1975: 50 people, happenings and events from 50 years ago | members only

In 1975, the counterculture became the culture. Youth culture was being commodified and camp-ified in mood rings and pet rocks. Colors were bold, hair was wild, disco ran the dance floors

and movies were spectacles. Politics may have felt unmoored, but people’s reaction to those problems was to ... do the hustle. Read on for our list of 50 of 1975’s trendsetting people,

events and things: "Jaws" made everyone afraid to go into the water in the summer of 1975. Everett Collection BIG FLICKS The year brought to the big screen such hits as the

musical _Tommy_, _The Man Who Would Be King_ and the indelible documentary _Grey Gardens_. Here are six more movies that wowed us. _JAWS_: It was up for best picture and won three other

Oscars, but director Steven Spielberg, 78, was not even nominated. He just needed a bigger boat: 1994’s _Schindler’s List_ won him the award. _THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW_:_ _Thanks to

midnight showings involving audience participation, it’s the longest-running theatrical release in history — though the original audience now prefers an early bird deal. The tagline for the

movie poster, featuring _Playboy _model Lorelei Shark’s lips, read, “A Different Set of Jaws.” _MAHOGANY_: Motown founder Berry Gordy, 95, who produced this romantic drama starring Diana

Ross, 80, and Billy Dee Williams, 87, fired the director and directed it himself. (Luckily, he did not do the same thing with Stevie Wonder, 74, on his albums.) _ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S

NEST_:_ _It’s one of three (1934’s _It Happened One Night_; 1991’s _The Silence of the Lambs_) movies to win all five major categories at the Oscars. Kirk Douglas bought the rights to the

novel in 1962 so he could star in the film, but by the time it finally got made 13 years later, Jack Nicholson, 87, got the role. The novel’s author thought Gene Hackman, 95, should star. No

one suggested Jerry Lewis. _DOG DAY AFTERNOON_: Al Pacino, 84, on the suggestion of the assistant director, ad-libbed yelling “Attica” to the crowd of extras and people who had gathered on

the street to watch, leading them to chant the word. It would have been a very different movie if he’d suggested Pacino yell “What song is it you wanna hear?” _MANDINGO_:_ _Boxer Ken

Norton gave up a $250,000 boxing purse so he could play an enslaved person in this melodrama. He got fairer reviews from movie critics than he did from the judges in his final fight with

Muhammad Ali. Bruce Springsteen with The E-Street Band at Alex Cooley's Electric Ballroom in Atlanta in August 1975. Tom Hill/Getty Images ON THE PLAYLIST Yes, hard rock continued

through the '70s, but dance music killed, ballads continued to win audiences, and even a ribald comedy album snagged a Grammy. _BORN TO RUN_ BY BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, 75: After two albums

that weren’t hits, Springsteen’s third try made him a star. This one took 14 months to record, six of which were just spent on the title track. Baby, he was born to be a perfectionist. _THE

HUSTLE_ BY VAN MCCOY: The six-step dance, created in the Bronx, was already popular in New York City when producer and songwriter Van McCoy wrote a song about it. He did not spend a lot of

time on the lyrics. _FLEETWOOD MAC_ BY FLEETWOOD MAC: The band’s 10th lineup, this one adding the couple Lindsey Buckingham, 75, and Stevie Nicks, 76, was the most successful. It was not as

successful romantically. _…IS IT SOMETHING I SAID?_ BY RICHARD PRYOR: This comedy album debuted Pryor’s Mudbone character, a common-sense philosopher alcoholic originally from Tupelo,

Mississippi. _KC AND THE SUNSHINE BAND_ BY KC AND THE SUNSHINE BAND: The band’s eponymous second album included the disco hits “Get Down Tonight,” “That’s the Way (I Like It)”and “Boogie

Shoes.” There are so many members of this band that it’s conceivable they have not all met. _LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHER _BY CAPTAIN & TENNILLE: The song was cowritten and recorded in

1973 by Neil Sedaka, 85. The duo Mac and Katie Kissoon recorded it again the same year. But this version, by former Beach Boys keyboardist Daryl “Captain” Dragon and his wife Toni Tenille,

84, reached #1 on _Billboard_’s top singles of the year. During the fadeout, you can hear Captain sing, “Sedaka is back.” (From left) "The Jeffersons" (Sherman Hemsley, Isabel

Sanford); "Barney Miller" (Hal Linden); and "Starsky & Hutch" (David Soul, Paul Michael Glaser). Everett Collection 2; Gene Trindl/TV Guide/Everett Collection TV

