In My Footsteps: A Gen-X Nostalgia Podcast

Episode 137: Blink & You'll Miss It Retro; Bomb Threat! Plan, Don't Panic; Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Robbery; Best Long Songs(3-20-2024)

• Christopher Setterlund • Season 1 • Episode 137

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Products that were here and gone in a flash. A serious 70s educational short film with some underlying humor. One of the most infamous unsolved crimes of the 20th century. Some of the best long songs.
Episode 137 has nostalgia in bloom as the calendar turns to spring.
It begins with a look at some products that were here and gone so fast that they barely had time to leave a mark. In the initial Blink and You'll Miss It segment we look at six food-related products that came in with a bang and left in a flash, or just left in a flash. Do you remember any of these?
Bomb threats are serious and can be dangerous and life-threatening. This week we go way Back In the Day and review an educational short film from 1971 titled Bomb Threat! Plan, Don't Panic. It dials the seriousness up to 11 while also somehow mixing in dated looks and humor, albeit unintentionally.
The Top 5 this week looks at some of the best long songs. These all clock in at over six minutes in length. Are any of these on your Spotify playlists?
There will also be a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule centered around one of the most infamous crimes of the 20th century, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum robbery in Boston.
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Speaker 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 137. Spring has arrived. Soon everything will be in bloom. Now I'm going to help add to the warm and fuzzy feeling that spring brings with a lot of nostalgia for you. We're going to start with a brand new segment on the podcast called Blink and You'll Miss It Retro. I'll explain more about what it is and dive into it in a moment. We're going to go way, way back in the day and review a personal favorite educational short film of mine called bomb threat plan don't panic i'm definitely going to be excited to review this for you there's going to be a brand new top five that are the top five long songs these are songs that are more than six minutes in length perfect for slow dances at high schools And there'll be a brand new This Week in History and Time Capsule looking back at the infamous Isabella Stewart Gardner museum robbery in Boston. All of that and more is coming up right now on episode 137 of the In My Footsteps podcast. Happy spring. We made it through the winter. Depending on where you are, the first day of spring was either March 19th or the 20th, which is the day that this podcast goes live. Spring always gives that feeling of rebirth, renew, rejuvenation, any other words you can think of. I will admit that winter wasn't that bad on Cape Cod. New England, we got some snow. Cape Cod, we had one storm. Part of me was kind of like, oh, we haven't earned getting back to spring because winter wasn't tough enough. But another much bigger part of me was like, who cares? I didn't want a lot of snow. And besides that, especially on Cape Cod, spring, specifically the end of March through most of April, is just like an extension of winter where it's like 10 degrees warmer. So you get mid 40s, but it's drizzly and cloudy and foggy most of the time. So it's not like it's some big, huge reveal getting to spring, but it's still a happy feeling. A big thank you to all of my Patreon subscribers, Leo, Laurie, Mary Lou, and Ashley. A heads up for everyone who's a subscriber, the bonus episodes of the podcast that I do for members only are now starting in April going to be just on Patreon. The memberships on Buzzsprout have not materialized really at all. And the other thing is, Creating these bonus episodes eats into the minutes that I'm allotted on Buzzsprout. So I end up losing money basically creating these. So the bonus episodes will still be a thing. They'll just be on Patreon. The Buzzsprout ones are just gonna stop after this one in March. A heads up for anyone on Cape Cod or in the surrounding areas. In about a month, April the 20th, At 11 a.m. at the Dennis Public Library, I'll be doing an event speaking about my searching for the Lady of the Dunes book and the Lady of the Dunes case. So for any of you that are interested in the case that have never come to one of my talks about the book, about the case, about Frank Duran's documentary, come on out on Saturday, April 20th, 11 a.m. It'll definitely be a fun time. Also looking way further in the future, Tuesday, August 6th at 10 a.m., I'll be doing a presentation, Cape Cod's History in Music at the Payamette Performing Arts Center in Truro. That's going to be a real big one and I can't wait for that. It's going to be a totally new presentation that really doesn't have to do with any of my books. I guess Cape Cod Nights will be kind of loosely tied to it. And granted, that is five months, almost five months from when this podcast goes live. But I just wanted to kind of put the bug in your ear if you're going to be on the Cape during the dog days of summer to come and hear me wax nostalgic about music, music venues on Cape Cod, famous Cape Cod bands, events. Right now, though, let's jump into the actual podcast with a brand new segment, one that I've been wanting to do for a while. I just needed enough material for it. And that is the Blink and You'll Miss It retro segment starting right now. I mentioned it briefly at the end of last week's podcast, kind of what I was thinking of with this Blink and You'll Miss It retro segment. One thing that I like to do is go down rabbit holes, typically in researching either things for the podcast or things for articles or videos, etc., You also obviously know I'm a huge fan of nostalgia. And there are a few good YouTube channels that specialize in retro commercials from all the way back. 50s all the way up to, well, I guess retro would be in the early 2000s now. One thing I would do when watching these compilations of old commercials was if something popped up that I didn't remember or had never heard of, I'd pause the video and then go research whatever the product was to see kind of what its story was. And this was months ago, probably in the early fall of last year, that I got the idea that maybe I should make a list of these products, these things that I couldn't remember from these commercials, and then start to make a segment on the podcast about them. Things that were here and gone so fast that it was basically blink and you'll miss it. And it took a while to get enough material to actually do a segment that would be worthwhile. So how this is going to go here and how it'll go in the future, because this will be recurring every now and then I'll do another segment. It's going to be a six pack, six pack of products, topics, TV shows. It'll all be similar grouped together. And I'll kind of give you as much of what I know about them. Because I didn't want it to be just another countdown. Because I already do a top five. So that's where the six pack came from. So this will be the very first blink and you'll miss it retro six pack. These are all food related. And I'd love to know if any of you out there have ever heard of any of these. Ever had these products. Or if you're as in the dark as I was. The first subject in this six-pack is actually slightly a bit of a cheat. It is food-related, but it's more food mascot-related. Back in episode 126, I did a segment on obscure product mascots. Ones that weren't out or weren't associated with their products very long. They were basically fails. So this one here, number one, is Mr. O from the SpaghettiOs brand. And Mr. O was in that segment. That's where the tie-in comes from. I grew up in the 1980s and I had no memory of Mr. O. Like I said in the obscure product mascot segment, this thing honestly looks like it's a puppet. And it honestly looks like a sperm with a red ring around its head. It is this weirdest, trippy, fever dream looking character. The best of my research, what I found was Mr. O was around in the mid-1980s. There are several commercials on YouTube you can find. And this character just raves about the SpaghettiOs and how great they are. In commercials, there's a chef named Grimando, this weird green puppet that looks like it should have been on The Muppet Show. And in other commercials, Mr. O is getting abducted by Mr. Bad Lunch, who's the evil villain of the SpaghettiOs world.

