(upbeat music) - [Bruce] The 1970s.

In Utah, a time of passage and a coming of age.

- I think of the 70s as dark.

Drugs and crime and so forth.

It was a difficult time.

- It was on the edge of dangerous, but it moved us forward.

- We were hippies.

We were hippies and we were taking drugs and having sex.

- Pleasure is our number one business.

- [Bruce] It was all happening fast.

First, a growth spurt.

An interstate freeway through the center of the Salt Lake Valley.

An airport that now connected us to the world.

A new downtown, two main street malls, a convention center, a world-class concert hall.

Sprawling research facilities rising on the hillsides, the spawning grounds for soon to come breakthroughs in medical science and computer technology.

- The 1970s, I think was sort of a coming of age in terms of national visibility.

- [Bruce] A professional basketball team with a national championship.

And the arrival of a new team with a name that didn't fit, or did it?

(crowd cheering) There was a wave of new arrivals seeking jobs and places to play.

We felt the changes in ourselves.

What was once a kind of sameness was disappearing into an emerging new culture, propelled by music and art and attitude.

(upbeat music) A different vibe, as they said.

A state already divided by war and civil rights now faced a new struggle over equality.

Some resisted the change, others embraced it.

Through it all, there were moments of growth and revelation.

- And you tell me that I can't hold the priesthood because I'm Black, but you can't give me any definite reason why.

- [Bruce] And some darker times.

High profile crimes and changes in neighborhoods reinforced a sense of fading innocence, leaving the single looming question, what was coming next?

(logo whooshes) (gentle music) - [Announcer] "Utah in the 70s" is made possible in part by the Norman C. and Barbara L. Tanner Charitable Support Trust, and the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation, and by the contributions to PBS Utah from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(gentle music) - [Reporter] The director of the museum at the University of Utah calls it the most significant piece of contemporary art in the Intermountain West.

It's called Spiral Jetty.

New York artist Robert Smithson made it last year.

The jetty is an earth sculpture, taking elements of nature and rearranging them into manmade pieces of art.

- [Bruce] Robert Smithson's iconic earthwork was designed to represent the passage of time and the inevitability of change.

In the 70s, as in the spiral, we don't see a beginning or an end.

We see a journey and what a journey it was.

(Boston's "More Than a Feeling") (rollercoaster rattling) (crowd cheering) ♪ It's more than a feeling ♪ More than a feeling ♪ When I hear that old song they used to play ♪ ♪ More than a feeling ♪ I begin dreaming - I think it was a time when art was very powerful.

(gentle rock music) I think I went to a Pink Floyd concert that was, I'm not sure about this, but I think it was Pink Floyd and The Grateful Dead, and the warmup band was Santana.

I think that was right.

Also, I remember Jimi Hendrix at the Lagoon.

All major musicians, not all, but most of them came through Salt Lake City at one time or another, and the Terrace Ballroom was where it was happening.

I think my ticket to the Pink Floyd concert was five bucks, maybe seven, but probably five.

- It was very clear that there was a cultural change going on, that there were lots of people who wanted to be part of it.

Now, some of it was purely cultural, some of it was political.

It was kind of a mixed situation, but you know, there were people wearing different clothes and experimenting with different lifestyles, all that sort of thing.

- In the 1970s, you were a hippie, you had a hole in your jeans, probably, but you had a hole in your jeans 'cause you didn't have any money.

You had long hair.

It was a political statement, in a way.

I spent a lot of the summertime sitting in the University of Utah fountains, 'cause it was so damn hot.

(laughs) And I could get a tan and kind of flirt with some girls.

We were hippies.

We were hippies, and we were taking drugs, and having sex, and making movies and, damn, I wish we could do that again.

(laughs) - Before the 1960s, there was no notion of pleasure.

You worked five days a week, six days a week, and on Saturday nights, you were allowed to get drunk and bump up and down your wife for reproductive purposes maybe.

There was no notion of pleasure.

Pleasure was something that was owned by the priests and the big guys in the sky.

Well, now pleasure is our number one business.

- The Grateful Dead came to the union building and performed, and I was with these friends of mine, and they went out during intermission and were smoking dope out on the Union grounds right outside the hall.

And I thought, "Is that allowed?

Can you do that?"

(laughs) They said, "Well, no one has stopped us yet."

Imagine that, University of Utah students smoking weed?

Unheard of.

- I grew up here, went to high school here.

If you were in high school and you didn't spend half your life on State Street, then something was wrong with you, and people should have been looking at you way early on that you weren't going to turn out right.

- [Interviewer] Why is everybody driving up and down State Street?

- I don't know.

They've been doing it for the last 14 years that I've been on.

They say it's the thing to do.

♪ Don't misunderstand me - [Interviewer] Whatcha doing?

- We're dragging State.

- [Interviewer] Why?

- Like to.

(laughs) - [Interviewer] Why?

- It's fun.

- Why?

- You pick up boys.

- Uh-huh.

(upbeat rock music) - [Interviewer] What exactly are you doing?

- Right now, we're just enforcing obvious traffic violations on vehicles.

Headlights, driving without their headlights.

Drinking beer in the car, beer on the dashboards.

