Allen Ludden
Allen Ludden was an American television personality, actor and game show host best known for having hosted various incarnations of the game show Password between 1961 and 1980. Allen Ludden was the first child of Elmer Ellsworth, a Nebraska native living in Mineral Point and working as an ice dealer. Elmer Ellsworth died the next winter at age 26, a victim of the worldwide Spanish flu epidemic, on January 6, 1919; when Allen was about five years old, his mother remarried, to Homer Ludden, Jr. an electrical engineer and the son of H. D. Ludden, the town physician, a Chicago native who had practiced in Mineral Point since 1906. Allen became Allen Ellsworth Ludden; the family lived in the Wisconsin cities of Janesville, Elkhorn and Waupaca before moving to Texas when Allen was nine years old. In the January 8, 1979 episode of Password Plus, Allen Ludden was speaking to a contestant from Corpus Christi and stated he was from Corpus Christi, Texas. An English and dramatics major at the University of Texas, Ludden graduated with Phi Beta Kappa honors in 1940 and received his Master of Arts in English from the same university in 1941.
He served in the U. S. Army as officer in charge of entertainment in the Pacific theater, received a Bronze Star, was discharged with the rank of captain in 1946. During the late 1940s and early 1950s he carved out a career as an adviser for youth in teen magazine columns and on radio, his radio show for teenagers, Mind Your Manners, received an honorable mention Peabody Award in 1950. Ludden hosted many game shows, including the GE College Bowl, but he was most well known for hosting both the daytime and prime time versions of Password on CBS and ABC between 1961 and 1975, his opening TV catch phrase, "Hi doll," was directed toward his beloved real-life mother-in-law, Tess White, mother of Betty White. Ludden began hosting an updated version of the game, Password Plus, on NBC, in 1979, but chemotherapy treatments for stomach cancer forced him off the show in late October 1980. Other shows hosted by Ludden include Liar's Club, Win with the Stars, Stumpers! He hosted the original pilot for The Joker's Wild and hosted a talk-variety show, Allen Ludden's Gallery.
At the request of the publishers Dodd, Mead & Co. Ludden wrote and published four books of "Plain Talk" advice, plus a youth novel, Roger Thomas, all for young readers, he received the 1961 Horatio Alger Award. He released an album called Allen Ludden Sings His Favorite Songs on RCA Records in 1964. Ludden married Margaret McGloin on October 11, 1943, she died of cancer on October 1961, just 2 1/2 weeks after their 18th wedding anniversary. They had a son and two daughters and Sarah, he proposed to twice-divorced Betty White, whom he had met on Password, at least twice before she accepted. Their romance blossomed when they played summer stock together, in the play Critic's Choice in 1962, they appeared together in the romantic comedy Janus in 1963. They were married on June 14, 1963, remained together until Ludden's death, they appeared together in an episode of The Odd Couple in which Felix and Oscar appeared on Password. Ludden appeared as a guest panelist on Match Game, with White sitting in the audience.
After Ludden was diagnosed with stomach cancer in early 1980, he took a month-long leave of absence from Password Plus for chemotherapy treatment, with Bill Cullen filling in as host. On October 7, he slipped into a coma while on vacation in California, it was reported that he had suffered a stroke, but the coma was caused by high levels of calcium from medication taken to help fight the cancer. Tom Kennedy assumed duties as host of Password Plus, although Ludden hoped to return to the show, his cancer grew worse and he never returned. Ludden died in Los Angeles on June 9, 1981, at age 63, just five days before his 18th wedding anniversary. Ludden was buried beside his father in the Ellsworth family plot in Graceland Cemetery in his hometown of Mineral Point, Wisconsin. A walkway at the Los Angeles Zoo was named in his memory and an artificial lake in Mineral Point was named Ludden Lake in his honor. Betty White donated a Labrador Retriever named "Ludden" to Guide Dogs for the Blind in San Rafael, California, in memory of her late husband.
