tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32532817123547694472024-03-23T03:13:28.992-07:00Inches Per SecondTurn on the reel to reel tape recorder. Take the tape out of the box. Put the empty reel on the right spindle, and the full reel on the left spindle. Wind the tape through the mechanisms - including the pinch rollers, the capstan and the rest. The tape is pressed against the heads and moves at a certain number of inches per second. Start the machine. And sometimes... if you're lucky... magic comes spilling out of the speakers. That magic is what I hope to share here. Bob Pursehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00595178670595128341noreply@blogger.comBlogger205125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3253281712354769447.post-13636568543265505042024-03-18T18:23:00.000-07:002024-03-18T18:23:48.424-07:00Some Great Jingles, London Nightlife, High School Radio, Talking to Australia, Some Cute Kids, and the Sports of 1971<p>HI! </p><p>I'm gonna dive right in! Let's start with a lovely little tape which is labeled, as you can see below, "Agency Jingles - Background Music", and on the side of the box it is further labeled "# 53":</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3GPUxzkka-aIBuRoKMHvBcoUpVkNWxlNHAVohFhiRZWHTFifzJ6CvbkTAVr9Jro0JzfgQEF0KF3RtawTsoRQdXU0U19Jv2qfE9hyphenhyphenIVGw3tABiZ5ZUZBJxkCd6AaeVfxz4OhqWwZwimNZcvOm7uZV27uejoSDLTM0wErJT4GB3g1az9xZm53HtVKU2n2Nd/s2118/Jingles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2107" data-original-width="2118" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3GPUxzkka-aIBuRoKMHvBcoUpVkNWxlNHAVohFhiRZWHTFifzJ6CvbkTAVr9Jro0JzfgQEF0KF3RtawTsoRQdXU0U19Jv2qfE9hyphenhyphenIVGw3tABiZ5ZUZBJxkCd6AaeVfxz4OhqWwZwimNZcvOm7uZV27uejoSDLTM0wErJT4GB3g1az9xZm53HtVKU2n2Nd/w400-h398/Jingles.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>And of course, it's also labeled with a complete listing of the tracks, most of which - but not all - are in fact instrumental music for radio commercials. There are some vocals mixed in, though. I have no idea what agency created these or exactly when they are from. All of the information I have is in the scan, above. But these are great!</p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18zMDA4ODIxNDZf/Agency%20Jingles%20-%20Background%20Music%20%23%2053.mp3">Agency Jingles - Background Music # 53</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18zMDA4ODIxNDZfUDl6REQ" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Now here is a bit of programming, from the BBC, that I find absolutely fascinating. It is an edition of what was apparently a weekly show, one which captured as much as possible of what was going on in world of entertainment and theatre in London. Again, this was captured on a weekly basis, with new material every week, some of it from records, but mostly recording specifically from this program. I have found, in my collection, a tape containing three episodes of this show, "London Mirror", from late in 1961, all but this first one complete (this one is missing the opening theme). The variety heard in these forty-some minutes is truly impressive even if, rather than play that icky Elvis Presley, they instead had a bland rendition of his latest hit performed by an in-house conglomeration. In fact, rock and roll music (and its creators) is conspicuously absent among the otherwise fairly broad picture of night life in London reflected in these shows. Many of you (well, me, at least) might be most intrigued by the segment featuring Goons great Harry Secombe, as this appears to be a recording of him made specifically for the show, and perhaps not available anywhere else. The person who recorded this show even cut out the newspaper ad for the program, which captures all of that variety in a very small space: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEKpmDIeoQXlF-S01WGZJZiiQcTIJQrXfPvS1tOpsRpr9WoqjGCRu8ZGs3qHY6pY3hRlV2VGFtMKcuADnreyjqFXUZIngo4N0DfwCAoDGMT8cb3imGZ-F3iWpOGOQnN1bL9_iXmdXL7j9_YYvT7vIn1SOiafGpTNcTqZz9Y7-tLJkqwWqBn5nP3IMZkTtZ/s1203/Mirror.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1050" data-original-width="1203" height="349" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEKpmDIeoQXlF-S01WGZJZiiQcTIJQrXfPvS1tOpsRpr9WoqjGCRu8ZGs3qHY6pY3hRlV2VGFtMKcuADnreyjqFXUZIngo4N0DfwCAoDGMT8cb3imGZ-F3iWpOGOQnN1bL9_iXmdXL7j9_YYvT7vIn1SOiafGpTNcTqZz9Y7-tLJkqwWqBn5nP3IMZkTtZ/w400-h349/Mirror.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Please let me know if you'd like to hear more of these - as I said I've found three and there may be more.</p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18zMDA4ODIxNDBf/London%20Mirror%20-%2011-18-61.mp3">London Mirror, 11/18/61</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18zMDA4ODIxNDBfdXBRQ1Q" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Now, let's fly from London to Turlock, CA, some time in the late 1970's, and what was then the local high school radio station, where someone was trying - very poor attempts, to my ears - to make some promos for said station, KDBG. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18zMDA4ODIxNDdf/Working%20on%20a%20Promo%20for%20KDBG%20Radio%2C%20Turlock%20High%20School%2C%20Turrlock%2C%20CA.mp3">Working on a Promo for KDBG Radio, Turlock High School, Turrlock, CA</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18zMDA4ODIxNDdfcUZqaEU" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>But that's only part of what's on this reel - if it wasn't, I'd have used that segment for a "very short reels" presentation. No, the rest of the tape contains an episode of another student's country music programming, including, for the last several minutes, what was apparently the stations very own mix of some odd, humorous country material, ending with a peculiar take on the country standard "Still". </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18zMDA4ODIxNDlf/Country%20Music%20on%20KDBG%20Radio%2C%20Turlock%20High%20School%2C%20Turlock%2C%20CA.mp3">Country Music on KDBG Radio, Turlock High School, Turlock, CA</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18zMDA4ODIxNDlfeVRtOXI" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>And now, here's a moment in time. I have a bunch of tapes from a professional band - nowhere on them does it seem to specify who they were, just the number of "men" in the group and the event captured on the tape - in concert at "The Elks' Ball" at the end of January, 1959. I have unfortunately misplaced the box for this one, but that's what it said, along with that reference to "nine men" or whatever it was. Their repertoire is pretty well all over the map - everything from "The Peter Gunn Theme" to "The Walter Winchell Rhumba" to "Misty" to "Oh Johnny Oh". Download this one and listen to it sometime while you're working around the house. It's about 72 minutes long. </p><p>And again, if you dig this, let me know. I have more from this ensemble. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18zMDA4ODIxNDRf/Unknown%20Band%20-%20Performance%20at%20The%20Elks%27%20Ball%2C%201-30-59.mp3">Unknown Band - Performance at The Elks' Ball, 1-30-59</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18zMDA4ODIxNDRfQXVSaHo" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe><br /><br /></p><p>~~</p><p>For those of you who enjoy Audio Letters, here's one from a man in Maine to a friend in Australia: </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18zMDA4ODIxMzhf/Audio%20Letter%20from%20Maine%20to%20Australia.mp3">Audio Letter from Maine to Australia</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18zMDA4ODIxMzhfSzVFNm4" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>And now it's time for our "Acetate of the Month". And I gotta say, as brief as this is (67 seconds), it's one of the sweetest, even the most adorable, things I've ever shared here. This record scores a 10 on the "authentic cuteness" scale. It's titled (by me, anyway, there is nothing written on the disc itself) "Two Children Play-Act a Visit", and I don't think anything further needs to be said. Enjoy!</p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18zMDA4ODIyMjJf/Voice-O-Graph%206%20Inch%20Recording%20Disc%20Acetate%20-%20Two%20Children%20Play-Act%20a%20Visit.mp3">Voice-O-Graph 6 Inch Recording Disc Acetate - Two Children Play-Act a Visit</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18zMDA4ODIyMjJfakNOZHk" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBKpIusxPiQcWApCV81j9o7RLf_rOsIbMfYAFOhFubSMDTy3qVtY1d_X5US2I5uYxcStYWWu38K4R-A0kmZbXrXTJhrCyTb9mJuvwTxhx73GE4u-knyBcyhGsLw_BkOuGgQNofKD65Pfx-AqHM2Vy7ec0GphH5jGtmgd5_o29Ra7C7mkkGAxqo5A7GgKpd/s1831/Visit.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1728" data-original-width="1831" height="378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBKpIusxPiQcWApCV81j9o7RLf_rOsIbMfYAFOhFubSMDTy3qVtY1d_X5US2I5uYxcStYWWu38K4R-A0kmZbXrXTJhrCyTb9mJuvwTxhx73GE4u-knyBcyhGsLw_BkOuGgQNofKD65Pfx-AqHM2Vy7ec0GphH5jGtmgd5_o29Ra7C7mkkGAxqo5A7GgKpd/w400-h378/Visit.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p>~~</p><p>And finally, a very short reel. Here is a child of the early '70's, clearly from Pittsburgh (or at least a Pittsburgh fan), giving a short play by play of the 1971 world series, before cutting in with a bit of radio, then being generally boisterous (with at least one other child, I think) and finishing with a bit of basketball play by play. Interestingly, both the Pirates and the basketball team end up with 14 runs/points. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18zMDA4ODIxMzlf/Unknown%20-%20Baseball%20and%20Basketball%20Reports%2C%201971.mp3">Unknown - Baseball and Basketball Reports, 1971</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18zMDA4ODIxMzlfNE9YemQ" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p>Bob Pursehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00595178670595128341noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3253281712354769447.post-84427544089408370012024-02-28T16:19:00.000-08:002024-02-28T16:19:14.815-08:00More Than FOUR HOURS of Gary Owens on Armed Forces Radio, 1967!<p>Today's post will excite some of you for hours on end. First, I will say this: </p><p>In the early 1980's, I became of devotee of Gary Owens' magnificent radio show "Soundtrack of the '60's". The music was wonderful, and I became familiar with a lot of oldies I hadn't heard before, particularly those from 1960-63. But the real appeal of the show was Gary Owens' insane commentary and asides between the songs. I was, of course, familiar with him from "Laugh-In", but had known nothing else of him. These shows made me a huge fan, and I filled multiple cassettes with nothing but the looniness he filled his deejay patter with. </p><p>So now, what I've discovered in my collection, is a series of recordings made in Saigon, presumably by a soldier, in 1967, of a show called "GO: The Music Guy Show", which aired on Armed Forces Radio. Here's the slip from inside the box: </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiorcs1B-CoBrLL7fT4gPMuvKGqai2EUlYcWzfEkO65H5jUC3Xksd1JatMesgnyLCSzaWg-cKDOe7fQakYriBz1QvdsIJe-_DMwHtj6hmnuNlJ7gssJkTiC_h6jTXbvGECAUVjRiuqq1SWj5rsEjiPmBzczcFjouOJ7QkYZ08LnxaHmnA1LEX_p_dqbd9Ig/s1405/Gary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1405" data-original-width="1194" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiorcs1B-CoBrLL7fT4gPMuvKGqai2EUlYcWzfEkO65H5jUC3Xksd1JatMesgnyLCSzaWg-cKDOe7fQakYriBz1QvdsIJe-_DMwHtj6hmnuNlJ7gssJkTiC_h6jTXbvGECAUVjRiuqq1SWj5rsEjiPmBzczcFjouOJ7QkYZ08LnxaHmnA1LEX_p_dqbd9Ig/w340-h400/Gary.jpg" width="340" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">There are actually six shows on the tape, five of them complete (or nearly complete) and the last one interrupted when the tape runs out. There are brief gaps in a couple of the others, where the recording stopped for some reason. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Looking at the inset card again, I think I have these dates wrong - the first three are probably the "Pre-Cassette (sic) tapes, which are undated, above, and the last three are probably the ones with dates. But I'm not going to start over again and rename and link them all.... Oh, and the last two were recorded in <i>terrible </i>quality - very bass-heavy and hard to listen to. I have done some equalizing to them. If that is not to your liking, let me know, and I'll post them in their original form and you can have a crack at 'em. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Anyway....</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The music heard on these shows is not appealing to me AT ALL. Those of you who enjoy the Beautiful Music offerings I've put up may find this right up your alley, although I suspect this material would have been more accurately termed "Easy Listening" in 1967. I did grin at the song "I Looked Back" by Perry Como, but Como was almost ALWAYS far better than anyone else in this god-forsaken genre of music. I didn't know Gary Owens, but I've always pictured him enjoying the top 40 hits of the day over this sort of mush, so I imagine him gritting his teeth through these sessions, but I could be wrong. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">But as I expected, the star of these tapes is Gary Owens, who is, just as on "Soundtrack of the '60s", hysterically funny in his asides and bits. He throws in some historical facts here and there, and each episode has a bit of puffery about citizenship, soldiering or similar. But then it's right back to the ridiculous names, silly voices and general ridiculousness. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div>This tape is a real treasure. <p></p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTk0NDA1MDRf/Gary%20Owens%20-%20GO%2C%20The%20Music%20Guy%20Show%20-%20Armed%20Forces%20Radio%2C%208-5-67.mp3">Gary Owens - GO, The Music Guy Show - Armed Forces Radio, 8-5-67</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTk0NDA1MDRfZHlvbkM" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p><br /></p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTk0NDA0NjVf/Gary%20Owens%20-%20GO%2C%20The%20Music%20Guy%20Show%20-%20Armed%20Forces%20Radio%2C%208-12-67.mp3">Gary Owens - GO, The Music Guy Show - Armed Forces Radio, 8-12-67</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTk0NDA0NjVfTlZYN00" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </p><p><br /></p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTk0NDA0Mjlf/Gary%20Owens%20-%20GO%2C%20The%20Music%20Guy%20Show%20-%20Armed%20Forces%20Radio%2C%208-19-67.mp3">Gary Owens - GO, The Music Guy Show - Armed Forces Radio, 8-19-67</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTk0NDA0MjlfeEsxVGI" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </p><p><br /></p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTk0Mzg5MDlf/Gary%20Owens%20-%20GO%2C%20The%20Music%20Guy%20Show%20-%20Armed%20Forces%20Radio%2C%20Unknown%20Date%20%23%201.mp3">Gary Owens - GO, The Music Guy Show - Armed Forces Radio, Unknown Date # 1</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTk0Mzg5MDlfWXVZYTU" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </p><p><br /></p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTk0Mzg4OTdf/Gary%20Owens%20-%20GO%2C%20The%20Music%20Guy%20Show%20-%20Armed%20Forces%20Radio%2C%20Unknown%20Date%20%23%202.mp3">Gary Owens - GO, The Music Guy Show - Armed Forces Radio, Unknown Date # 2</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTk0Mzg4OTdfUnNmYnY" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </p><p><br /></p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTk0Mzg4NjNf/Gary%20Owens%20-%20GO%2C%20The%20Music%20Guy%20Show%20-%20Armed%20Forces%20Radio%2C%20Unknown%20Date%20%23%203%20%28Incomplete%29.mp3">Gary Owens - GO, The Music Guy Show - Armed Forces Radio, Unknown Date # 3 (Incomplete)</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTk0Mzg4NjNfRjI5RVU" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>You might also enjoy the writing on the inside of the tape box: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtmQ-1XiLkx3qDLgE219TaAT7rufA-72AYVLH7nKOMEj9m2GfmWW7bNPUyes7qNLVF8ovHcNd4rSfoWt4oqYZzNp1VWnYwItKTVvKpfTgrl0Rr1zq5fzoQzdlbO_qNpzpFRxrnatKvQXdA7LkeIdUx9d9BZ7IjC-a5yJj4XXwmnIBunfOdgjRs_iAMc0K1/s2382/Inside%20Box.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2355" data-original-width="2382" height="395" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtmQ-1XiLkx3qDLgE219TaAT7rufA-72AYVLH7nKOMEj9m2GfmWW7bNPUyes7qNLVF8ovHcNd4rSfoWt4oqYZzNp1VWnYwItKTVvKpfTgrl0Rr1zq5fzoQzdlbO_qNpzpFRxrnatKvQXdA7LkeIdUx9d9BZ7IjC-a5yJj4XXwmnIBunfOdgjRs_iAMc0K1/w400-h395/Inside%20Box.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>~~<br /><p>Well, it wouldn't be a full post without a "Very Short Reel", and so here are some parts of a Spelling Test which popped up on a small reel of tape. This tape only qualifies (and barely) as "Very Short", because a few minutes have been edited out of the middle of it. As you'll hear, a loud hum recurs a few times. At one point on the original tape (around 2:15) the hum finally overcame the recorded speech entirely, and so I cut that part out. As a result, the test jumps from the seventh word of the ten word test directly into the answers being given, starting with the spelling of the first word. </p><p>This teacher is sort of cruel, I think. He had the children score each other's tests and then told them they were to read out loud the score of the person whose test each of them had reviewed. Ecch. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTk0NjU3NTJf/Unknown%20-%20Spelling%20Test.mp3">Unknown - Spelling Test</a> <br />Play: <iframe src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTk0NjU3NTJfYkpHdFg" height="25" width="297" style="border:0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true"></iframe>Bob Pursehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00595178670595128341noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3253281712354769447.post-10003223233627134192024-02-17T11:11:00.000-08:002024-02-17T11:11:30.491-08:00Meet the Beatles! Plus More Beautiful Music, Doing the Dishes, Flood Talk, Webb Pierce, Flex-O-Matic, A Father's Gift, A Banking Milestone and A Few Minutes with Dana<p>Good day, ya'll, </p><p>A quick thank you - once <i>again </i>- to Eric Paddon, who has again supplied a bit of detail to one of my posts. In this case, he has shared that the "Sunday in New York" program that I shared a few episodes from <a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2024/01/pams-magic-fooling-around-some-right.html">last time around</a>: </p><p style="text-align: center;"><i>ran on WCBS Radio weekly from January 10, 1959 to July 19, 1959 per NY newspaper listings. Jordan hosted other programs at the station too and was one of their prominent personalities. WCBS was known as a "middle of the road" station until it became all-news in 1967.</i></p><p style="text-align: left;"><i>~~</i></p><p>We're going to start with something that could not be more timely, given that it has been exactly 60 years this month since The Beatles arrived in America to play the Ed Sullivan Show, appear at Carnegie Hall and at the Washington Coliseum, and take the nation by storm. Oddly, I saw nothing in any media this week or this month marking this anniversary - previous "Big" year anniversaries of this arrival have been all over the news and entertainment programs. </p><p>And here, to commemorate the events of that week, is a real audio time capsule, a radio program that must have been put together on the fly. It aired on New York powerhouse Top 40 station WINS-AM. Since it had only been clear that The Beatles were going to be "a thing" for a few weeks at that point, this program had to have been cobbled together in a matter of days, as it clearly aired within the first few days of The Beatles' arrival. From the sounds of what is said here, it would appear that this special aired before the Beatles had played a live show anywhere but perhaps on The Ed Sullivan Show, if that. </p><p>The entire show is not captured here, and I'm not sure how much was missed. When the tape starts, the program is already in progress. The documentary then is heard throughout the first side of the tape, about 26 minutes of it. There is a short gap at that point, then you hear the concluding few minutes from the other side. </p><p>The documentary includes interviews with the band members, a piece featuring some American musicians' reactions and thoughts about the group, interviews with fans, a bit of history of the group, interviews with people who give their input as to why the group is so popular, etc. A couple of the band's early songs are heard. The narrator of the show is Murray the K. The show (as was the bands' first Capitol album) is called "Meet the Beatles"</p><p>Enjoy!</p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTg5ODA1MjZf/%27Meet%20the%20Beatles%27%20-%20A%20WINS%20Radio%20Special%2C%20February%2C%201964.mp3">"Meet the Beatles" - A WINS Radio Special, February, 1964</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTg5ODA1MjZfWndKWUI" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Now, as much as I suspect that will greatly appeal to a lot of people, here is another type of radio broadcast that I have been requested to share, whenever I come across it. The appeal here is more of a mystery to me, but I really strive to offer up what people want to hear. And so, here is a 30 minute slice of some Beautiful Music programming (containing a few items I was surprised to hear amongst such programming) from a station, WFMB, in Springfield, IL. The recording cuts off just before some news is about to start, so there is no way to date this particular segment. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTg5ODA1MTFf/WFMB%2C%20Springield%20IL%20-%20Beautiful%20Music%20Programming.mp3">WFMB, Springfield IL - Beautiful Music Programming</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTg5ODA1MTFfMllRTTM" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Almost exactly <a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2019/02/ed-sullivan-meets-wounded-soldiers.html">five years ago</a>, I featured a recording session for a product called the Cannon Flex-O-Matic. And now, here we have eight of the completed ads for that same product. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTg5ODA0ODBf/Eight%20Completed%20Ads%20for%20the%20Cannon%20Flex-O-Matic.mp3">Eight Completed Ads for the Cannon Flex-O-Matic</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTg5ODA0ODBfaUc4MEM" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBMRXlfdb_Ild1xJxRhoZm2LDfBignJSv09Fg2nqQTsVK29B6G4RW-Lz_ycfaXHsv6AH55dv3VxSe2vwwq6TMzzc9om0LxF9mfWinFimb4l4TQYXydwNNVcJDOa1ek-SVdKvX9-JdYX_HByVioSWYBdx3t6cjj6vYX6j0K1rvsqZIG2rx2MyXpEgr9KxRb/s898/Flex.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="757" data-original-width="898" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBMRXlfdb_Ild1xJxRhoZm2LDfBignJSv09Fg2nqQTsVK29B6G4RW-Lz_ycfaXHsv6AH55dv3VxSe2vwwq6TMzzc9om0LxF9mfWinFimb4l4TQYXydwNNVcJDOa1ek-SVdKvX9-JdYX_HByVioSWYBdx3t6cjj6vYX6j0K1rvsqZIG2rx2MyXpEgr9KxRb/w400-h338/Flex.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>~~</p><p>Now, here's a short home recording that is best summed up by its title, "A Few Minutes with Dana": </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTg5ODA4MTJf/A%20Few%20Minutes%20with%20Dana.mp3">A Few Minutes with Dana</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTg5ODA4MTJfVW4yTEU" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Next, here's an episode of "The Webb Pierce Show", featuring the country star and his guests in a half hour or so of music. There were actually two TV shows by that name, both apparently produced at WSIX, Nashville, about a decade apart. There's some really great stuff here. The songs performed here, as well as the presence here of the start of "Stop the Music", a game show which aired in the mid 1950's, proves that this recording is from the 1955 edition of the show, rather than 1965 version. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTg5ODA0NzNf/The%20Webb%20Pierce%20Show%20%28and%20a%20Bit%20of%20Stop%20the%20Music%29.mp3">The Webb Pierce Show (and a Bit of Stop the Music)</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTg5ODA0NzNfZUk3S2Y" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Just up there a li'l bit, about 90 words or so ago, we had a short home recording with Dana. Now, here's another one, a brief (six minute) slice of life with a woman (identified early on as Marge Miller) and (presumably) her husband, as dishes are washed and a bit of homey conversation is engaged in. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTg5ODA1MThf/Dishes%20and%20Conversation%20with%20Marge%20Miller%20and%20Her%20Husband.mp3">Dishes and Conversation with Marge Miller and Her Husband</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTg5ODA1MThfejNFTGo" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </p><p>~~</p><p>With flooding out west in the news in recent weeks, here's a tape from 1955 featuring Senator Prescott Bush, patriarch of a political family you may be familiar with, being interviewed about flooding that was being told "The worst disaster to ever hit the state of Connecticut".</p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTg5ODA0ODZf/Senator%20Prescott%20Bush%20Interview%20About%20the%20Flooding%20in%20Connecticut%2C%201955.mp3">Senator Prescott Bush Interview About the Flooding in Connecticut, 1955</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTg5ODA0ODZfWWdBMzU" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>And now it's time for our "Acetate of the Month". And this takes a bit of explanation. In 1973, my mother and I visited her oldest brother, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Easton_Godwin">Harry Godwin</a>, at his home in Memphis. I've written a bit about Harry before, but he was a larger than life figure, who, being nearly a generation older than my mother (17 years older), fashioned himself in more of a grandfather role to me than an uncle (particularly as I had never known either of my grandparents. </p><p>(That Wikipedia stub overstates his musical career a bit - he was, first and foremost, a manufacturer's rep, and only began working in music - as a lyricist and as a jazz promoter - in his late forties. I believe it also gets his birthday wrong.)</p><p>During that visit, which perhaps I will write about elsewhere someday, I was delighted to find a drawer full of homemade acetates, mostly the five and seven inch variety, which Harry and his children had made in the 1940's and 1950's. Harry allowed me to tape record them for my posterity, during that visit, and so I did so, introducing each of them myself with a tiny be of explanation</p><p>And so, we have a hybrid here - a reel to reel tape of an acetate. In this case, as you'll hear, Harry tells a familiar story for his younger children (he had six kids from two marriages) on one side, then dedicates a short Robert Louis Stevenson poem to one of those children on the other side. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTg5ODA0NTRf/Harry%20Godwin%20-%20The%20Three%20Little%20Pigs%20and%20The%20Lamplighter.mp3">Harry Godwin - The Three Little Pigs and The Lamplighter</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTg5ODA0NTRfRExBWFI" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>And finally, a "Very Short Reel". Here's an ad celebrating 60 years of banking in northern Arkansas. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTkwMzcxNDNf/First%20Federal%2C%20Arkansas%2C%2060th%20Anniversary%20Ad%2C%201994.mp3">First Federal, Arkansas, 60th Anniversary Ad, 1994</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTkwMzcxNDNfdnlKaVM" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1EDtZ1fxQ2BBE2iNVqQSrIFO2H-1bbhKC1979VPjIW1FF9zcrXlIiv19anLIrq2OvBcZmtO1wBtvbORmTW_iWJ1wi1TzPx8Kv4UwhPooLe4zDdgtILcfeReH6WwHyM8P12Ibp3WhyphenhyphenCxxNGL32ulh3c9iulYMsrdAFXmyUfP67jUT0rAj8c_X0XpRzRHWu/s1583/First%20Federal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1552" data-original-width="1583" height="393" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1EDtZ1fxQ2BBE2iNVqQSrIFO2H-1bbhKC1979VPjIW1FF9zcrXlIiv19anLIrq2OvBcZmtO1wBtvbORmTW_iWJ1wi1TzPx8Kv4UwhPooLe4zDdgtILcfeReH6WwHyM8P12Ibp3WhyphenhyphenCxxNGL32ulh3c9iulYMsrdAFXmyUfP67jUT0rAj8c_X0XpRzRHWu/w400-h393/First%20Federal.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Bob Pursehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00595178670595128341noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3253281712354769447.post-9113903166351390322024-01-31T17:31:00.000-08:002024-01-31T17:31:23.357-08:00PAMS Magic, Fooling Around, Some Right Wing Fun, Sunday in New York, More BBC Stories, Dulcimer Magic, and Everybody Likes It!<p>Okay, so who is ready for more than three hours more of reel to reel wonderment? And I promise no long-winded self-referential observations this time. </p><p>But first, I want to yet again thank Eric Paddon for filling in the gaps in the information about television recordings, as he has done so many times. I'm not going to copy and paste here, but if you enjoyed the games shows <a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-game-shows-of-election-day-1974.html">that I posted last time</a>, I encourage you to go back to that posting and look at the two comments he left. Thanks!!!</p><p>~~</p><p>Let's start with the tape I believe will be the most popular for today's posting, as it ties into top forty radio and features the absolute masters of the Jingle World therein, the PAMS company of Texas. Here is their presentation for "series 44", from the mid 1970's, complete with a sales pitch and then, at the end, an example of every jingle the purchasing station would receive (redone with their own call letters, frequency and/or slogans, of course). Great stuff!</p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTgzOTU4NTFf/PAMS%20Sales%20Pitch%20for%20Series%2044.mp3">PAMS Sales Pitch for Series 44</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTgzOTU4NTFfV0E3b2k" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7oC4FPx0JF2DeKUhC9gnwXpGTTZQ9MN7jly7auI3j0oKuxE8I3yDH_TUm2qan0238VIu_E67no0vxf1QHcQMIu1wfgMxNs_GJtQ7C60PCd_9bFb6JEbbsj7hObn-DGDmdqFARqvdi1cqtWrvoPCY94sG_Q3zMUgchnPrhmI-4b5tOp6MHZGxH0jLTP7LO/s1597/PAMS%2044.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1533" data-original-width="1597" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7oC4FPx0JF2DeKUhC9gnwXpGTTZQ9MN7jly7auI3j0oKuxE8I3yDH_TUm2qan0238VIu_E67no0vxf1QHcQMIu1wfgMxNs_GJtQ7C60PCd_9bFb6JEbbsj7hObn-DGDmdqFARqvdi1cqtWrvoPCY94sG_Q3zMUgchnPrhmI-4b5tOp6MHZGxH0jLTP7LO/w400-h384/PAMS%2044.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>~~</p><p>From the sublime to the ridiculous. Here is a tape of a few young pals cracking jokes, playing off each other and generally goofing around. Oddly, their recording is interrupted twice by some other person recording microphone checks, and, following the second round of tests, recording a few moments of the radio. The tape ends with some truly annoying sounds. All in the space of less than ten minutes. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTg0MjE5NDdf/A%20Group%20of%20Guys%20Fooling%20Around%20%28Interrupted%20by%20Some%20Microphone%20Testing%20and%20Radio%29.mp3">A Group of Guys Fooling Around (Interrupted By Some Microphone Testing and Radio)</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTg0MjE5NDdfMThSSnI" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </p><p>~~</p><p>At some point, probably many years ago now, I bought what turned out to be a stack of tapes (and two books) containing various recordings (and two books) generated by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Birch_Society">The John Birch Society</a>. For those of you unfamiliar with this particular brand of American insanity, happy reading. Suffice it to say that even William F. Buckley and the ultra-conservative National Review thought they were wackos. I may share other recordings from these tapes, as I get to them, but for now, here is a short radio program, dated 1967 (see below) on the side of the box, titled "Are You Listening, Uncle Sam?". It looks like this is a single episode of a series by that title rather than a stand-alone presentation. Whoever captured these opinions and edited then into this presentation certainly wanted to present Birchers as reasonable people who were alarmed by things happening in the government of the day, but behind the scenes, the larger group's believes, desires and plans were off-the-charts batshit crazy. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsZHN87fZlzy_AHByZIyTbDb8sXkVbfULDFDLDrfRLV8V5936SMGFoQoAsxKhiQToGLxeaABg3GQuBfiTGpun1uAxxQ_3_1Ytp7d1ZafsfHM2mAhRRi5w1378SlW0JnCeo01LVC-E-hKDweQo1Y2SVPusCMXj6lciaY4LBy3EafjnU9xeCl2sTbs7VtRIt/s2131/Sam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2086" data-original-width="2131" height="391" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsZHN87fZlzy_AHByZIyTbDb8sXkVbfULDFDLDrfRLV8V5936SMGFoQoAsxKhiQToGLxeaABg3GQuBfiTGpun1uAxxQ_3_1Ytp7d1ZafsfHM2mAhRRi5w1378SlW0JnCeo01LVC-E-hKDweQo1Y2SVPusCMXj6lciaY4LBy3EafjnU9xeCl2sTbs7VtRIt/w400-h391/Sam.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>By the way, rather hilariously, this episode is labeled on the side of the box with a homonym error, calling it "Roll of Government", which I think is something they serve at Washington, D.C. breakfast joints. Anyway, I suggest not trusting your political views to people who couldn't pass a fourth grade spelling test. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxmxx0kdZVuL-rVlFFfSpSkLdgNpbOs2epNii745X5iVAoIC0jABxhROLPvZD9QpP5LUxZKiIzd0ukCUX1fbZjlUXeHzFWrikyMbrBGW5_Z7BklodeeJhyx5gsjTlgSmgXNtTEo7SXVHDP6-rTm_pPAk8YDd2Nc9B9FfNguKPtpJatR_vVKWQPABP14sn6/s526/Uncle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="158" data-original-width="526" height="96" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxmxx0kdZVuL-rVlFFfSpSkLdgNpbOs2epNii745X5iVAoIC0jABxhROLPvZD9QpP5LUxZKiIzd0ukCUX1fbZjlUXeHzFWrikyMbrBGW5_Z7BklodeeJhyx5gsjTlgSmgXNtTEo7SXVHDP6-rTm_pPAk8YDd2Nc9B9FfNguKPtpJatR_vVKWQPABP14sn6/s320/Uncle.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTgzOTU4NDBf/The%20John%20Birch%20Society%20-%20Are%20You%20Listening%2C%20Uncle%20Sam.mp3">The John Birch Society - Are You Listening, Uncle Sam?</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTgzOTU4NDBfUGtBUjg" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Here's something much more pleasant. This tape contains a few episodes of a show called "Sunday in New York", from what appears to be early 1959, based on the reference to the New York premiere of Sammy Davis Jr's first starring film, and a few other things which are said. For the most part, these segments contain singer and actress <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portia_Nelson">Portia Nelson</a> performing songs, and chatting briefly with Lee Jordan. However, some of the episodes also had a DJ aspect to them, in which the Portia and Lee chat about a performer and then play a record by that singer. I wonder when the last time such a program - with live, in the studio music of this sort (mixed in with records) was a regular feature on any radio station in the country. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTgzOTU4MzJf/Portia%20Nelson%20and%20Lee%20Jordan%20-%20%27Sunday%20In%20New%20York%27%2C%201959.mp3">Portia Nelson and Lee Jordan - 'Sunday In New York', 1959</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTgzOTU4MzJfdXo2M1g" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Five months ago, I shared a lengthy recording of an English author named <a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2023/08/antony-bilbow-reads-his-stories-mike.html">Antony Bilbow</a>, reading his story on the BBC. I mentioned that I had three more sets of readings on the same tape, and asked if anyone wanted to hear more. I did get one request for more, and based on the time-worn theory that if you receive one comment, there are several more people who in agreement, here is the second of the four recordings of BBC broadcasts of Antony Bilbow, reading his stories: </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTgzOTU4MDdf/Antony%20Bilbow%20-%20Stories%20on%20English%20Radio%2C%20Volume%202.mp3">Antony Bilbow - Stories on English Radio, Volume 2</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTgzOTU4MDdfTExuaDc" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>When I was a regular contributor to the late great Beware of the Blog (find the last of those posts <a href="https://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2014/11/an-army-doctor-in-retirement.html">here</a> - that post contains links to the previous ones - I also posted an additional one <a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2022/06/a-lot-of-jack-paar-letter-from-korea.html">on this site</a> about 18 months ago), I posted a series of tapes made by an army doctor who was living in Korea following the war there, during the mid 1950's. I recently found that I still had some previously unlistened to tapes from that collection, including the following interesting item. This is not one of his audio letters. It is, instead, a recording he made of a big band jazz concert given by a group of Filipinos from the Second Battalion Team, at a location in Yong Dong Po, Korea, in August of 1954. I think that's all there needs to be said. The music is self-explanatory, and his introduction does the rest. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTgzOTU4MTZf/The%20Second%20Battalion%20Team%20Filipino%20Orchestra%20Live%20in%20Yong%20Dong%20Po%2C%20Korea%2C%208-8-54.mp3">The Second Battalion Team Filipino Orchestra, Live in Yong Dong Po, Korea, 8-8-54</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTgzOTU4MTZfblhZcFk" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmXIIKh7uPXSBrVWTdVlVdbeL0GUzs8hfTtp3HwQBUmvlGDmrEgnD3YOMYxU2yWSu2N6CX1Fpp56YzSkD2saaz1ONP-_6fF8Ciyk-1xDNb08ynnt9cVo6Qb85amYutraEI-iJnBrkgrXrP_NWlUcteY_I_MXx8QGp_HCaewZMo9AMuKHbP_uJRATEFRAOL/s1559/Korea.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1547" data-original-width="1559" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmXIIKh7uPXSBrVWTdVlVdbeL0GUzs8hfTtp3HwQBUmvlGDmrEgnD3YOMYxU2yWSu2N6CX1Fpp56YzSkD2saaz1ONP-_6fF8Ciyk-1xDNb08ynnt9cVo6Qb85amYutraEI-iJnBrkgrXrP_NWlUcteY_I_MXx8QGp_HCaewZMo9AMuKHbP_uJRATEFRAOL/w400-h398/Korea.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>~~</p><p>And now for our "Acetate of the Month". One side of it looks like this: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6F4dA2e2UYdUVu2MW3Rounb2XQjTguhmVftJ50kl9HOes_a4b6V-5f6gVFDHrAbaMUdMea6kiMAwttSZkLntzc5EJwx0xGGDe1Ht8gkBHZSTLAHtTtINSqMW72wZHG0-xmWgXvAtnijgto4sTVHhWOoeUn7a_yIHY67vk58uyVU46w63QxNhAsohbRF2P/s1689/Dr%20B%2033.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1628" data-original-width="1689" height="385" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6F4dA2e2UYdUVu2MW3Rounb2XQjTguhmVftJ50kl9HOes_a4b6V-5f6gVFDHrAbaMUdMea6kiMAwttSZkLntzc5EJwx0xGGDe1Ht8gkBHZSTLAHtTtINSqMW72wZHG0-xmWgXvAtnijgto4sTVHhWOoeUn7a_yIHY67vk58uyVU46w63QxNhAsohbRF2P/w400-h385/Dr%20B%2033.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Both sides feature someone playing the dulcimer. I am sure I've butchered his or her name, but it looks like "Dr. Bluice" to me. Maybe someone can correct me, as a search for that name turns up nothing - not a single hit. Anyway, one side is recorded at 33 RPM and features Slavic (or, as it says here, Slavik Folk Songs. </div><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTg0MjIwMzJf/Dulcimer%20-%20Slavik%20Folk%20Songs%20-%20Played%20by%20Dr.%20Bluice%20%2833%20RPM%29.mp3">Dr. Bluice Plays Dulcimer - Slavic Folk Songs (33 RPM Side)</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTg0MjIwMzJfUlFJNkU" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>The other side is recorded at 78 RPM, and features a tune with a name written on the label which I have not tried to decipher (it's pictured below). Again, maybe someone out there can be of assistance. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTg0MjE5NjZf/Dulcimer%20Music%20Played%20by%20Dr.%20Bluice%20-%2011-28-53.mp3">Dr. Bluice - Dulcimer Music - 11-28-53 (78 RPM Side)</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTg0MjE5NjZfV2tkM28" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGKucMGDndLFGC-Kpcd3RJQACNADJN0XbosuEb-OKYKVIxZme5W-qwOGsHvW4Q-bNqND5poZm0xsxPXUdHOKmIxYWi-f1bzzMEonkvb7YKZ7K-ar83GcRXh4J-mDtlWdsrzCsB3VG_2Ic7yFUCAYCBLsDirjsi3Hy2oN-iDpDVoX6i0cCB7IogYg-pMV_N/s1677/Dr%20B%2078.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1616" data-original-width="1677" height="385" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGKucMGDndLFGC-Kpcd3RJQACNADJN0XbosuEb-OKYKVIxZme5W-qwOGsHvW4Q-bNqND5poZm0xsxPXUdHOKmIxYWi-f1bzzMEonkvb7YKZ7K-ar83GcRXh4J-mDtlWdsrzCsB3VG_2Ic7yFUCAYCBLsDirjsi3Hy2oN-iDpDVoX6i0cCB7IogYg-pMV_N/w400-h385/Dr%20B%2078.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p>~~</p><p>And finally, our "Very Short Reel". And this time, that phrase is a total misrepresentation, but I want to share this 30 seconds of gold. For this is not the entire contents of a short reel of tape. This is an excerpt from a tape of more than three hours. But again, I really want to share it. </p><p>Here's a bit of backstory: In the early '70's, Diet Rite Cola introduced a new jingle, with the sales pitch being that "Everybody Likes It" (not even those who feel a need to diet). After the jingle had been in the ether for long enough for all TV viewers to be familiar with it, the ad company went around and filmed everyday people doing everyday things, while singing the jingle. Then they edited small excerpts from each of these into commercials in which the jingle was sung by six or more different people. I was very happy to find one of these on Youtube not long ago, and you can see that one <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hGLCo-SQPs">here</a> (for some reason, it starts a second time and then is shown in chopped up form). I'm particularly partial to the girl kicking her legs on the bed and the guy in the hard hat with a ridiculous scratchy voice. </p><p>But there was one version of this commercial that I simply loved, at the time. All these years later, I could still hear the woman with an English accent near the end, and several of the singers who are just a bit off key throughout. So I was overjoyed to find a recording of just that commercial on a reel of tape which otherwise captured a TV broadcast of a "Movie of the Week". And now I'm sharing it with you. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTg0MjIxMDFf/Diet%20Rite%20Cola%20-%20%27Everybody%20Likes%20It%27%20Ad.mp3">Diet Rite Cola - "Everybody Likes It" Ad</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTg0MjIxMDFfWXFTbFM" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p>Bob Pursehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00595178670595128341noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3253281712354769447.post-8137833629764244982024-01-15T13:47:00.000-08:002024-01-15T14:13:20.098-08:00The Game Shows of Election Day, 1974 <p>Happy New Year!