Friday, January 15

Random pseudo-celebrities of 1978



How many can you spot from this final scene of the classic film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band? Beebo and I caught the end of this movie in hi-definition last weekend. Aren't you jealous?

The massed celebrities start showing up after the part where Billy Preston is hoisted around on a wire while wearing a gold lamé uniform. There's 60 or so of them, standing on bleachers, singing and doing a sort of swaying dance move that must have taken all of five minutes to learn. I remember reading about how awesome this ensemble was in Pizzazz magazine before I saw the film, and it really delivers. Who wouldn't get excited about seeing Wolfman Jack, Carol Channing, and Bowzer in the same place?

6 comments:

  1. I don't remember Pizzazz magazine!

    Carol Channing's weird grinning face always freaks me out.

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  2. It was short-lived (1977-1978), but I had a subscription. It was Marvel Comics' answer to Dynamite.

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  3. I think I had a subscription, too... in fact, that very issue is probably still tucked away somewhere in a dresser drawer at my mom's house, and it's probably bookmarked with a "Love Is..." or "Kisses" comic torn from the Seattle Times. This is poignant for me because, while I was deeply enamored of the Bee Gees and collected all their records and had a T-shirt of the three of them in their tight-white satiny disco duds that got me instantly ostracized at the prep school I started attending in '79, I NEVER got to see the Sgt. Pepper movie because it was rated PG. Of course I've seen snippets of it since then, in my adult life, and it's actually nothin' to write home about.

    Who knew?

    Except for maybe this Billy Preston/Carol Channing part. If I'd watched it back when it came out, I'd only have had eyes for Robin—the weirdest, yet somehow least disturbing Gibb.

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  4. I suppose it's time to start my own blog, but since I suffer from inertia I'll just use yours to post this "Kisses" comic: http://www.viviangreene.com/robertredford.htm

    It was amazingly easy to track down, which makes me wonder what else might be out there on the internet!

    Signed,
    Grandma

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  5. I've never heard of "Kisses"--it makes "Love Is" look almost edgy...Your sad tale about your Gibb-love is very poignant, yet life-affirming. I think.

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  6. I think it's actually embarrassing, and kind of gross... Can we just forget I said anything?

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