THIS CRAZY DAY IN 1972: "Today's chuckle" almost bats 1.000

October 30-November 5, 1972, Addendum #2: Just the fun, ma'am

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Why do we run this separate item peeking into newspapers from 1972? Because 1972 is part of the ancient times when everybody read a paper. Everybody, everybody, everybody. Even kids. So Steve Bertolucci, the 10-year-old hero of the novel serialized at this Substack, read the paper too—sometimes just to have something to do. These are some of the stories he read. Follow THIS CRAZY DAY on Twitter: @RoselandChi1972.

For this seminal week in 1972, we’ve already done a post focusing on the deadly IC commuter train crash that killed 44 South Siders and injured 300, and a post focusing on the hectic last days of campaigning before Election Day. Plus, in Mike Royko 50+ Years Ago Today, we’ve covered Mike’s output this week, including a column that must have driven Cook County State’s Attorney Edward Hanrahan completely out of his mind.

Cook County State’s Attorney Ed Hanrahan and his jaw

Next, expect the long-awaited post collecting stories on the dynamite Hanrahan-Bernard Carey race for State’s Attorney, again in anticipation of Election Day.

Today, let’s take a leisurely look at lighter news fare from October 30-November 5, which has gotten lost in all the death and political carnage. Relax—there will be nothing more challenging today than skyjacking. You just can’t get away from skyjacking in 1972.

October 30, 1972

Chicago Daily News: “Today’s chuckle,” 1st at-bat

Regular readers know “Today’s chuckle” is a regular front page feature in the Daily News, probably because it’s useful filler. Below, typical placement for “chuckle”:

Some previous “chuckles” covered in TCD1972:

12-17-71—referencing rampant inflation, in case you don’t get the joke

11-12-71

11-26-71

3-29-72

“Today’s chuckle” is an all-purpose repository for corny humor, but it features one particular theme on a regular basis. This week, “chuckle” went all out and hit its theme five days out of six. By the end of the post, see if you can guess that regular theme, and which day “chuckle” whiffed.

For October 31, 1972:

October 30, 1972

Did you think skyjacking was over for this year? Not at all. We just don’t have room for them all. There will be 28 skyjackings in the U.S. alone in 1972. D.B. Cooper set off a spate of copycats by jumping out of a Northwest Airlines jet between Seattle and Reno in fall 1971, with a parachute and $200,000 ransom. That’s $1.3 million in 2022 money. He remains at large in our 1972 timeline, and presumably any year you may be reading this. The Daily News ran a D.B. Cooper update in September, noting that the tiny town near Cooper’s assumed jumping point has become a tourist destination.

Along with Cooper copycats came a spate of bomb threats against airlines accompanied by ransom demands. Nobody took those seriously because there had never really been a bomb before. Then all of a sudden, there was. After a series of bomb threats against TWA, one bomb was found on a jet in New York and another bomb blew up a TWA cockpit on a grounded plane in Las Vegas.

Elsewhere in 1972, we’ve covered the coverage of skyjackers who took over planes using everything from dynamite and hand grenades to sawed-off shotguns and machine guns. You can bring whatever you want onto a plane in 1972, and you don’t even need your I.D. to board. Really.

Not surprisingly, then, many other skyjackings have flown under the radar in the papers—a common skyjacking is commonplace, not big news anymore.

But today’s morning headlines cover a truly exceptional skyjacking, which would have made the afternoon front pages too if it weren’t for the deadly IC train crash that happened as these editions of the Sun-Times and Tribune were being tossed onto people’s front porches.

“Three Arab terrorists involved in the Munich Olympic Games massacre of Israeli athletes were freed by West Germany yesterday after Palestinian guerrillas hijacked a Lufthansa airliner and threatened to kill the 20 persons aboard by blowing the craft apart,” reads the Tribune’s lead story. All the papers rely on various wire services.

As the Daily News sums up, “The three guerrillas were survivors of an airport gunfight Sept. 5 near Munich that killed five of their comrades. Nine [kidnapped] members of the Israeli team also died at the airport and two others were slain in their Olympic Village rooms earlier in the day.”

The Daily News headline from that tragic event:

In the current skyjacking, two Palestinians armed with hand grenades took over the Lufthansa jet during a flight between Damascus and Frankfurt.

“First word of the hijacking came early Sunday as the airliner landed at Nicosia airport for refueling. When it stopped again at Zagreb for more fuel, the hijackers began bargaining with West German authorities,” per the Daily News. “After the second touchdown, the jet circled over Munich and Zagreb for five hours—until the plane held only enough fuel for perhaps five more minutes of flight.”