</p><p>I have something really fun today, a collection I'm hoping will help many of you to smile during these short, cold days. </p><p>A bit of housekeeping, first. With regard to the <a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2023/11/vintage-bbc-documentaries-return-of-joe.html">British Radio Potpourri</a> that I shared a few months ago, I received the following from a reader/listener named Adam: </p><p style="text-align: center;"><span face=""Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-size: 13px;">Comparing the BBC tape with the Radio Times listings on BBC Genome, the first programme is "Sound for the Movies", broadcast at 21:30 on 27th September 1961. The second is "Anniversary Portrait" from 21:00 on 6th February 1962. "Conference" was on Thursday nights throughout this period, but the listings don't give enough detail to identify the episode.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; outline: none;" /></p><p>And in response to my posting the heartbreakingly short clip of the 1952 Rose Bowl game, a reader/listener named Kyle has linked me to the following clip containing the video and audio of the first half of that game, which can be found <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYwy3vblMgQ">here</a>. </p><p>Many thanks to both of you!</p><p>~~</p><p>I have been digitizing my family's tapes for years now, with a recent focus on those tapes which belonged to me and which I filled up with whatever stoked my interest at the moment. Often, this was me and my friends being stupid, but every now and then there is gold, whether it's <a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2022/06/a-lot-of-jack-paar-letter-from-korea.html">a recording of me pretending I'm hosting an art show</a>, or a recording of <a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2022/05/this-tape-is-goldmine.html">children's television programming and game shows from 1970 and 1971</a>, both of which I've shared at those links. </p><p>Today, from a tape I recorded in 1973 and 1974 comes the entire second side of that tape, capturing (at 1 7/8 IPS, nearly an entire morning's worth of network Game Shows. Specifically, the date of this recording was Election Day, November 5, 1974. </p><p>Listening to this tape, specifically the short introduction I give prior to the end of the first show taped, I found myself reflecting a lot on where I was, in November, 1974. It was a pivotal moment for me, even if I would have had no idea of that, at the time. I'm going to be a bit of a memoirist here for a few paragraphs, so if that's not of interest to you, by all means jump down to the squiggle and skip my (<strike>perhaps </strike> <span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 18px;"> </span></span>definitely self-indulgent) ramblings. This tape captures a moment in my life when I was about to start on the road to becoming the adult I was going to be, and didn't know it. It's stirred up 49 years of feelings in my somehow, and I hope at least a few of you will take this ride with me. </p><p>In November of 1974, I was 14 years old, and several weeks in Freshman year of High School, but was still much more of a child than an adolescent. I had spent a miserable time in 7th and 8th grade at the bottom of the pecking order, with brief relief having come in the class show near the end of 8th grade, where I both played in the band and had a starring role in one of the sketches. I had made some new friends during a summer school jazz band class, and the subsequent fall band classes (I played trombone), but only saw them at school at that point. </p><p>Rather than engage more with new friends, I was sort of wallowing (albeit with a purpose) in thoughts of my old friends. All of the kids who lived on my block in my grade school years - all but one of whom had moved out of state years earlier - had had a big reunion that previous August. I was missing them terribly, and was hard at work editing together all of the 8 millimeter films my mother had taken of the gang of our street into a presentation I called "Remember When", which I showed to everyone in the neighborhood (complete with a musical soundtrack) that Thanksgiving (see, even then, I was dedicated to memorializing the past). </p><p>The first side of the tape heard below contains a typical recording of me goofing around with my best friend John - who had been my best friend since age 3, and the only one who hadn't moved away. This recording is pointless in the extreme, containing the two of us insulting each other, making fart noises and singing an improvised song about burps, in between which I demonstrated my burgeoning abilities on piano (I hadn't had lessons since age 10, at that point). </p><p>Anyway, in November of 1974, I was wallowing in loss, shell-shocked from middle school, working on a tribute to my own past, and engaging in aggressively dumb stuff with my childhood pal. Almost immediately after this, everything began to change. </p><p>In early 1975, I begged to take piano lessons again, promising to practice this time, and this was granted. My piano abilities grow by leaps and bounds. I began hanging around more often with those new high school friends. John and I mutually discovered that, as adolescents, we had very little in common - in fact, I'd say that since I turned 15, I've probably seen John less than two dozen times, and not at all since I was 22. By a year after this tape was made, I was fully engaged with learning new and complex piano pieces, heavily into playing and listening to Jazz, and for the first time, was hopelessly and unrequitedly in love (ah, Sharon....). I was mere weeks away from reconnecting with a friend I'd known at church when I was 11 or 12, a guy named Andy, who would quickly go on to be my first musical partner and, for the rest of the 1970's, my closest friend. </p><p>My life in November of 1973 probably pretty dang closely resembled my life in November of 1974 (with the exception of working on those film clips). But my life in November of 1974 was just about to be turned upside down and did not in any way resemble what it became in late 1975. If a picture is worth a thousand words, these two pictures are worth much more than twice that. Not too long ago, I posted <a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-wind-top-1000-redux.html">a picture of myself at age almost 13</a>, looking quite a bit more than a little overwhelmed by life. </p><p>Here, now is how I looked in my official Eighth Grade Photo, looking like a deer in the headlights, and absolutely showing the effect of two years of bullying. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdJTuFmWydj-vnsw63LUVWDGaFy0ROMQq0ahcI_1OwWX-xS89nT8PH6ccQrQqSMETiFx8-tOGeWRwNl1Uim7uUD3OrZsd6od9cMdjbC4lDIt2vFdful3bAedTAS3igXvpAe27Z04mE1b7CN-ChLSHndr_DF-8QUAcWCRHO9Aj13OKzhjS3Yc1gSz5vU60I/s511/Bob,%201974.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="511" data-original-width="411" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdJTuFmWydj-vnsw63LUVWDGaFy0ROMQq0ahcI_1OwWX-xS89nT8PH6ccQrQqSMETiFx8-tOGeWRwNl1Uim7uUD3OrZsd6od9cMdjbC4lDIt2vFdful3bAedTAS3igXvpAe27Z04mE1b7CN-ChLSHndr_DF-8QUAcWCRHO9Aj13OKzhjS3Yc1gSz5vU60I/w161-h200/Bob,%201974.jpg" width="161" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Here, by contrast, is the happy-go-lucky kid I was by a year later. This picture is a bit later than that, and is low quality (as it's scanned from a class photo, rather than an individual shot), but it still tells the story. <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiqf0ZH-wu9HJfnfNTHmQIi2CfNYbaC0KKHI6nW7Omcxr-kOwU-zQZnH2IlGk3oj03nbJqtg7zy0CBpUf9vG4XRqzIMyCXhrHdOrQ1uZTcSwsWkLFE1o2Nk-8LOjg3LUH_EXR5plQGbYlewNNU4t1kFRolkkzRz-f_EmgGF5NP49gfrlt_C9vZVYd9_TkQ/s396/Bob%201976.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="357" data-original-width="396" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiqf0ZH-wu9HJfnfNTHmQIi2CfNYbaC0KKHI6nW7Omcxr-kOwU-zQZnH2IlGk3oj03nbJqtg7zy0CBpUf9vG4XRqzIMyCXhrHdOrQ1uZTcSwsWkLFE1o2Nk-8LOjg3LUH_EXR5plQGbYlewNNU4t1kFRolkkzRz-f_EmgGF5NP49gfrlt_C9vZVYd9_TkQ/w200-h180/Bob%201976.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;">I have no idea if that was interesting or not, but listening to this tape took me down that rabbit hole of memories, so I thought I'd write about it. Many thanks to all of those of you who traveled down this long and winding road with me just now. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">~~</div></div><p></p><p>Okay, catching up with all of those who skipped all that stuff. </p><p>This tape contains the game shows I chose to watch and record on November 5th, 1974. It was a golden age of daytime network television, when it was clogged up with gab fests, court shows, outrage panderers and local programming. The morning lineup was DOMINATED by Game Shows. Fun, varied, interesting game shows. Hosted by people who actually knew that the game was the star, not by movie and TV stars slumming and making the entire endeavor about them. And I wish it was still that way - both that game shows were on all morning and that they were hosted by actual game show hosts. </p><p>I did not capture the shows intact - there are edits in all of these shows. Mostly, commercials were skipped, sometimes they are there. Sometimes, the recording simply stops in the midst of a question or answer, and picks up at a later point, or that cut segues into the next show. At times, you hear me talking or making noise, and my mother arrives home at some point and fixes me lunch - you can hear her say at one point that she hopes I am hungry because the hamburgers are big. </p><p>If you'd like to see a grid of what was on American network television that day, you can find it <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1974%E2%80%9375_United_States_network_television_schedule_(daytime)">here</a>. </p><p>The tape begins with the announcement of the date and that I am sick. I go on to tell where everyone is - my use of "Mommy, Daddy and Billy" was either because I was being silly or a bit of regression due to not feeling well. I hadn't been calling them by those diminutives in several years at that point. Oh, and here's the cat you'll hear meowing during that introduction. She was the prettiest and best kitty cat ever. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidmV-xmhCihyphenhyphen-FtZYXXWMcCn33IJhfc301oZWi8U3PIZ67D-V_HqwGwJpic6Ja5itrSg7cvCiucaFz-NAxc7Z7W3Ch_MBod6c1H9iTTuBmCoszzcloNeOEbazN12D2Gl-6wG8vY-xolyXwTppCdfAAYfYcOSB1w_PBZmJKToC5DuQGSHq101uekxUI8yQw/s1014/Have%20a%20Drink.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1014" data-original-width="1008" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidmV-xmhCihyphenhyphen-FtZYXXWMcCn33IJhfc301oZWi8U3PIZ67D-V_HqwGwJpic6Ja5itrSg7cvCiucaFz-NAxc7Z7W3Ch_MBod6c1H9iTTuBmCoszzcloNeOEbazN12D2Gl-6wG8vY-xolyXwTppCdfAAYfYcOSB1w_PBZmJKToC5DuQGSHq101uekxUI8yQw/w199-h200/Have%20a%20Drink.jpg" width="199" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>By the time I started recording, "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_That_Tune">Name That Tune</a>" (on NBC) was almost over. </div><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTgxMzIwNDJf/1.%29%20Introduction%20and%20the%20End%20of%20Name%20That%20Tune.mp3">1.) Introduction and the End of Name That Tune</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTgxMzIwNDJfMTFXNDc" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>I pre-announce the next show as "High Rollers", but it's actually "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winning_Streak_(American_game_show)">Winning Streak</a>", also on NBC and starring the far-and-away best game show host in history, the phenomenal <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Cullen">Bill Cullen</a>. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTgxMzIwNDNf/2.%29%20Winning%20Streak.mp3">2.) Winning Streak</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTgxMzIwNDNfV0Q2c0E" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>Next, I jumped over to CBS for "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Now_You_See_It_(American_game_show)">Now You See It</a>". </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTgxMzIwNDRf/3.%29%20Now%20You%20See%20It.mp3">3.) Now You See It</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTgxMzIwNDRfT3RHZWM" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>The perennial favorite "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_Squares">The Hollywood Squares</a>" followed. We're back on NBC and it's 10:30 Eastern Time now. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTgxMzIwNDVf/4.%29%20Hollywood%20Squares.mp3">4.) Hollywood Squares</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTgxMzIwNDVfNDZ1RFY" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>Again sticking with NBC, it was then time for "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackpot_(game_show)">Jackpot</a>"</p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTgxMzIwNDZf/5.%29%20Jackpot.mp3">5.) Jackpot</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTgxMzIwNDZfWTBPNTM" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>Still with NBC, the most peculiar game show on this tape (to my ears, anyway, "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrity_Sweepstakes">Celebrity Sweepstakes</a>" followed at 11:30 AM, running for only 25 minutes so as to make time for news. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTgxMzIwNDdf/6.%29%20Celebrity%20Sweepstakes.mp3">6.) Celebrity Sweepstakes</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTgxMzIwNDdfUnRUWEU" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>With that show having ended early, I switched over to ABC at 12:55 for the end of their show, "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split_Second_(game_show)">Split Second</a>" (a show which is now rebooted on Game Show Network). When that was over, I switched over to local (unaffiliated) powerhouse station WGN and captured some commercials. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTgxMzIwNDhf/7.%29%20End%20of%20Split%20Second%20and%20Commercials.mp3">7.) End of Split Second and Commercials</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTgxMzIwNDhfcXdCcWE" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>With the last waning minutes of the tape, I captured the first few moments, and some later moments, of what was then the most popular show in Chicago television, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bozo_Show">Bozo's Circus</a>. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTgxMzIwNDlf/8.%29%20Bozo%27s%20Circus.mp3">8.) Bozo's Circus</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTgxMzIwNDlfazFiekE" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>Well, that's the tape! I suspect that these are the only recordings of these particular episodes in existence, as most of these shows were erased with subsequent shows, that being the practice at the time. While a few episodes of each show (and more of Bozo) exist out there, it is unlikely that they are these particular episodes. </p><p>~~</p><p>And it wouldn't be a complete post without a "Very Short Reel". Here are some folks struggling to sing "Scarlet Ribbons", a song which I've always found to be massively pretentious. It breaks down about half way through these 73 seconds of tape, and good riddance. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTgxNTI0ODFf/Practicing%20%27Scarlet%20Ribbons%27.mp3">Unknown - Practicing "Scarlet Ribbons"</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTgxNTI0ODFfZThYM0E" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p>Bob Pursehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00595178670595128341noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3253281712354769447.post-22303725256659391622023-12-29T14:03:00.000-08:002024-01-27T10:33:43.803-08:00New Year's Through and Through<p>Greetings, </p><p>I hope everyone is having a lovely holiday season, whatever it is you celebrate or don't celebrate. I have a batch of recordings which all (except maybe one) have end of the year and/or beginning of the year theme. </p><p>Here's hoping for a fabulous 2024. </p><p>Whatever happens next year, though, it will happen without one of my favorite people in the world. Tommy Smothers died this week, and I want to just say a word or two here. That's because I think The Smothers Brothers - in addition to what they did for the expanding of boundries in television (and for letting Pete Seeger back on the air) - they were, in my opinion, one of the half dozen greatest comedy acts of the 20th century. I'm probably forgetting someone or some team, but I'd put them with Monty Python, The Marx Brothers, Shelley Berman, George Carlin and David Letterman and the staff of "Late Night" on that short list. </p><p>And specifically for Tommy, I'd say that I'm not sure anyone ever had better comic timing or a more fully realized comic persona. And he was a hell of a guitar player, too, something that flew under the radar, but of which he was very proud. </p><p>My favorite political site, Electoral-Vote.com <a href="https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2023/Pres/Maps/Dec28.html#item-7">has a nice write up about Tommy</a>, saying far more than I want to here, and doing it better than could. </p><p>Here are my two favorite Smothers Brothers tracks, both of which make my personal all-time favorite top 200 tracks ever recorded: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLyY-si0IP0">Mediocre Fred</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en54Im4qBOA">Crabs Walk Sideways</a>.</p><p>Also, please keep reading after all of the new year related offerings below, as I am debuted my latest recording, a parody song I've been working on, off and on, for the last seven months or so. </p><p>~~</p><p>Presumably, this first offering will be the most interesting to a good many of the people who are nice enough to frequent this site. It is a partial recording of the KFRC, 610 AM in San Francisco, broadcast of the top hits of 1967. This is far from the pristine (or complete) recording I'd wish it to be - the recording quality is relatively poor - noticeably bass heavy, despite some attempts at my end to rectify it, and it does not contain anywhere near the entire program, or even a single segment - it starts with # 92 and then, 103 minutes later, we hear the end of the number one song of the year. More songs were skipped than were heard. Still it's a piece of top 40 radio history, and that's worth something. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTc4ODAyNjRf/KFRC%2C%20San%20Francisco%20-%20The%20Top%20100%20of%201967%20%28Portions%29.mp3">KFRC, San Francisco - The Top 100 of 1967 (Portions)</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTc4ODAyNjRfWUpja0g" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDsl_nCjUfgaEVgN0qviamXvSL7rYMQA-JbWML02AVc3n8mC-XfJ49Vb1P7IskVUXyy83mlUh9ua07Rl7C00Rz8wE_wZ75heU561RC_CddQBFvtRxA3z9ye61YO_sAR4B_kzWlMyK53QnMukKoJFPiPDYHHog0cTgnHMlE-24cx1FKxXLkRYu7GpqcuK_n/s2882/DSC00292.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1540" data-original-width="2882" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDsl_nCjUfgaEVgN0qviamXvSL7rYMQA-JbWML02AVc3n8mC-XfJ49Vb1P7IskVUXyy83mlUh9ua07Rl7C00Rz8wE_wZ75heU561RC_CddQBFvtRxA3z9ye61YO_sAR4B_kzWlMyK53QnMukKoJFPiPDYHHog0cTgnHMlE-24cx1FKxXLkRYu7GpqcuK_n/w400-h214/DSC00292.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p>Incidentally, if you do a search for the gentlemen (and his home town) who stamped his name onto this tape box, you will find his obituary. It popped up as the first item found for me. He was 42 years old when he recorded this. I would have thought a fan of top 40 music in 1967 would have been half that age or less. </p><p>~~</p><p>The next two files come from the same tape, and were recorded, first, as 1955 became 1956, and then again, a much longer segment featuring some of the same people, which appears to have been recorded sometime later on New Year's Day, 1956. I do not know anything more about this tape. In fact, I digitized this tape eleven months ago, and do not actually remember what happens during either segment. So we'll all be surprised. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTc4ODAyODVf/At%20a%20New%20Year%27s%20Eve%20Party%2C%201955%20into%201956.mp3">At a New Year's Eve Party, 1955 into 1956</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTc4ODAyODVfcnNnUjA" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTc4ODAyODNf/A%20Group%20of%20Friends%20Goofing%20Around%2C%20Circa%20New%20Year%27s%20Day%2C%201956.mp3">A Group of Friends Goofing Around, Circa New Year's Day, 1956</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTc4ODAyODNfZDh0amY" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtlAB8m08Yd2CstWiLJnJFkWdkNp0NinS05FCgL5PQtVcrA-Iffo06iBCx87YtUgUYsfdKOtwR1HhTsYJKILdZ-DFGzBLfpxbD3OHlGLeqq3kb011gPab1d2Hxyo-nDyv1SkwbQB0rBHVVO6aHUZD3EzmoalRytspmj_UtD6QA8Hz7pc0Pc6RErHg5Qu8K/s1325/The%20Boys.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="842" data-original-width="1325" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtlAB8m08Yd2CstWiLJnJFkWdkNp0NinS05FCgL5PQtVcrA-Iffo06iBCx87YtUgUYsfdKOtwR1HhTsYJKILdZ-DFGzBLfpxbD3OHlGLeqq3kb011gPab1d2Hxyo-nDyv1SkwbQB0rBHVVO6aHUZD3EzmoalRytspmj_UtD6QA8Hz7pc0Pc6RErHg5Qu8K/w400-h254/The%20Boys.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>~~</p><p><a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2023/12/christmas-through-and-through-volume-two.html">In my last post</a>, I had what I called "A Post-Christmas Tape From Canada to Lenore and Her Family in Bermuda". Well, here is a sequal of sorts, another audio letter to Lenore. My labeling of these tapes is a bit confusing, or maybe not, based on the labeling of each. But whereas the other tape was labeled "from Canada to Lenore in Bermuda", this one is labeled "To Lenore from Family in Bermuda". A quick spot check of segments of the tape does indicate that this seems to be a tape to Lenore from a different group of people than are heard in the previous tape, and these people were definitely in Bermuda, apparently from a time before Lenora lived there, or between times that she lived there. What we probably have here are two tapes to the same person from two different groups of people. </p><p>Regardless, just as the other tape was made after Christmas, this one was made a day or two after New Year's Day. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTc4ODAyNzNf/A%20Post%20New%20Year%27s%20Tape%20to%20Lenora%20From%20Family%20in%20Bermuda.mp3">A Post New Year's Tape to Lenora From Family in Bermuda</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTc4ODAyNzNfbzd1WVk" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>And here's a tape I've labeled simply "Party - Lynn and Gene", which is probably self explanatory. I don't know that this is from a New Year's Eve party - chances are it's not - but it still fits the theme of celebrations. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTc4ODAyNjVf/Party%20-%20Lynn%20and%20Gene.mp3">Party - Lynn and Gene</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTc4ODAyNjVfSGt3UXU" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>And now for a Very Short Reel that I wish was longer. Although perhaps the longer version of this tape - and this segment - is readily available elsewhere, I don't know. It's a short moment from All American New Year's Day tradition. I was thrilled, a few years ago, to find a Scotch tape of the earliest design, labeled thus: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUDJfxjUviEqvKTaIx0vZcJev9gtp01rklkXlrp2AmxibtTB-KenFHOSMghkkoT9yf8U0cwKUZcOVbV-CiSHhuEcxO1FslLukVp9Eihpt3Bc4SadS9-t-dKAX-QORyJjllUqQ5RQuXgZnOQGDDYV0EdlhmKQJ0b1VtOeepXh6e50DjXPOWR6-bEKrffoP5/s2027/Rose%20Bowl.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="962" data-original-width="2027" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUDJfxjUviEqvKTaIx0vZcJev9gtp01rklkXlrp2AmxibtTB-KenFHOSMghkkoT9yf8U0cwKUZcOVbV-CiSHhuEcxO1FslLukVp9Eihpt3Bc4SadS9-t-dKAX-QORyJjllUqQ5RQuXgZnOQGDDYV0EdlhmKQJ0b1VtOeepXh6e50DjXPOWR6-bEKrffoP5/w400-h190/Rose%20Bowl.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Perhaps that's hard to read. It says Reel No. 1, Date 1-1-52, Stanford 7 - Illinois 40, Rose Bowl Game. Unfortunately, I found that nearly the entire reel had been erased with much less interesting material, leaving just 140 seconds of this football game broadcast recording. A real pity. Anyway, here it is. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTc4ODI5NjNf/The%201952%20Rose%20Bowl%20Game%20-%20Short%20Fragment.mp3">The 1952 Rose Bowl Game - Short Fragment</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTc4ODI5NjNfNXl1UHI" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">And now for something completely different. About six years ago, something inspired me - something insistent - to write a parody lyric for the song "Up Up and Away" by the Fifth Dimension. This is not even a record that I like - not when it came out when I was seven, and not now - and although I've written and recorded parodies in the past, all but one were of records that I love. Anyway, it wasn't until April of this year that I decided to make a track of my parody. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Anyone my age or perhaps even 10-15 years younger will likely know the song this is based on, but for those who don't, the original can be found <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKkNlwpajNk">here</a>. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I decided along the way that I wanted my music track to sound as close to exactly like the original Fifth Dimension track as I could possibly get out of my Midi set-up, and I think I succeeded to the point that the track sounds like a Karaoke track. It is not - I built it from the ground up, instrument by instrument. I worked on it off and on, sometimes on weekends, mostly when I took days off from work. It took me over seven months! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I am very happy with the final product.... except that I can't settle on which prospective title is better, the one that reflects the original song's title ("Come, Come in and Play") or the one which better reflects the text of the parody ("My Curio Filled Room"). Regardless, I hope you enjoy it, and would love to hear comments, including thoughts on the better title. </div><p></p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTc4ODEyMTlf/Bob%20Purse%20-%20My%20Curio%20Filled%20Room%20%28AKA%20Come%2C%20Come%20in%20and%20Play%29.mp3">Bob Purse - My Curio Filled Room (AKA Come, Come In and Play)</a></p><div>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTc4ODEyMTlfMWg2Q1g" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></div>Bob Pursehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00595178670595128341noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3253281712354769447.post-81234181732048800182023-12-17T18:21:00.000-08:002023-12-17T18:21:24.116-08:00Christmas Through and Through, Volume Two<p>Happy December, everyone, </p><p>As I've done nearly every year since I started this project, the first post of December will be entirely Christmas related. I have four personal recordings from families or family members, and four recordings of professional presentations of Christmas material, and will go back and forth between the two. </p><p>First up is a tape that just about defines family Christmastime. It is simply 42 minutes or so of "Fly-On-The-Wall" recording of a family enjoying the opening of presents and the joy of being together, recorded on Christmas in 1956, according to the tape box. </p><p>(The last few seconds contain a musical performance which the Christmas recording had been erasing.)</p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTc0OTA3MDdf/Unknown%20Family%20-%20Christmas%2C%201956.mp3">Unknown Family - Christmas, 1956</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTc0OTA3MDdfQkthNHY" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>A very different celebration of Christmas now, a professional and downright staid presentation, from the oh-so-serious and classical music oriented "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Voice_of_Firestone">Voice of Firestone</a>", which started in the early days of radio, moved to television as one of the first regularly scheduled network shows (a very small network of stations) in 1943 (!) and lasted, in one form or another, into the 1960's. This is a recording of a TV broadcast from 1958. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTc0OTA3MDJf/Voice%20of%20Firestone%2C%20Christmas%20Special%2C%20December%2C%201958.mp3">Voice of Firestone, Christmas Special, December, 1958</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTc0OTA3MDJfZEJ3R0g" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Next, here's an audio letter from an entire family, made at Christmastime. It last just over an hour, and a whole bunch of folks get to be chatty, sing if they want, and pass along everything you could imagine to the recipient of this tape. Imagine in the days before Zoom, even in the days before cheap long distance phone calls, getting this 62 minute tape from your loved ones far away, and getting to spend an unexpected hour with them. That's one of the (many) magical things about reel to reel tape. </p><p>The opening moments are poorly recorded, but that gets fixed after 30 seconds. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTc0OTA3MDFf/A%20Christmastime%20Audio%20Letter%20from%20the%20Family.mp3">A Christmastime Audio Letter from the Family</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTc0OTA3MDFfclU4RGs" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Back to the professional musicians! And I thought this was pretty durn keen. "Sing It Again" was a BBC Radio show which, as far as I can tell, ran at least from some time in the early 1950's into the 1970's. There's no date on this Christmas episode, but it features some very effectively arranged songs, close to half of which I'd never heard before. The Cockney-flavored song that starts at about 5:25 is particularly fun. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTc0OTA3MTFf/%27Sing%20It%20Again%27%20-%20A%20BBC%20Christmas%20Presentation.mp3">"Sing It Again" - A BBC Christmas Presentation</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTc0OTA3MTFfTFFaWTc" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Here's another audio letter, in this case made on Christmas and on December 26th, from a family in Canada who was recording the tape for Lenore (or maybe it's Lenora - I hear her addressed both ways here) and her family (The Abbots) in Bermuda. The tape seems to have slowed to a stop a couple of times while it was being recorded. This is just another very sweet recording from another era. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTc0OTA3MDVf/A%20Post-Christmas%20Tape%20From%20Canada%20to%20Lenore%20and%20Her%20Family%20in%20Bermuda.mp3">A Post-Christmas Tape From Canada to Lenore and Her Family in Bermuda</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTc0OTA3MDVfelNXUEI" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Here's just under 20 minutes of Chicago Radio programming, from an unknown date and station, which I thought was sort of cool. The music is just from records - although for the most part ones you don't hear much these days - but between the records there are a couple of local stories, a detailed one about the delivery of Christmas trees, and a brief one about roasted chestnuts</p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTc0OTA3MDBf/Unknown%20Chicago%20Radio%20Station%20-%20Christmas%20Programming.mp3">Unknown Chicago Radio Station - Christmas Programming</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTc0OTA3MDBfS2NnMHg" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>And this may be an all-Christmas post, but that doesn't mean we won't have an "Acetate of the Month". This one is Christmas related. Or at least, I assume it is, as it is labeled "Xmas, 1940", as you can see below. Its contents are downright disjointed, and I cannot make out any part of it which clearly has anything to do with Christmas. It does start with someone discussing what a dad might like - which could mean Christmas - but then it goes through a man praising for a child, that child speaking about a sporting event, then a mom speaks haltingly about stars (and then some organ music drowns him out). This is a pretty weird one. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTc0OTMyODhf/Xmas%2C%201940%20-%20Universal%20Acetate.mp3">Xmas, 1940 - Universal Acetate</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTc0OTMyODhfZ1l1Vks" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZjIkBO1OJGFJm80PSHM5kjJBGe5II78ZX4TGWAT8PJQ_OFkkeM6rd-_9FMB37uj70PvJvYeHNiKhcAvliyvPFtlFM1N4P7XTH7obAU8COVN6EfKCsrdNrlNwqEZU5Yvb59QIUNweTdpFc77441eTioFxEBLVQidynpQQQj19aG8g4TEKzrzFohOywBZ0N/s1213/Xmas%201940.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1146" data-original-width="1213" height="378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZjIkBO1OJGFJm80PSHM5kjJBGe5II78ZX4TGWAT8PJQ_OFkkeM6rd-_9FMB37uj70PvJvYeHNiKhcAvliyvPFtlFM1N4P7XTH7obAU8COVN6EfKCsrdNrlNwqEZU5Yvb59QIUNweTdpFc77441eTioFxEBLVQidynpQQQj19aG8g4TEKzrzFohOywBZ0N/w400-h378/Xmas%201940.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p>~~</p><p>And finally, our "Very Short Reel" for this post. I'm stretching the concept a bit, as I usually define "very short" as being under five minutes. But I wanted to make this post "all Christmas", and the shortest Christmas related segment I currently have is just over seven minutes. This is a tape from The Simpsons of Springfield (!) to Larry and (I think) Paul. I actually find this tape more than a bit odd. </p><p>After a personal greeting, almost the entire remainder of the tape seems to be a copy of a recording that the sender made off of a radio broadcast - some music, Christmas thoughts from two What follows the introduction seems to be a recording of a bit of a broadcast of some music, followed by some Christmas thoughts from two different people, then some music box music. Then the sender comes back in for a moment with Christmas wishes. </p><p>For all the time it took this person to make and send a Christmas tape to his friends, the actual contents he chose to include seem oddly impersonal. Sort of like sending a Birthday card to someone and inserting into it a bunch of pictures of other people celebrating their birthdays, instead of inscribing it with your own personal thoughts, </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTc0OTA3MTBf/Brief%20Tape%20of%20Christmas%20Greetings.mp3">Brief Tape of Christmas Greetings From the Simpsons</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTc0OTA3MTBfTkc5SjQ" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p>Bob Pursehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00595178670595128341noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3253281712354769447.post-75554715588796119752023-11-30T18:41:00.000-08:002023-11-30T18:41:27.503-08:00Vintage BBC Documentaries, The Return of Joe Gerossi, Unusual Sounds, Some Wild Piano, and Christmastime Is Here Again<p>Two posts in six days!!! Christmas must have come early! (And that's actually foreshadowing for this post....) </p><p>I'll start with something off the beaten path. Here is everything that's contained on a reel of tape made by someone in England, featuring three programs, two documentaries and a show about policy. </p><p>The first show, taking up about the first 27 minutes of the tape, is a documentary about the story of sound coming to the movies. The second was labeled on the tape as a review of Queen Elizabeth's 1961 visit to Africa, although the program expands into a more general review of many aspects of the Queen and her reign. This program mentions her tenth anniversary on the throne, so must actually have been broadcast in 1962. Most likely, all three shows are from 1962 (I can't seem to find the tape box at the moment, as I digitized this one some four years ago.) Finally, starting about an hour and 14 minutes into the tape, a program called "Conference", which in the episode heard here was concerned with British Defence Policy (given that the show and the person recording it were English, that's how it was spelled on the box). The tape runs out before this show ends. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTY2NjA4MDNf/British%20Radio%20Potpourri%20-%20History%20of%20Sound%20Film%2C%20Queen%27s%20Visit%2C%20British%20Defence%20Policy.mp3">British Radio Potpourri - History of Sound Film, Queen's Visit, British Defence Policy</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTY2NjA4MDNfS2Voemg" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Next, do you remember Joe Gerossi? The gregarious barber who I have featured three other times, <a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2020/02/february-9th-potpourri-joe-gerossi-his.html">here</a>, <a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2020/10/a-sweet-tape-by-musical-family-early.html">here</a> and <a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-return-of-joe-gerossi-belated.html">here</a>? Well, here I have a bunch more from Ol' Joe. And although this is the fourth such posting, it's labeled "Volume 2". Why? Because this one features Joe and his friends and perhaps family, and is thus more of a sequel to the first posting than to the other two (both of which largely or entirely featured Joe on his own).</p><p>Let me just say: This Tape Is A Mess. The sound goes in and out, there are problems with the speed of the machine recording it in spots, and there are other spots where newly recorded material did not fully erase older material (which was a problem on another one of Joe's tapes, too - he must have had a lousy tape recorder!). There are some truly winning moments here, and some others which go on too long, or should never have been kept in the first place. But I think Joe has some fans, so I thought I'd share another batch of recordings that he made. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTY2NjA4MzBf/Joe%20Gerossi%20and%20Friends%20-%20Various%20Recordings%2C%20Volume%202.mp3">Joe Gerossi and Friends - Various Recordings, Volume 2</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTY2NjA4MzBfZVlFdHM" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>Incidentally, this reel came with THREE different slips of paper claiming to contain descriptions of what was on the tape and in what order. I present them here in case you'd like to see if you can tell who is who, and what is where: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0tYw_WR-Ns7ExeUDgDxa6i70WQA9B3MyVhn2yj8fT8bb6iZyUshyE6lBfTUNLTm_z7uaRo7DMgGOkNFeeUUnopUX4V2qjXIF2T76KGEKhJsWg8tFQHqi1VftTuDFWuwiOm-hnDN-ULjYsTIiIeZ-eKUkHG6wy9GIgwsHYCd0Pjx2ptZo0SN1psfP24m3A/s2018/Gerossi%201.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2018" data-original-width="1470" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0tYw_WR-Ns7ExeUDgDxa6i70WQA9B3MyVhn2yj8fT8bb6iZyUshyE6lBfTUNLTm_z7uaRo7DMgGOkNFeeUUnopUX4V2qjXIF2T76KGEKhJsWg8tFQHqi1VftTuDFWuwiOm-hnDN-ULjYsTIiIeZ-eKUkHG6wy9GIgwsHYCd0Pjx2ptZo0SN1psfP24m3A/s320/Gerossi%201.jpg" width="233" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi90wintA-3kOwkBYAJ0UvHVGiR0dqBUxTnZsxhnLDKfSP3e1-23A1254RqTAgULtSvmS048PIqNEOaYQ4XVRE9vkxgFomwi9w3hgh-flFJZbegXYyauKpUMv9mOsSo8eotaPy4CfooAAvNS_OibYthHjCZgLnemg6UYyqgLCZeylLe73EmyvhIxqWdKqjC/s1051/Gerossi%202.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="754" data-original-width="1051" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi90wintA-3kOwkBYAJ0UvHVGiR0dqBUxTnZsxhnLDKfSP3e1-23A1254RqTAgULtSvmS048PIqNEOaYQ4XVRE9vkxgFomwi9w3hgh-flFJZbegXYyauKpUMv9mOsSo8eotaPy4CfooAAvNS_OibYthHjCZgLnemg6UYyqgLCZeylLe73EmyvhIxqWdKqjC/s320/Gerossi%202.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNWM2yPXFMGcvF9-vpICQFJd75TssaUdjg98fjLigx6OQ90KuQ8XrI2UvhcrRBVGT1ofAegKmBFZ8NKoucrAr4xKsXByO2Ny7362P1keIuFO5lG9lyFQQD73V4ajj5APigoWvIRKgs_tMjVRlFMTRjaBO1U6Sck5ayMLWhwEwVTw2OpZqbC8BMzT2iuWSd/s1516/Gerossi%203.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1516" data-original-width="883" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNWM2yPXFMGcvF9-vpICQFJd75TssaUdjg98fjLigx6OQ90KuQ8XrI2UvhcrRBVGT1ofAegKmBFZ8NKoucrAr4xKsXByO2Ny7362P1keIuFO5lG9lyFQQD73V4ajj5APigoWvIRKgs_tMjVRlFMTRjaBO1U6Sck5ayMLWhwEwVTw2OpZqbC8BMzT2iuWSd/s320/Gerossi%203.jpg" width="186" /></a></div><br /><p>~~</p><p>This next segment is a five minute oddity I've labeled "Unusual Montage of Late 1970's Media Sounds". I have no idea for what purpose this might have been created, and aside from that, I think the title suffices as an introduction to this interesting compilation of sounds: </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTY2NjA4MTBf/Unusual%20Montoge%20of%20Late%201970%27s%20Media%20Sounds.mp3">Unusual Montage of Late 1970's Media Sounds</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTY2NjA4MTBfQUF1MWg" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>AND NOW - with the exception of a short reel at the end - IT'S TIME TO MOVE INTO CHRISTMAS MODE!!</p><p>I have so many Christmas related items that I won't possibly be able to squeeze them all into one post in the middle of December. So with Advent beginning in three days, I'm going to get ahead of things and share four Christmassy items with you.</p><p>I'll start with the one which, to my ears and in terms of what I prefer, is by far the most interesting of the next four tapes. In it, a man, perhaps a patriarch, for lack of a better term (or perhaps not), spends some time "Interviewing the Family on Christmas Night". I find this fascinating and endearing, and I hope you will enjoy it, too. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTY2NjA1NTVf/Interviewing%20the%20Family%20on%20Christmas%20Night.mp3">Interviewing the Family on Christmas Night</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTY2NjA1NTVfS3IxSTE" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </p><p>~~</p><p>For those of you who enjoy manly men singing Christmas music with Mitch Miller's idiosyncratic echoey production - with a few female vocals thrown in - here is a Christmastime episode of "Sing Along with Mitch!: </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTY2NjA4Njlf/Sing%20Along%20with%20Mitch%20-%20A%20Christmas%20Episode.mp3">Sing Along with Mitch - A Christmas Episode</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTY2NjA4NjlfVHpWOHU" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>And here's a tape of three songs - none of which are related to Christmas - but which were offered up as an sort of musical Christmas Card by some unknown folks, folks who very likely were living in Indiana (on 52nd Street), from the sound of things. At first I thought this was a musical audio letter to someone ("Honey") who was far away, but upon a closer listen, I'm pretty sure that the male singer present IS honey, and that the woman who speaks first is addressing him following a return from.... somewhere. The sound quality is more than a bit rough, but the homey qualities and the clear affection in the voices of all involved make this a sweet, short offering.</p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTY2NjA4NzRf/Merry%20Christmas%20to%20Honey%20-%20Three%20Songs.mp3">Merry Christmas to Honey - Three Songs</a></p> Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTY2NjA4NzRfZEZhTWU" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe><div><br /></div><div>~~</div><div><br /></div><div>And finally, a neat little tape (well, I think it is, anyway) of a rehearsal of Christmas Songs by a high school choir. I picked up several tapes of this group some time ago, in a batch of tapes purchased from God knows where, and this was the first one I listened to. </div><div><br /></div><div>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTY2NTk0NDFf/A%20High%20School%20Choir%20Rehearses%20Christmas%20Songs.mp3">A High School Choir Rehearses Christmas Songs</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTY2NTk0NDFfUEtCV0E" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><div>This is all it says on the box: </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFVg0rKs0WurWZ_KomEWf3qzMndDFkRZAHRnMjYezuJFUnGTux0M4w-8J_pT4wU_ZOdP5b90eqco1rSzEDV2h2oZLQjy835O1Cc95AsW-JEIDFasx6JanNXT_Us3V32DeLWSF47Aw5JO55zlNbPKuobp2JkJfqsya20OGoRXAutD2NgaZGin9ZyCr7HGXr/s716/8th.