Some Great 1950's Jingles, Bobby Helms in Canada, Recording For the Fun of It, A Glee-Free Glee Club and More!

Let's start off with what I'm guessing will be the most popular offering from today's posting. This tape is labeled as being a group of highlights for someone named Joan Wile, who is featured on each of the records on the tape. Happily for all of us, these recordings turn out to be some absolutely wonderful and vintage radio jingles, from stations all around the country. The tape box had a mailing address for Ms. Wile on it (not copied in the scan, below), in a very fancy location in Manhattan, with a zone ("New York 19") rather than a zip code, marking this as being a tape from prior to 1963. Listening to these jingles, I'm guessing the late 1950's is more accurate. 

And they are simply magical. At the end of the tape, as indicated in handwriting on the box (below), and on the other side of the tape, is a single commercial, in this case for a anti-dandruff concoction with the deadly sounding name of "Dandricide". Unfortunately, this commercial is not quite complete AND has a short gap in it, as well, as you will hear. But still pretty marvelous, you-shoulda-been-there sort of stuff. 

Download: Joan Wile - Radio Station Jingle Demo Reel

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The provenance of this next item is a bit hard to discern. It is an interview with country singer and one-time (short lived) pop music star Bobby Helms (along with, briefly, his wife), by someone whose name might be Armel Shaw, which is a guess at the spelling. The interview is from Canada, and was recorded while Helms was performing in a local venue, probably in 1967. 

However, it doesn't seem to be from a single radio station. Rather, it appears to be that Mr. Shaw was a freelancer who perhaps simply recorded interviews with the stars as they passed through town and then sent the tapes out to radio stations - perhaps (again perhaps) with some sort of arrangement in place whereby they would play them, perhaps just in the hopes that they would do so. I dunno. 

After the interview the tape contained much of the contents of a 1967 Helms compilation album, followed by the brief bit you'll hear at the end, asking folks to record their comments on the interview. This seems to indicate that the tape was passed from station to station, rather than individual tapes being sent all at once to all stations (since he asks that comments be recorded only after other commenter's recordings as bypassed). A very peculiar method of getting one's work out to the listening public. 

Download: Armel Shaw - Canadian Interview with Bobby Helms, Circa 1967

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Now here's a fellow who, I'm guessing, had either a brand new console organ for his living room or a new tape recorder, or perhaps both. And, as he says (and I've titled it) he's going to try it out for the fun of it. Things get off the ground swimmingly with the most disjointed version of "Alley Cat" that you've ever heard. Near the end of this performance, he curses his playing and comments that "I started out wrong". He remained wrong, too, but doesn't seem to have noticed. This segues into an equally scattered, equally beat-less version of "Ramblin' Rose" (I do note that there definitely is a beat in the accompaniment, but there is no attempt to follow it in the melody). A short song I don't recognize follows, and then, after a brief discussion, "On Top of Old Smokey" in another tempo-challenged rendition finishes off the set. 

Unknown - Trying Out the Home Console Organ for the Fun of It, Once

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In the box for a 10 inch reel of tape I found the following concert program: 

Yes, the Vanderbilt Glee Club. I often find that Glee Clubs were, in the past at least, engaging in performances of material that have nothing gleeful about them. This would be one such example. There is no date anywhere on this sheet or the box. 

Indeed, on the tape is that exact program. Only it's not from the concert - or if it was, no one attended, or else no one was impressed enough to applaud. More likely this is a recording of the program - either of a rehearsal or a deliberately recorded run through in order to have a good copy of that program. So there is no audience. This tape is in mono in this sound clip because I do not have a machine that plays two track stereo, a fairly short-lived format which existed from about 1957 to 1960 or thereabouts. 

Download: The Vanderbilt Men's Glee Club - Undated Performance with Organ Interludes

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What comes next on that tape might actually be the second most fun item in today's posting. For the rest of the tape, we have the sort of thing I always identify as a "Hodgepodge" - a motley collection of unrelated recordings in a relatively short space of time. This material was on the rest of side one, and then on the start of side two. 

First, as soon as the Glee Club recording ends, there is a small orchestra flourish, the end of some piece. Then we seem to eavesdrop on a moment during a rehearsal of some sort. It's hard to hear, but the conversation includes a reference to a gospel reading. 

Then, at the one minute mark, someone plays scales on the piano, very heavily and loudly, in octaves, before launching into a sedate version of the hymn "Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!". And then does the octaves and the hymn again. And again. A total of six times, throwing in a short bouncy version of another hymn (which I can't think of the name of) in the middle. 

Now we're up to minute six and onto the brief recordings on side two of the tape. This section is poorly recorded, with a prominent hum (which I've minimized some). There is some bland background music playing, and a few people have a conversation about the recording they're making and the best way to capture it. After two and a half minutes, the music segues into a classical piece that I'm guessing someone will recognize, and that lasts until the other channel of the Glee Club tape (heard backwards on my machine - which I didn't include) interrupts it, and the Hodgepodge ends. 

