I recently learned quite a bit more about Goldwater from this source and wanted to include it, hence the final section. I intend to avoid caricatures of the man any which way: https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/goldwater-uncut-6402215
A Time For Greatness: The Alternate Presidency of John F. Kennedy and beyond
- Thread starter PickledFish
- Start date
Fantastic chapter! Great to see Whitlam winning in Australia! Go Gough 
Nice to see Goldwater spending time with Jack Kennedy. The ending was a bit ominous but hopefully next year is better. Great job
Nice to see Goldwater spending time with Jack Kennedy. The ending was a bit ominous but hopefully next year is better. Great job My next update will be pop culture related! I haven't done one in a while so I'm very much looking forward to it - the things I intend to cover thus far are Bond, Star Trek, and the world heavyweight title/Muhammad Ali (who has not just up and vanished since his loss) but I am open to suggestions of things people would like to see.
I, for one, would definitely smoke doobies with Jack Kennedy and Barry Goldwater.
We certainly don’t get colorful characters like this anymore. Fascinating read!
It gives me a interesting feeling seeing political rivals like Goldwater and Kennedy being friends like this.
Hum... taking the Capitol and 'winning' in North Vietnam are two very different things.
Don't think you are getting any really radical domestic reform done Prez Goldwater. I think you are going down as the 'war' President.
I'd like to point out it would not be the "Privy Council in England" but the 'Privy Council of Britain' - the Chamber is not exclusively English.
Nice that Labour won again in Australia though, that should have some ramifications. Queen Elizabeth should go on a tour PDQ.
Prime Minister Hugh Gaitskell - RIP.
Hope Brown does not have to preside over a crisis until the new Party Leader is picked.
It is nice that Goldwater and Kennedy are good friends, I certainly think it will help Goldwater as time goes on.
Good chapter! @PickledFish
Don't think you are getting any really radical domestic reform done Prez Goldwater. I think you are going down as the 'war' President.
I'd like to point out it would not be the "Privy Council in England" but the 'Privy Council of Britain' - the Chamber is not exclusively English.
Nice that Labour won again in Australia though, that should have some ramifications. Queen Elizabeth should go on a tour PDQ.
Prime Minister Hugh Gaitskell - RIP.
Hope Brown does not have to preside over a crisis until the new Party Leader is picked.
It is nice that Goldwater and Kennedy are good friends, I certainly think it will help Goldwater as time goes on.
Good chapter! @PickledFish
Pop Culture in 1969
Pop Culture in 1969
BondIn December of 1969, the next James Bond adventure, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was released and the films two producers, Saltzman and Broccoli, breathed a sigh of relief. The film had been extremely difficult to put together due in large part to the franchise’s star, Sean Connery, outright refusing to be in any more Bond films.
“I hate James Bond,” he was widely quoted as saying in the media, “I’d kill him if I could.”
The studio was insistent on getting him, however, and offered a record $5 million payday. Connery accepted on one condition – James Bond had to die.
The condition was agreed to, and re-writes to the script followed.
The film would centre around a love story between Bond (Connery) and Contessa Teresa di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg), and a plot by Ernesto Blofeld (Telly Savalas) to poison the world’s livestock and agricultural produce using his brainwashed Angels of Death.
The film largely followed the book it was based on of the same name, until the ending.
James and Teresa marry and are driving away to their honeymoon, with Bond saying they have “all the time in the world”. However, his car is then rammed off the road, down a cliff and into a rocky embankment of a nearby beach.
Blofeld and his henchwoman, Irma Bunt (Ilse Steppat), then fire machine guns into the car, but Bond is able to carry Teresa away. However, Teresa dies in his arms from her injuries, and Bond weeps silently before steeling himself for revenge.
Blofeld and Bunt move in ensure their adversary is dead, but Bond sneaks behind them, snaps Bunt’s neck and attempts to murder Blofeld.
In the ensuing struggle with Bond, Blofeld is able to stab 007 with a poisoned knife. Proclaiming victory, he begins to gloat.
“Goodbye Bond,” he taunted, “you’ll be seeing your wife soon.”
This enrages Bond, who gets a second wind and strangles Blofeld, saying “Die Blofeld! Die!”
Bond strangles Blofeld to death, takes one last look at Teresa’s body and collapses, seemingly dead himself.
The credits then roll, with All The Time In The World by Louis Armstrong playing.
