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Monday, August 11, 2014

Liberia shuts border to stop Ebola

President: The few points of entry still open will use testing centers, preventive measuresTwo Americans are in treatment for Ebola infectionThis is the deadliest outbreak in the history of the disease

(CNN) -- The deadliest Ebola outbreak in history continues to plague West Africa as leaders scramble to stop the virus from spreading.

Over the weekend, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf closed most of the country's borders. The few points of entry that are still open will have Ebola testing centers and will implement preventive measures, she said. The president also placed restrictions on public gatherings and ordered hotels, restaurants and other entertainment venues to play a 5-minute video on Ebola safety.

"No doubt the Ebola virus is a national health problem," Sirleaf said in a statement. "It attacks our way of life, with serious economic and social consequences. As such we are compelled to bring the totality of our national resolve to fight this scourge."

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A 10-year-old boy whose mother was killed by the Ebola virus walks with a doctor from the aid organization Samaritan's Purse after being taken out of quarantine Thursday, July 24, in Monrovia, Liberia. Health officials say an Ebola outbreak centered in West Africa is the deadliest ever. As of July 20, some 1,093 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia are thought to have been infected by Ebola since its symptoms were first observed four months ago, according to the World Health Organization.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":true,"x":4,"y":1,"pos":1,"title":"Ebola outbreak in West Africa"}

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In this photo provided by Samaritan's Purse, Dr. Kent Brantly, left, treats an Ebola patient in Monrovia. On Saturday, July 26, the North Carolina-based group said Brantly tested positive for the disease and was being treated at a hospital in Monrovia.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":4,"y":1,"pos":3,"title":"Ebola outbreak in West Africa"}

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Photos: Ebola outbreak in West Africa As of July 20, the World Health Organization had confirmed 224 cases of Ebola in Liberia, including 127 deaths. Overall, Ebola has killed at least 660 people in West Africa. There were 45 new cases reported in the region between July 18 and July 20 alone.

Ebola: Fast Facts

Health officials are worried about the virus spreading to other countries in the region. On Friday, a Liberian man with Ebola died in Lagos, Nigeria, Nigerian Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said.

The man arrived at Lagos' airport on July 20 and was isolated at a local hospital after exhibiting common Ebola symptoms. He told officials he had no direct contact with anyone who had the virus.

On Monday, Arik Air, one of Nigeria's biggest airlines, suspended operations into the country's capital, Monrovia, and another city called Freetown, according to AllAfrica.com.

Meanwhile, American health care workers helping to fight this deadly disease abroad have put themselves at risk.

Dr. Kent Brantly, a 33-year-old Indianapolis resident, had been treating Ebola patients in Monrovia when he started to feel sick.

Brantly works with Samaritan's Purse, a Christian international relief agency founded by evangelists Franklin Graham and Robert Pierce. He has been the medical director for the Ebola Consolidated Case Management Center in Monrovia and has been working to help Ebola patients since October.

Deadliest ever outbreak: what you need to know

After testing positive for Ebola, he went into treatment at a Samaritan's Purse isolation center at ELWA Hospital in Paynesville City, Monrovia.

Another American working with Samaritan's Purse has also been infected. Nancy Writebol from Charlotte, North Carolina, works with Serving in Mission, or SIM. She and her husband used to work with orphans and other children who struggle with poverty-related issues but expanded their efforts to take on the complex medical problems in Monrovia.

She had teamed up with the staff from Samaritan's Purse to help fight the Ebola outbreak in Monrovia when she got sick. She too is undergoing treatment.

Other health care workers are getting sick.

Another doctor who has played a key role in fighting the outbreak in Sierra Leone, Dr. Sheik Humarr Kahn, is sick. He is being treated by the French aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres --also known as Doctors Without Borders -- in Kailahun, Sierra Leone, according to a representative of that agency.

Kahn had been overseeing treatment of Ebola patients in isolation units at Kenema Government Hospital, which is about 185 miles (298 kilometers) east of the capital, Freetown.

In a statement, Sierra Leone's minister of health and sanitation called the doctor a national hero for the sacrifices he has made in trying to stop the outbreak.

Doctors and medical staff are particularly vulnerable to the virus since it spreads through exposure to bodily fluids from the infected. It can also spread through contact with an object contaminated by an infected person's bodily fluids.

