The Boomer Experience : Back in the Day

  In 1952, the were merely 16,939,100 television sets in use in the United States, just one unit for every ten Americans. More than half of those TVs could be found in just 10 major cities.  So, television had not quite become the dominant form of entertainment in the country. That did not stop the four major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and… DuMont) from piling on the new programming. It was a banner year for the budding medium, with groundbreaking sitcoms, soaps, superheroes, morning shows, and musical shindigs. Let's take a look. To keep reading this article,  click here.

  The rock concert: we put on our favorite band shirt and wait for the lights to go down to watch the performers who created the soundtracks of our lives. That experience is like no other. Marc Myers takes us on a journey from the genesis of the term “rock ‘n’ roll” to the epic  Live Aid  relief benefit in  Rock Concert: An Oral History as Told by the Artists, Backstage Insiders, and Fans Who Were There.  In his book, Myers shares the stories of the artists who were at the front of the stage, like Joan Baez, Roger Waters, Todd Rundgren, and Ronnie Spector. Additionally, you’ll hear from concert promoters, stagehands, club owners, graphic designers, sound engineers, and others who worked to bring the concert experience together. To keep reading this article,  click here.

  “ History passes the final judgment .” – Sidney Poitier Bahamian-American actor and filmmaker Sidney Poitier, recognised as one of the all-time greats in the film industry, has passed away at the age of 94. The news was announced by Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell, but the cause of death was not revealed. Poitier was the first Black man to win the Academy Award for Best Actor and was the oldest living and earliest surviving recipient of the prestigious accolade, whose distinguished career is a celebration to the world of cinema. To keep reading this article, click here.

  Sidney Poitier, the renowned Hollywood actor, director and activist who commanded the screen, reshaped the culture and paved the way for countless other Black actors with stirring performances in classics such as “In the Heat of the Night” and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” has died, a source close to the family told NBC News on Friday. He was 94. The actor's cause of death was not immediately given. "Sir Sidney’s light will continue to shine brightly for generations to come," said Philip Davis, the prime minister of the Bahamas, where Poitier grew up. In a groundbreaking film career that spanned decades, Poitier established himself as one of the finest performers in America. He made history as the first Black man to win an Academy Award for best actor and, at the height of his fame, he became a major box-office draw. To keep reading this article, click here.

Topps baseball cards and I share a common birth year - we both came to be in 1952.  Eight years later, I started collecting baseball cards, a passion I kept up until I entered high school. I kept my cards until our son was born in 1973. He too became a passionate collector when he was young. And now, my grandson Owen, is also collecting cards, although he is much more passionate about amassing a collection of basketball jerseys. Topps cards therefore have been a part of the Price family for 3 generations. But that connection  is coming to end. Major League Baseball is ending its contract with Topps to produce its cards. Major League Baseball will abandon Topps as its partner for trading cards, ending a relationship that’s been in place since 1952. Fanatics, the company that makes sports apparel, is expected to get the trading card deal instead, according to two people familiar with the matter. Fanatics and MLB declined to comment. MLB renewed its deal with Topps in 2018, and the existi

  Dwayne Hickman, an actor who portrayed the lovesick teenager Dobie Gillis in a popular sitcom of the 1950s and 1960s, creating an enduring and memorable TV character who remains alive in syndicated reruns, died Jan. 9 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 87. The cause was complications from Parkinson’s disease, his publicist, Harlan Boll, said in a statement. Mr. Hickman had been a child actor in the 1940s who had tagged along beside his then-better-known older brother, actor Darryl Hickman. He had small roles in several films before landing a part in “ The Bob Cummings Show ” (also called “Love That Bob”) in 1955. He said he learned almost everything he knew about acting from the affable, ever-smiling Cummings, who had been a movie star since the 1930s. Although he was already in his 20s at the time, Mr. Hickman seemed to personify a generation of teenagers then coming of age in Middle America. When “The Bob Cummings Show” left the air in 1959, Mr. Hickman stepped into his new starrin

It was a pretty awesome year for movies, music and television in 1982.  Cheers ,  E.T. ,  Thriller ,  Blade Runner ,  Tron ,  Tootsie , "Little Red Corvette,"  Knight Rider , Toto's "Africa," Captain Kirk yelling "KHAAAAN!" The sayings "I pity the fool" and "Just say no" both entered the vernacular. The Eighties fully became  THE EIGHTIES  that year.  See More 16 sweet shows turning 40 years old in 2022 There was also a lot of, well,  stuff  that year that made that decade one of the most fondly recalled in history. Colas, action figures, sneakers, computers, scents… Let's turn the clock back 40 years and take a look at 10 memorable introductions. To keep reading this article, click here.

  It would seem unthinkable by today's standards: the most popular character on television was a blue-collar bigot from Queens, New York — who, despite his prejudices, was often considered lovable at the same time. But that was the case for much of the 1970s with the character Archie Bunker on  All in the Family , which debuted in 1971. For five years, it was the most-watched show on television. The show was groundbreaking for openly talking about serious issues of the day. While other shows featured surface-level plots,  All in the Family 's storylines often involved deeper discussions of racism, women's rights, the Vietnam War, homosexuality, rape and more. To keep reading this article, click here.

  The Rock, Shaq, Eminem, Ben Affleck, Gwenyth Paltrow and Jenny McCarthy are all celebrating the big 5-0 in 2022. Hard to believe.  But enough about Gen-X celebrities. Let's talk about some stuff. Most of the products on this list might strike you as surprisingly young. It was a big year for innovation — an entire medium of popular entertainment was introduced. Not to mention some fast-food favorites. Here are some cultural staples that launched in 1972. To keep reading, click here.

  D uring a December 1986 NFL game between the New York Giants and the franchise now known as the Washington Football Team, some object suddenly appeared on the field, disrupting a Giants pass play. At first the CBS play-by-play man, the late  Pat Summerall , said “somebody threw a shoe.” Then the camera panned to the culprit: a pigeon waddling around the 10-yard-line. Summerall then then teed up his partner, analyst  John Madden  like he had so many times before. “How did he get in there?” Madden, like he always did, just ran with it. “Well, he wanted to get down there, he couldn’t get a seat,”  Madden begins , analyzing avian behavior as if the pigeon was a lineman in the trenches. His words, pitched high enough to convey an infectious enthusiasm for all things football, began to ramble in that familiar, endearing way. No one else had that sound before, or has had it since. “He tried to get up above and there was no place … the only place… that he could land was right there.” Madden

   F o r a band that broke up decades ago, there was plenty of Beatles news throughout 2021.  The Fab Four all made news separately throughout the year, and fans got a never-before-seen look at the group in director Peter Jackson’s Get Back documentary late in the year.  Here is The Year In Beatles.

  The Guns of Navarone  is the epic adventure of six Allied saboteurs dispatched to knock out two large caliber German guns positioned within a natural rock fortress on the fictional Greek island of Navarone. The mission is undertaken so that British warships can safely pass the island to rescue British troops stranded on a neighboring island, Kheros (also fictional).  The movie, based on the Alistair MacLean’s 1957 novel of the same name, premiered 60 years ago April 27. Starring Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, Anthony Quayle, Stanley Baker, Irene Papas, James Darren and David Niven,  Guns  was among the most successful of a popular genre of films set in the Second World War that included  Bridge Over the River Kwai .  While almost everybody thinks of  Guns  as a war movie, closer inspection reveals that the movie proposes a relatively sophisticated but usually overlooked argument supporting a culture of life.  To keep reading this article,  click here.