1974 dawned with no hint of its significance. In January, it was just another year. By December, people running around naked in public had become commonplace enough to become, well, boring.
Streaking had been going on at college campuses before that. Princeton was streaked as early as 1970. Notre Dame had a "streaker's Olympics" in 1972. But the fad hit the big time in the spring of 1974, when students at colleges in southern California and Florida were shedding all of their clothes (except for sneakers, of course) and running across their campuses.
Soon, naked people were seen on newscasts, sporting events, parades, and in at least one state legislative session. The "Streaker of the House" interrupted a meeting of the Hawaiian body of lawmakers.
As the year wore on, streakers went for style, rather than mere running. There were bicycling streakers, roller skating streakers, horseback-riding streakers, pogo sticking streakers, the list goes on and on. Even streaking skydivers dropped out of the sky, although wearing a parachute could arguably cross the line of what defines nudity.
Ray Stevens saw the opportunity to cash in on the fad, and did so big time with his song "The Streak." The goofy classic hit #1 that year of 1974.
The University of Georgia was the home of the largest simultaneous streak in history. On March 7 of that year, when it's still quite chilly in Athens, 1,543 students went for a naked run.
Streaking became the hot new activity for the nation's youth. My school superintendent felt worried enough that an announcement was made warning any potential streakers of the very dire consequences they would experience if they should choose to shed their clothing and take off across the Pea Ridge High School campus.
My all-time favorite streaking moment was when the Oscar streaker did his thing that year. I've always been a David Niven fan, but he became my all-time favorite British actor the night the streaker ran in front of him flashing the peace sign on the April 2, 1974 presentations of the 46th Academy Awards. The affable, ever clever Mr. Niven didn't hesitate for a second before stating "Isn't it fascinating to think that probably the only laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping off and showing his shortcomings?"
By the time the weather turned cold in 1974, streaking as a craze had ended. But occasional streakers continue to show up, mainly at big sporting events. European soccer seems to be a popular arena for naked runners these days, if the proliferation of YouTube videos is any indication. And of course streaking, like practically everything else that was done for the joy of it, has been officially sanctioned by Big Business. Nike has a commercial showing a soccer streaker wearing a certain brand of shoes. Care to guess which?
So here's to a fad that kept us distracted from things like Watergate woes one year in the 70's. BTW, if any of you readers ever actually streaked, I'd love to hear about it.
Comments (1)
I remember the steaking fad well. Even in Portland Maine, streaking was a hit. The favorite target? The Maine Mall, Maine’s biggest and only mall at the time. It had only been there about 2.5 years to that time. My family and I (I was 15 at the time) were eating in the York Steak House at the time. We were in the big booth looking out at the main aisle with all the other shops. The Steak House was affordable family fare and it was good, too.
All of a sudden there was a noise and a commotion out there. The doors to the Mall were just out there as the Steak House was the last place at the end/entrance. What we had missed was a streaker going by. He had entered the opposite end maybe 300 to 400 feet down, and tried to go out our end. Security had started to chase as well. The guy had put out his hand/arm and hit the glass and it broke and he fell through. They took him to the hospital. He had severed an important blood vessel and might well have bled to death had they not got him treatment as quickly as they did.
What struck me most then and now was how harmless and silly it was and yet, how upset it got some. Such a stunt now, can get you 3 years in Maine and I have heard of similar elsewhere. While I certainly don’t advocate public nudity, I also find it odd that we should find the human body and its various parts as such a huge (even when they are quite small ;-) theat. The human body a felony crime? I wonder what God would say about that? Isaiah was commanded by God to preach in the nude. Jesus drove demons from a naked man. The some apostles fished naked at times.
What is it about the human body? Well, I see 1974 as a time of more sanity and less fear and a little bit of light hearted devilishness. That is why I long for it so. Now we have gone stark raving mad and lost all good sense and reason. So glad I was a boomer. As young boys of that time, we thought streaking was a laugh. It did not seem to us that there should be so much shame about it all.
It was a great time to be 15!
Posted by Scott I | May 5, 2009 3:54 PM
Posted on May 5, 2009 15:54