DEBUTS Sitcoms continued to rule the roost, even as action series and an instantly classic morning news show came onto the scene. _WELCOME BACK, KOTTER_: Based on Gabe Kaplan’s, 79,

standup routines about his Brooklyn high school, this show started the career of John Travolta, 71, and the lunches of many children who opened lunch boxes adorned with the phrase “Up your

nose with a rubber hose.” The sitcom was going to be called “Kotter” until John Sebastian (lead singer of the Lovin’ Spoonful), 80, wrote the theme song, which leaned on the phrase “welcome

back.” The song hit #1 a year later. _THE JEFFERSONS_:_ _Norman Lear came up with this _All In The Family_ spinoff about Archie Bunker’s next-door neighbors after an office meeting with the

Black Panthers who complained that, while they enjoyed his show _Good Times,_ TV lacked Black characters who weren’t “dirt poor.”  _BARNEY MILLER_: The sitcom, which almost never ventures

out of the detective’s office in New York’s Greenwich Village, is often cited as the most realistic police show by cops, including actor Dennis Farina, who had been in the Chicago PD.

_STARSKY & HUTCH_: Paul Michael Glaser, 81, who played detective Sergeant David Starsky, hated the red-and-white-striped Ford Gran Torino because he thought undercover cops would never

drive a flashy car. He purposely drove the car he called a “striped tomato” hard into curbs. _GOOD MORNING AMERICA_: After seven years as the show’s meteorologist, John Coleman left to be a

cofounder of The Weather Channel. Many people thought this was a stupid idea. Most of them did not become nearly as rich as John Coleman.  (From left) Stephen King’s “Salem’s Lot,” Robert

Caro’s “The Power Broker,” and E.L. Doctorow’s “Ragtime.” Alamy; Penguin Random House; Alamy BLOCKBUSTER BOOKS Historical fiction, big-time biography and horror ruled the bestseller lists.

_SHŌGUN_ BY JAMES CLAVELL: The once-World War II prisoner of war Clavell had time to write movies (_The Fly_), direct films (_To Sir, With Love_), author the six-volume Asian Saga, have two

daughters with his wife, and father another daughter through an affair with Marlon Brando’s assistant. (Brando adopted her.) _TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY_ BY JOHN LE CARRÉ: The title is from

the children’s rhyme, “Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggarman, thie,f” which also provided the title for 1969 novel _Rich Man, Poor Man_ and the 1977 novel

_Beggarman, Thief _— but not the novel _Tinker Thief_, which doesn’t exist but should. _RAGTIME_ BY E.L DOCTOROW: This historical novel, which takes place in New York City between 1902

and 1915, has a scene in which Freud and Jung ride the Tunnel of Love in Coney Island together. Sometimes, a tunnel is just a tunnel. But not this time. _SALEM’S LOT _BY STEPHEN KING, 77:

Four years later, King’s second novel was turned into a CBS miniseries starring David Soul of _Starsky & Hutch_. (See how I connected the dots there?) _LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR_ BY

JUDITH ROSSNER: Based on the real-life murder of a schoolteacher by a man she brought home from a singles bar, the novel was Lifetime before Lifetime. Gary Player, left, presents the green

jacket to golfer Jack Nicklaus after Nicklaus won the 1975 Masters Tournament. Augusta National/Getty Images SPORTS DRAMA Boxing, golf, football and baseball drama — what's new? JACK

NICKLAUS, 85, WINS FIFTH MASTERS: He broke Arnold Palmer’s record of four wins. In 1986, this new record would fall. To Nicklaus, who won his sixth. THE THRILLA IN MANILA: The third and

final fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier was nicknamed because, in a pre-fight interview, Ali punched a small rubber toy gorilla he pulled out of his pocket and said, “It will be a

killa and a thrilla and a chilla when I get the Gorilla in Manila.” WORLD SERIES — RED SOX VS. REDS: In what is considered a classic series, the 12-inning Game 6 ended when Boston Red Sox

catcher Carlton Fisk, 77, hit a home run by willing it away from foul territory by waving his hands like a child bowler. The Sox lost the next game, and the series, to the Cincinnati Reds.

SUPER BOWL IX — STEELERS VS. VIKINGS: The Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense, called “The Steel Curtain,” defeated the far-dumber-nicknamed defense of the Minnesota Vikings, “The Purple People

Eaters.”