When Don Cornelius committed suicide in 2012 with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, the music industry reacted with profound shock and sorrow. Cornelius, as many music lovers know, was the genius behind the hit TV show, Soul Train. He was instrumental in launching the careers of Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson, and other R & B artists. Soul Train premiered on Chicago’s WCIU-TV in 1970. It graduated to national syndication in 1971 and ran until 1993, when Cornelius decided to step down.
Soul Train introduced soul music to the American public. Black artists like Marvin Gaye and James Brown soon became staples on mainstream radio stations. And the dancing! The Soul Train dance line introduced young people to a whole new style of dancing and having fun.
Why did Cornelius commit suicide? At the age of 75, he was suffering from several health issues, including frequent seizures. He had undergone brain surgery in 1982, but he admitted publicly that he never felt the same afterward. His health issues were part of the reason he retired from Soul Train in 1993.
I loved watching Soul Train as a child. The opening graphics, the music, the dancing, the high excitement and infectious energy always pumped me up and helped me to view the world in a whole new way.
Wherever you are now, Don Cornelius, may you rest in eternal peace.
~
Dawn Pisturino
March 31, 2023
Copyright 2023 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
When the pilot for Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In premiered on TV on September 9, 1967, the Vietnam War raged in full gear, the Civil Rights Movement continued to explode, and the country was split by conflict and political divide. A forerunner of Saturday Night Live, Laugh-In used provocative satire and humor to comment on current affairs. The show featured well-known actors and actresses like Henry Gibson, Lily Tomlin, Goldie Hawn, Ruth Buzzi, Arte Johnson, and Richard Dawson. Sets used bright colors and mod art, reflecting the hippie culture of the time. Popular slang, like “Sock it to Me,” peppered the show. Strange characters, bold costumes, and mind-blowing music enthralled the audience so the show emerged again as a series on January 22, 1968, and ran until May 14, 1973.
There were no social media then and people frowned at curse words. Laugh-In compensated by inventing the Flying Fickle Finger of Fate award. Every week the hosts, Rowan and Martin, awarded some entity this award, which was the equivalent of giving the finger to unpopular governments, public officials, organizations, celebrities, and corporations. The first award was given on September 16, 1968. Over the years, winners included the Pentagon, the U.S. Congress, and the National Security Agency.
(Rowan and Martin awarding the Flying Fickle Finger of Fate to Soviet Russia.)
Dawn Pisturino
March 27, 2023
Copyright 2023 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
I submitted two short stories to Masticadores India, and I’m waiting to hear back on publication dates.
I submitted another poem to Masticadores USA, and I’m waiting to hear back.
I submitted a poem to the Arizona Authors Association Literary Contest. I will find out later in the year the results of that submission.
I submitted a poem to Spillwords Press, the first time I have done so. I had technical trouble trying to submit it, but after several attempts, it finally sent.
I submitted a poem to David ben Alexander’s The Skeptical Kaddish Poetry Partners.
I’m waiting for the Wounds I Healed: The Poetry of Strong Women anthology to be released.
I have several short stories to finish and novels that I’m working on. There aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything!
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A few months ago, I finished reading 1,000 pages of the complete works of Edgar Allan Poe. It took me forever to read because a lot of it was rather boring. I got the bright idea to read the complete works of H.P. Lovecraft. Two thousand pages later, I can honestly say I have read all of his works. I finished last night, and boy, was I happy! I love his ability to create a dark mood, but a lot of it was redundant. Truthfully, in both the case of Poe and Lovecraft, only a few well-written stories and poems really stand out.
I bought a bunch of mysteries at Barnes & Noble when I was in California, so I am moving on to those. My brain needs a break from the dark and heavy stuff.
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On Paramount+, my husband and I are watching The Offer and Joe Pickett. He watches all the Star Trek/Star Wars stuff. I’m waiting for the next season of Evil to start. I like my British and Scandinavian detective shows on Acorn, BritBox, and PBS Masterpiece. Recently, I have found some French detective shows that incorporate paranormal overtones and which have turned out to be pretty absorbing.
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I’m updating and improving my author resume website at http://www.dawnpisturino.org (please check it out!) and all of my social media sites.
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I’m working on losing the weight I gained in California (too much restaurant food – Armenian, American, Italian, and Japanese), taking walks, exercising, and doing other healthy self-care stuff. I like to sit on the front porch every evening with the dog and read and watch the wildlife. It’s very relaxing.
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And, I’ve been listening to one of my favorite classic rock bands: The Doors. Listening to them puts me in an altered state of consciousness.