The disease is not contagious until symptoms appear. Symptoms of Ebola include fever, fatigue and headaches. They can appear two to 21 days after infection, meaning many who are sick don't even know it.

The early symptoms then can progress to vomiting, diarrhea, impaired kidney and liver function, and sometimes internal and external bleeding.

Leaders in the international health community characterize the Ebola epidemic as the "deadliest ever."

While the World Health Organization has mobilized to fight the epidemic, it can be a difficult one to stop. It is so highly infectious that it typically kills 90% of those who catch it. The death rate in this particular outbreak had dropped to roughly 60% since it has been treated early in many cases. There is, however, no Ebola vaccination.

Is it time to test experimental vaccines?

With the announcement that Liberia is closing its borders, the country also instituted a new travel policy to inspect and test all outgoing and incoming passengers. The hope is that such measures will stop the spread of the virus.

There has never been a confirmed case of Ebola spreading to a developed country, said Kamiliny Kalahne, an epidemiologist with Doctors Without Borders.

"This is because people generally transmit the infection when they are very sick, have a high fever and a lot of symptoms -- and in these situations, they don't travel.

"And even if they do get sick once they travel to a developed country, they will be in a good hospital with good infection control, so they are very unlikely to infect others," she said.

"This is not the great plague," CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta said after his trip to the region in the spring. "But it is a pretty formidable killer."

"The grim reality is it often kills so quickly, people don't have time to spread it."

Watch: Dr. Gupta dispels Ebola myths

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Plane kills man walking on beach

NEW: Witness: "I didn't hear anything. ... I thought the motor must've went out"Small plane ditches onto Florida beach, killing a man and injuring his daughterThe pilot radioed that he was unable to make it back to the airportDaughter, 9, airlifted to hospital

(CNN) -- A Georgia man was killed and his daughter critically injured Sunday when an airplane struck them as they walked along a Florida beach.

Sarasota County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Wendy Rose said Venice Municipal Airport officials reported a plane in distress Sunday afternoon.

The pilot of a 1972 Piper Cherokee radioed that he would be unable to make it back to the airport and that he was instead going to attempt a landing on Caspersen Beach, just to the south.

The plane landed and hit Ommy Irizarry, 36, and his daughter, Oceana, 9, about 2:45 p.m., according to a statement from the Federal Aviation Administration.

$Sarasota County Sheriff\'s Office officials look over a plane that hit a father and daughter Sunday on a Florida beach.$ Sarasota County Sheriff's Office officials look over a plane that hit a father and daughter Sunday on a Florida beach.Irizarry died on the scene. His daughter was airlifted to All Children's Hospital and is believed to be in critical condition, according to the sheriff's office.

"The dad looked very bad," witness Zack Arceneaux told CNN affiliate Bay News 9. "They were performing CPR on him. He had blood on his face. It looked like he wasn't breathing at all."

"It's the last thing you'd expect," Arceneaux said to CNN affiliate WTSP. "I didn't hear anything. Actually I thought the motor must've went out. I didn't hear anything. Figured, maybe it ran out of fuel and just hit them and they weren't ready."

The pilot, Karl Kokomoor and his passenger, David Theen, were uninjured. Both are from Englewood, Florida.

The National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA are investigating.

Pilot jumps from his own damaged plane

CNN's Joe Sutton contributed to this report

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Boy, 3, smashes Jeep into house

A 3-year-old crashed a Jeep into a home in Myrtle Creek, Oregon July 22, 2014.3-year-old was at home in Oregon under his mother's watchHe found the keys, got inside the car and knocked it out of gear, police say The Jeep rolled and hit a neighbor's homePolice: Toddler then went home and watched "cartoons like nothing ever happened"

(CNN) -- A diaper-clad toddler crashed a Jeep Wrangler into a neighbor's house in Oregon -- then scampered home, sat on the couch and watched cartoons, authorities said.

The 3-year-old boy was under his mother's watch in Myrtle Creek when the incident happened last week, Police Officer Kevin Taggart said.

She was not paying attention to him and he found the keys, got inside the car and knocked it out of gear, according to Taggart.

A witness called 911 after seeing the child rolling by in the Jeep before hitting the house. Sensing he was in trouble, the toddler jumped out of the car and dashed home.

"An officer went to the boy's home -- and the boy was sitting on the couch watching cartoons like nothing ever happened," Taggart said.