In an interview on Larry King Live, when asked whether or not she would remarry, Betty White replied by saying, "Once you've had the best, who needs the rest?"Ludden is mentioned in passing in an episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show entitled "Don't Break the Chain", in reference to his sending the character Lou Grant a chain letter. The Allen Ludden Papers collection is located at the Free Public Library in his native Mineral Point, Wisconsin; the items include letters written or received by Ludden, typed radio scripts and magazine clippings by or about Ludden, publicity photographs and personal photographs, a broken pair of horn-rimmed glasses. The collection was donated by Betty White; the Allen Ludden & Betty White Archive Allen Ludden's biography Allen Ludden at Find a Grave Allen Ludden on IMDb
Password (game show)
Password is an American television game show, created by Bob Stewart for Goodson-Todman Productions. The host was Allen Ludden, well known as the host of the G. E. College Bowl. In the game, two teams, each composed of a celebrity player and a contestant, attempt to convey mystery words to each other using only single-word clues, in order to win cash prizes. Password aired for 1,555 daytime telecasts each weekday from October 2, 1961, to September 15, 1967, on CBS, along with weekly prime time airings from January 2, 1962, to September 9, 1965, December 25, 1966, to May 22, 1967. An additional 1,099 daytime shows aired from April 5, 1971 to June 27, 1975 on ABC; the show's announcers were Jack Clark and Lee Vines on CBS and John Harlan on ABC. Two revivals aired on NBC: Password Plus from 1979 to 1982, Super Password from 1984 to 1989, followed by a primetime version, Million Dollar Password, on CBS from 2008 to 2009. All of these versions introduced new variations in gameplay. In 2013, TV Guide ranked it #8 in its list of the 60 greatest game shows ever.
Two teams, each consisting of one celebrity player and one "civilian" contestant, competed. The word to be conveyed was given to one player on each team, was shown onscreen to viewers as well as spoken on the audio track. Game play alternated between the two teams. On each team, the player, given the password gave a one-word clue from which their partner attempted to guess the password. If the partner failed to guess the password within the allotted five-second time limit, or if an illegal clue was given, play passed to the opposing team; the game continued until one of the players guessed the password or until ten clues had been given. Scoring was based on the number of clues given when the password was guessed, e.g. ten points were awarded for guessing the password on the first clue, nine points on the second clue, eight points on the third clue, etc. down to one point on the tenth and final clue. On the ABC version a limit of six clues was imposed to expedite game play, with the last clue worth five points.
In addition, teams were given the option of either playing or passing control of the first clue to the opposing team. The team, trailing in score, or that had lost the previous game, was offered the pass/play option. On the CBS daytime edition, the first team to reach 25 points won that contestant $100. On the nighttime edition, the winner won $250; the winning team earned a chance to win up to an additional $250 by playing the "Lightning Round", in which the civilian contestant on the prevailing team tried to guess five passwords within 60 seconds from clues given by his/her celebrity partner. $50 was awarded for each guessed password. The Lightning Round was among the first bonus rounds on a television game. On the ABC version from 1971 to 1974 after completing the Lightning Round the player was given a chance at "the Betting Word," in which they could wager any amount of their winnings on their celebrity partner's ability to guess it within 15 seconds; this increased the maximum bonus prize to $500.
On each episode from 1961 to 1975, Ludden would caution the players about unacceptable clues by stating, "When you hear this sound it means your clue has not been accepted by our authority." Word authorities on the CBS version included New York University professor David H. Greene and World Book Encyclopedia Dictionary editor Dr. Reason A. Goodwin. Robert Stockwell from UCLA and Carolyn Duncan served as word authorities during the ABC version. Clark and Harlan whispered the password to viewers on the first two versions of the show, but the practice was discontinued, beginning with Password All-Stars, when a computer was incorporated; the computer would display the password one letter at a time, followed by the quotation marks. A beeping sound would accompany each letter. A final beep would signal that the password was revealed to the home viewer, play would start. On Password Plus, a bell would ring. On Super Password from September 24, 1984 to October 31, 1986, a chirping sound was heard when the password was revealed.