“The Israeli government asked the Germans not to release the terrorists, saying it would ‘aggravate the Munich disaster,’” per the AP in Chicago Today. “‘The world will never overcome terrorism in the light of such extravagant capitulation,’ said Israeli Gailili, a member of the cabinet.”

“Extravagant capitulation.” That phrase deserves recognition.

“A Bavarian Interior Ministry spokesman said the decision to free the commandos came from Bonn after an emergency meeting of Chancellor Willy Brandt’s cabinet. The spokesman said the terms under which the commandos were freed included one that they be turned over to the hijackers only after the passengers and crew of the Lufthansa plane had returned safely to West German airspace.”

The Germans retrieved the three captured Palestinian terrorists from jail and flew them to Zagreb for the hand-off, but the skyjackers kept the passengers and crew anyway and flew everyone to Tripoli, Libya, which generally welcomes skyjackers.

Daily News 10-30-72

In Libya, the skyjackers “were hailed as ‘heroes of Munich’ by Tripoli Radio, which quoted them, according to the Middle East News Agency (MENA), as pledging to continue their fight against Zionism,” writes the Daily News.

“The two hijackers reportedly slipped wordlessly away from Tripoli airport wearing gauze masks.”

The skyjacking victims were invited to spend the night in Tripoli.

October 30, 1972

Chicago Sun-Times, Daily News & Tribune

Sun-Times

Yes, a second skyjacking is covered in Monday’s editions. There have been other days in 1972 with three or four skyjackings vying for news space. Today’s lesser skyjacking features a connection to “Hogan’s Heroes,” so we can’t pass it up.

Sgt. Schultz, Hogan, and Colonel Klink

Younger Readers: Possibly you’re unaware that there was a 1960s sitcom based in a German World War II prisoner-of-war camp and featuring zany, lovable Nazis. On March 9, Chicago Today TV critic (later Hollywood screenwriter and celebrity) Bruce Vilanch wrote a piece about “Hogan” star Bob Crane, which included the ultimate review of the show. In 1972, “Hogan’s Heroes” had been off the air for a year, but was still playing on TV incessantly via reruns.

“Four gunmen, apparently led by a former government bureaucrat turned bandit, shot their way aboard an Eastern Air Lines jet at Houston Sunday, killed one airline employee, wounded another and hijacked the plane and its 40 occupants to Havana,” per UPI in the Sun-Times.

It was the first hijacking to Cuba since May. That’s something, actually. Hijacking planes to Cuba was truly common, not just a gag on “Laugh-In,” so much so that the Daily News ran this joke for “Today’s chuckle” on October 12, 1971:

“Stanley Hubbard, 30, an Eastern ticket agent, was found shot to death on the ramp leading from the Houston terminal to the plane. He had been struck by at least five 9 mm bullets….An Eastern maintenance man, Wyatt Wilkenson, 26, raced to the ramp, found Hubbard’s body, opened the door of the plane and was greeted with a hail of bullets. He was hit in the arm, and fled.”

Two of the skyjackers were identified by passengers later as a father-son team, Charles A. Tuller and son Bryce. Charles Tuller quit his $28,000-a-year job at the Commerce Department two weeks ago, and last week he and 19-year-old Bryce tried to rob an Arlington, Virginia bank but only succeeded in killing the bank manager and a policeman.

A reporter for the Dallas Morning News, Sam Kinch, was on the hijacked flight from San Antonio to Syracuse with a stop in Houston. After hearing three shots from the plane entrance, he said everybody dove beneath their seats. “The stewardess came through and told everybody to put their hands over their heads,” he said. I’m sure that helped.

The hijackers announced over the plane’s loudspeaker that anyone who moved would be shot. Reporter Kinch “said passengers referred to the leader as ‘Colonel Klink’ because he looked like the character on the television series Hogan’s Heroes.”

Per reporter Kinch, lead hijacker Charles Tuller “looked like a frustrated Prussian military officer, waving a German Luger. He used a lot of crude words. He was a perfect prototype of a guy who had a bad military background, a bad situation with federal bureaucracy, and had been a failure in civilian life.”

Yep, that’s Colonel Klink—if Klink wasn’t zany and lovable. You can just imagine what a loser Klink would have been after the war, even if he wasn’t prosecuted for war crimes. That said, Charles Tuller’s $28,000 government salary would be $191,520 today.