Police cited the mother for failure to supervise the child following the incident Tuesday. The homeowner and the child's mother have made a civil arrangement on the repair to the house, authorities said.

"We want to encourage parents to remember that children are very crafty in finding ways to get in trouble and for parents to be very vigilant," Taggart said.

Before the accident, an officer saw the boy sitting in the car and warned a relative to keep an eye on him, authorities said.

At the time, when the officer knocked on door, a relative watching the child was sleeping.

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Remember 1974? The music sucked

Forty years ago, chaos reigned in pop culture - CNN.comvar cnnCurrTime=new Date(1406574680000),cnnCurrHour=15,cnnCurrMin=11,cnnCurrDay="Mon",cnnIsIntl=false,clickID=211911,cnn_cvpAdpre="",cnnCVPAdSectionT1="cnn.com_entertainment_t1",cnnCVPAdSectionInPage="cnn.com_entertainment_inpage",cnnShareUrl="%2F2014%2F07%2F21%2Fshowbiz%2F1974-terrible-music-great-movies%2Findex.html",cnnShareTitle="Forty%20years%20ago%2C%20chaos%20reigned%20in%20pop%20culture",cnnShareDesc="",cnnFirstPub=new Date('Monday Jul 21 12:54:07 EDT 2014'),cnnSectionName="entertainment",sectionName="entertainment",cnnSubSectionName="ent : news",cnnPageType="Story",cnnBrandingValue="default";cnnPartnerValue="";cnnOmniBranding="",cnnAuthor="Todd Leopold, CNN",disqus_category_id=207582,disqus_identifier="/2014/07/21/showbiz/1974-terrible-music-great-movies/index.html",disqus_title="Forty years ago, chaos reigned in pop culture",cnn_edtnswtchver="www",cnnIsStoryPage=true,cnn_metadata = {},cnn_shareconfig = [];cnn_metadata = {section: ["entertainment","ent : news"],friendly_name: "Forty years ago, chaos reigned in pop culture",template_type: "content",template_type_content: "gallery",business: {cnn: {page: {author: "Todd Leopold, CNN",broadcast_franchise: "",video_embed_count: "0",publish_date: "2014/07/21",photo_gallery: "Forty years ago, chaos reigned in pop culture"},video: {video_player: ""}}},user: {authenticated: "",segment: {age: "",zip: "",gender: ""}}};if (typeof(cnnOmniPartner) !== "undefined") {if (cnn_metadata.template_type_content === "") {cnn_metadata.template_type_content = "partner";}}var photo_gallery = "Forty years ago, chaos reigned in pop culture";if(typeof CNN==='undefined'){var CNN=Class.create();}CNN.expandableMap=[''];function _loginOptions(){};var disqus_url=(typeof disqus_identifier!=='undefined') ? 'http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/21/showbiz/1974-terrible-music-great-movies/index.html' : 'http://www.cnn.com'+location.pathname;cnnad_newTileIDGroup(['607x95_adlinks','336x280_adlinks']); CNN Entertainment

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There was something draining about 1974. Richard Nixon resigned the presidency; the final pullout from Vietnam was in sight. The pop charts often reflected this fatigue with some of the most criticized music of the rock era -- not least <a href='http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/music_box/2005/03/goodbye_papa_its_hard_to_die.html' target='_blank'>Terry Jacks'

a Jacques Brel tune with lyrics by Rod McKuen. It spent three weeks at No. 1 in March." border="0" height="360" id="articleGalleryPhoto001" style="margin:0 auto;" width="640"/>There was something draining about 1974. Richard Nixon resigned the presidency; the final pullout from Vietnam was in sight. The pop charts often reflected this fatigue with some of the most criticized music of the rock era -- not least Terry Jacks' "Seasons in the Sun," a Jacques Brel tune with lyrics by Rod McKuen. It spent three weeks at No. 1 in March.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":true,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":1,"title":"1974: A year of pop culture chaos"}

Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods'<a href='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqfIKqW2ZPo' target='_blank'>

about a woman begging her lover not to volunteer for the military, hit No. 1 in June." border="0" height="360" id="articleGalleryPhoto002" style="margin:0 auto;display:none" width="640"/>Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods' "Billy, Don't Be a Hero," about a woman begging her lover not to volunteer for the military, hit No. 1 in June.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":2,"title":"1974: A year of pop culture chaos"}