Download: Hodgepodge Following the Glee Club Recording

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And now another entry in the David Hollister Tapes. If you don't know what these are about, I explained them in this post, and with today's post, I have now shared four of these tapes. 

This one is dated 6/4/80 and 8/3/80, and as it says of the box, its contents are apparently the practicing of three songs "for <a> contest". The three songs are "One Woman Man" (not the ridiculous Paul Anka song, but an equally ridiculous obscurity), "Travelin' Light (heard in two versions, a shorter version early on the tape, and a version with a lengthy verse at the end of the recording - the later to the two sessions, making me think that the song was expanded on in the meantime), and "Marvelous Massage". 

Personally, I find this material fairly awful - and "Marvelous Massage" to be award-winningly hideous - and I suspect that all three are someone's originals, whether Hollister or someone else. Having heard his other material, my guess is that these songs are the work of the vocalist, who is unidentified on the tape box. I will let the listener make his or her own judgments as to this vocalist's abilities.  

Anyway, I have generally enjoyed the Hollister tapes, and although I didn't enjoy this one, I thought I'd share it as another example of their contents. Please let me know if you do or don't want me to continue to delve into this collection. 

Download: From the David Hollister Tapes - Rehearsals of Three Songs, 6-4-80 and 8-3-80 - "For Contest"

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And now, here's our "Acetate of the Month". This is a ridiculous little record, featuring "The Band of America" conducted by Paul LaValle, playing "The Dwight D. Eisenhower March". Nothing actually too ridiculous about that - he was a war hero and certainly worthy of a march. But as you'll hear, the conceit here is that the man's initials were D-D-E, so the song is based, of course, on a musical phrase using those tones. Yay! Let's march! 

Download: NBC Reference Recording Acetate - Band of America, Conducted by Paul LaValle - The Dwight D. Eisenhower March

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And finally, here's a "Very Short Reel". Here we have someone reading from a book - almost certainly a novel. I haven't done a lot of digging, but with what I did do, I was unable to find what book is being read. Perhaps someone out there knows, or can figure it out: 

Download: Reading from an Unknown Book

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Two Sets of Radio Commercials, A Demonstration in Mono, A Couple of Guitarists, and a Whole Lotta Union Carbide Phone Calls

 Happy New Year, everyone, 

I'm going to start off with a version of what I wrote on my other blog a week or so ago: 

It's been more than three weeks since I've posted, and I suspect that there will be only this one post this month. I'm absolutely Captain ADHD, and thrive on keeping ridiculously busy - I'm pretty nuts when I don't have too much to do - but this last month has just swept my legs out from under me, with a couple of brief but intense illnesses, end of the year madness and work demands. I hope and intend to be back to two posts a month in February. 

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Before I get to this post's features, I want to make reference to a few comments. But first, I want to acknowledge and just generally thank those of you who have written recently with supportive, thankful and/or appreciative comments about the site in general. Those are all deeply appreciated and give me the encouragement to keep up what I do here. Thank you.  

Some specific comments that you may have missed and which shed light on things I've posted. Regarding this post, someone wrote in: 

Re: WEAM. Based on the references to a back-to-school contest and a daytime high of 84, it would appear to be from late August 1963. Specifically the week of August 23, based on the song positions on this survey matching.

http://las-solanas.com/arsa/survey.php?sv=143773

Regarding what is currently my most recent past post, "Snoopy" made the following observation, one which is very similar to something I almost wrote myself, regarding "oldies": 

Back then, 15 year old music was considered Oldies. Maybe I'm just curmudgeonly but if you played 10 songs from 2009 and 10 songs from 2024, I wouldn't be able to tell one from another. 

I would also like to refer you to this post, about which (in the comments) Eric Paddon has added a great deal of information, specifically about the WOR segment, including the specific dates of those recordings. There is too much text to copy and paste here without bogging things down, but it's very much worth reading. Thanks, as always, Eric. 

There have been a lot more, and I am quoting here (and below) from comments that are as much as six months old. That's how far behind I've gotten. I'm gonna try to be more up-to-date, going forward. 

Anyway, and finally, two frequent commenters, each of whom has his own collection of rare recordings, posted about new "old" finds that each of them has shared. 

Kyle writes: I have found a Christmas home recording from the 1950s

And "OldRadios" has uploaded a radio "Laugh-in" type show called "Funny Birds" to his site at archive.org

In the case of both Kyle and OldRadios, clicking on their names will show you further postings, including more old audio. 

Thanks, guys! 

~~

Okay, I'm going to start with two fairly wonderful (well, with a significant exception) advertising demo reels. The first one is from Chuck Blore and Don Richman Incorporated, a company headed by two men who seem to be considered legendary in the radio advertising field - look each of them up online. 

