Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome - 4/3/1967 to 4/9/1967

West Rome High School took fourth place in the Region 6-AA high school literary meet. Steve Cox took third place in Essay (boys); Mary Ann Witte took fourth place in Essay (girls); Bonnie Logan took third place in Vocal Solo (girls); and West Rome took third in trio (no individual students were listed). 

West Rome’s track team ran a bit behind in a ten-school track meet, coming in 6th place with 14 1/3 points. This was one of the few times that the East Rome Gladiators got the better of the Chieftains (the Glads came in first place with 82 points. Tommy Sapp was the Chieftains star, taking first place on the low hurdles while setting a region record with a run of 21.3 seconds, breaking Arbie Lovell’s prior 21.9 second record.

West Rome’s baseball team edged past Model 3-2 on Friday, April 7th. Bubba Holbrooks, Billy Bray, Jim Edwards, and Danny Fricks garnered West Rome’s hits; Jimmy Culberson pitched for the first three innings before Steve Harwell stepped in to finish the game. The team trounced Trion 10-1 the next day in a non-region game; the Chiefs picked up six runs in the seventh inning alone! Pitcher Charles (Cootie) Williams allowed only two hits during the game. “The surprising thing is that Cootie pitched so well when he’s not yet really in peak condition,” Coach Nick Hyder said. “He’s been dividing his time between baseball and track.”

Janet Amspoker, Debbi Shelnutt, Jan Shelnutt, and Dee Shelnutt were inolved in a three-car accident on Tuesday afternoon, April 4th, shortly after school let out. The three-car accident occurred at approximately 4:15 pm on Redmond Circle near West Rome High School; all four were transported to Floyd Hospital, treated, and dismissed.

Piggly ‘wiggly had fresh whole fryers for a quarter a pound; five pounds of Gold Medal flour for 49¢; and Swift’s chili with beans for 49¢ a can. Big Apple had ground beef for 47¢ a pound, Irvindale ice cream for 49¢ a half-gallon, and cucumbers for a dime each. Kroger had beef roast for 95¢ a pound, tomatoes for 23¢ a pound, and fresh angel food cakes for 39¢ each. A&P had chuck roast for 35¢ a pound, grapefruit for a dime each, and Eight O’Clock coffee for 65¢ a pound. Couch’s had pork chops for 49¢ a pound, white corn for 9¢ an ear, and Double Cola for $1.09 a case (plus deposit).

The cinematic week began with The Reluctant Astronaut (with Don Knotts) at the DeSoto Theatre and the West Rome Drive-In and Doctor Zhivago (with Omar Shariff) at the First Avenue Theatre. The midweek switchout brought How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (with Robert Morse) to the DeSoto and the West Rome Drive-In and Georgy Girl (with James Mason & Lynn Redgrave) to the First Avenue. 

The Turtles took number one for a third week with “Happy Together.” Other top ten hits included “Dedicated to the One I Love” by the Mamas & The Papas (#2); “Somethin’ Stupid” by Nancy Sinatra & Frank Sinatra (#3); “Bernadette” by the Four Tops (#4); “This Is My Song” by Petula Clark (#5); “Penny Lane” by the Beatles (#6); “Western Union” by the Five Americans (#7); “I Think We’re Alone Now” by Tommy James & the Shondells (#8); “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You” by the Monkees (#9); and “There’s a Kind of Hush” by Herman’s Hermits (#10). 

Having said goodbye to Marvel in a less-than-amicable split, Steve Ditko found his muse at Charlton Comics. This was the week that the first issue of his Blue Beetle series debuted (starring the character he had introduced in the pages of Captain Atom); the premiere issue introduced Ditko’s enigmatic blank-faced hero The Question (who would late inspired Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons’ Rorschach in The Watchmen). Ditko also pencilled a ten-page story (inked by the incomparable Wally Wood) in Tower Comics’ Dynamo #4, also released this week in 1967—

Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome - 3/27/1967 to 4/2/1967

Masked bandits robbed an Alabama Road service station at gunpoint on the night of March 27th, stealing about $60. The service station employee  waited until the robbers walked out to their car, at which point he pulled a pistol from under the counter and fired five shots into the car, all  of which hit the target (although apparently not the robbers). The employee said that he got some satisfaction in knowing that it would cost them more than $60 to repair the five bullet holes in their car.

