Week of July 17, 1981

In Kansas City (MO) - two elevated concrete

walkways at the Hyatt Regency hotel give way

onto a lobby floor full of dancers on a Friday night.

At least 46 are dead with 100 injured. Mayor

Richard Berkley said there would be “more, many

more deaths. (Final death toll - 111). Those there

had gathered for Happy Hour at the hotel’s weekly

“tea dance.”

Israeli jets raid Yasser Arafat’s command posts in Beirut and southern Lebanon

leaving at least 123 dead and 469 wounded in the most punishing strikes against

Palestinian guerrilla strongholds since Israel’s 1978 invasion of Lebanon.

Former Black Panther leader Huey Newton ends a six-day hail stay in Oakland

(CA) after a judge approved a $100,000 bond on his appeal of a handgun

conviction.

Housing costs, boosted by record home-loan rates, send the nation’s inflation up

at an annual rate of 8.8% in June.

Israel and the PLO accept a cease-fire mediated by the United States.

The 128-year-old Washington

star will cease publication

August 7 leaving the nation’s

capital with only one daily

newspaper - the Washington

Post.

White House Press secretary

James Brady has been fitted

for a brace on his left leg and can walk without a cane “under controlled

conditions,” a hospital spokesman says.

The Chrysler Corp keeps afloat in part with $1.2 billion in federal loan guarantees

and has posted its first profit since 1978 - $12 million in the April-June quarter.

The royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer is near, and

there’s a big wedding souvenir blitz going on, with their faces going on coffee

mugs and their faces are everywhere in London.

Week of July 17, 1981

Dies - Rolf Wuetherich, the race driver who survived the crash that killed actor

James Dean 26 years ago. He died an auto accident in West Germany at the

age of 53.

three satellite programming networks based on new technology. High-definition

television, which scans double the 525 lines of the standard TV transmission, can

also provide stereo sound. The technology would be broadcast directly to locally

affiliated CBS stations, homes, and cable TV systems and was developed by the

Sony Corp and CBS.

The Air Force favors a Northrop Corp. “Flying Wing” design for a proposed

Stealth bomber that could evade soviet defense radar and other detection

methods, Aviation Week & Space Technology reports.

Georgia has already had a lucrative multiyear contract offer from the Canadian

Football League. Walker is an outstanding runner, but wants to challenge the

NFL rules. He graduates in 1984, but doesn’t want to wait that long. An NFL rule

says that a college player can’t be drafted until his class has graduated.

Music news -

Harry Chapin is killed when his small car

was struck by a tractor-trailer rig on the Long

Island Expressway. He was 39. Chapin was

en route from his Long island home to New

York on business.

March was the final appearance of the group

in their old regalia - Indian, sailor,

construction worker etc. In their place are

(what can best be described as) David Bowie

clones in Elizabethan drag.

Week of July 17, 1981

Another tiff - Jenn Wenner, publisher of Rolling Stone magazine and recording

industry titan Irving Azoff. It’s an on-and-off thing. The latest one has Azoff firing

off letters to every record company with Azoff acts demanding that they cancel

any future ads for those acts in Rolling Stone. Wenner has commissioned an

article about the current “underperforming” tour by Joe Walsh and how slow

ticket sales are to be blamed on Irving Azoff, Walsh’s manager. Oh boy!

Producers want him to, but Rick Springfield, who

Hospital”, will not sing on the show. “Forget it. My

character wouldn’t sing. He’s a doctor.. His father was

a doctor. His grandfather was a doctor. This guy

wouldn’t have the time or the inclination to get into

rock ‘n’ roll. He’s not the type. It wouldn’t be

believable.” Springfield’s recording career has taken

off with his album “Working Class Dog” and the hit

“Jesse’s Girl.”

Entertainment news -

Federico DeLaurentiis (25) the only son of movie

producer Dino DeLaurentiis, is killed when two small

planes collided over the Bristol Bay area of Alaska.

talk format beginning next year. The first talent’s named are Michael Jackson and

Dr. Toni Grant from local KABC talk radio in Los Angeles. More talent will be

named, but they’ll probably come from KABC.

Sunday night television -

CBS - 60 Minutes, Archie Bunker’s Place, One Day At A Time, Alice, The

Jeffersons, Trapper John, M.D.

ABC - Disney’s Wonderful World, ChiPs, Special-100 Years of Golden Hits

ABC - Omnibus, Movie

PBS - Evening At Pops, Masterpiece Theater

HBO - Movie (Just You And Me), Movie (Alien)

ESPN - CFL Football

Week of July 17, 1981

The Jeffersons - A member of the Ku Klux Klan becomes a new neighbor.

100 Years of Golden Hits - Hosted by John Davidson

and William Windom. Guests include Glen Campbell,

Brothers, Ethel Merman.