This tape has fifteen ads, the last of which is that "significant exception" to the wonderfulness that I just mentioned. That last one is more like a hard slap upside the head. Here's the tape box: 

Download: Chuck Blore and Don Richman Incorporated - Advertising Demo Reel

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The second advertising reel - almost exactly the same length as the first - comes from Don Piestrup, who you can also find online but who does not appear to have been nearly the "name" talent that the above two gentlemen were, although there still exists a Big Band which plays his music. 

This tape features 13 ads, and the box also helpfully guides us in what we're going to hear here: 

Download: Don Piestrup - Advertising Demo Reel

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Here's the rather esoteric front cover of the tape box: 

And the side: 

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Here's something a little different. I have shared several Stereo Demonstration tapes here - in the early days of stereo sound - which debuted on reel tape nearly two years before it became a reality on records - tape recorder companies produced demonstration reels to show off their wondrous machines and the spacious sounds they could produce. 

But before that, tape recorder manufactures also wanted to demonstrate the wonders of reel tape. And so there are some (although apparently not as many) monaural demonstration tapes out there. And this is one of them. It's from the Omegatape company. Side one of the tape provides excerpts from some of the pre-recorded tapes the company currently was offering. 

But then, on side two, there is a series of test tones to be used in some way for head alignment, then a timing test to see if your machine is running at exactly the right speed. (Either this recording was itself flawed or my machine runs slightly fast - which I don't think is the case - as the blips go by in about 58 1/2 seconds.) Highlights from more Omegatape offerings finish off the reel. 

Download: Omegatape Monaural Demonstration and Test Tape

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Here is a booklet which came with the tape: 

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Here is about 21 minutes of what I've called "A Couple of Guitarists Fooling Around and Duetting". See if you don't think that title is accurate. And sufficient as an introduction.

Download: A Couple of Guitarists Fooling Around and Duetting

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Robert W. Morgan was a hugely popular radio dj and personality from the late 1960's until shortly before his death in 1998. For a while in the late 1970's, he produced a syndicated program titled "Special of the Week". How the word "Special" was defined in terms of a program which apparently ran in a regular timeslot once a week is a mystery to me, but anyway, I came across a tape containing more than half of his episode about the band Chicago, and I thought I'd share it here. 

For all of his talk about the band's Jazz-Rock roots and status, Morgan plays precious little here of the Chicago material which falls within that genre. Perhaps it was featured in the earlier part of the program, which isn't captured here. But then again, that would have been the point at which to mention it, not while largely playing tripe such as "Saturday in the Park" and "Just You 'N Me". 

This particular broadcast was aired on WRBR, South Bend, IN, during a fundraising event for St. Jude's Hospital for Children, and there are a few cutaways for information about that event, during the broadcast. 

Download: Robert W Morgan's Special of the Week, Featuring Chicago - 11-16-80 - WRBR, South Bend, IN

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Okay, here is a tape most of you might skip over entirely but others may find weirdly fascinating. It comes from a 10 inch reel, one which only had a small amount of tape on it. But that small amount of tape contained over 100 minutes of recordings, because it was recorded at the rarely encountered speed of 15/16th of an inch per second. 

You know when you see those movies or videos in which a reel to reel machine is barely moving in the background, presumably recording the goings-on in that location? Well, those may be going at 15/16ths or even slower. And that's what we have here. 

These are calls made by and received by a couple of men who were manning the phone at some sort of business hub for Union Carbide. As someone mentions well into the recording, the company had recently installed a recording system which engaged every time the phone was picked up, whether it was for call out or a call in. 

And so, we have all manner of calls into and from the field, as well as, at one point, a call to the wife of one of the men manning the phone, as well as a few other contacts. I won't pretend to have ANY idea what it is that is being discussed - a lot of numbers, percentages, levels and such are thrown about, and a good number of people are attempted to be reached, or call back, or whatever. 

It can be sort of mesmerizing. I did not listen to this all in one sitting, and can't imagine doing so, but the entire recording is fascinating in its own way, a slice of life from an extremely specific time and place, and an unusual glimpse of some people doing some very specific jobs, the likes of which most of us know nothing about. 

(By the way, the first few calls are VERY soft, but the volume increases substantially, to a normal listening level, just after the one minute point. There are a few soft moments later in the recording, as well)

Download: Union Carbide Phone Calls

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And finally, the "Very Short Reel" for this post. This three minute segment comes from a tape wherein the rest of the recordings were exceptionally poorly recorded radio broadcasts, and I mean exceptionally poor to the point of being unlistenable (and I'll listen to just about anything on a tape) and unintelligible. 

I've called this "A Short Conversation At Home", and in it, a man records (and talks to) what sounds like a considerably older woman. Extremely innocuous conversations follow (well, except for one statement about a girl who is prettier than Gail). Then, after the machine is stopped and re-started, she is told not to whine, and then talks about what a nice voice she's been told she has, except that "it sure don't sound like it on that". My assumption is that she had just listened to the previous segment. My assumption is that she'd never heard her own voice recorded, prior to that moment. 

Unknown: A Short Conversation At Home

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Lots of New Year's Fun, A Couple of '70's DJ's, and More John Birch Than I Can Stand

Greetings, and Happy Almost New Year!