Rome’s flying saucer phenomena continued as a UFO was reported over the skies of Lindale on March 28th. The object, which was described as sometimes looking like a saucer and other times looking like a ball of fire, changed directions several times before heading towards Rome. Witnesses said that they saw a smaller object fall from the UFO to the ground before it disappeared; the object was not located. After investigation, the police said that the flying saucer turned out to be large heavy-coated clear dry cleaning bags containing multiple candles; the heated air from the candles gave the bags “lift,” while kite strings allowed the UFO-launchers (a group of teenage boys) to guide the UFOs back and forth… until the candles caught the bag on fire and burned through the string, setting them free until the bags melted and fell to the ground.

Rome launched a large-scale paving program this week in 1967, and one of the first roads to get paved was South Hanks Street in West Rome. Until that time, South Hanks Street was still a gravel road!  Sections of Burnett Ferry Road located in the city limits were scheduled for repaving, as were many neighborhood streets in West Rome, including Williamson Street, Paris Drive, and Leon Street.

Girl Scout Cookies went on sale in West Rome this week in 1967; the sale was slated to continue until April 15th. 1967 cookie offerings included thin mints, peanut butter sandwich, butter shortbread, and assorted sandwich cookies. Yep, four choices—that was it! Boxes of cookies were priced at 50¢—which sounds pretty cheap, until you adjust for inflation, which puts a box at $3.75 or so in today’s dollars.

West End Elementary School presented its annual spring musical program on Friday, March 31st, at 8pm in the West Rome High School Auditorium. The program, entitled “Toyland,” was a pastiche of Victor Herbert’s operetta “Babes in Toyland” (and why do I suspect that the students weren’t the ones who came up with that theme?).

Big Apple had rump roast (yes, I still snicker at the name) for 77¢ a pound, Sealtest ice milk for 39¢ a half-gallon, and Campbell’s tomato soup for 12¢ a can. Kroger had t-bone steaks for 95¢ a pound, Coca-Cola for 29¢ a carton (plus deposit), and corn for 6¢ an ear. A&P had center cut pork chops for 59¢ a pound, red delicious apples for 19¢ a pound, and a 12 ounce jar of Maxwell House instant coffee for 95¢. Piggly Wiggly had chicken breasts for 49¢ a pound, eggs for 33¢ a dozen, and tomatoes for 19¢ a pound. Couch’s had ground beef for 45¢ a pound, bananas for a dime a pound, and a 12-ounce jar of Duke’s Go-Go Peanut Butter for 29¢.

The cinematic week began with Thunder Alley (with Annette Funicello & Fabian) at the DeSoto Theatre & West Rome Drive-In and Doctor Zhivago (with Omar Shariff) at the First Avenue theatre. The midweek switchout brought The Reluctant Astronaut (with Don Knotts) to the DeSoto and the West Rome Drive-In, while Doctor Zhivago refused to go away at the First Avenue.

The Turtles held on to number one for a second week with “Happy Together.” Other top ten hits included “Dedicated to the One I Love” by The Mamas & The Papas (#2); “Penny Lane” by the Beatles (#3); “There’s a Kind of Hush” by Herman’s Hermits (#4); “Bernadette” by the Four Tops (#5); “This Is My Song” by Petula Clark (#6); “For What It’s Worth” by the Buffalo Springfield (#7); “Strawberry Fields Forever” by the Beatles (#8); “Something  Stupid” by Nancy Sinatra & Frank Sinatra (#9); and “Western Union” by the Five Americans (#10).

It was an eventful week for 60s music: the Beatles posed for photographs for the cover of their upcoming album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Band on March 30th; Jimi Hendrix set his guitar on fire on stage for the first time at a London concert on March 31st; and Donovan released his album Mellow Yellow on March 31st (his first real break from the folk-music that had defined the sound of his earlier albums).

It Was Forty Years Ago Today...

... that what I refer to as the fourth chapter of my life came to a close. I went to bed at 12;30 am on March 18th after having spent the entire night of March 17th completing the process of packing up our belongings at 621 Olive Street in Cedartown, Georgia. On March 18th at 8am, the movers came to begin loading our belongings to take them to our apartment at 1029 Franklin Road in Marietta.

(The first chapter of my life includes all my early experiences up to that day in early January 1959 when my parents bought me my first four comic books so that I would have something to read while I was in the hospital recovering from a tonsillectomy The second chapter began then, and continued until the time that I discovered fanzines and fandom in 1966. The third chapter began then and continued until the time I got married on June 15, 1971. The fourth chapter began when Susan and I got married and ended on this day in 1977, when we left Cedartown to begin our new life in Marietta.)