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Upon release, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was divisive to critics and audiences, who were split as to the final twist - Bond's apparent death. But what was not in doubt in retrospect was the overall quality of the film – due to an engaging plot, strong characterisation, Connery and Rigg’s chemistry and respective performance, as well as the presence of a strong villain, many to this day believe OHMSS to be one of the very best Bond films.
Despite its divisive ending, the film would gross an astronomical $88,000,000, at the domestic box office, a high for the series, as many flocked to the cinema to see the film where Bond died. To add to the believably, the filmmakers agreed to omit the traditional “James Bond will return” message in the end credits. It fared similarly well in international markets, making a little over $90,000,000.
The $178 million overall box office take remains to this day the strongest performance of any Bond film ever, adjusted for inflation.
Given this runaway success, they were of course planning on making another Bond film, with a new actor. There were questions of who could succeed Connery, but the people behind the Bond franchise were sure that the character would succeed even without Connery in the role.
The question was, however, who was next?
But the Bond license had one more major announcement to make before that question was answered. On Christmas Eve, 1969, it was announced that former President John F. Kennedy had penned a deal with the Fleming estate and the Jonathan Cape publishing firm to write and release an official Bond continuation novel.
The yet untitled novel was scheduled for release sometime in 1972, and John F. Kennedy, a long time Bond fan, spoke enthusiastically about his involvement. The American public were intrigued, while the British public were somewhat apprehensive. But regardless of one’s opinion, much like the ending to OHMSS, it certainly produced electricity and lively opinions on both sides.
It was a new era for James Bond in more ways than one, and the future looked bright.
Heavyweight division
Following the climactic battle between Frazier and Ali the previous year, the new champion was in no hurry to adopt the crazy schedule he had while coming up.
In April, he knocked out Jerry Quarry in round 8 to retain the belt after struggling initially. Rather than wilt in the face of pressure, Quarry came at Frazier with everything he had until Smokin’ Joe was able to down in multiple times with his famous left hook.
His second and final fight in that same year was in October against the incredibly tough Argentinian heavyweight Oscar Bonavena. In a back-and-forth battle, Frazier eventually triumphed with a 15 round unanimous decision. Despite enduring a vicious beating, Bonavena survived until the final belt, losing a gruelling, hard-fought decision.
In comparison, the former champion, Muhammad Ali, fought 3 times in 1969 in February, September and December.
His first fight against fringe contender Al Jones. Much was made in the media of Ali’s weight gain from the previous year. While hardly obese, he had a more pronounced belly and love handles. He seemed a little sluggish in the fight, especially early, before knocking out Jones in round 10.
Ali’s next fight against Gregorio Manuel Peralta was held in Argentina itself and proved to be an exciting bout. Both men, energised by a rabid and excited crowd, gave everything they had in a back-and-forth bout that saw Ali win a competitive decision. Ali looked better in this bout, having lost weight and came in more dialled in both offensively and defensively.
That momentum carried through to Ali’s next bout against Mac Foster. Ali was able to force Foster to retire on his stool after the 11th round due to a mixture of exhaustion, cuts, and the severe beating he observed from a surging former champion.
Following the bout, Ali got on the microphone and demanded a rematch with Frazier.
“Smokin’ Joe got a lucky decision last time,” Ali began, “But next time I’ll show that I am the true champion when I give the fans a show and KO Smokin’ Joe.”
However, there was an alternative challenger by the conclusion of 1969.
Former champion Sonny Liston was undefeated since losing to Muhammad Ali in their 1965 rematch. He’d won 14 straight victories, all by KO or TKO against lesser opposition. In December of 1969, he had finally taken a step up in competition against Leotis Martin.
Martin was a skilled, top 10 heavyweight and the two would contend for the inaugural North American Boxing Federation Heavyweight championship. Liston dominates early, knocking Martin down in the 4th round. However, Liston began to fade late, and Martin began to pour on the pressure.
Liston barely survives a 9th round knockdown to make it to the 10th, but Martin began showing wear-and-tear from the bout. Liston rallies in the 10th to land a series of jabs to Martin’s eye, and Martin takes a knee to recover. His eye is closed shut, and the doctor, concerned for Martin’s long-term health and safety, stops the bout at the end of the 10th.
This ending is controversial, but less so after it is revealed that Martin suffered a detached retina during the bout and would never box again.
Sonny Liston was now a legitimate contender for the Heavyweight title once again, and Joe Frazier was eager to book the bout in the new year. Muhammad Ali would have to wait.