However, Gene Wood began whispering the words on Super Password just like in the original, starting on November 3, 1986. The practice was again discontinued on Million Dollar Password. Before the cancellation of the Goodson-Todman game show Snap Judgment on NBC in 1969, that program's set was changed in order to make it resemble the look of the CBS Password. Goodson-Todman did this to correspond to rule changes that, in fact, made Snap Judgment identical to Password. On the CBS daytime version, contestants played two matches, win or lose, with each game awarding $100 to the winner. For most of the CBS nighttime version's first year, the same two players stayed for the entire show, playing as many matches as time allowed. However, after three contestants managed to break the $1,000 mark, this practice was changed in November 1962 to having two new contestants play each game, with winning contestants rec
Welcome Back, Kotter
Welcome Back, Kotter is an American sitcom starring Gabe Kaplan as a sardonic high school teacher in charge of a racially and ethnically diverse remedial class called the "Sweathogs". Recorded in front of a live studio audience, it aired on ABC from September 9, 1975, to May 17, 1979; the show stars stand-up comedian and actor Gabriel "Gabe" Kaplan as the title character, Gabe Kotter, a wisecracking teacher who returns to his alma mater, James Buchanan High School in Bensonhurst, New York, to teach a remedial class of loafers, called "Sweathogs". The school's principal is referred to, but seen on-screen; the rigid vice principal, Michael Woodman, dismisses the Sweathogs as witless hoodlums, only expects Kotter to contain them until they drop out or are otherwise banished. As a former remedial student, a founding member of the original class of Sweathogs, Kotter befriends the current Sweathogs and stimulates their potential. A pupil-teacher rapport is formed, the students visit Kotter's Bensonhurst apartment, sometimes via the fire-escape window, much to the chagrin of his wife, Julie.
The fictional James Buchanan High is based on the Brooklyn high school that Kaplan attended in real life, New Utrecht High School, shown in the opening credits. Many of the show's characters were based on people Kaplan knew during his teen years as a remedial student, several of whom were described in one of Kaplan's stand-up comic routines entitled "Holes and Mellow Rolls". "Vinnie Barbarino" was inspired by Ray Barbarino. Played by Gabe KaplanGabe Kotter is a flippant but well-meaning teacher who returns to his alma mater, James Buchanan High, to teach a group of remedial students known as the Sweathogs. Being a founding member of the original Sweathogs, Kotter has a special understanding of the potential of these "unteachable" students. On his first day on the job, he launches into a Groucho Marx impersonation. Kotter is married to Julie, with whom he has twin girls and Rachel, it is confirmed by Julie in the episode "Follow the Leader". During season four, Kaplan had contract issues with the executive producer, only appeared in a handful of episodes.
In season four, the invisible principal John Lazarus retires, Kotter becomes the vice-principal. Though he is said to maintain some social studies teaching duties, most of that season's shows are filmed outside his classroom, or if in room 11, Mr. Woodman is teaching. To minimize Kotter's absence, scenes were shot in either the school's hallway, the schoolyard, or the principal's waiting area. Season four ended the series. Played by Marcia StrassmanJulie Kotter is Gabe's wife and closest friend. Though she has a sense of humor, she wishes Gabe would take matters more seriously, she is upset with the amount of time her husband spends with his students, she is troubled that he allows them to visit their apartment regularly. From Nebraska, with a college degree in anthropology, Julie becomes a secretary at Buchanan, a substitute teacher after Gabe's promotion to vice-principal, she makes several references to her "world famous tuna casserole", a common meal at the Kotter dinner table, which Gabe and the Sweathogs dislike.