The big move was a hasty one: Susan, who was still taking computer programming classes at Coosa Valley Tech, had landed a job near Lenox Square in Atlanta with Management Science America, but they didn't want to wait for her to graduate. She had demonstrated the skills and knowledge to do the job, so they made the offer on March 7th... but they needed her to start on March 14th! That gave us one weekend to find an apartment and prepare to move.

Susan's school was great about it--they said that since she had gotten a job in her field of study, they would consider that as completion of her course requirements and would issue her a certificate at the end of the quarter. They told her that there was no reason to come to class after Wednesday, March 9th. So I took the day off from East Rome High School on Friday, March 11th, and we began our apartment search.

Today, Franklin Road is struggling to recover from years as a residential war zone fueled by run-down apartments that became centers of criminal activity. But in 1977, Franklin Road was one fo the trendy, desirable areas of Marietta, lined with newly-constructed apartments occupied by an influx of young professionals working. Best of all, it was a little more than midway between Susan's job at MSA and my job at East Rome High School, where I was teaching English. I had a 50 minute drive from the apartment to my classroom,  and Susan had a 35 minute drive to her office at the corner of Lenox and Peachtree.

So we signed a lease on March 11th and paid our deposit, our first month's rent, and an extra half-month's rent to take possession of the apartment on March 18th.

Since Susan had to start work on Monday, March 14th, our good friend Larry Mason, who lived off Dresden Drive in Chamblee, let her stay at his apartment. I stayed behind to continue teaching my classes during the day, to find a moving company, and to begin packing up everything we owned for our first major move since our marriage in June 1971.

Like everyone who packs for a move, I started off with every intention of being organized. That lasted until Tuesday night, when I realized that the movers were coming on Friday morning and I had packed only about 20% of our belongings. On Wednesday,  I began packing random belongings into whatever boxes and containers I could find, hoping I could unpack them in some semblance of order once we got to the apartment. By Wednesday night, I had everything packed... except for the books.

And we had so many books!

So my good friends Gary Steele and Barry Hunter came down to Cedartown on Thursday night, March 17th, with oodles of boxes, and we began packing. We worked like maniacs. Everything was perfect with one exception: either Gary or Barry had brought several appliance boxes down, and they filled those with books. Turns out that a 3' x 3' x 4' box filled with paperback and hardcovers weighs about the same as a small planetoid.  We looked at each other, then realized that we weren't going to have to move those boxes--the movers were!

And just after midnight on March 18th, we were done. Susan and I were closing out our lives in Cedartown--the place where we had lived since our marriage, and the town where Susan had lived since birth--and moving to a place where neither one of us had lived, where neither one of us had friends, and where neither one of us knew exactly what the future would hold for us.

Turned out it worked pretty well. But I didn't know that on the night of March 18th, when I spent a sleepless night on our sofa because I had packed away all the bedsheets and dismantled the bed frame. I probably dozed an hour or two, but I was too wound up with adrenalin from the evening of packing... and with anxiety from the impending move. Life seemed horribly uncertain, and we had all too little time to prepare for the change.

But that's the way life usually is, right?

(I'm including photos of me and Susan taken around 1976 just to remind me of how young we really were at the time. As is almost always the case, Susan is photogenic and I'm not...)

Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome - 3/20/1967 to 3/26/1967

Academic Awards were presented by the Chieftains Club to the top five students in each class, grades 7-12. Those receiving academic awards included Marvin Smith, Carol Culp, Greg Quinton, Dianne Massey, and Janet Amspoker (12th grade); Pate Finley, Steve Warren, April Garrison, Anita Smith, and Sandy Witherington (11th grade); Beth Watson, Beverly Hall, Bonnie Logan, Karen Hart,  Robert Blalock, and Mary Beth Boggus (10th grade—and there was a GPA tie for fifth place); Paula Lane, Cynthia Morgan, Vicky Vinson, Deborah Beard, and Susan Gardner (9th grade); Phyllis Cox, Randy Kennedy, Greg Carter, Jamie Cook, & Rosalind McKibben (8th grade); and Joyce Gribble, Virginia Leiter, Cindy Purcell, Debbie Reynolds, and David Whitworth (7th grade). 

