The movie Up in real life? After school specials that taught and traumatized? Some briefly famous people from the 1970s?
Episode 193 of the podcast dives into all of that Gen-X nostalgia.
It kicks off with a look back at ABC's After School Specials. These hour-long films shared life lessons with kids from the 1970s through the 1990s. We do a deep dive into these TV shows from their purpose to some of the most well-known episodes.
The movie Up is an engaging and exciting animated film about a man who uses balloons to float his house away. Something like that is fiction, right? Yes and no. It wasn't a house that balloons took away. It was a man in a lawn chair. We go way back in the day to 1982 and discuss the incredible but true story of Lawn Chair Larry.
15 minutes of fame sometimes is just long enough. This week's Top 5 looks at some people who had their brush with fame in the 1970s and then virtually disappeared. Athletes, actors, musicians, and more. Do you remember these briefly famous people?
There is also a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule that looks back at the end of Lou Gehrig's streak of consecutive games played in baseball.
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Listen to Episode 192 here
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 00 (00:00):
Hello world, and welcome to the In My Footsteps
podcast.
I am Christopher Setterlund,coming to you from the vacation
destination known as Cape Cod,Massachusetts, and this is
episode 193.
The April showers are ending.
(00:20):
Hopefully the May flowers areon their way.
But until then, I've got agarden full of nostalgia in
bloom.
We're going to kick it off witha look back at the famed
after-school specials that a lotof us kids that grew up in the
70s, 80s, 90s are familiar with.
We're going to go way, way backin the day to a story that I
(00:44):
couldn't not share, and that isthe wacky 1980s story of Lawn
All of that is coming up rightnow on episode 193.
(01:16):
of the In My Footsteps podcast.
So what are we going to talkabout this week?
About the fact that I have mybrand new portable soundproof
booth here that I am using torecord the podcast.
I don't know if it sounds anydifferent.
The setup is definitely a bitclunky compared to how it
(01:38):
normally is for the show.
What it is, is I've got this,it's kind of collapsible There's
three sides to it.
It all has the soundproofingkind of egg crate stuff you
would see.
The plan is to use this forsome kind of voiceover work,
maybe applying for things likethat.
So this is my test run for it,is right now, this episode of
(02:01):
the podcast.
You're probably listeningsaying it sounds exactly the
same, which it might.
The funny thing is that I keeptrying to adjust this thing and
it ends up where I've got tounscrew things and it's more
steps than I thought it wouldbe, but it's also the first time
I'm using it.
Anyway, how is everybody doingout there?
(02:21):
I hope wherever you are, springhas sprung.
Finally on Cape Cod, we had ourfirst 70 degree day a few days
ago, which was long overdue.
So hopefully you're getting toenjoy that beautiful weather.
Maybe you're out there rightnow in the sunshine listening to
my dulcet tones of my voice.
(02:42):
I've got a super fun show thisweek, but I can't start it off
without thanking my Patreonsubscribers.
Laurie, Mary Lou, Ashley,Kevin, Leo, Marguerite,
Neglectoid, Matt, Thank you allso much for being my biggest
supporters, my biggest backers.
(03:02):
You out there listening, youall can become Patreon
subscribers for $5 a month.
You get access to bonus podcastepisodes, including a brand new
one that's going to be going uptomorrow from when this show
goes live.
They go up the first of themonth.
You also get access to theremastered Without a Map
(03:24):
livestreams.
I did those with the podcastway back in the early days, like
four years ago.
And they've been just kind ofsitting around collecting dust.
So what I do is I remasterthem.
I fix up the audio.
I fix up the quality of thevideo.
And try to edit out some of theramblings that I do because it
was without a map.
I had no notes.
(03:45):
So those are fun.
Also, I'm kind of waiting withbated breath because I...
Put in my very first auditionfor a movie role.
Backgrounds very small.
I don't want to give too muchaway, but I am waiting.
I'm hoping maybe by the timethis podcast goes live, I'll
(04:05):
have an answer if I got the roleor not.
So there's more excitement tocome throughout the spring and
into the summer.
But before we get toooverloaded with excitement,
let's start off this excitingpodcast filled with Gen X
nostalgia.
people of my age, little older,little younger, probably have a
(04:26):
lot of memories, some great,maybe some traumatizing of what
we're going to talk about now.
We're going to do a deep diveinto the after school specials.
So we'll start that now onepisode 193 of the In My
Footsteps podcast.
So picture it.
It's three, four o'clock in theafternoon.
(04:49):
It is late 1970s, 1980s, early1990s.
You have just gotten out ofschool, probably middle school,
high school.
You come home, flip on the TV,probably one of those gigantic
TVs that weighed 300 pounds.
Maybe you don't have cable TV,so you got to stick with one of
(05:11):
the big three networks, and youchoose ABC.
And there before your eyes is amade-for-TV film,
made-for-young-people TV filmgiving you some important
information and sharing somelife lessons.
These are what was known as theAfter School Special.
Unknown (05:41):
After School Special
Speaker 00 (05:46):
And what we're going to do right here on this
segment is we're going to kindof go into an overview of what
the after school specials were.
And in the future, I'll do asegment on what were the best
after school specials, what werethe worst or most traumatizing.
So long before streamingplatforms and YouTube tutorials,
kids of my generation, 70s,80s, early 90s, got their life
(06:10):
lessons from the after schoolspecial.
These made-for-TV films airedon weekday afternoons, typically
right after school.
Obviously, that's where theygot the name from.
These were a staple of Americantelevision for 25 years.
They were more than justentertainment.
These specials were designed toeducate, provoke thought, maybe
(06:32):
conversation with parents, helpyoung viewers navigate the
often confusing path ofadolescence.
After School Specials, theydebuted on ABC in 1972.
The very first After SchoolSpecial debuted on October 4th
of 1972.
It was called Last of theCurlews.
(06:53):
It was an animated After SchoolSpecial based on the
fictionalized novel about thelast of the Eskimo Curlew, which
is a bird.
The book was written by a mannamed Fred Bodsworth, who was a
Canadian newspaper reporter andnaturalist with the book being
published in 1954.
That was how it came on theair.
(07:15):
Eventually you would see, andkids that watched would see,
these stand-alone televisionfilms tackled serious issues
facing children and teens.
These topics could range fromsubstance abuse, peer pressure,
parental divorce, and bullying.
to more sensitive subjects liketeen pregnancy, racism,
(07:37):
learning disabilities, andsexual abuse.
Overall, the after-schoolspecials were an hour in length.
They would typically be on fourto six times during a school
year, with each of these showsfeaturing a self-contained
story, often with youngprotagonists concluding with a
(07:58):
message or a moral takeaway.
The series was primarily aimedat preteens and teenagers, and
often starred young actors whomay have already been familiar
to audiences from popular shows.
The idea was to make thestories relatable and relevant,
while also offering guidance andemotional support.
Some of the famous actors andactresses that were in After
(08:22):
School Specials includedMichelle Pfeiffer and Val
Kilmer, who were in the 1985show After...
One Too Many.
Marissa Tomei was in the showSupermom's Daughter, which is
from 1987.
Freddie Prinze Jr.
and Jessica Alba were in theshow Too Soon for Jeff, which is
(08:44):
from 1996.
Jodie Foster was in Rookie ofthe Year in 1973.
Ben Affleck was in one calledWanted the Perfect Guy from
1986.
And there's a ton more.
The afterschool specials wereunique in their ability to
balance realism with empathy.
They didn't shy away from toughtopics, but they presented them
(09:07):
in a way that was accessible toyoung viewers.
At a time in America when manyschools and families were
hesitant to talk openly abouttopics like drugs or sexuality,
these specials filled a crucialgap.
In fact, these afterschoolspecials often served as
conversation starters forparents and children, or were
(09:27):
even incorporated into schoolcurriculum.
Some episodes concluded withhelpline numbers or guidance for
seeking further help, which isa practice that predated today's
mental health awarenesscampaign by decades.
Do any of you out thereremember after-school specials
being a part of your schoolcurriculum?
(09:47):
Did you watch them in school?
Growing up on Cape Cod, I don'tremember ever seeing an
after-school special not in myliving room.
I guess maybe it depended onwhere you grew up and when you
grew up.
I would think when theafter-school specials first came
out in the early 70s, schoolsmight not have been using them
(10:08):
as teaching aids.
But the more popular andrespected these shows became,
maybe schools became more opento using them.
So I said at the top of thissegment that eventually I will
do...
segments in the future aboutthe best and worst slash
traumatic after-school specials.
(10:28):
I did want to give you a fewexamples of the notable ones
that left a mark on people incase you want to go and check
some out and get traumatizedagain.
So I'll give you five of them.
There is My Mom's Having aBaby, which is from 1977.
This starred Shane Sinutko,Candice Farrell, Jared Johnson,
(10:54):
and Rachel Longacre.
This was a groundbreakingepisode.
It was one of the firsttelevised programs in the United
States to explain humanreproduction to children using
animation and documentary stylestorytelling.
This was an episode thatreceived both praise and
(11:14):
controversy for its frankness.