Paper Lace, a British band that had done the original version of

"The Night Chicago Died," set on "the East Side of Chicago" (which most people would think of as Lake Michigan, though some of the city has used that term). Both "Billy" and "Chicago" were written by the same songwriters: Mitch Murray and Peter Callander." border="0" height="360" id="articleGalleryPhoto003" style="margin:0 auto;display:none" width="640"/>Paper Lace, a British band that had done the original version of "Billy, Don't Be a Hero," topped the U.S. charts themselves in August with "The Night Chicago Died," set on "the East Side of Chicago" (which most people would think of as Lake Michigan, though some of the city has used that term). Both "Billy" and "Chicago" were written by the same songwriters: Mitch Murray and Peter Callander.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":3,"title":"1974: A year of pop culture chaos"}

Maria Muldaur hit the Top 10 with <a href='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt2O4Y_sQ98&feature=kp' target='_blank'>

a romantic song that sent camels to bed and maintained that cactus "is our friend." " border="0" height="360" id="articleGalleryPhoto004" style="margin:0 auto;display:none" width="640"/>Maria Muldaur hit the Top 10 with "Midnight at the Oasis," a romantic song that sent camels to bed and maintained that cactus "is our friend." cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":4,"title":"1974: A year of pop culture chaos"}

2006 CNN.com survey of the worst songs of all time. What a lovely way to say how much you love me, indeed." border="0" height="360" id="articleGalleryPhoto005" style="margin:0 auto;display:none" width="640"/>Paul Anka hit No. 1 in late August with "(You're) Having My Baby," a song that won a 2006 CNN.com survey of the worst songs of all time. What a lovely way to say how much you love me, indeed.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":5,"title":"1974: A year of pop culture chaos"}

But 1974's music wasn't all bad -- far from it. Stevie Wonder was at his peak. In 1974 he put out the Grammy-winning "Fulfillingness' First Finale" album and hit No. 1 with "You Haven't Done Nothin'." cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":6,"title":"1974: A year of pop culture chaos"}

Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell hit the Top 10 with her single "Help Me" from her album "Court and Spark," which remains Mitchell's best-selling work.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":7,"title":"1974: A year of pop culture chaos"}

Elton John mania, which dominated the 1970s, continued in 1974, helped by his late 1973 album "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road." That No. 1 album produced a 1974 No. 1 single, "Bennie and the Jets." John also released the No. 1 album "Caribou" in 1974.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":8,"title":"1974: A year of pop culture chaos"}

The Three Degrees were one of many acts on the influential Philadelphia International Records who had hits in 1974, including "TSOP" (in which they backed up MFSB) and "When Will I See You Again."cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":9,"title":"1974: A year of pop culture chaos"}The Ramones played their first show in 1974, helping pave the way for the punk/New Wave movement that produced Blondie, Talking Heads and Patti Smith. In August, not far into their career, they played CBGB for the first time and soon became regulars.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":10,"title":"1974: A year of pop culture chaos"}

1974 is considered a great year for movies. "The Godfather Part II," starring Al Pacino, was a huge success at the box office -- and won best picture at the Academy Awards. cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":11,"title":"1974: A year of pop culture chaos"}

Mel Brooks directed two of the year's most popular films: "Blazing Saddles," with Gene Wilder, left, and Cleavon Little; and "Young Frankenstein."cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":12,"title":"1974: A year of pop culture chaos"}

"Chinatown," directed by Roman Polanski and starring Jack Nicholson, left, and Faye Dunaway, was a well-received detective story about corruption in 1940s Los Angeles.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":13,"title":"1974: A year of pop culture chaos"}

Albert Finney played Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie's famed detective, in an all-star version of "Murder on the Orient Express." The film was directed by Sidney Lumet.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":14,"title":"1974: A year of pop culture chaos"}

"The Towering Inferno," starring Paul Newman, left, and Steve McQueen, was the biggest of the year's disaster films. Others included "Earthquake" and "Airport 1975."cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":15,"title":"1974: A year of pop culture chaos"}

"Benji," about a goodhearted stray dog who saves the lives of two children, was a sleeper hit. It was among the top 10 box-office successes of 1974 and spawned a number of sequels.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":16,"title":"1974: A year of pop culture chaos"}