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="332" data-original-width="716" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFVg0rKs0WurWZ_KomEWf3qzMndDFkRZAHRnMjYezuJFUnGTux0M4w-8J_pT4wU_ZOdP5b90eqco1rSzEDV2h2oZLQjy835O1Cc95AsW-JEIDFasx6JanNXT_Us3V32DeLWSF47Aw5JO55zlNbPKuobp2JkJfqsya20OGoRXAutD2NgaZGin9ZyCr7HGXr/s320/8th.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div>~~</div><div>Finally, it's time for our "Very Short Reel". This one is sort of intriguing. This is a small reel of tape, containing a recording of two piano pieces, recorded at the professional speed of 15 Inches-Per-Second. Only the second piece is identified (on the side of the box), listed as "Down Yonder", but the first, shorter piece is clearly "Who's Sorry Now". The pianist on the first piece is listed as Tom Slade, and the second piece is listed as a duet between Tom Slade and Milton Jackson. The performance of "Down Yonder" is upbeat, and jazzy, rollicking, features elements of other familiar tunes, and is just a whole lotta...... </div><div><br /></div><div>Wait, <i><b>Milton Jackson? </b></i>Surely not <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milt_Jackson">the legendary jazz musician</a>? I doubt it, but I can't figure any way to determine this one way or the other. The date certainly makes it possible, but that's hardly an unusual name.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here are two images from the box. This was, unfortunately, one of the tapes whose boxes got damaged in a pipe leak in my basement several years ago. For the most part, the tapes were undamaged, as is true for this reel (reel to reel tape tends to be pretty hardy), but the box is a mess. </div><div><br /></div><div><div>Here is the side of the tape box, which is admittedly hard to read in this scan. It reads Tom Slade (Down Yonder) 10-13-54</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_IqMyoqxaJ4B0_-7GLCWBnh2xV2Im5EaKI_yE39jxi9Bb7g33NKmB_br5G8AUg_cDUVg90WwkvZOmiBdBnLQf9QcN7gwppBOUYat8KB3-3qXW7O3K3_ZNVTbUhmTyayn6Yn2E-lDtxdV8iyRbCAI61zf1K2wSySbkBcWPmCax1FnDjQO5m6bmrOqWs1y6/s1649/Milton.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="201" data-original-width="1649" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_IqMyoqxaJ4B0_-7GLCWBnh2xV2Im5EaKI_yE39jxi9Bb7g33NKmB_br5G8AUg_cDUVg90WwkvZOmiBdBnLQf9QcN7gwppBOUYat8KB3-3qXW7O3K3_ZNVTbUhmTyayn6Yn2E-lDtxdV8iyRbCAI61zf1K2wSySbkBcWPmCax1FnDjQO5m6bmrOqWs1y6/w640-h78/Milton.jpg" width="640" /></a></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div>And a portion of the back. Again, hard to read. It says: </div><div><br /></div><div>Reel # 3, 10/13/54, 15 IPS</div><div><br /></div><div>1. Tom Slade, Piano</div><div>2. Tom Slade and Milton Jackson, Piano</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu5Vihq9kvMvBFR-0MCDQ2uT4p10ifq6tZVIuhIrq98BEjbmy4dWn5K5TP6nXs-4a4hZrl3FTR4YF-nLvJtqFhRrWX-hbAKI_0RKCyslGfpf4lLkTE3CWHVj2sJ7bOw_8vubo-bezJ6vgxRMsGPAQds1RxMKYH-TIdMDBIvaNWHlYiSlI7uqsX9KGAHqTO/s1254/Tom.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="505" data-original-width="1254" height="129" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu5Vihq9kvMvBFR-0MCDQ2uT4p10ifq6tZVIuhIrq98BEjbmy4dWn5K5TP6nXs-4a4hZrl3FTR4YF-nLvJtqFhRrWX-hbAKI_0RKCyslGfpf4lLkTE3CWHVj2sJ7bOw_8vubo-bezJ6vgxRMsGPAQds1RxMKYH-TIdMDBIvaNWHlYiSlI7uqsX9KGAHqTO/s320/Tom.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></div><div><br /></div><div>And here's what it sounds like!</div><div><br /></div><div>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTY2NjA4Nzlf/Tom%20Slade%20and%20Milton%20Jackson%20-%20Who%27s%20Sorry%20Now%20and%20Down%20Yonder%20-%2010-13-54.mp3">Tom Slade and Milton Jackson - Who's Sorry Now and Down Yonder - 10-13-54</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTY2NjA4NzlfY0FpQnI" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Bob Pursehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00595178670595128341noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3253281712354769447.post-90521338362128651572023-11-25T14:50:00.000-08:002023-11-25T14:50:32.810-08:00A Passel of Jazz Stars, A Turkey Give Away, The Biggest Hit Shows of 1963, Some Chatty Girls, Beer and Cars, and the Approach of Christmas<p> Greetings! A belated Happy Thanksgiving to all of my American readers/listeners, and a giant THANK YOU to everyone who stops by to read and listen, on this date and any other. </p><p>I'm going to start with something I think is pretty special, and which I don't think is readily available elsewhere (although I admit I could be wrong about that, but I have looked). Short clips are available on YoutTube and elsewhere, but this is nearly the entire dang thing. </p><p>It's the third of at least four "Timex All Star Jazz Shows", which aired on CBS in the late 1950's, and featuring a roster of some of the biggest names in Jazz from the '30's, '40's and '50's. The first and second of these shows seem to be more well represented online than this one, the second one actually came out on vinyl, and at least elements of the first and second one were available at one time on CD. But this third one seems much rarer. </p><p>Anyway, if you're a fan of jazz, this is undoubtedly right up your alley. While the more progressive movements in jazz present in 1958 are not represented here (and I wish Dizzy Gillespie, for example, had been invited), it's still, as I said, pretty special stuff. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTY0Njk2MzRf/The%20Third%20Timex%20All%20Star%20Jazz%20Show%20-%2011-10-58.mp3">The Third Timex All Star Jazz Show - 11-10-58</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTY0Njk2MzRfYlh1UFE" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>As long as we just celebrated Thanksgiving, I thought the time was perfect to share this short segment, in which we hear a radio station in Fairmont, West Virginia, doing a rather goofy Thanksgiving Turkey Give-Away. These are from an actual broadcast. Rather, this is a work tape in which the calls are edited together with ads, and prepared for airing at the times indicated in the introductions to each call. The gimmick behind this giveaway is worth the price of admission. I do not have a date for this recording.</p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTY0Njk2NDBf/Fairmont%2C%20West%20Virginia%2C%20Thanksgiving%20Turkey%20Give-Away%20Phone%20Calls.mp3">Fairmont, West Virginia, Thanksgiving Turkey Give-Away Phone Calls</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTY0Njk2NDBfS0V2bHY" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Those of us of a certain age - and I'm not sure what that age is - will remember when the fall network TV season was not only announced with a flurry of ads and promos, but also led off with each network previewing their fall shows with an hour long special in which each show was highlighted. I previously shared <a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2022/08/august-blowout-post-everything-must-go.html">an ABC production of this type from 1964</a>, and here, now, is a similar type program from CBS, presented in late September, 1963. CBS had enormous success that year, as nine of the top ten programs of the year aired on that network. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTY0Njk2Mzhf/CBS%20Opening%20Night%20-%20Preview%20of%20the%20Coming%20Season%20-%209-23-63.mp3">CBS Opening Night - Preview of the Coming Season - 9-23-63</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTY0Njk2MzhfMXo3ZWY" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>For those of you who enjoy fly-on-the-wall recordings, I have the self-explanatory "A Few Girls Talking, Circa 1960". The recording quality here is far from the best - you really have to turn up the sound and listen closely to make out what's being said at times, and the last two minutes or so of this 15 minute segment is sort of a hodge-podge of silence, near silence and fragments of conversation. But.... this sort of thing is gold for me. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTY0Njk2MzZf/A%20Few%20Girls%20Talking%2C%20Circa%201960.mp3">A Few Girls Talking, Circa 1960</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTY0Njk2MzZfaXJrTmc" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>And now for our Acetate of the Month. Here's a two sided record from radio station WNEB, in Worcester, Mass. On one side, a folky-type guitar strummer sings about Harr Ford, and his vocalizing is heard on either side of the sales pitches on three different ads, dated for April 29th, 1961. </p><p>On the flip side are two fun, fun ads for Schaefer Beer, ads which not only promote the beverage in question, but also for an upcoming Jimmy Durante television show, a program which aired on August 9th, 1961. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTY2MDEzNTZf/WNEB%20%28Worchester%2C%20Mass%29%20Acetate%20-Three%20Harr%20Ford%20Ads%2C%204-29-61%20.mp3">WNEB (Worchester, Mass) Acetate -Three Harr Ford Ads, 4-29-61</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTY2MDEzNTZfZkpvUTY" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTY2MDM0ODhf/WNEB%20%28Worchester%2C%20Mass%29%20Acetate%20-Two%20Schaefer%20Beer%20Ads.mp3">WNEB (Worchester, Mass) Acetate -Two Schaefer Beer Ads</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTY2MDM0ODhfd09jdXU" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS1CoVV1G4gfqNr8jjrlqsXr0rIn1YwPDdhNcogRGLkxErtMYczAEbdovpWHVK1RBHrQGg40QdDWaJYB8bQICb0337ttKpEHMdIUhCgHDSt4cL-r5bQgOHa-pqu_sHs-vlIK3gh166fpo4-qTt8_0CLC2r1bJYF6rsuoX5Vm1PhoQm4f8V34KeNhuoRxyQ/s1810/DSC09415.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1810" data-original-width="1774" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS1CoVV1G4gfqNr8jjrlqsXr0rIn1YwPDdhNcogRGLkxErtMYczAEbdovpWHVK1RBHrQGg40QdDWaJYB8bQICb0337ttKpEHMdIUhCgHDSt4cL-r5bQgOHa-pqu_sHs-vlIK3gh166fpo4-qTt8_0CLC2r1bJYF6rsuoX5Vm1PhoQm4f8V34KeNhuoRxyQ/w393-h400/DSC09415.JPG" width="393" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn6f7hZDSfOUhSficjDbIhM8kBBmYWXAh3bdh497fYnnhkwJRFBi4XKrnNhd8UqMTuAtnq7aTMCjKgiPGecbB1G2SeS6oMO1FGblXx9d2pWBr_LB1oS3TKTv8Z0DYyRsyj2YKk4q4rUPLYgrmMJ1LczThVJspkEuJ9NPN07pzG_FP7fZNtdE1ERmPCL8px/s1962/DSC09411.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1951" data-original-width="1962" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn6f7hZDSfOUhSficjDbIhM8kBBmYWXAh3bdh497fYnnhkwJRFBi4XKrnNhd8UqMTuAtnq7aTMCjKgiPGecbB1G2SeS6oMO1FGblXx9d2pWBr_LB1oS3TKTv8Z0DYyRsyj2YKk4q4rUPLYgrmMJ1LczThVJspkEuJ9NPN07pzG_FP7fZNtdE1ERmPCL8px/w400-h398/DSC09411.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p>~~</p><p>With Thanksgiving over, it's getting to <i>be that time</i>. What better way to ring in the Pre-Christmas madness than with a "Very Short Reel" featuring the Kings of Radio Jingles, PAMS, with two different collections of Christmas Jingles for two different radios stations on the same reel. First, there are 50 seconds worth of jingles for WWDC (in Washington D.C., of course), and then more than two minutes of jingles for KLIF (in Dallas), ending with several jingles that countdown to the big day. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTY0Njk2MzVf/PAMS%20-%20Christmas%20Reel%20for%20WWDC%20and%20KLIF.mp3">PAMS - Christmas Reel for WWDC and KLIF</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTY0Njk2MzVfTWg1b04" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpX455H-6M6X4ESDFm3FPUpFO7Zle2xwqxEizpLvTrbw_vA4uj-WVxVVFTzoMcAy-9HKrXvlouEmlWFhRSg99kMtV5XzeK-PtCLDCdclgRMoQLIIVGpnp7RgvIiBI6HLS5xbJFyGJudQ9jrIks-zq-aINXAA-2fFR5l2P33qpbWGylk8_TnjVWqoRVuqvU/s1592/PAMS%20Christmas.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1592" data-original-width="1555" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpX455H-6M6X4ESDFm3FPUpFO7Zle2xwqxEizpLvTrbw_vA4uj-WVxVVFTzoMcAy-9HKrXvlouEmlWFhRSg99kMtV5XzeK-PtCLDCdclgRMoQLIIVGpnp7RgvIiBI6HLS5xbJFyGJudQ9jrIks-zq-aINXAA-2fFR5l2P33qpbWGylk8_TnjVWqoRVuqvU/w391-h400/PAMS%20Christmas.jpg" width="391" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Bob Pursehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00595178670595128341noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3253281712354769447.post-87025464243737381392023-10-30T12:00:00.005-07:002023-10-30T14:54:45.654-07:00More L.A. Radio, Jazz on Shortwave, Two Very Different Sales Presentations and The Edge of Night<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">First up, a quick shout out to commenter "Snoopy" for identifying that the "<a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2023/10/blowout-post-6.html">Reviewing Stand</a>" episode I posted a few weeks ago is from March 23, 1964, based on the report on the death of Peter Lorre. He also made some funny observations about <a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-wind-top-1000-redux.html">the WIND Top 1000</a> programming from a month ago. Oh, and Snoopy, that noise at 82:37 is just me being exactly who I was, much of the time, at that age. </div><p></p><p>And thanks to both a commenter George and another, anonymous person for expressing their enjoying of my own pièce de résistance, the "Stop Playing the Tape" segment at the end of that same post. </p><p>~~</p><p>I have made a decided effort, after receiving a few requests, to push to the head of the "listening" line the remaining few tapes I acquired featuring Los Angeles (well, technically in this case, Hollywood) DJ's. This is not my typically practice, as I try my best to grab things at random to scan and see what's on them, but these are special tapes. The box for this tape claims that both of these (unfortunately brief) segments are from 1967, but one of them is clearly from 1968, given that the date is mentioned at one point - actually, I sort of took a stunned breath when I heard that date, given that it came shortly after a round-up of Robert Kennedy's political progress. May 8, 1968 - not quite a month before his death. </p><p>Anyway, I find it interesting to note how much of these two segments are NOT made up of Top 40 music. I haven't used a stop watch or anything, but the duration of the ads and news reports seems at least to be equal to the amount of music hear here. I also got a kick out of the jingle at the very end of the Frank Terry segment, a clear ripoff of the Doublemint Gum jingle. How did they get away with THAT? </p><p>Anyway, here are Frank Terry (on one side of the tape) and the legendary Robert W. Morgan (on the other), perhaps five months apart from each other, heard on KHJ. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTU5OTg3MDVf/Frank%20Terry%20on%2093-KHJ%2C%20December%2C%201967.mp3">Frank Terry on 93-KHJ, December, 1967</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTU5OTg3MDVfTWlPZkI" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTU5OTg3MjNf/Robert%20W%20Morgan%20on%2093-KHJ%2C%20May%208%2C%201968.mp3">Robert W Morgan on 93-KHJ, May 8, 1968</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTU5OTg3MjNfVG55M3o" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe><br /><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTAkAii2wZQ7FQNz3L8jQno5f-jyzlJW-OZzUiIxftV37rpvkmsXV4-b7u2T_CY5VWc10vXlg2BPfSbcEV03owk9SAiADIzAVAqAMBWXxSZIEPwVc2NzPlzKIYor8ByG2wbC6hxJrDG-PdtMNR2fsCJ5HOlYkLxDHIY9uciJkS_ls_uk6YYvOx8Y_CbaQQ/s2200/KHJ.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2162" data-original-width="2200" height="393" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTAkAii2wZQ7FQNz3L8jQno5f-jyzlJW-OZzUiIxftV37rpvkmsXV4-b7u2T_CY5VWc10vXlg2BPfSbcEV03owk9SAiADIzAVAqAMBWXxSZIEPwVc2NzPlzKIYor8ByG2wbC6hxJrDG-PdtMNR2fsCJ5HOlYkLxDHIY9uciJkS_ls_uk6YYvOx8Y_CbaQQ/w400-h393/KHJ.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>~~</p><p>Due to my postings of Shortwave broadcasts, most of which have been from Australian stations, I've been in occasional contact with Thomas Witherspoon of <a href="https://tunein.com/podcasts/Music-News/The-Shortwave-Radio-Audio-Archive-p572153/?st=undefined&utm_content=p572153&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=geminiEmbedTitle&topicId=342767029">The Shortwave Radio Audio Archive</a>, and he has reposted several, if not all of my Shortwave postings. </p><p>Here are two more, which I recently came across. These are both segments of episodes of "The Voice of America Jazz Hour", circa 1980, each of which features live recordings of Jazz performers in concert in Europe. I suspect that the recordings shared within this programming might be quite rare, if in fact these tapes were made for VOA and not generally broadcast or released elsewhere. However, it could also be that these performances are actually from released albums, or at least that these performances were later released. By some weird coincidence, these two segments are both 35-36 minutes, even though the show original ran an hour. </p><p>The styles of jazz performance heard here are not at all similar the styles within jazz that 1I prefer, and I therefore know nothing about these performers nor have I tried to research them or these performances. But perhaps some of you out there have a taste for this, and I don't ever want to limit this site to things that I want to hear. If anyone has information to share about these recordings, by all means, do, and I'll pass it along. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTU5OTg2Njhf/The%20Voice%20of%20America%20Jazz%20Hour%20%28over%20Shortwave%29%201.mp3">The Voice of America Jazz Hour (over Shortwave), One Episode</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTU5OTg2NjhfVjgwR2E" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTU5OTg2NDRf/The%20Voice%20of%20America%20Jazz%20Hour%20%28over%20Shortwave%29%202.mp3">The Voice of America Jazz Hour (over Shortwave), Another Episode</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTU5OTg2NDRfem9IM3U" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>The next two items both fit the definition of "Sales Pitches", but beyond that, they have absolutely nothing in common. The first is a slick piece of advertising, no doubt the soundtrack to a film, selling (the history of and) the purchase of a weapon of war as nothing less than the cost of maintaining freedom in that modern world (whenever that was - I'm guessing the late 1950's).</p><p>The weapon is the Lockheed F-104, and to hear the narrator tell it, it doesn't belong to Lockheed, it belongs to the free world, and to any free country who wants it. Price seems to be no object - somehow I doubt that. The sales pitch actually ends with several minutes extolling freedom - I don't think the product is mentioned in at least the last two minutes of this thing. A rather remarkable document. </p><p>The opening minutes of this tape are in very poor sound quality, but this improves after about 90 seconds. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTU5OTg3NDBf/%27Wings%20of%20Freedom%27%20-%20A%20Short%20Presentation%20on%20the%20Lockheed%20F-104.mp3">Unknown - "Wings of Freedom" - A Short Presentation on the Lockheed F-104</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTU5OTg3NDBfRU9zVDk" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrCgZuUQxVwZ_7RW7mmVKVkXzeOAunqklEc3ECFNp2gitMPxLStU2yy1f0OaQnaL0O-dQd2GknQMD4g76BhlIqLprXC9f5u7EStXODBcIfUo9q8B3Q1Dc2kabyTnI-51QmgiuPhGM_SRUAfVxaYUQNTn0kSsMri55xUGQXTB89hIJ4dhygjlmnLXCaYVsJ/s1683/Wings.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1585" data-original-width="1683" height="376" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrCgZuUQxVwZ_7RW7mmVKVkXzeOAunqklEc3ECFNp2gitMPxLStU2yy1f0OaQnaL0O-dQd2GknQMD4g76BhlIqLprXC9f5u7EStXODBcIfUo9q8B3Q1Dc2kabyTnI-51QmgiuPhGM_SRUAfVxaYUQNTn0kSsMri55xUGQXTB89hIJ4dhygjlmnLXCaYVsJ/w400-h376/Wings.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>~~</p><p>From the other end of the "Sales" spectrum, here is a low-fi and low-energy presentation about all things file cabinet. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTU5OTg2MjJf/A%20Presentation%20on%20File%20Cabinet%20Sales%2C%201959.mp3">A Presentation on File Cabinet Sales, 1959</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTU5OTg2MjJfTVpyMU8" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </p><p>~~</p><p>And now, the "Very Short Reel" for this post. Here we have a couple who have apparently been enjoying (or at least watching) an episode of the seminal soap opera "The Edge of Night", catching, in this recording, the last few moments of the episode, then chatting (with the commercials turned low) about what to have for dinner (eggs, it would seem), then recording the closing credits of the show. Since the announcer mentions a change in scheduling for the following Monday, July 1st, it would seem that (based on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Edge_of_Night">the Wikipedia page for this show</a>), that this recording was made on June 28th, 1963. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTU5OTg3Nzhf/Meal%20Talk%20and%20%27The%20Edge%20of%20Night%27%2C%20June%2028%2C%201963.mp3">Meal Talk and 'The Edge of Night', June 28, 1963</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTU5OTg3NzhfMVdhZDY" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </p><p><br /></p>Bob Pursehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00595178670595128341noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3253281712354769447.post-39882670088521426062023-10-18T16:57:00.010-07:002023-10-18T17:10:34.673-07:00Blowout Post # 6<p>I've been doing these Blowout Posts when I'm finding I don't have the time to check and listen to stuff I want to feature. I'm also using them to make a dent in the ridiculous backlog of digitized sounds that I've made for myself (and yourselves). My "Interesting Reels" file has a sub-file named "Not Yet Used", and it has, at the moment, 376 items in it!</p><p>For today's Blowout Post, I went back to some of the older items in that folder, "older" meaning that they are sound files I made quite some time ago. I have, for the most part, not listened to these since the month I made them, which in some cases may be five to ten years ago, and I'm not going to listen to them again now (beside just a taste, in some cases). I'm just going to trust that I was right to think they might hold interest for someone, and slap 'em up there, 12 different items from 11 different tapes, plus our "Acetate of the Month". Just under five and a half hours of sound!!!</p><p>That's the story: aside from the titles and whatever I might recall about them, I am sharing these files with barely any memory of what's on them. I only know that. at some point, I thought they were worth keeping, in order to share them some day. Hope I was right! With a few exceptions, I'll have very little to say about them. </p><p>Here we go!</p><p>~~</p><p>I'm starting pretty much at random, with a tape containing the sounds from part of a television production of the famous short story "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lottery">The Lottery</a>", which appeared on a TV show called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Robert_Herridge_Theater">The Robert Herridge Theater</a>, from April, 1960, close to half way through the show's brief, 1959-60 run. Details of the episode are <a href="https://ctva.biz/US/Anthology/RobertHerridgeTheater.htm">on this page</a>. This seems to be something of a raw tape from the recording session of the second and final act of the show: </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTU0NTMwMTFf/Robert%20Herridge%20Theater%20-%20The%20Lottery.mp3">Robert Herridge Theater - The Lottery</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTU0NTMwMTFfbVh0Uk0" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>This one is labeled "Weird Collection of Naval and Gun Rules and Regulations", and I don't know that anything more needs to be said!: </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTU0NTMwMDhf/Weird%20Collection%20of%20Naval%20and%20Gun%20Rules%20and%20Regulations.mp3">Weird Collection of Naval and Gun Rules and Regulations</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTU0NTMwMDhfdk14bVM" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Here are two family members, a guy and his aunt, who spent some time recording a series of old timey violin and piano square dance style songs. It seems that the man would periodically visit his aunt, who, as he mentions at one point, was around 90 years old at the time of these recordings, and they would enjoy making music together. I <i>think </i>I have a few tapes by these folks, but this seems to be the only one I digitized. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTU0NTI5OTNf/Aunt%20Rhoda%20and%20Her%20Nephew%20-%20Violin-Piano%20Square%20Dances%20At%20Home.mp3">Aunt Rhoda and Her Nephew - Violin-Piano Square Dances At Home</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTU0NTI5OTNfRzd5bVQ" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Now, if you're like me, you sit around some days unable to stop wondering exactly what are problems of small forest ownership. Yes, that's how at least five or six of my days every month were spent, until I found this tape. It changed my life: </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTU0NTI5OThf/American%20Forest%20Institute%20-%20Problems%20of%20Small%20Forest%20Ownerships.mp3">American Forest Institute - Problems of Small Forest Ownerships</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTU0NTI5OThfYlFud04" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Here's an audio letter - I don't recall any of the details, really, except that it starts with a child named Ted (hence the labeling of the "performers" of the track), that the children are heard off and on throughout, and that I found both the children's presence and the New Yawk area accents of everyone involved fairly annoying (hence the rest of the track title) - although calling it merely "annoying" barely scratches the surface. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTU0NTI5OTBf/Ted%27s%20Family%20-%20A%20Fairly%20Annoying%20Audio%20Letter.mp3">Ted's Family - A Fairly Annoying Audio Letter</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTU0NTI5OTBfckNqc3I" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>From what I recall to have been a particularly old reel of tape - from the early '50's - here are two segments featuring a preacher identified as "Brother Brown". First, he offers some fairly typical testimony, and then he engages in a bit of Faith Healing: </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTU0NTI5Nzhf/Brother%20Brown%20Gives%20Testimony.mp3">Brother Brown Gives Testimony</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTU0NTI5Nzhfb1BZU0k" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTU0NTI5NzRf/Faith%20Healing%20with%20Brother%20Brown.mp3">Faith Healing with Brother Brown</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTU0NTI5NzRfU2lsTnI" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>I have, in my collection, a handful of tapes featuring a Chicago radio personality named Buddy Black, who broadcast <a href="https://www.edgewaterhistory.org/ehs/content/v28-1-radio-broadcasting-edgewater-beach-hotel-after-1928-part-2">from the Edgewater Beach Hotel for WGN</a>. I have previously featured <a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2022/07/very-short-reels-festival.html">a birthday tape</a> he received. Here he is engaging in three on-air phone calls and stocks and finances: </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTU0NTMwMTdf/Buddy%20Black%20-%20Three%20On-Air%20Phone%20Calls.mp3">Buddy Black - Three On-Air Phone Calls</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTU0NTMwMTdfUVFDYnc" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~ </p><p>And no blowout post would be complete without..... well, at least THIS blowout post is not complete without an episode of Sing Along with Mitch. As it says, this is possibly, maybe even probably, from December 14, 1961. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTU0NTI5NzFf/Sing%20Along%20with%20Mitch%20-%20Possibly%2012-14-61.mp3">Sing Along with Mitch - Possibly 12-14-61</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTU0NTI5NzFfNmx3M2g" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>By this point, those who are still with me are almost undoubtably saying, "Wait, I came here to learn about Skinner Sealed Spool Valves. Where's the information about Skinner Sealed Spool Valves?"</p><p>Wait no longer. Here's part three. For those of you who missed parts one and two, there will be make up sessions in November at the Hyatt. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTU0NTI5ODFf/Skinner%20Sealed%20Spool%20Valves%2C%20Part%20Three.mp3">Skinner Sealed Spool Valves, Part Three</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTU0NTI5ODFfdFAyVTI" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Now here's a radio program about.... Radio Programs. This is one of those things were people sit around talking about how great it used to be. In this case, it's a discussion of Old Time Radio, from a year - 1964 - when what we now call Old Time Radio had only started ceasing to be about six or eight years earlier. The show was called "The Reviewing Stand" and involves a couple of stars of Old Time Radio, as well as the much beloved <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklyn_MacCormack">Franklyn MacCormack</a>. This is the second tape in this post which originated at radio station WGN: </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTU0NTI5ODZf/The%20Reviewing%20Stand%20-%20A%201964%20Discussion%20of%20Old%20Time%20Radio.mp3">The Reviewing Stand - A 1964 Discussion of Old Time Radio</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTU0NTI5ODZfcUFLRDY" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>It's time for an "Acetate of the Month"!!! YAY! Here's what today's acetate looks like - sorry one side is a bit blurry:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF5KIKD-znwXjbu6vm57IgWTUSVbCVcVcXfmel7S-LhubjaSnKmxRWWlSoSiz4xDU9FLcZvuexfXYzPc61nI9Byg1V3taTT8QI65-mC6hJpN6k3Cu9a1YDu-TWP8Sn0JBzwVfilUIwlPyqzlfGwovLcjC3Wfn1jxtVetGjijSlTIK4DXeTAWOMtJtQqXVU/s1656/Lady.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1571" data-original-width="1656" height="380" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF5KIKD-znwXjbu6vm57IgWTUSVbCVcVcXfmel7S-LhubjaSnKmxRWWlSoSiz4xDU9FLcZvuexfXYzPc61nI9Byg1V3taTT8QI65-mC6hJpN6k3Cu9a1YDu-TWP8Sn0JBzwVfilUIwlPyqzlfGwovLcjC3Wfn1jxtVetGjijSlTIK4DXeTAWOMtJtQqXVU/w400-h380/Lady.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEion9RnJP_ALLE6bF1hxyHEIvFITrhFeMKACjtVH4Iksu1npGbfSxT2mGN_CujDHBMnOerchyphenhyphentdBecO5WIkpkEKiIvRTcMWvfU6j1-p9f1V1Xbljpuj5fREjEb38DLMrszFaFOyuWpIS75Bd8nVzjHMPAGp-XVlY9ALeyglU2wukPChGR4XkRpyck387maR/s1459/Blues.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1415" data-original-width="1459" height="388" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEion9RnJP_ALLE6bF1hxyHEIvFITrhFeMKACjtVH4Iksu1npGbfSxT2mGN_CujDHBMnOerchyphenhyphentdBecO5WIkpkEKiIvRTcMWvfU6j1-p9f1V1Xbljpuj5fREjEb38DLMrszFaFOyuWpIS75Bd8nVzjHMPAGp-XVlY9ALeyglU2wukPChGR4XkRpyck387maR/w400-h388/Blues.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Anyway, I do not know who these jazzmen are (or were), but here's what they sounded like, on that 10 inch Recordisc, precisely four years to the day before my sister was born, on July 14, 1946. As noted on the label, these are copies of another disc, which likely explains the rather wobbly and low quality sound of the disc: <div><br /></div><div>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTU0NTI5MzNf/10%20inch%20Recordisc%20Acetate%20-%20Unnamed%20Band%20-%20Blues%20At%20Half%20Price.mp3">Unnamed Band - Blues At Half Price</a></div><div>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTU0NTI5MzNfS0Y3dU4" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </div><div><br /></div><div>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTU0NTI5MzVf/10%20inch%20Recordisc%20Acetate%20-%20Unnamed%20Band%20-%20Lady%20Be%20Good.mp3">Unnamed Band - Lady Be Good</a></div><div>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTU0NTI5MzVfRE5FQk4" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> <br /><p>~~</p><p>And as always, let's finish with a "Very Short Reel". Here, courtesy of Impact Sound Studios, is an ad for Quick and Reilly of Palm Beach. AND, nicely tying together the post, the contents of this ad hearken back to the earlier Buddy Black tape, since this deals with investments, as well as to the audio letter, since it features another person with an only slightly less annoying, fingers-on-chalkboard, New Yawk accent: </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTU0NTI5NTlf/Impact%20Sound%20Studios%20-%20Quick%20and%20Reilly%2C%20Palm%20Beach%20Ad.mp3">Impact Sound Studios - Quick and Reilly, Palm Beach Ad</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTU0NTI5NTlfdElYUXg" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB-K9kaLcs1D4lvWTXKzlwkNfCFQAfQ8c9ZIrYlHKtNWIPG1XbCkyYyvgyC82mCk2Nrg4bESFlg3fqddIbJeLy4WEqLX__rlWjzBotIGqiO8F_9uubLtdqwQypnQVLjov0J6EDxra2FW1M9KHPlz1jBAv82QPvm776VEUzggzw2jCWGoEOoRjFdAe2wwNw/s1511/Quick.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1446" data-original-width="1511" height="383" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB-K9kaLcs1D4lvWTXKzlwkNfCFQAfQ8c9ZIrYlHKtNWIPG1XbCkyYyvgyC82mCk2Nrg4bESFlg3fqddIbJeLy4WEqLX__rlWjzBotIGqiO8F_9uubLtdqwQypnQVLjov0J6EDxra2FW1M9KHPlz1jBAv82QPvm776VEUzggzw2jCWGoEOoRjFdAe2wwNw/w400-h383/Quick.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p></div>Bob Pursehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00595178670595128341noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3253281712354769447.post-79849085875621564482023-09-30T12:39:00.004-07:002023-09-30T12:39:43.428-07:00THE WIND TOP 1000 - REDUX!!!<p> Hi, everyone!</p><p>Six months ago, I shared a set of recordings that I made in 1971 and 1972, of Chicago radio station WIND, AM 560, when they featured <a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2023/03/the-wind-top-1000.html">their countdown of the biggest hits of the rock and roll era</a>. Here's part of what I wrote at the time: </p><p style="text-align: center;"><i>In 1970, WIND had produced a list of the top 500 hits of all time (well, when they said "all time", they meant from 1955 onwards, it would appear). They aired the entire list, from #500 to #1- before doing so, they had a contest with prizes awarded to whoever (or one of those who could) guess the top ten in the correct order. After the program aired, the list was available at local stores or you could get it by mail, which I did. In retrospect - having studied the Billboard charts my entire adult life, and done my own figuring of the top hits many times over - it's clear to me that the WIND list was based directly on Billboard's rankings, which is as it should be. </i></p><p style="text-align: center;"><i>The following year, 1971, WIND announced that the list would be expanded to a top 1000, and that they would again play them, from #1000 to #1, starting on an upcoming weekend. There would be no changes to the all time top 10, as no song in 1970-71 had been nearly big enough for that. </i></p><p>What I didn't remember at the time, and what I just recently discovered, is that not only did WIND re-run their entire Top 1000 in November of 1972, but also that I recorded large chunks of that presentation. Not only that, but I think (without immediately going back to listen to the earlier shared tapes) that <i>these </i>recordings contain considerably more of the commercials and newscasts that accompanied the presentation than did the previous share. You can hear these songs anywhere, but those news and sports breaks and commercials are moments in time which are always worth hearing, especially given that the 1972 presidential election was taking place the day after this countdown ended. That election, and the local elections, are covered at length in those newscasts. </p><p>The list was the same for both presentations that WIND aired in 1972, although interestingly, there is not really that much overlap between the songs I recorded earlier in the year, and those heard in this set of portions of the countdown. Also, this recording of the countdown has the full top ten, some of which was missing in my earlier recordings/post. </p><p>The songs heard here - almost, but not all of them heard in their entirety - are #'s 158-110, #103, #'s101-100, #'s 95-80, #'s 56-34 and #'s 12-1. </p><p>The recording exists in my collection on two reels - the first of these reels contains nothing but recordings of the presentation, on both sides of the tape, in monaural - four tracks in all, lasting just moments under six and a half hours - and that's a good thing, because the software I use will not make a sound file longer than six hours and 34 minutes. That limitation means this is probably the longest single sound file I will ever share here. It contains all of the songs mentioned in the previous paragraph except for #'s 12-1: </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTQ2NjMzNjFf/The%20WIND%20Top%201000%2C%20November%205-6%2C%201972.mp3">The WIND Top 1000, November 5-6, 1972</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTQ2NjMzNjFfVlhNd04" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe>