Played by John Sylvester WhiteMichael Woodman is the curmudgeonly vice-principal of Buchanan High. He makes no secret of his dislike for the Sweathogs, whom he considers the bottom of the social register at his school, he refers to non-Sweathogs as "real" students. When Kotter was a student at Buchanan, Woodman taught social studies, the same class Kotter returns to Buchanan to teach, his old age, sometimes his diminutive height, are common jokes with the Sweathogs. Woodman is against Kotter's unorthodox teaching methods, at one point puts Kotter in front of the school's review board in an unsuccessful attempt to have him fired; as the series progresses, Woodman begins to tolerate them marginally. In the season one episode "No More Mr. Nice Guy", Woodman is shown to be a gifted teacher, willing to wear historic costumes, role-play in front of the class during his lessons. Played by John TravoltaVinnie Barbarino is a cocky Italian-American, the "unofficial official" leader and resident heartthrob of the Sweathogs.
He has a need to be the center of attention, as seen when he admits to making it rain in the school gymnasium. In the two-episode "Follow the Leader", Barbarino quits the Sweathogs and drops out of school in anger when Freddy Washington is chosen as the "leader" of the group, though he returns as leader at the finish of the story. Barbarino's prowess with women is sometimes a source of envy among his classmates. On occasion, he breaks out in song about his last name sung to the tune of "Barbara Ann", he was the first of the Sweathogs to move out on his own. In the first episode of the series and fourth season, he has Sally. Vinnie is Catholic, and, as shown in "I'm Having Their Baby", is a Star Trek fan. Little is known about Vinnie's home life other than that his parents argue a lot and take turns beating him when in a mutual rage, his mother's name is Margie, he shares a bed with his brother. The episode "Don't Come Up And See Me
The Jazz Singer
The Jazz Singer is a 1927 American musical drama film directed by Alan Crosland. It is the first feature-length motion picture with not only a synchronized recorded music score but lip-synchronous singing and speech in several isolated sequences, its release ended the silent film era. It was produced by Warner Bros. with its Vitaphone sound-on-disc system. The film features six songs performed by Al Jolson, it is based on the play of the same name by Samson Raphaelson which itself was adapted from one of his short stories titled "The Day of Atonement". The film depicts the fictional story of Jakie Rabinowitz, a young man who defies the traditions of his devout Jewish family. After singing popular tunes in a beer garden he is punished by his father, a hazzan, prompting Jakie to run away from home; some years now calling himself Jack Robin, he has become a talented jazz singer. He attempts to build a career as an entertainer but his professional ambitions come into conflict with the demands of his home and heritage.
Darryl F. Zanuck won an Honorary Academy Award for producing the film. In 1996, The Jazz Singer was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of "culturally or aesthetically significant" motion pictures. In 1998, the film was chosen in voting conducted by the American Film Institute as one of the best American films of all time, ranking at number ninety. Cantor Rabinowitz wants his son to carry on the generations-old family tradition and become a cantor at the synagogue in the Jewish ghetto of Manhattan's Lower East Side, but down at the beer garden, thirteen-year-old Jakie Rabinowitz is performing so-called jazz tunes. Moisha Yudelson tells Jakie's father, who drags him home. Jakie clings to his mother, Sara, as his father declares, "I'll teach him better than to debase the voice God gave him!" Jakie threatens: "If you whip me again, I'll run away—and never come back!" After the whipping, Jakie kisses his mother goodbye and, runs away. At the Yom Kippur service, Rabinowitz mournfully tells a fellow celebrant, "My son was to stand at my side and sing tonight—but now I have no son."
As the sacred Kol Nidre is sung, Jakie sneaks back home to retrieve a picture of his loving mother. About 10 years Jakie has changed his name to the more assimilated Jack Robin. Jack is called up from his table at a cabaret to perform on stage. Jack wows the crowd with his energized rendition. Afterward, he is introduced to the beautiful a musical theater dancer. "There are lots of jazz singers, but you have a tear in your voice," she says, offering to help with his budding career. With her help, Jack gets his big break: a leading part in the new musical April Follies. Back at the family home Jack left long ago, the elder Rabinowitz instructs a young student in the traditional cantorial art. Jack appears and tries to explain his point of view, his love of modern music, but the appalled cantor banishes him: "I never want to see you again—you jazz singer!" As he leaves, Jack makes a prediction: "I came home with a heart full of love, but you don't want to understand. Some day you'll understand, the same as Mama does."
