Fifty years ago today

Marion Haley plays the
lady cop. She was Brenda
in the 1970 movie
Lovers and Other Strangers.

 Half a century ago, the country was celebrating it's 200th anniversary.  It was a big deal and people were proud of the accomplishments of our country and the sheer fact that we had made it for 200 years.  That was despite the fact that in 1976 there was, it would seem, not a lot to celebrate.  The country had just lost a war for the first time ever, and a brutal one that had lasted a decade and torn the country apart, with radicals setting off bombs, battles between "students" and "hard hats," the Kent State thing, and on and on.  There had been in recent years race riots in which dozens had been killed, political assassinations.  There was the Patty Hurst-Symbionese Liberation Army kidnapping and bank robberies.  There had been a bird flu outbreak with mandated vaccinations that the public rebelled against, there had been the oil crisis and gas lines, stagflation was in the news, unemployment and inflation were rising, Red China was admitted to the United Nations and Taiwan thrown out, Watergate and Nixon's resignation were fresh in memory, there was...Lord, I don't know but probably a lot more. Oh, right, disco. 

A postage stamp today costs 78¢

And yet the country seems to have been in a great mood.  My mother remembers it as a time of relief and celebration.  The bad old Sixties were in the past.  The gas lines were gone, the seemingly endless Viet Nam War was finally over and who cared if we won or lost as long as the damn thing was done with. We were sure never going to get into another mess like that. We had learned our lesson.

Anyway, here is a radio drama from this very day 50 years ago.  It's a routine cop story but does provide a window into what the world was like as our 200th anniversary approached.  Before the story begins there is a news commentary anticipating the very first Mars lander, expected to touch down on the Red Planet on July 4th, talking about what we might find there, including, people really thought was possible, actual Martians. Then there is a news update on the lander's progress.  The ads are interesting relics of the times.  For instance, there's a commercial for a pressure canner.  How many people can their own fruits and vegetables today? Fifty years ago, it was common enough that a national radio program carried ads for canners.  I find the style of songs backing the commercials also interesting, very sweet and pleasant.

The story itself has interesting elements.  The cop duo who solves the crime consist of the old, jaded guy looking forward to his retirement and a young, eager-beaver girl cop new on the job. I know, what a yawn.  But I guess back then it wasn't.  Then there is a reference to the new phenomenon of public pornography, X-rated, explicit, as they called them, movies.  And an amusement park that features a professional chess player customers pay a dollar to try to beat.  If they do, they win two dollars.  Do amusement parks today tout try to beat our chess master?  Does the average amusement park-goer even know how to play chess today? 

Anyway, for old time's sake, give it a listen. 

  "Checkmate," first broadcast over CBS Radio Mystery Theater on June 21, 1976.