Improper seating.

- [Interviewer] What do you think's gonna happen when we run outta gas?

- They'll push 'em up and down State Street.

They'll push 'em.

(upbeat rock music) - Salt Lake has a reputation of being, of course, conservative.

But I think when you get a very conservative place that tries to tamp things down, what happens is that a vibrant underground culture will react to that and blossom.

And it was small, but it was definitely going on.

I mean, you had things like the Cosmic Aeroplane bookstore.

- [Reporter] Stephen Jones started the Cosmic Aeroplane a decade ago.

It was what's known as a head shop, a place where those people the world called hippies hung out.

There were a number of places like this.

They all left as the war ended, the draft stopped, and the flower children became corporate executives.

- [Bruce] The 70s vibe carried a creative energy that percolated in a burgeoning art scene.

- Newspapers, primarily "The Salt Lake Tribune," had an art staff that started covering some of these things, a lot of these things, be it RDT, Ririe-Woodbury, Ballet West, Utah Symphony, the bar scene, and theater.

(gentle orchestral music) And there was Salt Lake Acting Company and Utah Shakespeare Festival.

Those were the first two big ones.

- For his own good, for the good of all.

- You get out of here.

- No, I'm not going anywhere.

- You want me to save you?

-Hey you have a piece of nothing, you lame, you.

- [Marcy] It's great.

There's three actors up there doing three of the best performances I've ever seen in Salt Lake, to a script that's better written than any I've ever heard.

It's great!

- Any warnings for the audience?

Should they be prepped for anything when they come?

- They should either be prepared or open.

The language is strong.

- For his own good, for the good of all.

- You get out of here.

- No, I'm not going anywhere.

- [Bruce] Utah also had a small but active community of independent filmmakers, exploring the reaches of cinematic art.

(crowd chatting indistinctly) (dramatic music) - I remember Mort Rosenfeld was the teacher, the only film teacher, quite frankly.

There was only one.

And he said, "This is just like Paris in the 30s," and I thought, "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life."

(laughs) But he was right in a way.

It was.

It was a group of creative people that were feeding off one another and doing really fun, wonderful things.

- [Bruce] There was a somber side to the vibe, brought by opposition to the war in Vietnam.

- As the opposition to the war grew, demonstrations and marches grew as well.

♪ There's something happening here ♪ - It started off with just a few hundred students.

Became daily rallies, protests, marches and things of that nature.

The precipitating event was in May of 1970 when four students at Kent State were killed, when they were shot by the Ohio National Guardsmen.

Overnight, the number of students that were protesting swelled to several thousand.

About 500 students occupied the Park Building, the administration building.

(upbeat music) - [Bruce] As the war came to a close, it became apparent that anti-war activism had evolved, becoming a launching pad for new causes.

- The signs no longer said, "Stop the bombing" or "Give peace a chance," or whatever the sign was.

They would say "Gay liberation," or "Women's rights," or something about the environment.

I just saw it as, you know, where do we go from here?

People had experienced some sense of being able to make the future, to change society, and so people started looking at things that affected them more directly.

- [Bruce] Environmental activism had its start in the 70s.

- 1970 was the first Earth Day, and there was a Earth Day in most college campuses all across the country.

We had the first Earth Day in Utah.

And we organized a whole week actually of activities, teach-ins.

We went and visited schools.

People giving them tips on things, how they could change their behavior to help the environment.

- The first Earth Day was held somewhere in the early 70s, and to hold it in Sugar House Park, we had to go into the U.S.

District Federal Court to get permission, because the Sugar House Park Authority said that per se, as an anti-war movement, we were not responsible and we couldn't have our first Earth Day in the park.

- Pollution is a matter today of life and death.

I don't know about your scientists on this campus, but I have yet to meet a scientist, an ecologist that says that unless we do something about air pollution, we do not have much over 30 years of survival on this planet.

- It was the first Earth Day, April 22nd, 1970.

I remember going to a lecture by a man who talked about how he could see the warming of the planet, he'd been experiencing and studying this since the 50s.

And he just flat out said, "There'll be a time when you will walk down the street and have to wear a mask because the air will be so bad in the city."

And I remember going back to my apartment and just crying, thinking, how is that possible?

What are we gonna do about this?

- [Bruce] It was also the time of the sexual revolution, and the beginnings of movements in favor of gay rights and women's rights.

- My friend Joe Redburn started the Sun Tavern down where the Delta Center is now, and it was the first owned gay bar.

And I went there some, but I was never big into the scene.

When I first sort of figured out that I was, quote, gay, I went to an old bar called the Radio City Lounge.

It didn't really suit me, and I was not much of a bar person, but I remember dancing, and it was illegal for two males to dance in the city at that time, but I danced anyway.

- American culture became more liberal, became more libertarian on sexual matters, more open about sex.

And Utah resisted that, but Utah got pulled along, dragged along behind the national chariot wheels.

- "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" went to court today, a hearing to determine if the movie is obscene was scheduled to be held before City Judge Maurice Jones.

As Judge Jones pointed out, however, the issue is not whether the film is obscene, but what the definition of obscenity is.

