97 Fun Facts About 1970s Pop Culture

Which 1977 science fiction film became the highest-grossing movie of all time at that point?

Star Wars opened on just 32 screens in May 1977 because few cinemas wanted it, then outgrossed Jaws to become the biggest earner in film history until E.T. overtook it.

What was the name of Quint's shark-hunting boat in Jaws (1975)?

The Orca really did begin to sink during filming, with the actors on board; a second, engineless copy was built so that it could be sunk on cue.

Which band released the album "Rumours" in 1977, which became one of the best-selling albums of all time?

Fleetwood Mac made Rumours while both of the band's couples were splitting up, and put the breakups into songs such as 'Go Your Own Way' and 'Dreams'.

What political scandal forced a U.S. president to resign in 1974?

Watergate brought Nixon down in August 1974 after the 'smoking gun' tape showed he had joined the cover-up of a break-in at Democratic headquarters; '-gate' became the suffix for later scandals.

Which 1977 John Travolta film helped popularize disco music and dance culture worldwide?

Saturday Night Fever was based on a New York magazine report on Brooklyn's disco scene whose author, Nik Cohn, admitted twenty years later that he had made its hero up.

Which 1977 home console dominated the market and popularized cartridge gaming?

The Atari 2600 cost so much to develop that founder Nolan Bushnell sold the company to Warner Communications in 1976, for $28 million, to get it finished.

Which sketch comedy show debuted on NBC in October 1975 with George Carlin as its first host?

Saturday Night Live premiered October 11, 1975 with George Carlin hosting. It first aired as 'NBC's Saturday Night' because ABC was already using the name Saturday Night Live for a Howard Cosell variety show.

Which arcade game of 1972 was among the first commercial hits in video gaming?

Pong's prototype was tried out in a Sunnyvale bar, Andy Capp's Tavern, and broke down within days: its coin box had overflowed with quarters.

Which 1972 Coppola crime drama is regarded as one of the greatest films ever made?

The Godfather won Marlon Brando a Best Actor award that he refused: he sent Sacheen Littlefeather to decline it in protest at Hollywood's portrayal of Native Americans.

Which 1976 boxing drama won the Best Picture Oscar?

Rocky was written by Sylvester Stallone in a matter of days after he watched underdog Chuck Wepner last into the 15th round against Muhammad Ali in 1975.

Which 1974 sitcom set in 1950s Milwaukee had a leather-jacketed greaser as its breakout character?

Happy Days gave English the phrase 'jumping the shark', coined for a 1977 episode in which Fonzie, still in his leather jacket, water-skis over one.

Which British rock band released the iconic album "The Dark Side of the Moon" in 1973?

Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon topped the US album chart for just one week, yet stayed on the Billboard 200 for more than 700 weeks between 1973 and 1988.

Which military comedy-drama set during the Korean War ran on TV from 1972 to 1983?

M*A*S*H ran for 11 seasons, more than three times as long as the three-year Korean War it depicted; over 100 million people watched its 1983 finale.

Which David Bowie alter ego, an androgynous rocker from outer space bringing Earth a message of hope, debuted in 1972?

Ziggy Stardust was killed off on stage at London's Hammersmith Odeon in July 1973, when Bowie stunned fans by announcing it was the last show the band would ever do.

Which trio of brothers dominated disco with the hits "Stayin' Alive" and "Jive Talkin'"?

The Bee Gees found their disco sound in 1975, when producer Arif Mardin asked for some screaming on 'Nights on Broadway' and Barry Gibb discovered his falsetto.

Which style of pants, borrowed from sailors' uniforms, became a defining fashion trend of the 1970s?

Bell-bottoms flare out from the knee down, and Sonny and Cher helped push them into the American mainstream by wearing them on their television show.

Which punk band's 1977 single mocking the Silver Jubilee was banned by the BBC yet reached No. 2?

The Sex Pistols played the banned single from a boat on the Thames on Jubilee day, 7 June 1977; when it docked, police arrested manager Malcolm McLaren and ten others.