A rock and roll stage show was held at 7:30 pm on Wednesday, March 22nd, at West Rome High School. After the stage show, a dance was held, with Rhythm Inc. providing the music. The dance was held on Wednesday night because school was closed on Thursday and Friday as a lead-in to Easter, which fell on March 26th that year.

West Rome’s intramural game between the Greens and the Whites took place on Thursday, March 23rd, at Legion Field (the game was normally held at Barron Stadium, but off-season construction at Barron forced the game’s relocation).This was one of the few official “games” of the spring; other schools simply held off-season practice, but Coach Paul Kennedy said that West Rome fans loved football so much that they wanted to see the teams play, so he was scheduling two intrasquad games: one for the JV and 9th grade players, and a second for the varsity team. The Whites beat the Greens 20-7, largley thanks to Roger Weaver, who scored one touchdown and set up the other two. (The paper offered no info on the outcome of the JV/9th grade game.)

The Magic Touch Car Wash at the corner of Shorter Avenue and Burnett Ferry Road completed its renovation and expansion this week in 1967. The new conveyor-car-wash system, one of the first fully automated systems in the Southeast, made it possible for the car wash to handle 600 cars per day. Magic Touch also added 8 gasoline pumps to their facility, making it easy for customers to fill up and get a car wash in a single stop.

Rome and Floyd County saw an increase in the unemployment rate to 5.1% in early 1967, largely due to the closing of the viscose division of Celanese Fibers, which resulted in the layoff of 900 employees. Had the Celanese closing not occurred, area unemployment would have come in at just under 4%. Rome chamber of commerce spokesmen said that they were aggressively seeking new manufacturers to relocate to Rome because of the number of trained workers available in the area, but they didn’t give any specifics. 

In spite of the increase in unemployment, Rome was still undergoing an unprecedented building boom, with more than $105 million in new construction planned for the 1967-1970 time period. This included major additions to Georgia Power’s Plant Hammond; new dorms at Darlington; new dorms, classrooms, and a student center at Berry; new classrooms at Shorter; a major expansion of Coosa Valley Vocational Technical School, new dorms at Georgia School for the Deaf; and the major construction of Gala Shopping Center, right across the street from West Rome High School.

Piggly Wiggly had Swift’s Butterball turkeys for 39¢ a pound, Bailey’s Supreme coffee for 59¢ a pound, and Merita bread for a quarter a loaf. Kroger had smoked ham for 37¢ a pound, large eggs for 42¢ a dozen, and sweet corn for 6¢ an ear. Big Apple had shoulder lamb roast for 49¢ a pound, Diet-Rite cola for 29¢ a carton plus deposit, and Campbell’s pork & beans for 15¢ a can. A& P had boneless round roast for 89¢ a pound, and fresh strawberries for 39¢ a pint. Ann Page peanut butter for 59¢ a jar, and Couch’s had baking hens for 35¢ a pound, Stokely’s fruit cocktail for 19¢ a can, and tomatoes for 19¢ a pound. 

The cinematic week began with Easy Come, Easy Go (with Elvis Presley) at the DeSoto Theatre and the West Rome Drive-In and Doctor Zhivago (wit Omar Shariff) at the First Avenue Theatre. The midweek switch out brought Thunder Alley (with Annette Funicello & Fabian) to the DeSoto and the West Rome Drive-In, while Doctor Zhivago hung around for yet another week at the First Avenue.

The Turtles climbed to number one this week in 1967 with “Happy Together.” Other top ten hits included “Dedicated to the One I Love” by the Mamas & the Papas (#2); “Penny Lane” by the Beatles (#3); “There’s a Kind of Hush” by Herman’s Hermits (#4); “Baby I Need Your Lovin’” by Johnny Rivers (#5); “Sock It to Me, Baby!” by Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels (#6); “For What It’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield (#7); “My Cup Runneth Over” by Ed Ames (#8); “Love Is Here and Now You’re Gone” by the Supremes (#9); and “Ruby Tuesday” the Rolling Stones (#10). 

Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome - 3/13/1967 to 3/19/1967

Rome City School Superintendent Milton S. McDonald told members of the Board of Education that Rome’s schools would have trouble meeting the new required state school standards. Among the problems he cited were inadequate landscaping on school grounds; absence of a full kindergarten program; teachers teaching too many classes “out of field” (teaching subjects for which they did not hold a degree); fewer than 20% of the faculty possessing master’s degrees; inadequate classroom size; inadequate student assembly space; inadequate school site size; lack of educational television facilities in every classroom; and inadequate libraries. McDonald estimated that it would take a four to five mill tax increase on city residents to pay for all the requirements of the newly proposed state standards. Superintendent McDonald urged the Board to request that the State Department of Education reconsider the costly new changes in educational standards.

