The Mike Curb Congregation

So not to derail the other thread, I have started this one to discuss the wholesome blast from the past. It seems to be impossible to find out more about the members as individuals. The men are rather two dimensional. Apparently Mike Curb was and is very Gay friendly, but the men seem to be chosen to be as sexless as possible. The women and children however...

There is the blond bimbo, Nancy Sinatra look-alike who clearly does not have two brain cells to rub together. She is always in skimpy costumes despite the wholesome nature of the group.

The perky blond with the Pepsodent smile that you know must be head of the PTA, Welcome Wagon, and Church Women's Guild.

The Priscilla Lopez-type character brunette who makes up what she lakes in looks and height with personality.

The redhead baby-gay who has all of the characteristics that one hates in child performers

The chubby kid who starts off with two left feet , no rhythm, and always looking at everyone else's feet, but actually becomes pretty good in time.

The Cindy Brady type blonde in pigtails.

The token Asian.

And of course, Mike Curb himself on the organ.

I think some of the set design is rather creative, unlike the choreography.

Lacks in personality. oops.

Courtesy of R101 from the other thread:

[R97] An interesting thing about Mike Curb, he is a conservative Republican who served as the Lt. Gov. of California and has always been very anti-drugs, but he is also very supportive of gay rights. He worked with Harvey Milk to campaign against the Briggs Initiative and convinced Reagan to oppose it, which helped it to be defeated. He has remained a supporter of gay rights and has supported Nashville Pride for many years.

He was also very cute, as was many male members of the Congregation.

Holy shit, thanks for the horrific nightmare fever night-terror fuel. I am 49 and have no idea what the fuck this is. It seems like the kinda thing weird religious born again people were into in the 1970's, like Jehovah Witnesses, but from Cali and on cocaine, or qualludes. Seem like lude people. Cultish vibe, forced unnatural diversity, but the message is kinda positive. I'm a bridge burner myself.

Is it a cult? The Congregation. I'm too lazy to look it up and don't want to know who the fuck those creepos are.

It was a chorus that had some bubble gum-ish recordings. Curb produced a variety of acts from Sammy Davis, Jr to the Osmonds

If we're talking about 1960s cultish singing groups, let's not forget G in Up With People.

I'm with R2. What the fuck did I just watch??

What I find weird is that I cannot find anything about the individual members. It seems that the only identity is to be Mike Curb. That is rather cult-like.

Mike Curb, former MGM Records president, claimed he dumped several acts from the label in 1970 because they "promoted drug use." However, on investigation, it turned out he hadn't dumped anyone at all until Eric Burdon dared him to, at which point he kicked Burdon off the label. That seems to have been the only act he dumped, and according to Clive Davis, Curb had just been "grandstanding."

Eric Burdon immediately started a program called "Curb the Clap" which he absolutely insisted had nothing to do with Mike Curb and was entirely about raising money for the free clinic, but everyone knew it was a slam on Mike Curb.

I think that's on purpose, r6. Mike Curb himself seems to be the only person online who talks about the group, and when he does, he never lists the members, only the stars that the group sang with on TV shows and such.

R8, exactly. It seems the performers signed something saying that they are not allowed to admit to have being in the group or to talk about the group in any way. I can't image a nondisclosure clause being forever-and-ever. I also can't imagine that in this day of social media one of the cast members hasn't mentioned it or blogged about the experience.

The vocals seem pretty generic so it seems like one of those gigs where you were hired as a stock variety show performers rather than left of an actual singing group. Looks like they were hired dancers but probably just lip syncing something performed by a rando chorus who probably didn’t look like them.

The vocals seem pretty generic, so it seems like one of those gigs where you were hired as a stock variety show performer rather than part of an actual singing group.

[quote] Looks like they were hired dancers

If so, some of them are the *worst* hired dancers ever.

And here is a photo of Mike Curb - a cutie back in the day.

Mike Curb with Karen Carpenter.

Is Mike really playing that organ?

The choreography gets more funky here.

He is now 76 years of age.

I'm 55 and I've never heard of Mike Curb or his Congregation before. Are these clips from a TV special they did or were they recorded for another person's show, like Carol Burnett or something? It's like a transmission from another universe compared to now. I thought I was pretty well-versed in 60s-70s pop culture, but this one totally escaped my attention.

R18; think all of these were from Glenn Campbell's variety show.

He was Lt. Governor of California under Jerry Brown.

Absolutely no one remembers him, which is really weird, but he seems like a huge pain in the ass so maybe some people are specifically refusing to remember him.

I guess, I just like choruses of people singing, because I enjoy MCC performances on youtube. It could be because, like Mike Curb, I grew up in church. Nothing sounds as good to me as an entire congregation joining together in song. Also, when I discovered the clips on youtube, I was very attracted to Mike Curb, even more so when I discovered his position on gay rights. However, he and I would disagree on drugs.

Interesting song, I like it.

This is my favorite performance. I just like the entire racial harmony optimistic vibe. Also, there is something about the fashions that I think just works for men, give any man a late 60s early 70s longish haircut and it ups his sexiness factor by 10.

The guy that does the speaking parts, reminds me of Josh Meyers as Randy on That 70's Show.

Apparently the OP’s video was the theme song to the movie Kelly’s Heroes.

Love the choreography! Right leg forward, right leg back, left leg forward, left leg back. Even then, some of the men weren't very good at it.

The Up With People group also had some kind of TV show. I vaguely remember seeing it as a small child. For some strange reason, I can still remember these dumb lyrics I heard as a child:

Up, up with people!

You meet'em wherever you go.

Up, up with people!

They're the best kind of folks you know!"

Maybe it impressed me as horribly corny even as a child.

The next youtube video that popped up was pretty interesting if you're from the dinosaur generation. It's a composite of every '60s #1 song, month by month. You see the distinct move from one generation to the next in January of 1964. It's an interesting watch. Each music clip is about 10-15 seconds.

The women all look like they were chosen to be cookie-cutter blonde hoochies. It's like if Fox News were a music group.

After leaving MGM Mike Curb started a record label that was a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Its biggest hit was that blight upon the earth, "You Light Up My Life."

R27 Yeah, but his label helped to give us The Judds, so that makes up for it.

I remember this song. Loved it at the time. The “congregation” looks cult-like now and I’m guessing those people on stage were selected to lip-sync to something sung by uglier people. The “choreography” is laughable, especially toward the end where it just looks like random passengers making their way through an airport. But Mike Curb is cute, I still like the song, and I know he did much more in the music business than this. The 60s were so weird, but I loved when AM radio could play this song, followed by Cream or Pink Floyd, followed by Johnny Cash or The Four Tops.

I'm Curbing my enthusiasm for Mike.

I assume he's not anti-gay, as the black guy in the satin orange shirt and flared yoga pants is flaming.

Their song was used in the movie " The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart. Starring a beautiful Don Johnson in 1970

Nashville Pride in 2012 honored Mike Curb as . How often does a PRIDE event honor a straight, former Republican Lt. Gov?

Sorry, it should read "Nashville Pride in 2012 honored Mike Curb as ally of the year"

Now we know where the costumes and choreography for The Brady Bunch Variety Hour came from.

I can’t stop watching the woman who looks like a young Bea Arthur. She's just so enthusiastic.

R36 Now that you mentioned Bea Arthur, a lot of the men's costumes look like Maude's wardrobe. was there some unisex boutique in Hollywood that supplied both?

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