Which 1979 film was promoted with the tagline 'In space no one can hear you scream'?

Alien's cast knew a creature would burst from John Hurt's chest but had not been told that blood would spray everywhere, so the shock on their faces is real.

Which 1971 Led Zeppelin song became the most requested on US FM radio without ever being sold there as a single?

'Stairway to Heaven' was kept off the singles racks by manager Peter Grant, who twice refused Atlantic's requests, so fans bought the whole fourth album to get it.

Which footwear, worn on stage by glam rockers, was an early-1970s craze for men and women?

Platform shoes were nothing new: actors in ancient Greek tragedy wore thick-soled boots to look taller, more than 2,000 years before glam rock.

Which 1978 musical film starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John was set in a 1950s high school?

Grease made Sandy an Australian so that Olivia Newton-John could keep her accent; she had asked for a screen test first, fearing she was too old to play a schoolgirl.

Which 1975 cult film features the 'Time Warp' at the castle of a sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania?

The Rocky Horror Picture Show flopped on release in 1975, then became a cult ritual once midnight screenings began at New York's Waverly Theater in April 1976, with fans talking back to the screen.

Which band's 1976 greatest-hits album overtook Thriller in 2018 as the highest-certified album in the US?

Eagles' biggest seller has no 'Hotel California' on it: the hits collection came out in February 1976, ten months before that album, and reached 38 times platinum in August 2018.

Which Parker Brothers toy was marketed around 1970 as the world's first official indoor ball?

The Nerf ball was all Parker Brothers kept of an indoor game an inventor pitched; its slogan promised parents: 'You can't hurt babies or old people.' About four million sold in its first year.

Which 1979 Coppola film follows a journey upriver in Vietnam to find a rogue colonel?

Apocalypse Now nearly broke its makers: a typhoon wrecked the sets, star Martin Sheen had a heart attack, and Coppola said that 'little by little we went insane'.

Which electronic memory game by Ralph Baer and Howard Morrison has players repeat sequences of coloured lights?

Simon borrowed its gameplay from Touch Me, a 1974 arcade game that Ralph Baer thought a nice idea terribly executed; the 1978 version added four coloured buttons and musical tones.

Which 1960s sitcom about seven shipwrecked castaways became a hit again in 1970s reruns?

Gilligan's Island was dropped in 1967, with a fourth season expected, when CBS found room to keep Gunsmoke instead; the castaways stayed stranded until a 1978 TV movie rescued them.

Which 1977 miniseries based on Alex Haley's book traced an African American family from enslavement to freedom?

Roots is said to have run on eight straight nights because ABC feared a flop and wanted it finished before ratings sweeps; instead about 100 million people watched the finale.

Which New York nightclub, opened by Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager in 1977, was the epicentre of late-1970s disco culture?

Studio 54's Steve Rubell boasted that only the Mafia made more money; by 1980 he and Ian Schrager were in prison for tax evasion, having skimmed some $2.5 million.

Which 1978 Taito arcade game had players slide a laser cannon to shoot descending rows of enemies?

Space Invaders (1978) designer Tomohiro Nishikado drew on Breakout, The War of the Worlds and Space Battleship Yamato; the tale that it caused a 100-yen coin shortage in Japan is a myth Nishikado himself doubted.

Which Bowery music venue became the birthplace of American punk rock in the mid-1970s?

CBGB stood for Country, Bluegrass and Blues, the music owner Hilly Kristal meant to book; instead it became the cradle of Blondie, Television and Talking Heads.

Which rock band released the six-minute operatic epic 'Bohemian Rhapsody' in 1975?

Queen's label thought the single too long for radio until DJ Kenny Everett, handed an early copy, played it 14 times in one weekend and listeners besieged the record shops.

Which 1971 Kubrick film, from an Anthony Burgess novel, depicts a dystopia of ultraviolent youth gangs?