West Rome students enjoyed a day off on Friday, March 17th, thanks to a Georgia Education Association meeting. We may have loved our alma mater, but we also loved sleeping late and enjoying a free Friday! 

Burglars had a busy day along Burnett Ferry Road, breaking into four houses and stealing almost $3500 in property (including televisions, guns,  cameras, and watches). All the homes were within three miles of each other, and all four robberies took place within a four-hour period.

Construction on Rome’s first high-rise apartment was completed this week in 1967. The six-story Wilson Hardy apartments, which cost $1.15 million to build, offered just over 100 apartments for elderly tenants who qualified for subsidized housing. At six stories tall, the building was the tallest in Rome (not counting smokestacks of silos).

Piggly Wiggly had whole fryers for 25¢ a pound, grapefruit for 8¢ each, and eggs for 39¢ a dozen. Kroger had bananas for a dime a pound, pork roast for 29¢ a pound, and Kraft mayonnaise for 49¢ a quart. Big Apple had Armour Cure-81 ham for  $1.29 a pound, Stokely catsup for 19¢ a bottle, and Sealtest ice milk for 39¢ a half-gallon. A&P had corned beef for 59¢ a pound, Poss’s chili for 39¢ a can, and strawberries for 29¢ a pint. Couch’s had pork chops for 43¢ a pound, Castleberry’s beef stew for 49¢ a pound, and cabbage for a nickel a pound.

The cinematic week began with A Fistful of Dollars (with Clint Eastwood) at the DeSoto Theatre, Doctor Zhivago (with Omar Sharif) at the First Avenue, and Gambit (with Michael Caine) at the West Rome Drive-In. The midweek switchout brought Easy Come, Easy Go (with Elvis Presley) to the DeSoto Theatre and the West Rome Drive-In, while the good Doctor Z continued to hang around the First Avenue Theatre.

The Beatles climbed to number one this week in 1967 with “Penny Lane.” Other top ten hits included “Ruby Tuesday” by the Rolling Stones (#2); “Happy Together” by the Turtles (#3); “Sock It To Me, Baby” by Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels (#4); “Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye” by the Casinos (#5); “Baby I Need Your Lovin’” by Johnny Rivers (#6); “There’s a Kind of Hush” by Herman’s Hermits (#7); “Love Is Here and Now You’re Gone” by the Supremes (#8); “My Cup Runneth Over” by Ed Ames (#9); and “Dedicated to the One I Love” by the Mamas & the Papas (#10). 

The Grateful Dead released their eponymous debut album this week in 1967. (As much as I love 1960s and early 1970s music, I never developed a taste for the Grateful Dead. They are all over one of my favorite albums, David Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name, and I love their contributions, but I never have cared for any of the group's music.)

Two TV series aired their final episodes this week in 1967: Combat! (which ran on ABC for five season) and The Green Hornet (a single-season ABC series that hoped to capitalize on Batman’s popularity, The Green Hornet was primarily memorable because of Bruce Lee’s performance in the role of Kato).

The Stars and I

The stars and I are old friends

Since we met in Albuquerque on a cloudless night

They say we met earlier, in Tampa and in Holyoke

but I must have been preoccupied

Their charm was irrepressible

With their fiery twinkle in the summer dark

And their cold crystal glow on a wintry night

We became acquainted over the years

Through long walks and late-night confessionals

The stars listened without judgment

And never dimmed in disappointment

They were always there

Even when I couldn’t see them

Through the clouds and the tears

I’m not the same as I was in Albuquerque

Sixty years measure a man

And sometimes find him wanting

But to the stars I stand the same

My whole life

less than one beat

of a star’s fiery heart

Some midnights I implore the stars

Why can’t what was

Be what is again

Why must all brightness fade

And the stars ask

What has changed

We are still here, you and us

One night I won’t be

Will the stars remember?

Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome - 3/6/1967 to 3/12/1967

March 1967 sounded a lot like March 2017: after a couple of days of highs in the low to mid-70s, a cold front brought a line of severe thunderstorms, followed by near-freezing low temperatures and highs in the low 50s.

