Posts Tagged ‘1974’
Discover why in 1977 The Woodlands was ‘The Safest Town In America’ (Video)
In 1977, The Woodlands, a suburb of Houston, was the Safest town in America:
The Afflictor notes:
The Woodlands, a master-planned suburb of Houston established in 1974, was the bleeding edge of quantified smart homes, as each unit was wired and connected. The monitoring was still external then, the way pacemakers originally were.
The Woodlands is still there. And you could be there, too. This 2014 video is by The Woodlands Development Company:
Spotter: Flashbak
Posted: 22nd, April 2015 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Rolf Harris: ‘When I Was 11 I Started Having Baths With My Mother’
ANYONE looking to analyse why Rolf Harris molests children can take a look at what he tiold the TV Times in 1974:
“I grew up in the belief that sex was dirty. It was spoken of only behind the boy’s lavatory at school or written with chalk on a wall. All the external freedom I had as a child couldn’t overcome it: inside me it was like a prison.
“I can remember getting a hiding from my mother when I was about four for doing a super drawing of a man with no clothes on – he was standing there absolutely naked and urinating – and my mother didn’t like it. I never saw my father naked although I used to try and see him when he was changing for a swim.
“When I was ten or 11 my mother decided I should see her naked to let me know it was all natural and everything – and we had baths together. But it was too late by then. It just used to embarrass me. Then my mum brought me a book about what any young boy should know and she stayed in the room while I tried to read it, but I was just too embarrassed and couldn’t wait to get out of that room.”
Posted: 2nd, July 2014 | In: Celebrities | Comment
Pages of Polyester: The Sears 1974 Catalog
FROM the women’s fashion section of the 1974 Fall-Winter Sears Catalog, here are 35 pages of earth-toned acrylics, skin-tight polyester, and knitted creations that should have never seen the light of day. Seventies fashions are fun to behold because they could be so frighteningly terrible; however, if you can resist the easy temptation to scoff at 70s styles and view them with an open mind, some are actually quite brilliant. Today’s everyday styles can be so tired and unremarkable – it’s refreshing to see something bold and unique. Come take a look….
A black and orange striped sweater-vest over a tight olive green turtleneck sweater…. can somebody explain how this happened? The simple answer is widespread recreational drug use, but I’m open to other theories.
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Posted: 29th, April 2014 | In: Fashion, Flashback, Key Posts | Comments (8)
The Murderous Attempt to Kidnap British Princess Anne In 1974
ON March 20, 1974, Princess Anne and her husband Captain Mark Phillips were returning to Buckingham Palace along Pall Mall in their Rolls-Royce, driven by Alexander Callender. Rowena Brassey, the Princess’s Lady-in-waiting, was sitting in the car across from the Princess. Next to her was Anne’s armed bodyguard, Inspector James Wallace Beaton.
Another car approached. This white Ford Escort forced the Roller to stop by blocking their route. A man got out. He was Ian Ball, 26, an unemployed labourer from north London.
Beaton got of the Rolls.
He had two guns. He fired six shots at the Princess’s car. He shot Beaton on the shoulder.
Ball then rushed to the Rolls. He tried to open the rear door, where Anne was still seated. Anne and Captain Phillips held it shut. Brassey crawled out the other door. Beaton crawled back in. Ball fired. The bullet hit Beaton’s raised hand. Ball shot Beaton again.
Callendar got our the car. He confronted the gunman. Ball shot him in the chest. Ball now managed to prise open the rear door. He grabbed Anne’s arm. Ball addressed her:
“Please, come out. You’ve got to come.”
Phillips took hold of her. The men pulled. Anne’s dress tore.
Seven men came to the aide of the Princess.
Among them was tabloid journalist, a former boxer, two chauffeurs and three policemen.
PC Michael Hills, 22, heard the shots and attended. He was hit in the stomach. Hills radioed for help.
Ronald Russell, a company cleaning executive, was driving home from work. He saw the commotion. He’d seen Ball shoot Hills. Russell, a 6’4” former boxer, advanced on Ball. Russell would later say:
“I pulled over and heard a lot of banging and smashing which I thought was the general rumpus. But then Ball shot a policeman, and I thought ‘that’s a liberty, he needs sorting’.”
The kidnapping was not going to plan.