The plane’s captain, Capt. Lee Hines, told UPI that sky marshals wouldn’t have stopped this skyjacking. “Armed guards at the airport are exactly what we needed,” he said. “If we had had armed guards…it is likely the hijacking would not have happened, one man who is dead would not be dead, and one man who is wounded would not be wounded. Next time it may not be one man who dies, it could be a whole planeload.”

Daily News

“An Eastern Air Lines spokesman said it appeared the four men lurked near the loading gate until the plane was loaded and then forced their way past gate agent Stanley Hubbard,” per the Daily News.

Lurked with the hand grenades that they had no trouble carrying into the airport, that is.

Tribune

“NEW ORLEANS, Oct 29 [AP]—Ernest Raymond, who refueled a hijacked Eastern Air Lines jetliner here on its way to Cuba, sat in a lounge near the airport today sipping a beer to calm his nerves.

“‘It was pretty scary out there, knowing that somebody had a gun trained on you,’ he said. ‘When I finish this beer, I think I’m going to get another. I might even finish a six-pack.’

“Raymond…was forced to disrobe to his underwear before the hijackers would allow him to approach the plane.”

Think that’s ridiculous? Back in August, two FBI agents entered a grounded skyjacked jet pretending to be fresh crew members who would fly the jet elsewhere for the skyjackers. One of the FBI agents boarded the plane in his underwear, the other one was naked.

October 31, 1972

Chicago Daily News: “Today’s chuckle” 2nd at-bat

October 31, 1972

Chicago Daily News

Bob Herguth’s local gossip column ran most of the length of page 5 in the Daily News.

We all know Mayor Daley, of course.

The real Mayor Daley

Len O’Connor was a veteran Chicago radio reporter on WMAQ. As TV and then TV news evolved, O’Connor segued into doing commentaries on Channel 5 news. He looked a lot like Mayor Daley—older, pudgy, white, receding hair, jowly.

Len O’Connor spoke in the most boring monotone you can possibly imagine and signed off every commentary, with no further inflection or even a pause, with: “and I am Len O’Connor.” His delivery was so tedious, it’s hard to imagine how he made the jump from news writing to on-air radio reporter. Was there was no one else available? The 1967 commentary below from YouTube is a perfect example. Len is talking about mob murders, but even this sensational topic is nearly unlistenable:

Len O’Connor was the old cynical curmudgeon of Chicago TV news, which is why Channel 5 has run this ad in the papers all year in 1972:

Len O’Connor will write a biography of Mayor Daley in 1975, “Clout,” which will forever play second banana to Mike Royko’s “Boss.” Third or fourth banana, really. However, you might be interested in listening to Studs Terkel interview Len O’Connor here—scroll down, he’s #31 and #32 on the page.

Don’t miss Mike Royko 50+ Years Ago Today

November 1, 1972

Chicago Daily News: “Today’s chuckle” 3rd at-bat

November 1, 1972

Chicago Today

November 2, 1972

Chicago Daily News: Today’s Chuckle 4th at-bat

November 2, 1972

Chicago Daily News: Ice age editorial

Many aspects of 1972 are all too familiar with readers 50 years later, but here’s one big difference:

“As if there weren’t enough things to view with alarm, scientists are weighing the prospects of a new ice age,” writes the Daily News editorial board.

New evidence “adduced from analysis of sediment cores brought up from the floor off the Caribbean suggests that the present warm spell, which started only 12,000 years ago, may soon end. How soon is too soon? It could be 2,000 or 3,000 years. Or even less. Unless man quits fooling around with climate-changing practices such as deforestation, urban development and pollution, the ice could just conceivably arrive by 2972.”

This reminds me of the “Futurama” episode where the gang goes skiing to cheer up Fry for his first Christmas away from his own time— “Xmas Story,” which introduces the murderous Santa Claus robot. First, Fry and Leela talk about the beautiful snow while riding the ski lift:

“This snow is beautiful,” says Fry. “I’m glad global warming never happened.”

“Actually it did,” answers Leela. “But then nuclear winter canceled it out.”

Wouldn’t it be great if 1972 scientists were right about the pollution they believed was about to cause an Ice Age, and it canceled out the pollution now causing global warming?

November 3, 1972

Chicago Daily News: “Today’s chuckle” 4th at-bat

November 3, 1972

Chicago Today: Dr. Joyce Brothers column

FYR: Dr. Joyce Brothers is a syndicated columnist and psychologist, a pop culture figure but more respectable in 1972 than, say, Dr. Phil is in 2022. No one ever said “Dr. Brothers.” It was always “Joyce Brothers” or “Dr. Joyce Brothers.”

