The interracial Star Trek kiss between Captain Kirk and Lieutenant Uhura is a famous moment in 60’s TV. Petula Clark reversed the genders in her own famous 60’s interracial TV moment, and thereby raised an even bigger ruckus. The director of the show, Steve Binder, tells what happened in this Archive of American Television interview. Thanks to my twinster Jean for spotting this.
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And here is the scene itself, from Petula, April 9, 1968. Binder also directed the famous Elvis comeback special later in ’68, and ten years later he directed yet another legendary hour of TV, the Star Wars Holiday Special!
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On Friday, not far from here, in Boston, UK PM Gordon Brown will be giving the only speech of his visit to the United States. Mr. Brown, could you please request that Her Majesty The Queen grant British-born Pet the well-deserved title of Dame? Speaking of the PETition, there’s a new one worth noting. A request that the Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, be formally commemorated.
I’d missed that bit of news, Dave, about Pet and Belafonte and Binder being reunited at the Paley Center! Thanks, So my post is timely by coincidence. The flyer for the event can be found at this link as a PDF.
Of course Petula had no idea that what she was doing was “revolutionary” and that in 40 years’ time it would still be some sort of issue.
As Europeans, both she and Claude wer at a complete loss to understand what the fuss was about.
There is a clip on Youtube of Petula, in Italy, singing “Don’t Sleep in the Subway” from the same year. Her MD is the fantastic Frank Owens, and for part of the song she has her arm resting on his shoulder. It something she does sometimes on stage… It’s not a deal to Pet.
But it’s nice to see that she will be getting together with Mr Belafonte and Mr Binder in May in New York to celebrate the programme.