</p><p>And here is the second tape which I used to capture the countdown, in this case, the very end of that big, long show. Oddly enough, my favorite moment among all seven hours plus that I'm sharing today is a a pretty crazy short news story about the incompetent way that the BBC covered the final game of that year's world series. That segment is heard starting at the 11:15 point in the segment below. </p><p>Other than that, I remain deeply impressed by the long-ago tastes of the American radio listener and record buyer. Aside from the songs at # 9 and at # 1 (neither of which do much for me), ten of these twelve tracks are all fantastic records, thoroughly deserving of their massive success (and, I have to add, "Singing the Blues" by Guy Mitchell is simply one of the 10-15 best records ever made). Plus they represent a pretty wide range of styles and genres. </p><p>And certainly, this is a list that is almost infinitely better than such a list of the top 12 hits of the 51 years since 1972 would be (a list from the last fifty years would likely include such material as "I'll Make Love to You" by BoyzIIMen, "One Sweet Day" by Mariah Carey, "You Light Up My Life" by Debby Boone, "Candle In the Wind 1997" by Elton John, "Physical" by Olivia Newton-John "Smooth" by Santana, and (God help us), "Blinding Lights" by The Weeknd, none of which will ever stay on my radio for more than ten seconds if I'm physically able to change the station). </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTQ2NjMzODNf/The%20WIND%20Top%201000%2C%20November%205-6%2C%201972%2C%20Conclusion.mp3">The WIND Top 1000, November 5-6, 1972, Conclusion</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTQ2NjMzODNfSVhlak0" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>Okay, for our "Very Short Reel" this week, I am cheating. 100% cheating. Because this is not the sum and total of any one tape, nor is it a small segment of an otherwise uninteresting tape. But it is quite short, and it is relevant to the material above. For here you will hear <i>Yours Truly, Bob Purse</i>, at age 12 and a half, telling the listener that the show is over and you can "Stop Playing the Tape" now, then going on far too long with the shtick (and proving that one CAN go on far too long in 58 seconds), as well as a tuneless little song . Who, exactly, this directive was aimed at is unknown, but it was probably the same fictional "listener" that was in my mind whenever I was recording and pretending to be the host of a show or to be doing something I imagined other people listening to (as you can hear in <a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2022/06/a-lot-of-jack-paar-letter-from-korea.html">this post</a>). </p><p>Anyway, here's what's on the tape immediately after the end of the second segment, above. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTQ2NjMzMTZf/Stop%20Playing%20the%20Tape.mp3">"Stop Playing the Tape"</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTQ2NjMzMTZfdTdjcWs" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>And for those who want more than just an imaginary "Bob" to go with the above 58 second recording, here is an exceptionally unflattering picture of me, taken perhaps three months or so after that recording was made, from one of those "four-pictures-for-a-quarter" photo booths. Actually, I think, in this shot, I look like I was just about as irritating a child as I sound like I was in that "Stop Playing the Tape" segment. You can probably use this to scare your kids on Hallowe'en this year. <br /><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoAPeVgLxbku2bqwfhX2nA-16HVyPzpMyzo8nr5T9d4PNgZLt0aj38AUgcBWCQ-tqdGGJuZuGJRT0eZ9q3jzHVDZkg2lYlaTn6jZ39sxj0GH-NaCZ1ESg_PSVvHYfADhI7ZLOHy4tAH8pO-IRmwYXTxf1dxqFyTRNc3WNnecQ_bG-Aw608EHlOt9EvtPUz/s599/Bob%201973%20(2).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="591" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoAPeVgLxbku2bqwfhX2nA-16HVyPzpMyzo8nr5T9d4PNgZLt0aj38AUgcBWCQ-tqdGGJuZuGJRT0eZ9q3jzHVDZkg2lYlaTn6jZ39sxj0GH-NaCZ1ESg_PSVvHYfADhI7ZLOHy4tAH8pO-IRmwYXTxf1dxqFyTRNc3WNnecQ_bG-Aw608EHlOt9EvtPUz/s320/Bob%201973%20(2).jpg" width="316" /></a></div><br />Bob Pursehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00595178670595128341noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3253281712354769447.post-19397429047263236582023-09-19T17:00:00.002-07:002023-09-19T17:04:48.141-07:00A Fake Newsman (and his wife), A Letter Home, A Real Newsman and His Guest, A Stereo Preview, a Kid Sings Along and More!<p>We'll get to today's fun in just a moment, but first, a couple of words about the last post. . </p><p>A few commenters suggested, more strongly than I did, that <a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2023/08/antony-bilbow-reads-his-stories-mike.html">Mike Starr Reading the News</a> was definitely a demo tape. And I was also corrected that I was not hearing an echo effect, but rather, tape echo. Thanks to all those who chimed in about other aspects of the post, too. I'll try to have more of everything asked for.</p><p>~~</p><p>Today, I want to start with a fairly goofy tape, one some of you may find even stupid. But it's harmless, and cute, if you're of a mind to view it that way. </p><p>But first, just in case you're not old enough - or, if you're younger, you have enough knowledge of the history of television - I'll mention that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_R._Murrow">Edward R. Murrow</a> was perhaps the foremost television news journalist of the 1950's, and if nothing else, deserves hero worship for being the person who started the end game for those opposing Joseph McCarthy.</p><p>Anyway, here we have a couple of Chicago area residents, transplanted to Gainesville, Florida, I'm assuming due to some sort of alternative prison sentence, alternately portraying not just Edward R. Murrow, but Mrs. Edward R. Murrow, too, in each case, interviewing the spouse of the opposite gender. </p><p>Have at it, Edward and Joan Winters: </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTM2OTkzNDVf/%27Mr%20and%20Mrs%20Edward%20R%20Murrow%27%20Interview%20Edward%20and%20Joan%20Winters%20of%20Gainsville%2C%20FL.mp3">"Mr. and Mrs. Edward R Murrow" Interview Edward and Joan Winters of Gainesville, FL</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTM2OTkzNDVfaXRWUzE" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>When the tape is turned over, the nature and purpose of this recording becomes clear. The jokey A-side of the tape was for the amusement of a friend left behind in the infinitely superior city of Chicago, someone named Joe. And that second side of the tape contains the following audio letter to Joe in Chicago. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTM2OTkzMzBf/Audio%20Letter%20from%20Ed%20in%20Gainsville%20to%20Joe%20in%20Chicago.mp3">Audio Letter from Ed in Gainesville to Joe in Chicago</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTM2OTkzMzBfZ2VNRHc" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Now, let's go to an actual newsman, one who was almost as revered in his time as Murrow, and who was actually one of a team known as "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murrow_Boys">Murrow's Boys</a>". That would be <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_K._Smith">Howard K. Smith</a>. Some many years ago now, I bought a huge lot of tapes which included, among its myriad TV-broadcast related treasures (many of which I've shared), a batch of raw tapes of Howard K. Smith interviews, one of which I shared back in <a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2018/06/life-under-castro-leadership-slide-show.html">2018</a>. These contain not only the interviews themselves, but also the recordings, after the interviews, done so that the camera could capture Smith asking the questions. Here's a little inside TV for those who don't know: In interviews such as these, the camera just takes shots of the interviewee. Then, the interviewee either stays or a double sits in his or her seat while the camera moves behind his/her shoulder and the interviewer asks the questions again, exactly as were asked during the interview. Then the two shots are stitched together as if the questions and answers all took place at the same time. </p><p>The tape is labeled "Rangerone Sync", and the same phrase starts off the tape. This is apparently the name of a tape recorder brand which was used specifically to sync these recordings to the video. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTM2OTkzMTNf/Howard%20K%20Smith%20-%20Rangertone%20Sync%20-%20Cuban%20Interview%20with%20Gabriel%20Cardenas.mp3">Howard K Smith - Rangertone Sync - Cuban Interview with Gabriel Cardenas</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTM2OTkzMTNfUkRvQUM" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPJP4rh7OgJuzzTN5kC1yW8D97JAwKEmL1mJCXC1G9pDqLChCa-bJEYjMcVaREyqArjF1xPe5t1aper2Co6ljgz27bk25-1r6j06r2p-5BgFI7DhmnYm0gysQjc2GPuddkzr39c-78tC36J_A_jnoot2d9vqORRJ8WrHSEAuiEQkNL27_zCNdzWTqSEf_p/s2175/H%20K%20Smith.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2175" data-original-width="2143" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPJP4rh7OgJuzzTN5kC1yW8D97JAwKEmL1mJCXC1G9pDqLChCa-bJEYjMcVaREyqArjF1xPe5t1aper2Co6ljgz27bk25-1r6j06r2p-5BgFI7DhmnYm0gysQjc2GPuddkzr39c-78tC36J_A_jnoot2d9vqORRJ8WrHSEAuiEQkNL27_zCNdzWTqSEf_p/w394-h400/H%20K%20Smith.jpg" width="394" /></a></div><p>~~</p><p>And now, yet another preview tape. In the early days of reel to reel tape, labels producing pre-recorded material were hot to demonstrate to buyers and potential buyers just what they could expect from this new wonder of audiophile-level recording. The <a href="https://www.omegatape.us/index2.html">Omegatape</a> label was one of the first in this field, starting up in 1954, and here we have one of their earliest releases, which is little more than a series of short excerpts from the label's releases, covering several genres, with an odd segment in the middle of the tape to be used "for head alignment". </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTM2OTkyNjdf/Omegatape%20D%20-%20Preview%20of%20Available%20Pre-Recorded%20Tapes.mp3">Omegatape D - Preview of Available Pre-Recorded Tapes</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTM2OTkyNjdfRG1oZEI" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Last time around, I shared another tape of some guy singing atrociously bad to the pop hits of the day, and, remarkably, I got a request for more of the same. I know I have some more, maybe of that same guy, but had trouble tracking it down. In the meantime, however, I do have a tape of someone else who can't really sing, singing along with the radio. However, in this case, it's a small child, certainly someone younger than 10 and maybe quite a bit more. The child is named Terry (or Terrie or Teri) Clark, and as opposed to that guy from last time around, I find this tape deeply endearing. But then again, I've worked my whole life in one way or another with kids, and this sort of thing was bound to resonate with me. I hope you enjoy it, too. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTM2OTkyNDVf/Terry%20Clark%20Sings%20Along%20with%20the%20Radio%2C%201958.mp3">Terry Clark Sings Along with the Radio, 1958</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTM2OTkyNDVfT0Y3dkQ" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </p><p>~~</p><p>Perhaps the most "fun" item I have to share this week is this recording of the TV show "You Asked For It" from around 1954. Clearly, in the early days of television it was sufficient to televise novel events and exhibitions and have a successful show. For me, the most interesting segment here is the first one, "Basketball on Roller Skates". Surprisingly, this seems to be a "sport" which has been tried out in the <a href="https://stuffnobodycaresabout.com/2018/12/22/roller-skates/">early 1900's</a>, in <a href="https://ussporthistory.com/2018/07/05/making-history-the-rise-and-roll-of-roller-basketball/">the 1990's</a>, and, clearly, as is heard here, in the 1950's, without catching on very much at any point. </p><p>Anyway, the whole show is fun, but that was the most interesting part for me. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTM2OTkyODlf/You%20Asked%20For%20It%2C%20Circa%201954.mp3">You Asked For It, Circa 1954</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTM2OTkyODlfUVVBcUQ" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Next, for all of you who adore the dubbing tapes I've shared over the years (which are also from that treasure trove of TV reels that brought the Howard K. Smith tapes), here's another one. These are tapes of the producers and actors of a production looping in retakes of dialogue, to be overdubbed into the previously recorded scene, for whatever reason. I have no idea who the actors here are, or the production. The only thing the box makes clear is... this was recorded on a Thursday. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTI1OTc1OThf/Dubbing%20on%20a%20Thursday.mp3">Dubbing on a Thursday</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTI1OTc1OThfd0EyU3Y" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQIBVqUseL5kArUnAKNAT7ntd8xkgjNqacjdFXxTcjLPxfHgOLl-rtxs21ULj5fcxaO56qcwJIXKL02PSQoZTuzTNiaw8hj3zS2tYRiRWqp9BzLSMC3S7Q6HIB4b3cy4CkEuN_e4OCRyvunKFzwkAJ2J9W5_DhmN7JwqEeYrRlHAOK8eKgQmNrqAeq3-Hw/s2151/Dubbing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1003" data-original-width="2151" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQIBVqUseL5kArUnAKNAT7ntd8xkgjNqacjdFXxTcjLPxfHgOLl-rtxs21ULj5fcxaO56qcwJIXKL02PSQoZTuzTNiaw8hj3zS2tYRiRWqp9BzLSMC3S7Q6HIB4b3cy4CkEuN_e4OCRyvunKFzwkAJ2J9W5_DhmN7JwqEeYrRlHAOK8eKgQmNrqAeq3-Hw/w400-h186/Dubbing.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>~~</p><p>And finally, our "Very Short Reel" for today, in this case, a small wisp of a tape containing an unknown news reader updating his listeners on a tragedy that took place in Tehachapi, California on July 21st of 1952. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTQyMjIxNTBf/Newscast%20Fragment%20-%20The%20July%2C%201952%20Tehachapi%2C%20Califorrnia%20Earthquake.mp3">Newscast Fragment - The July, 1952 Tehachapi, California Earthquake</a></p><p>Play:<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTQyMjIxNTBfbzVrbWc" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </p>Bob Pursehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00595178670595128341noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3253281712354769447.post-91571340889512878702023-08-27T16:00:00.009-07:002023-08-27T16:09:57.200-07:00Antony Bilbow Reads His Stories, Mike Starr Reads the News, Great Musicians Vs. Tone Deaf Singing, A Few Soldiers in London, and Not Singing "Let Me Go, Lover"<p>Howdy, </p><p>I'm back from COVID and ready to share more of my enormous collection! But first, a follow up to my last post. </p><p>For what I'm sure is more than the dozenth time, thanks to Eric Paddon for identifying that the brief clip of Tic Tac Dough that I shared <a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2023/08/more-la-radio-more-jack-eigen-some.html">last time</a> comes from February 13th, 1959, and that, while the show had already gone through it's period of being "crooked" by that point, the winner of that show came by his successes honestly. And he won the equivalent of $1.5 million during his run on the show. All of this information is better explained in a couple of comments Eric made on the post linked above. </p><p>Thanks to everyone else who has commented, as well. In answer to a couple of those comments, I will continue to make a priority of listening to and sharing DJ airchecks which are in my collection. </p><p>~~</p><p>To start, something a little different. Many years ago, I bought a batch of tapes which had belongs to a "tape club", a batch of mostly old time radio recordings, which a circle of people who would exchange with each other, each of them labeled - usually with up to six hours of recordings of episodes of one show - Jack Benny, Bob and Ray, Mr. Keen... whatever. I'm sure these tapes became available to me because of the dying out of the reel to reel format and particularly, the growth of the internet - for the most part, nowadays, the contents of most these tapes can be found online, either for free or for sale on multiple websites. I've listened to some of these tapes over the years and some remain unexplored, so far, in my basement. </p><p>But one of these tapes, labeled "Worthington", contains recordings of a BBC program which, as far as I've been able to discover, don't appear to be easily found online - I've found references to them, but nothing else. Technically, the show is not "Worthington", that's just the name of the lead character - a dog - in two out of every five stories. The shows are actually 15 minute stories, read by a man named Antony Bilbow, and written, for the most part, by Mr. Bilbow and his wife. I believe <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Bilbow">this fellow</a>, 95 years old as I write this, is the same person as you'll hear on this tape. The stories are quite wonderful, in my opinion, and British through and through. They would apparently run in the morning on English radio five days a week, with Monday and Friday's shows featuring stories about Worthington the dog. </p><p>Anyway, the tape is recorded in quarter track mono, six stories to a track, which means I have 24 of them, lasting a total of six hours. Here is the first side, left channel of the tape. If anyone would like to hear more of these, just let me know. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTI1OTc0OTJf/Antony%20Bilbow%20-%20Stories%20on%20English%20Radio%2C%20Volume%201.mp3">Antony Bilbow - Stories on English Radio, Volume 1</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTI1OTc0OTJfZHNQaEk" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>Here is the part of the tape box which lists the stories on the first side, left channel, as heard above: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6cXe1CfTHk89K117Bj5Cvk5HKfyjvuJxScQpPRoILLrE29khmAhvTBKXzxZOkC1i6MOw_WNbLIsLK8duuagVAqAvMqFklzrUwTPgmA1fphGhDs2HyGbcNTCS1wAeNlXir0YIBXBTLDr121z5QKuym7sMXJW9uKvZ3rds4Yt2QiyUGm0hoUt_mSLK_pLUd/s1362/Bilbow.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="585" data-original-width="1362" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6cXe1CfTHk89K117Bj5Cvk5HKfyjvuJxScQpPRoILLrE29khmAhvTBKXzxZOkC1i6MOw_WNbLIsLK8duuagVAqAvMqFklzrUwTPgmA1fphGhDs2HyGbcNTCS1wAeNlXir0YIBXBTLDr121z5QKuym7sMXJW9uKvZ3rds4Yt2QiyUGm0hoUt_mSLK_pLUd/w400-h171/Bilbow.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>~~</p><p>Next up, in two segments containing at least three different recordings, we have someone named Mike Starr. He was, if this tape is to be believed, a news man and general voice-over/commercial announcer at a station called WHBM (named after its owner's initials) in Xenia, Ohio. You can read about the station's history and current status <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WZDA">here</a>. I say "If this tape is to be believed" because elements of this tape are so amateurish as to make me wonder if this isn't a demo tape submitted to the station. Primarily, I'm referring to the comical level of reverb heard throughout, and the way that reverb gets turned up to a distracting point during the latter parts of this tape. </p><p>Anyway, part one of this offering - by far the longer of the two - features Mike Starr giving a lengthy newscast which, based on a couple of the stories involved, appears to date from January 7, 1967. This is followed, in this same segment by several commercials, the first of which is Christmas related, so cannot be from the same date as the newscast. A couple of the commercials don't even sound like the same announcer to me. And it is during these commercials that the reverb gets cranked up, seemingly at random, a few times. But maybe it's real. What do you think? </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTI1OTc1ODNf/WHBM%20News%20and%20Ads%20with%20Mike%20Starr.mp3">WHBM News and Ads with Mike Starr</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTI1OTc1ODNfcHNNbUQ" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>Sorry about the clicking throughout - I digitized this five years ago, and I believe that those noises are on the original tape. If I track down the tape at some point, I will double check and replace these files. </p><p>Anyway, after several unrecorded minutes on that same tape, the following short bit of goofiness featuring a man who I believe is still Mike Starr, interacting with his dog. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTI1OTc1ODdf/Mike%20Starr%20at%20Home%20with%20His%20Dog.mp3">Mike Starr at Home with His Dog</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTI1OTc1ODdfWTJ5ZFY" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Looking backwards into the previous decade, and for those of you who enjoy Big Band music, here is half of an hour long program featuring Harry James, fronting his band on something called "Palladium Dance Time" on July 27, 1954 - presumably, these particular performances of these tunes have not been heard since this broadcast. The reel of tape this was recorded on only allowed a little more than 30 minutes to a side, at 7 1/2 IPS, so that's where the recording ends. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTI1OTc1OTNf/Harry%20James%20and%20His%20Orchestra%20-%20Palladium%20Dance%20Time%2C%207-27-54.mp3">Harry James and His Orchestra - Palladium Dance Time, 7-27-54</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTI1OTc1OTNfRGlEM1g" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>And now for the polar opposite to the above. Instead of a half hour of master musicianship, we have a very different half hour.... Yes, it's another recording of someone who absolutely cannot sing, and who recorded himself singing along with various records by Elvis, and a few others, apparently some time in 1959. If you can stand listening long enough, you will hear the same fellow demonstrating that his talent as a vocalist was roughly equal to his talent as a guitarist. </p><p>I don't know why, but I am absolutely fascinated by these sorts of tapes - I have at least three which I believe feature this same guy, but I have others, as well - and I sit and listen to them with amazement, wondering 1.) why anyone, even an excellent singer, would record him or herself singing along with a series of records, and 2.) if this guy had any insight, at least after listening to these tapes, that he was tone deaf. </p><p>I completely understand if this is not of interest, but as I said, it holds a peculiar hold over me. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTI1OTc1OTlf/Singing%20Along%20Badly%20%28and%20Playing%20the%20Guiar%20Along%20Badly%29%20With%20Elvis%20and%20Others%2C%20circa%201959.mp3">Singing Along Badly (and Playing the Guitar Along Badly) With Elvis and Others, circa 1959</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTI1OTc1OTlfeFNkUWM" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>And now for our "Acetate of the Month". I think this one is fairly self-explanatory: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAT_Lw7TuRuMl1XsjSwce_FW6uLzCfZac2dkFaBeKsF7sb-A2EckroESXh1UAvTnurObCuf-Klao9S9U-bD0StR6uXKNzi-c48hfgraxSq0NNukVbbhfUt2CCggnJG2nHSb4FgKsqq00zG0mHD4I738NIXQ1eiEEMKENFFUeGkETU5P6U6l1YXhrcfo2--/s1546/DSC08590.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1522" data-original-width="1546" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAT_Lw7TuRuMl1XsjSwce_FW6uLzCfZac2dkFaBeKsF7sb-A2EckroESXh1UAvTnurObCuf-Klao9S9U-bD0StR6uXKNzi-c48hfgraxSq0NNukVbbhfUt2CCggnJG2nHSb4FgKsqq00zG0mHD4I738NIXQ1eiEEMKENFFUeGkETU5P6U6l1YXhrcfo2--/w400-h394/DSC08590.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div>A reporter the U.S. Army Radio Service interviewed a few soldiers from Chicago, for playback on a Chicago station (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WGRB">WGES</a>), on June 21st, 1945. Here is that recording: <div><br /></div><div>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTI1OTc3NDlf/US%20Army%20Radio%20Service%2012%20Inch%20Acetate%20-%20World%20War%20II%20Broadcast%20-%20London%20to%20Chicago%20-%20WGES-%206-21-45.mp3">US Army Radio Service 12 Inch Acetate - World War II Broadcast - London to Chicago - WGES- 6-21-45</a></div><div>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTI1OTc3NDlfTkE2NDE" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><div>~~</div><div>And finally, yet another "Very Short Reel". In this case, we have a little girl named Debby (or, perhaps, Debbie" who is being encouraged by her parents to sing a song, specifically "Let Me Go, Lover" (which likely dates this tape to very late 1954 or early 1955, when that song was a hit). Debby would rather pound on her toy xylophone. This goes on for precisely 75 seconds, at which point the recording turns into daddy asking mommy to name all the colors found in their couch, a topic which takes up the final 23 seconds. </div><div><br /></div><div>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTI1OTc1ODhf/Debby%20Doesn%27t%20Want%20to%20Sing%20%27Let%20Me%20Go%20Lover%27%20and%20How%20Many%20Colors.mp3">Debby Doesn't Want to Sing 'Let Me Go Lover' and How Many Colors</a></div><div>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTI1OTc1ODhfRDNIdXI" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></div>Bob Pursehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00595178670595128341noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3253281712354769447.post-28924295413798649872023-08-08T14:31:00.001-07:002023-08-08T14:33:20.519-07:00More LA Radio, More Jack Eigen, Some Wasted Study Time, Some Perry Como Time, and Just a Bit of Tic Tac Dough<p>Hello, </p><p>First, I want to thank my pal Stu and another, anonymous commenter, who both identified that <a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2023/07/stan-freberg-gives-speech-miss-newark.html">the Stan Freberg speech I posted two weeks</a> ago is from 1958. The clues were right there in his words, but I didn't pick up on them. Thanks!</p><p>~~</p><p>This post is very media-recording oriented. I think those tend to be among the most popular things I share, so perhaps this will be particularly enjoyable for many of you. And then there's Jack Eigen....</p><p>I'm starting today with some requests. First, because, when I mentioned to a friend that I have a bunch more tapes of deejay <a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2023/07/blowout-post-5.html">Humble Harve</a> and other vintage west coast radio recordings, I was quickly asked to share another one of those reels. So, without further ado, here is more Humble Harve on KBLA in what was probably April of 1966!: </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTIxNzYzNjJf/Humble%20Harve%20Miller%20on%20KBLA%2C%20Burbank%2C%20Circa%20April%2C%201966.mp3">Humble Harve Miller on KBLA, Burbank, Circa April, 1966</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTIxNzYzNjJfMHVoV3Q" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </p><p>The rest of the tape is recorded with a segment of a show hosted by Gene Weed on KFWB. And while the tape box (reproduced below) indicates that this tape is ALSO from 1966, whoever wrote that was wrong. This is clearly from 1962. Not only are none of the songs from after 1962, there is a commercial/promotional contest involving the then-brand new Walt Disney release, "Bon Voyage", which was released in the spring of that year: </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTIxNzYzNTZf/Gene%20Weed%20on%20KFWB%2C%20Los%20Angeles%2C%201962.mp3">Gene Weed on KFWB, Los Angeles, 1962</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTIxNzYzNTZfaXExN3M" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9UxqR0Qh9fTAkL07hsPf5ZZZtAaLuwJEtvyPzmc2dvozKDObEOPZrdwBMXOHtS2AB8NhIh9BetlnzKJrCLGWXH9Smmgr4kZ0B4TNyzIF_a4Pe1bPiJFvauGJVuKO8nfSb5tjSU_8INXsUhPBqfEAsvYyEklNe5ruYnJGdF3_5f8G9NekXj5KnoeXUnEnF/s2227/Weed.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2189" data-original-width="2227" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9UxqR0Qh9fTAkL07hsPf5ZZZtAaLuwJEtvyPzmc2dvozKDObEOPZrdwBMXOHtS2AB8NhIh9BetlnzKJrCLGWXH9Smmgr4kZ0B4TNyzIF_a4Pe1bPiJFvauGJVuKO8nfSb5tjSU_8INXsUhPBqfEAsvYyEklNe5ruYnJGdF3_5f8G9NekXj5KnoeXUnEnF/w400-h394/Weed.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>~~</p><p>I also have a correspondent who has been asking for more Jack Eigen. You can find all of my Eigen posts by clicking on his name in the Labels at the bottom of this page. Like the other tapes I've shared, this is a compilation of excerpts from Eigen's late night Chicago shows. I have somewhere between 18-22 of these, I think, most of them, like this one, well over two hours long. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTIxNzYzNTJf/Jack%20Eigen%20-%20The%20Jack%20Eigen%20Show%2C%20Volume%204.mp3">Jack Eigen - The Jack Eigen Show, Volume 4</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTIxNzYzNTJfY1ZtNVE" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Next, for those who might be fans of the late, somewhat lamented TV variety show, here's an episode of Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall, from the end of October, 1964, featuring Anne Bancroft, Stanley Holloway and the incomparable Victor Borge: </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTE2ODA5NTVf/Perry%20Como%27s%20Kraft%20Music%20Hall%20%20-%20with%20Victor%20Borge%20and%20Anne%20Bancroft%20and%20Stanley%20Holloway%20-%2010-29-64.mp3">Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall - with Victor Borge, Anne Bancroft and Stanley Holloway - 10-29-64</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTE2ODA5NTVfRFA3Y3U" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Now here's an oddity, perhaps only appealing to a few of you, certainly fewer than the offerings above. Somewhere along the line, I managed to get ahold of some recordings of what sounds like a college study group and/or a group of college students working on a specific project or projects. They are pretty dry, and I haven't shared them before. I thought this one was a little more interesting, because it sounds like they are waiting for more people to show up, and discussing how they aren't getting anything done, while also quizzing each other about what they need to study. But as far as I can tell, nothing actually DOES get done. (Also, someone leaves the machine on for several minutes after everyone leaves, and we get to hear a bunch of ambient noise from outside the room for awhile.). </p><p>I've dated this "probably 4/25/79", but "possibly 4/25/79" would have been better. It may also be 2/19/82. The box is sort of confusing - there's actually a third date, crossed out, too. Here's a scan of it. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiItCLpEeScvJfOvFwEz__Cs38liiR7H94VgJVo6N1Nzcn9SN96Km5KQv52LC9MqxTD2HYnNrcNteJig3eymoBrtkJa5HZaY3_t3jnJv6cSn-ZnCIO3DXGtzzAWNEV291QEOQ-baeidlShgNF5njQOc789VQ05D7OQBTDUQQaZ_6F8I9DEJt_bf1KDp42Gb/s2213/Students.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2175" data-original-width="2213" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiItCLpEeScvJfOvFwEz__Cs38liiR7H94VgJVo6N1Nzcn9SN96Km5KQv52LC9MqxTD2HYnNrcNteJig3eymoBrtkJa5HZaY3_t3jnJv6cSn-ZnCIO3DXGtzzAWNEV291QEOQ-baeidlShgNF5njQOc789VQ05D7OQBTDUQQaZ_6F8I9DEJt_bf1KDp42Gb/w400-h394/Students.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>And here's that tape: </p><div>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTIxNzYzNTVf/A%20Student%20Study%20Session%2C%20Probably%204-25-79.mp3">A Student Study Session, Probably 4-25-79</a></div><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTIxNzYzNTVfUXhuZFU" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Finally, here's our "Very Short Reel" for this post. Here is a short excerpt that someone captured, of the end of an episode of "Tic-Tac-Dough", one of the shows which was later caught up in the "rigged game shows" scandal. Bill Wendell (best known to people my age as the first announcer on David Letterman's late night shows) was the host for almost exactly one year, from October 1958 to October 1959, so this tape comes from that period. He was not the host when the (known) discredited contestants appeared, but he was the last host of its 1950's iteration, and appeared on the show while it was being investigated and being cancelled. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTIxNzYzNTNf/Short%20Fragment%20of%20an%20Episode%20of%20Tic-Tac-Dough.mp3">Short Fragment of an Episode of Tic-Tac-Dough</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTIxNzYzNTNfSndIelg" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p>Bob Pursehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00595178670595128341noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3253281712354769447.post-76396058110995116422023-07-25T06:16:00.003-07:002023-07-26T09:41:52.674-07:00Stan Freberg Gives a Speech, Miss Newark of 1956, Lucky Beer in Hawaii, More Australian Shortwave, A Latin Acetate and Rudy Vallee<p>Hello again!</p><p>I have another wide variety of recorded tape to share with you today, lovingly digitized and shared with whatever little part of the world comes to visit. </p><p>My first offering is quite the find, I think. I wish the sound quality was better, but even as it is, it's pretty damn special, and as far as I can tell, one of a kind. I consider Stan Freberg to be among the greatest humorists of the 20th Century, and he is one of my favorite recording artists, even though his recorded output is rather small. And Freberg, of course, became a force in advertising after he (mostly) left the comedy record field, pioneering a humorous tone in advertising that pushed aside the hard sell for at least a time. </p><p>This recording is a speech that Freberg gave at the San Francisco Ad Club. I don't have a date for this, or, literally, any other information. And again, the sound quality leaves a lot to be desired. But still, other than those who were in the audience that night, and anyone who owned or played the tape before I owned it, this is a recording of Stan Freberg that has gone unheard, up until now. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTE2ODA5NTdf/Stan%20Freberg%20at%20the%20San%20Francisco%20Ad%20Club.mp3">Stan Freberg at the San Francisco Ad Club</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTE2ODA5NTdfNWlYaDA" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </p><p>~~</p><p>Okay, now let's spend some time with Barbara Reisman. Who, you might ask is Barbara Reisman? Well, she was only MISS NEWARK OF 1956!!!! I found the following two little segments of tape involving Miss Reisman at the end of a reel of tape which otherwise had nothing of interest on it. There is a local -and I mean really local - newspaper which mentions here <a href="https://riseupnewark.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Clinton-Hill-Neighborhood-Council-Newsletter-June-15-1956.pdf">here</a> (it's in the middle right on page three). I also found a link to an obituary, but that page wouldn't load. Boo. </p><p>Anyway, in the first segment, she is heard talking with a few men and then singing a song, and in the second, she's heard on a radio show, "Club Tel Aviv", after the opening chat from the host and a performance by another person. She plays her cello. Whoever recorded this tape somehow managed to record over the big finish of her piece, so the last few notes are interrupted before you get to hear the very end of her performance. Oh, and is it just me, but does the audience at "Club Tel Aviv" sound like tapes of audiences applauding? </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTE2ODA5NjFf/Barbara%20Reisman%2C%20Miss%20Newark%20of%201956%2C%20Chats%20with%20a%20Few%20Men%20and%20Sings%20a%20Song.mp3">Barbara Reisman, Miss Newark of 1956, Chats with a Few Men and Sings a Song</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTE2ODA5NjFfQVI4Vm4" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTE2ODA5NjBf/%27Club%20Tel%20Aviv%27%2C%20Featuring%20Barbara%20Reisman%2C%20Miss%20Newark%20of%201956.mp3">"Club Tel Aviv", Featuring Barbara Reisman, Miss Newark of 1956</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTE2ODA5NjBfSnRNaWI" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </p><p>~~</p><p>Well, after that, perhaps you'd like a drink. Here a tape of a promotions man from Lucky Genuine Draft Beer, who went all the way to Hawaii to promote his product, early in 1966. Maybe that was the best way for him to get to spend a few days in paradise. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTE2ODA5NTZf/Hawaiian%20Promotional%20Interview%20for%20Lucky%20Genuine%20Draft%20Beer%20-%20February%201966.mp3">Hawaiian Promotional Interview for Lucky Genuine Draft Beer - February 1966</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTE2ODA5NTZfR2pxMnk" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe><br /></p><p>~~</p><p>For those of you who like it, here are two more entries in the series of Australian Shortwave, which I've been parceling out from time to time since not long after this blog began. I'm fairly certain the person who recorded these programs lived somewhere in North America, because all of the shows (up until this posting) were from episodes directed at that continent. But additionally, I wonder now if the person lived on the west coast of North America, because he or she made an effort (on the same tape as a show from 9/5/74), to capture Australia Shortwave during a program broadcast towards Asia and the South Pacific. The quality of the connection during that portion is, as you'll hear, quite poor, but it did come in, at a level and quality that I would guess it wouldn't have been received in the eastern half of the continent. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTE2ODA5NThf/Radio%20Australia%20on%20Shortwave%2C%209-5-74%20%28and%20another%20date%29%20for%20North%20America.mp3">Radio Australia on Shortwave, 9-5-74 (and another date) for North America</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTE2ODA5NThfdDM1TVI" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTE2ODA5NTlf/Radio%20Australia%20on%20Shortwave%2C%20Undated%2C%20for%20Asia%20and%20the%20South%20Pacific.mp3">Radio Australia on Shortwave, Undated, for Asia and the South Pacific</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTE2ODA5NTlfVzhDalc" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </p><p>~~</p><p>For my "Acetate of the Month", this time around, I picked one which features an unknown Latin band, (they are not named on the label) and a song I have very much enjoyed since the first time I played it, "El Telfonito", along with its flipside, a rather haphazard performance of something called "Zombie": </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTE2ODA5NjNf/Unknown%20Latin%20Band%20-%20El%20Telefonito.mp3">Unknown Latin Band - El Telefonito</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTE2ODA5NjNfZWxVTWQ" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTE2ODA5NjRf/Unknown%20Latin%20Band%20-%20Zombie.mp3">Unknown Latin Band - Zombie</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTE2ODA5NjRfZk1nVG0" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </p><p>At the end of "Zombie", you can hear an announcer, indicating that these were recorded off the air. Here's the record: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwU0iEewYVihxDZwyZR3dPpJR_BZrjMMQDnVvFhvzU_A4v6MjfaUNwm4QMGOyF9ew5Pc-Fz8SLN01bquO0b66v4Xb-IeD1Tkm7_Tmfp6yaonU9wuYSWjGzBgOpGGdJjFiZJytE-8T0dILj21ezUS-bad4iMnRQK2LAlBoTXfdj0trenHzfulHnWXM7Ywdw/s1943/DSC08273.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1937" data-original-width="1943" height="399" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwU0iEewYVihxDZwyZR3dPpJR_BZrjMMQDnVvFhvzU_A4v6MjfaUNwm4QMGOyF9ew5Pc-Fz8SLN01bquO0b66v4Xb-IeD1Tkm7_Tmfp6yaonU9wuYSWjGzBgOpGGdJjFiZJytE-8T0dILj21ezUS-bad4iMnRQK2LAlBoTXfdj0trenHzfulHnWXM7Ywdw/w400-h399/DSC08273.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhepFtMCD7hLCrIa85b5KSAuASEOLynaXCsa-SmU3TLe0BXhZACGTZKEjaRV5H7ChepIGlc053KTE24iB8Jr5QIN6HSY8maS40xW9T0eHqYzDJXepOaEyrWv6QKXolkr8WASPniy_e3GFrkwo_c1hR-iGB4Ja8H8nE9PTG3oFPKeIaYnxjUYiR4UKHDVF4c/s1978/DSC08272.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1942" data-original-width="1978" height="393" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhepFtMCD7hLCrIa85b5KSAuASEOLynaXCsa-SmU3TLe0BXhZACGTZKEjaRV5H7ChepIGlc053KTE24iB8Jr5QIN6HSY8maS40xW9T0eHqYzDJXepOaEyrWv6QKXolkr8WASPniy_e3GFrkwo_c1hR-iGB4Ja8H8nE9PTG3oFPKeIaYnxjUYiR4UKHDVF4c/w400-h393/DSC08272.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p>~~</p><p>And finally, our "Very Short Reel" for the week. Technically, this isn't a "short reel", as it is excerpted from a tape which was about ten minutes long. "Very Short Segment" is more like it. But this is a real period piece, a moment in time and too good to not share. Anyway, remember Zayre? If you're under 40 years old, the answer is probably "no", and if you're under 35, the answer is definitely "no", since they went out of business 33 years ago. But they were as big as K Mart for awhile (for those of you who remember K Mart, or who live near one of the three remaining K Marts that still exist in the US). </p><p>Anyway, remember Rudy Vallee? You're older than 40 if you do. He went out of business a few years before Zayre, but in his time, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGe22lEYPj0">made</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGLPyRCFmz8&t=1s">some</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnVkj41ybnE">brilliant</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwS3wT9PvKM">records</a>, and was as big a star as there has ever been, for a time, that time being 100 years or more ago. </p><p>This brief segment brought Zayre and Rudy Vallee together, from what I am guessing was the only time, joined as well by The Ray Charles Singers, a conglomeration formed by a white man named Ray Charles a year or two before that <i>other </i>Ray Charles made his first record. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTE2ODA5NjJf/Rudy%20Vallee%20and%20the%20Ray%20Charles%20Singers%20-%20Zayre%20Commercial.mp3">Rudy Vallee and the Ray Charles Singers - Zayre Commercial</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTE2ODA5NjJfSnRSTzk" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p>Bob Pursehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00595178670595128341noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3253281712354769447.post-40944751922311367742023-07-04T16:52:00.001-07:002023-07-04T16:55:26.495-07:00Blowout Post # 5<p>Greetings! </p><p>Last month proved very busy, to the point that, for the first time in over 18 months, I only posted once that month. I'm still catching up on a lot of things, so I'm going to feature another of my "Blowout Posts", with a dozen offerings and, for the most part, very little in the way of explanation. </p><p>But first, I want to review a few comments. Someone named E. Schad has very helpfully put names to two different tapes I featured in two different posts. It seems that they were both from a Capitol series of production music called the Hi-"Q" stock music library. The posts are <a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2019/09/two-unusual-collections-and-two-very.html">here</a> and <a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2020/03/summer-varieties-lichens-and-mosses-and.html">here</a>, and you can find the names of the tracks in the comments of each post. </p><p>In other helpful comments, "Snoopy" has figured out that the second Jesse Coopwood tape heard <a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2023/05/vintage-r-b-radio-some-religiosity.html">here</a> is from September 9th, 1951, an anonymous commenter has identified that the audio letter I shared <a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2023/05/vintage-r-b-radio-some-religiosity.html">in that same post</a> was recorded about 19 years later, on September 24th, 1970 (see those comments, as well, for more information), and my Star Ads loving pal, Larry, caught something I missed, which is that Kenny Biggs, <a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2023/04/country-radio-in-1965-fake-radio-in.html">in this post</a>, gave the date of the recording, at least for part one of the tape, as being yet another September date, in this case, September 16th, 1965. </p><p>Finally, frequent participant "OldRadios90" wrote in to say that he'd acquired one of what he says were "The first battery operated Solid State Recorders", the Steelman Transitape, which you can see <a href="https://reel-reel.com/tape-recorder/steelman-transitape/">here</a>. Additionally, OldRadios90 shared that he has added more recordings to his archive.org page, which is an extremely worthwhile visit. You can find it <a href="https://archive.org/details/@oldradios90">here</a>, and also in the links, to the right. </p><p>Thanks to each of you THIS MUCH!!</p><p>And now, back to the countdown. </p><p>~~</p><p>Let's start with the recording I think maybe will hold the most interest for the largest number of readers/listeners. For here we have the legendary Los Angeles area Disc Jockey, "Humble" Harve Miller. In this clip, it's June 26th, 1965, he is fairly newly landed at KBLA, Burbank, and he's not only spinning the hits, but a few b-sides, a few oldies, and tracks from Capitol's then-latest butchery of a Beatles album, "Beatles VI", which had been released 12 days earlier. There is a very brief gap in this tape at around the 48 minute point - a little bit of a PSA is missed. That's where the small amount of recording from the second side of the tape begins. The entire recording is just over an hour long. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTExODQ0MjRf/Humble%20Harve%20Miller%20on%20KBLA%2C%20Los%20Angeles%2C%206-26-65.mp3">Humble Harve Miller on KBLA, Los Angeles, 6-26-65</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTExODQ0MjRfSkdJM08" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaCPSCePPC_5miudiFlRo0KWPbnyp12Mw9OslOxn_4POwRq1E1kyPE9cZzuNFuhZCgrpyUpBiWFtN8TyH5tLm4E0aAezIvL8yIyQ1kJ-Dtm59DV2I19wbkHEkFZRVQnDJks_9Bt0tAL2jSNa11wWQqeiPtL2VNhj6KS_w-gPX6phJyr6d2k-WXgVHEKXFd/s2183/Harve.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2183" data-original-width="2140" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaCPSCePPC_5miudiFlRo0KWPbnyp12Mw9OslOxn_4POwRq1E1kyPE9cZzuNFuhZCgrpyUpBiWFtN8TyH5tLm4E0aAezIvL8yIyQ1kJ-Dtm59DV2I19wbkHEkFZRVQnDJks_9Bt0tAL2jSNa11wWQqeiPtL2VNhj6KS_w-gPX6phJyr6d2k-WXgVHEKXFd/w393-h400/Harve.jpg" width="393" /></a></div><p>~~</p><p>Almost as popular as airchecks are vintage commercials, and here I have a tape - or rather two tapes - containing a total of five ads for Great Bear Spring Water, from the Rumrill-Hoyt company. Why some of these ads (the first three, all of which were on the same tape) have brief announcer copy before and instrumental music afterwards, I have absolutely no idea. The Great Bear Spring Company was founded in 1888, and surely had a jump of decades on most of those companies who sell bottled water. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTExODQ0Mjdf/Rumrill-Hoyt%2C%20Inc%20-%20Five%20Great%20Bear%20Spring%20Water%20Ads.mp3">Rumrill-Hoyt, Inc - Five Great Bear Spring Water Ads</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTExODQ0MjdfWGZxdlg" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>Here is a combo scan of the front of one of the boxes containing these ads and the back of the other one: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKOmc_JXPZA69zk0CyCLqI9w-t-mTwNSnKLXQqcR0hvESUCzhDcrWmBM1Mn5ou-tJfafUx6tqIGtisQUmXCw0leKIL7wGpCIByOBDNAFACRPGLVHU47oaah5XEM_a7iOaB0mLc8TfnmBkopD9Wlg6VCVMuTbdVGliRVCZRaz4ljbnsQ3lRPjdt0h-Clrzv/s3190/Great%20Bear.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3190" data-original-width="1555" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKOmc_JXPZA69zk0CyCLqI9w-t-mTwNSnKLXQqcR0hvESUCzhDcrWmBM1Mn5ou-tJfafUx6tqIGtisQUmXCw0leKIL7wGpCIByOBDNAFACRPGLVHU47oaah5XEM_a7iOaB0mLc8TfnmBkopD9Wlg6VCVMuTbdVGliRVCZRaz4ljbnsQ3lRPjdt0h-Clrzv/w195-h400/Great%20Bear.jpg" width="195" /></a></div><p></p><p>~~</p><p>Okay, so those were my two big shares for the post, I suppose. As noted at the top, the rest of today's offering fall into the category of "Things I Think Might Be Worth Sharing, And Which Some People Might Find Interesting, But Which I Don't Have a Whole Lot to Say About"</p><p>First up, some speeches that were made at a large Bell Telephone gathering, presumably a convention, followed by some music heard at that same same event, performed by - of all things - a full mixed chorus (80 members) made up of nothing but various Telephone company employees. Those were certainly different days, corporate-wise, eh? </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTExODQ0MTlf/Speeches%20and%20Music%20at%20a%20Telephone%20Company%20Convention.mp3">Speeches and Music at a Telephone Company Convention</a></p><p>Play:<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTExODQ0MTlfQ2VncEU" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Speaking of corporations which produced products that many Americans used every single day, The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company produced, for almost exactly 10 years, a series called "The Greatest Story Ever Told", built around the life of Christ - at least to the degree that Jesus, when he spoke in the series, only said those things captured in the Bible. On the other hand, as you'll hear in this episode, there were at least some weeks when Jesus didn't appear at all. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTExODQ0MjBf/The%20Goodyear%20Tire%20and%20Rubber%20Company%20Presents%20-%20The%20Greatest%20Story%20Every%20Told.mp3">The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company Presents - The Greatest Story Every Told</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTExODQ0MjBfWTZPQW0" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>On March 2, 1959, Bing Crosby hosted a television special. The recording heard here is not the complete show, but it's nice anyway. Elements of this show are available on YouTube and other video sites, but I believe the portions heard here contain material not available elsewhere. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTExODQzOTZf/The%20Bing%20Crosby%20Show%20-%203-2-59.mp3">The Bing Crosby Show - 3-2-59</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTExODQzOTZfMzM1b3Q" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Now here's a real endurance test. A car full of friends drives from northwest Indiana to Ohio and they record 90 plus minutes of their conversation for posterity, while en route. For those of you who choose to share their journey, you will be rewarded with a sound clip for the ages, one to use in all of your sound manipulations, when the driver exclaims "Save your farts for Ohio". The man who speaks that line - and who probably recorded this tape - was the same person behind the nudist camp which I've featured in the past, <a href="https://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2011/05/barely-proper-a-play-to-promote-naturism.html">here</a> and <a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2021/01/mike-ditka-and-nudists-bit-of-hockey.html">here</a>. </p><p>Download: T<a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTExODQ0MTBf/The%20Schmidt%27s%20and%20Friends%20Drive%20to%20Ohio%20Via%20Highway%2030%2C%201964.mp3">he Schmidt's and Friends Drive to Ohio Via Highway 30, 1964</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTExODQ0MTBfcHBud00" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Now here's a recording I've labeled "KNPT, Newport, Oregon - Ann and Len Nash at the Hi-Tide Supper Club - Two Episodes, June 25th and June 28th, 1955". And I think that probably sums up everything you need to know about it. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTExODQ0MTFf/KNPT%2C%20Newport%2C%20Oregon%20-%20Ann%20and%20Len%20Nash%20at%20the%20Hi-Tide%20Supper%20Club%20-%20Two%20Episodes%2C%20June25th%20and%20June%2028th%2C%201955.mp3">KNPT, Newport, Oregon - Ann and Len Nash at the Hi-Tide Supper Club - Two Episodes, June 25th and June 28th, 1955</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTExODQ0MTFfSDdqeE0" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Here's something just a bit "different". It's an audio letter, but one made up mostly of music. The sender, in Vicksburg, is using music to connect to his recipient, Darlene, in California, with only a few comments thrown in between the songs, indicating some of them have memories attached to them, and others perhaps have lyrics which are meaningful to their relationship. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTExODQ0MjNf/A%20Musical%20Audio%20Letter%20to%20Darlene.mp3">A Musical Audio Letter to Darlene</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTExODQ0MjNfVGYyTTc" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Back to the Home Recordings we go. Here we have a gentleman who sings in an extremely old-timey style a style I associate with Irish tenors (not that I'd call him an Irish tenor) - and who offers up song after song, along with a bit of conversation with those who he is with, for some 40 minutes or so. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTExODQ0MTRf/Unknown%20-%20Some%20Old%20Fashioned%20Singing%20and%20a%20Few%20Conversations.mp3">Unknown - Some Old Fashioned Singing and a Few Conversations</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTExODQ0MTRfbGpYMzM" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe><br /><br /></p><p>~~</p><p>Now let's travel to Valley Forge, PA, home to an organization of American Baptist Churches, and enjoy a short radio program that group produced at some point, titled "Audio Mosaic"</p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTExODQ0MjZf/Audio%20Mosaic%20%28From%20the%20American%20Baptist%20Churches%2C%20Valley%20Vorge%2C%20PA%29.mp3">Audio Mosaic (From the American Baptist Churches, Valley Vorge, PA)</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTExODQ0MjZfbFVtaGc" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>Only the tiniest of indications of the contents made it onto this box: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgELvoMrKqdP_esdXJrFafXIS-Qp1LEGUlzeTe3_Xhqw1gEFOeTrGsDN5HmgscxwSeFxlWph3jdoPannQTEWMrh70ORXtv1VlEWDFb4UsLTC2x6mryyjoAN6Bbt1sVONWobuGITWw7kFWVOKD8F08Xoihr-rKdFSyLuGQidEagLMfJ3XHKiDA2mJRM0J7N_/s1605/Mosaic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1604" data-original-width="1605" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgELvoMrKqdP_esdXJrFafXIS-Qp1LEGUlzeTe3_Xhqw1gEFOeTrGsDN5HmgscxwSeFxlWph3jdoPannQTEWMrh70ORXtv1VlEWDFb4UsLTC2x6mryyjoAN6Bbt1sVONWobuGITWw7kFWVOKD8F08Xoihr-rKdFSyLuGQidEagLMfJ3XHKiDA2mJRM0J7N_/w400-h400/Mosaic.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>~~</p><p>And as always, we'll finish up with the "Very Short Reels" segment, in this case, since I'm plowing through so much stuff, I'll offer up two. </p><p>First is what I find to be an utterly charming little tape of a small child introducing her father, who then plays a solo on trombone, and then the two of them do a trombone/vocal duet on another standard. He's not very good, and she can't sing at all, but it's still mighty cute, and her little laugh at the end is worth the price of admission. This actually showed up at the very end of a lengthy tape filled with bland recordings of 1950's and 1960's big band jazz, jazz with all of the life sucked out of it, so it was a nice dessert after a bland meal. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTExODQ0MjJf/Daddy%20Plays%20%27All%20of%20Me%27%2C%20Daddy%20and%20Daughter%20Sing%20%27Red%20Roses%20for%20a%20Blue%20Lady%27.mp3">Daddy Plays "All of Me", Daddy and Daughter Sing "Red Roses for a Blue Lady"</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTExODQ0MjJfRXIxME0" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>And here is the simply titled, "Two Girls Sing Three Short Songs", to which I'll only add that the second song is actually sung by only one of the girls: </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTExODQ0MTNf/Two%20Girls%20Sing%20Three%20Short%20Songs.mp3">Two Girls Sing Three Short Songs</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTExODQ0MTNfa1AwM2k" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p>Bob Pursehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00595178670595128341noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3253281712354769447.post-63799282432335973752023-06-21T15:22:00.003-07:002023-06-21T15:22:36.860-07:00A '79 Demo Reel, A '53 Audition Tape, Demonstrating Stereo, Old Timey Music, Continental Classroom, Etc. Etc.<p>Your host is back yet again, with another batch of fabulous reel to reel sounds!</p><p>To start, here's a fellow named Walt Jackson, working for country station WMPS in Memphis ("68 Country!") in the fall of 1979, and capturing that work on a demo reel, no doubt in order to further his career at a larger or more prestigious station. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTA2NzkyNTlf/Walt%20Jackson%20Demo%20Reel%20-%20%2768%20Country%27%2C%20WMPS%2C%209-13-79.mp3">Walt Jackson Demo Reel - '68 Country', WMPS, 9-13-79</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTA2NzkyNTlfNXlMMjM" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>On a related note, here is a fellow named Charles R Hughes, some time in April of 1953, trying to sound like he's already on radio station WFUV-FM, a non-commercial station in New York which was then still relatively new (it went on the air in 1947), but which is still in business today. Or maybe that's "still in non-business" today. </p><p>The clues that he is not already on the station? Well, first, the tape box is labeled as an audition. But also, the stories he is reporting, while all from the early Spring of 1953, are not all from the same date or week. He gathered together some recent stories in order to provide an interesting newscast audition. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTA2NzkyNjFf/Charles%20R%20Hughes%20-%20Audition%20Tape%20for%20WFUV-FM%2C%20Circa%20Mid-April%2C%201953.mp3">Charles R Hughes - Audition Tape for WFUV-FM, Circa Mid-April, 1953</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTA2NzkyNjFfQjBIWUw" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>Here's that tape box: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ4x3Wl3qvgKH76Q9EmtJtPILLz69yEMPcZdyzzKLGD7H5GvYQ_BXbyFZ22RqwUTCjnADA0bQbGfHsjn6VjNGsglNwAFXJKsdtfkbdWzVW33WNlmNeEIOakz7wbIVZXJpODaF6nA_GKzx17BoO3DU6MLrdFRHrEqYPwLj_2OtXjXKLUtM1K_SHgcEV7eBh/s2133/Chas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2119" data-original-width="2133" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ4x3Wl3qvgKH76Q9EmtJtPILLz69yEMPcZdyzzKLGD7H5GvYQ_BXbyFZ22RqwUTCjnADA0bQbGfHsjn6VjNGsglNwAFXJKsdtfkbdWzVW33WNlmNeEIOakz7wbIVZXJpODaF6nA_GKzx17BoO3DU6MLrdFRHrEqYPwLj_2OtXjXKLUtM1K_SHgcEV7eBh/w400-h398/Chas.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>~~</p><p>Next up, here are the sounds contained on yet another one of those "Stereo Demonstration Tapes", the ones which typically came with your new tape recorder to show off what it could do, or perhaps which also might have been used by salesmen in the store (or in the home) to make that final push in a potential sale to a customer. In this case, it's an early effort by a corporation which would later become a powerhouse in the home audio field, Sony. As always, the examples range from sound effects that travel from speaker to speaker to orchestral music.</p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTA2NzkyNjBf/Sony%20Stereo%20Recorded%20Demonstration%20Tape.mp3">Sony Stereo Pre-Recorded Demonstration Tape</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTA2NzkyNjBfUENjNVE" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>And here's that tape (I don't have a box for it)</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9TDgvNj86jc3CDnDu88nySmo8g42U5ZQ1K_KxLdJZ5UK7uBq-WXI1214taupDN-IR8swerOHsfT84Kkklr1D5KkR3zf8jmlobHa6o65nwZjoAverp0jbRdjA5S0jBJHLuAlXDseYeC8-biL1zeD_BsLRY5wkYvCrlV8pnbwkhlXOoPVVh9K6Jw9s8KRQA/s1544/Sony.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1539" data-original-width="1544" height="399" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9TDgvNj86jc3CDnDu88nySmo8g42U5ZQ1K_KxLdJZ5UK7uBq-WXI1214taupDN-IR8swerOHsfT84Kkklr1D5KkR3zf8jmlobHa6o65nwZjoAverp0jbRdjA5S0jBJHLuAlXDseYeC8-biL1zeD_BsLRY5wkYvCrlV8pnbwkhlXOoPVVh9K6Jw9s8KRQA/w400-h399/Sony.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>~~</p><p>And now, something considerably more... homey. Here is a gathering of friends and/or family, in the fall of 1959, working together to perform some traditional music as well as pop songs of the past in a very homely, amateur style, for almost exactly an hour. I'm sure this isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I love this stuff. </p><p>I cannot find the tape box for this just now, but the information on names and the date, below, are from that box. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTA2NzkyNTdf/Music%20at%20Home%20-%20Bill%2C%20Vernene%2C%20Ida%20and%20Ralph%2C%2010-9-59.mp3">Music at Home - Bill, Vernene, Ida and Ralph, 10-9-59</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTA2NzkyNTdfU25DMlQ" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>"Continental Classroom" was an effort by NBC-TV to offer some educational matter to viewers in the late 1950's and early 1960's. Each season focused on a different subject, including Physics, Chemistry, Math and Government. You can read about it <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Classroom">here</a>. The 1963-64 season actually consisted of reruns of Government episodes from the previous season. I have a batch of tapes from someone who periodically recorded episodes of the show, and, from that 1962-63 season, here is an episode on "The Legislative Process". If you want more of these, let me know!</p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTA2NzkyNTRf/Continental%20Classroom%20-%201-63%20-%20The%20Legislative%20Process.mp3">Continental Classroom - 1-63 - The Legislative Process</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTA2NzkyNTRfR3lINnY" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>And now, it's time for our "Acetate of the Month". In this case, it's an acetate which contains what sounds like a College Glee Club running through a series of songs, contained on both sides of an Audiodisc acetate which has nothing written on its label. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTA2NzkyNTJf/College%20Glee%20Club%20-%20Unlabeled%20-%20One%20Side.mp3">College Glee Club - Unlabeled - One Side</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTA2NzkyNTJfNWtOQzU" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </p><p>~~</p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTA2NzkyNTBf/College%20Glee%20Club%20-%20Unlabeled%20-%20Other%20Side.mp3">College Glee Club - Unlabeled - Other Side</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTA2NzkyNTBfZXhEQWo" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>And now, our "Very Short Reel". Here we have a young woman who is overjoyed to have won.... some sort of contest and is very thankful to everyone involved. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yOTA2NzkyNjJf/An%20Evening%20That%20I%27ll%20Never%20Forget.mp3">"An Evening That I'll Never Forget"</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yOTA2NzkyNjJfck00ZTA" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p>Bob Pursehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00595178670595128341noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3253281712354769447.post-87676679521882058842023-05-31T17:36:00.002-07:002023-05-31T17:38:03.810-07:00Lots of Beautiful Music, Alcoholism Stories, An Odd Rehearsal Tape, Orchids on the Radio and Testing, Testing<p>Today's lead feature is something of a sort that multiple readers have asked me to please share whenever I come across it. And that is: Beautiful Music Programming. I admit to being wholly and deeply mystified by this, but I'm certainly not trying to be here solely to share what I like, and, if anything, the requests for this sort of programming have been the second or third most common thing I've been asked for more of!</p><p>So when I recently found two entire tape sides full of this stuff - nearly 130 minutes of programming from a Los Angeles station some time in the early 1970's - I knew how I was going to lead off my next post. And that's what I'm doing! </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODk2MzIwNDFf/KEZM%2C%20Los%20Angeles%2C%20Beautiful%20Music%20Programming%2C%20Early%201970%27s%2C%20Side%20One.mp3">KEZM, Los Angeles, Beautiful Music Programming, Early 1970's, Side One</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODk2MzIwNDFfSTRBdmE" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODk2MzIwMzdf/KEZM%2C%20Los%20Angeles%2C%20Beautiful%20Music%20Programming%2C%20Early%201970%27s%2C%20Side%20Two.mp3">KEZM, Los Angeles, Beautiful Music Programming, Early 1970's, Side Two</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODk2MzIwMzdfaGlGSDc" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Taking a hard turn into something completely different, here's another tape I unearthed in the last month which contains an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting from November of 1957. This meeting featured the testimony of two recovering alcoholics, both of whom present their histories. Near the end of the tape, the meeting ends and the recorder was turned off. At that point, we hear a short segment of a previous meeting, which was being erased by the November meeting. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODk2MzIwMTJf/An%20Alcoholics%20Anonymous%20Meeting%2C%2011-23-57.mp3">An Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting, 11-23-57</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODk2MzIwMTJfbFdoUG8" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF8GNdG8zupBe0u0nPD5R-CGzdcLfp6qLAnGeL6lYjNgxEKAToa6GzyRF3qL5tGTko3BdsS-xbyOO0Y59a4ApCDqE5rqpDD56NZTeGPxfSTE9XE8UGUt6wITpH0ofIayjuaOtsqJW2urWtCTfmCQL5zAmG8UandTjm9Jn9UMQ0Of9yvUVK8mDhe4J4Lw/s2113/AA.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1054" data-original-width="2113" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF8GNdG8zupBe0u0nPD5R-CGzdcLfp6qLAnGeL6lYjNgxEKAToa6GzyRF3qL5tGTko3BdsS-xbyOO0Y59a4ApCDqE5rqpDD56NZTeGPxfSTE9XE8UGUt6wITpH0ofIayjuaOtsqJW2urWtCTfmCQL5zAmG8UandTjm9Jn9UMQ0Of9yvUVK8mDhe4J4Lw/w400-h200/AA.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>~~</p><p>Okay, speaking of things which mystify me.... Here's a tape I obtained decades ago. I'm going to try not to overexplain this, but what I will say is that it contains singing by a few women - sometimes singing solo, often in duos and at times in trios. This appears to be a rehearsal tape, and several of the songs are from a musical production called "Israel Oh Israel". A professional presentation of that show can be found for sale <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Israel-Oh-VARIOUS-ARTISTS/dp/B000005OKR">here</a>. But not all of the songs here are from this store. </p><p>I actually sold this tape some time ago, but saved the MP3 to share here, eventually. Personally, I find the singing here, when the singers go into their upper ranges, to be aggressively hideous - shrill and ugly in tone - and moderately hideous the rest of the time (my mother would likely have begged me to turn it off) - but I do think it is... interesting, interested enough to share. So here it is. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODk2MzIwMDhf/A%20Female%20Trio%20Rehearses.mp3">A Female Trio Rehearses</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODk2MzIwMDhfcVBrZlE" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Here's an undated piece of AM radio talk which I find sort of befuddling, and humorous in that capacity. It just seems to me that doing a radio segment on flowers - a category of objects (in this case, Orchids) which would seem to only be able to be enjoyed by the senses of smell, sight and touch - is unintentionally ridiculous. </p><p>This comes from radio station WDLC, AM 1490, which was (and is) in Port Jervis, New York. The show is "The Pike County Hour". Port Jervis is not actually in Pike County (which is in Pennsylvania), but it borders that county. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODk2MzIwMDRf/Pike%20County%20Hour%2C%20WDLC%2C%201490%20-%20Show%20About%20Orchids.mp3">Pike County Hour, WDLC, 1490 - Show About Orchids</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODk2MzIwMDRfRlZsazM" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </p><p>~~</p><p>And now, our "Very Short Reel" for this post. I've named this "Testing the Microphone" and I suspect that's self-explanatory. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODk2MzIwMDlf/Testing%20the%20Microphone.mp3">Testing the Microphone</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODk2MzIwMDlfTWFNaDY" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p>Bob Pursehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00595178670595128341noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3253281712354769447.post-20187610737530381932023-05-18T18:39:00.004-07:002023-05-18T18:39:47.081-07:00Vintage R & B Radio, Some Religiosity, Savings Bonds, A Letter to Carole, A REALLY Short Reel, and The Oldest Tape I've Ever Owned <p> Hello out there!!!</p><p>Let's get right to it. I have here something pretty special, I think, although I wish it was longer....</p><p>Anyway...</p><p>Remember Gary, Indiana? It was once a fairly flourishing working class town, just outside of Chicago, based around the steel industry. More recently, it has been named "<a href="https://www.the-sun.com/news/5893178/inside-most-miserable-city-us/#:~:text=IT%20WAS%20once%20known%20as,%3A%20%22Murder%20Capital%20USA%22.">the most miserable city in the US</a>". But back when it was more or less thriving, Gary had a popular R & B Radio Station, WWCA, and WWCA had a popular DJ, Jesse Coopwood (although <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Coopwood">Wikipedia </a>deems him to have been a jazz DJ).</p><p>Regardless, I have been lucky enough to come across, in my collection, two short recordings of Jesse Coopwood doing his thing. One is clearly from Fall of 1951, based on his comments about songs by Sylvia Robinson and by The Dominoes, among others, being recent or new. The other one does not have a date which is immediately apparent to me, but maybe someone else can figure it out. </p><p>Anyway, these are precious and rare, and very much worth sharing. Enjoy!</p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODg4ODQxMTdf/Jesse%20Coopwood%20on%20WWCA%2C%20Gary%2C%20Indiana%2C%20Fall%2C%201951.mp3">Jesse Coopwood on WWCA, Gary, Indiana, Fall, 1951</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODg4ODQxMTdfUVU3Yjc" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODg4ODQxMTlf/Jesse%20Coopwood%20on%20WWCA%2C%20Gary%2C%20Indiana.mp3">Jesse Coopwood on WWCA, Gary, Indiana</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODg4ODQxMTlfandMd1o" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Now, from roughly the same time period, in this case, from November 30, 1952, and the place is the tiny town of Clever, Missouri. Here is a recording, mostly likely made in/at a church, of a man who is saying some fairly ridiculous and quickly disproven things about the wonders of the Christian Church and specifically its supposed role in causing virtually everything that is good and forward moving in the world. </p><p>I am a lifelong, active Christian, as you might have gathered from the piece about my mom a month ago, but I don't recognize that faith in what I hear from this guy. The number of "facts" that he spews here which are offensive and prejudicial in nature is staggering.</p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODg4ODQxMTFf/A%20Man%20Extols%20the%20Wonders%20and%20Benefits%20of%20Christianity%20-%20Clever%2C%20Missouri%2C%2011-30-52.mp3">A Man Extols the Wonders and Benefits of Christianity - Clever, Missouri, 11-30-52</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODg4ODQxMTFfZE9iRHk" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>The flip side of this tape contains a home recording - it's not terribly scintillating, I suppose, but it is a bit peculiar and may hold some entertainment value. It's a family, having a fairly loose discussion, while going about their day, regarding Savings Bonds, and particularly one which was bought on behalf of what sounds like a young adult son, some years back. This seems to come from roughly the same timeframe as the religious speech above. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODg4ODQxMDlf/A%20Savings%20Bond%20Discussion%2C%20Circa%201952.mp3">A Savings Bond Discussion, Circa 1952</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODg4ODQxMDlfT3NCYTg" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Perhaps you need a palate cleanser after that church speech up there. If so, here is a nice audio letter from a father to his daughter Carole. And I think that's all that needs to be said!</p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODg4ODQxMDVf/Audio%20Letter%20from%20a%20Dad%20to%20His%20Daughter%20Carole.mp3">Audio Letter from a Dad to His Daughter Carole</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODg4ODQxMDVfNnNhcVM" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>And now, a real piece of history. On its surface, this may be among the least exiting sounds I've ever shared with all of you. But on the other hand.... I think this is now the oldest piece of playable tape in my collection. </p><p>I recently was fortunate enough to obtain six reels of Soundmirror Recording Tape, produced by the Brush Development Company. This was, I believe, the first commercially available reel to reel tape in this country, appearing not long after the introduction of the format in the US, which I also believe was from the same company. That was in 1946. All of these are paper reels, by the way.</p><p>I have not listened to all of the tapes yet, so there may well be something even older on one or more of them. But this is a recording from May of 1948, 75 years ago this month, and perhaps 18 months after the first reel to reel machines came onto the market in this country. So I felt like I ought to share its contents, even if they are more than a bit bland. </p><p>What the tape contains is an organist at a church in Florida playing a series of hymns and other music. The tape is just over 30 minutes long and the sound starts to fade in and out during the last five minutes. But this is the sort of thing that just excites me no end - not the contents so much as its very existence in my collection. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODg4ODQxMTVf/Mrs%20Gibbs%20Plays%20the%20Organ%20at%20the%20Rader%20Memorial%20Methodist%20Church%2C%20Little%20River%2C%20Florida%2C%205-6-48.mp3">Mrs. Gibbs Plays the Organ at the Rader Memorial Methodist Church, Little River, Florida, 5-6-48</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODg4ODQxMTVfWWZjcVk" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>And what does a Soundmirror tape box look like? Here is the box, front and back: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwNFUbCIUwqFQdqNbAH-gVYxbDQYYQfvchnnqh7Tm5SxHQ5Yx5Q9tiW4p4JNTqphzgkkdtDTUjOk2LxilN2Y_jLnWRPgd8wciB32o9YBgS3C58SYj5XpKZ_xIkFxR31Bx_YPuzq7qR1vibRqrv8-YYPtDb62fS89tZPkUhz7K8hAmbc9rYV5Lvfg1d1w/s2208/Soundmirror.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2208" data-original-width="2158" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwNFUbCIUwqFQdqNbAH-gVYxbDQYYQfvchnnqh7Tm5SxHQ5Yx5Q9tiW4p4JNTqphzgkkdtDTUjOk2LxilN2Y_jLnWRPgd8wciB32o9YBgS3C58SYj5XpKZ_xIkFxR31Bx_YPuzq7qR1vibRqrv8-YYPtDb62fS89tZPkUhz7K8hAmbc9rYV5Lvfg1d1w/w391-h400/Soundmirror.jpg" width="391" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI3Lj_Q_6GO1S40wv0-RZnVJYZxbBBlDAj6_ihAEzJFdJUrhBE2YaEqnipwn_iagJCjKR1qDYEJLJ8D-fI-uN-5FlWPggp64sxUBZjvU8T2w3siGi58QmawENbIu4Ahc6u17qHoghYplNuduYWnS0kv0xOShOzvOWeKCO6Pf48TMhJ-ph4wlZZhaXzKQ/s2133/Soundmirror%20Back.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2133" data-original-width="2084" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI3Lj_Q_6GO1S40wv0-RZnVJYZxbBBlDAj6_ihAEzJFdJUrhBE2YaEqnipwn_iagJCjKR1qDYEJLJ8D-fI-uN-5FlWPggp64sxUBZjvU8T2w3siGi58QmawENbIu4Ahc6u17qHoghYplNuduYWnS0kv0xOShOzvOWeKCO6Pf48TMhJ-ph4wlZZhaXzKQ/w391-h400/Soundmirror%20Back.jpg" width="391" /></a></div><br /><p>~~</p><p>Now, let's move even a little further into the past, to nearly 80 years ago, and our Acetate of the Month. This is a little eight inch acetate, and while the voices are quite lighthearted, I'm sure it was made and was received with considerably more emotion than is given away by those voices. That's because this is almost certainly a mother sending her birthday wishes to her son who is in the armed forces, during a time of war. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODg4ODQxMjVf/8%20Inch%20Howard%20Recording%20Disc%20-%20Birthday%20Greetings%20to%20Ensign%20Richard%20Nash%20from%20Mother%2C%2010-6-43%2C%20Side%20One.mp3">Birthday Greetings to Ensign Richard Nash from Mother, 10-6-43, Side One</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODg4ODQxMjVfSkhZdE4" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODg4ODQxMjZf/8%20Inch%20Howard%20Recording%20Disc%20-%20Birthday%20Greetings%20to%20Ensign%20Richard%20Nash%20from%20Mother%2C%2010-6-43%2C%20Side%20Two.mp3">Birthday Greetings to Ensign Richard Nash from Mother, 10-6-43, Side Two</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODg4ODQxMjZfb01NYng" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3IRvg2QM1nCbrAa4720CxcPiuewRvUoTYYtIIwCWRU6hBE2t0BQKfuSNwT4hHn50I-8WHFjrYBoVGWaJUCTenthehjI2ET33fL5fWuaCduNHZa4m-GHmUzmKpoKHQX1G9umex7ug1Jl_zkn5D_4e9qvGmPpTHjXaNBdm2XMf1QWZrl_J7_2Uaxzx-dg/s1403/DSC09033.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1262" data-original-width="1403" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3IRvg2QM1nCbrAa4720CxcPiuewRvUoTYYtIIwCWRU6hBE2t0BQKfuSNwT4hHn50I-8WHFjrYBoVGWaJUCTenthehjI2ET33fL5fWuaCduNHZa4m-GHmUzmKpoKHQX1G9umex7ug1Jl_zkn5D_4e9qvGmPpTHjXaNBdm2XMf1QWZrl_J7_2Uaxzx-dg/w400-h360/DSC09033.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>~~</p><p>And now it's time for our Very Short Reel of the post. In fact, I have two, because the first is a ridiculously very, VERY short reel. </p><p>Here, for your dining and dancing pleasure is <i>everything </i>that was recorded on a standard, Seven inch, 1800 foot reel of tape that I scanned a few weeks ago: </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODg4ODQxMTJf/Hello%20George.mp3">Hello, George</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODg4ODQxMTJfQnJsdGM" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>Since that was so ridiculously short, here's a more typical length "very short reel", this one being the remnants of what was probably once a longer recording. This was at the end of a tape on which was recorded some less than interesting records from the previous owner's collection. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODg4ODQxMDZf/Joyce%20-%20Testing%20the%20Machine%20and%20Asking%20Bobby%20to%20Come%20Here.mp3">Testing the Machine and Asking Bobby to Come Here</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODg4ODQxMDZfNjZ4N1k" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p>Bob Pursehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00595178670595128341noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3253281712354769447.post-10583809757215141002023-04-30T15:28:00.002-07:002023-05-04T11:11:58.922-07:00Country Radio in 1965, Fake Radio in 1977, Ruthie is Cute, Mary is Not, Some Telephone Mayhem, and a Fifth Anniversary<p> Hi, </p><p>First, I want to offer a sincere and very deep thank you for anyone who read my last post, <a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2023/04/a-post-for-my-mother.html">the one about my mother's life story</a>. It is much appreciated. I particularly want to thank those who offered comments, either in the comment section of the post, or directly to my e-mail address (something which a few of my more frequent correspondents have). Each of them is treasured and, again, very much appreciated. </p><p>Second, I want to thank an anonymous poster who responded to a March post (before the "mom" one), with a major correction, and one that I probably could have researched if I wasn't just going by notes that I made when I was 15. It seems that my labeling of the years when I recorded the "<a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2023/03/the-wind-top-1000.html">WIND Top 1000</a>" is wrong. And I should have realized that anyway. The commenter has pointed on that the news reports during the broadcasts labeled "1971", including one about a mine explosion, are from the third week of July, 1972. What I should have noticed is that both broadcasts features the inclusion of "American Pie", which could not have been on the list in 1971, as it didn't finish its chart run (and qualify for such a list) until 1972. So either those recordings are from two different broadcasts of the list, both in 1972, or the shorter segment is from 1973. I'm guessing the former, since there are no 1973 hits in that broadcast. But anyway, one thing for certain is that the longer segment should be labeled as being from the third week of July, 1972 and not from 1971. Oops. Thank you for the correction!</p><p>Finally, I've been asked in the past to let folks know when I have reels for sale on eBay, and right now, that is the case. I have 20 reels listed. None of these feature anything I've shared in this blog - for the most part they contain material that I was not all that interested in. The listing is <a href="https://www.ebay.com/itm/354762206293">here</a>. That auction ends on 5/11/23. And if you click on "see other items", you will find that I have listed more than two dozen acetates from my collection, as well. </p><p>~~</p><p>I'll start today's offerings with the one (or in this case, two) that I am certain will be the most popular of all of those in this post. These two sound files contain the entirety of a reel of tape which captured some now-vintage country music radio, specifically, a show hosted by DJ Kenny Biggs, on WEEP, Pittsburgh. Based on the songs played, particularly those identified as currently on the chart or newly released, this is from some time in the fall of 1965. </p><p>The first segment is just over an hour of his show, unedited and complete with DJ patter, station ID's, ads, etc. The flip side of the tape starts with several minutes which contain edits between the songs, but eventually, the edits stop, and a good percentage of the second side also features a lengthy unedited segment of a Kenny Biggs aircheck. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODgyMzQzMDNf/The%20Kenny%20Biggs%20Show%2C%20WEEP%2C%20Pittsburgh%2C%20Fall%2C%201965%2C%20Part%20One.mp3">The Kenny Biggs Show, WEEP, Pittsburgh, Fall, 1965, Part One</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODgyMzQzMDNfYjNiZHI" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODgyMzQyOTRf/The%20Kenny%20Biggs%20Show%2C%20WEEP%2C%20Pittsburgh%2C%20Fall%2C%201965%2C%20Part%20Two.mp3">The Kenny Biggs Show, WEEP, Pittsburgh, Fall, 1965, Part Two</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODgyMzQyOTRfUGdjc2g" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>And now for something just barely related to the above two tracks. Here are a few kids presenting their version of a radio station just over a decade later. A sports report near the end of this segment demonstrates that this tape is from 1977, but I believe all of the "hits" featured are from 1975, for some reason. They don't really have the DJ / music mixed at the same volume level at all, but still, it's cute, particularly that sports report and an ad for an acne product. </p><p>The tape starts with a station intro, before cutting away to a few moments of cello practice, which is interrupted by noise from the kids. The actual "radio station" stuff starts about 50 seconds in. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODg1MjAxMjNf/Some%20Kids%20and%20Their%20Fake%20Radio%20Station%2C%20WPDL%2C%201977.mp3">Some Kids and Their Fake Radio Station, WPDL, 1977</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODg1MjAxMjNfOTdtaG0" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Here's another home recording, one which is even shorter than the above, (7 1/2 minutes) and which I find quite endearing. This is a child named Ruthie and her family, and they're just going doing the things one did when one's family had a tape recorder - testing the microphone, interviewing a child about her birthday and singing songs. For me, the best part is at the end, when the children present take turns singing one line apiece of a very well known commercial for Nestles' Chocolate, complete (the last two times) with one of the children becoming frustrated with another child who keeps coming in too early - "don't break in my line!" </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODgyMzQyODdf/Ruthie%20and%20Her%20Family%20-%20Testing%20the%20Microphone%2C%20Ruthie%27s%20Birthday%2C%20Prayers%2C%20Jingle%20Bells%20and%20Nestles%20Commercial.mp3">Ruthie and Her Family - Testing the Microphone, Ruthie's Birthday, Prayers, Jingle Bells and Nestles Commercial</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODgyMzQyODdfN0tRN3A" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p style="text-align: center;">Okay, so nearly three years ago, I posted a woman named Mary M. Davis being ridiculous. Here's most of what I wrote at the time: </p><p style="text-align: center;"><i>This is a bit of virulently right wing propaganda - John Birch Society style - railing against the United Nations. I only have tape four of the series, and if I had more, I'd annoy you with those, too. A quick search shows that Mary Davison wrote multiple books on this and related subjects, and was called a "whistleblower about the United Nations" at least once.</i></p><p>As it turns out, I do have another tape from the series, so if you enjoy this sort of thing, you're in luck. Here it is: </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODgyMzQyODRf/Mary%20M%20Davison%20-%20The%20United%20Nations%2C%20Tape%20Three.mp3">Mary M Davison - The United Nations, Tape Three</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODgyMzQyODRfTEwxV3U" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>On the flip side of the tape, there was a bit of bonus anti-UN blathering from Hugh A. Locke, Jr., who manages to take a truly inspiring story (assuming it's true) and turn it into a John Birch Society-esque talking point. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODgyMzQyODBf/Hugh%20A%20Locke%2C%20Jr%20-%201967%20Speech%20At%20New%20England%20Rally%2C%20Part%20Three.mp3">Hugh A Locke, Jr - 1967 Speech At New England Rally, Part Three</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODgyMzQyODBfOGRnR3k" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Ages ago, I bought several boxes of tapes all from the same location, many of which proved to contain Bell Telephone training tapes from Ohio. I've shared several of them, over the years. Here is one which is highly annoying - not as annoying as Mary M Davison, but annoying. </p><p>There is a lot of noise on this tape, particularly a whole lot of repetitive beeping, interspersed with one sided conversations which appear to have been made to a person (or people) who were on a ship (or ships). But you can only hear one side of the conversations. There is also a whole lot of repetitive beeping. Oh, and the opening 20 seconds or so are particularly hard to listen to, and are followed by about 15 seconds of near-silence. What I've described above really starts about 35 seconds in. </p><p>This tape is labeled "Traffic Training Tape" on the front of the box:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtzY7LL3b680YQ0ARNQg1Hx1KwS_cbBDVgYC-7VpO6yNUbFyzQFz9hzGqH5BlHdAoNGalW_5wjDy3CSbiaYLysepaDp3TWhyz8IEdAiBqbbjMVuxTLvs4WgMyXr6KDw0gh-AUe8TQ0JpY2vh-vjpzcjMM5VKbEo5giwMjDxC1UMlcCnoZYj6-FFAK-XQ/s2175/Training.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2175" data-original-width="2150" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtzY7LL3b680YQ0ARNQg1Hx1KwS_cbBDVgYC-7VpO6yNUbFyzQFz9hzGqH5BlHdAoNGalW_5wjDy3CSbiaYLysepaDp3TWhyz8IEdAiBqbbjMVuxTLvs4WgMyXr6KDw0gh-AUe8TQ0JpY2vh-vjpzcjMM5VKbEo5giwMjDxC1UMlcCnoZYj6-FFAK-XQ/s320/Training.jpg" width="316" /></a></div><p></p><p>On the side it says, "Telephone Transmission Impairments and Sounds" (which it definitely is not - I have <i>that </i>tape, which was also in the collection), and on the tape itself, there is a sticker which says ""Training Tape Telephone Sounds":</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1A5ZWU7Cru2hTK0TgbWMLZPWx3p4uUNTPtJLp3DyJHa08bYGxTHlYJXiaVAO20UssxtmOENVZQMgy8pQ0YZDs9S6VjCpn35vE7GgxzjW-DRc9--LsBC62ipFn6_-zPdpeXVKEhJqv9ss-Y3euwR7GS5lG0EmM5_CCUzPoD9WWDS5900K_b8hY6A9aAA/s1524/Sounds.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1386" data-original-width="1524" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1A5ZWU7Cru2hTK0TgbWMLZPWx3p4uUNTPtJLp3DyJHa08bYGxTHlYJXiaVAO20UssxtmOENVZQMgy8pQ0YZDs9S6VjCpn35vE7GgxzjW-DRc9--LsBC62ipFn6_-zPdpeXVKEhJqv9ss-Y3euwR7GS5lG0EmM5_CCUzPoD9WWDS5900K_b8hY6A9aAA/w400-h364/Sounds.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>After reading each of those titles for this tape, and listening to this reel, I'm still not sure what this is, or who was supposed to learn what from these 14 minutes of recordings. </p><p>Maybe this is only going to appeal to three people (or fewer), but I do occasionally like to give a bit of the flavor of just how wide ranging the tapes in my collection can be. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODg0NzI4MDRf/Telephone%20Sounds%20-%20Traffic%20Training%20Tape.mp3">Telephone Sounds - Traffic Training Tape</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODg0NzI4MDRfcGpjdmE" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>And finally, a very <i>very </i>short "Very Short Reel". Here are 39 seconds which I found at the end of an otherwise reel of bland music recorded off of records. I suspect this is what was left from a longer recording, the rest of which was erased. From just a short 71 1/2 years ago, here is a tiny fragment of a few people just having a light hearted conversation about what was apparently the fifth day of marriage for two of the people heard here. <br /></p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODgyMzQyNzVf/Unknown%20-%20Our%20Fifth%20Day%20Wedding%20Anniversary%2C%20November%2024%2C%201951.mp3">Unknown - Our Fifth Day Wedding Anniversary, November 24, 1951</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODgyMzQyNzVfd1FNczQ" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p>Bob Pursehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00595178670595128341noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3253281712354769447.post-60625596870277748812023-04-16T07:14:00.006-07:002023-04-20T14:28:18.567-07:00A Post For My Mother<p>Sixteen months ago, I wrote a post for this site titled <a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2021/12/a-post-for-my-father.html">“A Post for My Father”</a>, honoring what would have been his 100<sup>th</sup> birthday, back on December 7<sup>th</sup>, 2021. Today it’s time for “A Post for My Mother, as today, April 16<sup>th</sup>, 2023, would have been her 100<sup>th</sup> birthday. I hope the many of you who found the post about my father to be interesting and hopefully touching will enjoy today’s post as well. And keeping with the subject of this blog, just as with my father’s post, most of the recordings shared here will be from reel to reel tape, although some will be from cassettes, and three are from acetates.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">And as I look over what I’ve written, I realize this was a harder piece to write in some ways than the piece about my father. For one thing, I’ve written about my mother multiple times before, on this site, on my song-poem site, and at WFMU; I tried to not repeat myself. For another, given the sheer amount of recording she did between her late teen years and her early 80’s, much of which I have yet to digitize, making representative choices and not overwhelming the reader/listener was also on my mind. And yet another point: mom was not shy in the least in talking about herself and her history and experiences, so I had a lot to wade through and choose from. She had a healthy ego, and I suppose some of what she said could probably have been experienced as bragging, or would be, if the stories of her musical exploits weren’t true. But they were true.