There was a film called TheWave from 1981.
This starred Bruce Davison, andit's based on the third wave
experiment put on by teacher RonJones to explain to his
students how the German populacecould accept the actions of the
(11:35):
Nazi regime.
This one has since becomerequired viewing in some
schools.
Another famed after-schoolspecial was I Don't Know If I
Like Myself, which is from 1984.
This story tackled self-esteemand body image issues, themes
that continue to resonate withteens today.
Another famous after-schoolspecial is one called A Matter
(12:00):
of Time from 1981.
This stars Carlene Crockett asa teenager who has to find inner
strength when she learns thather mother...
played by Rosemary Forsythe, isdying of cancer.
This was one of the first showsto deal with terminal illness
having to be dealt with by ayoung person.
It introduced kids to theconcept of mortality in a
(12:24):
compassionate way.
And the last example ofafter-school specials I'll give
for this segment is one calledThe Day My Kid Went Punk from
1987.
This one stars Jay Underwood,Christine Belford, and Bernie
Koppel.
It's a bit more lightheartedbut still impactful as it
addresses parental judgment andteen identity through the lens
(12:48):
of a straight-A student whodecides to adopt a punk rock
look.
In its 25-year history, theAfter School Specials series was
nominated for 158 differentawards, including winning one
primetime Emmy.
The last ever After SchoolSpecial was aired on January
(13:09):
23rd, 1997, at least the lastnew one.
And this was titled Miracle atTrapper Creek.
In total, in the 25 years ofAfter School Specials, there
were 154 different episodes.
Of course, there wereimitators.
CBS came up with their ownversion of After School
(13:31):
Specials, known as School BreakSpecial.
These aired from 1978 to 1996.
(13:53):
There were 89 episodes of theCBS School Break specials that
were originally known as theAfter School Playhouse.
That's something that if youwant me to do a deep dive into
those in the future, let meknow.
Although the original AfterSchool specials are now long
since a part of TV history,their influence is still felt
(14:15):
today.
They paved the way for morerealistic, youth-centered
programming.
Even though production valuesand narrative complexity have
evolved since, the core mission,which was to help kids make
sense of the world, remains thesame.
In an era now dominated bydigital media, there's something
(14:37):
quaint and comforting about theearnestness of the after-school
special.
They might feel dated in style,and they have a look that
screams 70s, 80s, but it took alot of courage back in the day
to address these uncomfortabletruths in timeless form.
People change, times grow andevolve, but the messages stay
(15:00):
the same.
In retrospect, these shows wereahead of their time.
Tackling topics that societywould only begin addressing
openly many years later, longafter I was out of school.
So whether you watched them athome with a bowl of cereal after
a long day of school, maybelike me, or if you were in
school and got to watch itinstead of doing actual work,
(15:24):
after school specials had a wayof sticking with you.
That's why I'm going to do asegment in the future about best
and worst, because I know thereare some out there that you're
thinking of that I didn'tmention.
And don't worry, they'll be onin the future.
After School Specials, theymade us think, they made us
feel, and they reminded us thatwe weren't alone in facing the
(15:45):
ups and downs of growing up inthe 70s, 80s, and 90s.
After School Specials This weekin history, we are going back
86 years to May 2nd, 1939 andthe end of the consecutive games
played streak by New YorkYankees baseball legend Lou
(16:10):
Gehrig.
On May 2nd, 1939, a quietmoment at Briggs Stadium in
Detroit marked the end of one ofbaseball's most iconic
achievements and the beginningof a heartbreaking chapter in
sports history.
Lou Gehrig, the legendary firstbaseman for the New York
Yankees, removed himself fromthe lineup, thus ending his
(16:31):
streak of 2,130 consecutivegames played.
It was the first time sinceJune 1st, 1925, that Gehrig did
not take the field.
Nicknamed the Iron Horse forhis incredible durability and
work ethic, Lou Gehrig was acornerstone of one of the
greatest dynasties in sportshistory.
(16:52):
Gehrig's accomplishments arestaggering.
A career batting average of.340, 493 home runs, 1,995 RBI.
He was a two-time AmericanLeague MVP, a seven-time
All-Star, and a six-time WorldSeries champion.
But beyond those numbers,Gehrig was known for his
(17:15):
humility, consistency, and quietleadership.
He proved to be a perfectcomplement to his flamboyant
teammate, Babe Ruth.
Gehrig's consecutive gamestreak began on June 1st, 1925,
when he pinch hit for shortstopPee Wee Wanager.
The next day, he replacedstarting first baseman Wally
(17:36):
Pipp and never gave back thejob.
For over 13 seasons, throughinjuries, slumps, even broken
bones, Gehrig played everysingle game.
The streak became a symbol ofGehrig's iron will and
blue-collar ethic that resonatedwith Depression-era America.
But in 1938, something changed.
(17:57):
Observers began to notice thatGehrig, once a powerhouse at the
plate, was slowing down.
His coordination seemed off, hestumbled over routine plays,
struggled to hit fastballs heonce crushed with ease...
By the start of the 1939season, it was clear to Gehrig
and to those closest to him thatsomething was seriously wrong.
(18:19):
On May 2nd, 1939, Gehrigapproached Yankees manager Joe
McCarthy and quietly told him hewas benching himself for the
good of the team.
It was a stunning moment.
There was no ceremony, nospotlight, just the absence of a
name on the lineup card.
Sadly, Gehrig's decline didn'tstop.
(18:42):
In June 1939, he traveled tothe Mayo Clinic in Minnesota,
where doctors delivered thediagnosis, amyotromorphic
lateral sclerosis, also known asALS.
The progressiveneurodegenerative disease
affects nerve cells in the brainand spinal cord, gradually
robbing the body of its abilityto control muscles.
(19:04):
At the time, little was knownabout the disease and there was
no treatment.
Doctors told Gehrig he hadlittle time left.
In North America to this day,ALS is often referred to simply
as Lou Gehrig's disease.
That's how I knew it as a kidgrowing up.
On July 4th, 1939, the Yankeesheld Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day
(19:26):
at Yankee Stadium, where hestood before a crowd of nearly
62,000 and delivered one of themost famous speeches in sports
history, concluding with theepic line, Today I consider
myself the luckiest man on theface of the earth.
Gehrig never played anotherprofessional game.
In 1940, he briefly worked as aparole commissioner in New York
(19:49):
City, but his health declinedrapidly.
On June 2, 1941, just 17 daysbefore his 38th birthday, Lou
Gehrig died at his home in theBronx.
His number four was the firstnumber ever retired by a Major
League Baseball team.
And in 1939, the same year hestepped away from the game, he
(20:12):
was elected to the Baseball Hallof Fame in a special vote.
And Lou Gehrig's 2,130consecutive games played streak
ended 86 years ago this week inhistory.
I will do my best to make thetime capsule less sad and
(20:33):
depressing.
We're gonna go back 66 yearsago to May 2nd, 1959.
What was going on in the worldof pop culture back then?
Well, let's find out.
The number one song was ComeSoftly to Me by the Fleetwoods.
Interestingly, this song wasoriginally called just Come
(20:55):
Softly.
and they thought that the titlewas too risque for 1959, so
they called it Come Softly toMe.
The song was off of theFleetwoods album Mr.
Blue.
In fact, that song Mr.
Blue also went to number one,just like Come Softly to Me.
The group of three was activefrom 1958 to 1983, but never had
(21:18):
bigger hits than they did in1959.
The number one movie wasImitation of Life, and you could
get into the theater with aticket costing 51 cents.
This is a melodrama starringLana Turner as a white single
mother who has dreams of beingon Broadway, and she has a
(21:39):
chance encounter with a blackwidow, not a spider, an actual
person, a black woman who's awidow, that becomes caretaker of
her daughter while she pursuesher stage career.
It's 82% fresh on RottenTomatoes and was a modest hit,
making about $6.5 million on abudget of just over $1 million.
(22:01):
The number one TV show wasGunsmoke, because it's the late
50s and of course it's Gunsmoke.
This is the famed western.
It aired on television for 20total seasons and 635 episodes.
But it was also a radio programwith nine seasons and 480
episodes, although some of thosecrossed over with TV and radio.
(22:25):
And if you were around backthen, May 2nd, 1959, maybe you
went to see a game at FenwayPark.
You're looking for somethingsweet to eat after.
Well, you're in luck, at leastif you're in the Boston area,
because it's a grand opening ofa new Mr.
(22:45):
Donut.
Oh, boy.
From 6 a.m.
to 1 p.m.
in Mattapan Square.
Free 15-cup package of coffeewith every dozen donuts you buy.
44 different types of hand-cutdonuts.
With a guarantee that they'rethe best that money can buy.
(23:06):
And why would Mr.
Donut lie to you?
There's also free balloons andpop for the youngsters.
You can tell what year this isfrom.
Can I have some pop, please?
If you want to go to Mr.
Donut, there's one in Godfrey,Illinois.
But there's also more than athousand locations over in Asia.
(23:28):
So get on a plane and get somehand-cut donuts.
But that wraps up another timecapsule, another This Week in
History.