Another surprise hit was "The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams," starring Dan Haggerty as a frontiersman who becomes pals with a bear. The film was later turned into an NBC TV series.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":17,"title":"1974: A year of pop culture chaos"}

helped pioneer the idea of the wide release." border="0" height="360" id="articleGalleryPhoto0018" style="margin:0 auto;display:none" width="640"/>"The Trial Of Billy Jack," starring Tom Laughlin, was the sequel to the surprise 1971 smash "Billy Jack." It was even more successful at the box office than the first film and helped pioneer the idea of the wide release.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":18,"title":"1974: A year of pop culture chaos"}

"The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" was an early example of the slasher film -- considered so violent at the time that it was dropped from many theaters. Marilyn Burns, Ed Guinn and Gunnar Hansen starred in the work, directed by Tobe Hooper.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":19,"title":"1974: A year of pop culture chaos"}

MGM mined its vaults for musical clips -- including this one of Fred Astaire in "Royal Wedding" -- for "That's Entertainment," touted with the tagline, "Boy, do we need it now." cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":20,"title":"1974: A year of pop culture chaos"}HIDE CAPTION1974: A year of pop culture chaos1974: A year of pop culture chaos1974: A year of pop culture chaos1974: A year of pop culture chaos1974: A year of pop culture chaos1974: A year of pop culture chaos1974: A year of pop culture chaos1974: A year of pop culture chaos1974: A year of pop culture chaos1974: A year of pop culture chaos1974: A year of pop culture chaos1974: A year of pop culture chaos1974: A year of pop culture chaos1974: A year of pop culture chaos1974: A year of pop culture chaos1974: A year of pop culture chaos1974: A year of pop culture chaos1974: A year of pop culture chaos1974: A year of pop culture chaos1974: A year of pop culture chaos<<<

20>>>Event.observe(window,'load',function(){if(typeof(cnn_adbptrackpgalimg) == 'function' && typeof(cnnArticleGallery) != 'undefined'){cnn_adbptrackpgalimg(cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[0].image,"Forty years ago, chaos reigned in pop culture");}});STORY HIGHLIGHTS1974 featured some much-maligned pop songs but great moviesYear was fatiguing, with Nixon, Vietnam finally leaving stagePop was in statis at the time, getting segmented; movies reveled in chaosSome patterns still borne out today

(CNN) -- We had joy. We had fun. We had loathing.

In 2006, this website conducted a highly unscientific survey to find the worst song of all time. One year stood out in its bad-song production: 1974.

That included two of the top five -- Terry Jacks' "Seasons in the Sun" and the runaway top choice, Paul Anka's "Having My Baby" -- and several more leading vote-getters, including Paper Lace's "The Night Chicago Died," Maria Muldaur's "Midnight at the Oasis" and Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods' "Billy, Don't Be a Hero."

Summer rewind: Looking back at 1974

And yet the year wasn't a pop-cultural wasteland. Far from it, as a matter of fact. As a year for movies, 1974 is often ranked as the best since the sainted slate of 1939.

The releases included best picture winner "The Godfather Part II," "Chinatown," Mel Brooks' one-two punch of "Blazing Saddles" and "Young Frankenstein," not to mention disaster movies, revenge flicks, conspiracy thrillers and family features.

It was enough to make you kiss your movie theater while kicking your radio.

These days, that kind of movie mix is almost unimaginable, when studios race to dominate box-office weekend tallies with comic-book blow-'em-ups. And music? Depends whom you ask, though it has certainly splintered over the last four decades.

What gives?

'I think the country was exhausted and traumatized'

It's worth a look back at an unbeloved year.

With President Richard Nixon's resignation, the wind-down of the Vietnam War, the end of the Arab oil embargo, the rotting of New York, bad weather outbreaks and failing governments, it was a fatiguing time.

"I think the country was exhausted and traumatized by all the hubbub that was going on," says UCLA professor Mitchell Morris, the author of "The Persistence of Sentiment," a book about 1970s pop music.

In addition, the events "took the wind out of the sails" of the counterculture, which had been setting musical trends since the mid-1960s, says Georgia Tech performance studies professor Philip Auslander.

Into the breach came escapist and comforting songs appealing to a new generation.

Escapism and comfort often get a bad rap in pop music, Morris observes. If you're a teenager or college student trying to impress your friends and form your own cool identity, the last thing you want to confess is a fondness for "Seasons in the Sun." But that sort of feeling is underrated, he observes.