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">In the end, I find that I’ve written thousands and thousands of words, have added more than a dozen pictures, and shared two dozen sound clips (which vary from a few seconds to just over six minutes). About half of the sound clips are of performances of classical or otherwise more or less “serious” music. I think it’s a wonderful story, and I felt very much compelled to write it. I appreciate and will be honored by anyone who chooses to read this all the way through, but completely understand that some of you may skip through it, or skip it entirely, and come back for the next general subject post near the end of the month. But be assured, it’s a good story.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">I also want to say that this is <i>my</i> story of mom. My siblings, relatives and her friends, some of whom may very well read this, might remember things differently. In some cases they might even say “I don’t remember it that way” or “I don’t think that’s accurate.” I recognize that, but in those cases, these are my memories and perceptions.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">So… here goes:<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">My mother was born Mary Frances Godwin in 1923. Her parents had married in the early 1900’s, lived variously in New York City and in the Washington, D.C. area, and had already graced the world with four sons, born (I believe) in 1906, 1908, 1910 and 1916. Sadly, their second son, who had shown remarkable ability (for a young child) as a poet, would die from a brain tumor at age nine. My mother’s father left the family for his mistress for a time around the turn of the decade of the 1920’s, but he reconciled with his wife long enough for them to have a fifth child, my mother, before he left for good sometime around 1935. During those years together, my grandparents moved the family to the Chicago area, where he had a job as the spokesman for – of all things – the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, the organization which was the driving force, initially at least, behind the Prohibition movement.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Here is my mother, with her mother and brothers, not long after she was born: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsTqFzuPt1CVJIbdpf7z8Ubcb5zi6XRJ-VLoSxablZudEdEKLfZ6PAXq6swDZ4jvqYBKR_9vjmHvhx0jiqimVo4TXw6QBui5jwwI9NpTYpUGxwxV1PVz0H7eQuqFDyr6cm4SwG3eNYYUqHbimFLgP7KwO9lTmYPOxOpjiAPrl-hcFBUjHgZQORBpn90A/s2754/1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2140" data-original-width="2754" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsTqFzuPt1CVJIbdpf7z8Ubcb5zi6XRJ-VLoSxablZudEdEKLfZ6PAXq6swDZ4jvqYBKR_9vjmHvhx0jiqimVo4TXw6QBui5jwwI9NpTYpUGxwxV1PVz0H7eQuqFDyr6cm4SwG3eNYYUqHbimFLgP7KwO9lTmYPOxOpjiAPrl-hcFBUjHgZQORBpn90A/w400-h311/1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Before and after my grandparents’ divorce, the family moved, repeatedly, from one rented house to another, first in the Chicago neighborhood known as Rogers Park, then in the suburb just north of Rogers Park, Evanston (where the WCTU was based). My grandparents had nicknames which were apparently used by everyone in the family. My mom’s mother was Matey and her father was Dadden.</div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">(I will mention here that, on both sides of my mother’s family there were men who were extremely well known in the media worlds of their time, although both are both virtually forgotten today. Her maternal grandfather was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_D._Easton">Edward Easton</a>, who was the founder and first president of Columbia Records, the forerunner of today’s Columbia Records, CBS, etc., etc. Her youngest child (who is writing this post) was given the middle name Edward in his honor. And my mother’s father? Well, he was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Godwin_(radio_newsman)">Earl Godwin</a>, who was a nationally known news correspondent (and, during the FDR years, a White House correspondent).<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Well, anyway, Earl Godwin moved back to Washington and settled down with his former mistress, now his second wife, Queen, and was heard by his family more on the radio than in person. Oddly, however, <i>his</i> mother, who was known as “Mom” to everyone in the family (another nickname, and a confusing one when stories were told), continued to live with her daughter-in-law and her children (including my mother) for the remainder of her life. I only learned this last year. Until then, I had assumed that the “Mom” from my own mother’s stories was my mother’s maternal grandmother.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">One key event occurred in 1932. The family moved to a big house in northern Evanston and began attending the Episcopal Church which was two blocks away, St. Matthew’s. Despite moving multiple times, further and further from Evanston, my mother continued to attend St. Matthew’s for the rest of her life, as my daughter and I still do today (she is the fifth generation of the family to attend this church). More on this later. Another key event from that house, at least as far as my mom was concerned, was that this was where she trained herself to stop sucking her thumb. She was apparently teased about it at school and in her own words, stayed up all night one night deliberately not sucking her thumb (but being unable to sleep, too), until she broke herself of the habit. She would tell this story virtually any time we drove past that big house, which was frequently as it was on the way to and from church.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Somewhere during this period (and by that I mean within her grade school and high school years, I’m really not sure of the dates) mom had two serious health scares. At some point, she contracted tuberculosis and was hospitalized. She and the other young people she was with changed each syllable of the name of their illness – “Two-Burr-You-Low-Sis” – to a related word, and started saying that they had “One-Thistle-Me-High-Brother.” A potentially even more debilitating illness struck, as well: Polio. And while most people my age or older have known someone whose body was affected permanently, and in some cases severely, by a bought with Polio, mom’s only long-term effect was that, of all things, her uvula was paralyzed, stuck in place, at about a 30 degree angle. She was very fortunate that this was the extent of its mark on her.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">And now, here are two pictures I adore. Each of them would be a favorite, even if I didn’t know who the child was. I do not know her age in either picture, but I’d venture to say she’s around 12 to 14 in each. In the first, we see a remarkably cute Mary Frances, having her picture taken at Lord’s Department Store (the same store from which came <a href="https://inches-per-second.blogspot.com/2022/12/christmas-through-and-through.html">the Santa visit acetate which I shared last December</a>). She is looking in a mirror which had a camera in it, so that you could see exactly what you were going to look like when the photo was produced. <o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwCSOEI3IcnETwHQ2S46-LV9X6aaQQ_-SJnlkwLuUc-8GYcsymI-YQM7rsZ3-cl2464zWWuSv_MPqFKANeXKf8-BRvUTyriWbAGOgCRDQZ3M078BTD8kKM7Xu78EsKntnrppqiKEySo3x_lPKI9innmlA9zUCflbKd9MkBcPmqPi1Gn_2d3ANxKCtIdw/s2978/2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2978" data-original-width="2425" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwCSOEI3IcnETwHQ2S46-LV9X6aaQQ_-SJnlkwLuUc-8GYcsymI-YQM7rsZ3-cl2464zWWuSv_MPqFKANeXKf8-BRvUTyriWbAGOgCRDQZ3M078BTD8kKM7Xu78EsKntnrppqiKEySo3x_lPKI9innmlA9zUCflbKd9MkBcPmqPi1Gn_2d3ANxKCtIdw/w326-h400/2.jpg" width="326" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal">And here is a more serious Mary Frances, perhaps younger than in the picture above. This is a picture which suggests to me what Katharine Hepburn might have looked like at the same age. In this case, she is walking out the door on the way to Girl Scout summer camp.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaq7EsHFVMve2eSUP1Nh7Hnmhn0imAlpVSSYXZMJHHXi8bwAqJt8ZfP1P9b1uyCllLYdxEDDlyNOiWsJVkdwxaB9SpanJV1Yq4-N3NWwJnNEot17yRV_MI8hPQRJhbwyggZLRhirzQaH6bVYrAtApXUzuGwgT6-G0cVHy6pMpROHaU-vV-IGEWXYomoQ/s2102/3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2102" data-original-width="1517" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaq7EsHFVMve2eSUP1Nh7Hnmhn0imAlpVSSYXZMJHHXi8bwAqJt8ZfP1P9b1uyCllLYdxEDDlyNOiWsJVkdwxaB9SpanJV1Yq4-N3NWwJnNEot17yRV_MI8hPQRJhbwyggZLRhirzQaH6bVYrAtApXUzuGwgT6-G0cVHy6pMpROHaU-vV-IGEWXYomoQ/w289-h400/3.jpg" width="289" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">Early on, my mother showed exceptional talent in two areas: drawing and music. I believe if the music bug had not been so overwhelmingly strong in her, she might have gone on to be an illustrator or comic artist (her uncle <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Godwin">Frank Godwin</a> was successful in both of these fields, and was an inspiration to her). Here are a few of her drawings, the first, as indicated, from age 13, the other three from somewhat later.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4d3wAi8PU_7HdppXObAbOf-EDa6KSCGRixiimLPBsQ49QMJXYx0S4gc-tFiIBdiB_qUDOdXoqHQlMX737MlAQ_MBuluEw5kX9gUZM1ryENy7f92mRplnQL1_UUaz8krhledilLygPKl29FJFdwxImlzrMumbz7N1ixRPljGnIEZhLFcTLEAggG_KS_A/s2100/4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="2100" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4d3wAi8PU_7HdppXObAbOf-EDa6KSCGRixiimLPBsQ49QMJXYx0S4gc-tFiIBdiB_qUDOdXoqHQlMX737MlAQ_MBuluEw5kX9gUZM1ryENy7f92mRplnQL1_UUaz8krhledilLygPKl29FJFdwxImlzrMumbz7N1ixRPljGnIEZhLFcTLEAggG_KS_A/w400-h130/4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF6uE7foOdcLiIeorEj9bJmrgotL5fi4poqXjR5s2rpxzJIIVBTh9KmVo1n6w79nfGujv2Zy4IHcTUaoOCAfA4z2zEqssX9Iah3yDSjL6Vz3c7qM2UoFPq5f9xEk5MZ6MNZj7eLQ1Z5QeFgF0LzyGxiqdVGyFR0-vHBrJTuYZqY_SOxaIbk3sAx-bxdQ/s3016/5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3016" data-original-width="2055" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF6uE7foOdcLiIeorEj9bJmrgotL5fi4poqXjR5s2rpxzJIIVBTh9KmVo1n6w79nfGujv2Zy4IHcTUaoOCAfA4z2zEqssX9Iah3yDSjL6Vz3c7qM2UoFPq5f9xEk5MZ6MNZj7eLQ1Z5QeFgF0LzyGxiqdVGyFR0-vHBrJTuYZqY_SOxaIbk3sAx-bxdQ/s320/5.jpg" width="218" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbPPV4KYOWBNw4IxkIsSQ311xUIqSg6-66RcPZKqsTFKg2W3j5Go8r1H7l4JakeriMOfZrcRcn1YsoweJtcBstViXDZn7apOETwme-aJaZuf7Q_AtE99GkKYboWQeU1dQdqnQj2HuKgs6x4FCLAs5suAHGXe3XIOPugOCL5k9Ky_6U46op8Cb9VoMNPA/s2300/6.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2300" data-original-width="2139" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbPPV4KYOWBNw4IxkIsSQ311xUIqSg6-66RcPZKqsTFKg2W3j5Go8r1H7l4JakeriMOfZrcRcn1YsoweJtcBstViXDZn7apOETwme-aJaZuf7Q_AtE99GkKYboWQeU1dQdqnQj2HuKgs6x4FCLAs5suAHGXe3XIOPugOCL5k9Ky_6U46op8Cb9VoMNPA/s320/6.jpg" width="298" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrwZBmplu5FFGqppJIv5TbSMIpy4EMnU2JAV75e8mqwEaDU1x1_-w0gP4up5PE8phBiWu78DO_DvcG3Vj_ji2CTieMHC-aIkuoF9MJELB25r4XgQ1rnGS2ZOSZglxKje_vcPhbw_pGTLbJ52uYRjvh8_u2kbBEnANEXvNVas07DN2YHKrJSIpG15waEA/s2225/7.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2214" data-original-width="2225" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrwZBmplu5FFGqppJIv5TbSMIpy4EMnU2JAV75e8mqwEaDU1x1_-w0gP4up5PE8phBiWu78DO_DvcG3Vj_ji2CTieMHC-aIkuoF9MJELB25r4XgQ1rnGS2ZOSZglxKje_vcPhbw_pGTLbJ52uYRjvh8_u2kbBEnANEXvNVas07DN2YHKrJSIpG15waEA/w400-h398/7.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">As for music, she showed particular talent on the piano. To hear her tell it, she was considerably more advanced than most of her piano-playing peers. That is, until a fateful day (and I’m not sure how old she was) when she was part of her piano teacher’s recital program, and lost her place in a very challenging piece of music. Afterwards, horribly embarrassed, she begged her mother to be allowed to stop taking piano lessons, and her mother acquiesced. Mom often spoke about how she regretted that she wasn’t encouraged to continue taking piano lessons, and how good she could have been.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">I don’t actually know much about her teen years, but I do know that her oldest niece infuriated her on at least one occasion, upon learning that Earl Godwin had remarried and that her Aunt Mary Fran (just nine years older) was very embarrassed about this. Little Penny Godwin walked up to her young aunt and said “You’re Daddy’s MARRIED,” leading to quite the fight. If I heard that story once, I heard it 40 times. Almost as many times as the thumb-sucking story.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Anyway, at some point, at least by her mid-teens, it became clear that Mary Frances had real talent as a singer, and after graduating from high school, she went off to study music at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. Along the way, she made some life-long friends, lived through the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the early years of World War II, and began her studies on the road to becoming a coloratura soprano. A local newspaper did a feature on her, about a co-ed at the school who could hear her father on the radio every evening. But she ached for home, and well before graduating, returned to Evanston and spent a few more semesters at Northwestern. Again, however, she left without finishing her degree.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The only way for a young, amateur singer to hear herself in those days was to make an acetate record. If one's family was fairly well off, you might have a home disc-cutting machine, and if not, you used a local business which allowed people to make records that they could take home. I don't actually know if mom's family had their own machine or not, but either on her own machine or in a studio (definitely the latter when she was in New York), mom made dozens of acetates between 1941 and 1952, enough that, when she compiled all of them on a reel to reel tape decades later, they filled up two hours of recording time. Her first acetate was cut the month she turned 18, but it has extreme surface noise and is a hard listen. Here she is a few months later, in June of 1941, singing Mozart's "Voi Che Sapete" from <i>The Marriage of Figaro</i>: </p><p class="MsoNormal">Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODc5NzExNzBf/1%29%20Mary%20Frances%20Godwin%20-%20Voi%20Che%20Sapete%2C%20June%2C%201941.mp3">Mary Frances Godwin - Voi Che Sapete, June, 1941</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODc5NzExNzBfWjN4aVg" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p class="MsoNormal">For someone who had wanted to return home so badly a short time earlier, mom’s next move was nothing if not interesting: She moved to New York City to pursue stardom, hoping to get onto the Broadway stage. Her father by then was working for ABC news, and he got her a job in the ABC music library. And I don’t know if this was a paid job or a volunteer position, but she also sang current and recent popular songs at hospitals for wounded GIs. This also brought her into more frequent contact with her father, who had a home in New Jersey and who, as noted, worked in Washington, so he was quite a bit closer to New York City than he was to suburban Chicago. In her down time, she auditioned for role after role on Broadway, getting a bit part in a show called “The Would-Be Gentleman” starring Bobby Clark, a vaudevillian who was then nearing the end of his fame. Mom was one of a trio of girls who appeared in one scene, and also understudied the lead. While researching the R & B charts in Billboard a few years ago, I randomly stumbled across a review of the show in a January, 1946, issue, which includes her name. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhluV7iGp9h-KpCnvCgoJnfPz3haNt-hVkEktQipowQP4-jkZDsJfc1y5G2NAWryheswNCejPH30DBcgEuEaOOHjjtR84t9Fn8S2Tu-foyQoV4NQLC0fIqQeyeLkWkxn8Va2aaMEQM1BWMiGX1tvXFLnLsqyBRvsS55xHK_jluSxblwfOalhcbVwHb1LQ/s811/Would-Be%20Gentleman%20Review%20(2).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="811" data-original-width="319" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhluV7iGp9h-KpCnvCgoJnfPz3haNt-hVkEktQipowQP4-jkZDsJfc1y5G2NAWryheswNCejPH30DBcgEuEaOOHjjtR84t9Fn8S2Tu-foyQoV4NQLC0fIqQeyeLkWkxn8Va2aaMEQM1BWMiGX1tvXFLnLsqyBRvsS55xHK_jluSxblwfOalhcbVwHb1LQ/w158-h400/Would-Be%20Gentleman%20Review%20(2).jpg" width="158" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">She’s also on the <a href="https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/the-would-be-gentleman-1762#OpeningNightCast">Internet Broadway Database</a>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Here she is, singing in New York, on another acetate, this time singing the Kern & Hammerstein Broadway hit, "I've Told Every Little Star," a song which remained in her repertoire for the rest of her life. On that day, she was with her cousin, Bob Button, and they engage in a bit of banter before he accompanies her on piano: </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br />Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODc5NzExNzFf/2%29%20Mary%20Frances%20Godwin%20-%20I%27ve%20Told%20Every%20Little%20Star%2C%20January%2C%201946.mp3">Mary Frances Godwin - I've Told Every Little Star, January, 1946</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODc5NzExNzFfamxGYms" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">At some point, I think mom decided a career on Broadway wasn’t in the cards, or maybe she became homesick again. For whatever reason, she came back to Illinois by 1947, if not earlier. By this time, with all of her children out of the home, her mother had moved to an apartment at the southern tip of Evanston. Mom became the student of a voice teacher who she would later describe as a “Svengali” type, who started to sort of try to run her life, and whom she would describe as trying to mold her into a fairly weirdly-styled singer, suggesting and imposing on her all sorts of odd vocal styles, techniques, etc.</div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">She also learned that her church had hired a new organist, the fantastically named Porter Heaps, who was frequently heard on the radio station WGN, and who was the national spokesman for the Hammond Organ company. He had seen to it that a Hammond Organ had been installed at the church, and wanted to have one professional singer as a paid soloist in each of the four vocal ranges, Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass, so as to beef up the sound of the choir and to attract others from the parish who would like to sing with such a choir. Mom applied for the soprano soloist role and was hired, a position she would keep for over 55 years.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Around the same time, mom started chatting with a young man who was living with his father and stepmother in the adjacent building; their kitchen windows faced each other, and they would talk about what each of them was having for breakfast. This was Frank Purse, who had returned from being a Captain in the army – a fighter pilot over Europe – and who was completing an engineering degree at Northwestern. I know my mother had dated other men, but with one exception (she was once in love with a man who could not marry her), I know nothing about these others. But Frank Purse I obviously know about, and at some point along the line in 1948 or early 1949, they started dating.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Mom’s voice teacher was vehemently against her dating anyone, and particularly someone who she was so obviously becoming serious with. But in late fall, 1949, mom discovered she was pregnant, and that settled the matter. Mary Frances and Frank married two days after Christmas, 1949, in her mother’s apartment. They moved in together in one of their parents’ apartments (I don’t think I’ve ever known which one), and soon after, the relationship with that vocal instructor was over. So were mom’s dreams of a full-time classical music singing career. As she said to me a few times, at that time, a successful female opera singer either had a career or a family, not both at the same time. I don’t know if that was actually true in 1949 or not, but she believed it. And as she also said, in the back of her mind, she always knew she wanted babies more than she wanted a career. My sister was born in July of 1950.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Here is probably my mother's final acetate, made on my sister's first birthday in 1951. It's "Little Butterfly," a song based on an instrumental piece by Chopin, with lyrics written many years later by Sandoval: </p><p class="MsoNormal">Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODc5NzExNzJf/3%29%20Mary%20Fran%20Purse%20-%20Little%20Butterfly%2C%207-14-51.mp3">Mary Fran Purse - Little Butterfly, July, 1951</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODc5NzExNzJfVEU0OXA" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p class="MsoNormal">Mom’s next few years are a jumble to me, given that I wasn’t there. What I know of the early and mid ‘50’s is mostly “mom” stories about my older sister and brother (he was born in 1954). They are lovely stories, and were told with great affection and nostalgia, but not really what I’m writing about here. But mom’s life was taken up with two young children, during those years, although she continued to sing professionally, in church and in the community, throughout those years and afterwards. It was during this period that she developed a relationship with her all-time favorite vocal instructor, Ruth Singletary.</p><p class="MsoNormal">In 1952, the small family had moved from…whichever parental apartment they’d been living in to a brand new co-op in the quickly expanding village of Skokie, which is just west of Evanston, a building that might have been called a “four-flat” except that they weren’t exactly apartments. Each of the four families owned their fourth of the building, and together, they co-managed the property. Sort of a tiny condo arrangement. There they lived for nine years. </p><p class="MsoNormal">Here is a recording made in June of 1954, with the aforementioned Ruth Singletary on piano. By this time, my father had obtained the family's first reel-to-reel machine, which I've written about at length before. On this day, mom was days away from giving birth to my brother, and this recording was made in that co-op. This is one of my three or four favorite recorded performance by my mother, a deeply emotional piece called "Depuis le jour" from a French opera by Charpentier, an opera which, I am advised by a friend who is a voice teacher and masterful singer himself, is "all about sex." Listening to this aria, I can believe it. During this performance, you will hear some noises in the background - the upstairs neighbors (the two families did not particularly get along) were not happy with mom recording about 15 minutes of soprano arias, and began loudly pushing their living room furniture around, hoping she would stop: </p><p class="MsoNormal">Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODc5NzExNzNf/4%29%20Mary%20Fran%20Purse%20-%20Depuis%20le%20Jour%20-%20June%2C%201954.mp3">Mary Fran Purse - Depuis le jour, June, 1954</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODc5NzExNzNfOGh4MEI" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p class="MsoNormal">Here is a publicity photo from that period: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5V4jt45QglZXffDu6Rop5iNSH0I_tEKnRzZd_WYEfAXuVZ9FRdVcY-DPqhQh6rgZIRKrSN_3OIhKtr6lYxFnxPYJEsIP-zhNNwRpeJ_f46xQklwGD6v12DvUnYjRx2lA5eOIWJdL91oukDQBA4ce2LjPRfMN-pbScXrmXwRVUYDulJ52UY4dAy_wxeg/s1990/8.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1990" data-original-width="1491" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5V4jt45QglZXffDu6Rop5iNSH0I_tEKnRzZd_WYEfAXuVZ9FRdVcY-DPqhQh6rgZIRKrSN_3OIhKtr6lYxFnxPYJEsIP-zhNNwRpeJ_f46xQklwGD6v12DvUnYjRx2lA5eOIWJdL91oukDQBA4ce2LjPRfMN-pbScXrmXwRVUYDulJ52UY4dAy_wxeg/w300-h400/8.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">And here is the family, probably in or near 1958: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAk-7Uv3l7m_mReLLzOsnyapD6QZ6VcXvsjwxY6cqis1WGIijq_7IZbH2GwkrZck2phKyKKgTz-aOnRfeqkqtg4KkbxYSaPnganfmnkh-dsI3vwYd2IBMzwKWVrSjHQHcmROKWclvONcg2VDj7qDP8dDgtiJ-tjOlAp89oTug2tm-NoPx0wh51SjkDdA/s1737/10.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1183" data-original-width="1737" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAk-7Uv3l7m_mReLLzOsnyapD6QZ6VcXvsjwxY6cqis1WGIijq_7IZbH2GwkrZck2phKyKKgTz-aOnRfeqkqtg4KkbxYSaPnganfmnkh-dsI3vwYd2IBMzwKWVrSjHQHcmROKWclvONcg2VDj7qDP8dDgtiJ-tjOlAp89oTug2tm-NoPx0wh51SjkDdA/w400-h272/10.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">Here is a cute family tape from not long after that picture was taken. In it, my brother and sister sing "Let the Rest of the World Go By," along with mom, who seems to start and stop singing a few times during the performance. I supposed it's nothing special, but it is sweet, and shows the love of singing she was already passing along to her children. Please note that the harmony parts are being sung by my brother, who was at most four years old at the time of this recording. </p><p class="MsoNormal">Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODc5NzExNzRf/5%29%20Mommy%2C%20Marcia%20and%20Billy%20-%20Let%20the%20Rest%20of%20the%20World%20Go%20By.mp3">Mommy, Marcia and Billy - Let the Rest of the World Go By</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODc5NzExNzRfZ2Y0SzA" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p class="MsoNormal">And during those nine years, mom’s career flourished about as much as that of a part-time singer and full-time parent could in those days. Keep in mind that classical music was still one of the dominant genres of music sales in those days, and that the young adults in that era had been through school systems that gave many of them a fairly strong grounding in at least the 18<sup>th</sup>- and 19<sup>th</sup>- century versions of classical music. And one of the biggest cultural events in Chicago at that time, was The Chicagoland Music Festival. This festival features stars from many fields within and without the music industry, and had been headlined, over the years, by everyone from Fats Waller to Liberace. Part of the festival was a contest featuring multiple classical performers in each vocal range.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">I believe that my mother entered this competition more than once. The finals were held, if you can believe it in this day and age, at Soldier Field. In 1958, mom received the medal as the second best soprano in the entire contest. This was a great honor, of course, and what’s more, each year, the top three singers in each vocal range got to be part of a recital at a large downtown auditorium! Well, no. In 1958, the rule was changed: starting that year, only the top singer in each category got to sing. This ate at my mother for the rest of her life, and she told versions of this story to everyone and anyone who would listen, literally up to her final days. The story always ended with “but I’m over it.” Not hardly.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">She did get a nice write up, however, in a local paper, one which used that same publicity photo I shared above: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpbt1jC-zmiu1HZqI22F_A03zwkjyv9XNMPrMxdsS1hkOzkdM9n816lwC-gSL486FN4nQ31RO-0-JQMEKxF2kkAjHM6ycdXKCgZWMOxXpFNnc5X3CDDJuqbrekEojtvs9K4lmlVflT0Wml6Ez9xasPMf-50q8qy3u7VwIWUztjfOisE5WK7R-Z_kP0qw/s3447/9.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3447" data-original-width="1265" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpbt1jC-zmiu1HZqI22F_A03zwkjyv9XNMPrMxdsS1hkOzkdM9n816lwC-gSL486FN4nQ31RO-0-JQMEKxF2kkAjHM6ycdXKCgZWMOxXpFNnc5X3CDDJuqbrekEojtvs9K4lmlVflT0Wml6Ez9xasPMf-50q8qy3u7VwIWUztjfOisE5WK7R-Z_kP0qw/w234-h640/9.jpg" width="234" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal">At some point during the mid 1950s, mom began journaling (although I doubt she would have called it that), mostly writing down notable events in the life of her family, and in particular, cute and fun stories about her children. And around the same time, she began writing a daily diary, perhaps because her own mother had been doing the same thing for years. Mom wrote in her diary, every day (with only a few exceptions, such as in the days after her mother’s death), until she was no longer capable of doing so, creating some fifty years of entries. I’ve occasionally thought a blog featuring nothing but mom’s entries from “this day in…” might be an interesting site, but I’m probably wrong, and don’t see myself having the time for it, anyway.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Mom was also actively involved in music clubs, three of them to my knowledge, one based in Evanston, one covering the entire North Shore area of Chicago, and one known as “The Little Music Club.” These were entirely (or nearly so) made up of women who, like my mother, were trained classical musicians but were, for the most part, housewives with children at home, that being a typical role of a married, middle- or upper-middle class woman of the day. Meetings of each club took place in a different member’s home each month, with performances by three or four of the members at each meeting. I’m not sure when she joined these clubs, but her involvement in them continued into the 21<sup>st</sup> century.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Here is a recording mom made in 1960, of Mozart's "Alleluia." with her great friend Mary Catherine Collins (an uncommonly sweet, older member of her clubs, who I grew very fond of, when I was a child) on piano: </p><p class="MsoNormal">Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODc5NzExNzVf/6%29%20Mary%20Fran%20Purse%20-%20Alleluia%2C%201960.mp3">Mary Fran Purse - Alleluia, 1960</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODc5NzExNzVfQ0NlZGw" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p class="MsoNormal">My mother and father had long wanted and expected to have three children, and two days after my brother’s sixth birthday (and three weeks before my sister’s tenth), in June of 1960, this writer entered the world. Room was made in my brother and sister’s room for a crib, and for over a year, the five of us lived in that four-room co-op “apartment”. Not long after I was born (five months, in fact), my maternal grandmother, “Matey,” died.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">I mention her death because there was money earned by Matey’s father, my namesake, Edward Easton, founder of Columbia Records. And this money, which had been held for years in accounts to be passed along to his grandchildren, went to those grandchildren on Matey’s death. And so Columbia Records’ money allowed my family to have enough for a down payment on a house. At first, my parents were going to buy a lot and have a house built based on a model designed by my father, but for some reason, that plan fell through. After considering two sites in nearby suburbs, one in Glenview and one near Northbrook, they settled on a modernistic ranch house in Northfield (another, far tinier nearby suburb), a house which was remarkably similar to my dad’s model house. We moved there when I was 14 months old. My parents would spend the rest of their lives there.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Certainly, nearly all children are attached to their mothers; I was apparently more attached than most. My uncle Harry – my mom’s oldest brother – in speaking and writing to my mom, called me “your little shadow.” And I was surely an aggravation to her on a regular basis: I know that, many, many mornings, maybe even most mornings, when I woke up before her (which was usually), I would go to her room and wake her up so she would go out into our kitchen and living room with me. Even now, I can just picture myself tapping her on the shoulder until she woke up. I may have done this until I was as old as seven or eight, but perhaps I stopped earlier – I'm not sure. I can remember that often, I tried to will myself not to do it, but in the end, going to get her anyway. I cannot imaging how irritating that got. </p><p class="MsoNormal"> As had happened with my siblings, mom immediately and nearly constantly passed down to me her love of music; how could it be otherwise? The home was filled with classical music, folk music, humorous music and (mom made sure) lots and lots and lots of kids’ records. I still have that collection, which clearly indicates that purchases of children’s music were made, and kept being made, from the time my sister was an infant. There are Little Golden Records from the early 1950s, 45s on children’s labels from throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, and children’s albums galore, from Ray Heatherton (The Merry Mailman) to Pete Seeger’s Children’s Concert to records based on Hanna-Barbera cartoons, and nearly everything possible in between. The Limeliters’ “Through Children’s Eyes”, which was bought for me, remains one of my three favorite albums ever released. When the “Ballads for the Age of Science” LP series was released, around the time I was born, mom snapped up all six of them. My brother and I had a little record player with a needle which was probably made of granite, given the way it tore up records, and we played our favorites to death. If a favorite got broken, mom would, if possible, find a replacement copy of the same record.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">In addition, live music filled our house. Mom rehearsed all the time, with visiting accompanists, accompanying herself or a cappella. Her music clubs met periodically at our home. At other times, she might simply break into song when something reminded her of a particular lyric. Just as likely would be for mom to sing a short song of improvised lyrics to an existing tune, based on something she heard, saw or said. Any given day, it was far more likely than not that singing would be heard in our home. And like mom, I have always been one to improvise songs about what I’m doing, what someone said or about something I saw, as I believe my siblings do, as well.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">I don’t know how this came about, but in 1963, mom got a chance to do a recital after all, five years after losing that chance in the music festival. I was too young to attend, but was quite aware, after the fact, that this had been a big deal; a full concert of material, in a downtown auditorium. Sadly, her beloved voice instructor and accompanist, Ruth, suffering from cancer, was too ill to play for her that day.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Here's a song which was very likely part of that recital, Sempre Libera, from Verdi's <i>La Traviata</i>. It's heard here in a rehearsal from 1963, with Ruth on piano.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODc5NzExNzZf/7%29%20Mary%20Fran%20Purse%20-%20Sempre%20Libera%2C%201963.mp3">Mary Fran Purse - Sempre Libera, 1963</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODc5NzExNzZfSThaVFU" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p class="MsoNormal">Here's a family tape I treasure just about as much as anything I own. This is my mother and me, reading a book that I loved, called <i>I Can’t, Said the Ant</i>, when I was a little more than 3 ½ years old. The book is told entirely in rhyme, with each line rhyming with something which might be found in a kitchen – with a picture of the object in the text, rather than the word. As you’ll hear, it was my job, in this recording, to name every rhymed kitchen object. Now, my mom had lots of cutesy names for things, which had wide and varied sources. A kitchen timer was a “timer pink,” <i>pink</i> being her approximation of the noise it made when time was up. And so, at the moment when the book showed a clock, and wanted the reader to say “clock,” I very excitedly said “timer pink,” which no doubt was already a long-standing joke for us, within this book, by the time this recording was made. At the end, mom sings a favorite song with me, and then my sister comes in with a very excited, fun-filled announcement. I was in the midst of making a joke, answering my sister with a rhyme of the sort found in the book, when mom turned the tape recorder off.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODc5NzExNzdf/8%29%20Bobby%20and%20Mary%20Fran%20Purse%20-%20I%20Can%27t%20Said%20the%20Ant%20and%20Little%20Sir%20Echo%2C%202-25-64.mp3">Bobby and Mary Fran Purse - I Can't Said the Ant and Little Sir Echo, 2-25-64</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODc5NzExNzdfVjFqNVk" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p class="MsoNormal">(Earlier that same month, my mom made perhaps my favorite entry in her daily diary. At the bottom of a typically lengthy entry for February 9th, 1964, she ended it with "Beatles on Ed Sullivan. Stupid."</p><p class="MsoNormal">As I moved into kindergarten then grade school, mom was my protector and advocate. I was a shy, awkward child, who also was showing the as-yet undiagnosed symptoms of ADHD. Mom advocated for me with a gym teacher who didn’t think I was trying hard enough – I was simply not physically adept – and worked with my first-grade teacher to identify ways that I could both get out my excess energy, and also ways to encourage me to try my best to sit still in exchange for getting to do something special – specifically, in one grade, I was allowed to review the weather page (something that fascinated me at that time) for the rest of the class, and answer questions from them about the weather in different cities that day. She ached with me when I was treated as someone to be bullied or teased, and remembered, all her life, a few adults who stepped in to help when they saw me being mistreated, including one neighbor who sort of celebrated me for being “different” when I was about seven. She also took the lead in getting me evaluated and onto medication, over the objections of my pediatrician, who was against the use of Ritalin.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Oh, and she read to me. Every night while I was in bed. Well, except Thursdays – that was for choir practice. I think <i>Winnie-the-Pooh</i> was my favorite, but the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books were a close second. In fact, I loved those so much I’m having trouble remembering what else she read to me. She continued to read to me until I was at least 11 years old.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Here is another of those recordings that I just love. Mom's college (and lifelong) friend Dotty Millar came to visit us from her home in Austria in early 1965, and we recorded her in performance of several classical and folk songs. At one point, mom and Dotty sang a folk song they'd been singing together since college, with Dotty on piano. At the end you can hear me suggest that we "see how that one sounds."</p><p class="MsoNormal">Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODc5NzExNzhf/9%29%20Mary%20Fran%20Purse%20and%20Dotty%20Millar%20-%20Down%20in%20the%20Lowlands%2C%201965.mp3">Mary Fran Purse and Dotty Millar - Down in the Lowlands, 1965</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODc5NzExNzhfbXdrRGw" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p class="MsoNormal">And here's a little taste of what it was like for mom to rehearse with a young child in the room. In the first part of the segment, she tells me to listen closely to the words, as it tells a story. We fade back in as she finishes singing the song, and I make a comment which is not exactly what a singer wants to hear, with regard to having sung a song in English: </p><p class="MsoNormal">Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODc5NzExNzlf/10%29%20Bobby%20and%20Mary%20Fran%20Purse%20-%20Bobby%27s%20Response%20to%20Mom%27s%20Rehearsal%2C%201966.mp3">Bobby and Mary Fran Purse - Bobby's response to Mom's Rehearsal, 1966</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODc5NzExNzlfNWo4ckU" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p class="MsoNormal">I feel like I’m going on too much here, so I will just say that during the late 1960s and early 1970s, mom juggled the raising of three kids who were at very different stages of development and had extremely different needs, but continued to pursue her career, I think maybe at something of a slower pace. She did all this, at times, without the day-to-day support of my father, who had moved up quickly in his career, and at that point, was frequently traveling the world on business trips. Her diary entries, and particular her journals, make clear the amount of stress she sometimes felt during those years. I know that’s what many women do, and particularly what they did in those days. I certainly don’t mean to make her a hero in any way, as she had a level of family income and community supports that many poorer folks would have loved to have. But I think this role should be recognized and celebrated, with regard to <i>anyone</i> who has done it, and I appreciate that she pretty much sacrificed what could have been a much more substantial career in order to have and raise children.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">And speaking of raising children, he's an odd, but endearing little segment I found on a cassette tape some years ago. It's from when I was ten, and apparently I was meant to listen to this tape one morning. My brother is making noise in the background. Why she did this for one particular morning, I do not know. </p><p class="MsoNormal">Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODc5NzExODBf/11%29%20Mom%27s%20Morning%20Instructions%20for%20Bobby%2C%20Late%201970.mp3">Mom's Morning Instructions for Bobby, Late 1970</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODc5NzExODBfWGZ0amE" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p class="MsoNormal">I do feel like I’m not really giving a sense of what my mother was like. She was gregarious and loved both entertaining and being entertained (IF the entertainment was actually entertaining, that is). She loved to talk and tell stories. She was also genuinely interested in other people’s lives, and could find herself fairly fascinated by their stories, particularly those which reflected different life experiences and points of view from her own. I often heard second-hand about things she’d been told by friends and acquaintances. She was also not shy about tooting her own horn; she knew she was a marvelous singer and made no bones about it. And as her children (in adulthood) achieved various successes – some of them (not mine!) of the sort that won raves and/or drew significant positive attention – she wasn’t shy about telling people about those things, either.