Back in April, Dr. Joyce Brothers considered skyjackers versus guys who called airlines with bomb threats for ransom:

“The bomber-extortionist is basically more aggressive than the skyjacker,” Dr. Joyce Brothers advised, “and wants money to gain power and build up ego. He may steal to show his hostility toward society and to satisfy his sexual and aggressive impulses. Like the skyjacker, the bomber-extortionist has very little sexual outlet. It is extremely rare that this type of man can form a deep, close relationship with women.”

But more often, Dr. Joyce Brothers answers reader questions, like today.

“DEAR DR. BROTHERS: I’m a salesman who’s often out of town. Recently I find myself spending about half of my working time worrying about my wife. She insists on walking around in Hot Pants, even when she’s shopping, and she refuses to pull a shade when she’s undressing for the evening. We don’t live in the safest neighborhood, and I’m sure she’s going to get mugged or raped one of these days. She refuses to listen to me, makes fun of my warnings, and teases me about my attitude, which she labels ‘jealousy.’ — R.M.”

Dr. Joyce Brothers, I would guess circa 1980

“Dear R.M.: Your wife may unconsciously be trying to get you to spend more time at home. This may be a childish way of getting you, and also men in the street, to pay attention to her. This kind of immature behavior frequently invites crime and you are wise to be concerned.

“There is no neighborhood, other than the beach front, that is ‘safe’ for women to wear Hot Pants without stirring comment. Most women realize this and when they dress this way they expect and seek trouble. They are, in a sense, crime-prone in much the way some people are accident-prone. They are unconsciously looking for problems by inviting assaultive behavior.

“Dr. Richard Evans, a psychiatrist and criminologist, feels 20 per cent of rape victims contribute to their assault by dressing provocatively and walking alone in areas they know are unsafe….

“The important point in your wife’s case, however, is why is she so deliberately provoking assault?….Talk with your wife. Try to discover the real reasons behind her behavior….I would guess she has some hostility toward you that she is unwilling to express openly so she has chosen this dangerous and self-defeating manner.”

Wow. Here’s Dr. Joyce Brothers with a young Conan O’Brien, so young I’ll guess this Late Night episode must be from the mid 1990s. I’ll guess further that Dr. Joyce Brothers was no longer, in the ‘90s, telling people that women are “provoking assault” if they wear short shorts. In fact, in this clip, she’s poaching on Dr. Ruth’s turf and talking about penis sizes, breast sizes, and people who like to have sex in strange places.

FYR: Wondering what “Hot Pants” are, a piece of clothing so important that the words are capitalized in the newspaper? They are simply short shorts. Wikipedia reports the word was first used by Women’s Wear Daily in 1970, and claims 1971 was their biggest year. The James Brown song of the same name was released that year too.

Here’s James Brown singing “Hot Pants” on an album cover featuring said clothing…

…and here he is performing “Hot Pants” in 1985.

And although this next video is from 1985, here’s the Nair TV commercial famously featuring hot pants. The jingle is still stuck in all the heads that heard it. And now in yours, if you click on this clip.

November 4-5, 1972

Chicago Daily News: “Today’s chuckle” 5th at-bat

November 4-5, 1972

Chicago Daily Defender: Philco ad

November 4, 1972

Chicago Today: Crow eats it

November 5, 1972

Chicago Today: Want ad mystery

Can you figure out what this ad from Chicago Today is trying to tell its readers?

Younger Readers, what do you think Chicago Today means when it says it will “combine” its job listings from now on into “one classification”? Don't newspapers always list their jobs ads “in alphabetical order according to the job title”?

This is what Chicago Today’s job ads page looks like right now:

If you squint, you’ll see each category heading reads “Men and Women.” Chicago Today isn’t available digitally, and I didn’t collect its want ads much farther back to show you an earlier example, but it is inevitable that the paper used to divide the job ads between “Men” and “Women.” Chicago Today has already been combining the ads under the “Men and Women” heading for some months in our 1972 timeline, and now presumably the paper will drop the “Men and Women” designation too.

Don’t believe me? Here’s some Chicago Tribune job ads from 1972:

Did you dig spending time in 1972? If you came to THIS CRAZY DAY IN 1972 from social media, you may not know it’s part of the novel being serialized here, one chapter per month: “Roseland, Chicago: 1972” —FREE. It’s the story of Steve Bertolucci, 10-year-old Roselander in 1972, and what becomes of him. Check it out here.