1.30.2015

Saturday, January 30, 1965: Billboard R&B charts



Billboard magazine resumes its listing of the nation's top rhythm-and-blues songs and also introduces a chart of the top R&B albums.

From the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: "The Billboard R&B chart was eliminated for 14 months between November 30, 1963 and January 23, 1965 owing to the regular crossover of titles between the R&B and pop singles charts. Billboard deemed the lists too similar to print both."

From the book "Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop" (Bob Stanley, 2013): "From November 30th 1963 to January 23 1965 there was no Billboard R&B singles chart. No reason was given, but the prevailing wisdom was that the chart methodology was in question, as Caucasian acts were scoring big hits. However, Cashbox, Billboard's main rival, continued to print R&B charts during 1964, and each of their number ones was by a black act.

From the book "Between Montmartre and the Mudd Club: Popular Music and the Avant-Garde" (Bernard Gendron, 2002): "Before the British Invasion, the pop and R&B charts had come to overlap so much that Billboard in December 1963 stopped publishing the R&B charts. White musicians were crossing over into the R&B charts apparently as frequently as black musicians into the pop charts. ... After the British Invasion -- the Beatles interestingly never crossed over -- the R&B charts were reconstituted by Billboard (January 1965), as black music went on separate trajectories from white rock music.

-- Image from January 30, 1965, issue of Billboard. Link (R&B charts on page 14): @ 

1.27.2015

Wednesday, January 27, 1965: Vietnam memo



National security adviser McGeorge Bundy and defense secretary Robert McNamara send to President Johnson a memo titled "Basic Policy in Vietnam." They state:

What we want to say to you is that both of us are now pretty well convinced that our current policy can lead only to disastrous defeat. What we are doing now, essentially, is to wait and hope for a stable government. ... We see two alternatives. The first is to use our military power in the Far East and to force a change of Communist policy. The second is to deploy all our resources along a track of negotiation, aimed at salvaging what little can be preserved with no major addition to our military risks. Bob and I tend to favor the first course, but we believe that both should be carefully studied and that alternative programs should be argued out before you. ... the time has come for harder choices.

This came to be known as the "fork in the road" or "fork in the Y" memo, though neither phrase was used.

     -- Photo (cropped) from July 23, 1965; from left, Johnson, McNamara and Bundy. Original White House image: @

* Full text of memo (from "Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968): @
* Original document (from LBJ Library): @
* "Observations Re South Vietnam After Khanh's 'Re-Coup' " (January 27, by assistant secretary of defense J.T. McNaughton; from Pentagon Papers): @
* January 27 telegram from Johnson to Gen. Maxwell Taylor, U.S. ambassador to Vietnam (from FRUS): @
* "The War Council: McGeorge Bundy, the NSC, and Vietnam" (Andrew Preston, 2006): @
* "Argument Without End: In Search of Answers to the Vietnam Tragedy" (McNamara et al., 1999): @
* "American Tragedy: Kennedy, Johnson and the Origins of the Vietnam War" (David Kaiser, 2000): @
* "Choosing War: The Lost Chance for Peace and the Escalation of War in Vietnam" (Fredrik Logevall, 1999): @
* "The U.S. Government and the Vietnam War: Executive and Legislative Roles and Relationships, Part III" (William Conrad Gibbons, 1989): @
* "The Case for the Vietnam War" (W.W. Rostow, Times Literary Supplement, June 1995): @ 

Wednesday, January 27, 1965: Shelby GT350 Mustang



Car designer Carroll Shelby introduces his version of the Ford Mustang -- the high-performance GT350 -- at California's Riverside Raceway. Base prices: $4,547 (street) and $5,995 (racing).
     -- Photo from 1965gt350mustang.com

* May 1965 review from Car and Driver: @
* "The Ford Mustang GT350: Carroll Shelby & the American Pony War" (from selvedgeyard.com): @
* "1965 Shelby GT350 Mustang: The Car That Defined Mustang Performance" (from mustangs.about.com): @
* "Mustang: A Short Story of Two Special Shelby Mustangs" (from LeMay -- America's Car Museum): @
* Road test (from justmustangs.com.au): @
* "The difference between the Shelby G.T. 350 and the Mustang ... plenty!" (from Old Car Manuals Project): @
* CarrollShelby.com: @
* ShelbyAmerican.com: @ 
* Earlier post on Ford Mustang (April 17, 1964): @ 

1.22.2015

January 1965: Planned Parenthood

An $8,500 federal grant for birth control -- including the distribution of oral contraceptive pills -- has been approved for the South Texas Planned Parenthood Clinic of Corpus Christi. It is believed the funds, given as a part of the Johnson administration's war on poverty, are the first authorized for such a clinic not under the direction of a state welfare agency. The $8,500 is part of a $295,200 package for the Corpus Christi area from the Office of Economic Opportunity. The bulk of the money will go for other health, education and welfare measures.
     -- "Federal Birth Control Plan Approved for Corpus Unit" (Associated Press, January 28, 1965)
     -- Image from Planned Parenthood brochure, 1965

* "Population Explosion Is Under Study" (AP, January 7): @
* "Texas Clinic Using Poverty War Aid For Birth Control" (AP, January 25): @
* "Texas City Gets Federal Funds" (Milwaukee Sentinel, January 28): @
* "Parenthood Center Needs Even Greater" (Corpus Christi Times, February 19; subscription only): @
* "Let us act on the fact that less than 5 dollars invested in population control is worth a hundred dollars invested in economic growth." (speech by President Johnson, June 25; Miller Center): @
* "Birth Control Effective in Texas" (Milwaukee Sentinel, July 14): @
* "Mothers Ask For Help and Families Continue to Grow" (AP, September 28): @
* "Pills, Publicity Lift Birth Control Secrecy" (Gannett News Service, August 17, 1967): @
* "Birth Control Movement in Texas" (Texas State Historical Association): @
* "Family Planning and the Demographic Imperative" (from "The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History," 2008): @
* "Fifty Years of Family Planning: New Evidence on the Long-Run Effects of Increasing Access to Contraception" (Martha J. Bailey, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 2013): @
* Planned Parenthood Federation of America: @ 

1.16.2015

Saturday, January 16, 1965: AFL All-Star game


The American Football League's All-Star game is played in Houston. The game was moved from the original site, New Orleans, after black players voted against playing because of their treatment by businesses in that city.


