The Beatles' 'Butcher Cover'

March 25
Photo session with Robert Whitaker in Chelsea, London.
* Summary from The Beatles Bible: @
* Photos from session and album cover images (www.rarebeatles.com): @
* Robert Whitaker Photography: @
* More Beatles photos from Robert Whitaker (Morrison Hotel Gallery): @ 

June 3-4

Album cover photo appears in music advertisements.

* Summary from www.rarebeatles.com: @

June 11

Photo appears on cover of Disc and Music Echo.

* Summary from www.rarebeatles.com: @

June 14

Capitol Records sends letter to reviewers, telling them the cover is being replaced.

* Summary from abouthebeatles.com: @

June 15

Release date in United States.

* Summary from The Beatles Bible: @

* "Capitol Records has withdrawn the cover of the latest Beatles recording because disc jockeys complained it as offensive." (United Press International): @

June 25

* "Beatles LP Makes Cap. Run for Cover" (Billboard magazine, page 3): @

* Also in the issue is a full-page ad with the replacement cover (page 41).

Other resources

* Discography and Price Guide (www.rarebeatles.com): @

* www.thebutchercover.com: @
* www.thebeatlesbutchershop.com: @

* "Who Butchered the Beatles?" (www.snopes.com): @
* "Who Butchered the Beatles?" (www.recmusicbeatles.com): @

* "Who Butchered Who?" (www.popularmusic.info): @ 

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Tuesday, June 7, 1966: 'The people have spoken ... the bastards.'

Dick Tuck -- longtime Democratic Party strategist and legendary political prankster -- finishes third in the Democratic primary for a seat in the California State Senate. After his defeat, he says, memorably:

The people have spoken ... the bastards.

Note: The quotation has since been reprinted with slight variations. The wording and punctuation are taken from Tuck's website.

* www.dicktuck.com: @

* Entry from The Museum of Hoaxes: @

* "Three 'Names' Win in California" (Associated Press, June 1966): @

* "Nixon May Not Have Tuck To Kick Around Anymore" (Associated Press, October 1973): @

* "Nixon, Tuck: Somebody's Not Leveling" (New York magazine, June 1977): @
* 1996 C-SPAN interview: @

* 2016 segment from Arizona Public Media: @

* "Fear and Loathing in America: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist" (Hunter S. Thompson, 2000; Tuck is mentioned several times): @
* "Presidential Campaign Activities of 1972" (U.S. Senate hearings; Tuck is mentioned several times): @
* "The Nixon Tapes: 1973" (Douglas Brinkley & Luke A. Nichter, 2015): @

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Wednesday, January 12, 1966: 'Batman'

-- From Susan Sontag's "Notes on 'Camp'," September 1964: @

-- Dialogue from a first "Batman" episode, from Know It All Joe: @

January 12: Batman, "Hi Diddle Riddle." (Premiere) This show, which is part adventure for the kiddies and part satire-pop humor for the adults, will be shown on Wednesdays and Thursdays in two segment. Adam West stars as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin. In this episode, the Riddler (Frank Gorshin) lures our hero into a discotheque were he succumbs to Molly (Jill St. John). Robin is kidnapped and all ends in glorious chaos. -- McClure Newspaper Syndicate: @

January 13: Batman, "Smack in the Middle." More gimmicks, more wild puns and way-out humor in the second installment of the premiere of this new crazy show. The consensus seems to be that you either love the series with a dedicated fervor or it misses you completely. Tonight the Riddler (Frank Gorshin), who is holding Robin (Burt Ward) captive, decides to use him as bait for a horrible trap for Batman (Adam West). -- McClure Newspaper Syndicate: @

Programming note: "Batman" displaced "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" (which moved from Wednesdays to Saturdays). "Shindig!", which had been running on Thursdays and Saturdays, was canceled.

