It was and is very common even today...
This is just what is in the Package Insert for Chicken Pox vaccine, Varivax, under 'Post-Marketing Experience' (2009):
Anaphylaxis (including anaphylactic shock) and related phenomena such as angioneurotic edema; facial edema, and peripheral edema; Necrotizing retinitis (in immunocompromised individuals); Aplastic anemia; thrombocytopenia (including idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP)); Varicella (vaccine strain); Encephalitis; cerebrovascular accident; transverse myelitis; Guillain-Barré syndrome; Bell's palsy; ataxia; non-febrile seizures; aseptic meningitis; dizziness; paresthesia; Pharyngitis; pneumonia/pneumonitis; Stevens-Johnson syndrome; erythema multiforme; Henoch-Schönlein purpura; secondary bacterial infections of skin and soft tissue, including impetigo and cellulitis; herpes zoster.
"My "agenda" is to tell the truth. Like the fact that, according to Centers for Disease Control (CDC) statistics, as many as 800,000 vaccine induced injuries have occurred every year in the United States since 1990."--Leonard Horowitz