Speaker 03:

Oh, no! It's Mr. Bad Lunch!

Speaker 00:

Lunchtime

Speaker 02:

fun is mine! I've got Mr. O and great-tasting SpaghettiOs, too! It's Mr. Bad

Speaker 03:

Lunch!

Speaker 00:

I haven't got a clue of where they came up with the idea for needing a mascot, a weird-looking puppet, to sell SpaghettiOs to kids. I never needed that. That wouldn't have made me want to eat it more. It was just good SpaghettiOs and meatballs. It's still great. But Mr. O did not last long. No more than a couple of years. All the commercials I found seemed to be 1984 through 86. So if you weren't around back then, you likely would have missed the time that Mr. O was on your TV screens. The second product to talk about is something called Grizzly Chomps Cupcakes.

Speaker 02:

These

Speaker 00:

seem to have come out in the early 1990s and did not last long. The big selling point, I guess, is the fact that these cupcakes came with a bite out of them, where their bear mascot is saying, I'll start them, you finish them. So you're getting a cupcake that's already partially eaten. Another big catch was that they were 97% fat-free, which would have been definitely a novel idea for children's snacks from the early 1990s. Reading a couple of articles that came out at the time about these grizzly chomps, one of the complaints was that the price was the same as many other snack cakes and such from the time, even though these had a bite taken out of them. Like you should have deducted 20% on the cost because you're losing 20% of the cupcake. It's also said that these did not taste good. There are commercials you can find on YouTube for these as well with the bear and the Hawaiian shirt. but essentially these only lasted maybe two years. I can't find anything about them after 1992. Fat-free cupcakes with a bite out of them? Yeah, why wouldn't kids want that? Third here is something called Top Shelf Entrees, and they were made by the Hormel Company.

Speaker 05:

Now there's Top Shelf from Hormel. Top Shelf microwaves in two minutes, but tastes like you might have made it from scratch. And since it requires no refrigeration... You can pack it in a briefcase and lunch, as they say, is in the bag.