* "50 Years Ago: How New Orleans Lost the 1965 AFL All-Star Game" (New Orleans Advocate, 2015): @
* "Players Boycott AFL All-Star Game" (Pro Football Hall of Fame): @
* "Protest of Race-Related Slights Brought '65 Game Here" (Houston Chronicle, 2005): @
* "New Orleans, New Football League, and New Attitudes: The American Football League All-Star Game Boycott, January 1965" (Maureen Smith, in "Sports and the Racial Divide," 2008): @
* "AFL All-Star Game Is Moved to Houston" (Associated Press, January 12, 1965): @
* "Tackle Mix Backed Idea, Not Method" (Associated Press, January 14, 1965): @
* "Was This Their Freedom Ride?" (Sports Illustrated, January 18, 1965): @
* "AFL's Switch Dramatizes Negro Importance to Game" (Shirley Povich, Washington Post, January 17, 1965): @
* "The Black Athlete: A Shameful Story" (Five-part series in Sports Illustrated, July 1968): @ (first installment; click on "covers / full issues for rest of series)
* Photos of All-Star squads (www.remembertheAFL.com): @ and @ 

1.14.2015

Thursday, January 14, 1965: Hill's Criteria for Causation


     Sir Austin Bradford Hill presents the paper "The Environment and Disease: Association or Causation" at the Royal Society of Medicine in London. 
     "... Hill suggests nine factors to be considered in determining whether a statistical association in a population between exposure to some substance and incidence of some disease or disorder is indicative of causation ..."
     -- Quoted material from "Evidence Matters: Science, Proof and Truth in the Law" (Susan Haack, 2014): @
     -- Chart from "Textbook of Cancer Epidemiology" (2008): @

* PDF of paper: @
* Summary (from Dr. William S. Abruzzi): @
* Summary (from Science-Based Medicine): @ 

1.03.2015

Monday, January 4, 1965: State of the Union speech


     
     President Johnson launched a long-heralded multibillion-dollar drive tonight to create the great society "where freedom from the wants of the body can help fulfill the needs of the spirit."
     At the same time, Johnson extended an invitation to Russia's leaders to come over and learn something about us.
     Laying down his blueprint for his great society in his State of the Union message to a joint session of Congress and to the nation, the President:
     * Called for an excise tax cut which may total $2 billion.
     * Proposed a new, additional $1.5 billion aid-to-education program carrying help from the primary grades to graduate schools.
     * Plugged again for medical care for aged under social security and for a stepped-up war on poverty.
     * Demanded federal action to eliminate all voting restrictions aimed at Negroes.
     * Recommended standby legislative procedures to allow instant income tax cuts in the event of a recession.
     * Pledged to support repeal of section 14B of the Taft-Hartley Act authorizing state right -to-work laws.
     The unusual evening time chosen for delivery of the message assured President Johnson of the widest possible television and radio audience, coming as it did during "prime time."

-- Story from New York Daily News: @
-- UPI photo from U.S. House of Representatives: @

* Text of speech (LBJ Library): @
* Video: (LBJ Library): @
* Summary (www.history.com): @
* Summary (www.realclearpolitics.com): @
* New York Times story: @
* "Johnson Asks Excise Tax Cut" (Associated Press): @
* "LBJ, Congress Head Down Road to 'Great Society' " (Associated Press): @
* "The Week That Was" (Associated Press, January 10 and January 17): @ and @
* "Will Congress Nail Down the Great Society? ... Maybe" (Life magazine, January 15): @
* Earlier post on first "Great Society" speeches (May 1964): @ 

1.01.2015

Friday, January 1, 1965: Soupy Sales



Soupy Sales, host of a children's program on WNEW-TV in New York, tells his young viewers:

"Hey, kids, last night was New Year's Eve and your mom and dad were out having a good time and it's only right, since they work hard all year long. And they're probably still in the bedroom asleep. Now, what I want you to do is tiptoe into the bedroom and don't wake them up and you'll probably see your mom's pocketbook on the floor along with your dad's pants. Now, be real careful, because we don't want to wake them up, but I want you to go into your mom's pocketbook and your dad's pants and you'll find some little green pieces of paper with pictures of guys with beards on them. Now, what I want you to do is take those little pieces of green paper and put them into an envelope, and on the envelope, I want you to write Soupy Sales, Channel 5, New York, New York, and you know what I'm gonna send you in return? A postcard from Puerto Rico."

A week and a half later, after station executives learn that a woman has complained to the Federal Communications Commission, Sales is suspended from the show for several days. (Accounts vary as to how much he actually received in the mail.) The incident only increases his popularity.

-- Quote from the 2001 book "Soupy Sez!" 

* Summary (www.snopes.com): @
* Summary (www.tvacres.com): @
* Sales recounts the incident (video, 1993): @ 
* "A Little 'Good, Clean Violence' Beneficial, Says Soupy Sales" (Associated Press, May 1965): @
* Obituary (New York Times, 2009): @ 

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