I planned to set aside some time in order to be able to make my typical extensive (or even my sometimes typical pithy) remarks about the New Year's Eve-related and other items I put aside for the last post of the year, but I got an infection last week and was laid up in a considerable amount of pain (and did a lot of sleeping) between Monday and Friday of last week, so all of that re-listening didn't happen. 

But since this is a New Year's Eve themed post, I need to get it out anyway, so I will move forward with virtually no comments except for those offered on the two most recently listened to items, both of which feature DJ' Airchecks. 

Here's one called "Don's New Year's Eve Party. It's from the end of 1958, and I will let you discover whatever charms caused me to set it aside as good enough to share on some late December day. Enjoy!

Download: Don's New Year's Eve Party, 12-31-58

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I do have a bit I can say about this next tape, as I listened to it for the first time just last month. It it a DJ Demo Reel, made up of an entire shift performed by the cleverly named "Jack Daniels" at WTMA, Charlston, South Carolina, on 5/2/72. WTMA clearly played the top 40 hits of the day, but also regularly went back in time, sometimes close to 15 years back in time, for oldies. 

This air shift tape is very aggressively "scoped", so it is an extremely choppy listen, but like most of such tapes, there's still enough here to make hearing it worthwhile. 

Download: Jack Daniels Aircheck, WTMA, Charleston, SC, 5-2-72

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This one is just labeled "A New Year's Eve Party". Again, I'm sure there's enough here to explain why I bothered to set it aside for future use. You can discover that sans further elucidation from me. 

Download: A New Year's Eve Party

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My more-or-less "prepared items" - three New Year's items and two Air Checks - were rather short. So here's something long which may well be of interest to some of you. It's a tape I listened to last year, and will never listen to it again. I have, in the past, featured many tapes from a collection of John Birch materials that I unwittingly purchased about two decades ago. Today, it's time for more - a lot more - of their particular brand of idiocy. First, there is an explanation of what you are expected to do and be when you join the Birchers and then, for the balance of this two hour tape, Dan Smoot presents several of his "reports". 

Quoting myself here from a previous Bircher posting, but Mr. Smoot, like most of his brethren, was clearly trying to present Birchers as reasonable people who were alarmed by things happening in the government of the day, while behind the scenes, the larger group's beliefs, desires and plans were off-the-charts batshit crazy.  

I think I still have a bunch of tapes from that batch, so this may not be the end of the road for them, on this site. 

Download: The John Birch Society - What's Expected of a John Birch Society Member & Several Episodes of "Dan Smoot Reports"

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Now it's time for an "Acetate of the Month"! This one has a lengthy and descriptive title which pretty much sums up the contents of its nearly five minute length. I have no date for this item, and nothing was written on it. 

Download: Audiodisc Unlabeled Acetate - New Year's Eve - White Christmas, Joking and Noisemaking, Let Me Call You Sweetheart

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Finally, our "Very Short Reel" for the end of the year. And again, I listened to this one last month, just after I listened to "Jack Daniels". A DJ going only by the name "Jonathan" seems to have put together a tight demo reel highlighting specific aspects of his work - a phone call from the loser of a contest, a live commercial read and just a bit of DJ patter over the end of a few songs, the starts of a few others, and a prize winning phone call. All wrapped up in three minutes. 

Download: "Jonathan" - Short Air Check Sampler from WGOW-AM, Chattanooga, Tennessee

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Christmas (Almost) Through and Through

As I've done just about every year, I am again offering up a Christmas post. The only difference is that one of today's tapes also contained significant (and interesting) non-Christmas related material, so I've tacked that on at the end. 

First, and perhaps most interesting culturally, is this tape I came across somewhere, featuring former first lady (and so much more) Eleanor Roosevelt reading from "A Christmas Carol" to a group of children, as well as some chatter afterwards. This came to me on two tapes, but I've joined them here.  Curiously, this tape is dated 1/25/56, but I have to think that's actually 12/25/56 or something - why would she have been reading a Christmas story in late January. 

Anyway, this recording does not seem to have been shared anywhere, outside of this offering, and I can find no reference to her having read this book on 1/25/56 or on any other date in such a setting, among her published diaries, which can be found online. Perhaps I missed it. Anyway, it's a pretty neat, rare recording. 

Download: Eleanor Roosevelt Reads "A Christmas Carol"

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Next up, a recording I've labeled "Christmas and Winter Songs and Poems with a Young Child", and that pretty much sums it up. Starting with "A Visit From St. Nicholas and progressing through some songs and some conversation, this is, as far as I'm concerned, an adorable recording. 

Download: Christmas and Winter Songs and Poems, etc, with a Young Child

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Now, let's drop in for nearly an hour of Music and Conversation at Senator Smith's house. It's 1951. I think I once tried to figure out exactly who this "Senator Smith" was - I think he was a state senator - but attempts just now to remind myself were unsuccessful. I suspect someone will chime in. 

