1976-1977 was of course as you mentioned extremely dry for the western USA, and also quite cold and snowy for the Northeast/Great Lakes. This may have been a time when great long-range weather forecaster Namias started noticing the link between El Nino, Pacific SST anomalies, and huge changes in the USA's weather systems. I think this paper says that no low pressure areas tracked through the ridge (at all) around the West Coast.
https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/mwre/106/3/1520-0493_1978_106_0279_mcotna_2_0_co_2.xml