Speaker 00:

These came out in the late 1980s, 88, 89. And they, again, only lasted a couple of years. They barely made it into the early 1990s. The big marketing catch with these is that they were unfrozen entrees rather than the frozen lean cuisines and such. These were not frozen. There were tons of different varieties. Roast beef, fish, lasagna. These were meant to be able to be kept fresh because they were vacuum sealed for up to 18 months. And they were supposedly, you could microwave them in two minutes and have one of these 10 different entrees. It all sounds interesting, like it could have been successful, but as far as I could see, these lasted barely two, three years. I think people just feared having these unfrozen meals. Because knowing something's frozen, you feel safer about heating it back up. But top shelf did not last. And next, number four, is something called Undercover Bears Oatmeal.

Speaker 03:

Again,

Speaker 00:

there's commercials for this. I mean, obviously, that's how I found all these products. Undercover Bears is instant oatmeal from the early 1990s is when this came out, and it's all the usual flavors, plain, brown sugar. The big secret with this is that the Undercover Bears were gummy bears inside the oatmeal. So you open the packets, pour them in, put in your hot water or microwave it or whatever, and when you stir it, there's gummy bears in it. I don't know, gummy bears and oatmeal that just doesn't seem like something that would mix. The commercials have some detective bear in the brown button-down coat, and it's supposed to be all exciting about finding these gummy bears inside your oatmeal. For all that excitement about how it's supposed to be something great for kids, this only lasted maybe two years. And again, I can only speak for myself, but I never put any sort of odd candies in my oatmeal. Tons of sugar, yes, but gummy bears, no. Interestingly, speaking of gummy candies, number five in our six-pack here is something called Fruit Rocks from Sunkist.

Speaker 05:

These

Speaker 00:

were supposed to be the fruit snack of the future. There were comets and meteorites. There were different fruit flavors. There was cinnamon flavored. I couldn't nail down when these things actually came out. I've seen anywhere from 1988 to 1990 that they debuted, but they were gone by 1991. I was looking at different posts online. I saw some Reddit posts about this, because you can find anything on Reddit. So I found Fruit Rocks. Some people said the closest thing you could compare them to was Shark Bites. So if you're familiar with Shark Bites, that's kind of what Fruit Rocks, I guess, were. But like with all of these, I never heard of them, never had them. And we'll finish up the first Blink and You'll Miss It retro six-pack with something called Replay Gum.

Speaker 04:

Fantastic.

Speaker 00:

This gum is unbelievable.

Speaker 04:

Replay.

Unknown:

Replay. Replay.

Speaker 04:

What

Speaker 00:

I could gather about Replay Gum was that it was created by the Lifesavers Candy Company and came out in the early 1980s, 1981. The commercial I saw had this kind of funky music to it with the slogan, I demand a replay. And the gum was squares, cubes. It sold for 15 cents for a pack. You got five cubes of this gum and all the usual flavors. Spearmint, bubble. You can actually find packs of this gum on eBay, sealed. I just looked at one from 1981. $85 for a pack of replay gum. All I know is this gum did not last very long. The only commercials I saw were basically 1981. So I would figure 81, 82, it was probably gone. Unless some of you out there had it. Did it last longer? Did you have replay gum? But there, we finished our first six-pack. Have you heard of any of those things that I just mentioned in this Blink and You'll Miss It segment? Like I said, if you're really interested, there are commercials for all of these online. I mean, I put little clips in there, but I don't think if you've never heard of it, it's not going to help you remember. And this will be a recurring segment every now and then. It'll be a similar topic. I have found a lot of children's toys, a lot of TV shows. It just goes to show you, as much as I love nostalgia, there were some things that came in with a bang and faded away quick, or just faded away quick. This week in history, we are going back 34 years ago this week to March 18th, 1990, and the infamous Isabella Stewart Gardner museum robbery in Boston. This is one of the most infamous unsolved crimes of the 20th century, and also one of those that doesn't involve any gruesome murders. This was an art theft, and I don't know much about art theft, but I know that when it comes to this type of theft, there are few incidents that are as notorious and baffling as this robbery. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is located at 25 Evans Way in Boston, and the museum itself is not a collection of art, but it's a cultural icon that housed priceless works spanning centuries. The basic facts of this case, if you're not familiar, is that the robbery was orchestrated by two individuals that were disguised as police officers. And it happened in the dead of night. The imposters gained entry to the museum by convincing the security guard that was on duty that they were there to respond to a disturbance call. And then once they were inside, they restrained the guard and then they started to take all of the art. These two thieves made off with 13 pieces of art worth an estimated $500 million, or about $1.17 billion when adjusted for inflation to 2024. That is some haul. Among those pieces of art that were stolen were works by Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Degas, with the most notable loss being Rembrandt's The Storm on the Sea of Galilee. There was an exhaustive investigation and an international scrutiny, and the perpetrators of the heist remained at large, and the stolen artwork remained unaccounted for. The FBI, along with local law enforcement agencies and agencies worldwide, pursued countless leads and suspects over the years, but this case has yielded few substantial breakthroughs. Fingers pointed at the Gardner Museum security measures with the reports that the museum security system was outdated and inadequate, and that these thieves exploited these vulnerabilities. It did lead to significant upgrades in security protocols and procedures at all cultural institutions worldwide. Because you never knew when another sort of brazen thievery at another art gallery or some other important place might happen. Without many concrete leads, there were a lot of rumors and speculation that came out with theories suggesting that there was the involvement of organized crime syndicates or international art thieves. Others speculated that the stolen artwork was smuggled abroad and sold on the black market. There were even whispers of a supposed curse associated with the stolen art, bringing misfortune to anyone who would buy it or seek to profit from it. Despite the rumors, despite theories, the stolen artwork has remained shrouded in mystery. Every now and then you'll get a tantalizing lead that might be something, but it fizzles out. There is still a $10 million reward offered by the museum for any information leading to the return of the artwork. It's the largest reward ever offered by a private institution. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum robbery left an indelible mark on the world of art crime. It's a stark reminder of the vulnerability of such cultural institutions to the determined thieves that might want this priceless art. And these stolen pieces that are priceless and irreplaceable, they're continued to be sorely missed. And if you go to the museum, where these pieces of art were, the empty frames are still there. So it's still right in your face. But one of the most infamous art crimes ever, one of the most infamous unsolved cases of the 20th century, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum robbery in Boston. took place 34 years ago this week in history. Now it's time for a brand new time capsule. We're going to go back 54 years ago this week to March 21st, 1970. Let's see what was going on in the world of pop culture back then. The number one song was Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel. This was the second single off of the album Bridge Over Troubled Water. It is widely considered to be Simon and Garfunkel's greatest song. It was number one for six weeks. Not long after this, Simon and Garfunkel would split, with Paul Simon then saying afterwards that he regretted letting Art Garfunkel sing Bridge Over Troubled Water by himself. The number one movie was The Boys in the Band, and you could get into the theater with a ticket costing $1.65. This movie is based on an off-Broadway