Now we'll look at some famouspeople of the 1970s whose fame
was here and gone quicker thanyou could eat a frosted crawler
donut from Mr.
Donut.
Ah yes, it's time for Where AreThey Now?
(23:56):
People who were briefly famousin the 1970s This week's top
five was a lot of fun to puttogether, but it was also a
little bit difficult.
Back in episode 148, I did asegment on briefly famous people
of the 1980s.
And that was easier because Igrew up then.
I have memories of people thatI was like, wait, what happened
(24:19):
to so-and-so that used to be onthis show or whatever?
Yes, I was born in the 70s, butI don't really have any
memories.
So this was a lot of research.
It's going to be a lot of funfor those of you that have lots
of memories of the 70s to hearabout these people.
They were famous, then theywere gone.
I may end up doing where arethey now segments about
(24:43):
celebrities or products orcompanies.
I'm thinking about also doingsegments about teen idols
because you'll find a few inthis top five.
As with many of these topfives, they're in no particular
order.
We have some honorablementions.
And even though all of thesepeople were briefly famous and
(25:04):
then kind of became has-beens, Iwould kill for their level of
fame.
So I can't hate on them.
So let's kick off this top fivewith some honorable mentions
for briefly famous 1970s people.
They include Carl Douglas...
who had the song Kung FuFighting from 1974.
(25:25):
Another honorable mention isactor Robbie Rist, who played
Cousin Oliver on The Brady Bunchand kind of became a scapegoat
for the decline of the show.
Another honorable mention isTerry Jacks, the singer who had
the hit song Seasons in the Sunin 1974.
(25:45):
Another honorable mention isNadia Comaneci, the 1976 Olympic
gold medalist who was brieflythe name in gymnastics.
And a final honorable mention Ithrew in there, it's kind of an
odd one, it was Vicki Lawrence,the actress who was from the
Carol Burnett show.
(26:07):
She did have a modest hit showwith Mama's Family that I
remember as a kid, but she neverreached the heights that she
was on Carol Burnett's show.
Do you remember all of thosecelebrities from the 70s?
Well, let's get into the actualtop five, starting with number
one, Mark Fidrich.
(26:27):
Nicknamed the Bird, he wasMajor League Baseball's oddball
rookie sensation in 1976.
Fidrich was a big story inbaseball, in sports in general.
A baseball pitcher who talkedto the ball, smoothed the mound
with his hands, and capturedAmerica's hearts.
(26:47):
He ended up Rookie of the Yearin 1976.
He won 19 games and had a 2.34ERA for the Detroit Tigers.
Then injuries happened.
After going 19-9 in 1976, heplayed four more seasons in the
majors, going 10-10 with a 4.28ERA.
(27:11):
He was out of Major LeagueBaseball in 1980 at the age of
25.
Number two is Leif Garrett.
This is where my idea for doingteen idols came in because he
was definitely a teen idol inthe late 70s.
TV, music, magazine covers.
(27:33):
He was everywhere and then hewasn't there.
His first album, Leif Garrett,was released in 1977 and it had
a lot of covers of 1950s songsthat charted modestly.
His second album, Feel theNeed, was a bigger hit, with the
single I Was Made for Dancingreaching the Billboard Top 10 in
(27:56):
1978.
The end of his fame came onNovember 3rd, 1979, when an
intoxicated Garrett, just fivedays before his 18th birthday,
crashed a Porsche that was beingleased to his mother, He was
going to buy cocaine, he wasdrunk, he was high on Quaaludes,
and it left his friend RolandWinkler a paraplegic.
(28:19):
Since then, he's had morebrushes with the law, and that's
more of what he's been knownfor since the 80s, 90s, 2000s.
Number three is Andrea True.
She went from adult films tothe disco charts in 1976.
The song that Andrea True isknown for is More, More, More,
(28:44):
which was released in early1976.
The song topped at number fouron the charts, but what makes it
crazier is that her careerbefore this hit song was as a
porn star.
Any of you out there that needto know the movie she was in,
okay, I'll give you a few.
Her first prominent role was in1972 in a film called Head
(29:07):
Nurse.
There's the double entendrethere.
She also directed a film calledOnce Over Nightly, which was
another adult film, in 1975.
It's crazy, by the time of hersinging career, she said she was
burned out of doing porn, soshe got into disco music.
It's like such a 70s careerchange.
(29:29):
Andrea True had one more kindof hit song, New York You Got Me
Dancing, in 1977.
And she released more albums,but they were all commercial
flops.
So more, more, more is her bigclaim to fame besides adult
films.
Number four is Jan MichaelVinson.
(29:52):
He was a leading man in the70s, earning a Golden Globe
nomination for Best SupportingActor for the 1971 film Going
Home.
He managed to stay relevant inthe 80s where he was on the TV
show Airwolf.
So, I mean, that show waspretty good, but it was nothing
near what he was doing in the70s, earning Golden Globe
(30:14):
nominations.
But he had a lot of personalissues.
He was arrested three times inthe late 70s for cocaine
possession, twice in the early80s for bar fights.
So when it comes to Jan MichaelVincent, he had the looks, the
roles, the name, but his demonstook it all away.
And finally, number five on thetop five briefly famous people
(30:37):
of the 1970s is Debbie Boone.
I know this name quite wellbecause her big hit song, You
Light Up My Life, was the numberone song when I was born in
November 1977.
You Light Up My Life was one ofthe biggest songs of the 70s,
but she was under so muchpressure to replicate that
(30:59):
success that it just crushed hercareer.
Debbie Boone is the daughter of50s singer, actor, Pat Boone.
Her song, You Light Up My Life,spent 10 weeks at number one
and led to her winning theGrammy for Best New Artist the
following year.
After You Light Up My Life,Debbie Boone tried but couldn't
(31:21):
replicate the pop aspect ofmusic, so she went into country
and Christian music in the1980s, having some success.
But when your biggest hit...
is still considered one of thebiggest hit songs ever on the
Billboard charts.
It's kind of hard to top that.
So there you have it.
(31:41):
Five briefly famous people ofthe 1970s.
Like I said, I was born in the70s, but I don't have any
memories of it.
So it was a lot of researchtrying to find people that were
briefly famous then.
If there are any that I missed,let me know.
I can always do a second partsometime in the future.
(32:01):
But I know before then I'll bedoing people who were briefly
famous in the 90s.
I've got way more info aboutthose.
The movie Up came out in 2009.
It's a beloved animated filmstarring Ed Asner as an old man
(32:26):
who has lost his wife and hefulfills their dream of going to
South America by attachingthousands of balloons to his
house and then floating his wayto South America.
Pure fantasy, right?
Well, I'm not saying that Upwas influenced by this story I'm
(32:47):
about to tell now.
But the similarities, or atleast the mode of
transportation, is the same.
So travel with me back in time,won't you please, to the summer
of 1982 and the story of a manwho would become known simply as
Lawn Chair Larry.
This story for me, when itcomes to sharing it on the
(33:10):
podcast, stems from me lookingfor weird news stories from
different decades.
I've done the 60s, I've donethe 70s, and I haven't done the
80s yet.
But this story here was onethat I kind of put a pin in and
filed away for when I did 80sweird news stories.
And I finally was like, I needto share this because this is
(33:33):
going to be something thatsounds so unbelievable, but it's
true.
The CliffsNotes version of thisstory is in the summer of 1982,
a truck driver from Californianamed Larry Walters took to the
skies in what became one of themost bizarre and iconic
do-it-yourself aviation stuntsof the 20th century.
(33:54):
He was armed with nothing but alawn chair, some sandwiches, a
pellet gun, and 45 weatherballoons.
I'm sure lots of you listening,me included, when we were
growing up had dreams of flying.
Not just in a plane, but justbeing able to take off like a
bird.
How many of you actuallyattempted it?
(34:15):
I'm jumping off the roof orsomething, but Lawn Chair Larry,
Larry Walters, boy, he reallytook his dream to the next
level.
Larry Walters had dreamed offlying since childhood.
It was his poor eyesight thatkept him from becoming a pilot
in the military, but he wasundeterred when it came to
(34:36):
flying, and he decided to do ithis way.
The date of his grandexperiment was July 2nd, 1982.
It was in the town of SanPedro, California, in the
backyard of his girlfriend,where Lawn Chair Larry would be
born.
Unlike the character in themovie Up, Larry Walters was only
(34:58):
23 years old when he decided totake flight.
It was Larry and hisgirlfriend, Carol Van Dusen, who
bought 45 8-foot diameterweather balloons from a military
surplus store and helium tanksfrom California Toy Time
Balloons.
So your first question, likemine was, is why in the world at
(35:22):
this military surplus storewere they allowed to buy all
these weather balloons?
Like there was no question ofwhat they needed them for?
Well, he had that covered.
He forged a request from hisboss at Filmfare Studios saying
the weather balloons were for acommercial.
So he got away with that.
He bought the lawn chair atSears for $109, which in 1982,
(35:47):
when the world of lawn chairsthat expensive, I guess he
didn't want to buy one thatwould just collapse the bottom
out when he was up in the airwith his balloons.