A Clockwork Orange (1971) starred Malcolm McDowell as the delinquent Alex; after the film was blamed for copycat violence, Kubrick himself had it withdrawn from British cinemas in 1973, where it stayed unseen until 2000.

Which 1975 fad came in a ventilated cardboard carrier with straw bedding?

Pet Rocks made Gary Dahl a millionaire: he sold well over a million at $3.95 each after friends grumbling about their pets in a bar gave him the idea.

Which 1976 Stevie Wonder double album features 'Sir Duke', 'I Wish' and 'Isn't She Lovely'?

Songs in the Key of Life ran so far past its deadline that T-shirts joking about when it would be finished were printed during the sessions; it then debuted at No. 1.

Which 1973 horror film about a possessed 12-year-old reportedly made audiences faint in theaters?

The Exorcist's bedroom set was refrigerated to far below freezing so that the actors' breath would show on camera; some cinemagoers fainted or vomited.

Which reggae musician's 1977 album Exodus was named the 20th century's greatest by Time magazine?

Bob Marley's Exodus was recorded in London after an assassination attempt in Jamaica. The album included hits like 'Jamming,' 'Waiting in Vain,' and 'One Love.'

Which 1975 jewelry fad had a 'stone' that changed color as the wearer's finger warmed or cooled?

Mood rings held liquid crystals that shift color with temperature; sellers claimed the colors revealed the wearer's feelings, and the craze swept America in 1975 before fading within a couple of years.

Which 1977 Woody Allen romantic comedy won four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Diane Keaton?

Annie Hall took its heroine's name from its star: Diane Keaton's original surname was Hall and Annie was her nickname. Woody Allen was absent on the night it won Best Picture.

Which George Clinton group performed in elaborate costumes and landed a mothership on stage?

Parliament-Funkadelic's Mothership, a spaceship prop that landed on stage from 1976, became so famous that the Smithsonian acquired a replica in 2011.

Which 1970s TV detective, played by Peter Falk, was famous for his rumpled raincoat?

Columbo showed the killer committing the murder at the start of each episode, so the puzzle was how the lieutenant would catch them; the rumpled raincoat was Peter Falk's own.

Which pocket-sized personal cassette player did Sony launch in July 1979?

The Walkman began as a favour to Sony co-founder Masaru Ibuka, who asked his engineers for a more portable way to listen to opera.

Which 1970s sitcom, set in a Chicago housing project, gave J.J. Evans the catchphrase 'Dy-no-mite!'?

Good Times lost its father when John Amos was fired after three seasons for objecting to the clownish storylines given to J.J.; his character was killed off in a car accident.

Which 1978 John Carpenter film introduced the masked killer Michael Myers?

Halloween was so cheaply made that Michael Myers's face is a $1.98 Captain Kirk mask from a Hollywood costume shop, painted white with the eyeholes widened.

Which 1977 Donna Summer hit is regarded as the first major disco song built almost entirely from synthesizers?

'I Feel Love' was produced by Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte on a borrowed Moog modular; everything but Donna Summer's vocals and the kick drum was electronic. David Bowie recalled Brian Eno calling it 'the sound of the future.'

Which 1979 Comiskey Park promotion ended in a riot that forced the White Sox to forfeit a game?

Disco Demolition Night let fans in for 98 cents with a disco record to destroy; when DJ Steve Dahl blew up the pile between games, thousands stormed the field and the second game was forfeited to Detroit.

Which 1976 TV show turned Farrah Fawcett's feathered hairstyle into a national craze?

Charlie's Angels kept Farrah Fawcett for just one season: she quit in 1977, was sued by the producers, and settled by returning for six guest appearances.

Which 1979 Monty Python film follows a man born in the stable next door to Jesus and mistaken for the Messiah?

Life of Brian (1979), financed by George Harrison's HandMade Films after EMI pulled out, was banned in Norway and Ireland for alleged blasphemy yet became a major commercial success.

Which 1971 Norman Lear sitcom was adapted from the British series Till Death Us Do Part?

