I Liked It When...

Tommy Towery

LHS '65

I went to a concert last week and while sitting there I started thinking about the concerts I attended early in my life. There was something significantly different in the dress of the current band than the ones back in my previous days.  It was not only the concerts, but the local bands dressed differently at the dances which I enjoyed in Huntsville, like the ones at Bradley's Cafeteria, the National Guard Armory, and the Madison County Coliseum.

The members of the band last week walked on stage wearing whatever they decided to put on  when they got up that morning. They had a country theme, and most of them did not evey wear "country". And of course, none of them matched. The lead singer did wear a Texas looking belt buckle. Back in our days, the bands all dressed alike. The Beatles not only dressed alike (down to their Beatle Boots) but even had matching haircuts. The same rang true for most of the Motown groups, even the girl groups. 

I tried to see if Paul Revere and the Raiders performed on TV when Where the Action Is was taped in Huntsville the year after I left for college, but I could not find out for sure. I did find "A Paul Revere and the Raiders concert took place in Huntsville, Alabama, on November 9, 1966. This performance occurred during the band's peak popularity in 1966, a year characterized by extensive touring, numerous concert dates, and their daily appearances on ABC's television show, Where The Action Is, according to Facebook."

While I was at Memphis State, one of my fraternity brothers and I even bought blue and white striped shirts that matched the Beach Boys' outfits when we went to see them in concert. I went to see Paul Revere and the Raiders a few years ago, and they still wore their uniforms then. No, I did not wear a Revolutionary War outfit that time; however, I did get to meet him personally and shake his hand that night.

Am I just getting old to let little things like outfits bother me and to want things not to change? Probably so.

The Wayback Machine

Where The Action Was!

Tommy Towery

(From my book, "The Baby Boomer's Guide to Growing Up in 'The Rocket City'" 

(Available from Amazon)

On Thursday, September 1, 1966, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind where the action was in Huntsville, Alabama – it was on our television sets as we watched a segment of a show starring some of our friends at the Big Spring Park. It was on the set of the hit teenage TV music show Where the Action Is!  The Dick Clark produced ABC series was in its second year of traveling around the country and filming the Action Kids dancing while hot groups sang  (actually lip-synced) their hit songs live on location in some high visibility settings.  The show began that day with a welcome to Huntsville by a very Southern sounding Mayor Glenn Hearn and quickly transitioned into a shot of The Knickerbockers singing "Wild Thing," while surrounded by the local teenagers who had come to share in the excitement. 

One of those was Judy Fedrowisch Kincaid, a 1966 Lee High School graduate. She remembers going to Big Spring Park to watch the show being filmed, but it was not in September recalls Judy. “It had to have been filmed during the early summer because I spent mid-June to mid-July visiting my dad and I remember watching the Huntsville segment while at my aunt's house in Cleveland.  I seem to recall The Young Rascals being there, but the one thing I remember most clearly was the dancers on the show.  Since everything at that time was filmed in black and white, both the males and the females had on so much makeup they looked like clowns!  I guess it was to make their features show up better, but it was awful!”

Eddie Burton, another Baby Boomer from Lee’s Class of ’66, also remembers that day. He was a member of a local garage band, The “IN,” and recalls, “Our producer and local radio disc jockey, Sonny Limbaugh, took The “IN” out to Big Spring Park for the taping of Where The Action Is! He hoped to get us a spot singing a song on the show. Steve Alamo worked for Dick Clark and was the show’s on-site producer. Sonny went into Steve's trailer and we could hear him playing our record of ‘In the Midnight Hour.’ Needless to say, it was very exciting and nerve-racking at the same time.”

“Steve told Sonny to have us dress for the show and hang out in the green room with the rest of the cast. We put on our hound’s tooth pants, our suede Beatle boots, our baby blue long sleeve shirts, and our lace dickeys,” writes Eddie. “We went inside the clubhouse area and met The Knickerbockers, The Righteous Brothers, Leslie Gore, Keith Allison (a solo artist who later became one of Paul Revere's Raiders), and of course, the Action Dancers. There were probably other artists there but I can't remember them all. We waited around all day practicing lip-syncing our record. The stars were very nice to us and very encouraging. It finally came down to Steve Alamo deciding if our record had enough national air play to warrant being on the show.”

“Our record company had received orders for our record from Washington State to Florida and Dallas and Chattanooga. We were getting air play in all of those places plus very heavy action in North Alabama, southern Tennessee, and parts of Mississippi.”

Eddie recalls, “The makeup people came in and made us up and we were talking about how and where we wanted to perform our song when Sonny came in and said, ‘Sorry guys, it's not going to happen. Steve said our record hasn't had enough national airplay.’”

“Sonny said one of the local TV stations had gotten wind that we were there and wanted to video us doing our song. So we went outside and lined up and lip-synced our record for the local TV cameras. It was shown on the 10 o'clock news.”

“Believe me; we got lots of mileage from that. People would put ‘From Where the Action Is!’ on posters where we were playing. All in all, it was a pretty exciting day for The “IN” and Huntsville.”

Though some of the songs taped that day, whenever it was, aired on the September show, other clips of songs were broadcast on Thursday, August 11, 1966, and Friday, August 19, 1966. 

Yes, it was official by the title and the show – Huntsville really was “Where the Action Was” and those of us who were teenagers back then were happy to be there.

The transformation of this sleepy town did not happen in one day. It took quite a while to evolve to that state.  The ones who lived through that period can relate to a cigarette commercial we saw on TV back then. It was the one that reminded us “You’ve come a long way, Baby!”

"Kicks"

Paul Revere and The Raiders

1966

"Kicks" is a song composed by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, best known as a 1966 hit for American rock band Paul Revere & the Raiders.

Mann and Weill wrote the song for the Animals, but the band's lead singer Eric Burdon turned it down. Instead, Paul Revere & the Raiders recorded and released it as a single in 1966. The single was a number one hit in Canada, and reached number four in the United States. "Kicks" was included on the band's fifth album, Midnight Ride, released in May 1966. A live version of the song was recorded on the band's 1996 Greatest Hits Live compilation album.

Mann and Weil wrote the song as a warning to a friend about the dangers of drug use. In the song, a narrator pleads with a girl that drug use causes addiction and that soft drugs can lead to the use of hard drugs, though the lyrics never explicitly mention any of those things; ultimately the lyrics conclude that her real problem is psychological ("you'll never run away from you") and that there is "another way" to face the trials of life.

LEE LUNCH BUNCH

Classes of ‘64, ‘65, ‘66

Logan’s Roadhouse

Thursday, April 23, 2026

11:00 am

Thanks to the efforts of Judy Fedrowisch Kincaid and Ken Martz, we now have a reservation at Logan’s Roadhouse, one of our favorite restaurants for this group.

As we begin our sixteenth year of LLB, it has become apparent to most of us just how quickly the years are passing and most painfully as we lose our dear old friends and classmates. With that being said, I urge you all to make every effort to come, have a good lunch, and enjoy a little time with dear old friends. Hope to see you in April.

Patsy Hughes Oldroyd ’65 (256) 431-3396

Judy Fedrowisch Kincaid ’66 (256) 656-3667

Been a quite week on the comments. If you have any answers as to whether or not the Raiders were at the show taped at Big Spring, please let me know. Or if you attended the Caravan of Stars show which included them, let us know about that as well.

Last Week's Questions, Answers, And Comments

Delores McBride Kilgore, LHS '66 , "Thank you."