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Oh, and she was probably ADHD, but grew up in a time when such a term was unknown. Like me (I am ADHD through and through) she could watch a TV show, do a puzzle book and carry on a conversation at the same time. She also was known to walk in and start a conversation without a clue as to whether those in the room had already been talking (something I’ve had to teach myself not to do). She loved her family and close friends dearly and had many, many friends throughout the area. She and my dad were, for several years, the ones who hosted the neighborhood New Year’s Eve party. She imbued our home with love and support, displayed a cheerful outlook most of the time and was self-assured in most everything she did.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">She had virtually no “off” switch, and at least occasionally said things that probably would have been better left as things she thought to herself. I suspect that, most of the time, she was not even aware that she’d just said something that was experienced as irritating or which someone felt put off by, in those situations, as she most likely then flitting on to whatever came next in the conversation, in her plan, or in her day.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">She also had an almost inexhaustible library of things she’d say which were references to lines from movies and TV, things that had once had specific meaning to her at some point in her life (for example, if the phrase “five minutes” was heard or uttered, she would chant “Five Minutes” two or three times, in the tone and voice of the man who had gone through the dressing rooms on Broadway, while she was in that show, telling everyone it was five minutes until curtain), and words and phrases that meant something only to her (such as the aforementioned “Timer Pink” for a kitchen timer, as well as the fact that she called any cat a “kitty pons” for reasons I never understood). Anyway, I would guess that more days than not found her making obscure references, for her own amusement, inside jokes for her, and perhaps the rest of the family (even if none of them were present), a dozen or more times a day. Mom was good at entertaining herself.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">She was a huge fan of the more intellectual and/or thoughtful/satiric end of comedy, and I was therefore exposed, from my earliest days, to Nichols and May, Shelley Berman, Stan Freberg, Bob and Ray, Beyond the Fringe, Tom Lehrer, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Anna Russell, Victor Borge and the like, and she was also a huge fan of playing with the English language, meaning that I was exposed to all manner of puns, jokes using all sorts of double meanings, and the greatest comic strip of all time, “Pogo.” And all of this – except Nichols and May – I internalized whole cloth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">On the other hand, she held certain negative feelings close. I don’t use the word taciturn, because that word suggests someone who is reserved in all dealings. But the word surely applies, in a limited sense, to her expression of negative emotions. I can only remember a handful of times in my entire life when I knew she was furious, and few more when I knew she was irritated. It just wasn’t in her makeup to explore difficult feelings, with anyone, as far as I know. The times I realized that my mom was angry – particularly those times I knew she was angry at me… well, I can count them on one hand, and I could describe each of them in detail. They were just that rare.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">It wasn’t until I was an adult that I found out that there were times that my parents simply stopped speaking to each other, because one or both of them were angry – I don’t think they argued. They just stopped speaking. If mom was irritated, and if she indicated it at all, she would be much more likely to make a joke of it than be direct. One time, when I was perhaps 16, my sister-in-law, while visiting, was making some very critical comments about some specific aspect of my mom’s parenting (of me). Mom listened for a while, and then, with a laugh in her voice said, “Well... fuck you,” which was so deliberately out of character that everyone in the room cracked up, as I’m sure they knew she would.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">I don’t know if what I’m describing was a product of her upbringing (she was nothing if not a reflection of her English ancestors, through and through, “stiff upper lip” and all that), or if learning to show oneself as upbeat and unfazed most of the time was something that was taught, as part of her training as a performer, training that began while she was in her mid-teens. I supposed it’s also possible that she was preternaturally hardwired to not get angry very much or very often. I actually think that description is true of me – I don’t think I become angry nearly as often as many people do – so it’s at least possible. Or perhaps it was something else entirely. I do know this: given how close-to-the-vest she was about anything but happy emotions, it’s a wonder I turned out to be a sort of heart-on-my-sleeve type, particularly in my songwriting.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Since I mentioned all of that “being a performer” training, I will also share that mom was particularly “on” when there was a camera around. Much more often than not, what might have been a candid photo turned into a turn of her head and a professional sort of smile and expression. I don’t think she could help it.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">But I still think I’m missing something in trying to describe her. She was FUN. God, she was fun. She was an entertaining bundle of energy. There was often a sense about her of “what can I do next?” or “what can WE do next?” She wanted to laugh and wanted to make other people laugh. She was a natural center of attention when in a group or at a party. She was a force of nature. I don’t think this was something she cultivated or in any way consciously planned – it was just her natural way. A friend of hers gave mom a little embroidered thing attached to a refrigerator magnet which said “Joy,”, and told her it was because mom brought so much joy to her life. My friend Stu recently wrote to me: “she was game for anything and had a wonderful way of making me feel welcome any time I was at your house. Singing with her was a joy.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">(On the other hand, in the mid-1980s, after my then-future father-in-law spent time with my parents for the first time, he described her as “a powerful woman” – he did not necessarily mean it as a compliment. So there's that.)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Oh, and here’s another (hopefully funny) aside. Mom was known to everyone not as “Mary” but as “Mary Fran.” And mom made a LOT of recordings, as I’ve mentioned, first on acetates, and then a ton on reel-to-reel and even more on cassettes. And when she wanted to indicate that her singing was on a piece of recorded media (or if she otherwise was making notes about something she’d done, performance or otherwise, she wrote “MF…,” followed by whatever else she wanted to describe. Everyone in the family knew what “MF” meant, and I’m not sure she was ever aware that at some point, in the culture, “MF” became commonly used to abbreviate something considerably different. So used to seeing this, was I, that it never even occurred to me that her initials, and that obscenity, were expressed with the same two letters, until after she was gone – they were <i>that</i> separate in my mind that I simply never made the connection.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">(Years later, when telemarketers became a constant irritation for nearly all of us, mom loved to get calls asking if “Mary” was there. Before hanging up, she would say to them that there was no one there named “Mary”, because, as far as she was concerned, there wasn’t. “Mary Fran” was there.)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">By the time I was the only child in the home – the fall of 1972 – mom’s singing career had perked up again. She joined with two of her closest musical friends, who were a pianist/flutist and an alto, in a trio they called “The Opera-Tunists.” Each year, this trio devised a presentation based on the operas which Chicago’s Lyric Opera would be putting on, starting the following fall. The presentations were usually about 60-90 minutes, and focused on perhaps 3-4 of the operas which were then coming up. They would give background on the plot of each opera (when he was available, the husband of the pianist would provide story boards and narration about the interconnectedness of the characters), and sing some of the most well-known numbers from each of the operas – the intent being to give those who might be attending a performance (but who were not well versed in the minutiae of opera) a head start before they went to the Lyric.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Each year, of course, the presentation was updated, and each year, the three of them would go to many, many women’s organizations, library presentations, music clubs and the like. I have absolutely no idea if this was sanctioned (or perhaps even funded) by Lyric Opera – probably not, but it was a rewarding experience for mom. The Opera-Tunists continued to provide this preview of Lyric Opera well into the mid 1980s, even several years after the death of the original pianist (who had been the founder of the group and writer of the scripts).<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Here is mom with the founder of the Opera-Tunists, Dorothy Cragg, in typical costume for their presentations: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcb_uK8ls6e1peihLAMYzgIEhx_fOOkTxWjzjLvLmgbmc2mZ2uMN3BIVbIoqtmwKQ5Gad4ICZQPbmizt84f-lUFc_FpL5hPMRKBBk8BV4WF9ly3833iyURcT8eNHLoyz5wMRxCQ1l4qSXhEhg1GgYkm59FWF7I7hBpgM_W5Gq89hnaaBR9sVVknZ0fnQ/s2036/11.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2036" data-original-width="1491" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcb_uK8ls6e1peihLAMYzgIEhx_fOOkTxWjzjLvLmgbmc2mZ2uMN3BIVbIoqtmwKQ5Gad4ICZQPbmizt84f-lUFc_FpL5hPMRKBBk8BV4WF9ly3833iyURcT8eNHLoyz5wMRxCQ1l4qSXhEhg1GgYkm59FWF7I7hBpgM_W5Gq89hnaaBR9sVVknZ0fnQ/w293-h400/11.jpg" width="293" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">Those pre-teen years were very hard on me. I was about two steps up from the lowest rung on the pecking order in 7<sup>th</sup> and 8<sup>th</sup> grade, and was teased and bullied mercilessly. It took a lot for me to reveal to my mother what was happening, and how intensely sad I was – I supposed I was just about as buttoned up as she was. But I still remember the day, and the conversation in which I told her exactly what was happening. I’m not sure what she did about it, but she did <i>something</i>, as after this conversation, it somehow led to a meeting with me, the 7<sup>th</sup> grade teachers, mom and school administrators, etc.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The spring before I turned 13, mom and I spent my spring break in Memphis, to visit her oldest brother, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Easton_Godwin">Harry Godwin</a>, who I should absolutely write about some day. He was a force of nature, even more than my mother, and was old enough (67 that year) to consider himself – and call himself – my surrogate grandfather, a role he treasured for the rest of his life. We had a grand time, and mom and I (and Harry and I) bonded even more deeply. The trip included a drive to and from Nashville to spend a day at the then-popular Opryland Theme Park. The whole trip was a wonderful balm for a kid who was living through a rather hellish 7<sup>th</sup> grade year.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">As I’ve probably made overly clear, 7<sup>th</sup> and 8<sup>th</sup> grade were an awful experience for me. On the other hand, my teen years were, for the most part, more enjoyable than teen years seem to be for most people. I LOVED high school, and I was never, ever, the surly teen or the rebel or really, any of the categories that everyone associates with those years. Hell, I spent my free time at ages 14 and 15 listening to and cataloguing all of my family’s 130 or so home-recorded reel-to-reel tapes; mom was nearby, much of the time, to tell me the names of the many, many classical pieces she was heard singing on those tapes. My parents and I traveled by car to Yellowstone the year I was 14, and I could not have been happier. I don’t mean to say that there weren’t down times – <i>OH,</i> there were, achingly painful weeks and months, almost entirely related to rejection by one girl after another that I liked or loved – or that I didn’t get away with things that my parents didn’t know about – <i>I certainly did</i>. But I had very few conflicts with them, all of which were with my father, not my mother. Mom and I understood each other, I think, and we were close. I’m not sure I ever yelled at her.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">By the time I was a teen, and a budding musician myself, my mom’s ongoing presentation of classical music – on records, on radio and from her voice – which was mostly operatic and lieder, rather than orchestral/instrumental, had made me something of an opera fan (although I would never say it was, at any point, anywhere near my favorite genre). I was particularly fond of getting the score from a work out of the library, along with a boxed album set of the same work, and listening while reading the score. Somewhere along the line – early teens at the latest – I discovered Richard Wagner via this method, and I was hooked. This was not someone that mom had exposed me to – she was not particularly a fan – but his work connected with me like no other classical composer except perhaps Mozart. From that point forward, perhaps dutifully, mom took me as her “plus one”, to her season tickets to any Wagner work that Lyric Opera produced. This continued well into my adulthood – we attended three of the four “Ring” operas in the mid-1990s. I took a pass on the five hour “Gotterdammerung,” which I’m sure was a great relief to her.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Right around the same time that I discovered Wagner, mom discovered something much newer, and much more important to both of us, which bonded us further over a common love, and which made certain that my sense of humor was forever altered. It must have been 1974. Mom was listening to the legendary Chicago radio folk/comedy/etc show, “The Midnight Special,” when she heard something quite peculiar. She tried to explain it to me the next day on the way to church. There was an announcement of a presentation of “The Death of Mary, Queen of Scots,” followed by tremendous noise and lots of sounds of violence, with a pause for “I think she’s dead.” “No I’m not,” and more noise followed. When the “dramatization” ended, two ladies talked about penguins and then their radio blew up.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Luckily, “The Midnight Special” was rerun on Wednesdays, so mom taped it and found out it was a comedy group from England, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and that they had a TV show that had just started on the local public television station. We tuned in together the next Sunday night, and were absolutely captivated. We told my sister about them, and she became obsessed, learning all about the troupe and bringing us up to date on everything about them, including the records and books which were available. None of the three of us could possibly have loved the show more. I would still say it’s my favorite TV show ever, and I’m sure it was one of mom’s, too. As I said, we bonded tightly over our adoration of Monty Python, and references to it would pepper our conversations for the rest of mom’s life.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">(Gotta add: my dad didn’t get the show…at all. And once, while on one of his business trips, he saw the show was on one night on his hotel TV, and decided to try an entire episode. It turned out to be “Mr. Neutron,” surely the weakest Python episode ever, and he felt confirmed in his dislike after watching it.)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">As she had been for my siblings, mom was a great promoter and supporter of my musical endeavors, hounding me to practice piano and trombone, going to all of my band concerts and piano recitals, offering up great encouragement when I started to master one piece or another. I never came close to reaching the competence or excellence in ability of either of my siblings, but I did alright, and she was always there to say so. I think she also enjoyed my emerging…well, what my friend Andy would once refer to as my “impromptu” style of piano, an ability to improvise chords, settings and general backing for myself and others, while they (or I) were improvising songs or playing with words in some way. She also loved my (admittedly moderate at best) abilities at ragtime and stride-style playing – something I also loved and probably pursued because she exposed me to so much of it. She didn’t particularly like my tendency to sort of pound at the piano when I was accompanying her, but we did work up a small repertoire of her material that I could play – things that weren’t too complicated for my limited talents.</p><p class="MsoNormal">I've shared this next piece before, but it seems a natural to share it here, too. When I was 14, I fully expected that I would be a professional musician someday, so immediately upon getting to high school, I took music theory, and found myself in a class of most juniors and seniors. The final project was to create a fake product and write and record a commercial for the product, complete with two different musical settings within the ad. My product was "Fizzola Cola," and my mom and I sang the commercial, while I played piano: </p><p class="MsoNormal">Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODc5NzExODFf/12%29%20Bob%20and%20Mary%20Fran%20Purse%20-%20Fizzola%20Cola%20Commercial.mp3">Bob and Mary Fran Purse - Fizzola Cola Commercial</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODc5NzExODFfZlJCNGw" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p class="MsoNormal">And from a few month later, here we are again. This time I'm fumbling through the accompaniment while mom sings another one of the art-type songs from her repertoire, a song called "A Curious Thing": </p><p class="MsoNormal">Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODc5NzExODJf/13%29%20Mary%20Fran%20Purse%20with%20Bob%20-%20A%20Curious%20Thing%2C%207-15-75.mp3">Mary Fran Purse with Bob - A Curious Thing, 7-15-75</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODc5NzExODJfU1hhcm4" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p class="MsoNormal">Nearly a year later, mom's two best pals from college, the aforementioned Dotty Millar and Audrey, whose last name I do not recall, were both visiting at the same time. My dad had taught me how to play his baritone ukulele, and I had become sufficiently proficient at it for what I wanted to do. And during their visit, the four of us were together in the kitchen, and I was playing the ukulele. All four of us sort of fell into a rendition of the Stephen Foster song "Old Folks at Home," and mom quickly turned on the tape recorder to capture the moment for posterity. She labeled the tape "Swanee in the Kitchen," and it also features short renditions of "Ain't She Sweet" and "Oh, Susanna." Be sure to listen for my dad's comments from 2:55 to 3:10</p><p class="MsoNormal">Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODc5NzExODNf/14%29%20Swanee%20in%20the%20Kitchen%20-%206-3-76.mp3">"Swanee in the Kitchen" - 6-3-76</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODc5NzExODNfVVRHbHc" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p class="MsoNormal">At this time, The Opera-Tunists (see above) were still going strong. Here is a segment from one of the show they put together that fall. I selected this one because it features a song I have long adored, Offenbach's "Barcarolle", from <i>The Tales of Hoffmann</i>:</p><p class="MsoNormal">Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODc5NzExODRf/15%29%20The%20Operatunists%20-%20Barcarolle%20-%20October%2C%201976.mp3">The Opera-Tunists - Barcarolle - October, 1976</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODc5NzExODRfQUFyNXo" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p class="MsoNormal">I graduated from high school in 1978, and did not go to college right away, and when I did, it was at a small, local school. As a result, I did not move out of my parents’ home until I got married, shortly before my 28<sup>th</sup> birthday. Essentially, between the time my sister moved out for the last time, when I was about 13, and when I moved out, there were 15 years when the family at home was me and my parents, and I was a young adult for ten of those years. When, during my later teens, I started to meet the people who would remain my closest friends for the rest of my life, they were all welcomed to our home when they visited; she made a real effort to get to know those who became frequent visitors. Even when I formed an improvisational comedic/musical duo, with one of my two closest friends, Paul, and we honed our act by recording tape after tape of our improvisations – in my bedroom (just off the kitchen) with piano and with PLENTY of (usually off-kilter) racket - sometimes also joined by my other closest friend, Stu, as well – even then, she enjoyed both of those friends mightily, and had nothing but patience for our antics.</p><p class="MsoNormal">In 1980, mom gave a recital at the prestigious estate known as Cantigny, in the western suburbs of Chicago. From that concert, here is a rendition of a song mom dearly. It's a setting of a children's poem titled "Pavane For the Nursery". There have been been other musical settings for this poem, but the one mom treasured was by a local (North Shore) composer, who was a friend of hers, named Phillip Warner. This is another song which was in mom's repertoire from the moment she heard it until she stopped singing. </p><p class="MsoNormal">Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODc5NzExODVf/16%29%20Mary%20Fran%20Purse%20-%20Pavane%20For%20the%20Nursery%20-%20Cantigny%2C%2011-9-80.mp3">Mary Fran Purse - Pavane For the Nursery - Cantigny, 11-9-80</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODc5NzExODVfOER4WDM" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">In the early 1980s, I became enamored of the local (and now legendary) Chicago radio comedy duo, Steve Dahl and Garry Meier. I don’t know if I encouraged mom to listen, or if she simply listened to what I was hearing, and became a fan, as well, but either way, by 1983 or 1984, we were both dedicated fans. We would often share things we’d heard on the show with each other, since we each probably heard different episodes at different times. And we went to at least two of Steve and Garry’s local live shows together. (My dad, again, had no patience for this, and on multiple occasions took mom to task for what she was listening to, when he happened to hear one of the guys say something rude or over-the-top irreverent.)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">In my early 20’s, as I’ve written about elsewhere, I fell headlong into American folk music, and particularly a love of the artists and music of the folk revival of the 1950’s and 1960’s. Very soon I had literally traded my electric guitar for an acoustic 12-string and acquired a banjo as well. This sat very well with mom, who had raised me on many of these artists, and on the aforementioned Midnight Special.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">During that time, as I moved further into adulthood, mom and I became great pals in a lot of ways. We had a lifetime of in-jokes (as I’m sure nearly all families do), which we made reference to all the time, and we had the same little musical habits, which I’ve mentioned already. We went to operas together now and then. We even worked together, musically: mom’s biggest musical job at that time was with a troupe of children’s entertainers called “The Papai Players”. They presented simplified versions of child-friendly operas (Hansel and Gretel, for example), and I’ll venture to say she did somewhere between 100 and 200 shows with that ensemble. I was working with children by this point, and had worked up enough children’s songs on my 12-string, that she managed to get me hired as an opening act for her troupe, for several shows. Also, when my friend Paul and I decided to make some more “produced” material (as opposed to our improvisations), and we needed a high voice on harmony for a few tracks, mom stepped right in.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">And also around that time that my friends and I started having musical parties – we would get together for evenings of improvised and prepared comedy and music – mom, on several of the occasions when these parties were held at our house, performed with me. More on this, later. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Here is a picture I'll use to represent mom's work at church. She is seen here with Frank Drake, who was the bass soloist at St. Matthew's for decades. Please note that mom is deliberately holding her music upside down. That was just like her. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3ubrQbWpT_tW011baoz-MWJuxY2TgLvrTfhczvgbfdQ4o_mSq7l6FICvAObQBbSZzgEMJIJKpRUusjxnkrRjLrkS9KwSjkVvrznMyFxKmDEIpbA1ednBMPJRESe4eTfLoi9rmN5RTwkEsZotXDFp1M-yC1K3IYsNnTEWsWOB_U6nbrgWs7r7V7sXPMw/s750/12.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="725" data-original-width="750" height="386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3ubrQbWpT_tW011baoz-MWJuxY2TgLvrTfhczvgbfdQ4o_mSq7l6FICvAObQBbSZzgEMJIJKpRUusjxnkrRjLrkS9KwSjkVvrznMyFxKmDEIpbA1ednBMPJRESe4eTfLoi9rmN5RTwkEsZotXDFp1M-yC1K3IYsNnTEWsWOB_U6nbrgWs7r7V7sXPMw/w400-h386/12.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">As that picture indicates, all the while, she continued singing at church, in the community, at her women’s groups, and for anyone who would have her. She continued to work with a couple of different vocal coaches as she moved towards age 65 and showed no sign of slowing down. Except…In the midst of the period I’m writing about now, my dad became very ill with heart trouble and related issues, and that was the only thing that kept mom from virtually non-stop engagements, due to hospital stays, tests, appointments, support at home, etc. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">After that period of adjustment and some improvement in dad’s health, my parents greatly enjoyed his retirement, which lasted about ten years. They traveled to see relatives, went on trips through Canada, and spent countless evenings either watching television shows and movies that they loved or, in nice weather, sitting outside on the deck just talking. They had, from all appearances, an ideal last chapter together and a late-in-life relationship I hope I can mirror, with my wife, someday. Here they are, on vacation (I believe) in Canada, some time in the 1990s: <o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNjawSindGnRVZlu-Shq-iwoCDnCn6ATY5RJhteRKJ9VBLlY0Nu6T40seofugo2CVAoHv3djNvPic0B8c5qVIl5NMowEoP-SudCFmG9HjJQRQuRUeXO1XmONCc0AEbab9khhv6fXFqbBkcRyFV3QvoFIwbrXRpWJmI2GTg4w_cEcBdBb4HwXvJuGwoCQ/s1516/14.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1134" data-original-width="1516" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNjawSindGnRVZlu-Shq-iwoCDnCn6ATY5RJhteRKJ9VBLlY0Nu6T40seofugo2CVAoHv3djNvPic0B8c5qVIl5NMowEoP-SudCFmG9HjJQRQuRUeXO1XmONCc0AEbab9khhv6fXFqbBkcRyFV3QvoFIwbrXRpWJmI2GTg4w_cEcBdBb4HwXvJuGwoCQ/w400-h299/14.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">Speaking of my wife, it was not long after my dad’s decline in health that I met Gina, who would marry me in 1988. Mom welcomed her with open arms, and Gina felt welcomed into our family. After we married and settled into our own place about 20 minutes away, we all frequently visited each other. Mom could not have loved and appreciated Gina more, even if the fact that she had "no off switch” led mom to say a few ill-considered "mother-in-law" things to Gina, over the years. About that, I will say no more.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Here's something I find sweet and cute. I've mentioned that my friend Paul and I would record improvised music and comedy. Well, one day in 1986, we were doing just that. We were in the living room of my home, which would have meant that neither of my parents were home, or were expected home; otherwise, we'd have been recording behind closed doors in my bedroom. Well, mom came home unexpectedly, while we were improvising a not-very-inspired song while I played my 12-string guitar. She tried to tiptoe past us, but I encouraged her to sing, and she did: </p><p class="MsoNormal">Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODgwNjk2NDVf/20%29%20Mom%20Sings%20During%20an%20Improvisation%20Session.mp3">Mom Sings During an Improvisation Session</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODgwNjk2NDVfb2d5UmI" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p class="MsoNormal">Okay, so I do not have a "perfect" place to insert these next three, very short sound clips, but I'll sneak them in here. They are all from the 1980s or 1990s, and each is just a momentary insight into what mom could be like at random moments. All three are from cassette tapes made while she was rehearsing - just three indications of who she could be when she didn't really think anyone would ever be listening: </p><p class="MsoNormal">Here she is, at the end of one of her vocal lessons, greeting her vocal coach's cat with a bit of increasingly unpleasant vocalizing, and then asking how it was received: </p><p class="MsoNormal">Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODgwNjk1NTlf/17%29%20Mary%20Fran%20Purse%20-%20Singing%20to%20a%20Cat.mp3">Mary Fran Purse - Singing to a Cat</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODgwNjk1NTlfV3p0Y3Q" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p class="MsoNormal">This one is nearly as short - she is rehearsing, a cappella, and is less than enthused by how she sounds: </p><p class="MsoNormal">Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODc5NzExODdf/18%29%20Mary%20Fran%20Purse%20-%20Moment%20of%20Disgust%20While%20Practicing.mp3">Mary Fran Purse - Moment of Disgust While Practicing</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODc5NzExODdfNjBac20" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p class="MsoNormal">Finally, a sort of "fly on the wall" moment, the sort of thing that recurs throughout her hundreds of rehearsal and vocal lesson tapes. In this case, she is expressing frustration with having a dry mouth, and frustration with herself for not doing things to keep herself healthier: </p><p class="MsoNormal">Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODc5NzExODhf/19%29%20Mary%20Fran%20Purse%20-%20Dry%20Mouth%20from%20Meds%20-%20What%20I%20Need%20to%20Do.mp3">Mary Fran Purse - Dry Mouth from Meds - What I Need to Do</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODc5NzExODhfdnlDWXE" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">In 1990, my friends and I held yet another one of our music and comedy parties, which were always full of both prepared and improvised antics in both of those categories (sometimes at the same time) by my friends and me. Most of them were held in the house in Northfield, even after I moved out. That year, though, I had gotten it into my head that my two best friends and I, along with mom, should learn a few songs as sung by The Weavers, and try to get each of the four intricate parts right. Mom, of course, would sing the Ronnie Gilbert parts, and no one was going to sing Pete Seeger’s parts except for me. I taught all three of the others their parts, and when we put it together: magic. We sang three songs that night, and ten years later, at my 40<sup>th</sup> birthday, did one of those songs again and learned and performed a fourth one. Mom was over the moon at having been asked to take part, and she talked about how the three of us wanted to sing with her, and had invited her to sing with us, etc. etc. for the rest of her life, with as much delight as anything I ever, <i>EVER</i>, heard her talk about. It was one of her favorite things that she ever did. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Here are the four of us, rehearsing for our performance as the Weavers knock-off group, "The Electric Loom Operators": </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF2ybx48lReV7VuFN81WHBMEt79ynm4cJ0kJ5sOIUnjy_rDl0ltkjXyEBaErxY083c9XetqPbg_bqbcJFdZekeRnEjPg9hVctyaezj0FCKA21sotLWmOEFvHtiVyOlfrPdckXXZgcH3FAXXvIAY8XIq4ESJ_2geFm3kRNylqZy477X-WrEMcHKxqbV3Q/s1721/15.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1111" data-original-width="1721" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF2ybx48lReV7VuFN81WHBMEt79ynm4cJ0kJ5sOIUnjy_rDl0ltkjXyEBaErxY083c9XetqPbg_bqbcJFdZekeRnEjPg9hVctyaezj0FCKA21sotLWmOEFvHtiVyOlfrPdckXXZgcH3FAXXvIAY8XIq4ESJ_2geFm3kRNylqZy477X-WrEMcHKxqbV3Q/w400-h259/15.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">And I think I've shared this before, somewhere, but here we are, the night of the party, performing one of those songs, "Poor Howard's Dead and Gone." (Stu and I neglected to work out how the instrumental solo passages were going to work, beforehand, leading to a bit of confusion during those sections - you can hear me thank him for taking the lead in those moments, as the performance ends): </p><p class="MsoNormal">Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODgwNjk2NDZf/21%29%20Poor%20Howard%27s%20Dead%20and%20Gone.mp3">The Electric Loom Operators - Poor Howard's Dead and Gone</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODgwNjk2NDZfalZibDM" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p class="MsoNormal">Mom had always loved language, playing with language, intricate use of words, etc., and things related to language such as the wide variety of interesting names one finds in the newspaper, on TV and in meeting people from different cultures. All of this fascinated her. And throughout her life, she was also a person who was an absolute stickler for the proper use of English. One story I told at her funeral was about how she would always mention if someone used the word “nauseous” incorrectly. “One does not feel nauseous. One IS nauseous. ’Nauseous’ is the condition, ‘nauseated’ is the feeling: ‘I am nauseous. I <i>feel</i> nauseated’.” My brother brought her a dictionary and showed her that the definition of “nauseous” was “nauseated.” Her response: “That Dictionary Is WRONG!” I have to admit that I am her son through and through. I’ve literally thought the same thing on occasion. Mom and I both loved James Kilpatrick’s “The Writer’s Art” column, which was hilarious, informative, prickly and pedantic all at the same time.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Here is a picture that I believe is from my parents' 40th anniversary party, in 1989: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYTm2JvmIAuz8kglTG8caZ8L3ogK_M84LTP76RGKpKkFf0EuO9HijyPPtczXuAmtVcVKspVp2iYmoM8rfDDeGBvlRMJ3wd0V-i1oAgD0R0FNZpZd8abghNSbl-lwVwTpLwF6_Zjnc9rtBq4P5jfvOIEo2u3E7MupIVWxqREJNKqVOtidTq6FoIkbu2WA/s1200/13.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="717" data-original-width="1200" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYTm2JvmIAuz8kglTG8caZ8L3ogK_M84LTP76RGKpKkFf0EuO9HijyPPtczXuAmtVcVKspVp2iYmoM8rfDDeGBvlRMJ3wd0V-i1oAgD0R0FNZpZd8abghNSbl-lwVwTpLwF6_Zjnc9rtBq4P5jfvOIEo2u3E7MupIVWxqREJNKqVOtidTq6FoIkbu2WA/w400-h239/13.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">By the 1990’s, mom had joined a group called “SPELL.” The acronym was for “Society for the Preservation of English Language and Literature”, a group which sent postcards to newspaper writers, TV newscasters and the like, letting them know of some sort of written or spoken errors which had been made in the course of their jobs. A couple of the <i>Chicago Tribune </i>feature writers did pieces on her, and the “SPELL” group, after receiving a post card from her. She also gave talk to local groups about the correct use of English, and some of the most egregious errors people make. I’m sure to some of you, this makes at least this aspect of her sound insufferable, and indeed, I know I’ve rubbed people the same way from time to time by my own insistence on the use of English rules. My sister is the same way, and my brother has actually commented on how, when he sings to himself, if it is a song which has a line featuring poor grammar, he corrects the error in his little performance.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Also, as an aside, by the ‘90’s, if not sooner – can’t recall for sure – my mom had gotten in the habit of “flipping off the sky” every winter. If the weather forecast on her little kitchen TV set said there would be snow soon, she would raise her middle finger out the kitchen window (never mind that it faced east, rather than any direction a storm might come from), basically telling the snow to stay away. She seemed to think it worked more often than not. To this day, when a bad storm is forecast, my wife will say “okay, where’s your mom with her finger?”<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Here is a recording of mom, in 1993, singing what is absolutely my favorite piece of classical music, "Die Forelle," by Schubert. The lyrics tell a story of the singer watching a trout get the better of a fisherman – listen for how Schubert portrays the babbling brook in his piano part – until the fisherman finally gets the better of the trout. It has the most gorgeous melody and piano part I've ever heard, or expect to hear. I could go on and on about this song, but I won't. But I will say that I tear up every single time I hear anyone sing this it, in response to its sheer gorgeousness. You will probably sense some lessening of mom's abilities here, but she was, after all, 70 years old at that time. She is accompanied by (and complimented at the end by) her dear friend Bob Reeves, who was the St. Matthew's Choir Director and Organist for twenty years. </p><p class="MsoNormal">Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODgwNjk2NDdf/22%29%20Mary%20Fran%20Purse%20-%20Die%20Forelle%20-%20Fall%2C%201993.mp3">Mary Fran Purse - Die Forelle - Fall, 1993</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODgwNjk2NDdfSlRnTkM" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p class="MsoNormal">Mom wanted very much to have grandchildren – years later, once she had an e-mail address – it was word combining the fact that she was a grandmother with a reference to her career as a singer – Grammadiva. Her first two grandchildren came along when I was still in middle school and high school – my brother’s children – and unfortunately, they never lived less than half the country away. But she saw them as many times as possible, with visits from both generations to the other. Her second set of two grandchildren – my two kids – came about nearly two decades later, in the early 1990’s, and we never lived more than 30 minutes apart, so she and my kids got to know each other much more deeply. Mom was able to babysit, to go to events with us and/or them, and, as my children got older, to go to any performances they might be in, whether it was a play put on by four-year-olds or the piano and violin recitals that my two kids, respectively, performed in during grade school. For all four of the children, she doted on them, loved what they did, played with them, quoted their funny sayings, and talked about her experiences with them for the rest of her life.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Here she is with my two kids, probably in the spring of 1995: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzpPWg5cTYZ1yGX2lSpNOhZknYM6r13iN2zIVGHb5YieXpuMv-wsS4GdUEzTLFVS1jqNHDIDyUgsaL9cS9xWQf43lcNuuqPwUEM0UP6AnPFTOoL-vPaM2oaYNKSUIltTFs-MD7GJD0c9ArCzggvSaVZ-5JhK-JYMdCRsPeesNZ2k1QLGaUxCZQk3H6xA/s1234/17.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1083" data-original-width="1234" height="351" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzpPWg5cTYZ1yGX2lSpNOhZknYM6r13iN2zIVGHb5YieXpuMv-wsS4GdUEzTLFVS1jqNHDIDyUgsaL9cS9xWQf43lcNuuqPwUEM0UP6AnPFTOoL-vPaM2oaYNKSUIltTFs-MD7GJD0c9ArCzggvSaVZ-5JhK-JYMdCRsPeesNZ2k1QLGaUxCZQk3H6xA/w400-h351/17.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">Sometime around 1995, my father confided in me that mom was becoming forgetful and was repeating herself at times. It wasn’t much of a decline in functioning, but it was a noticeable one, and he wanted me to be aware of it, both because he thought I should know, and because he didn’t want me to ask her why she was telling me something for the third time, if and when it happened. I actually didn’t notice anything of the sort for a least a few years after that. Dad died in 1996, quite unexpectedly. Mom <i>paged</i> me while I was at work. I knew before I called her what the news would be – there was absolutely no other circumstance under which she would have used my pager number. I returned the call, and she said “Dad didn’t wake up today.”</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Mom held it together throughout all of the condolences, family and friend visits, the funeral and afterwards. But she later acknowledged that when the last of we three children left for home again, she did a lot of screaming and broke a few things. I can surely, and fully understand what led to that sort of reaction. And yet, at the same time, am completely unable to actually visualize her in that state, given how <i>very</i> few times I even saw her acknowledge even the slightest negative emotions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few months later she even acknowledged her months of sadness, saying something to the effect of “I guess that’s what depression might be like.” Believe me, even with the sort of distance that wording put between her actual feelings and her statement, it was an almost astonishing thing to hear her say.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Time went on, of course, and mom adjusted to being a widow. I’m sure having young grandchildren a half-hour away helped, as did a return to her music. She did start to talk about whether or not she wanted to live all by herself in that large, three-bedroom ranch home, or even if she had the ability to meet its upkeep in her mid-70s. As it happened, at that very moment, my sister was having extreme problems at her place of employment, in Iowa, where she had been happily (as far as I know) employed for about 25 years. People were being downsized, and there was always the feeling of another shoe ready to drop. When my sister learned mom felt overwhelmed being alone in the house, she left her job and moved back to Northfield, and she shared the home with mom for the rest of mom’s life. The two of them built up a really nice relationship, doing all manner of things together. It worked exceptionally well for both of them for the better part of a decade after our father’s death. I was, as you might imagine, very happy that my childhood home was not going to be sold just yet.