- They had theaters downtown Salt Lake City and Ogden, XXX, and those were terribly offensive to a lot of Utahns, so they passed laws against them.

But federal judges said, "Pornography's speech, we have free speech in America."

The cops raided them anyway.

There was one decision where Judge Ellett in a published opinion of the Utah Supreme Court said the federal court decisions should been written by "depraved, mentally deficient, mind warped queers," published an opinion of the Utah Supreme Court.

- Here we have a film that deals with sexual perversion, with sexual acts that are depicted on the film itself, with every kind of brutality and sadism.

And we have a judge in our courts because of the decisions handed down by our Supreme Court saying a jury can't even look at that film and determine whether or not it's pornographic according to our standards.

- Why have you taken action against this particular movie?

There have been many X-rated films out before.

Why this one?

- We felt that really these were beneath the dignity of the citizens of Salt Lake City.

These might be all right for San Francisco, or Chicago, or Los Angeles, but we felt that Salt Lake City was just a little different.

- Now, there's been a charge made that the film has received quite a bit of notoriety, and because of this, it's set all sorts of box office records.

How do you feel about that?

You're largely responsible for giving it this notoriety.

- We expected this, but we felt that a line had to be drawn somewhere.

We have sat back and let these films keep coming in, each one is a little bit worse than the last.

And we just felt that at some point along the line, we had to rebel.

- Have you seen this film?

- No, I haven't.

- They fought over abortion.

They fought over pornography.

They fought over teenage pregnancy, sex education in schools, cable television.

A number of issues that involved sex.

(crowd cheering) - [Bruce] At the forefront of the battle, the Equal Rights Amendment, a change to the nation's constitution that would enshrine equal rights, regardless of gender.

- We started the Utah Women's Political Caucus, and the women came out of the woodwork.

It was a whole movement among women to support women.

It was much smaller here than it was nationally, but it became large internationally, and that's what led to the International Women's Conference.

- ERA is in deep trouble.

(laughs) We are not going to pass it easily.

We've gone two years without a passage.

We passed it in Indiana by two votes.

That's very, very close.

- [Bruce] By the mid 70s, the Equal Rights Amendment had come before the Utah legislature, and 1977 brought the first International Women's Conference, where the ERA would be a leading concern.

- We were so excited to plan it and we thought, who's gonna come?

Well, not very many people.

We'll be lucky if we get a couple.

Maybe we'll make 3000.

- [Bruce] But more than 13,000 showed up, not all of them, however, in support of the cause.

A large group of women, mobilized by their local LDS leaders, was sent to crash the party.

- Each ward should send four women accompanied by one man to this dreadful meeting to protect the sanctity of the family.

(gentle music) And so they came fearful.

And they literally broke down our displays physically.

(gentle music) - [Bruce] Through the decade, demonstrations in favor of the ERA were met with counter demonstrations.

- There was a group that went up to the capitol against it and they called themselves HOTDOGs, Humanitarians Opposed To Degrading Our Girls.

And they wore little plastic Frankfurter pins that had mustard.

You could see the mustard and they... But they were impassioned women mostly from Utah County and rural Utah.

- [Brad] About 100 women showed up for the rally sponsored by a group calling itself the Utah Association of Women.

The rally was also intended to show support for three areas of concern, women's rights without the Equal Rights Amendment, new anti-abortion measures, and the continuation of what was called the traditional family lifestyle.

Several public officials turned out for the rally, including Utah Senator Orrin Hatch.

- I think there's a stability in the Utah women that gives her happiness to be a homemaker, that gives her happiness to be a mother, that gives her plenty of happiness to be a wife, and I think when she has to work, gives her happiness to understand how important that is also.

- The women, most of them Latter-day Saints, they saw the feminist movement generally and the equal rights movement specifically as attacking and demeaning what they were doing with their lives.

And they came and made an effort and they were successful, and it looked as if the legislature might pass it, but the HOTDOGs staved it off.

- [Interviewer] You're not in favor of the ERA?

- No, I'm in favor of the family.

- [Interviewer] What are you in favor of?

- In favor of?

I'm in favor of doing away with all this pervert business.

All the lesbianism and that the ERA is standing for now.

- Well, it was just the beginning here.

I mean, here, a woman's place was in the home.

(crowd cheering) (crowd applauding) - [Bruce] For many women, the feminist movement was a rite of passage, an awakening, and an opportunity.

- I had two years of teaching at the American University in Cairo.

I thought I'll get this job at Utah Tech.

I went there and I interviewed, and the guy said to me, "You know, you are the most qualified for this job without question, but unfortunately, there's a man who's applied."

And I said, that's not the most shocking part.

I said, "Okay, thank you very much" and I walked out.

I totally understood it.

- And thank you.

- That's where we were.

That's the big shocking part of this story.

We totally accepted it.

(gentle upbeat music) 1972, I was going to campaign meetings up in Salt Lake with the Democratic Party, and I meet Frances Farley, and Brenda Hancock, and a whole bunch of other wonderful women, and they are way ahead of me in terms of women's consciousness, especially Brenda.

- Not so long ago, a group of feminists busted into the Bar X here.

In a self-righteous tone, they demanded service.