Download: Music and Conversation, Christmas Night, 1951, at Senator Smith's House

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This one is nothing more than a short excerpt from a radio presentation of some Christmas hymns and songs, complete with a bit of historical information from an announcer. 

Download: A Short Radio Christmas Program

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On one of those tiny, three inch reels, I found this brief compendium of holiday programming, including some moments from the Glen Campbell show, among others. I've been unable to determine the year for these recordings - again, maybe someone else can figure it out. 

Download: The Glen Campbell Show and Other TV Recordings, Christmastime

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And finally, the entire contacts of a tape which starts with a chorus rehearsing some Christmas songs and goes on to include some interesting country music recordings. 

The choir rehearsal is most interesting to me for the presence of a lilting melody which I found belongs to a Mexican hymn, here translated into English. It's quite beautiful and the words are very effective. I only found one website which features the lyrics to this song in English, and that is here. It's called "Pedida de la Posada" or "The Search for Lodging".

Download: A Choral Group Rehearses Christmas Songs

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When that rehearsal is over, most of the rest of side one of the tape contains a short recording of Kenny Biggs playing country music on WEEP. I featured another tape featuring the same singer/deejay about 18 months ago. My tapes have been moved so many times that it's hard for me to know for sure, but perhaps these were from the same collection. 

Download: Kenny Biggs on WEEP, Pittsburgh

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On the other side of the tape are several recordings by a country and western band. There appear to be at least a few different sessions recorded here, but I'm guessing they are all from the same band. Perhaps someone out there will disagree. There was also music from a band on the last few seconds of side one, and I've tacked those onto the end of this section. 

Download: A Few Songs from a Country Band

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Finally, the band music heard above is followed by some VERY poorly recorded material, also from WEEP, and also apparently involving Kenny Biggs. This is music which was broadcast live over that station from The New Aurora Hotel, which was located in the extraordinarily chunkily named "The McKees Rocks Bottoms" area of Pittsburgh. Despite the poor recording - which I've attempted to improve, to little effect - I thought this was worth hearing. 

Download: Country Music from The New Aurora Hotel in The McKees Rocks Bottoms, on WEEP

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I wanted to get this out a week before Christmas, and have failed to do that already, so the Acetate of the month and the Very Short Reels feature will not be featured in this post. 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

A JFK Remembrance, A City Councilman's Ad, More Voices from a "Small" Town, A Stereo Sampler, Geraldo Plays for You, and Some Animal Voices

Happy Post-Thanksgiving to all who celebrated it a few days ago! 

As I was sitting at my work desk around 12:15 or 12:30 PM on Friday of last week, it occurred to me that it was almost exactly at that moment on that same date, 61 years earlier, that John F. Kennedy was shot and killed. I shared this thought on Teams with, well, my team, to a big round of no response. 

But it did remind me of this tape, which I think is perfect to lead off today's post, seeing as how it also aired on an anniversary of that event, and served as a commemoration of that event. Here, from 1968, is that tape: 

Download: Commemoration of the Death of JFK - Radio Broadcast - 11-22-68

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And now, just a bit too late to tie in with the recent election, here are a group of folks making multiple attempts to get a lengthy political advertisement just right. The subject of the ad is a then-alderman in the Chicago City council, a Republican (sometimes, the only Republican) in that Democratic Party dominated council, and apparently quite a thorn in the side of Mayor Richard J. Daley. His name was John Hoellen, Jr. You can read about him here. It took me quite a while - and some help from an outside source - to find out who the subject of this promotional song was, as his name is misspelled on the tape box. Have a look: 

You'd think the people who were hired to perform on a commercial in support of someone who know how to spell his name. On the other hand, I would also agree with the tape box that this material is "Junk". I'm going to say that this was probably recorded in support of Hoellen's 1963 race for re-election to the council, as the song is a ham-fisted knock off of the 1962 hit "Big Bad John". You can get the gist of this session by listening to the first five minutes or so, since the entire tape consists of nearly identical, thudding performances of the same two minute, fifteen second commercial. Most of them were recorded at 15 IPS, the last few were at 7 1/2 IPS. 

I'd have to guess that Hoellen was re-elected in spite of this material, rather than in anyway because of it. 

Download: Unknown - Recording a Political Ad for "Big Bad John Hoellen"

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Just over eight years ago, I posted a set of raw tapes from the production of a PBS television episode, titled "Life in a Small Town". At the time, I wrote this: 

For today, here's an interesting reel, one which captures the raw tapes for a show - I believe a local PBS show from the Maryland area - called "People In Process". I can find no references to this show, but admittedly haven't looked that hard.

The investigation here (such as it is) is into how people in a small town view life in a small town. That they chose the city of Annapolis, Maryland, which is the capital of the state, strikes me as weird, especially given that the town had 30,000 residents in the late '60's and early '70's, which is when I'm guessing this is from. Perhaps it's because I was raised in a town of 4000 people, but 30,000 people isn't a "small town" to me.