That adds up to $361 whenadjusted for inflation to 2025.
Would you go to a store likeSears and spend $360 on one lawn
(36:10):
chair?
Anyway, Larry attached 42 ofthe balloons to his lawn chair.
The balloons were inflated withhelium.
He was attached by rope, or atleast the chair was, to his
Jeep.
He had a parachute on.
He was bringing a pellet gun, aCB radio, two liters of
(36:30):
Coca-Cola, some sandwiches, somebeer, which that's a smart
idea, and a camera to capturehis moments or his end.
Larry was not going to be justa rebel.
He actually had intentions totell authorities what he was
doing.
I don't know if it was to talkhim out of it.
(36:52):
What ended up happening,though, was the rope tied to his
Jeep broke prematurely andthere he went, shooting off into
the sky.
Before he launched, whatLarry's idea was, he thought he
was going to ascend to about 100feet and gently float over the
(37:12):
Mojave Desert.
That is not what happened.
Once he was at his peakelevation, lawn chair Larry was
up to 16,000 feet, nearly threemiles up in the air.
It was at this point that twocommercial airliners spotted
him.
So you imagine being thesepilots and you look out your
(37:35):
window and there's a lawn chairwith balloons attached to it
floating by you.
It's all fun and games, but theproblem was that the commercial
airline pilots radioed in thesightings because he was
floating in controlled airspacenear Los Angeles International
Airport.
So that's not fun and games.
(37:56):
Larry was in airspace usuallyreserved for Boeing jets.
I couldn't imagine thinkingyou're going to go 100 feet in
the air and instead you go16,000.
That's like, man, once you getabout 1,000 feet up, you're
probably like, this is trouble.
He dubbed his lawn chairInspiration One, which I don't
(38:19):
know if that meant he was goingto try again.
His plan with the pellet gunwas once he got up to a certain
height, he assumed 100 feet, Hewas going to start shooting the
balloons, popping one at a timeto slowly lower himself safely
to the ground.
It was after about 45 minutesthat Larry was up in the sky
that he started to put his planinto action of coming down.
(38:41):
He had to shoot these balloons,but he had to make sure he did
it in such a way that he didn'tunbalance the load and end up
tipping himself out.
Now, granted, he had hisparachutes.
But still, if you're 16,000feet up and you get jostled and
kind of fall out of your lawnchair, I don't know, I would
think in the moment you may havea panic attack and not remember
(39:04):
to pull the chute.
Slowly, Larry descended, but itwasn't a safe landing.
He ultimately got caught inpower lines in Long Beach and it
ended up blacking out aneighborhood for 20 minutes.
This plan really went off therails.
He went way higher than hethought, got reported for being
(39:26):
in controlled airspace, andblacked out a neighborhood
because of his lawn chairhitting power lines.
For his troubles, Larry wasarrested.
He was fined $1,500 forviolating airspace regulations.
Just after landing, Larry gavekind of a press conference
talking to the reporters.
(39:47):
He said, quote, it wassomething I had to do.
I had this dream for 20 years,and if I hadn't have done it, I
think I would have ended up inthe funny farm, end quote.
It wasn't all bad news for LawnChair Larry.
Ten days later, he was on theDavid Letterman Show.
He was briefly in demand as amotivational speaker, which I
(40:10):
don't know if it's for followyour dreams, I guess, to fly
your lawn chair.
Larry ended up giving his lawnchair away to a young admirer,
and he regretted it laterbecause the Smithsonian
Institute wanted it for theircollection.
So again, I can't say that LawnChair Larry inspired the movie
(40:31):
up, but what he did do wasinspire a brief
cluster-ballooning craze.
There was a wave of imitatorsin the 1980s, other people
trying to succeed where Larryhad failed.
There was a man named KevinWalsh from San Diego.
He made several attempts torecreate what Lawn Chair Larry
(40:55):
did.
In 1984, he ascended with 57helium balloons.
He flew for over two hours butdidn't reach the 16,000 feet
like Larry did.
There was a later one, a mannamed Kent Couch.
who in 2008 flew from Oregon toIdaho with a lawn chair and 150
(41:16):
helium balloons.
There were a bunch ofballoon-based art stunts and
various record-setting attempts.
Balloon clusters were used inscience experiments, publicity
stunts, charity events.
One of the men that inspiredLarry Walters was a man named
Joseph Kittinger, who he wasn'ta cluster balloonist.
(41:39):
But he did a lot ofhigh-altitude balloon jumps in
the 1960s, including holding therecord for the highest skydive
ever at more than 102,000 feetup in 1960, a record that held
until 2012.
Coming all the way back around,Lawn Chair Larry, Larry
Walters, he became a cult hero.
(42:00):
Celebrated in documentaries,late-night talk shows,
referenced in The Simpsons andMythbusters.
Sadly, he doesn't have a happyending.
He broke up with his girlfriendafter 15 years, and he ended up
sadly killing himself in 1993.
But he's got that one epicflight, and it lives on as a
(42:23):
symbol of eccentric bravery,absurd ambition.
And while it's far from themainstream, cluster ballooning
has evolved.
The spirit of Larry's Wild Ridestill inspires dreamers and DIY
pilots.
Because after all, sometimesthe sky is not the limit.
It's just the beginning, evenif you're strapped to a lawn
(42:46):
chair.
But before I strap myself to alawn chair and weather balloons,
I'll wrap up saying thank youfor tuning in to episode 193 of
the In My Footsteps podcast.
We're getting closer and closerto episode 200.
Be on the lookout on Patreon,whether free or paying members,
(43:07):
for the polls as far as votingin what I'm going to talk about
on episode 200.
It's listener's choice again,but it's strictly for Patreon.
Even if you're not a subscriberon Patreon, I have a good free
tier of stuff.
That's where you can read myVegas journals as I tell the
(43:29):
tale of my time of living in LasVegas 25 years ago.
Obviously, though, if you wantto become a paying member, that
is a great way to support me, tosupport any content creator
who's on Patreon.
You can also buy me a coffee.
I know you can go as low as adollar with donations on there,
which won't buy you a coffee,but that's fine.
(43:49):
However, I say it all the timethat the best way to support me,
to support content creators,it's sharing our work, telling
others about what you see, whatyou like, what you listen to.
I can promote and market myselfand say it's such an excellent
podcast, Gen X Nostalgia.
And why wouldn't I promotemyself?
(44:11):
But it means more when peopleout there who aren't me tell
others to listen.
And if you don't likelistening, I've got loads of
videos on my YouTube channel.
Go subscribe.
The newest one is the videoversion of when Cape Cod became
a vacation destination.
It chronicles the rise of myhome to the tourist destination
(44:34):
it is and has become through mylifetime as far as summer just
being packed with people.
As I said at the top of theshow, I will keep you informed
as far as my first ever auditionwent.
seeing if I got the part inthis film.
Also, I'll let you know when myfirst acting gig when the movie
(44:55):
is out.
The one that I shot last monththat Frank Durant produced.
I've heard June, so that's whatI'm hoping for.
It's definitely going to be afun and exciting rest of the
spring into summer.
Lots of possible opportunities.
That was a big thing with my2025 was keeping a lot of things
(45:17):
open, keeping my schedule clearto see what might drift into my
orbit that I'm not eventhinking of.
A lot of success andopportunities comes from just
being open, being receptive tothings that come around you.
I'm not saying say yes toeverything that anyone offers
you, but you never know.
(45:37):
Also, by the time some of youlisten to this, I might have
already run my next comebackrace.
It's a 5K.
It is May the 3rd.
It's a Saturday.
As of right now, the weatherdoesn't look great, but I'm
hoping that changes.
I'll let you know on nextweek's show how it went.
I'll have a review of my race.
Unless I'm in the hospital fromtearing something, but even
(46:01):
then I could probably puttogether some kind of podcast
and tell the nurse to bring mylaptop and my microphone in.
Whether you're a runner or acyclist or just enjoy walking
outside, or even if you don't,if you have the chance to get
outside and enjoy the weather,do it.
This is the time of the yearthat us in the Northeast, that
(46:24):
we live for.
Once it gets warm enough thatyou can be outside and just
enjoy.
And it's kind of the timebefore all the bugs are out.
They're starting to come out,but it's not as bad as it gets
in July and August.
I ended up recently doing alittle bit of an adventure to
the remains of the WestBarnstable Brick Factory.
(46:45):
Long-time Cape Codders mightknow what I'm talking about.
West Barnstable bricks arepretty valuable if you have mint
condition ones.
We're talking $30 to $50 abrick.
I went a little late in theseason, though.
When things start to bloom,getting out to the remains of
the factory is rough.
You've got to bushwhack.
(47:05):
But I wanted to go so badbecause the weather was nice and
I got out there, got pictures,videos.
I got home and because Iactually have hair now, instead
of having a shaved head like Idid for basically 14 years, I
didn't notice that a tick hadcrawled up into my hair.
God, thankfully I wasn't on theschool bus to have that get
(47:28):
noticed.