The Bar X does serve women, it merely requests politely that ladies go elsewhere.

I'm not usually a customer of the Bar X, but I'm glad it's here in Salt Lake City.

The Bar X is an old fashioned respite from feminine company and feminist complaints.

In fact, that sounds just like what I need right now.

If you'll excuse me, Brenda, I'm going to go have a Coke.

- I'd love to come with you, Rod, but apparently I'm not welcome.

You know, I've often walked past the Bar X and wondered what kind of gentlemen need protection from the ladies?

They're certainly not the kind of gentlemen who believe in law and order, since discrimination in public places is against the law.

Apparently they're all afraid of women.

- And Brenda actually started coming down to meet with us in a little book group, and bringing feminist books, and talking to us about them.

And slowly, slowly, slowly, I got it.

Slowly, one day, I was watching an ad on TV where a woman, who had on high heels, a dress, was on her hands and knees sniffing around the ring of a toilet to see if it smelled good.

And I'm thinking, "I get it.

(laughs) I get it and I hate that guy (laughs) that wouldn't hire me."

Every woman has a moment of truth where she understands her place in the universe.

- [Bruce] For women like retired Salt Lake City police captain Judy Denker, the 70s saw doors opening.

- Very traditionally a male job.

I tried to tune out the negative.

There were people who thought that having women police officers would be the end of the world, and then there were those who said, "Well, why not?"

- [Bruce] She was assigned the same duties as her male colleagues, but a different uniform.

- Then there was that.

(sighs) That's what we wore (upbeat music) to let everybody know we were different than men.

I don't know, but it was crazy.

It only lasted about two and a half weeks, two weeks maybe.

They tried to, first of all, assign me to three wheel traffic enforcement, riding the Harley three wheelers, and I made the statement that the city didn't have enough liability insurance to put me on a motorcycle and turn me loose, so they didn't.

(laughs) - [Bruce] The female officers persuaded the department to commission a line of new women's uniforms.

- A pair of pull on pants with an elastic maybe a half an inch wide, and four belt loops going around it.

Right, and that's gonna hold up, A, my pants, B, my gun belt, all the other stuff that's on this, you know.

It was really quite an experience.

(laughs) - I think of Utah and I think of Utah politics, 'cause that's the sort of thing I think of.

(laughs) But the 1970s in Utah were, they changed the state, and they changed the state politically.

And the regime that was started in the 70s is the regime we still live under.

The regime is Latter-day Saints vote Republican, non-Mormons vote Democrat, Republicans win.

(crowd yelling indistinctly) - [Bruce] It was a time of turmoil and turbulence, protest, civil disobedience, violence in the streets, the unsettling of a culture, and many Utahns felt threatened.

- I'm telling you what happened was the 1972 Democratic Convention.

We scared everybody to death.

(gentle music) I just can't tell you how far left it was.

It was far left for today.

(gentle music) And I remember sitting there thinking, "Ay, ay, ay, we shouldn't be doing this."

- Well, you know, change is difficult.

I think the LDS Church was concerned about protecting its way of life, and promoting its beliefs.

That was kind of threatened with the Civil Rights Movement.

- [Bruce] Tensions however persisted, in Utah.

The result of the LDS Church ban on Black men in the church's priesthood.

There were lawsuits alleging discrimination against Black people And demonstrations against BYU's football team, which in the midst of the controversy brought on its first Black player.

- I think it's gonna be a very interesting season for the team, and I don't think it'll be too much trouble.

It might, and I think they say there's gonna be a whole lot of trouble.

I hope not.

I don't think there's gonna be none.

- [Interviewer] Well, a lot of people feel that if there is, that some might be directed at you.

How do you think?

- [Ron] I hope not.

(laughs) I mean, I don't think it's gonna be, it's just a lot of talk.

- [Announcer] Bill Marcroft.

(upbeat music) Live from Utah's News Center, "NewsWatch 2."

- [Bruce] In June of 1978, an announcement that carried a message of monumental change.

- Good evening.

The big news today, an announcement from the Mormon Church brought surprise and joy.

Black men will finally be given the priesthood.

- I don't remember where I was when it was announced, but by the time I got to my office, all of the local media were represented there at my office to find out what I as an African American thought about the revelation.

(upbeat music) - Accordingly, all worthy male members of the church may be ordained to the priesthood without regard for race or color.

- [Reporter] Church employees and everybody else seem elated.

This was news everybody could enjoy and applaud.

- Must be true if he said it.

He's a prophet of God.

- Given the okay then I guess it'd be all right, as long as it's equal rights for everybody.

- Well, I feel whatever the President says is right.

- Well, whatever was revealed to him is right.

- [Interviewer] What's your reaction to the Mormon churches- - I'm so excited.

I think it is the neatest thing that's happened.

I just think I am really excited.

- I think it's fine.

It's about time.

- Timely revelations.

They fit right in with public opinion.

- I think it's very timely, a little overdue, but I'm glad he finally had it.

- I told 'em it didn't matter to me.

It didn't matter that they had a revelation because we had always believed that African Americans had direct access to God, and that we could get to God without having to go through anybody.