All in the Family turned Britain's bigoted Alf Garnett into Archie Bunker; ABC rejected two pilots before CBS aired it in 1971 with an on-screen disclaimer.

In which city was The Mary Tyler Moore Show's newsroom at station WJM?

Minneapolis is where cable channel TV Land later put up a bronze statue of Mary Richards tossing her hat, on the Nicollet Mall corner where the famous shot was filmed.

In Mork & Mindy, Robin Williams's character came to Earth from which planet?

Ork's most famous son was cast in seconds: asked to take a seat at his audition, Robin Williams sat on his head, and producer Garry Marshall hired him on the spot.

The General Lee in The Dukes of Hazzard was which model of car?

The General Lee was a 1969 Dodge Charger, painted orange with a Confederate flag on the roof and '01' on the doors; the stunts wrecked so many that roughly 300 Chargers were used over the series.

Which sweet did Telly Savalas's Lieutenant Kojak suck on in place of cigarettes?

Lollipop and Kojak first met in a December 1973 episode: he lit a cigarette while questioning a witness, thought better of it and took a Tootsie Pop, later saying he was 'looking to close the generation gap'.

Who created Soul Train and was its first and longest-serving host?

Don Cornelius, a Chicago radio newsman, started Soul Train in 1970 because television had almost no showcase for soul music; he closed each show wishing viewers 'love, peace and soul'.

Who created The Gong Show and ended up replacing its original host himself?

Chuck Barris had not meant to host at all; he later claimed in his memoir Confessions of a Dangerous Mind to have been a CIA assassin too, which the agency flatly denied.

On Fantasy Island, which character rang the tower bell and shouted 'De plane!' as guests arrived?

Tattoo was written out before the final season after Hervé Villechaize demanded pay equal to Ricardo Montalbán's; his replacement, a butler named Lawrence, rang the bell by pressing a button.

Where in Milwaukee did Laverne and Shirley work as bottle-cappers?

Shotz Brewery's two bottle-cappers open each episode skipping to 'Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!', a hopscotch chant Penny Marshall remembered from her own childhood.

The Love Boat was filmed aboard ships of which real cruise line?

Princess Cruises lent the show its Pacific Princess and Island Princess; after it ended, its captain, Gavin MacLeod, spent decades as the cruise line's ambassador.

ABBA won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton with which song?

'Waterloo' was conducted in Brighton by Sven-Olof Walldoff dressed as Napoleon; after the win ABBA posed for photographers at London's Waterloo station.

Which singer died in August 1977, aged 42, just before a tour?

Elvis Presley was found at Graceland on August 16, 1977; after police foiled an alleged plot to steal his body from a Memphis cemetery, he was reburied in Graceland's garden that October.

Whose 1971 album Tapestry spent 15 straight weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200?

Carole King had spent the 1960s writing hits for other singers; on Tapestry she reclaimed two of them, first made famous by the Shirelles and Aretha Franklin.

Which rocker was on the covers of both Time and Newsweek in the same week in October 1975?

Bruce Springsteen hated the hype: weeks after the twin covers, arriving for his first London show, he tore down the promotional posters in the theatre lobby himself.

Which band put out four solo albums, one per member, on the same day in September 1978?

Kiss's label shipped five million copies of the four solo albums to guarantee platinum status, but none sold especially well and many ended up in discount bins; Ace Frehley's had the only hit single.

Which disco group released 'Y.M.C.A.' in October 1978, with lead vocals by its costumed policeman?

Village People didn't invent the Y.M.C.A. arm dance: the studio audience of American Bandstand spelled out the letters during a January 1979 show, and the group took it up.

Whose 1978 anthem 'I Will Survive' was first released as the B-side of 'Substitute'?

Gloria Gaynor's 'I Will Survive' went out in 1978 as the B-side of 'Substitute'; DJs flipped the record, it reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 in March 1979 and won the only Grammy for Best Disco Recording.

Which singer's 1977 album Bat Out of Hell was rejected by label after label?