Today, I have another reel containing more raw tapes from that same production (actually, a comparison of the two boxes shows this to be the early recorded of the two). Here 'tis: 

Download: People in Process - More Raw Tapes for "Life in a Small Town"

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And here's that box: 

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In the early days of reel to reel recording, and in particular, the early days of stereo (which was introduced on reels in 1957, a year before it made its way onto records), tape recorder manufacturers and companies producing pre-recorded tapes, provided their customers with sampler and demonstration tapes to indicate the wonders of reel to reel sound. I've shared many of these before, and here it yet another, from the Replica label. Replica releases some amazing albums, a few of which are in my collection. But as far as I can tell, they did not dive very deeply into the Reel to Reel market. This sampler's narrator mentions that they had only produced seven tapes so far (each of which is "sampled" here), and I cannot find anything online to indicate that the reel division of their label made it out of 1958, or beyond 8-10 releases. 

Download: New Adventures in Sound - A Stereo Sampler From Replica

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Reaching into the past of this blog yet again, six months ago, I featured some segments from a tape of 1961 BBC musical programming. Here is another segment from that same tape, in this case, "Melody Hour with Geraldo and His Orchestra. Play It, Geraldo! (or should that be "Conduct It, Geraldo"?):

Download: BBC - Melody Hour with Geraldo and His Orchestra- Circa Summer, 1961

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Finally, I'm going to stretch the concept of a "Very Short Reel" today. I started off focusing on tapes which, in their entirity, were under five minutes. Then I started featuring segments of tapes which were under five minutes, even if the segment was part of a much longer tape, and recently I've been pushing that limit to six minutes. Today, I will revert to an entire tape - a large reel with only 7:22 of recording tape on it, but, as noted, will extend the definition of "short" to 7:22. 

And this is really worth hearing. A young man - sounds like he is perhaps in his mid to late teens - starts the tape by impersonating my choice for the worst section of "The Wizard of Oz", that being the "If I Were King of the Forest" segment. He then goes on, for whatever reason, to portray several creatures from the animal kingdom, each with its own vocal delivery and name. That's all well and good, but when he's done, we hear the last few seconds of what he was erasing with his animal talk - a much more serious and rather intimate sounding discussion of a most intimate experience he'd had. I very much would have preferred to hear what sounds like it much have been a pretty fascinating little vocal essay in complete form than hearing the animal bit which erased it.  

Download: A Boy Impersonates a Series of Animals (and a bit more)

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Guest Post: Some Great 1950's Rarities - Jazz Radio, Lee Hazen, A & P, Rod Serling's Music Show & The Midwestern Hayride

Today, I have something special for everyone. Since the summer of 2019, I have been in an email exchange with a man named Matt, who has a vast reel to reel collection of his own. He has been nice enough on two occasions to send me 1800 foot reels full of some of the treasures from his collection. I don't think I understood after he sent the first one that he meant for me to share whatever I wanted to, on this site (and I need to go back and revisit that tape, now that I do understand that), but he made this clear to me a few weeks ago regarding the most recent tape he sent. And so that's what I'm going to do. I'm also going to turn over the comments, for the most part, to him, and I will share those excerpts that I've chosen, from his tape to me, in the order in which they appear on the tape. It made for a somewhat shorter post than usual, so I have tacked on a few of my own items at the end. 

The first segment features DJ Bill Marlowe appearing on WILD radio, Boston, on Halloween of 1959. Here's what Matt wrote: 

Bill Marlowe was a Boston "star" who did remotes, pitched everything, and was quite the personality. The reel was marked "Marlowe aircheck" on an old reel of Irish. I have a feeling it's a tape of another tape. It was given to me by a friend who used to trade airchecks with me . I have another Marlowe check but it's MOR schlock. He jumped around a bit, ending up at WRKO radio in Boston? NYC?  I recall reading something about a riot that happened at a dance party that Marlowe was giving. He hated Rock and Roll...Silly Billy !

I will only add that this tape has been "Scoped" (that is, edited down to mostly focus on the DJ), rather haphazardly. There are longer portions of some songs than you would typically hear on a "scoped" reel, and some commercials play in their entirety while others are cut almost completely. It makes for a slightly choppy listen. 

Download: Bill Marlowe on WILD, Boston, 10-31-59

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Next up, a short tape of some guitar music, made by a young man named Lee Hazen, who would go on to do a lot of significant work in the ensuing years. Here again is Matt: 

Lee Hazen made a "demo tape" of some of his recording career since the 50's. The recording of his Lambretta was recorded on an Ampex A 122 at the ripe age of 14. After that he shifted from being a frustrated musician to a top shelf recordist  He started his career at Criteria, then King and finally ending up at Woodland sound. His first major recording job was "The Escorts" who later became the Allman Brothers .In 2002  Lee sold that first recording (master) that was a live show with the Beach Boys at Ormond Beach ,Fla to the Brothers ex roadie.  His first real paying job was with the Nashville songwriters guild working for Glen Snoddy. The two guitar pieces were Lee's compositions from his days at the guild . If you look him up on the net you will find a lot about him  He eventually had his own studio  at his house in Hendersonville 'TN Where he recorded and produced England Dan and John Ford Coley's Hit "I really want to see you tonight". We were good friends until his death a few years back.  Johnny Cash, Linda Ronstadt, Leon Russell, Lonnie Mack ,Dan Fogelberg were some of the few who he either mastered or recorded. Perhaps you recall "Little Black Egg" by the Nightcrawlers?  His neighbor was  Crystal Gayle and when I would visit he would take me to see Lawrence Welk's guitar player who lived up the street.  That cat could play at age 80!