(upbeat music) - It did seem monumental to me because it had been an issue that was percolating kind of underground, if you will.

And so when that revelation occurred, it was a significant event, and it's part of this, Utah was no longer looked as kind of a quirky little state, but was more mainstream.

- Probably the most important thing that's happened civil rights wise in the United States in perhaps the last 10 years.

- Oh, I was overjoyed.

I was very happy to hear it.

- You believe this was a revelation from God and not a response to social or political pressure?

- I certainly do believe it was a revelation from God.

- I saw a change in the attitude of the African Americans who were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

But I didn't see much change in terms of the attitude of people in general.

- Today's announcement could put to rest all charges of racism, and could instead be the first thread in weaving a bond between all the races of the world.

The revelation should begin the building of brotherly love.

(dramatic music) - [Reporter] Feelings that grew stronger- - [Bruce] As Utah's population continued to rise, so too did the complex challenges of managing urban crime.

- Two followers of outlaw polygamist Ervil LeBaron were in Salt Lake City Court today.

- To court today on a charge of first degree murder.

- [Reporter] Finally to his body, where it lay buried in a shallow grave west of the Salt Lake Airport.

- Testimony began today in the first degree murder trial of alleged religious assassin.

- [Reporter] Charged police brutality today.

- [Reporter] Morning her mother and six brothers and sisters plunged to their deaths.

- Convicted kidnapper Theodore Bundy appeared before the State Parole Board.

- The Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office says a family fight early this evening- - Well, you see quite a struggle going on.

Who slugged who last night in a West Side brawl?

- [Reporter] Claimed,they saw a car resemble- -[Don] If you would've asked me the day before I joined the police department, "Is there a lot of crime in Salt Lake?"

I would've said no.

When I first joined, the biggest concern most citizens had were hippies, and anti-war demonstrations.

- It was Salt Lake.

What's gonna happen bad in Salt Lake?

I mean, isn't that kind of the feeling that you had back then?

- The interesting thing about here in Salt Lake City anyway is it was always, (tense music) well, we're isolated and we need to keep it that way, and it won't come here.

- Salt Lake and Utah was kind of an idyllic place.

Low crime, natural beauty, not a lot of huge social disruption.

And there were some things that happened in the 70s that sort of popped that bubble, if you will.

- I knew that we had an area in Salt Lake where there were prostitutes.

I had no idea how many.

- [Bruce] Salt Lake's red light district became the setting for a story that exploded in 1976, when Congressman Allen Howe was arrested for soliciting a prostitute.

- Don't make any comment.

- I don't have any comment on that.

- [Interviewer] Did you ever date a girl in the Four Corners region?

- Oh, hey.

For crying out loud.

- Ridiculous.

- For heaven's sakes.

- No, I've been happily- - Hey.

- He dated me.

- Happily married, happily married with my wife.

- This is part of the reason why- - That's right.

- Allen Howe couldn't get a fair trial.

- Exactly right.

- You're right.

- You're right.

- He was down there claiming that his car broke down and he needed a tow truck.

Not sure that's exactly the way the words came out on the tape, but that's what he was alleging he needed.

But by that time, from a police point of view, we knew how lucrative West Second South was.

One July night, we had 104 working prostitutes.

You could score heroin, you could score anything you wanted in two minutes in that area down there.

Now, we spent a decade trying to rid Salt Lake City of that area, and from my perspective, it was a huge mistake, because they thought if we can get rid of the crime on West Second South, then crime will go away in Utah, and all it did is spread.

(gentle music) We have prostitutes that work the entire valley now, where in 1970, it was confined to the area they generated customers, and having it confined to an area would've been hugely beneficial later on.

But at the time, the big push was we need to rid this awfulness out of our city.

- [Bruce] It was a dark time and a new era for law enforcement.

Homicide rates grew steadily in the 1970s.

In one instance, the victim, a Salt Lake City detective.

- I'd only been on two years and one of our robbery squad detectives, a detective by the name of Percy Clark was shot and killed up on Third Avenue, as they were staking out the Third Avenue pharmacy up there 'cause they knew it was gonna get robbed.

- It was a real eyeopener.

Word leaked out a little bit, but you know, they kept things very close internally in the robbery squad and the detective division.

It just, it has to come out, you know, and people talk.

But it was like, oh, holy cow.

- To me, that was unheard of.

Now there had been officers that had been killed previously, but I think if you look back from 1969 and go back 50 years in Salt Lake, (gentle music) well, probably in all of Utah, you're not gonna have as many police officers killed that were killed from 1970 to 79.

- It just, it was a wake up, you know.

Evil's here.

- Gentlemen, we called you here this evening to give you a news release (phone rings) regarding the progress of our homicide that took place last evening at The Hi-Fi Shop.

2323 Washington Boulevard.

(tense music) - [Bruce] On an April evening in 1974, two men, later identified as Hill Air Force Base Airmen, entered a small music store in Ogden and took five people hostage, tying them up in the basement, forcing them to drink drain cleaner, then shooting them point blank in the head.

A young woman was raped before she was shot.

- There was an indication from the one victim that was still alive that he was forced to drink something, but I don't believe he knew what it was.

