In 1975, Gerald Ford was the President and the 1973–1975 economic stagnation was coming to an end, but we didn't know that. This period was different from many previous recessions because high unemployment and high inflation existed simultaneously.
Technically the recession ended in March of 1975. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that 2.3 million jobs were lost during the recession; at the time which was a post-war record.
In those days I had been working as a timekeeper in a foundry and until the recession business had been booming. I remember working 10-12 hours a day with one Saturday a month off. Then, during the recession we went down to 3 days a week and eventually the place folded. All that remains today is the old office building, a garage, a parking lot overgrown with weeds and three vacant lots where the foundry buildings used to be.
1975 was the year of the “Thrilla in Manila," the heavyweight boxing championship match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in the Philippines.
At the movies the box office hit Jaws set records and McDonalds was driving everybody nuts with the slogan, “Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.” Their burgers did not taste any better then than they do today.
Clayton Moore, who played the Lone Ranger on TV for 169 episodes and two feature films in the 1950s, was sued by the Wrather Corporation. Wrather owned the Lone Ranger character by copyright and Moore was making appearances as The Lone Ranger without their approval. The company won the suit and Moore had to make appearances wearing wrap-around sunglasses instead of the Lone Ranger's iconic mask. Boos to the Wrather Corporation.
It was also the year that Union Teamster Jimmy Hoffa disappeared. He disappeared on July 30, 1975 and is generally believed to have been murdered by the Mafia. He wasn't declared legally dead until 1982.
Under the Freedom of Information Act you can access the FBI's Record Vault and view their documents on Hoffa HERE.
In late 2021, the FBI searched land next to a former landfill under the Pulaski Skyway in Jersey City, New Jersey, for Hoffa's remains, but found nothing. But...were they really looking? Read a story about the "search" HERE.
It was also the year of mood rings, Six Million Dollar Man action figures and Pet Rocks. Mood rings are still around, but when they were introduced it was claimed that when the stone changed color it indicated the wearer's mood. For example, if it turned black they were upset. Of course, all it really registered was the temperature of the wearer's finger.
Really, really stupid was the fad involving pet rocks. They were small rocks that came in custom cardboard boxes lined with straw and breathing holes for the rock.
The rock also came with a 32-page training manual (The Care and Training of Your Pet Rock) that had instructions on how to properly raise and care for the rock. The manual contained gags, puns and jokes and listed several commands that could be taught to the rock.
Stupid as it was, the developer sold over a million of them at $4.00 each...that's about $22 each in today's dollars.
There were two big tournaments I got to witness that year: the international tournament in Cleveland, Ohio (won by Istvan Csom of Hungary) and the US Championship in Oberlin, Ohio (won by Walter Browne).
The following game is one of my few OTB game scores that have survived and I am surprised at how well both of us 97 pound chess weaklings played!
Tartajubow–Opponent½–½C19Cleveland, Ohio1976Stockfish 15.1
French Defense, Winawer 1.e4 e6 2.d4 2.c4 This is my other favorite
reply to the French because after the usual d5 Black could also play 2...c5
with a Maroczy Bind. 3.exd5 exd5 4.d4 the game has transposed into a
position where white is likely to end up with an isolated d-Pawn which I don't
mind playing with. 2...d5 3.c3 b4 As a Botvinnik fan I was quite
familiar with the Winawer. Apparently, so was my opponent because we followed
the book for quite a few moves. 4.e5 c5 5.a3 xc3+ 6.bxc3 e7 This is by
far the most frequently played move. 7.a4 This anti-thematic move has
brought little success. White almost always plays 7.Qg4 after which black has
three options: 1) sacrifice a couple of Ps with 7...Qc7 8.Qxg7 Rg8 9.Qxh7 and
then play ...cxd4 destroying white's center. 2) play 7...O-O which places his
K in a potentially dangerous location because the K-side is where white is
planning to attack. 3) He can play 7...Kf8 which is actually better than it
looks because of the locked P-center and if white's K-side attack begins
looking dangerous the K can flee. a5 8.d2 The plan is to develop the B on
a3 where it will be more active than on d2. bc6 9.f3 c4 A poor move
because it severely limits black's counterplay on both the center and the
Q-side. The simple 9.Bd2 was best. 10.e2 d7 11.0-0 0-0-0
No matter which side he castles on black will face some difficulties. 11...0-0 12.a3 f6 13.ab1 c7 13...xa4 is really bad. After 14.a1
black is in grave danger. f5 14...fxe5 15.xe5 xe5 16.xe7 15.d6 b5 16.fb1 wins the Q 14.d6 with the better game. 12.a3 f6 12...h6 13.fb1 de8 14.c5 b6 15.a3 and white's position is to be preferred.