Two weeks after Jack's expulsion from the family home and 24 hours before opening night of April Follies on Broadway, Jack's father falls gravely ill. Jack is asked to choose between the show and duty to his family and faith: in order to sing the Kol Nidre for Yom Kippur in his father's place, he will have to miss the big premiere; that evening, the eve of Yom Kippur, Yudleson tells the Jewish elders, "For the first time, we have no Cantor on the Day of Atonement." Lying in his bed and gaunt, Cantor Rabinowitz tells Sara that he cannot perform on the most sacred of holy days: "My son came to me in my dreams—he sang Kol Nidre so beautifully. If he would only sing like that tonight—surely he would be forgiven." As Jack prepares for a dress rehearsal by applying blackface makeup, he and Mary discuss his career aspirations and the family pressures they agree he must resist. Sara and Yudleson come to Jack's dressing room to plea for him to come to his father and sing in his stead. Jack is torn, he delivers his blackface performance, Sara sees her son onstage for the first time.
She has a tearful revelation: "Here he belongs. If God wanted him in His house, He would have kept him there. He's not my boy anymore—he belongs to the whole world now." Afterward, Jack returns to the Rabinowitz home. He kneels at his father's bedside and the two converse fondly: "My son—I love you." Sara suggests. Mary arrives with the producer, who warns Jack that he'll never work on Broadway again if he fails to appear on opening night. Jack can't decide. Mary challenges him: "Were you lying when you said your career came before everything?" Jack is unsure if he can replace his father: "I haven't sung Kol Nidre since I was a little boy." His mother tells him, "Do what is in your heart, Jakie—if you sing and God is not in your voice—your father will know." The producer cajoles Jack: "You're a jazz singer at heart!" At the theater, the opening night audience is told. Jack sings the Kol Nidre in his father's place, his father listens from his deathbed to the nearby ceremony and speaks his last, forgiving words: "Mama, we have our son again."
The spirit of Jack's father is shown at his side in the synagogue. Mary has come to listen, she sees how Jack has reconciled the division in his soul: "a jazz singer—singing to his God." "The season passes—and time heals—the show goes on." Jack, a
Vitagraph Studios
Vitagraph Studios known as the Vitagraph Company of America, was a United States motion picture studio. It was founded by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith in 1897 in Brooklyn, New York, as the American Vitagraph Company. By 1907 it was the most prolific American film production company, producing many famous silent films, it was bought by Warner Bros. in 1925. In 1896, English émigré Blackton was moonlighting as a reporter/artist for the New York Evening World when he was sent to interview Thomas Edison about his new film projector; the inventor talked the entrepreneurial reporter into buying a set of a projector. A year Blackton and business partner Smith founded the American Vitagraph Company in direct competition with Edison. A third partner, distributor William "Pop" Rock, joined in 1899; the company's first studio was located on the rooftop of a building on Nassau Street in Manhattan. Operations were moved to the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York; the company's first claim to fame came from newsreels: Vitagraph cameramen were on the scene to film events from the Spanish–American War of 1898.
These shorts were among the first works of motion-picture propaganda, a few had that most characteristic fault of propaganda, studio re-enactments being passed off as footage of actual events. In 1897 Vitagraph produced The Humpty Dumpty Circus, the first film to use the stop-motion technique. Vitagraph was not the only company seeking to make money from Edison's motion picture inventions, Edison's lawyers were busy in the 1890s and 1900s filing patents and suing competitors for patent infringement. Blackton did his best to avoid lawsuits by buying a special license from Edison in 1907 and by agreeing to sell many of his most popular films to Edison for distribution; the American Vitagraph Company made many contributions to the history of movie-making. In 1903 the director Joseph Delmont started his career by producing westerns. In 1909 it was one of the original ten production companies included in Edison's attempt to corner movie-making in America, the Motion Picture Patents Company. Due to its extensive European distribution interests, Vitagraph participated in the Paris Film Congress in February 1909.
