of the past and modern scientists, who made bold predictions in 1975 about the world of tomorrow.

Here’s a sampling of predictions they offered in the book and how well these projections have held up over the years:

** From Professor John McHale of the World Resources Inventory at Southern Illinois University – By the year 2010 home computers and flat-screen digital televisions will be developed and sold commercially. McHale was right.

** From Swedish psychic Olof Jonsson – By the year 2000 there will no longer be gasoline-powered automobiles. Jonsson was wrong.

** From Baptist minister David Bubar of Tennessee – By the year 2020 American and Russian scientists will invent a device through which people can become invisible. Bubar was wrong.

** From Desmond King-Hele of London’s Institute of Mathematics – By the year 2000 humans will have colonized Mars. King-Hele was wrong.

** From American psychic and author Jeanne Dixon – By the year 1982 the United States will establish and begin using a new monetary system. Dixon was wrong.

** From John Reeves of Columbia University – By the year 1980, the peninsula of Baja California will break free of land, making it an island. Reeves was wrong.

** From D.G. Brennan of the Hudson Institute – By the year 2018, aircraft capable of orbital speeds will be possible. Brennan was right.

** From American author Arthur C. Clarke – By the year 2020 “video-phones will make possible business lunches with the two halves of the table 10,000 miles apart.” Clarke also predicted home-shopping by computers by 2020. In both instances, he was right.

** From Stanford University biology professor and author Paul Ehrlich – By the year 2000, a shift of the jet stream caused by air pollution and a persistent drought will turn the midwestern United States into a desert. Ehrlich was wrong.

** From Lloyd Stover of the University of Miami’s Institute of Marine Science – By the year 2020, the ocean will be known as a vast potential resource to feed the world’s populations. Stover was right.

** From Rutgers University political science professor Emmet John Hughes – By the year 2024, “economic necessity will override patriotism and cause the nations of Western Europe to band together, if not under a single government, then certainly in a close politico-economic alliance.” Hughes correctly predicted the European Union.

** From Charles DeCarlo of IBM -- By the year 2020, hand-held personal computers of great speed will allow people to conduct banking, listen to music, and work from home. DeCarlo was right.

** From Daniel Bell, sociology professor at Harvard University – “The society of the year 2000 will be more fragile, with greater hostility and polarization.” Bell was right.

** From Alan Vaughn of Akron University – “In 1981, the United States will go to war with China.” Vaughn was wrong.

** From Orville Freeman, former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture – By the year 2020, “space satellites 200 miles or more above the surface of the earth will analyze weather, differences in soil, crops and forests, and spot crop damage.” Freeman was right.

** From Dr. Olaf Helmer of Connecticut’s Institute for the Future – By the year 2000 a permanent colony will exist on the moon. Helmer was wrong.

** From Theodore Gordon of the Futures Group – By the year 1990, advances in science will extend the average human lifespan to more than 100 years. Gordon was wrong.

As for me, I’m with Nobel physics laureate Nils Bohr when thinking about venturing a guess about what lies ahead for us, especially living through this year.

“It’s difficult to make predictions, especially about the future,” Bohr once said.

So true. <