Star Trek
In October of 1969 a television program premiered which changed the face of television – Star Trek.
The program had gone through a tumultuous development following the conclusion of The Lieutenant, one of NBC’s top-rated shows. While the network had complete faith in Gene Roddenberry and gave him what amounted blank cheque for his project, getting the cast together was proving more troublesome than he had anticipated.
Several actors were considered for the lead. Robert Vaughn, the lead of The Lieutenant, was favoured by NBC Executives rather than Roddenberry to play Kirk, but Vaughn too turned them down – he intended to run for Connecticut’s Senate seat up for grabs in 1970. The incumbent, Thomas J. Dodd was a Democrat who had been embroiled in corruption charges relating to misspent campaign funds for personal use. As a result, in 1967 Dodd had become the first person censured by US Senate since Joseph McCarthy. Furthermore, Dodd’s alleged alcoholism was another criticism regularly used by political opponents. As a result, Vaughn, a liberal Democrat, saw an opening for himself to run in the primary and claim the seat.
Roddenberry’s first choice for James T. Kirk, William Shatner, ruled himself out due to other commitments – he had played Napoleon Solo, the lead in The Man From U.N.C.L.E for several years until that show’s conclusion and did not want to jump into another long running episodic TV show so quickly. Shatner had recently portrayed the main antagonist, Harvey Two Face in the second motion picture film based on the Batman television series, Batman: Two-Face Attacks! and had a spate of offers to appear in various films in 1970. With so many options available to him, and a semi-regular role as a villain on Batman, Shatner did not want to commit to another long running television series.
The studio and Roddenberry nearly chose Shatner’s co-star on The Man From U.N.C.L.E, David McCallum, who portrayed Illya Kuryakin in that series. McCallum was an incredibly popular star, having received more fan mail than any other actor in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's history for his portrayal of the Russian agent.
However, NBC executives wanted someone else for the role - The Saint’s Roger Moore. Though he was unmistakably a modern British icon, it was wrong to say that Moore’s stardom was limited only to the United Kingdom. The Saint had performed very on NBC in the United States, ending its run in February of 1969 with both trans-Atlantic prime time scheduling and color episodes. With Moore now free from his commitment on The Saint, the studio pushed hard to make Moore the star of Star Trek.
Roddenberry was initially skeptical, but after meeting Moore, he decided the British actor had all the qualities they were looking for in a Kirk – charisma, sex appeal, humor, and a certain twinkle in his eye. Moore too was skeptical on the prospect of starring in a foreign science fiction television show, but after meeting with Roddenberry and hearing his vision for the show, Moore was convinced this was more than some B-grade shlock. Against the pleas of many within his inner-circle, Moore agreed to play Captain James Kirk in Star Trek. Certain elements of the character would need to be re-written to reflect Moore’s distinct Britishness, but Roddenberry was sure he would have appeal in the United States as well.
Leonard Nimoy would be cast as Spock, Kirk’s half human, half Vulcan second-in-command, while Elizabeth Ashley would play Dr. Leslie "Bones" McCoy, the chief medical officer of the Enterprise. The casting of a woman in a traditionally male role was the exact sort of progressive decision that Star Trek would be known for.
David McCallum would eventually be cast in a role on Star Trek – that of Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, the Second Officer and Chief Engineer of the Enterprise. The casting of McCallum would immediately elevate the character to that of one of the main focuses of the show.
Other cast members included Gloria Foster as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, George Takei as Hikaru Sulu and René Auberjonois as Ensign Pavel Chekov.
The show was an instant hit, with interest in space travel at an all-time high with the success of the Apollo mission at the beginning on the year. However, this was more than just a standard space faring sci-fi show. In its first season alone, the program touched on themes of race, gender, mutually assured destruction, colonialism, terrorism, artificial intelligence, addiction, labor unions and more.
As a result, many people, particularly more liberally minded people, were attracted to the show’s vision of a more positive future free from scarcity, poverty and discrimination. The likes of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King were two early fans of the show.
With the runaway success of the first season, it was clear that Star Trek had become something of a cultural touchstone of its time, and embodied the spirit of a more liberal minded, progressive 1960s that many felt had been lost with the election of Barry Goldwater. Fans of the show eagerly awaited and was to come for the series.
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John F Kennedy writing a James Bond novel, Roger Moore playing James Kirk? It's something different and I like it. Good changes!
