Creating our cover with a little help from our friends
I still remember the first time I saw Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. June 1967. I say “saw” because, back then, album covers were visual amazements intended to set the tone our favorite bands wanted us to sense as we listened. And Sgt. Pepper’s was a major wow. What on earth are the Beatles wearing? Check out those moustaches. Who are all these other people? What is this?
If you remember, and I know you do, this was a fairly random assemblage of the men and women who had influenced The Beatles during their lifetimes. Edgar Allan Poe was just two away from W.C. Fields. And Fields was right above Tony Curtis. John, Paul, George and Ringo were there twice: once (in wax) as The Beatles, and once (in the flesh) as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Shirley Temple was on that cover three times. Lawrence of Arabia was there, and so was a heavyweight boxing champion. And on, and on.
I wondered if it was possible to create a cover for our boomer trivia board game that would be an homage to the Sgt. Pepper’s cover. Could we gather a collection of Baby Boom Era icons that covered the ’50s, ’60s, & ’70s? Then, the even bigger question – how on earth would we go about getting approvals and legal permissions?
We found their managers, representatives or trustees and told them what we were doing. We showed them mock-up graphics and explained that we wanted to honor the Baby Boom’s greatest influencers, the great men and women who shaped Boomers in various ways. Everyone you see on the cover of Boom Again richly deserves kudos and thanks from our enormous generation.
I get asked a lot about the choices and the process, so I thought I would post a list and add a bit of the detail into how our cover happened.
Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz: Absolutely an enormous influence on all of us. The process of getting an approval to include them led us to Lucy and Desi’s daughter, Lucie Arnaz, and to their granddaughter who manages licensing. They were lovely to deal with.
Paul McCartney: Obviously, I don’t need to say anything on this selection. You already know why he is here. As you can imagine, finding our way into the organization that exists in London was no small task. They obviously know how profoundly influential Paul was on all of us. And to their credit, even knowing that, they were not ego driven at all. In fact, they wanted to be sure that we wouldn’t make everyone else live in Paul’s shadow on our cover.
Dick Clark: Exactly how many people can you name who were as influential as Dick Clark? American Bandstand. Game shows. New Year’s Eve. This was also a no-brainer. It was also a personal selection for me. Dick and I had worked together on a number of game show versions of our board games, and I was always amazed that we became friends. Special thank you to Dick’s widow, Kari, for being among the first on-board and without hesitation.
Gloria Steinem: Is there anyone who better epitomizes the women’s rights movement? Her influence was nothing short of cultural. Tip of the hat to her team who were great to work with.
John F. Kennedy: No one had a more profound impact on the lives and aspirations of the Baby Boomers.
Janis Joplin: We wanted a visual reference to the counterculture of the late 60s. Janis was music, and irreverence, and fun, and talent.
Elvis Presley: Pick any Elvis. Young Elvis. Hawaii Elvis. Vegas Elvis. Iconic everytime.
Richard Nixon: Richard Nixon was a factor in almost every single year of the three decades of the Baby Boom Era that this game celebrates. But if that’s not enough, we now know he met with Elvis in the Oval Office!
Muhammad Ali: The Greatest. Enough said. The only Ali story I have is this: I was pulling up to a traffic signal at Sunset Boulevard and Kings Road in Hollywood in my little (cheap) convertible. A huge, gorgeous, brown Rolls Royce convertible rolled up next to me. I finally stopped staring at the car and made eye contact with the driver — and it’s Muhammad Ali. He nodded, said “Hi,” and drove off. My mouth still hangs open at the memory of that tiny moment. Like I said: The Greatest!
John Travolta: The entire disco era exploded right out of his Saturday Night Fever performance. Utterly iconic. Time of our lives.
Marilyn Monroe: The brightest star in the Hollywood universe all through the ‘50s and into the ‘60s. She’s been gone all these years, but still remains the star of so many Baby Boom moments – both on-screen and off.
John Belushi: Anyone who saw him on Saturday Night Live knows exactly why he had to be included. This was a tough clearance to arrange. Big thank you to two women: LeeAnn at NBC who sparked to this project and worked with us to make this happen. And a very special thank you to John’s widow, Judi Belushi Pisano, who was kind and excited and a complete pleasure to work with.
– Brian Hersch