play by Mark Crowley about a birthday in New York in 1968, where an old friend shows up at this party, and the old friend ends up being the only straight man at a party full of gay men. It's a drama film having to deal with concealing one's sexuality, one's true identity. It was a failure at the box office, despite being number one this week. But it does have a 90% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so there is that. The number one TV show was Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree. This is an animated short film based on the first two chapters of the A.A. Milne book Winnie the Pooh. It showcases many of those beloved characters from the books. Christopher Robin, Rabbit, Owl, Eeyore, Kanga, and Roo. And interestingly, this was the last short film produced by Walt Disney before he passed away in 1966. And if you were around back then, May 21st, 1970, maybe it's getting warm and you're looking for some meat for a cookout. Well, you're in luck. There are several different meat bundles you can get during the beef sale dollar days at the Midwest Beef Company. Three different bundles for $20.60. The Rib and Chuck Bundle, Loin and Rib Bundle, or Loin and Round Bundle. There are four locations of Midwest Beef Company, which looks like it's a slaughterhouse. It says you have to make an appointment to go there and all beef is cut at your appointment. That sure sounds like a slaughterhouse. I couldn't find much information about this place except from around this time in the early 70s. So if anyone knows or has heard of the Midwest Beef Company, despite it being located around Boston, let me know. And that'll wrap up another This Week in History, another Time Capsule. Now sit back and relax. Get a playlist ready. Get your headphones ready. As we look at the top five long songs, these songs are all at least six minutes in length. So let's dive into those starting now. This was a top five that, again, it was something that was really hard to narrow down. When I research these topics, I have kind of a method to my madness. There are some subjects that I struggle to find honorable mentions, and there are other subjects where, like this one, where I have too many. These are the top five long songs. And I define long songs as one that's over six minutes in length. They're more of a rarity, I think, these days. But it would be considered a song that would need a radio edit where you'd have to slash off a few minutes to get it to fit into the format of a normal radio station. I have 11 songs listed here, and I believe the total running time of them, if you play them all back-to-back, is close to an hour and a half. I appreciate the effort that needs to go into creating a song that's this long with so much in the way of music and lyrics. I wanted to be a singer-songwriter in the late 90s into the early 2000s. Of course, I found out that I didn't have the musical skill or the patience to actually hone that craft. Knowing how hard it was to just come up with lyrics just in general, let alone good lyrics and a good song and a long song, makes me appreciate these. But enough of my reasoning why I did this segment. Let's get into the honorable mentions. So honorable mentions for best long songs include One by Metallica, which is from 1988, off of their And Justice For All album, with one of the scariest music videos ever. Beginnings by Chicago, which is off of their 1969 album The Chicago Transit Authority. Us and Them by Pink Floyd, which is off of the 1973 album Dark Side of the Moon. Deacon Blues by Steely Dan, which is off of their 1977 album Asia. L.A. Woman by The Doors. which is off of their 1971 album, L.A. Woman. And finally on the honorable mentions is Tiny Dancer by Elton John, which is off of his 1971 album, Madman Across the Water. You can't go wrong with any of those songs. Granted, some of them have different feelings than others, but all great music, which sets a pretty high bar for the actual top five. Let's start that off with number one, Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin. Stairway to Heaven is an iconic song, one of the most famous songs ever. It clocks in at eight minutes even, and it's off of their 1971 album Led Zeppelin IV. This was a staple of high school dances, even into my high school years. This was how we would close out the dances with Stairway. It's got that iconic guitar that starts off, the song starts slow, and there's a lot of imagery in the lyrics in it, including a lot of references to the Lord of the Rings books, which was something I didn't know growing up when I first heard the song, and it made me appreciate it more as I got older, knowing that connection to movies that I liked. And then the song gets faster and hard-rocking at the end, which makes it kind of awkward for slow dance songs. Stairway to Heaven is one of those songs that, even if you think you don't know it, you do know it. I don't know how else to explain it. Number two is November Rain by Guns N' Roses. Clocking in at 8 minutes and 58 seconds, this is a personal favorite of mine. It is from their 1991 album Use Your Illusion 1. It's very heavy, piano-driven music. A song about a relationship ending, so it's kind of sad. The video is very famous. Gen Xers all know about the Guns N' Roses November Rain video. My favorite part was always Slash leaving the church and going out and playing this heavy guitar riff in the desert. It's interesting because it's got a slow beginning and it builds to this big crescendo at the end, kind of similar to Stairway to Heaven. An interesting fact about November Rain... was that when it peaked at number three on the Hot 100 on Billboard, at the time it was the longest song ever to get that high on the charts. And the funny thing is even the radio edit of the song I think is about five and a half minutes long. So they sliced