Meat Loaf and songwriter Jim Steinman spent more than two years being turned down, record mogul Clive Davis among those who passed, before Bat Out of Hell became one of the best-selling albums ever.

In which NYC borough did DJ Kool Herc's 1973 party at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue help birth hip hop?

1520 Sedgwick Avenue is in the West Bronx; on August 11, 1973 Kool Herc DJed his sister Cindy Campbell's back-to-school party in the building's recreation room, extending breaks across two turntables.

Which 1979 Sugarhill Gang single is credited with introducing hip hop to a wide audience?

'Rapper's Delight' was cut by a trio Sylvia Robinson put together in New Jersey, one of them recruited from the pizza parlor where he worked; it carried the new sound into the US top 40.

Which 1973 Elton John double album includes 'Candle in the Wind'?

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was meant to be made in Jamaica, but the Kingston sessions were abandoned before anything usable was recorded; it was then cut in about two weeks at a French château.

Members of which punk band, formed in Queens in 1974, all adopted the same stage surname?

The Ramones — Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee and Tommy — were unrelated; Dee Dee took the surname from Paul McCartney, who had checked into hotels as 'Paul Ramon' in the Silver Beetles days, and the others followed.

Which Great Gatsby actress was on the cover of People magazine's first issue in 1974?

Mia Farrow got the part of Daisy after Ali MacGraw, the studio chief's wife and first choice, left him for Steve McQueen; People put her on its debut cover in March 1974.

The 1973 film The Sting revived interest in which ragtime composer's music?

Scott Joplin's 'The Entertainer' (1902), adapted by Marvin Hamlisch, gave The Sting a chart-topping soundtrack and a No. 3 single in 1974, sparking a ragtime revival seven decades after Joplin wrote it.

Which Wyoming landmark is the aliens' landing site in Close Encounters of the Third Kind?

Devils Tower, an igneous monolith in northeast Wyoming and America's first national monument (1906), is the landing site; Roy Neary is drawn to it by visions while the Army fakes a nerve-gas spill to clear the area.

Who played the Man of Steel in the 1978 film Superman?

Christopher Reeve was told to wear a padded muscle suit as Superman and refused; instead he put on some 30 pounds in training supervised by British weightlifter David Prowse.

In which 1976 film does anchorman Howard Beale shout 'I'm as mad as hell'?

Network's Howard Beale was played by Peter Finch, who died two months before the ceremony and became the first performer to win an acting Oscar posthumously; his widow collected it.

Which 1975 film was first since It Happened One Night to win the 'Big Five' Oscars?

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest took 13 years to reach the screen: Kirk Douglas bought the rights and starred in the play, but by the time his son Michael produced the film he was judged too old to star.

Which car does Burt Reynolds's Bandit drive in Smokey and the Bandit (1977)?

The Bandit's black-and-gold 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am was chosen by director Hal Needham from a promotional advertisement before the model went on sale; the film's success sent Trans Am sales soaring.

Where is the Delta fraternity of National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) located?

Faber College was played by the University of Oregon, whose president agreed because he had once helped turn down The Graduate at another campus and regretted it.

Which 1973 martial-arts film, an American-Hong Kong co-production, premiered six days after its star Bruce Lee died?

Enter the Dragon gives a young Jackie Chan a few seconds on screen as a henchman killed by Lee, who died before he could see the film become a worldwide hit.

Whose 'Theme from Shaft' won the 1972 Oscar for Best Original Song?

Isaac Hayes became the first Black winner of a non-acting Oscar when 'Theme from Shaft' took Best Original Song in April 1972; he performed it at the ceremony in his signature chain-mail vest.

Which 1973 George Lucas film follows teens cruising Modesto, California, on one night in 1962?

American Graffiti so worried Universal that producer Francis Ford Coppola offered to buy the film outright; made for under $1 million, it grossed about $140 million.

Which Robert De Niro character asks 'You talkin' to me?' in a 1976 film?

Travis Bickle's 'You talkin' to me?' was improvised by De Niro, screenwriter Paul Schrader said; it ranks No. 10 on the American Film Institute's list of movie quotes.