(“The End” by The Doors – Warning: contains references to violence)
“All the children are insane.” Sound familiar? The violence happening now is a culmination of several decades of post-World War II social dysfunction.
It was Jim Morrison who famously said: “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m going to get my kicks before the whole sh*thouse goes up in flames” – referring to nuclear war, which still remains the ultimate existential threat to humanity.
May the Muses tickle your brain today. May you write, compose, photograph, dance, sing, and paint like there’s no tomorrow!
Dawn Pisturino
June 2, 2022
Copyright 2022 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
Postwar social changes and technological advances in America profoundly influenced Hollywood filmmaking. The invention of television produced direct competition. Audience expectations demanded more complex characters and more mature themes. Hollywood adapted by incorporating technology into filmmaking that would fascinate audiences and draw them back into the movie theaters. Experiments in defying the Production Code led to the screening of more mature films and changes in the code.
“By 1960 there were 50 million TV sets in homes across the United States, and lots of people were watching a lot of television: in 1960 the average daily viewing time for U.S. households with a TV set was over 5 hours a day” (Lewis 233). Television was a new toy that people could enjoy, and it was free. Families could gather around the TV set after dinner and enjoy watching it together. The advertisements exposed viewers to new products.
The Hollywood studios adapted by creating new business relationships with the television studios. “Disney led the way, making a deal with the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) that included the production of a Disney TV show that aired weekly on the network” (Lewis 234).
These synergies were so successful that multinational conglomerates began buying up Hollywood studios and formulating new ways to produce and distribute films. For example, “Gulf and Western Industries bought Paramount in 1966” (Lewis 237). Hollywood studios contracted with TV studios to run their movies as a second run. Walt Disney negotiated a deal with ABC to create Disneyland, an amusement park. These deals brought in much-needed revenue to the studios.
The conglomerates abandoned production in favor of distribution. They began using market research and tie-ins with books and other merchandise. Technological gimmicks such as 3-D and widescreen were tried (Lewis 234). But what finally brought audiences back to the movie theaters was the distribution of foreign-made films and defiance of the Production Code (Lewis 238-247).
While American audiences enjoyed foreign-made films, these movies were produced by European standards and often came into conflict with the standards of the PCA. Otto Preminger completed his controversial film The Moon is Blue, in 1953. When United Artists submitted it to the PCA, it was rejected. As a result, United Artists gave up its membership in the MPAA to avoid a fine (Lewis 239).
Theater owners, however, were more than willing to screen an adult-themed film that did not have the PCA seal, and “The Moon is Blue grossed over $4 million in its initial release” (Lewis 239). Preminger used the same strategy with his second movie, The Man with the Golden Arm. As more and more controversial films were released, the PCA was forced to relax some of its codes.
Jack Valenti, who was named the president of MPAA in 1966, agreed to an exception for the release of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Warner Bros. labeled it For Mature Audiences and left it to the theater owners to decide whether to screen it or not. Pretty soon, Welcome to HardTimes was released with the label NO PERSON UNDER 18 ADMITTED UNLESS ACCOMPANIED BY A PARENT (Lewis 244-245). Finally, in 1968, the MPAA came up with a new voluntary rating system: G (General Audiences), M (Mature Audiences and parental discretion), R (Restricted and no one under age sixteen unless accompanied by a parent or adult guardian), and X (no one under sixteen admitted). Films with an X rating could not receive a PCA seal (Lewis 283).
The new rating system gave Hollywood the latitude to create a greater variety of films. With social change rapidly advancing, the studios began targeting the youth audience and the social issues which were important to them (Lewis 285). For a short time, studios began promoting “topical movies with a political edge” (Lewis 286) produced by new, young directors (auteurs) who could tap into young audiences’ interests. The most famous and most profitable movie produced was The Godfather in 1972, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. But as iconic as many of these films are today, studios wanted more formulaic films whose success could be easily reproduced, and the “auteur renaissance” (Lewis 282) ended. Action blockbusters formed the new wave of Hollywood films by the 1980s.
Hollywood has been resilient over the decades and found ways to adapt to new technologies, changes in audience interests, and restrictions placed on them by the Supreme Court. Always alert to new avenues of revenue, Hollywood has survived by its willingness to negotiate new (and more profitable) deals.
Dawn Pisturino
Thomas Edison State University
January 17, 2018
Copyright 2018-2022 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
Works Cited
Lewis, Jon. American Cinema: A History. New York: Norton, 2008.
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