Pop Culture Happenings: May

Pop culture is the best time machine; just hearing words like “funky,” “gnarly” and “dude” can instantly send you back decades. Though these may be the best years, don’t forget about the good years along the way. Read on for glimpses into the month of May from 25, 40 and 50 years ago.

__50 years ago__

May of 1972 was right in the middle of the birth span of Gen-Xers, and it kind of shows. The feel-good film “The Godfather” dominated theater screens, and it was the first movie to gross more than $3 million in a week. Not much was happening in music that month, unless you count the release of “The Last of the Red Hot Burritos,” by The Flying Burrito Brothers. Nixon visited Moscow, but some of his friends were fooling around in Watergate. The grooviest happenings of that month were the birth of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and the major achievement of Dutch native Ton Sijbrands, who became world champion in … checkers.

__40 years ago__

A decade later, we had to wear shades because the future looked bright with the release of the first IBM PC, but the Cold War filled pop culture with fighting words that reflected the combative feel of 1982. Leonard Maltin appeared on “Entertainment Tonight” for the first time. Rocky fought Mr. T, Conan was a barbarian, and Annie had a hard-knock life. Duran Duran sang about Rio dancing across the sand, Blondie’s Hunter got captured by the game, and The Clash taught us “Combat Rock.” Pope John Paul II paid the first papal visit to Britain since 1531; however, afternoon tea was cut short, since the Brits were busy invading the Falkland Islands.

__25 years ago__

May of 1997 was up and down. Austin Powers made the world groovy again, but chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov was beaten by IBM Computer Deep Blue. The Bee Gees, Jackson 5, Joni Mitchell and Mahalia Jackson were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but Susan Lucci was denied an Emmy win for the 17th time. Tony Blair was elected Britain’s Prime Minister the same day the Howard Stern radio show premiered; hard to decide which of these count as up or down. Anyway, in a fun reconnect to 1972, on May 3, the day after his 25th birthday, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson got married.