This was a failed attempt by European producers to form a cartel similar to the MPPC. Major stars included Florence Turner, Maurice Costello, Harry T. Morey and such future stars as Helen Hayes, Viola Dana, Dolores Costello, Norma Talmadge, Constance Talmadge, Moe Howard. Larry Trimble was a noted director of films for Jean; the first film adaptation of the novel Les Misérables, a short silent historical drama starring Maurice Costello as Jean Valjean and William V. Ranous as Javert, is distributed by the Vitagraph Company of America; the film consists of four reels, each released over the course of three months beginning on 4 September to 27 November 1909. John Bunny made films for Vitagraph in the 1910s, most of them co-starring Flora Finch, was the most popular film comedian in the world in the years before Chaplin, his death in 1915 was observed worldwide. In 1910 a number of movie houses showed the five parts of the Vitagraph serial The Life of Moses consecutively, making it one of many to claim the title of "the first feature film."
A long series of Shakespeare adaptations were the first done of the Bard's works in the U. S. In 1911, Vitagraph produced the first aviation film, The Military Air-Scout, directed by William J. Humphrey, with future General of the Air Force Hap Arnold as the stunt flier; the 1915 feature The Battle Cry of Peace was one of the great propaganda films of World War I. After America declared war, the film was modified for re-release because it was seen as not being sufficiently pro-war, thus it earns a place in the history of censorship. World War I spelled the beginning of the end for Vitagraph. With the loss of foreign distributors and the rise of the monopolistic Studio system, Vitagraph was but being squeezed out of the business. On January 28, 1925, it left the Motion Picture Distributors of America. In 1915, Chicago distributor George Kleine orchestrated a four-way film distribution partnership, V-L-S-E, for the Vitagraph, Lubin and Essanay companies, Albert Smith served as president. In 1916, Benjamin Hampton had proposed a merger of the distribution companies Paramount Pictures and V-L-S-E with Famous Players and Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company, but was foiled by Adolph Zukor.
V-L-S-E was dissolved on August 17, 1916, when Vitagraph purchased a controlling interest in Lubin and Essanay. On 20 April 1925, Smith gave up and sold the company to Warner Bros. for a comfortable profit. The Flatbush studio was used as an independent unit within Warner Bros. specializing in early sound shorts. Among those performers who made early film appearances in Vitaphone shorts filmed at the Flatbush studios include Al Jolson, Humphrey Bogart, Jimmy Stewart, Bob Hope, Adelaide Hall, Spen
Fran Tarkenton
Francis Asbury Tarkenton is a former National Football League quarterback, television personality, computer software executive. He spent the majority of his career with the Minnesota Vikings. Tarkenton's tenure with the Vikings spanned thirteen non-consecutive seasons, playing with the team for six seasons from 1961 to 1966 for seven seasons from 1972 to 1978. In between his years in Minnesota, Tarkenton was a member of the New York Giants for five seasons. At the time of his retirement, Tarkenton owned every major quarterback record, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1986 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1987. In addition to his football career, Tarkenton served as a commentator on Monday Night Football and a co-host of That's Incredible!. He founded Tarkenton Software, a computer-program generator company, he toured the U. S. promoting CASE with Albert F. Case Jr. of Nastec Corporation. Tarkenton Software merged with KnowledgeWare, until selling the company to Sterling Software in 1994.