* Guide to Season 1 episodes (Comics Alliance): @

* Summary from Museum of Broadcast Communcations: @

* Interviews from Archive of American Television: @

* The Batcave Archives: @

* Bat-Mania: 1966 Batman Online: @

* The 1966 Batman Message Board: @

* To the Batpoles! (blog): @
* "Now, Batman Hits The Tube! Zowie!" (Joan Crosby, Newspaper Enterprise Association, January 16, 1966): @

* "Here Comes the Batman" (Daytona Beach Sunday News-Journal, January 16, 1966): @
* Life magazine, March 11, 1966: @ 
* Entry from "The Encyclopedia of Superheroes on Film and Television" (John Kenneth Muir, 2004): @
* "Batman Unmasked: Analyzing a Cultural Icon" (Will Brooker, 2013): @
* "Batman" (Matt Yockey, 2014): @

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Friday, October 8, 1965: LBJ surgery

President Johnson underwent 2 hours 15 minutes of major surgery Friday for removal of his gall bladder and a kidney stone. Three hours later he was reported "doing well."

     -- Associated Press: @ 

Johnson returned to the White House on October 21. The day before, at Bethesda Naval Hospital, he showed the press his surgical scar. The image would be the basis of a famous cartoon by David Levine, with the scar in the shape of Vietnam (The New York Review of Books, May 12, 1966). Mad magazine would take a similar approach in its January 1968 issue: @

* "Statement by the President That He Would Undergo Surgery" (October 5; American Presidency Project): @ 

* October 8 entry from LBJ Presidential Library: @

* " 'Two Operations for the Price of One' " (Life magazine, October 29): @ 
* David Levine's illustrations for The New York Review of Books: @
* www.davidlevineart.com: @

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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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December 1964: Bob Hope in Vietnam

The comedian, who had entertained U.S. troops during World War II and the Korean War, makes his first USO tour of military bases in Vietnam. Segments from the trip were shown on NBC the following January during "The Bob Hope Christmas Special." Hope would continue the holiday tours until 1972.

     -- Stars and Stripes photo from Tan Son Nuht Airport

* "Bob Hope brings Christmas cheer to troops in Vietnam" (Stars and Stripes, December 26, 1964): @

* "The Bob Hope Show; Christmas Day - 1964; Vinh Long, Vietnam" (vinhlongoutlaws.com): @

* "Hope Indomitable" (Associated Press, December 25): @

* Video from Da Nang Air Base (no sound): @

* Video from Camp Enari (no sound): @

* Front and back covers from "On The Road To Vietnam" (1965): @ and @
* Audio from Bien Hoa: @
* "Bob Hope's Vietnam Christmas Tours" (www.history.net): @

* "On the Road: USO Shows -- Bob Hope and American Variety" (Library of Congress): @

* "Entertaining Troops" (www.bobhope.com): @

* Excerpt from "Bob Hope: A Life in Comedy" (William Robert Faith, 1982): @

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April 1964: MAD magazine Fold-In

Created by cartoonist Al Jaffee, the first Fold-In -- about the scandalous romance between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton -- appears in MAD magazine.

Note: Special thanks to Doug Gilford (madcoversite.com) for providing these images.

* Fold-In number 2 (June 1964): @

* Fold-In number 3 (July 1964): @

* "Fold-Ins, Past and Present" (New York Times, October 2010): @

* "The MAD Fold-In Collection: 1964-2010": @

* "Al Jaffee's Iconic Mad Fold-Ins" (Brain Pickings, August 2011): @

* "Al Jaffee's MAD Life" (Mary-Lou Weisman and Jaffee, 2010): @

* "Interview: Al Jaffee" (Boston Phoenix, November 2010): @

* "Cartoonist Al Jaffee Reveals the One Fold-In MAD magazine wouldn't run" (Yahoo/ABC): @ 

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March 1961: Mad magazine

1961 being the first year since 1881 and the last year until 6009 that reads the same upside down as it does rightside up (with the right typeface, of course).

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January 1961: 'Spy vs. Spy'

The Cold War cartoon debuts in the January issue of Mad magazine. The artist, Antonio Prohias, was an editorial cartoonist who had fled Cuba after Fidel Castro came to power. Each cartoon contains a string of Morse code that stands for "by prohias."

* Summary (from www.toonopedia.com): @

* Original artwork for first strip: @

* Tribute websites: @ and @

* "Spy vs. Spy: The Complete Casebook" (2001): @
* National Public Radio report from 2001: @

* "Tales Calculated to Drive You Mad: The Debunking of Spies, Superheroes and Cold War Rhetoric in Mad magazine's 'Spy vs. Spy' " (2007 paper from Journal of Popular Culture): @

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