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Here's a picture from somewhere during that time period, of my mother and me performing something: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiceQIj37bGvsZNEjaR1jT5POpCzrLT2YA5DNQ8ei3hFMDNrri8xlw8l6GTYiZMIs3ROa6nFbbpBMVGLhjShH--cvOAmdzBgHtvsZWuYx17y0N2DHEHlybf9n3FkvLJiKPuf2hagrlWRNy59-WpW2uERawXJI5es-MOyBMKzcDhTDwoTBtoBGS0__k3ug/s1272/16.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1149" data-original-width="1272" height="361" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiceQIj37bGvsZNEjaR1jT5POpCzrLT2YA5DNQ8ei3hFMDNrri8xlw8l6GTYiZMIs3ROa6nFbbpBMVGLhjShH--cvOAmdzBgHtvsZWuYx17y0N2DHEHlybf9n3FkvLJiKPuf2hagrlWRNy59-WpW2uERawXJI5es-MOyBMKzcDhTDwoTBtoBGS0__k3ug/w400-h361/16.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">Mom was clearly in decline in those years, but it was slow, very slow. She continued singing on a regular basis until right around her 80<sup>th</sup> birthday. At that point, she announced her retirement from the church choir. She had mentored, encouraged and generally supported a few generations of younger singers while in the choir, in addition to her regular soloing and ensemble work in that ensemble (I recently learned that our current choir director, who was a newish member of the choir at the time, was considering retiring from singing around that time, and she told him that he was absolutely <i>not</i> going to do that – and he didn’t – he added that he absolutely would have quit, and would have missed out on a terrifically successful and rewarding career, were it not for her insistence that he stay with it). Her retirement was celebrated with a special service and a fund-raising CD of her recordings sold to church members.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">She had two reasons for retiring. First, her hearing had been declining for many years, and the then-current choir director was very soft-spoken; she said she literally could not hear what he was saying during rehearsals. But second – and I only heard this story recently – she confided in a few choir members that she no longer felt confident to perform soprano parts without missing high notes. One of them suggested that she switch to alto parts, and mom apparently reacted like that was the single biggest insult about her singing that anyone had ever suggested to her. She was a self-professed diva. Soprano divas do not deign to sing alto parts. (I’d like to mention, again, how mom sang the Ronnie Gilbert parts in our Weavers act on two occasions. Those were, of course, low alto parts, and by the third of our three songs, during our first performance, she could barely croak out the notes, because it had been so hard on her to sing in that range.)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">For that 80<sup>th</sup> birthday, mom’s entire immediate family came to town. All three children and four grandchildren were there, along with her then-surviving brother and most of his family, and of course other family and many, many friends. Mom sang several songs, accompanied mostly by my brother, but also by me on one specialty, a song I’d brought to her attention several years earlier, by William Bolcom, “Lime Jello Marshmallow Cottage Cheese Surprise.” Being that it was a patter song, which required no real singing, this became the song she would perform, if she performed at all, during her final years – it did not require a great soprano voice, or even a singing voice, and I accompanied her on it in several performances between 1990 and 2005.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">And here is the entire family - all of mom's children and grandchildren with her - at that 80th birthday celebration. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQbsjDXVDESAW_QrbSp_pEyUEWTahrRZdKO_D-Ck4ukDpMOZUg_cB6PpPxGZgPlOf_4SDfgtmUm5tYUUdqkAWEFR8e00-lxOzNglYVFELT1gWCV7Bj34B7Ws8mddYcmagssG2Wubt5awJqCBBLwvCkE2_kE-SoyKk-GibzLiQBISh5cWL9QyQugLP73A/s1750/18.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1158" data-original-width="1750" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQbsjDXVDESAW_QrbSp_pEyUEWTahrRZdKO_D-Ck4ukDpMOZUg_cB6PpPxGZgPlOf_4SDfgtmUm5tYUUdqkAWEFR8e00-lxOzNglYVFELT1gWCV7Bj34B7Ws8mddYcmagssG2Wubt5awJqCBBLwvCkE2_kE-SoyKk-GibzLiQBISh5cWL9QyQugLP73A/w400-h265/18.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">And here is a performance of "Lime Jello Marshmallow Cottage Cheese Surprise." This is not from the 80th birthday party, but from a party I hosted perhaps a decade earlier. I am accompanying her. There are few bum notes from me, and she trips over the lyrics at one point, but it remains a favorite recording of mine: </p><p class="MsoNormal">Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODgwNjk2NDhf/23%29%20Mary%20Fran%20Purse%20-%20Lime%20Jello%20Marshmallow%20Cottage%20Cheese%20Surprise.mp3">Mary Fran Purse - Lime Jello Marshmallow Cottage Cheese Surprise</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODgwNjk2NDhfVHZ3NlY" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p class="MsoNormal">From that same party, here are mom and me, in another song I learned from a Weavers' album, in his case, a duet sung by Weavers members Ronnie Gilbert and Lee Hays, with me on the 12 string guitar. It's called "You Old Fool": </p><p class="MsoNormal">Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODgwNjk2NTBf/24%29%20Mary%20Fran%20and%20Bob%20Purse%20-%20You%20Old%20Fool.mp3">Mary Fran and Bob Purse - You Old Fool</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODgwNjk2NTBfRFpOMzU" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p class="MsoNormal">By the time of her 80<sup>th</sup> birthday, we all knew that mom was starting to have some problems. She still got around well, sang from time to time, got together frequently with friends and family, but her memory was clearly getting poorer and poorer. And honestly, from that point until her death, four and a half years later, my own memory of when things happened, how they happened and in what order is sort of all blurred together. I think she was still pretty independent until somewhere between her 81<sup>st</sup> and 82<sup>nd</sup> birthdays. Eventually, she no longer drove much. If, for example, she was going to church, my sister would bring her before the service, and my kids and I would bring her back afterwards, usually taking her to lunch at Subway or somewhere similar on the way to her home, before we continued on to our place.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Eventually, she became fixated on things. Some were understandable, such as being frustrated at not getting enough sleep. Others were mysterious, such as the weeks she spent asking, incessantly, who it was that discovered that the Earth goes around the Sun. She also started telling us what certain long words were when spelled backwards. By that point, her short-term memory was pretty much non-existent. She could still take care of day-to-day tasks, such as cooking herself a meal and reading and responding to e-mail, but, for example, she would often not remember if she’d taken her pills.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Dementia is a mysterious and frustrating thing. When my younger child was in a full-body camel suit for a church Christmas pageant, mom happened to be sitting just in front of the church school director, who told her where Molly was in the play. We spent about two hours with mom after the pageant, and she told us at least ten times that she knew which animal Molly was because Pam (the teacher) had told her. So… she remembered there had been a pageant, she remember Molly was a camel, and she remembered who told her Molly was a camel. BUT… she didn’t remember that she’s already told us that story six, seven, eight, nine, ten times before.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">And on Thanksgiving, one of those years, we celebrated at mom’s house, where my wife and my sister prepared virtually all of the meal. After we ate, mom got up and started preparing to clean up the kitchen and dishes. The rest of us told her that we would take care of that, and she should just relax. She acquiesced quickly, reasoning to that “after all, <i>I made the turkey</i>.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">It was hardest on my sister, who had previously had a wonderful seven years or so sharing her life with our mother, but now was her primary caretaker, with all that entailed. I was there during the relatively good moments; they were better than average moments, no doubt, because mom got to be with her grandchildren. I didn't see the deeply challenging times. And I wish that my brother and I had realized just how hard our sister's job was becoming. And we didn’t.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">I think it was in 2006 that mom landed in the hospital with a twisted intestine (the same condition that brought on the death of Maurice Gibb and almost killed Alan Alda the following year!). Her heart doctor stated she could not survive the corrective surgery, and suggested a colostomy. My brother talked to her over and over again until she fully understood, and she agreed to it, after which she went into a rehab facility and then went home, weaker but still able to function day to day. Months later, the colostomy failed and they said they’d have to put her back together – the same surgery she was supposed to not be strong enough to survive. But she did survive it.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">I’ve often wondered if she would have been moderately healthy, for longer, if she could just had the reconstructive surgery the first time, and not experienced two serious surgeries, since the process of surgery and rehab seemed to make her dementia worse each time. She went back into rehab and then back home. In retrospect, she probably shouldn’t have gone back home. I began getting repetitive e-mails reading “come see me today, love mommmmmmmmmy,” sometimes three in a day and then not again for ten days. On visits to the house in Northfield, I could sense less and less of her personality remaining, and more and more just a series of things that had to be done to get her through the day. Sometimes, during those last two or three years, she’d say “I think I’ll go die now” or “I’m going to go die now.” It became pretty clear what she wished would happen.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">One bit of levity remained, indicating that one episode from mom's life still existed strongly in her memory. While she was in an ICU, at some point during her decline, I got to talking to one of the nurses who had been treating her. I mentioned in passing that my mother had been a singer. "She told me," said the nurse..."she got second place."</p><p class="MsoNormal">Sometime after that, almost certainly in early 2007, she went into the same nursing home where she’d been on rehab twice, this time for good. In fact, she eventually seemed to forget that she had a house in Northfield. When we brought her home for Easter, around the time of her 84<sup>th</sup> birthday, she had fun for a while, and even engaged in some egg-hiding with my kids, but sooner rather than later, became agitated and insisted that we take her back to her “home” at the nursing home.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">My kids and I visited mom most weeks after church. Sometimes she was fairly lucid, sometimes less so. She still knew who all of us were, but during one conversation, when I mentioned something about “dad”, she looked at me and said that she was old and forgetful, apologized for asking, but wanted me to please remind her: “who is ‘dad’?” At that moment, I thought, if she can no longer remember the central person in her life story, then there was no remaining purpose for her to still hang on. Somewhere around that time we were advised that hospice care (in the same setting) was probably a better choice than continued rehab services, and that’s the direction we chose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">On the last day of November, 2008, my kids and I visited mom, as usual, after church. She was particularly perky and upbeat that day, compared to her then-usual condition. The common room had been decorated for Christmas, and mom commented that Christmas was coming. She then broke out with a clear soprano voice that could no doubt be heard throughout the room (she was in a corner), singing the first verse of “Silent Night.” I had not heard her sing that well – that forcefully or accurately or anything – in at least a year or two. There was a bit of light applause from a few spots in the room – with her loss of hearing at that point, she would not have been able to hear those who were clapping – and we left on a very up note.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">One week later, things were as different as they could be imagined. Mom was being combative and disruptive and could not be allowed in the common room. She tussled a bit with a staff member and just appeared to be very disoriented. She said something extremely rude to one of my kids – I don’t think she knew who any of us were, in that moment – and both of them turned away, crying. I’m sorry to say this would be the last time they saw her, and how I wish it had been the visit one week earlier.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">I continued to visit mom in the evenings, when my job (which was an hour away and involved crisis work) allowed. I think I made it out there at three more times over the next 10 days, the last time on a Wednesday in the week before Christmas. She said “hi” to me, and that was it. I’m pretty sure she knew who I was, but she wasn’t responding beyond that. Late that night, she died.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">I hope it makes sense when I say that it was long past time. I’ve gone through the unexpected death of my dad, who was a chronically ill, but fairly well-functioning parent until his final day, and the long, long goodbye to another parent, my mom, who faded away gradually over the course of years. The former was harder in the moment, but so much easier to process, in retrospect, than the latter. I know which one I’d choose for myself.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">We waited to hold a service until after Christmas, and halfway into January. I asked to be the eulogist, and my speech contained briefer versions of some of the things I’ve written about here, all tied together with the statement that mom always knew who she was, knew what she wanted, had faith in herself to be able to achieve it, and usually did achieve it. She was self-assured and comfortable in her own skin in a way I think that too few of us are. I finished with the “Silent Night” story that I just mentioned. The choir, of course, had worked up a spectacular group of hymns and other pieces for the service, to bid adieu to the woman who had been the diva of the group for 55 years. I later heard from some of them that it was VERY hard to sing the next piece of music, following my eulogy, and in particular, after the “Silent Night” story. That’s as it should be, I think.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">I thank my mother for an upbringing filled with love, family togetherness, interesting experiences, closeness, laughter, and so much more. Like her, I have a relentless optimism, a love for a huge variety of musical styles and genres, an inveterate drive and need to play with language and make little jokes, a tendency to sing improvised songs about whatever I happen to be doing or that I hear on TV and radio, and a passion for entertaining others. Oh, and once mom started doing something she enjoyed, whether singing or one of her hobbies (particularly writing in her diary), she never stopped. I’m exactly the same way, which is easily demonstrated by my obsessions with obscure tapes and records, as documented on my two blogs.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">She was a guiding force in my life, no doubt the biggest influence on me overall, and in countless smaller ways. I can’t imagine anyone who I’d rather have had raising me, and as a friend in adulthood. I think of her every day, and often wish I could talk with her about some subject or another, or play her some song, or show her some funny show or video. Or just be together.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">I’ll close with something I think my mother would have been glad to know. Some weeks after her death, I received a short note from a childhood friend, one I played with all the time in grade school, but whom I hadn’t spoken to or seen since age 14. I will add that I always got the impression that his home was not a particularly happy place. He pointedly did not include a return address –he just wanted me to know something, without resuming ongoing contact. He had seen mom’s obituary in the <i>Chicago Tribune</i>. He related that he’d never had <i>any</i> idea that she was a professional singer; he just thought she loved to sing. He said that one reason loved coming to our house was because my mother was always singing, always friendly and engaging with him and always seemed to be so happy. Nearly 35 years after he and I last saw each other, he wanted to make sure I knew how much of an impression she had made on him, and how she made him feel. And I think that says a lot about who she was. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">I hope that, if you made it this far with me, you enjoyed my story. Thank you for reading.<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJfBIClE8AVQfNRpiR-wKivg4mIvXrSgtNg6nTiKKkutZPHZdrKNuk3dqNfBIARwpxPUPctrFSpp-XByQBqHM80rG1p1ueTAFAlaosShit2QIWf5CMuUEp0HOtpieIz736Yy5cD5Rap6z6iWraYXScbvleqjxUtnUrTpdcy0FxxnymbI4GAnfgRm_idA/s1705/19.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1106" data-original-width="1705" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJfBIClE8AVQfNRpiR-wKivg4mIvXrSgtNg6nTiKKkutZPHZdrKNuk3dqNfBIARwpxPUPctrFSpp-XByQBqHM80rG1p1ueTAFAlaosShit2QIWf5CMuUEp0HOtpieIz736Yy5cD5Rap6z6iWraYXScbvleqjxUtnUrTpdcy0FxxnymbI4GAnfgRm_idA/w400-h260/19.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>Bob Pursehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00595178670595128341noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3253281712354769447.post-60926004679623812172023-03-29T18:13:00.003-07:002023-03-29T18:19:53.616-07:00More Jack Eigen, A Lot of Early 1960's BBC, and a Couple of Guitarists<p>Hello, everyone, </p><p>In the past two months, I have had three - THREE - people ask me if I would share some more of my voluminous collection of recordings of the Chicago late night radio talk personality Jack Eigen. It would appear that this broadcaster either deeply appeals to people or rubs them the wrong way. And when I first found these tapes, in the 1990's, I learned (from my mother) that it was always thus. She said she found him extremely annoying, as did most people, yet they listened - I believe she told me "that was kind of the point". That explanation makes no sense to me, but maybe it does to you, or maybe you just love these recordings. </p><p>I am here to honor those requests, and will continue to do so in the future. </p><p>I have not scanned this volume recently for any clues as to when it might be from, or for any glitches. I listened to these tapes more than 20 years ago, and made the sound files at that time. If anyone wants to pinpoint the date, that'd be great. </p><p>Without further ado, volume three of Jack Eigen. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODc3MzE4MzJf/Jack%20Eigen%2C%20Volume%203.mp3">Jack Eigen, Volume 3</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODc3MzE4MzJfdW0yZlg" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </p><p>~~</p><p>Next up, an hour long tape which is sort of peculiar. It starts off and ends up normally enough - just a couple of guys playing guitars - some instrumental duets, some songs with vocals. </p><p>20 minutes into it, though, a man starts speaking, and introduces a recording of a shortwave broadcast of a speech by the first lady of Guatemala, thanking Ham Radio operators who assisted the country during the then-recent (1976) earthquake. Then follows that shortwave recording, and then the man comes back and shares that he will be providing some recordings of his recent performance with another guitarist. </p><p>The earlier segment does not appear to be a "live" recording, and at one point, an organist (with one of those beat-box built in drums) joins them. But after the "thank you speech", it seems that we're hearing a club or bar performance. There's no applause, but there is talking in the background. </p><p>I guess what I find peculiar about it is that the sender put the "interesting" short wave broadcast right in the middle of the tape, in between highlights of his performance. That strikes me as a weird choice.</p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODc3MzE4MDRf/A%20Guitar%20Duo%20with%20Some%20Vocals%2C%20With%20a%20Thank%20You%20Speech%20in%20the%20Middle.mp3">A Guitar Duo with Some Vocals, With a Thank You Speech in the Middle</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODc3MzE4MDRfcnRNV3A" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Okay, now I'm going to go back to doing something I did quite a bit in the early days of the blog, and share the various sections of a full tape, a tape which I found quite interesting. It came to me in a batch of tapes that someone very meticulously recorded off of the BBC and documented. And if I could find the box (I digitized this perhaps eight years ago), I would share that documentation. But I did capture the names of the segments and the date in the individual file names. </p><p>I'm just going to line them up in the same order they were on the tape and let you listen to them. </p><p>They are: </p><p><span> </span>1.) Stanley Watkins talking about introducing sound to the movies</p><p><span> 2.) Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip's Royal Tour of Ghana</span><br /></p><p><span> 3.) Robert Reed (surely not <i>that </i>Robert Reed) on the Queen's 10th Anniversary on the Throne<br /></span></p><p><span> 4.) "Conference"(a weekly program) - Episode: Britain's Defense Policy</span></p><p><span> </span>5.) The Aberdonian Train (a narrated train trip from King's Cross to Aberdeen)</p><p><span>Quite a wonderful little five inch reel of tape, if you ask me. Dig in!: </span><br /></p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODc3MzE4MjNf/Stanley%20Watkins%20-%20Sound%20For%20the%20Movies%20%28BBC%2C%209-27-61%29.mp3">Stanley Watkins - Sound For the Movies (BBC, 9-27-61)</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODc3MzE4MjNfT251Ylo" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODc3MzE4MTlf/The%20Royal%20Tour%20of%20Ghana%20%28BBC%2C%2011-19-61%29.mp3">The Royal Tour of Ghana (BBC, 11-19-61)</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODc3MzE4MTlfV0IxV3U" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODc3MzE4MTdf/Robert%20Reed%20-%20Anniversary%20Portrait%20%28Queen%20Elizabeth%27s%2010th%20Anniversary%29%20%28BBC%2C%202-6-62%29.mp3">Robert Reed - Anniversary Portrait (Queen Elizabeth's 10th Anniversary) (BBC, 2-6-62)</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODc3MzE4MTdfQk5HeWs" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODc3MzE4MTZf/%27Conference%27%20-%20Britain%27s%20Defense%20Policy%20%28BBC%2C%202-8-62%29.mp3">"Conference" - Britain's Defense Policy (BBC, 2-8-62)</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODc3MzE4MTZfSVE4Qmo" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODc3MzE4MTRf/The%20Aberdonian%20Train%20%28King%27s%20Cross%20to%20Aberdeen%29%20%28BBC%2C%201962%29.mp3">The Aberdonian Train (King's Cross to Aberdeen) (BBC, 1962)</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODc3MzE4MTRfeUpOWm0" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>And let's finish with a "Very Short Reel", shall we? Here's a promotion from WBUZ in Toledo, a prize package featuring a trip to the Napa 500 Auto Race in 1998. Yippee!!</p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODc3MzE4MDVf/Kendall%20Energies%2C%20Inc%20-%20WBUZ%2C%20Toledo%2C%20Trip%20to%20the%20Napa%20500.mp3">Kendall Energies, Inc - WBUZ, Toledo, Trip to the Napa 500</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODc3MzE4MDVfQUp3dXA" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTzOEgMKg3uwJu1kUTy5H7654kFRerLrdN6XOiPO5JIxCovCEpnYX6r7Bz1wUVD3ZZm-Jfl6VOQOhsuRuMsHRYVn7LnABHkESuRNIti7idZyAcglnNUU1ReoRMu_rOau1M2gsDNxbM0s07LnqSqKkF8n032F0Zo6eH_U9yYKxJu0dhXB_M8PpVIJarlA/s1597/WBUZ.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1558" data-original-width="1597" height="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTzOEgMKg3uwJu1kUTy5H7654kFRerLrdN6XOiPO5JIxCovCEpnYX6r7Bz1wUVD3ZZm-Jfl6VOQOhsuRuMsHRYVn7LnABHkESuRNIti7idZyAcglnNUU1ReoRMu_rOau1M2gsDNxbM0s07LnqSqKkF8n032F0Zo6eH_U9yYKxJu0dhXB_M8PpVIJarlA/w400-h390/WBUZ.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Bob Pursehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00595178670595128341noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3253281712354769447.post-77691674188113569722023-03-18T09:29:00.003-07:002023-03-18T09:34:13.773-07:00THE WIND TOP 1000!<p> Today, I have only a couple of sound files to share, but given that, together, they contain over six hours worth of material, I don't think I'm shortchanging anyone. And I suspect you will cheer these items, if you are among those who enjoy vintage radio broadcasts. In this case, they are from the early 1970's, complete with lots of ads as well as newscasts (well, the longer of the two, anyway), to go along with the music. </p><p>A bit of personal history here. I had a brief flirtation with Top 40 radio around age 10, and still have a very nostalgic love for the hits of the summer and fall of 1970. But in the following years, while most of my peers were likely just starting to become enamored of top 40 radio, and become lulled into a sense of complacency by the dubious charms of the likes of The Carpenters, The Osmonds, Carole King, Chicago, Cher, John Denver, James Taylor and their ilk (I recognize that your mileage may vary on the "complacency" and "dubious" part, but for me, that's only a toe in the barrel of the ecch that was the pop music of the early '70's), I fell headlong into the local oldies station, WIND, 560 on your dial. I found much more to appreciate in the sounds of the 1950's and 1960's than on contemporary radio (although WIND did sprinkle the biggest hits of the day in, here and there), and by the end of 1971, I barely knew any of the current hit songs, but was well versed in music from before I was born. (Perhaps the sole exception to my ignorance of then-current hits, and a record I swoon over to this day, was Melanie's "Brand New Key", which surely says something about me, although I don't know what.) To this day, my single favorite year for popular music is 1957 - three years before I was born. </p><p>In 1970, WIND had produced a list of the top 500 hits of all time (well, when they said "all time", they meant from 1955 onwards, it would appear). They aired the entire list, from #500 to #1- before doing so, they had a contest with prizes awarded to whoever (or one of those who could) guess the top ten in the correct order. After the program aired, the list was available at local stores or you could get it by mail, which I did. In retrospect - having studied the Billboard charts my entire adult life, and done my own figuring of the top hits many times over - it's clear to me that the WIND list was based directly on Billboard's rankings, which is as it should be. </p><p>The following year, 1971, WIND announced that the list would be expanded to a top 1000, and that they would again play them, from #1000 to #1, starting on an upcoming weekend. There would be no changes to the all time top 10, as no song in 1970-71 had been nearly big enough for that. I recorded nearly five hours of this programming, along with the ads and newscasts which went with it, over that weekend, including two lengthy portions (#'s 260-233 and #'s 60-7), as well as two brief segments (#'s 93-92 and #'s 2-1). Unfortunately, I missed #'s 6-3 near the end of the countdown, but if I can find my copy of the list among all of the detritus I've collected in 62+ years of life, I will update this post. </p><p>I recorded the 1971 segments at the extremely low-fi speed of 1 7/8 IPS - you will no doubt note some poorly recorded moments and wobbliness to some of the sounds here. </p><p>The following year, WIND updated the top 1000 yet again, and I recorded a relatively short segment of the program during the evening - a period in which there were very few ads and no newscasts, so this segment may be of somewhat less interest if that is the appeal. I captured #'s 33-17 in a 90 minute segment. If you listen to both broadcasts, you will find that no 1971-72 hit song was big enough to enter the station's top 33, as #s 33-17 in 1972 are exactly the same 17 songs as #'s 33-17 in the 1971 broadcast. </p><p>I'm going to share the shorter, and probably less interesting of the two recordings first, even though it came later, and then share the massively entertaining 1971 recording. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODc1OTI4MzRf/The%201972%20WIND%20Top%201000%20%2833%20Through%2017%29.mp3">The 1972 WIND Top 1000 (33 Through 17)</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODc1OTI4MzRfZzJLWUc" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>And here is the massive, four-hour-51-minute portion of the 1971 WIND Top 1000 broadcast. It starts with about 45 seconds of trying to find the correct station, and then another 75 seconds on a sports talk program, but starting at about the two minute point, the remainder of this massive track is all WIND. Be sure to listen for the point at which my older brother leaned into the microphone and offered a brief critique of the song playing at that moment, which was Santo and Johnny's "Sleep Walk". ENJOY!</p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODc1OTI4MjJf/The%201971%20WIND%20Top%201000%20%28260-233%2C%2093-92%2C%2060-7%2C%202-1%29.mp3">The 1971 WIND Top 1000 (260-233, 93-92, 60-7, 2-1)</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODc1OTI4MjJfYkJ1cUY" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>(A side note: I also recorded some of at least one of these countdowns onto cassette tapes, and if I can find those, I'll share them here, some day, if no one objects to cassettes being offered up on a reel to reel site.)</p><p>~~</p><p>Okay, you short-tape lovers, I haven't forgotten about you. Here's a one minute radio ad for HBO's cable premier of the movie "Multiplicity", created by a company called "Superdupe". You wouldn't know it from this creative and forceful ad, but the movie in question was neither a critical or box office hit. Maybe that's why they worked so hard to promote it - there was no significant built-in audience. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODc1OTI3OTdf/Superdupe%20-%20HBO%27s%20Multiplicity%20Ad.mp3">Superdupe - HBO's Multiplicity Ad</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODc1OTI3OTdfU1ByZFE" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoBYD0ugfjDSYilcbNu8qWUNoVN81f9gVy3i-8laX_oUzyc_rtorBxGvQ3zxXGMQBbWBvrBmxwr2xSmIuflRz474R8t1zskoKokyaxeufbs8eWYjdqAOb6K1ddt4hqA3pLYBEho_5wBLK8nDSJ7zzufFWElTwCNy_P2fLWNjbyqwTbV_bi_CJJLEI2bw/s1573/Multiplicity.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1573" data-original-width="1567" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoBYD0ugfjDSYilcbNu8qWUNoVN81f9gVy3i-8laX_oUzyc_rtorBxGvQ3zxXGMQBbWBvrBmxwr2xSmIuflRz474R8t1zskoKokyaxeufbs8eWYjdqAOb6K1ddt4hqA3pLYBEho_5wBLK8nDSJ7zzufFWElTwCNy_P2fLWNjbyqwTbV_bi_CJJLEI2bw/w399-h400/Multiplicity.jpg" width="399" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Bob Pursehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00595178670595128341noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3253281712354769447.post-56949857792906007272023-02-28T18:23:00.007-08:002023-02-28T18:55:34.024-08:00Blowout Post # 4<p>Greetings!</p><p>Every month, I make a point of trying to put up two posts. This, I think, goes back to my posting schedule back at WFMU, and it's hardwired into me at this point. In fact, I've only missed that target eleven times in the years of posting, and in some of those periods, I made three posts in surrounding months. </p><p>Anyway, February is short. And I want to have a post up within the next four hours. So it's time for another BLOWOUT POST! That's where I just shove a bunch of stuff - much more than usual - that doesn't need much comment, and let you have a ball with it. I know there are at least a few out there that actually prefer this mode. I will have very little to say, except for a rant about one of the segments. By chance, this is a very media-heavy offering. Let's begin, shall we?: </p><p>~~</p><p>First up, and what I suspect will be the most popular share for this post, here are 14 great ads promoting Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer, all on the theme of "Give That Man a Blue Ribbon". There is no date on the box (see the scan and photo, below) - maybe someone out there knows when these are from: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4d1gmgCoT7uG1YujfgGQJGO6fOHTfewtFcY_a4W-HzuqCzgnDDpbbgpBUsPwAMifz23HPXtJCiJ4diF-Nyz-XVQFs_T2CAwc1Niyw4VDlpZ5ylMvh3aJc19cbYEriqRU6cfe3NQzifTPSnBt6jOK4Gtp-DvMUqOwQyeASWjRHKWG8_3zHMCrGZywyaw/s1572/Pabst.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1572" data-original-width="1570" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4d1gmgCoT7uG1YujfgGQJGO6fOHTfewtFcY_a4W-HzuqCzgnDDpbbgpBUsPwAMifz23HPXtJCiJ4diF-Nyz-XVQFs_T2CAwc1Niyw4VDlpZ5ylMvh3aJc19cbYEriqRU6cfe3NQzifTPSnBt6jOK4Gtp-DvMUqOwQyeASWjRHKWG8_3zHMCrGZywyaw/w400-h400/Pabst.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODczMjk1MTZf/McCann-Erickson%2C%20Inc%20-%20Pabst%20Blue%20Ribbon%2C%2014%20%27Give%20That%20Man%20a%20Blue%20Ribbon%27%20Radio%20Ads.mp3">McCann-Erickson, Inc - Pabst Blue Ribbon, 14 "Give That Man a Blue Ribbon' Radio Ads</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODczMjk1MTZfRElMcng" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimf34hAPccL9_KDvXs0eCJ3wXumtcDuYVRAGcRk2c8M_rBHlbnBvdeqg64bjsp_y7sIthEdLdzQ78Sq78TRvUC7nT-geRiTkKN0h0iP_CKsAzAUo39CiplcZx6t_6AuSJWNv3yPp3609kWnWGNkTzS4exqXtVUVQMqYd4d-6FrIgeoneSVj4duL0a8gA/s1981/Pabst%202.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1750" data-original-width="1981" height="354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimf34hAPccL9_KDvXs0eCJ3wXumtcDuYVRAGcRk2c8M_rBHlbnBvdeqg64bjsp_y7sIthEdLdzQ78Sq78TRvUC7nT-geRiTkKN0h0iP_CKsAzAUo39CiplcZx6t_6AuSJWNv3yPp3609kWnWGNkTzS4exqXtVUVQMqYd4d-6FrIgeoneSVj4duL0a8gA/w400-h354/Pabst%202.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p>~~</p><p>Next, I was very excited to find the following slip of paper inside a tape box:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKsWqFmrtuY9m3obzeSUx27MPAaULONClixXWikjVuzGx3tOzA4JbWduydrFonpT3Uts6hH3pvBP5D9VgDiLKLX_xPV-JJwQswGiCQv_J9Mr1VHBj7n3xDNyvGAIxKjp4TcZ93GyvqjidLgWPjsmQSeV6hAvXLtNGd2nPxNgecyNeJ_dJ81p1kKZMUsw/s1545/Race.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1545" data-original-width="1246" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKsWqFmrtuY9m3obzeSUx27MPAaULONClixXWikjVuzGx3tOzA4JbWduydrFonpT3Uts6hH3pvBP5D9VgDiLKLX_xPV-JJwQswGiCQv_J9Mr1VHBj7n3xDNyvGAIxKjp4TcZ93GyvqjidLgWPjsmQSeV6hAvXLtNGd2nPxNgecyNeJ_dJ81p1kKZMUsw/w323-h400/Race.jpg" width="323" /></a></div><p>... and I looked forward to a tape full of vintage top 40 Television. Sadly, much of the tape has been erased by all manner of oddness, some of which is below, and some of which I'll be sharing at a later date, but a small portion of Clark Race's TV show, clearly from 1960, remained on the tape, and that's what I'll offer up here: </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODczMjk0MDhf/Clark%20Race%20Record%20Hop%20on%20KDKA%20TV%2C%201960.mp3">Clark Race Record Hop on KDKA TV, 1960</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODczMjk0MDhfTTB0UVQ" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>The title of this one should tell you everything you need to know, and the tape itself will say the rest:</p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODczMjk0Mjlf/A%20Phone%20Call%20-%20Ken%20Wants%20to%20See%20You.mp3">A Phone Call - Ken Wants to See You</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODczMjk0Mjlfb083MDg" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Okay, here's my rant. Why, exactly, would one spend the clearly excessive time it would take to learn Bob Newhart's comedy act, word for word, pause for pause and idiosyncrasy for idiosyncrasy. I simply cannot fathom it. The material worked because it was Bob Newhart, and because it sounded like Bob Newhart and because there was an audience!</p><p>And yet, here we have a sample - and I'm only providing a sample - of a tape lasting TWENTY FIVE MINUTES, in which some bozo mimics Bob Newhart into the microphone. Without an audience, either. I get garage bands covering Paul Revere and the Raiders in 1966. I do not get "covering" Bob Newhart in 1960 or 1961, alone with a tape recorder. It seems borderline psychotic to me. </p><p>Oh, and this is part of what erased that promising looking Clark Race TV Record Hop, by the way. </p><p>Download; <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODczMjk1MjFf/Bob%20Newhart%20Impressions%20%28excerpt%29.mp3">Bob Newhart Impressions (excerpt)</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODczMjk1MjFfdVViOXU" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>On a short reel of tape, I found two interesting recordings. The first few seconds of the tape had this rather endearing little moment between (I'm guessing) a father and his two sons: </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODczMjk1MjNf/A%20Short%20Interview%20with%20Eric%20and%20His%20Brother.mp3">A Short Interview with Eric and His Brother</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODczMjk1MjNfN3dsaUY" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </p><p>~~</p><p>The rest of that same tape - recorded on both sides - was this interview with a New York Policeman, first about a police-sponsored carnival, and then about what I've called "Youth Today". There is a gap in the conversation where the first side ends and the second side picks up. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODczMjk1Mzdf/Conversation%20with%20New%20York%20Policeman%20-%20Upcoming%20Circus%20and%20Issues%20with%20Youth%20Today.mp3">Conversation with New York Policeman - Upcoming Circus and Issues with Youth Today</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODczMjk1MzdfNXNnVEk" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>And here is an example of a show called "Continental Classroom", which aired on Public Television stations in the years before there was a PBS. If this intrigues anyone, I can offer more - I have several recordings of this show on a collection of tapes I acquired at least 20 years ago. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODczMjk0OTNf/Continental%20Classroom%20-%201-11-63%20-%20The%20Legislative%20Process%2C%20with%20Stephan%20K%20Bailey.mp3">Continental Classroom - 1-11-63 - The Legislative Process, with Stephan K Bailey</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODczMjk0OTNfbWh0Rm0" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>And if you want to enjoy some music, here's an episode of "The Bell Telephone Hour" from the late winter of 1961: </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODczMjk0MjZf/The%20Bell%20Telephone%20Hour%2C%203-17-61%20-%20Much%20Ado%20About%20Music.mp3">The Bell Telephone Hour, 3-17-61 - Much Ado About Music</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODczMjk0MjZfOWNCOFc" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>One of my favorite childhood Saturday morning TV shows ever was a short lived program based on the nonsense writings and drawings of Edward Lear. I've mentioned it here before, when another of my tapes captured a short segment of the show. Here is a longer segment of "Tomfoolery", from one of my own tapes, complete with little 10-year-old Bobby Purse providing an introduction (and a big ol' sniff along the way): </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODczMjk0NTVf/Tomfoolery%20-%20Saturday%20Morning%20Cartoon%20Show%2C%20January%2C%201971.mp3">Tomfoolery - Saturday Morning Cartoon Show, January, 1971</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODczMjk0NTVfS0RuMks" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>Paper reels, as I've mentioned before, were the earliest format of reel to reel tape, before they found that plastic backing worked much better. Any paper reel will be, by definition, more than 70 years old at this point, as they were phased out in 1951 or so. That doesn't mean the recordings on them are all 70+ years old, but most of such tapes do contain recordings of that vintage.</p><p>I don't actually have a date for this short reel of paper-backed reel to reel tape. It contains a Sermon delivered at the Diocese of Buffalo. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODczMjk1MDdf/A%20Paper%20Reel%20-%20Sermon%20at%20the%20Diocese%20of%20Buffalo.mp3">A Paper Reel - Sermon at the Diocese of Buffalo</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODczMjk1MDdfVWhvN3A" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p><p>~~</p><p>And now, for our "Acetate of the Month". Here is a recording made just weeks after V-E Day, near the end of World War II, featuring personnel from an American radio station interviewing American Soldiers in Britain, on June 22, 1945. </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODczMjk0MDNf/6-22-45%20Interview%20with%20American%20Soldiers%20in%20Britain.mp3">6-22-45 Interview with American Soldiers in Britain</a></p><p>Play: <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODczMjk0MDNfZ0h0NHU" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrM2hGhVO9wDJ6cwSgj1xhewlYtwO6W6QAyXXvGVxSLt5_MLomrRhLHKv_uL9Xo_B2oe8I-nTb2m9gXpI3cw1U2IvnUbskQ7B7k4vcIJvBNv4-mxRYKtBgV3VaZxP4KlXvsOhk9WN8eFIN-6pqs3zsq8sMjD1uaro0omIJU62TgeK8lavUBh3JIidCIw/s916/Acetate0002.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="889" data-original-width="916" height="389" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrM2hGhVO9wDJ6cwSgj1xhewlYtwO6W6QAyXXvGVxSLt5_MLomrRhLHKv_uL9Xo_B2oe8I-nTb2m9gXpI3cw1U2IvnUbskQ7B7k4vcIJvBNv4-mxRYKtBgV3VaZxP4KlXvsOhk9WN8eFIN-6pqs3zsq8sMjD1uaro0omIJU62TgeK8lavUBh3JIidCIw/w400-h389/Acetate0002.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>~~</p><p>And now for our "Very Short Reel". Today, I'm offering up three short promos for Evangelist David Nunn, who can read about in dozens of websites. In the case of these promos, we are being urged to listen to "The Healing Messenger Broadcast", which was heard no doubt around the country on various religious radio stations: </p><p>Download: <a href="https://od.lk/d/M18yODczMjk1MTlf/Evangelist%20David%20Nunn%20-%20Three%20Promos%20for%20%27The%20Healing%20Messenger%20Broadcast%27.mp3">Evangelist David Nunn - Three Promos for "The Healing Messenger Broadcast"</a></p><p>Play:<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="25" scrolling="no" src="https://www.opendrive.com/player/M18yODczMjk1MTlfSnlRalo" style="border: 0;" width="297"></iframe></p>Bob Pursehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00595178670595128341noreply@blogger.com1