- [Bruce] It was the first in a series of high profile crimes that shook the state.

- Four people accused of killing a Utah polygamous leader and trying to kill another face trial in March.

- [Bruce] There was the case of Ervil LeBaron, leader of a polygamous cult blamed for a series of murders.

- [Reporter] The murder victim was 71-year-old Dr.

Rulon Allred, patriarch of thousands of Utah and Montana polygamists.

Last May in Murray, Utah, he was assassinated, police say by a rival violent polygamous cult.

- [Reporter] Sullivan said the hit team was warned the task was dangerous, but was promised everlasting glory if it were successful.

He quoted LeBaron is saying, "Death is sweet to those who die in the service of the Lord."

- The Salt Lake County Attorney's Office has had printed up hundreds of these reward posters in Spanish.

It offers a reward of 85,000 pesos for any information on Ervil LeBaron, the man who allegedly ordered the murder of Allred and a number of other people.

It also offers a reward for five of LeBaron's followers believed to be hiding in Mexico.

But they seem to be no closer to him and his disciples now than they were eight months ago.

- [Bruce] The eventual execution of Gary Gilmore for murders in Utah County.

- [Reporter] Gary Mark Gilmore's death startled people on both sides of the capital punishment debate.

- [Bruce] The horrendous case of the David family, children tossed by their mother off the roof of a downtown hotel.

- I kept yelling, "Oh, God, stop him, stop him."

- I've never seen nothing like that before, and man, it is a sick feeling.

- [Bruce] The decade also saw an awakening to the prevalence of sex crimes.

- [Reporter] Kidnapped an 18-year-old girl from her Avenues home at knife point and sexually assaulted her during the 13 hour- - It's a difficult concept to grasp in this day and age because we have so much, I mean, we have rape recovery, we have social worker people, we have all the people that are invested in looking at that particular crime.

Back in the early 70s, it was still one of those crimes that we didn't talk about.

(gentle music) - We lived in Federal Heights and we had three rapes in six months, and I knew two of the people and they were children.

I mean, I knew the parents and they were children.

And so I was all steamed up about it, and I thought, "How am I gonna write about this?"

And I started doing the research about it and it was, I mean, when you start doing research, you find out a lot of stuff.

So I made it a three part thing.

(gentle music) And then about Christmas time, I go to these parties, and all of my friends are just pissed.

Excuse me, I'll say that again.

The men and the women are angry with me.

"Why would you write that?

That is a dreadful thing for you to write about.

And I don't believe it.

I don't think that's true.

You're exaggerating.

You must be exaggerating."

And I just let, (whooshes) you know, and I let 'em talk and let 'em talk, and then I'd say, "Well, I know these people.

They're in my neighborhood."

And they'd say, "Well, this isn't something that just happens in our city, no."

- Were there rapes going on in the 70s?

Of course there were rapes going on in the 70s.

But if you don't report 'em, or you don't investigate 'em, or you don't have 'em, then they don't exist.

So once that started happening, then you started seeing stories about we think this same rapist, and we had a number, and that's where the first serial term came in, the police department here was serial rapists, because we had a lot of them.

- [Bruce] Women police officers would play a crucial role in solving sex crimes.

- 1973, they hired the first three police women ever.

They wore the same uniform that the men wore, except they had to wear skirts.

Pat Smith worked in records.

She was the second one that was hired.

And then Shirley Wentworth, her first assignment was she was sent to detectives, and there were a lot of male police officers out there who were enraged at the idea that this brand new woman got a detective assignment.

But they sent her to detectives 'cause they wanted her to work sex crimes.

And she worked sex crimes for the rest of her career, was one of the premier investigators ever.

- I can tell you we went out as the sex crimes team, and many nights, especially on weekends because that seemed to be the opportune time.

And we would follow people and, you know, we would make note of who was home and who wasn't home, and you know, yeah, it was old gum shoe stuff.

- But we used to tease her 'cause we said, "The only reason you got to detectives is because you were a girl, and they needed somebody that wasn't afraid to talk to other girls about sex."

- And then throw into it, if you have a young child who has been victim of, I'll drop a name here, Grandpa Grant, how, or is that child going to react to an adult man representing an authority figure?

You know, how's that gonna work?

- [Bruce] Then there was the case that captivated Utah and beyond to this day.

- Yeah.

Let's see.

Oh, it's an indictment, all right.

Why don't you read it to me?

You're up for election, aren't you?

- Mr.

Bundy.

- You got it, didn't you?

- Mr.

Bundy- - You told me, told them that you were gonna get me.

He said he was gonna get me, okay- - Ted Bundy was a year behind me in law school.

He was personable, handsome, charismatic.

He would be the last person on earth that you would say, would think of as being a serial killer.

Students kind of rallied around him.

There was a "Free Ted Bundy" fundraisers to raise money for his legal defense.

And then of course as more information came out about him, we all wondered, how could we have been so fooled by this guy?

- I'm pretty sure that he saw himself as above everybody.

The ultimate mind, you know.

The ultimate con, I can get away with this.

- [Bruce] To investigators, it was the case of a killer who preyed on a kind of community innocence, becoming a case which led to the same community's loss of innocence.