Fran Tarkenton was born on February 1940, in Richmond, Virginia. His father, Dallas Tarkenton, was a Methodist minister. Tarkenton went to Athens High School in Athens and attended the University of Georgia, where he was the quarterback on the Bulldog football team and a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. Under Coach Wally Butts and with Tarkenton as quarterback, Georgia won the 1959 Southeastern Conference championship. Tarkenton was a first-team All-SEC selection in both 1959 and 1960; the Minnesota Vikings drafted Tarkenton in the third round of the 1961 NFL Draft, he was picked in the fifth round of the 1961 AFL draft by the Boston Patriots. He signed with the Vikings. Tarkenton, 21, played his first National Football League game on September 17 against the Chicago Bears coming off the bench to lead the Vikings to a come-from-behind victory by passing for 250 yards and four touchdown passes and running for another as the Vikings defeated the Bears 37–13, he was the only player in NFL history to pass for four touchdowns in his first NFL game, until the feat was repeated by Marcus Mariota in the Tennessee Titans' 2015 season opener versus the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
He played for the Vikings from 1961 to 1966. His early years with the team were plagued by the trouble expected for a newly created team, with the Vikings winning a total of 10 games combined in their first three seasons, with Tarkenton winning eight of them, he threw 17 interceptions for 1,997 yards in his first season. He rushed; the following year, he threw 25 interceptions for 2,595 yards. He rushed. Tarkenton was traded to the New York Giants in 1967, at which time he moved to the New York City suburb of New Rochelle, New York. In the first game of the 1969 season, Tarkenton's Giants played the Vikings. After trailing 23–10 in the fourth quarter, Tarkenton threw two touchdown passes to secure a 24–23 comeback victory over his former team; the 24 points allowed by Minnesota's defense were a season-worst for the unit, one more point than the Vikings allowed in losing Super Bowl IV to the Kansas City Chiefs. Tarkenton enjoyed his best season with the Giants in 1970; the club overcame an 0-3 start to win nine of 10 and move into position to win the NFC East division championship in week 14.
However, New York was routed 31-3 by the Los Angeles Rams at Yankee Stadium, leaving the Giants 9-5, one game behind the division champion Dallas Cowboys and the wild card Detroit Lions. 1970 was the closest the Giants came to making the playoffs during a 17-year drought, spanning the 1964 through 1980 seasons. Tarkenton was traded back to Minnesota in 1972, for three players, plus a first and second round draft choice, he led the Vikings to three National Football Conference championships, but in each instance the Vikings lost the ensuing Super Bowl. In Tarkenton's first Super Bowl appearance his team lost to the Miami Dolphins 24–7 in Houston, it lost the second to the Pittsburgh Steelers 16–6 in New Orleans, in the last Super Bowl Tarkenton played, the Vikings lost to the Oakland Raiders 32–14 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. In his 18 NFL seasons, Tarkenton completed 3,686 of 6,467 passes for 47,003 yards and 342 touchdowns, with 266 interceptions, all of which were NFL records at the time of his retirement.
Tarkenton's 47,003 career passing yards rank him 8th all time, while his 342 career passing touchdowns is 6th all time in NFL history. He is 6th on the all-time list of wins by a starting quarterback with 124 regular season victories, he used his impressive scrambling ability to rack up 3,674 rushing yards and 32 touchdowns on 675 carries. During his career, Tarkenton ran for a touchdown in 15 different seasons, an NFL record among quarterbacks, he ranks fifth in career rushing yards among quarterbacks, behind Randall Cunningham, Steve Young, Michael Vick and Cam Newton. He is one of four NFL quarterbacks to rush for at least 300 yards in seven different seasons; when he retired, Tarkenton held NFL career records in pass attempts, completions and touchdowns. The Vikings finished the 1975 season with an NFC-best 12–2 record and Tarkenton won the NFL Most Valuable Player Award and the NFL Offensive Player of the Year Award while capturing All-Pro honors in the process, he was a second-team All-Pro in 1973 and earned All-NF
1984 Summer Olympics
The 1984 Summer Olympics known as the Games of the XXIII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event, held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, United States. This was the second time that Los Angeles had hosted the Games, the first being in 1932. California was the home state of the incumbent U. S. President Ronald Reagan, who opened the Games; the logo for the 1984 Games, branded "Stars in Motion", featured red and blue stars arranged horizontally and struck through with alternating streaks. The official mascot of the Games was Sam the Olympic Eagle; these were the first Summer Olympic Games under the IOC presidency of Juan Antonio Samaranch. The 1984 Games were boycotted by a total of fourteen Eastern Bloc countries, including the Soviet Union and East Germany, in response to the American-led boycott of the previous 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Iran and Libya chose to boycott the Games for unrelated reasons. Despite the field being depleted in certain sports due to the boycott, 140 National Olympic Committees took part, a record at the time.