a good three minutes out of the song and it still was that long. Guns N' Roses and Led Zeppelin, to me, have a lot of similarities like that, where they have several really long songs that are just excellent. I'm sure some of you understand and agree, and others of you think it's sacrilegious that I compare Led Zeppelin to Guns N' Roses, but that's when I grew up, so I see the similarities. Number three is Layla by Eric Clapton. Well, it was Derek and the Dominoes, but it was Eric Clapton. This song was off of the 1970 album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs by the band Derek and the Dominoes. The song is famously written by Clapton about George Harrison's then-wife Patti Boyd that he had fallen in love with. This song clocks in at 7 minutes and 6 seconds and is definitely the tale of two different acts in this song. The really hard guitar riff beginning that everyone knows the guitar chords, where Clapton is just begging for this woman to reciprocate his love. And then about three minutes in, it turns into this break where then it's very piano heavy and a lot more melodic and smooth. This is a song that if you've never heard it, I mean, I would assume you have, but if you haven't heard it in a while, definitely go and listen to it to get an appreciation for that change-up of the song right in the middle. Interestingly, when Eric Clapton released the unplugged version of this song in 1992, it charted much higher on the Billboard Hot 100 than the original version of the song did, charting as high as number 12, where the original version of Layla only got to number 51. Number 4 is Purple Rain by Prince. This is one of those songs that I could hear the first note of this song and know what it is. It is ingrained in my brain from childhood. It is off of the 1984 album Purple Rain, which was the soundtrack to the Purple Rain movie. This song clocks in at 8 minutes and 41 seconds and is another sad love song, a relationship ending. The song got as high as number two on the Billboard Hot 100. and is another song that is considered one of the best songs ever written. Prince had tons of songs like that, especially in the 1980s. A fun fact that I like to share is that the Purple Rain title, the Purple Rain phrase, actually stems from the song Ventura Highway from the band America. When asked about what Purple Rain means, the lead vocalist of America, Jerry Beckley, said he had no idea. No idea what Purple Rain meant, but it became a very famous song by Prince, too. And finally, number five on the list of top five long songs is Hey Jude by The Beatles. This is another one of the most famous songs ever, although The Beatles have dozens of those. It clocks in at 7 minutes and 4 seconds, and interestingly, was released in 1968 as a non-album single. So basically, Hey Jude wasn't part of any Beatles album until it was released as part of kind of a B-sides compilation called Hey Jude in 1970. That album was actually released in between the releases of Abbey Road and Let It Be in America. But this song is famously about Julian Lennon, John Lennon's son, dealing with the divorce of his parents. And Paul McCartney wrote a lot of the lyrics with him in mind. And it's got that famous rolling chorus that takes the final three minutes of the song, basically. This is another song on this list that if you think you don't know it, you do know it. Hey Jude is definitely a feel-good song. When you listen to it, when it's over, you just feel better. But that'll wrap up the top five. Now I'm excited to review a educational, I guess, short film that is near and dear to my heart. And of course, I'll explain why. But let's talk about Bomb Threat, Plan Don't Panic, coming up right now. Would you know what to do in the event of a bomb being in your building? Would you like to learn what you should do? And would you like to learn it with some swinging 70s music and unique 70s fashion thrown in? Well, I've got the best of all those worlds for you as I'm going to review an educational short film titled Bomb Threat Plan Don't Panic from 1971 as we go way, way down This is a film that's near and dear to my heart. It brings back a lot of fond memories for me. Some of you might remember, this is probably going back 15 years or a little more, there used to be an on-demand channel called Something Weird. It had a lot of B-movies, oddities, trailers for some of these movies. And I remember specifically on a day that I was not working, and my sister Kate was there with my two oldest nieces, Kaylee and Emma. It must have been a rainy day, and we must have been bored, so we just started scrolling around the Something Weird listings on demand. And me, of course, being a big fan of nostalgia, came across this film. Bomb Threat! With an exclamation point. Plan Don't Panic. I figured it's 14 minutes, so even if it was terrible, it's not a big waste of a day. And what it ended up being was a fun little informative slice of the times from the early 70s. And it does tackle a very serious issue, that being the bomb threat. Someone planting a bomb in an office, a school, somewhere. This film takes place in Los Angeles. I don't know if it's the quality of the film itself. It says it's in color, but it's a very muted, grainy, almost leaning on brownish type film. Naturally, I'll link to it in the description of the podcast so you can see for yourself. The film itself was directed, produced by William Brose Productions in Los Angeles, and it had the help of the LAPD and the fire department with it. The film starts off with these slow moving images of different things that could disguise bombs, like an old thermos or a suitcase, or even just a wrapped up cardboard box. One of the things that I like about it is it's got naturally creepy sound effects with it as they show these different things, so you know they're evil.