"One of the important roles that rock 'n' roll has played is it's the music you can use to piss off your parents," he says. "(But) sometimes music is for solace. We don't like things that too obviously want to be liked. But what's wrong with wanting to be liked?"

Reinforcing confusion

At the movie theater, on the other hand, a lot of the hits were anything but comforting. Instead, they reinforced the confusion of the times.

One reason is that the movie counterculture had risen to positions of power while the old studio system was falling apart. Directors such as Francis Ford Coppola and William Friedkin liked to shake up their bosses -- and the audience.

"There's sort of this brief period where Hollywood studios are willing to take a chance on smaller-budget, more independent-minded films, mainly trying to reach out to the countercultural audience that had emerged during the late 1960s," says Rodney Hill, a film professor at Hofstra University.

That audience had made hits of such films as "Easy Rider," "The Last Picture Show," "The French Connection" and "American Graffiti," among many. In fact, Coppola's original "Godfather" (1972) -- a gangster epic with some New Hollywood twists -- was the highest-grossing film ever at the time.

The burst of creativity reached a peak in 1974 with a number of films that were both critically praised and financially successful. Coppola's "Godfather Part II," despite its three-hour-plus running time and complicated structure, was the fifth biggest-grossing film of the year. Roman Polanski's "Chinatown," a hard-boiled Los Angeles mystery, and Martin Scorsese's "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore," about a single mother's attempt to build a life, also finished in the top 20. Brooks' comedies "Blazing Saddles" and "Young Frankenstein," the first as anarchic as the latter was meticulous, were No. 1 and No. 3.

The year's other hits included the conspiracy thriller "The Parallax View," the vigilante drama "Death Wish," Burt Reynolds' prison comedy "The Longest Yard" and the gritty "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three."

'Boy, do we need it now'

However, years are never that simple.

Pop music had more variety than its bad-music boosters might remember.

Joni Mitchell had her biggest success with the album "Court and Spark." Philadelphia International Records had big hits with the Spinners, O'Jays and the eventual theme to "Soul Train," "TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)." Stevie Wonder was at his "Fulfillingness' First Finale" zenith.

And movie audiences still hungered for old-fashioned pleasures.

Disaster films, the all-star forerunners of today's CGI destruct-o-ramas, had both traditional heroes -- Steve McQueen's fire chief in "The Towering Inferno," Charlton Heston's pilot in "Airport 1975" -- and the latest in special effects.

There were also heartwarming, family-friendly hits, including "Benji" and "The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams," two low-budget, no-star successes aimed at Middle America.

The slogan for "That's Entertainment," a hit collection of MGM musical clips, summed up the feeling: "Boy, do we need it now."

But even "That's Entertainment" wasn't without its 1974 ironies, says Peter Alilunas, a media studies professor at the University of Oregon.

"MGM was falling apart. In that movie (the stars are) literally touring the destroyed back lot," he says.

The personal touch

What can we make of all this?

If 1974 did anything, it was lay the groundwork for the future.

The music business was getting shaken up. Disco started making inroads. Punk was on its way, being birthed in downtown New York.

"The paradigms are about to shift," says Georgia Tech's Auslander, pointing out that the year's anomalies wouldn't be anomalous for long.

And movies? They were going the opposite direction, getting ready to embrace the escapist blockbuster and wide openings. First came 1975's "Jaws" and then, two years later, 1977's "Star Wars." The suits reasserted control and the days of the New Hollywood ended.

"The studios are reminded, with one movie we can make as much profit as we do with all those others," says Hofstra's Hill.

The shift continues to play out today. In the blockbuster era, it's become increasingly rare for a dialogue-heavy drama or awards-season favorite to break through.

Tentpoles falling, 'Gravity' rising, money spinning: The year in movies 2013

The music business, on the other hand, has gotten more chaotic and splintered. Whatever: Grumblers can take refuge in micro-genres and, thanks to their Pandora recommendations, never have to listen to the kind of variety AM Top 40 -- which was fading in 1974 -- used to symbolize.

Do you remember rock 'n' roll radio?

That's one kind of personalization. But what 1974 offered was a different kind, says Morris. Great filmmakers were following their muses and doing well. And heard today, even its much-maligned music has its charms, he says.

"There's a sense that (the artists) haven't done their market research," he says. "They don't know what people necessarily want, so you get things that are very quirky at times."

That season, you might say, is all gone.

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