Dick Van Dyke and Hanna-Barbera pals for Kings Dominion, 1978
Happy Funshine Friday! Here’s a pair of 1978 commercials for Kings Dominion theme park. The first spot features perennial favorite, Dick Van Dyke.
Kings Dominion is located in Virginia and opened in May of 1975. It is the sister park to Kings Island.
Previously on Funshine Friday: Willy Wonka’s Candy Factory Kit (1971)
Woody Allen is Howard Prince in ‘The Front,’ 1976
On this edition of Trailer Tuesday, we take a look at a 1976 coming attraction for The Front. Woody Allen stars in this tale of blacklisted writers and performers in 1950s New York.
Co-stars include; Zero Mostel, Herschel Bernardi, Michael Murphy and Andrea Marcovicci. The film was written by Walter Bernstein and directed by Martin Ritt. Click the clicker below to take yourself back to The Front.
The Front Wiki, IMDb
The Front review at Every 70s Movie
Previously on Trailer Tuesday:‘Force 10 From Navarone’ (1978)
Billy Paul wants to thank you (circa 1974).
“Thanks for saving my life. For picking me up, dusting me off.”
It’s Monday, let the music commence! Here’s Billy Paul (best known for “Me And Mrs. Jones”) singing “Thanks For Saving My Life” in what appears to be a promotional video from January, 1974.
“Thanks For Saving My Life” hit the US Top 40 and originally appeared on Paul’s War of the Gods L.P. of November, 1973.
Previously on Music for Monday: Métal Urbain, ‘Panik’ (1977)
“Gee, what a keen movie!” (Willy Wonka’s Candy Factory Kit commercial, 1971)
“Chocolate not included…”
A slight change of pace for today’s FF edition. Instead of a kid’s program from the 70s, we have a commercial that surely ran during a beloved children’s show before slipping into obscurity.
Here’s a very cool spot for Willy Wonka’s Candy Factory Kit narrated by Cap’n Crunch (Daws Butler). The Willy Wonka film released in the summer of 1971 and it looks like this commercial followed soon after. The visual quality isn’t the best, but it’s well worth a viewing. Happy Funshine Friday!
Previously on Funshine Friday: ‘The Muppet Show’ – Elton John, ‘Crocodile Rock’ (1977)
More Willy Wonka at Bionic Disco: ‘Willy Wonka’ – Veruca Salt Sings ‘I Want It Now’ (1971)
Paul Lynde in a Kaftan! (‘People’ magazine, 1976)
“Hollywood Squares’ Paul Lynde Feels Like a Round Peg in TV’s Square Hole”
Cranking back the dial to September, 1976, we find this People magazine cover story on Paul Lynde. Mr. Lynde, famed actor and comedian, does not like the successful but unhappy place he finds himself in Hollywood. Read on.
“He’s the hottest sketch comic on TV—averaging some 200 hours a year of panel and variety shots. Yet Paul maintains that he has come to hate Hollywood as much as the Squares. At the same time, he feels thwarted that he’s not, after ‘eleven bad films,’ a movie star. As a result, despite his manically comic public persona, life for Lynde, at 50, is a relentless struggle to control his weight, his whiskey and his bitterness.
This summer his manager coaxed him for the first time ever into playing himself on tour rather than in a book show. Despite trepidations, he wrote a quintessential evening with Paul Lynde, prancing through numerous costume changes, including caftans that made him look like Lawrence of Fire Island. (‘Someday I’m going to go onstage in a dress if I want to.’) He belted out such songs as his signature Kids, from his Broadway and Hollywood smash Bye Bye Birdie. Afterward Lynde patiently greeted queues of fans, individually. It’s a measure of Paul’s popularity that these sessions often lasted longer than his two-hour show.”
You can read the full article and enjoy a few more photos at the People archives.
Previously on 70s Moments: Rodney Dangerfield On ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ (1970)
This Metal is Urban, so don’t panic. (Métal Urbain, ‘Panik,’ 1977)
Another Monday has rolled around and that means it’s time to politely tap our feet and bob our heads to some 70s music. Or, maybe pogo. Pogoing is good too.
Here’s Parisian punk rock band, Métal Urbain performing their first single, “Panik,” on European TV in 1977.
Previously on Music for Monday: Roy Clark & Buck Trent, ‘Dueling Banjos’ (1975)