Download: Lee Hazen - Demo Tape, 1961

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The next section of Matt's tape qualifies as our "Acetate of the Month", as it clearly originated on an acetate, even though it came to me on a tape. In the 1950's and 1960's, prerecorded ads were often recorded on acetates which would be used for a week or a month or, to promote whatever the store or business wanted to promote at that moment. I have dozens of these, Matt did not offer up anything worth quoting in this case, but indicated that he has hundreds of them. This undated acetate contains four ads for the A & P grocery store chain. 

Download: Four A & P Ads

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The next segment may be the most fascinating here. That's because it is an early television effort from Rod Serling. "Melody Showcase" appeared on WLW, Cincinnati, and Serling was one of the writers AND one of the performers on this "Let's Put On a Show" styled program. If Serling wrote the genuinely awful and campy sounding transitions here - as phony in terms of feigned enthusiasm and staginess as can be - well, then he certainly got a lot better in the ensuing few years. They come from a large amount of material Matt was gifted with after a friend who had worked at that station had died. Here's what Matt had to say: 

In a corner of the basement was a stack of paper tapes. On direction was mostly preacher talks and a few bits of choral religious singing. When flipped over, they were tapes from the skimmer at WLW. One tape dated from 1953 was "Melody Showcase", with the then-new writer Rod Serling in attendance. He started in Cincy at Channel 12 but moved to what was then Channel 4 - WLW - soon before the recording was made. He tried to be funny but you can tell he wasn't really into such campy fluff.

I think this is amazing stuff, as awful as the actual contents can be at times. Of course, "America's Got Talent" and "The Masked Singer" currently rack up fantastic ratings, so it doesn't seem like this country's overall taste in programming has improved in 70 years. 

Download: Melody Showcase, WLW, Cincinnati, Circa 1953

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The rest of that same "Melody Showcase" tape contained my favorite item from the entire tape that Matt sent me: a few minutes of rehearsal from a local show - from the same station, of course - "Midwestern Hayride". Here's Matt again: 

Midwestern Hayride was a regional powerhouse that at times rivaled the Grand ole Opry in listenership . They were a national NBC TV summer replacement I think in 1956 or so . I have about 8 tapes from the 1950's. One is from the control room of the TV station which is a real hoot. Bonnie Lou was an excellent yodeler and cut a few sides . One charted on the country charts but I can't recall when. From the early 50's to mid seventies WLW Crosley/Avco owned 4 TV /Radio Stations-Cincy, Columbus, Dayton ,Indy and a radio only in Atlanta.   Midwestern Hayride was a weekly program and always had a good book until the demise of country musical programs .

Download: Rehearsal Session for 'Midwestern Hayride', WLW, Cincinnati, Circa 1957

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Now, I love that entire segment, but far more than the rest of it, I adore the arrangement and performance of a song heard in pieces - and then almost complete - in the first half of the tape, a song called "The Lord is a Busy Man". I first heard Matt's tape about three weeks ago, maybe a bit more, and I have listened back to this particular song (the nearly complete run through) nearly every day since. I've isolated it here as a single offering in case some of you do not care to listen to the entire 12 minute segment above but might be willing to hear a two minute song if I rave about it. 

Lyrically, this is just cutesy. Presumably, these lyrics about what The Lord does every day weren't meant to be taken seriously - I'm sure the point was meant to be on the relationship with humanity. But the words are absolutely not the point for me. It's all about that arrangement. WOW. The small backing combo is rocking and swinging their hearts out, and that close vocal arrangement.... well, nearly every single word of the song has four part harmony, most of them sung with all the voices inside of the same octave. Tight, wonderful harmony, nearly all of it based (for all you musicians) around sixth chords. And I'm telling you, I LIVE FOR SIXTH CHORDS. And then those magical moments of unison shouting - especially near the end, when one of the musicians shouts out encouragement....the whole thing is amazing. I had taken an MP3 of this tape on a walk with me and when I got to this song, I was SWOONING. I mean, it just about knocked the wind out of me, and I'd be surprised if it doesn't soon notch its way into my top 100 list of all time (yes, I have such a list). 

And it's definitely the arrangement and certainly not the words: there are other versions of this song out there - it seems to date to about 1955 - and they do nothing for me. 

I hope it lives up to all that for you, dear listener. This is utter perfection in vocal and instrumental arrangement.