Unknown:

...

Speaker 00:

I don't know what the budget was for this movie in 1971, but I can tell you they probably blew most of the budget when they detonate the thermos. So that blows up and it leads to the title, Bomb Threat, Plan Don't Panic. Then it kicks off with kind of driving around in Los Angeles with this very, very 70s music. this b-roll footage of Los Angeles it shows a building that says Union Bank I'm not sure if that's where this is supposed to take place but it starts off with the narrator who is also I think the manager of the business where the bomb will end up being but he's narrating over the evil terrorist that's putting together the bomb and then he shows a finished bomb which looks like a little tiny clock with wires on it It says, one of these toys might be heading to you right now. Because he's saying, you may look at this film and say, oh, not me. I won't have a bomb come to me. So he's trying to make sure you're scared, but also aware. And then it gets very 70s, where he talks about it only takes one dime to ruin someone's day. Because that's what it costs at a payphone. And this guy calls the business office. And the receptionist picks up. And there's a really weird awkward close-up of his mouth talking, saying, I just put a bomb in your building and you're going to get blown up.

Speaker 05:

Then

Speaker 00:

the narrator slash manager of the building. Starts giving you tips on what to do to get information from this guy as he's on the line. You know, where he placed the bomb, when it's going to go off, and why he's doing this. And it's more close-ups of his mouth as he gets all nervous saying that he just doesn't like them, but then he hangs up and runs away from the payphone. An interesting thing about this film is that they don't have phony phone numbers. There's no 555. So when this terrorist is dialing the phone to call the office, there's a real phone number, which means they were at a real payphone. 473-5146. I looked it up. I couldn't find anything about this payphone because it's probably been gone for 20 years. But later on when they're calling the police, the real sheriff's number is there. But I guess they must figure if this is to be used to help with police training, bomb squad training, or safety in any office, they must figure whoever was watching this wasn't going to grab that phone number and then call it. After the terrorist hangs up, the receptionist then gets ready to call her manager who's in charge of whatever the plan would be if there was a bomb threat. And the narrator is the one who explains who you would get in touch with if there was a bomb threat where you work, if it's a hospital, a school, any sort of office building. And they're all candid photos of these people, except for there's one guy with these big mutton chop sideburns that's standing next to what looks to be a model of the hospital where he works, like it's a professional headshot. The manager slash narrator is finally named as George Barkley. And he gets the information from the receptionist about the bomb. And he calls in his bomb team, which is just four average people from the building.

Speaker 05:

Okay, it's supposed to be on this floor, set for two o'clock. We've got just under an hour and a quarter. We don't know what we're looking for. But remember, we're looking for something that doesn't belong where it is.

Speaker 00:

And they split up to do their searches of the first floor where the bomb is supposed to be. And Mr. Barkley, the manager, he's got a lot of blueprints and diagrams of the building, which I guess in an ideal world, if you were a manager, you would have these sorts of layouts of your building. But is that realistic? Any of you that are listening that are kind of management or safety where you work, do you have layouts like that? During this film, there'll be times that The narrator, Barkley, he's talking to people in the actual room with him, and then he'll break the fourth wall and look at the screen talking to you. Some of you will get this reference, but this guy Barkley, I don't know if that's his real name or who he is as an actor, but he looks so much like Dan Rowan, the comedian from Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, which was on around the same time. So I keep thinking it's like a Laugh-In sketch. But it's played very straight, there's no laughter in this. It's very serious, the music's always serious, these sound effects, as the guys go searching for the bomb, and Barkley tells them, whatever you see, don't touch it. Then we get various cutscenes of the men looking on the floors for the bomb, being told basically to look for things that don't belong, because these people work there, so they'll know the difference. I've been researching trying to find out who was in this short film because there's another person. He's one of the security personnel going and searching for the bombs that he looks like an actor from 1980s TV shows. So the race is on trying to find this bomb that's supposed to detonate at two o'clock. So they have in this movie less than an hour. Barkley asks you watching if your management, if you should evacuate the building. wondering if it's a hoax, saying, you'll know if it's a hoax if you hear kids laughing.

Speaker 05:

You have to judge the seriousness of the threat. For example, if it's some kid calling with other kids laughing in the background, it would be worth a search. 99 chances out of 100 to cause a hoax. They just want to see you run. But that other chance, as I said, it's a tough decision.

Speaker 00:

That's the only way it could be a hoax is if you could definitely hear kids. Nobody could play it straight and scare you and make you think there's a bomb in your building. And again, we've got these shots of them in the bowels of the building and going through the different floors with Barkley, the narrator, explaining what certain bombs will look like, where these people might hide them. And there's a great scene of this one guy walking through what looks like a cafeteria, and he looks at this purse on the ground, and then he just really creepily says, Is

Speaker 05:

that your purse?

Speaker 00:

Yeah, it's mine. I don't know, I got a kick out of that, because it sounds so creepy. Finally, the cops are called in, so there's two police officers in there, and Barkley explains that they've been trained and prepared for these types of emergencies. Almost like telling the cops, like, we don't really need you, but for this film, we should have you here. And again, he whips out his plans of the building, basically telling the cops, you know, here's what we're gonna do, I've got all my plans. You guys just sit back, and if we need you to help get rid of the bomb, we'll tell ya. So now we get towards the climax of the film. There's two people that are in what looks like kind of a boiler room area of this building. And one guy spots on a bottom shelf a thermos that's tipped over with a bunch of liquid leaking out that looks gross. So he immediately calls Barkley and says he thinks he's got something. But then this other guy goes right over to it and the guy on the phone's yelling at him, don't touch it! But this other guy realizes that it's his thermos that he lost and it's got his wife's pea soup in it.

Speaker 05:

I've been looking for that for weeks. It's that god-awful pea soup she keeps giving me.

Speaker 00:

Cool it, cool it. So it's like he took his thermos and stuck it in there because the pea soup was so bad that she gave him. He just wanted to get rid of it. So the guy on the phone is about to tell Barkley, oh, it was a false alarm. But uh-oh, psych, it's actually not a false alarm because the guy with the thermos is going to throw it in the trash and he picks up a piece of paper and underneath it there is a briefcase in the trash in this boiler room. So then they tell Barkley, oh, we got something.