I had to flick it out of myhair and dive in the shower and
turn it up to a thousand degreesand just scald myself in case I
guess that's not a greatendorsement to tell you to get
outside and enjoy the weatherbut it it's a funny story to end
off the show so I can sayremember to check for ticks and
also remember in this life don'twalk in anyone else's footsteps
(47:51):
create your own path and enjoyevery moment you can on this
journey we call life because younever know what tomorrow brings
Thank you all again for tuningin.
This has been the In MyFootsteps podcast.
I am Christopher Setterlund.
You already knew that.
And I'll talk to you all againsoon.
Hello world, and welcome to the In My Footsteps
podcast.
I am Christopher Setterlund,coming to you from the vacation
destination known as Cape Cod,Massachusetts, and this is
episode 193.
The April showers are ending.
(00:20):
Hopefully the May flowers areon their way.
But until then, I've got agarden full of nostalgia in
bloom.
We're going to kick it off witha look back at the famed
after-school specials that a lotof us kids that grew up in the
70s, 80s, 90s are familiar with.
We're going to go way, way backin the day to a story that I
(00:44):
couldn't not share, and that isthe wacky 1980s story of Lawn
All of that is coming up rightnow on episode 193.
(01:16):
of the In My Footsteps podcast.
So what are we going to talkabout this week?
About the fact that I have mybrand new portable soundproof
booth here that I am using torecord the podcast.
I don't know if it sounds anydifferent.
The setup is definitely a bitclunky compared to how it
(01:38):
normally is for the show.
What it is, is I've got this,it's kind of collapsible There's
three sides to it.
It all has the soundproofingkind of egg crate stuff you
would see.
The plan is to use this forsome kind of voiceover work,
maybe applying for things likethat.
So this is my test run for it,is right now, this episode of
(02:01):
the podcast.
You're probably listeningsaying it sounds exactly the
same, which it might.
The funny thing is that I keeptrying to adjust this thing and
it ends up where I've got tounscrew things and it's more
steps than I thought it wouldbe, but it's also the first time
I'm using it.
Anyway, how is everybody doingout there?
(02:21):
I hope wherever you are, springhas sprung.
Finally on Cape Cod, we had ourfirst 70 degree day a few days
ago, which was long overdue.
So hopefully you're getting toenjoy that beautiful weather.
Maybe you're out there rightnow in the sunshine listening to
my dulcet tones of my voice.
(02:42):
I've got a super fun show thisweek, but I can't start it off
without thanking my Patreonsubscribers.
Laurie, Mary Lou, Ashley,Kevin, Leo, Marguerite,
Neglectoid, Matt, Thank you allso much for being my biggest
supporters, my biggest backers.
(03:02):
You out there listening, youall can become Patreon
subscribers for $5 a month.
You get access to bonus podcastepisodes, including a brand new
one that's going to be going uptomorrow from when this show
goes live.
They go up the first of themonth.
You also get access to theremastered Without a Map
(03:24):
livestreams.
I did those with the podcastway back in the early days, like
four years ago.
And they've been just kind ofsitting around collecting dust.
So what I do is I remasterthem.
I fix up the audio.
I fix up the quality of thevideo.
And try to edit out some of theramblings that I do because it
was without a map.
I had no notes.
(03:45):
So those are fun.
Also, I'm kind of waiting withbated breath because I...
Put in my very first auditionfor a movie role.
Backgrounds very small.
I don't want to give too muchaway, but I am waiting.
I'm hoping maybe by the timethis podcast goes live, I'll
(04:05):
have an answer if I got the roleor not.
So there's more excitement tocome throughout the spring and
into the summer.
But before we get toooverloaded with excitement,
let's start off this excitingpodcast filled with Gen X
nostalgia.
people of my age, little older,little younger, probably have a
(04:26):
lot of memories, some great,maybe some traumatizing of what
we're going to talk about now.
We're going to do a deep diveinto the after school specials.
So we'll start that now onepisode 193 of the In My
Footsteps podcast.
So picture it.
It's three, four o'clock in theafternoon.
(04:49):
It is late 1970s, 1980s, early1990s.
You have just gotten out ofschool, probably middle school,
high school.
You come home, flip on the TV,probably one of those gigantic
TVs that weighed 300 pounds.
Maybe you don't have cable TV,so you got to stick with one of
(05:11):
the big three networks, and youchoose ABC.
And there before your eyes is amade-for-TV film,
made-for-young-people TV filmgiving you some important
information and sharing somelife lessons.
These are what was known as theAfter School Special.
Unknown (05:41):
After School Special
Speaker 00 (05:46):
And what we're going to do right here on this
segment is we're going to kindof go into an overview of what
the after school specials were.
And in the future, I'll do asegment on what were the best
after school specials, what werethe worst or most traumatizing.
So long before streamingplatforms and YouTube tutorials,
kids of my generation, 70s,80s, early 90s, got their life
(06:10):
lessons from the after schoolspecial.
These made-for-TV films airedon weekday afternoons, typically
right after school.
Obviously, that's where theygot the name from.
These were a staple of Americantelevision for 25 years.
They were more than justentertainment.
These specials were designed toeducate, provoke thought, maybe
(06:32):
conversation with parents, helpyoung viewers navigate the
often confusing path ofadolescence.
After School Specials, theydebuted on ABC in 1972.
The very first After SchoolSpecial debuted on October 4th
of 1972.
It was called Last of theCurlews.
(06:53):
It was an animated After SchoolSpecial based on the
fictionalized novel about thelast of the Eskimo Curlew, which
is a bird.
The book was written by a mannamed Fred Bodsworth, who was a
Canadian newspaper reporter andnaturalist with the book being
published in 1954.
That was how it came on theair.
(07:15):
Eventually you would see, andkids that watched would see,
these stand-alone televisionfilms tackled serious issues
facing children and teens.
These topics could range fromsubstance abuse, peer pressure,
parental divorce, and bullying.
to more sensitive subjects liketeen pregnancy, racism,
(07:37):
learning disabilities, andsexual abuse.
Overall, the after-schoolspecials were an hour in length.
They would typically be on fourto six times during a school
year, with each of these showsfeaturing a self-contained
story, often with youngprotagonists concluding with a
(07:58):
message or a moral takeaway.
The series was primarily aimedat preteens and teenagers, and
often starred young actors whomay have already been familiar
to audiences from popular shows.
The idea was to make thestories relatable and relevant,
while also offering guidance andemotional support.
Some of the famous actors andactresses that were in After
(08:22):
School Specials includedMichelle Pfeiffer and Val
Kilmer, who were in the 1985show After...
One Too Many.
Marissa Tomei was in the showSupermom's Daughter, which is
from 1987.
Freddie Prinze Jr.
and Jessica Alba were in theshow Too Soon for Jeff, which is
(08:44):
from 1996.
Jodie Foster was in Rookie ofthe Year in 1973.
Ben Affleck was in one calledWanted the Perfect Guy from
1986.
And there's a ton more.
The afterschool specials wereunique in their ability to
balance realism with empathy.
They didn't shy away from toughtopics, but they presented them
(09:07):
in a way that was accessible toyoung viewers.
At a time in America when manyschools and families were
hesitant to talk openly abouttopics like drugs or sexuality,
these specials filled a crucialgap.
In fact, these afterschoolspecials often served as
conversation starters forparents and children, or were
(09:27):
even incorporated into schoolcurriculum.
Some episodes concluded withhelpline numbers or guidance for
seeking further help, which isa practice that predated today's
mental health awarenesscampaign by decades.
Do any of you out thereremember after-school specials
being a part of your schoolcurriculum?
(09:47):
Did you watch them in school?
Growing up on Cape Cod, I don'tremember ever seeing an
after-school special not in myliving room.
I guess maybe it depended onwhere you grew up and when you
grew up.
I would think when theafter-school specials first came
out in the early 70s, schoolsmight not have been using them
(10:08):
as teaching aids.
But the more popular andrespected these shows became,
maybe schools became more opento using them.
So I said at the top of thissegment that eventually I will
do...
segments in the future aboutthe best and worst slash
traumatic after-school specials.
(10:28):
I did want to give you a fewexamples of the notable ones
that left a mark on people incase you want to go and check
some out and get traumatizedagain.
So I'll give you five of them.
There is My Mom's Having aBaby, which is from 1977.
This starred Shane Sinutko,Candice Farrell, Jared Johnson,
(10:54):
and Rachel Longacre.
This was a groundbreakingepisode.
It was one of the firsttelevised programs in the United
States to explain humanreproduction to children using
animation and documentary stylestorytelling.
This was an episode thatreceived both praise and
(11:14):
controversy for its frankness.
There was a film called TheWave from 1981.
This starred Bruce Davison, andit's based on the third wave
experiment put on by teacher RonJones to explain to his
students how the German populacecould accept the actions of the
(11:35):
Nazi regime.
This one has since becomerequired viewing in some
schools.
Another famed after-schoolspecial was I Don't Know If I
Like Myself, which is from 1984.
This story tackled self-esteemand body image issues, themes
that continue to resonate withteens today.
Another famous after-schoolspecial is one called A Matter
(12:00):
of Time from 1981.