Who wrote the 1974 novel Jaws, which Spielberg filmed the following year?

Peter Benchley got the idea from a news report of a two-ton great white caught off Long Island in 1964; he later regretted the fear Jaws stirred up and campaigned to protect sharks.

The Rubik's Cube was invented in 1974 by an architecture professor from which country?

Hungary's Ernő Rubik built the cube in 1974, then needed about a month to solve his own scrambled prototype.

Which Kenner action figure, first sold in 1976, was revived by Hasbro in 2016?

Stretch Armstrong owed his powers to a gel much like corn syrup inside a latex skin, which let the 15-inch figure be pulled out to four or five feet before creeping back.

Which role-playing game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules?

Dungeons & Dragons grew out of Chainmail, a 1971 medieval wargame; its first 1,000 copies were assembled by hand in Gary Gygax's home and took most of a year to sell.

Which card game was created in 1971 by Merle Robbins, a barber in Reading, Ohio?

Uno was devised by Merle Robbins in 1971 to settle family arguments over the rules of Crazy Eights; he mortgaged his home to print 5,000 decks, then sold the rights for $50,000.

Which 1975 C.W. McCall novelty hit cashed in on the citizens band radio fad?

'Convoy', co-written by Bill Fries (C.W. McCall) and Chip Davis, topped both the country chart and the Hot 100 in January 1976 and inspired Sam Peckinpah's 1978 film Convoy.

Which 1974 craze reached the Oscars when Robert Opel ran across the stage behind host David Niven?

Streaking had perhaps its most-watched moment on April 2, 1974: Opel flashed a peace sign as he ran, and Niven quipped that the man's only laugh in life would come from 'showing his shortcomings'.

Which designer introduced the knitted jersey wrap dress in 1974?

Diane von Fürstenberg had sold about a million of the jersey wrap dresses by 1976, which put her on the cover of Newsweek; her first ad said 'Feel like a woman, wear a dress!'

Which 1976 Olympic skating champion's 'wedge' haircut became a trend for women and girls?

Dorothy Hamill's wedge, cut by New York stylist Yusuke Suga, swept salons after her gold-medal skate at Innsbruck in 1976; Clairol later sold a 'Short & Sassy' shampoo on the look.

Which 55-year-old lost the 1973 'Battle of the Sexes' match at the Houston Astrodome?

Bobby Riggs had thrashed Margaret Court that May, so the pressure was on King; she arrived on a litter carried by bare-chested men, handed him a piglet, and won in straight sets.

Which 14-year-old's perfect 10 at the 1976 Montreal Olympics was displayed as 1.00 on the scoreboard?

Nadia Comăneci's 10 on the uneven bars is generally counted as the first in Olympic gymnastics; Omega had been told a perfect score was impossible, so its board could not show one, and she went on to six more.

In which country did Ali beat Foreman in the 1974 'Rumble in the Jungle'?

The fight was in Zaire on October 30, 1974 at the 20th of May Stadium in Kinshasa, where President Mobutu Sese Seko hosted it for the publicity; Ali knocked Foreman out in the eighth round.

Which Idaho chasm did Evel Knievel try to jump in a rocket-powered Skycycle in 1974?

Snake River Canyon was Evel Knievel's second choice: the government had refused him airspace over the Grand Canyon. His steam-powered rocket's parachute opened at launch and he drifted to the canyon floor.

Who created the comic strip Garfield, which entered nationwide syndication in 1978?

Jim Davis first drew a strip about a gnat, but an editor told him nobody could relate to bugs; seeing the comics pages full of dogs, he created a cat instead, and Garfield launched in 41 newspapers.

Which strip became the first daily comic to win a Pulitzer Prize, in 1975?

Doonesbury's Pulitzer so annoyed the Editorial Cartoonists' Society that it passed a resolution condemning the award; Garry Trudeau, assured the prize could not be withdrawn, backed the protest himself.