HBO in the 70's

Yes Virginia, we had HBO in the 70’s. As you can see above, we got it in August of 1975. Does anybody remember ‘Martha’s Attic?” HBO used to be on only a few hours a day, mostly at night and would ‘sign off’ around 1 or 2 in the morning. They used to go on the air about 3:00 pm and the selections of movies were few. Believe me, you got to know them well.

It really changed the way we saw television, no commercials, a shock at the time. We had a converter box that allowed us to pick up the normal channels 2 thru 13 then you flipped a switch over and up popped HBO. Sex, violence and nudity, though I saw my first nude shot not on HBO, but on Public Television in 1973. A program called ‘Steambath’ with Valerie Perrine. Yep, became a big fan of Valerie Perrine. Couldn’t tell you the plot of that thing but I remember Valerie Perrine.

But who needs Steambath, HBO had The Towering Inferno. And by December of 1975, there program guides were called On Air.