Grund,H (2415)-Wadsworth,M (2135) Daventry ENG 2014 13.fb1 h5 13...f5 14.g4 fe7 15.d6 g6 Now after 16.Rb5 white would be better. Perez Ponsa,
F-Iermito,S Esperanza 2003 14.d6 dg8 15.b5 a6 16.ab1 This induces
the obvious 16...b6 which is a mistake! b6 16...f5 was called for, but
black rejected it because of the obvious 17.xb7 but after xd6 Black has
eliminated the well placed B and then after 18.exd6 xb7 This surprising
move is the only way! Other moves would lose. 18...xa4 19.c7+ d8 20.e5 c8 20...fxe5 21.b8+ mates in 3 21.xc6+ 19.xb7 xb7 and black has
nearly enough compensation for the Q and he can make a real fight of it. Of
course, neither of us saw all this. 17.c1 Over preparation! 17.a5
would have pretty much wrapped it up according to the engines. White gets a
B+N vs R+P and a winning advantage. However, after xa5 18.xa5 This is the
move I missed. xa5 19.xe7 I'm still not seeing it so I ran some Shootouts
and white scored 5-0. Here's the result at 17 plies. I should add that neither
of the two players would have played at the same level of Stockfish though so
the Shootouts are no indication of what the actual results might have been. f5 20.h4 b7 21.c1 a8 22.a1 b5 23.g5 c6 24.a3 a5 25.f7 a7 26.xh8 xh8 27.c1 g6 28.g5 e8 29.f1 a6 30.a3 h7 31.e1 c8 32.d2 c7 33.f6 d7 34.g1 c8 35.f3 b5 36.g4 fxg4 37.fxg4 f7 38.g5 hxg4 39.xg4 d7 40.xg6 f1 41.g8 xg1 42.xg1 h7 43.g5 g6 44.d1 e4 45.f8 a6 46.h5 b5 47.f6 g8 48.g7 xg7 49.xg7 c6 50.f8 d7 51.h6 e8 52.d6 f7 53.h5+ g8 54.g4 h7 55.xe6 xh6 56.d7 b5 57.e6 etc. Anybody
could win from here. 17...xa4 This is too dangerous. 17...f5 would
have at least equalized. 18.a3 xa4 19.c5 d8 20.b2 a6 21.xb6+ axb6 22.xb6 a8 Both Stockfish and Komodo think black is slightly better, so it
must be true. 18.b2 a6 19.a1 b7 20.a3 In the
auto-annotation Fritz slapped a question mark on this move and reassigned the
one P advantage to black! 20.c5 We saw this in the note to the
last move. d8 21.b3 21.xb6 axb6 22.xe7 favors white. 21...cxb3 22.a6 bxc5 23.xb7+ xb7 24.cxb3 and white, like in the previous note, is
better. 20...f5 21.c5 I finally saw it, but now it's too late to have
any effect. 21.b2 is the engine suggestion, but after xd6 22.xd6 c7
white's advantage has evaporated. 21...xe5 This merits an
exclamation mark! 22.bb1 22.dxe5 xb5 23.d4 Black is better...much
better. 22...xf3+ Retreating to c6 was also a good option. 23.xf3
And just like that black is calling the shots because white's attack prospects
against the K have sputtered to a halt. c7 Getting the Q off the Rs line of
fire looks quite logical, but now Stockfish drops the evaluation from one P on
black's favor to 0.00 meaning it's anybody's game. 23...e8 This obscure
looking move is the move. 24.b4 b8 25.d6+ xd6 26.xd6+ c8 and white
is at a loss for a good continuation. 24.a6+ 24.xa7 Why not this?
There was no reason not to play it, but after the exchange of Qs white doesn't
have anything. For example... xa7 25.xa7 bxc5 26.bb7 c6 26...e8 27.c7+ b8 draws. 27.b6 27.c7+ b8 White is apiece down. 27...cxd4 28.xc6+ b8 29.ca6 and white can draw. 24...b7 25.a3 Still hoping
to win. 25.xa7 xa7 26.xa7 bxc5 27.bb7 c6 28.b6 d7 29.bb7 draws.
25...c6 26.b4 The best option was to take the draw with 26.Qxa7 c7 26...b8 Defending the a-Pawn keeps more of the advantage, but black
probably disliked the idea of having his Q and K on the same file as the R. 27.d6+ xd6 28.xd6+ c7 28...a8 loses to 29.xa7+ xa7 30.xc6+ b7 31.a1+ b8 32.d6+ c7 33.xe6 d8 34.xd5 xd5 35.xd5 b7 36.xc4 29.xc7+ xc7 30.xa7+ b7 27.xa7 Finally admitting there is nothing better. a8 28.xb7+ xb7 29.g4 This is an attempt to get the B into action or else
trade it for the N. Black makes a ill advised decision to cooperate. 29.xa8 is what white should have played. xa8 30.e1 Black's advantage is minimal.
29...hxg4 Instead of this which allows white to get rid of his useless B
black shouldvhave tried 29...Nh4 29...h4 30.d1 hxg4 31.xg4 f5 32.d1 30.xg4 h4 31.xf5 exf5 32.xa8 xa8 The resulting endgame is
equal. 33.f3 f4 34.e1 h7 35.e7+ d8 36.a7 c6 37.e7+ White's next
move is going to be Bxf6, but does it make a difference which way black moves
his K? e8 Yes. and this is the wrong way! 37...c8 38.xf6 b7 Cutting
off the line of action of white's R...that's why going to c8 made such a big
difference. 39.e5 39.g5 g6 40.xf4 f7 41.g5 xf3 39...h6 40.xf4 f6 41.g5 xf3 is a draw. 38.xf6 d7 39.e5 This is the
wrong square! Immediately after making the move I realized 39...g5 defends the
P and there is nothing left, so I offered a draw which was accepted. 39.g5 keeps the winning chances alive. h3 40.xf4 f8 41.b7 h5 42.f2 42.xb6 f5 equals 42...g5 43.d6+ g8 44.xb6 Even though white is 2 Ps
up, the opposite colored Bs and doubled Ps make the win extremely difficult.
In Shootouts white only scored +1 -0 =4. ½–½
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