This stars Carlene Crockett asa teenager who has to find inner
strength when she learns thather mother...
played by Rosemary Forsythe, isdying of cancer.
This was one of the first showsto deal with terminal illness
having to be dealt with by ayoung person.
It introduced kids to theconcept of mortality in a
(12:24):
compassionate way.
And the last example ofafter-school specials I'll give
for this segment is one calledThe Day My Kid Went Punk from
1987.
This one stars Jay Underwood,Christine Belford, and Bernie
Koppel.
It's a bit more lightheartedbut still impactful as it
addresses parental judgment andteen identity through the lens
(12:48):
of a straight-A student whodecides to adopt a punk rock
look.
In its 25-year history, theAfter School Specials series was
nominated for 158 differentawards, including winning one
primetime Emmy.
The last ever After SchoolSpecial was aired on January
(13:09):
23rd, 1997, at least the lastnew one.
And this was titled Miracle atTrapper Creek.
In total, in the 25 years ofAfter School Specials, there
were 154 different episodes.
Of course, there wereimitators.
CBS came up with their ownversion of After School
(13:31):
Specials, known as School BreakSpecial.
These aired from 1978 to 1996.
(13:53):
There were 89 episodes of theCBS School Break specials that
were originally known as theAfter School Playhouse.
That's something that if youwant me to do a deep dive into
those in the future, let meknow.
Although the original AfterSchool specials are now long
since a part of TV history,their influence is still felt
(14:15):
today.
They paved the way for morerealistic, youth-centered
programming.
Even though production valuesand narrative complexity have
evolved since, the core mission,which was to help kids make
sense of the world, remains thesame.
In an era now dominated bydigital media, there's something
(14:37):
quaint and comforting about theearnestness of the after-school
special.
They might feel dated in style,and they have a look that
screams 70s, 80s, but it took alot of courage back in the day
to address these uncomfortabletruths in timeless form.
People change, times grow andevolve, but the messages stay
(15:00):
the same.
In retrospect, these shows wereahead of their time.
Tackling topics that societywould only begin addressing
openly many years later, longafter I was out of school.
So whether you watched them athome with a bowl of cereal after
a long day of school, maybelike me, or if you were in
school and got to watch itinstead of doing actual work,
(15:24):
after school specials had a wayof sticking with you.
That's why I'm going to do asegment in the future about best
and worst, because I know thereare some out there that you're
thinking of that I didn'tmention.
And don't worry, they'll be onin the future.
After School Specials, theymade us think, they made us
feel, and they reminded us thatwe weren't alone in facing the
(15:45):
ups and downs of growing up inthe 70s, 80s, and 90s.
After School Specials This weekin history, we are going back
86 years to May 2nd, 1939 andthe end of the consecutive games
played streak by New YorkYankees baseball legend Lou
(16:10):
Gehrig.
On May 2nd, 1939, a quietmoment at Briggs Stadium in
Detroit marked the end of one ofbaseball's most iconic
achievements and the beginningof a heartbreaking chapter in
sports history.
Lou Gehrig, the legendary firstbaseman for the New York
Yankees, removed himself fromthe lineup, thus ending his
(16:31):
streak of 2,130 consecutivegames played.
It was the first time sinceJune 1st, 1925, that Gehrig did
not take the field.
Nicknamed the Iron Horse forhis incredible durability and
work ethic, Lou Gehrig was acornerstone of one of the
greatest dynasties in sportshistory.
(16:52):
Gehrig's accomplishments arestaggering.
A career batting average of.340, 493 home runs, 1,995 RBI.
He was a two-time AmericanLeague MVP, a seven-time
All-Star, and a six-time WorldSeries champion.
But beyond those numbers,Gehrig was known for his
(17:15):
humility, consistency, and quietleadership.
He proved to be a perfectcomplement to his flamboyant
teammate, Babe Ruth.
Gehrig's consecutive gamestreak began on June 1st, 1925,
when he pinch hit for shortstopPee Wee Wanager.
The next day, he replacedstarting first baseman Wally
(17:36):
Pipp and never gave back thejob.
For over 13 seasons, throughinjuries, slumps, even broken
bones, Gehrig played everysingle game.
The streak became a symbol ofGehrig's iron will and
blue-collar ethic that resonatedwith Depression-era America.
But in 1938, something changed.
(17:57):
Observers began to notice thatGehrig, once a powerhouse at the
plate, was slowing down.
His coordination seemed off, hestumbled over routine plays,
struggled to hit fastballs heonce crushed with ease...
By the start of the 1939season, it was clear to Gehrig
and to those closest to him thatsomething was seriously wrong.
(18:19):
On May 2nd, 1939, Gehrigapproached Yankees manager Joe
McCarthy and quietly told him hewas benching himself for the
good of the team.
It was a stunning moment.
There was no ceremony, nospotlight, just the absence of a
name on the lineup card.
Sadly, Gehrig's decline didn'tstop.
(18:42):
In June 1939, he traveled tothe Mayo Clinic in Minnesota,
where doctors delivered thediagnosis, amyotromorphic
lateral sclerosis, also known asALS.
The progressiveneurodegenerative disease
affects nerve cells in the brainand spinal cord, gradually
robbing the body of its abilityto control muscles.
(19:04):
At the time, little was knownabout the disease and there was
no treatment.
Doctors told Gehrig he hadlittle time left.
In North America to this day,ALS is often referred to simply
as Lou Gehrig's disease.
That's how I knew it as a kidgrowing up.
On July 4th, 1939, the Yankeesheld Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day
(19:26):
at Yankee Stadium, where hestood before a crowd of nearly
62,000 and delivered one of themost famous speeches in sports
history, concluding with theepic line, Today I consider
myself the luckiest man on theface of the earth.
Gehrig never played anotherprofessional game.
In 1940, he briefly worked as aparole commissioner in New York
(19:49):
City, but his health declinedrapidly.
On June 2, 1941, just 17 daysbefore his 38th birthday, Lou
Gehrig died at his home in theBronx.
His number four was the firstnumber ever retired by a Major
League Baseball team.
And in 1939, the same year hestepped away from the game, he
(20:12):
was elected to the Baseball Hallof Fame in a special vote.
And Lou Gehrig's 2,130consecutive games played streak
ended 86 years ago this week inhistory.
I will do my best to make thetime capsule less sad and
(20:33):
depressing.
We're gonna go back 66 yearsago to May 2nd, 1959.
What was going on in the worldof pop culture back then?
Well, let's find out.
The number one song was ComeSoftly to Me by the Fleetwoods.
Interestingly, this song wasoriginally called just Come
(20:55):
Softly.
and they thought that the titlewas too risque for 1959, so
they called it Come Softly toMe.
The song was off of theFleetwoods album Mr.
Blue.
In fact, that song Mr.
Blue also went to number one,just like Come Softly to Me.
The group of three was activefrom 1958 to 1983, but never had
(21:18):
bigger hits than they did in1959.
The number one movie wasImitation of Life, and you could
get into the theater with aticket costing 51 cents.
This is a melodrama starringLana Turner as a white single
mother who has dreams of beingon Broadway, and she has a
(21:39):
chance encounter with a blackwidow, not a spider, an actual
person, a black woman who's awidow, that becomes caretaker of
her daughter while she pursuesher stage career.
It's 82% fresh on RottenTomatoes and was a modest hit,
making about $6.5 million on abudget of just over $1 million.
(22:01):
The number one TV show wasGunsmoke, because it's the late
50s and of course it's Gunsmoke.
This is the famed western.
It aired on television for 20total seasons and 635 episodes.
But it was also a radio programwith nine seasons and 480
episodes, although some of thosecrossed over with TV and radio.
(22:25):
And if you were around backthen, May 2nd, 1959, maybe you
went to see a game at FenwayPark.
You're looking for somethingsweet to eat after.
Well, you're in luck, at leastif you're in the Boston area,
because it's a grand opening ofa new Mr.
(22:45):
Donut.
Oh, boy.
From 6 a.m.
to 1 p.m.
in Mattapan Square.
Free 15-cup package of coffeewith every dozen donuts you buy.
44 different types of hand-cutdonuts.
With a guarantee that they'rethe best that money can buy.
(23:06):
And why would Mr.
Donut lie to you?
There's also free balloons andpop for the youngsters.
You can tell what year this isfrom.
Can I have some pop, please?
If you want to go to Mr.
Donut, there's one in Godfrey,Illinois.
But there's also more than athousand locations over in Asia.
(23:28):
So get on a plane and get somehand-cut donuts.
But that wraps up another timecapsule, another This Week in
History.
Now we'll look at some famouspeople of the 1970s whose fame
was here and gone quicker thanyou could eat a frosted crawler
donut from Mr.
Donut.
Ah yes, it's time for Where AreThey Now?
(23:56):
People who were briefly famousin the 1970s This week's top
five was a lot of fun to puttogether, but it was also a
little bit difficult.
Back in episode 148, I did asegment on briefly famous people
of the 1980s.
And that was easier because Igrew up then.
I have memories of people thatI was like, wait, what happened
(24:19):
to so-and-so that used to be onthis show or whatever?