Download: Midwestern Hayride Rehearsal - The Lord is a Busy Man

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Thank you SO MUCH, Matt, for everything here. And folks, he's promised there's more if I want it. I certainly do. 

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And now, we're back to things from Bob's collection. I'll round out this post with two items, one VERY long and one VERY short. Sticking with the 1950's theme, here is a two hour audio letter from Mr. and Mrs. Cox to their son Billy, dated October 9th, 1955 (John Lennon's 15th birthday, by the way). Along the way, they go through myriad subjects, don't they? And that's really all I have to say about it!

Download: Barbara Cox and Her Husband - Audio Letter to Son Billy, October 9, 1955

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And as (almost) always, I'll finish with a "Very Short Reel". I have, in several cases recently, shared an excerpt from a longer reel of tape - often the only thing of interest among many minutes or hours of recording. But in this case, I've gone back to the original concept of this feature: this is from a seven inch reel which contained only a little tiny bit of tape. And on that tape was just over five minutes of a guy playing guitar. There are two pieces here - I hesitate to call them songs. During the performances, the guy playing is sort of mumbling something, but I really can't tell if he's singing a melody or just humming notes that fit with his three chords. The second seems more likely to be a recognizable song, but I don't recognize it. So if anyone out there recognizes an actual tune in either of these two performances, please let me (and all of us) know. 

Download: Unknown - A Guy and a Guitar

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Vintage TV Variety with George Gobel, Some Paranormal Material, The Piano Man, A Few Minutes with Sonja, More David Hollister and Cracking Corn

 Greetings!

I like to get two posts out every month, and this being the night of the 31st, I am speedily putting this one together, so I won't have too much to say. 

Vintage television programming seems to be among the more popular things I offer here, so here's something fun: The George Gobel show for the last week of 1958. George Gobel, I suspect, is largely forgotten today by anyone under 60 years old, but he was quite popular in the 1950's and into the early 1970's, had his own variety show, and appeared frequently on the tonight show and other talk and variety shows, including a stint on The Hollywood Squares. 

This episode was a bit of cross promotion, with the entire cast of "Leave It to Beaver" appearing on the show, as well as Eddie Fisher and Maureen O'Hara, among others. This recording is of the entire show, complete with commercials, so enjoy a flashback to nearly 66 years ago. 

Download: The George Gobel Show, 12/30/58

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I really don't know anything about this next recording. It is from the same tape from which I took the most recent recordings of Jack Eigen and the recordings I posted last month featuring Arthur Godfrey. meaning that it is from sometime around June of 1969. It is a documentary exploration of the paranormal. 

Download: Paranormal Radio Show, Circa June, 1969

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Now here is a fairly lengthy tape which may well put you to sleep, or else perhaps you'll find it interesting, entertaining, soothing, who knows. This is a tape, seemingly from the very early 1980's, in which a man plays the piano and runs through a whole bunch of piano-man type songs. There are standards from way back when, songs I don't recognize, and songs which, at the time, would have been quite recent. 

This comes from the very same tape which featured "The Bob Terry 50th Birthday Party", which I shared one month ago, so it's quite possible that this is also Bob Terry, but I have no proof of that, so I'm not labeling it as such. 

Download: A Piano Man Runs Through His Repertoire

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This next tape, all of eight minutes long (exactly) features a little girl named Sonja (or perhaps Sonya) singing some of her favorite songs and telling a few stories. I'm sure this is fingernails-on-a-blackboard for some people, but I love this sort of stuff. I'd listen to this all day before I'd willingly spend time listening to the piano man I shared above. 

Download: Sonja Sings, Tells Stories and Talks

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For this next tape, I refer you back to my first post about David Hollister, the composer whose tapes I have been gifted with. This is the third tape I've shared from that Hollister collection, and the second which has a variety of recordings on it. 

This tape box has stuff written all over it. Here is the back of the box and the two panels from inside the box: 

I am truly rushing this post out, so I have not taken the time to try and match up what's on the tape with what's on the box - some of the writing above seems to contradict what other parts of the box say is on the tape. And it's only a 50 minute tape - I'm not at all sure it lines up with the writing completely, and perhaps not at all. Perhaps someone out there will figure it out for all of us. 

Download: David Hollister Variety Tape # 2

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The "Very Short Reel" feature is taking this post off, but I do have an "Acetate of the Month", and it's a "Very Short Acetate of the Month". This is from a "Voice-O-Graph 6 inch acetate, which was typically a record that you could make in a booth at a restaurant or a department store of the like and take home with you. I've written before about how we made one in downtown Chicago with my beloved grandmother and managed to damage it beyond repair before we got home. 

Anyway, here we have some kids singing a song I don't recognize, followed by a few chorus of the "Jimmy Crack Corn" section of the song "The Blue Tail Fly", sung to a melody I also don't recognize. It's all of 63 seconds long. 

Download: Voice-O-Graph 6 Inch Acetate - Unknown Song and The Blue Tail Fly

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