- Nobody thought of a serial killer from the State of Washington was going to be in Salt Lake City.

So if you come to Salt Lake City and you want to be able to spend time here, what is the best thing to do?

Just become one of Salt Lake City people.

Join the Mormon Church.

You know, he's clean cut, he looks nice.

He could go anywhere, do anything, and I think that was the key to the whole thing.

- [Reporter] Well, it's all over.

- [Bruce] In 1979, the University of Utah hosted the highest TV rated college basketball game ever.

Michigan State and Magic Johnson versus Indiana State and Larry Bird in the NCAA finals.

- [Reporter] Confrontation between Bird and Magic Johnson is a promoter's dream.

Both dominate the court, both mesmerize the opposition.

Johnson can score, but like Bird, he's a gifted ball handler and passer.

(crowd cheering) (upbeat music) - [Reporter] Earvin Johnson had a game high 26 points.

Larry Bird, 19, 10 below his average in tournament play.

The Spartans of Michigan State won the 1979 NCAA Basketball Championships at the University of Utah Special Event Center.

The Bird, well, he kind of hung his head at the end of the game, that's the anguish of defeat.

- My judgment at the time, and I think many Utahns would agree, is that was the biggest sports event in the State's history.

Certainly from a national perspective.

It was incredible.

- [Bruce] On the professional level, the Utah Stars of the American Basketball Association won a national championship in 1971, but suddenly departed in mid-season a few years later under a plague of financial worries.

(horn honks) - One of the stories was that Bill Daniels, the owner of the Stars came back to the city a couple years after they folded, and repaid all the season ticket holders that had been, 'cause they left in the middle of the 1974-75 season I think, so they had, and early in that season, and so they had almost a whole season of unpaid, of no games, and he came back and repaid the season ticket holders.

After the Final Four, which was a big high for everybody in Salt Lake City, about two weeks later, there's this report that the New Orleans Jazz were considering moving to Salt Lake City.

And I'm going, I mean, it was the most ridiculous idea I've ever heard.

I didn't, I mean, just on first blush, it was like, no, this isn't a major league city.

What, are you kidding?

- Now New Orleans has just started to fight, a fight to keep the Jazz.

The man who runs the Superdome said today he'll sue the New Orleans Jazz, the NBA, the league officials, every NBA club and every city which tampers with the Jazz.

- I think for a long time, people didn't think that this was gonna happen, and then finally on June 8th, 1979, I was in Chicago.

We were at the O'Hare Airport Hilton, and that's where the NBA Board of Governors, they met and they voted to approve the appeal by Battistone to move the team to Salt Lake City.

And the famous headline in "The Tribune" the next day, "Now we has the Jazz."

(upbeat music) - [Bruce] Even before the arrival of the NBA, in Utah, college basketball was king.

- [Commentator] He steps up on the left wing and pops one in from about 18 feet, and that gives Utah the lead.

- It was clearly to me a college basketball state.

I know BYU was rising in football under LaVell Edwards, but college basketball was the game here, I always thought.

My first job here in 1976 was to cover Weber State athletics, and they were good in basketball, and they played their games at that time in Old Wildcat Gym, which was, you know, this old gym.

But then they got it together and they built the Dee Events Center.

- The Super Dee made its debut at Weber State College today.

That's the nickname students and faculty gave their new Dee Events Center, because they say looks like a hamburger.

- All of a sudden, within 10 years, they had these four new arenas at the four major universities.

The Huntsman Center opened, it was Special Events Center then, had opened in, what, 1970 I think, or '69, and the Marriott Center down at BYU, and Spectrum up in the Logan at Utah State.

(upbeat music) - [Bruce] The construction of sports arenas was just part of a wave of new building and new enterprise, in the way of culture, business, science and recreation.

- Two national parks were created in the 70s, Capitol Reef and Arches The Greatest Snow On Earth, that slogan, that was trademarked by Utah in 1975.

Snowbird opened up in 1971.

Utah became nationally known as a great place to ski.

It's hard to overestimate the impact that skiing had on Utah in terms of the dollar amounts, and it's become just part of the culture.

- Utah Ski economics relies on the out-of-state skier for the heavy dollars.

They come from all over the country, and they spend a lot of money.

How much will this ski week cost you?

- About five to $600.

- [Reece] Is it worth it?

- Every bit of it.

- Of course the mountain biking was the fastest growing sport in the 70s, and Moab became the Mecca of mountain biking because of all the access to slick rock country.

(upbeat music) - [Bruce] In St.

George, construction began on the Bloomington Golf Course and housing development.

It was the beginning of the area's growth surge that continues.

(dramatic music) - [Announcer] It's all here in the heart of Western America's Color Country.

Long noted for its hospitality and friendliness, you're always welcome in St.

George, Utah.

- [Bruce] The 70s saw a large in migration of transplants, some coming for recreation and staying, others to flee the big cities of the West and East Coasts.

Many drawn by a strong economy that, surprising to some, was propelled by the earliest seeds of the tech revolution.

- The University of Utah became one of four nodes, national nodes of what was called the ARPANET, I think.

I'm not sure I'm pronouncing that correctly.