Yes, I was born in the 70s, butI don't really have any
memories.
So this was a lot of research.
It's going to be a lot of funfor those of you that have lots
of memories of the 70s to hearabout these people.
They were famous, then theywere gone.
I may end up doing where arethey now segments about
(24:43):
celebrities or products orcompanies.
I'm thinking about also doingsegments about teen idols
because you'll find a few inthis top five.
As with many of these topfives, they're in no particular
order.
We have some honorablementions.
And even though all of thesepeople were briefly famous and
(25:04):
then kind of became has-beens, Iwould kill for their level of
fame.
So I can't hate on them.
So let's kick off this top fivewith some honorable mentions
for briefly famous 1970s people.
They include Carl Douglas...
who had the song Kung FuFighting from 1974.
(25:25):
Another honorable mention isactor Robbie Rist, who played
Cousin Oliver on The Brady Bunchand kind of became a scapegoat
for the decline of the show.
Another honorable mention isTerry Jacks, the singer who had
the hit song Seasons in the Sunin 1974.
(25:45):
Another honorable mention isNadia Comaneci, the 1976 Olympic
gold medalist who was brieflythe name in gymnastics.
And a final honorable mention Ithrew in there, it's kind of an
odd one, it was Vicki Lawrence,the actress who was from the
Carol Burnett show.
(26:07):
She did have a modest hit showwith Mama's Family that I
remember as a kid, but she neverreached the heights that she
was on Carol Burnett's show.
Do you remember all of thosecelebrities from the 70s?
Well, let's get into the actualtop five, starting with number
one, Mark Fidrich.
(26:27):
Nicknamed the Bird, he wasMajor League Baseball's oddball
rookie sensation in 1976.
Fidrich was a big story inbaseball, in sports in general.
A baseball pitcher who talkedto the ball, smoothed the mound
with his hands, and capturedAmerica's hearts.
(26:47):
He ended up Rookie of the Yearin 1976.
He won 19 games and had a 2.34ERA for the Detroit Tigers.
Then injuries happened.
After going 19-9 in 1976, heplayed four more seasons in the
majors, going 10-10 with a 4.28ERA.
(27:11):
He was out of Major LeagueBaseball in 1980 at the age of
25.
Number two is Leif Garrett.
This is where my idea for doingteen idols came in because he
was definitely a teen idol inthe late 70s.
TV, music, magazine covers.
(27:33):
He was everywhere and then hewasn't there.
His first album, Leif Garrett,was released in 1977 and it had
a lot of covers of 1950s songsthat charted modestly.
His second album, Feel theNeed, was a bigger hit, with the
single I Was Made for Dancingreaching the Billboard Top 10 in
(27:56):
1978.
The end of his fame came onNovember 3rd, 1979, when an
intoxicated Garrett, just fivedays before his 18th birthday,
crashed a Porsche that was beingleased to his mother, He was
going to buy cocaine, he wasdrunk, he was high on Quaaludes,
and it left his friend RolandWinkler a paraplegic.
(28:19):
Since then, he's had morebrushes with the law, and that's
more of what he's been knownfor since the 80s, 90s, 2000s.
Number three is Andrea True.
She went from adult films tothe disco charts in 1976.
The song that Andrea True isknown for is More, More, More,
(28:44):
which was released in early1976.
The song topped at number fouron the charts, but what makes it
crazier is that her careerbefore this hit song was as a
porn star.
Any of you out there that needto know the movie she was in,
okay, I'll give you a few.
Her first prominent role was in1972 in a film called Head
(29:07):
Nurse.
There's the double entendrethere.
She also directed a film calledOnce Over Nightly, which was
another adult film, in 1975.
It's crazy, by the time of hersinging career, she said she was
burned out of doing porn, soshe got into disco music.
It's like such a 70s careerchange.
(29:29):
Andrea True had one more kindof hit song, New York You Got Me
Dancing, in 1977.
And she released more albums,but they were all commercial
flops.
So more, more, more is her bigclaim to fame besides adult
films.
Number four is Jan MichaelVinson.
(29:52):
He was a leading man in the70s, earning a Golden Globe
nomination for Best SupportingActor for the 1971 film Going
Home.
He managed to stay relevant inthe 80s where he was on the TV
show Airwolf.
So, I mean, that show waspretty good, but it was nothing
near what he was doing in the70s, earning Golden Globe
(30:14):
nominations.
But he had a lot of personalissues.
He was arrested three times inthe late 70s for cocaine
possession, twice in the early80s for bar fights.
So when it comes to Jan MichaelVincent, he had the looks, the
roles, the name, but his demonstook it all away.
And finally, number five on thetop five briefly famous people
(30:37):
of the 1970s is Debbie Boone.
I know this name quite wellbecause her big hit song, You
Light Up My Life, was the numberone song when I was born in
November 1977.
You Light Up My Life was one ofthe biggest songs of the 70s,
but she was under so muchpressure to replicate that
(30:59):
success that it just crushed hercareer.
Debbie Boone is the daughter of50s singer, actor, Pat Boone.
Her song, You Light Up My Life,spent 10 weeks at number one
and led to her winning theGrammy for Best New Artist the
following year.
After You Light Up My Life,Debbie Boone tried but couldn't
(31:21):
replicate the pop aspect ofmusic, so she went into country
and Christian music in the1980s, having some success.
But when your biggest hit...
is still considered one of thebiggest hit songs ever on the
Billboard charts.
It's kind of hard to top that.
So there you have it.
(31:41):
Five briefly famous people ofthe 1970s.
Like I said, I was born in the70s, but I don't have any
memories of it.
So it was a lot of researchtrying to find people that were
briefly famous then.
If there are any that I missed,let me know.
I can always do a second partsometime in the future.
(32:01):
But I know before then I'll bedoing people who were briefly
famous in the 90s.
I've got way more info aboutthose.
The movie Up came out in 2009.
It's a beloved animated filmstarring Ed Asner as an old man
(32:26):
who has lost his wife and hefulfills their dream of going to
South America by attachingthousands of balloons to his
house and then floating his wayto South America.
Pure fantasy, right?
Well, I'm not saying that Upwas influenced by this story I'm
(32:47):
about to tell now.
But the similarities, or atleast the mode of
transportation, is the same.
So travel with me back in time,won't you please, to the summer
of 1982 and the story of a manwho would become known simply as
Lawn Chair Larry.
This story for me, when itcomes to sharing it on the
(33:10):
podcast, stems from me lookingfor weird news stories from
different decades.
I've done the 60s, I've donethe 70s, and I haven't done the
80s yet.
But this story here was onethat I kind of put a pin in and
filed away for when I did 80sweird news stories.
And I finally was like, I needto share this because this is
(33:33):
going to be something thatsounds so unbelievable, but it's
true.
The CliffsNotes version of thisstory is in the summer of 1982,
a truck driver from Californianamed Larry Walters took to the
skies in what became one of themost bizarre and iconic
do-it-yourself aviation stuntsof the 20th century.
(33:54):
He was armed with nothing but alawn chair, some sandwiches, a
pellet gun, and 45 weatherballoons.
I'm sure lots of you listening,me included, when we were
growing up had dreams of flying.
Not just in a plane, but justbeing able to take off like a
bird.
How many of you actuallyattempted it?
(34:15):
I'm jumping off the roof orsomething, but Lawn Chair Larry,
Larry Walters, boy, he reallytook his dream to the next
level.
Larry Walters had dreamed offlying since childhood.
It was his poor eyesight thatkept him from becoming a pilot
in the military, but he wasundeterred when it came to
(34:36):
flying, and he decided to do ithis way.
The date of his grandexperiment was July 2nd, 1982.
It was in the town of SanPedro, California, in the
backyard of his girlfriend,where Lawn Chair Larry would be
born.
Unlike the character in themovie Up, Larry Walters was only
(34:58):
23 years old when he decided totake flight.
It was Larry and hisgirlfriend, Carol Van Dusen, who
bought 45 8-foot diameterweather balloons from a military
surplus store and helium tanksfrom California Toy Time
Balloons.
So your first question, likemine was, is why in the world at
(35:22):
this military surplus storewere they allowed to buy all
these weather balloons?
Like there was no question ofwhat they needed them for?
Well, he had that covered.
He forged a request from hisboss at Filmfare Studios saying
the weather balloons were for acommercial.
So he got away with that.
He bought the lawn chair atSears for $109, which in 1982,
(35:47):
when the world of lawn chairsthat expensive, I guess he
didn't want to buy one thatwould just collapse the bottom
out when he was up in the airwith his balloons.
That adds up to $361 whenadjusted for inflation to 2025.
Would you go to a store likeSears and spend $360 on one lawn
(36:10):
chair?
Anyway, Larry attached 42 ofthe balloons to his lawn chair.
The balloons were inflated withhelium.
He was attached by rope, or atleast the chair was, to his
Jeep.
He had a parachute on.
He was bringing a pellet gun, aCB radio, two liters of
(36:30):
Coca-Cola, some sandwiches, somebeer, which that's a smart
idea, and a camera to capturehis moments or his end.