I’m guessing this butterflies his involvement in the James Bond series.
Also, how’s Doctor Who going ITTL?
About the same as IOTL. I'll admit to not caring for the series much at all, so it's not something I ever intended to focus on.
marktaha
Banned
Connery ungrateful. Original novel From Russia with Love ended rather like that.
Foster not ready 1969. Martin a tragedy.
Connery does On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and Bond dies - well if they where going to establish that 'James Bond' is a cover name that can be applied to any agent, now is the time!
$178 million overall box office for a Bond film in 1969? Dammm that is a huge return.
Whomever steps into Connery's shoes now faces a massive uphill task. Not sure Moore is up to that. Perhaps someone younger and more dynamic?
JFK writing a Bond book? He'll be turning up on Star Trek next!
Star Trek - oh boy was there a lot in here...
Roddenberry getting a 'blank cheque' means the ship, SFX, aliens etc are going to be stepped up from OTL. Are the Klingons ridged from the start? Do we see more than one Starfleet class of ship?
Shatner as Two Face? Well the campy Batman series might be 'fun' for him, but I'd imagine him after meaty serious roles. Also a 2nd movie spin off? Batman: Two-Face Attacks! sounds very interesting.
"Moore agreed to play Captain James Kirk in Star Trek" - now there is a sentence I never thought I would read!
I was sceptical, but yeah Moore could probably do the role justice.
I can see some Execs worried about a Brit helming the show, but I guess the air of sophistication the accent brings will help. Plus Moore can definitely do action.
Nimoy still gets the Spock nod. Well good!
"Elizabeth Ashley would play Dr. Leslie "Bones" McCoy" - well that is a bold decision, one I kinda like. Hope DeForest still turns up in a regular role somewhere.
David McCallum would certainly give Scotty a brooding intensity. I wonder how Scottish he can get with the accent considering he never lived much up there despite being Scots by birth.
"Gloria Foster as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura" - good the ship has a diverse cast in 1969.
"George Takei as Hikaru Sulu" - no complaints here.
"René Auberjonois as Ensign Pavel Chekov." - he was quite baby faced in 1969 so I can see this working. Wonder how his Russian accent is?
Is Star Trek picked up without the 2nd pilot here- is the pilot still The Cage, or is Where No Man Has Gone Before, and is that the opening show of the season or is it bounced to 3 like OTL in favour of The Man Trap?
What delayed Star Trek from 1966 until 1969?
Great chapter!
$178 million overall box office for a Bond film in 1969? Dammm that is a huge return.
Whomever steps into Connery's shoes now faces a massive uphill task. Not sure Moore is up to that. Perhaps someone younger and more dynamic?
JFK writing a Bond book? He'll be turning up on Star Trek next!
Star Trek - oh boy was there a lot in here...
Roddenberry getting a 'blank cheque' means the ship, SFX, aliens etc are going to be stepped up from OTL. Are the Klingons ridged from the start? Do we see more than one Starfleet class of ship?
Shatner as Two Face? Well the campy Batman series might be 'fun' for him, but I'd imagine him after meaty serious roles. Also a 2nd movie spin off? Batman: Two-Face Attacks! sounds very interesting.
"Moore agreed to play Captain James Kirk in Star Trek" - now there is a sentence I never thought I would read!
I was sceptical, but yeah Moore could probably do the role justice.
I can see some Execs worried about a Brit helming the show, but I guess the air of sophistication the accent brings will help. Plus Moore can definitely do action.
Nimoy still gets the Spock nod. Well good!
"Elizabeth Ashley would play Dr. Leslie "Bones" McCoy" - well that is a bold decision, one I kinda like. Hope DeForest still turns up in a regular role somewhere.
David McCallum would certainly give Scotty a brooding intensity. I wonder how Scottish he can get with the accent considering he never lived much up there despite being Scots by birth.
"Gloria Foster as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura" - good the ship has a diverse cast in 1969.
"George Takei as Hikaru Sulu" - no complaints here.
"René Auberjonois as Ensign Pavel Chekov." - he was quite baby faced in 1969 so I can see this working. Wonder how his Russian accent is?
Is Star Trek picked up without the 2nd pilot here- is the pilot still The Cage, or is Where No Man Has Gone Before, and is that the opening show of the season or is it bounced to 3 like OTL in favour of The Man Trap?
What delayed Star Trek from 1966 until 1969?
Great chapter!