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Independence, MO —
This is going to be a little trip in time for those of us who remember the 1970s. The decade started off with a bang when Paul McCartney announced that he was leaving the Beatles in April 1970 and would sever all ties with the group for personal reasons.
Paul and his wife, Linda, then formed the rock group Wings. John Lennon went on to record on his own but was denied permanent-residence status by the United States in 1973 because of a 1968 conviction for marijuana possession. Ringo had a hit or two and made the late-night TV talk show circuit, but the other Beatle, George Harrison, had a big hit with “My Sweet Lord.”
Diana Ross made her final appearance with the Supremes on Jan. 15, 1970, in Las Vegas. She went on with a successful singing career on her own, but one of the other original Supremes, Florence Ballard, died in 1976 at age 32. Elvis Presley filed for a divorce from his wife Priscilla in 1973 and died four years later at the age of 42.
Bud Abbott of Abbott and Costello died in 1974. Louis Armstrong (Satchmo), New Orleans jazz trumpeter, died at 71 in 1971. Comedian Jack Benny died at the age of 80 in 1974, and ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy both passed in 1978. Realist painter Thomas Hart Benton, who painted the mural, “Opening of the West,” in the front foyer of the Truman Library, died in Kansas City at the age of 85 in January 1975 while painting his final mural, the “Sources of Country Music” for the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. That painting is on permanent display in Nashville and was basically completed when the artist died, except that Benton never managed to sign the painting. His wife died 33 days later.
Another Missourian, Chuck Berry, grew up in St. Louis, but seems to be more associated with Memphis because of his music. Berry’s only No. 1 hit single of his entire career was the novelty song “My Ding-a-Ling,” which topped the charts in October 1977.
Jane Fonda, who we’ve managed to love and hate all at the same time, married political activist Tom Hayden in 1973.
Our first introduction to Woody Allen was as a stand-up comedian, but his name as an actor, writer and producer became a household word by the time the 1970s passed into history.
Elizabeth Taylor divorced Richard Burton in 1974 and turned right back around and remarried him the following year, but she dumped him again within another year.
This is going to be a little trip in time for those of us who remember the 1970s. The decade started off with a bang when Paul McCartney announced that he was leaving the Beatles in April 1970 and would sever all ties with the group for personal reasons.
Paul and his wife, Linda, then formed the rock group Wings. John Lennon went on to record on his own but was denied permanent-residence status by the United States in 1973 because of a 1968 conviction for marijuana possession. Ringo had a hit or two and made the late-night TV talk show circuit, but the other Beatle, George Harrison, had a big hit with “My Sweet Lord.”
Diana Ross made her final appearance with the Supremes on Jan. 15, 1970, in Las Vegas. She went on with a successful singing career on her own, but one of the other original Supremes, Florence Ballard, died in 1976 at age 32. Elvis Presley filed for a divorce from his wife Priscilla in 1973 and died four years later at the age of 42.
Bud Abbott of Abbott and Costello died in 1974. Louis Armstrong (Satchmo), New Orleans jazz trumpeter, died at 71 in 1971. Comedian Jack Benny died at the age of 80 in 1974, and ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy both passed in 1978. Realist painter Thomas Hart Benton, who painted the mural, “Opening of the West,” in the front foyer of the Truman Library, died in Kansas City at the age of 85 in January 1975 while painting his final mural, the “Sources of Country Music” for the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. That painting is on permanent display in Nashville and was basically completed when the artist died, except that Benton never managed to sign the painting. His wife died 33 days later.
Another Missourian, Chuck Berry, grew up in St. Louis, but seems to be more associated with Memphis because of his music. Berry’s only No. 1 hit single of his entire career was the novelty song “My Ding-a-Ling,” which topped the charts in October 1977.
Jane Fonda, who we’ve managed to love and hate all at the same time, married political activist Tom Hayden in 1973.
Our first introduction to Woody Allen was as a stand-up comedian, but his name as an actor, writer and producer became a household word by the time the 1970s passed into history.
Elizabeth Taylor divorced Richard Burton in 1974 and turned right back around and remarried him the following year, but she dumped him again within another year.
Sid Vicious, former member of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols, was arrested in New York for the stabbing death of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen.
Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jimmy Morrison all died at the young age of 27 from drug overdoses. Cass Elliott and Jim Croce were both only 30 years old when they left us.
Singer Mary Ford (Les Paul & Mary Ford), rocker Gene Vincent (“Be-Bop-a-Lula”), novelist Jacqueline Susann, Keith Moon (drummer for The Who), Sal Mineo (“Rebel Without a Cause”), country music singer Lefty Frizzel, singer Bobby Darin (“Mack the Knife”), actor Godfrey Cambridge, opera soprano Maria Callas, guitarist Dorsey Burnette, actor Stephen Boyd (“Ben Hur”), British rocker Marc Bolan (T-Rex), rock guitarist Duane Allman (Allman Brothers), jazz saxophonist Cannonball Adderley and film director Gordon Parks (“Shaft,” “Superfly”) – who was from our neighborhood down in Fort Scott, Kan. – were all entirely too young to die during that decade.
Reference: American Decades by Victor Bondi.