Larry was not going to be justa rebel.
He actually had intentions totell authorities what he was
doing.
I don't know if it was to talkhim out of it.
(36:52):
What ended up happening,though, was the rope tied to his
Jeep broke prematurely andthere he went, shooting off into
the sky.
Before he launched, whatLarry's idea was, he thought he
was going to ascend to about 100feet and gently float over the
(37:12):
Mojave Desert.
That is not what happened.
Once he was at his peakelevation, lawn chair Larry was
up to 16,000 feet, nearly threemiles up in the air.
It was at this point that twocommercial airliners spotted
him.
So you imagine being thesepilots and you look out your
(37:35):
window and there's a lawn chairwith balloons attached to it
floating by you.
It's all fun and games, but theproblem was that the commercial
airline pilots radioed in thesightings because he was
floating in controlled airspacenear Los Angeles International
Airport.
So that's not fun and games.
(37:56):
Larry was in airspace usuallyreserved for Boeing jets.
I couldn't imagine thinkingyou're going to go 100 feet in
the air and instead you go16,000.
That's like, man, once you getabout 1,000 feet up, you're
probably like, this is trouble.
He dubbed his lawn chairInspiration One, which I don't
(38:19):
know if that meant he was goingto try again.
His plan with the pellet gunwas once he got up to a certain
height, he assumed 100 feet, Hewas going to start shooting the
balloons, popping one at a timeto slowly lower himself safely
to the ground.
It was after about 45 minutesthat Larry was up in the sky
that he started to put his planinto action of coming down.
(38:41):
He had to shoot these balloons,but he had to make sure he did
it in such a way that he didn'tunbalance the load and end up
tipping himself out.
Now, granted, he had hisparachutes.
But still, if you're 16,000feet up and you get jostled and
kind of fall out of your lawnchair, I don't know, I would
think in the moment you may havea panic attack and not remember
(39:04):
to pull the chute.
Slowly, Larry descended, but itwasn't a safe landing.
He ultimately got caught inpower lines in Long Beach and it
ended up blacking out aneighborhood for 20 minutes.
This plan really went off therails.
He went way higher than hethought, got reported for being
(39:26):
in controlled airspace, andblacked out a neighborhood
because of his lawn chairhitting power lines.
For his troubles, Larry wasarrested.
He was fined $1,500 forviolating airspace regulations.
Just after landing, Larry gavekind of a press conference
talking to the reporters.
(39:47):
He said, quote, it wassomething I had to do.
I had this dream for 20 years,and if I hadn't have done it, I
think I would have ended up inthe funny farm, end quote.
It wasn't all bad news for LawnChair Larry.
Ten days later, he was on theDavid Letterman Show.
He was briefly in demand as amotivational speaker, which I
(40:10):
don't know if it's for followyour dreams, I guess, to fly
your lawn chair.
Larry ended up giving his lawnchair away to a young admirer,
and he regretted it laterbecause the Smithsonian
Institute wanted it for theircollection.
So again, I can't say that LawnChair Larry inspired the movie
(40:31):
up, but what he did do wasinspire a brief
cluster-ballooning craze.
There was a wave of imitatorsin the 1980s, other people
trying to succeed where Larryhad failed.
There was a man named KevinWalsh from San Diego.
He made several attempts torecreate what Lawn Chair Larry
(40:55):
did.
In 1984, he ascended with 57helium balloons.
He flew for over two hours butdidn't reach the 16,000 feet
like Larry did.
There was a later one, a mannamed Kent Couch.
who in 2008 flew from Oregon toIdaho with a lawn chair and 150
(41:16):
helium balloons.
There were a bunch ofballoon-based art stunts and
various record-setting attempts.
Balloon clusters were used inscience experiments, publicity
stunts, charity events.
One of the men that inspiredLarry Walters was a man named
Joseph Kittinger, who he wasn'ta cluster balloonist.
(41:39):
But he did a lot ofhigh-altitude balloon jumps in
the 1960s, including holding therecord for the highest skydive
ever at more than 102,000 feetup in 1960, a record that held
until 2012.
Coming all the way back around,Lawn Chair Larry, Larry
Walters, he became a cult hero.
(42:00):
Celebrated in documentaries,late-night talk shows,
referenced in The Simpsons andMythbusters.
Sadly, he doesn't have a happyending.
He broke up with his girlfriendafter 15 years, and he ended up
sadly killing himself in 1993.
But he's got that one epicflight, and it lives on as a
(42:23):
symbol of eccentric bravery,absurd ambition.
And while it's far from themainstream, cluster ballooning
has evolved.
The spirit of Larry's Wild Ridestill inspires dreamers and DIY
pilots.
Because after all, sometimesthe sky is not the limit.
It's just the beginning, evenif you're strapped to a lawn
(42:46):
chair.
But before I strap myself to alawn chair and weather balloons,
I'll wrap up saying thank youfor tuning in to episode 193 of
the In My Footsteps podcast.
We're getting closer and closerto episode 200.
Be on the lookout on Patreon,whether free or paying members,
(43:07):
for the polls as far as votingin what I'm going to talk about
on episode 200.
It's listener's choice again,but it's strictly for Patreon.
Even if you're not a subscriberon Patreon, I have a good free
tier of stuff.
That's where you can read myVegas journals as I tell the
(43:29):
tale of my time of living in LasVegas 25 years ago.
Obviously, though, if you wantto become a paying member, that
is a great way to support me, tosupport any content creator
who's on Patreon.
You can also buy me a coffee.
I know you can go as low as adollar with donations on there,
which won't buy you a coffee,but that's fine.
(43:49):
However, I say it all the timethat the best way to support me,
to support content creators,it's sharing our work, telling
others about what you see, whatyou like, what you listen to.
I can promote and market myselfand say it's such an excellent
podcast, Gen X Nostalgia.
And why wouldn't I promotemyself?
(44:11):
But it means more when peopleout there who aren't me tell
others to listen.
And if you don't likelistening, I've got loads of
videos on my YouTube channel.
Go subscribe.
The newest one is the videoversion of when Cape Cod became
a vacation destination.
It chronicles the rise of myhome to the tourist destination
(44:34):
it is and has become through mylifetime as far as summer just
being packed with people.
As I said at the top of theshow, I will keep you informed
as far as my first ever auditionwent.
seeing if I got the part inthis film.
Also, I'll let you know when myfirst acting gig when the movie
(44:55):
is out.
The one that I shot last monththat Frank Durant produced.
I've heard June, so that's whatI'm hoping for.
It's definitely going to be afun and exciting rest of the
spring into summer.
Lots of possible opportunities.
That was a big thing with my2025 was keeping a lot of things
(45:17):
open, keeping my schedule clearto see what might drift into my
orbit that I'm not eventhinking of.
A lot of success andopportunities comes from just
being open, being receptive tothings that come around you.
I'm not saying say yes toeverything that anyone offers
you, but you never know.
(45:37):
Also, by the time some of youlisten to this, I might have
already run my next comebackrace.
It's a 5K.
It is May the 3rd.
It's a Saturday.
As of right now, the weatherdoesn't look great, but I'm
hoping that changes.
I'll let you know on nextweek's show how it went.
I'll have a review of my race.
Unless I'm in the hospital fromtearing something, but even
(46:01):
then I could probably puttogether some kind of podcast
and tell the nurse to bring mylaptop and my microphone in.
Whether you're a runner or acyclist or just enjoy walking
outside, or even if you don't,if you have the chance to get
outside and enjoy the weather,do it.
This is the time of the yearthat us in the Northeast, that
(46:24):
we live for.
Once it gets warm enough thatyou can be outside and just
enjoy.
And it's kind of the timebefore all the bugs are out.
They're starting to come out,but it's not as bad as it gets
in July and August.
I ended up recently doing alittle bit of an adventure to
the remains of the WestBarnstable Brick Factory.
(46:45):
Long-time Cape Codders mightknow what I'm talking about.
West Barnstable bricks arepretty valuable if you have mint
condition ones.
We're talking $30 to $50 abrick.
I went a little late in theseason, though.
When things start to bloom,getting out to the remains of
the factory is rough.
You've got to bushwhack.
(47:05):
But I wanted to go so badbecause the weather was nice and
I got out there, got pictures,videos.
I got home and because Iactually have hair now, instead
of having a shaved head like Idid for basically 14 years, I
didn't notice that a tick hadcrawled up into my hair.
God, thankfully I wasn't on theschool bus to have that get
(47:28):
noticed.
I had to flick it out of myhair and dive in the shower and
turn it up to a thousand degreesand just scald myself in case I
guess that's not a greatendorsement to tell you to get
outside and enjoy the weatherbut it it's a funny story to end
off the show so I can sayremember to check for ticks and
also remember in this life don'twalk in anyone else's footsteps
(47:51):
create your own path and enjoyevery moment you can on this
journey we call life because younever know what tomorrow brings
Thank you all again for tuningin.
This has been the In MyFootsteps podcast.
I am Christopher Setterlund.
You already knew that.
And I'll talk to you all againsoon.
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