A second chauffeur, one Glenmore Martin, now parked his car in front of Ball’s rented car.
Sun journalist John Brian McConnell had been following in a taxi. He got out. He told Ball:
“Don’t be silly, old boy. Put the gun down.”
Ball shot him.
As Ball made once more for the Princess, Russell punched him in the back of the head.
Ball ran around the car towards the princess, she jumped back in with Phillips, shutting the door. Ronald Russell then punched Ball in the face. He said:
“Ball had a gun at her head. I lent in to the car and said ‘come this way Anne, you’ll be safe.’ I pulled her out and held her in front of me. Ball got behind me, and I thought ‘if he shoots me in the back it won’t hurt as much’. I turned and we were face to face. He was pointing a gun at me. I hit him fair and square on the chin. He went down and police were everywhere.”
The place was now swarming with police.
Ball ran.
Ball ran through through St. James Park.
Peter Edmonds, a temporary detective constable, gave chase. He tossed his coat over Ball’s head, rugby tackled him and made an arrest.
Ball had rented the escort.
When searched, police found the haul you see in the first photograph above: handcuffs, Valium, a ransom letter addressed to the Queen – he would demand £2 million in £5 notes, the money stuffed into 20 unlocked suitcases and sent by plane to Switzerland.
Journalists scrambled to pull together theories on how a mentally ill, unemployed man could have masterminded a well-funded kidnapping attempt on his own. An office clerk told a reporter that the police had traced a typewriter that Ball had rented to write the ransom letter. Papers reported that one line of the letter read “Anne will be shot dead.” Days after the kidnapping attempt, a group calling themselves the Marxist-Leninist Activist Revolutionary Movement sent a letter claiming responsibility to The Times of London. Scotland Yard dismissed any connection between that group and Ian Ball. Others recognized a familiar theme in the reported content of the ransom letter, in which Ball had allegedly stated that he would donate the Queen’s ransom to the National Health Services. One month before, a group identifying as the Symbionese Liberation Army had kidnapped Patricia Hearst. In its communication with the Hearst family, the SLA said that they would return the young woman if her family donated what would amount to millions of dollars of food to hungry Californians.
Ball was tried.
Ball told the court:
“I would like to say that I did it because I wished to draw attention to the lack of facilities for treating mental illness under the National Health Service.”
Ball admitted to attempted murder and kidnapping. He was sentenced to a life term in a mental health facility. He would end up in Broadmoor, the high-security psychiatric hospital.
Ball was prosecuted for the attempted murder of the princess’s detective, and various offences under the Offences Against the Person Act, but he was not, perhaps surprisingly, charged with treason; threatening the life of, or kidnapping, the Sovereign’s daughter with the intent of extorting money from the Royal family is not treasonable in the absence of an actual violation.
Ronald Russell was decorated for valour, the Queen pinned the George Cross medal to him and said:
“The medal is from the Queen of England, the thank you is from Anne’s mother.”
Princess Anne seemed fairly cool, telling Michael Parkinson on his TV chatshow:
“It’s fair to say that if anyone was very intent on wiping one out it would be very easy to do.”
Earlier she had said:
“It was all so infuriating; I kept saying I didn’t want to get out of the car, and I was not going to get out of the car. I nearly lost my temper with him, but I knew that if I did, I should hit him and he would shoot me.”
Ian Ball has neither been heard of not seen. He is non-person.
Posted: 26th, April 2014 | In: Flashback, Royal Family | Comment
1974 T-shirt slogans: ‘I Dreamt I was Raped by Mick Jagger in my David Bowie T-shirt’
In 1974, Lonely Ladies T-shirts presented “I Dreamt I was Raped by Mick Jagger in my David Bowie T-shirt”. Why was The Rolling Stones frontman wearing his alleged victim’s David Bowie T-shirt? And lest you think this was perverted, the San Francisco outfit let prospective rape victims know that their dream rapist could also be dressed as Elvis, Judy Garland or Boby Dylan…
Posted: 1st, June 2013 | In: Celebrities, Fashion, Flashback | Comment
1974: retina-burning interior designs in Women’s Day magazine
IT’S 1974 and Woman’s Day magazine has a selection of d’lish interiors.
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Posted: 3rd, November 2012 | In: Flashback, The Consumer | Comment