ChieftainActs took place on March 10th and 11th at the West Rome High School Auditorium. Mrs. Clara Ellison directed the presentation, which was built around the theme of “Where the Action Is.” The show included such acts as “Sugar Lips,” Dragnet,” “Singing in the Rain,” and “Chieftain Go Go.” Tickets were available at the school office or at Mck’s Department Store, Bagley’s Department Store (I have to admit that I have no memory of Bagley’s Department Store—anyone have any info?), and Candler Drug Store on Shorter Avenue, which always seemed to be the source for tickets for West Rome events.(Every community needed its very own Mr. Candler!)

All of us who grew up in Rome in the 1960s owe Don Unsworth a hearty thank-you: it turns out that more than 1200 Romans failed the driver’s license test in the 1966 year (the vast majority failed the written test, but 125 Romans failed the driving test and 39 failed the road sign test). Those who took driver’s education had less than one quarter the failure rate of those who did not take the course.

Oh, Rome, how naive you were: Rome’s City Commission and Chamber of Commerce were still optimistic that a direct connection between Rome and I-75 would be completed by 1970 if federal funds were available. Otherwise, State Highway Department Planner John Wilkerson said that it Romans wouldn’t see the route completed until (get ready for it) 1976. Well, he was only 41 years off and counting...

Burglars decided to implement a swap at the Minit Shop on the Alabama Highway: they returned a clock that they had stolen in an earlier burglary, but filled their pockets with coins from a vending machine they ransacked while they were there. Police had no clues, but they had plenty of time on their hands… (*barrump bump*)
And speaking of Alabama Highway, Floyd County police raided  the Covered Wagon on Alabama Road on Friday night, seizing a large quantity of whisky and beer. The owner was booked on charges of selling beer without a permit and illegally selling whisky (Floyd County did not allow the sale of stronger alcoholic beverages by the drink in the 1960s). Police were also interested in a trailer behind the establishment that had a bed “but did not appear to be used for living purposes.”

Piggly Wiggly had beef liver for 29¢ a pound, pole beans for 19¢ a pound, and a five-pound bag of Colonial sugar for 39¢. Kroger had pork chops for 69¢ a pound, Maxwell House coffee for 59¢ a pound, and lettuce for 15¢ a head. Big Apple had fresh fryers for 25¢ a pound, Irvindale ice cream for 49¢ a half-gallon, and Van Camp beef hash for 33¢ a can. A&P had rib roast for 69¢ a pound, Poss Chili with beans for 39¢ a can, and bananas for 12¢ a pound. Couch’s had their own fresh-ground pork sausage for 49¢ a pound, grapefruit for a nickel each, and eggs for 33¢ a dozen.

The  cinematic week began with Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die (with Mike Connors) at the DeSoto Theatre, Is Paris Burning? (with Kirk Douglas) at the First Avenue, and The Appaloosa (with Marlon Brando) at the West Rome Drive-In. The midweek switchout brought Fistful of Dollars (with Clint Eastwood as the Man With No Name) to the DeSoto Theatre, Dr. Zhivago (with Omar Sharif) at the First Avenue, and Gambit (with Michael Caine) at the West Rome Drive-In.

The Supremes took the number one slot this week in 1967 with “Love Is Here And Now YOu’re Gone.” Other top ten hits included “Ruby Tuesday” by the Rolling Stones (#2); “Baby I Need Your Lovin’” by Johnny Rivers (#3); “Kind of a Drag” by the Buckinghams (#4); “Penny Lane” by the Beatles (#5); “Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye” by the Casinos (#6); “Sock It To Me Baby!” by Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels (#7); “Happy Together” by the Turtles (#8); “My Cup Runneth Over” by Ed Ames (#9); and “Dedicated to the One I Love” by the Mamas & The Papas (#10).

Hal Holbrook portrayed Samuel Langhorn Clemens in the one-man show Mark Twain Tonight!, which first aired on CBS on March 6th. Holbrook, who wrote Mark Twain Tonight! using the words of Twain himself, began performing the one-man play in 1954. In 1966, the show made it to Broadway, which brought it to the attention of producer David Susskind, who arranged to film the stage play for television.

Cat Stevens' first album, Matthew and Son, was released this week in 1967, as was The Velvet Underground & Nico, the debut album by the Velvet Underground. Neither album was a commercial success, but both Cat Stevens and the Velvet Undergound achieved critical success, launching major musical careers.