Speaker 05:

Dan, hold it. Get the cops down here. I'll keep the people away. You'll get out.

Speaker 00:

And to make sure you know it's a bomb, they show kind of this transparent photo of the briefcase to show the bomb inside of it. So then the film pauses on the briefcase, and then you can hear Barkley doing announcements over the PA system, just saying it's a fire drill to get everyone out.

Speaker 05:

May I have your attention, please? This is a fire drill. The building must be evacuated immediately.

Speaker 00:

And the film ends with saying, in the credits, that it was produced with the cooperation of the arson and explosives detail of the LAPD and the sheriff... who was a man named Peter Pitchis at the time. And it ends again with the title card, bomb threat, plan, don't panic. No mention about where it was filmed specifically or anyone that was in this film. It's a fun watch. It's 14 minutes, 1971, and it very much looks like it's from those times. This film always reminds me of those times with my sister and my two nieces watching this. I mean, my nieces wouldn't remember it, but my sister does. The music that I played you, that violin, I guess, in there. I wonder if I did some kind of Google search or music search for that song, if I could find out what it was. It is a fun, informative film, teaching you about what to do if a bomb threat is called into your building. Have any of you ever seen it? Or have any of you heard of that Something Weird channel? Do you remember that from On Demand? There are a few other things I remember from that channel, so I'll probably end up doing another film review of one of those. But that was Bomb Threat Plan Don't Panic, the educational short film from 1971. That'll do it for episode 137 of the podcast, the first episode of spring. Hopefully the weather is getting warmer wherever you are. If it is, take the podcast with you outside. It's perfect for walking 45, 50, 55 minutes. That's enough time to do a couple miles outside. Thank you to everyone who's been listening to the podcast. Thank you to those who share it. Those who leave reviews. That kind of stuff goes a long way to getting more people listening to the podcast, watching on YouTube. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. trying to appeal to a wider demographic, the Gen X demographic that I'm part of. But you don't have to be my age or around my age. You just have to enjoy nostalgia. It's a fun distraction. That's what I look for for me. And then I find these things to share with you, like that bomb threat video that I just reviewed. Go subscribe on YouTube. There are full audio podcasts up there. They're in video form, but it's not me in it. There may come a time that I do a secondary podcast that's video only. I think I want to call it something like the weekly wrap-up. It would be kind of a takeoff of my initial impressions blog. So random foolishness, just a few laughs, maybe 15-20 minutes long. It sounds like I've got a plan, but the thing is, the time is what really matters. I need the time to actually do it and do it well. So there is no timetable on any weekly wrap-up podcast, at least yet. Find me all over social media. Like I said, subscribe to YouTube. I'm on Instagram, Threads, X. I've got my blog. The In My Footsteps podcast blog is the kind of catch-all. It has podcast episodes. It has YouTube videos in blog form. It's got the Initial Impressions 2.0 blog. There's a Facebook fan page where I share a lot of links to podcasts and other content that I do. Visit my website, ChristopherSatterlund.com, for links to all of my nine books if you're interested in any of those. or visit theladyofthedoons.com. That is the comprehensive website I built that features my Searching for the Lady of the Dunes book, the Lady of the Dunes documentary by Frank Durant, and a lot of newspaper articles and information about the infamous Lady of the Dunes case that happened 50 years ago. Next week, we'll finish off the month of March with episode 138. Like I said at the top of the show, The bonus episodes for subscribers are going to be now Patreon only, mainly because Buzzsprout, it wasn't taking off and I end up losing minutes that I'm allowed to post podcasts with doing these bonus episodes that no one sees. With Patreon, I could post 50 podcasts a month and it doesn't matter. Not that I'm going to do that. I need time. But yes, if you want to be a subscriber, it's Patreon only starting now. With the arrival of spring and hopefully warmer weather, everything getting in bloom, make sure to get out there. Get that vitamin D. It's all good for your mental health. Take care of your mental health. That's so important. Take time for yourself when you can. Lean into the things that make you happy, whether that's foods or people or YouTube channels or podcasters or places you like to go. Make more time for those things. And I'll do my best to be a part of that for you every week as we go. But until next time, remember, in this life, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps. Create your own path and enjoy every moment you can on this journey we call life. Because you never know what tomorrow brings. Thank you all again for listening. This has been the In My Footstep podcast. I am Christopher Setterlund. You already knew that. And I'll talk to you all again soon.

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Christopher Setterlund

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