The 1984 Summer Olympics are considered to be the most financially successful modern Olympics and serve as an example of how to run the model Olympic Games. As a result of low construction costs, coupled with a reliance on private corporate funding, the 1984 Olympic Games generated a profit of more than $250 million. On July 18, 2009, a 25th anniversary celebration was held in the main Olympic Stadium; the celebration included a speech by the former president of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, Peter Ueberroth, a re-creation of the lighting of the cauldron. Los Angeles will host the Summer Olympics for the third time in 2028. After the murder of Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists in Munich and the significant financial debts of Montreal, few cities by the late 1970s were willing to bid for the Summer Olympics. Only two cities made serious bids for the 1984 Summer Games, but before the final selection of a "winning" city in 1978, the bid from Tehran was withdrawn as a result of Iran's policy changes following the Iranian Revolution and a change in the country's ruling system.
Hence, the selection process for the 1984 Summer Olympics consisted of a single finalized bid from Los Angeles, which the International Olympic Committee accepted. The selection was made at the 80th IOC Session in Athens on 18 May 1978. Los Angeles had unsuccessfully bid for the two previous Summer Olympics, for 1976 and 1980; the United States Olympic Committee had submitted at least one bid for every Olympics since 1944, but had not succeeded since the Los Angeles Olympics in 1932, the previous time only a single bid had been issued for the Summer Olympics. The 1984 Olympic Torch Relay began in New York City and ended in Los Angeles, traversing 33 states and the District of Columbia. Unlike torch relays, the torch was continuously carried by runners on foot; the route involved 3,636 runners. Noted athlete O. J. Simpson was among the runners. Gina Hemphill, granddaughter of Jesse Owens, carried the torch into the Coliseum, completed a lap around the track handed it off to the final runner, Rafer Johnson, winner of the decathlon at the 1960 Summer Olympics.
With the torch, he touched off the flame which passed through a specially designed flammable Olympic logo, igniting all five rings. The flame passed up to cauldron atop the peristyle and remained aflame for the duration of the Games. John Williams composed the theme for the Olympiad, "Olympic Fanfare and Theme"; this piece won a Grammy for Williams and became one of the most well-known musical themes of the Olympic Games, along with Leo Arnaud's "Bugler's Dream". Composer Bill Conti wrote a song to inspire the weightlifters called "Power". An album, The Official Music of the XXIII Olympiad—Los Angeles 1984, featured three of those tracks along with sports themes written for the occasion by popular musical artists including Foreigner, Loverboy, Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones, Christopher Cross, Philip Glass and Giorgio Moroder; the Brazilian composer Sérgio Mendes produced a special song for the 1984 Olympic Games, "Olympia," from his 1984 album Confetti. A choir of one thousand voices was assembled of singers in the region.
All were volunteers from nearby churches and universities. Etta James performed ``. Vicki McClure along with the International Children's Choir of Long Beach sang "Reach Out and Touch". Lionel Richie performed a 9-minute version of his hit single "All Night Long" at the closing ceremonies; the 1984 Summer Olympics was preceded by the 10-week-long adjunct Los Angeles Olympic Arts Festival, which opened on June 2 and ended on August 12. It provided more than 400 performances by 146 theater and music companies, representing every continent and 18 countries, it was organized by then-CalArts President Robert Fitzpatrick. The opening ceremony featured the arrival of Bill Suitor by means of the Bell Aerosystems rocket pack; the United States Army Band formed the Olympic rings to start the opening ceremony. The United States topped the medal count for the first time since 1968, winning a record 83 gold medals and surpassing the Soviet Union’s total of 80 golds at the 1980 Summer Olympics; as a result of an IOC agreement designating the Republic of China in the name of Chinese Taipei, the Peo