But that was the precursor of the internet.

So the University of Utah, through its computer science department, assisted in the growth and the birthplace of the internet.

- [Reporter] These are a few of the critical operations supported by the Defense Data Network.

- The university was in the forefront of, you know, the Jarvik heart development.

So the university was quite a birthplace of innovation and new technology and things of that nature during that time period.

- [Bruce] It was technology that led to the first artificial heart implant in a human.

(upbeat music) Utah doctors received international acclaim for groundbreaking surgery that separated conjoined twins the Hansen sisters.

(upbeat jazz music) - [Reporter] This street was once called the heart of Salt Lake City shopping district.

Now other words are being used to describe it, words like dying and urban blight.

- I remember the US Film Festival I think started in '77 or '78, something like that, but United States Film Festival, that's what it was really called.

Later became Sundance.

But I remember when it started, it was right there on Main Street, and there were a whole bunch of theaters there, and downtown was a happening place.

Then we came upon Main Street beautification, which pretty much killed the whole thing.

- [Bruce] In the heart of downtown, a beautification project, involving the construction of the Crossroads and ZCMI malls.

- I mean, I'm old enough to remember how State and Main Street were places where you actually could promenade.

You'd go down there and walk, and people would be there.

You could buy records, and you could go to a movie, and there was a bookstore, and there was a cafe, and then said, "We're gonna beautify Main Street," and they took out all the parking, and put in these great big planters with scraggly tulips in it.

They weren't even tulips, they were petunias.

Oh, that was a disaster.

- [Reporter] Merchants say the city's beautification project is ruining them.

They say since April, construction for the project has made parking on the block impossible, and even window shopping is difficult.

- In the 70s, the Salt Lake Arts Festival, now known as the Utah Arts Festival, was born in the 70s, and it was on Main Street in 1977.

And that was a big deal where they blocked off from South Temple to Third South, I believe.

So it was on Main Street for two years, and then the fire department chimed in and said, "Now, wait just a minute.

We can't get firetrucks down Main Street.

You can't have this here anymore."

And so it moved over to West Temple where it was in front of Abravanel Hall.

That was the other thing that happened in the 70s, Abravanel Hall got built.

So I think the Salt Lake Arts Festival, which became the Utah Arts Festival and Abravanel Hall, those were two really big arts events, cultural events that changed the city.

(upbeat music) - [Bruce] And then there are the places we remember from the 70s, no longer part of the scene.

♪ Come to Dee's ♪ Dee, Dee, Dee, Dee, Dee's ♪ We're here to please ♪ Oh, Dee's does the darndest to deliver ♪ ♪ They're delicious - Just remember, rarely did you go out to lunch at The Tribune.

You'd go out and we'd go to the ZCMI lunch counter.

They were famous for their hot dogs.

- Sometimes I went to Bill and Nada's late at night to eat, you know, breakfast.

- I liked beer, so I was never much of a private club guy.

I mean, I went to The New Yorker and stuff, but the private clubs were big for people who wanted to drink liquor.

- Then there was not a lot of diversity in terms of, you know, cultural, ethnic foods and those sorts of things.

Diamond Lil's, that's what it was.

You know, you go out and have prime rib, and the booths were covered wagons.

- Well, the place I really miss is Lamb's Cafe on Main Street.

I used to go there regularly for breakfast, and sit at that big long counter.

- We went to the Cinegrill, and Eugene Jelesnik played his violin sometimes.

- The Pagoda.

Oh my god, Fudge, The Pagoda.

- There were a lot of good places to go.

You know, there was Bimbos the pizza place.

There was, I mean, there were just lots of places that, you know, I look back on it and say this was a good place to actually grow up.

(gentle upbeat music) - The 1970s I think was sort of a coming of age of Utah in terms of national visibility, sports, opportunities, and a place that had great access to physical outdoors.

- Salt Lake was certainly a peculiar place because it was behind.

People had been ostracized for standing up for their rights and for the rights of others.

We need to acknowledge different backgrounds and different attitudes.

We need to celebrate those differences.

Acceptance as full human beings is the answer.

(gentle upbeat music) - [Bruce] To call the 70s our coming of age is of course a metaphor.

All decades, all generations build upon what came before.

We thrill at what we have made new, and feel nostalgia over what has passed.

Through it all, we follow the spiral, hoping ultimately to move forward.

- We were children becoming adolescents, not children becoming adults.

We had learned some lessons, but we still had others to learn, and we still do.

(upbeat music) (logo whooshes) (logo whooshes) - [Announcer] "Utah in the 70s" is made possible in part by the Norman C. and Barbara L. Tanner Charitable Support Trust, and the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation, and by the contributions to PBS Utah from viewers like you.

Thank you.

♪ Too fast to take that test ♪ Ch-ch-changes ♪ Turn and face the strain ♪ Ch-ch-Changes ♪ Don't want to be a richer man ♪ ♪ Ch-ch-changes ♪ Turn and face the strain ♪ Ch-ch-changes ♪ Just gonna have to be a different man ♪ ♪ Time may change me ♪ But I can't trace time (upbeat music) ♪ Ooh, yeah ♪ I watch the ripples