A couple of months ago, I posted a slide show narration about historic New Jersey, and mentioned in passing that the remainder of the tape contains multiple segments of broadcasts by a New York radio character named Long John. I received multiple responses to share this part of the tape, and am honoring those requests today.
Rather than blather on about the contents here (not because I don't love doing so, but because time is short this month), I'll just offer this up. You can read about Long John Nebel here. Based on that article, and since these recordings are from WOR, we can assume these were taped no later than 1962.
I will say that the main reason I did not initially plan on sharing this tape is that part of it features terrible sound quality. The first several minutes are nearly unlistenable, and the rest features an annoying hum. But don't be thrown by the quality at the start - it does improve, right about the 13 minute mark. Oh, and there seem to be segments of at least episodes heard here.
Enjoy!!
Download: Long John - WOR Radio Excerpts
Play:
For those who are interested, there are many more Long John broadcasts housed here.
More Long John!
ReplyDeletePlease allow me to blather: I recall when you first mentioned Long John a few months ago. That recording triggered a memory from a 1974 CBSRMT episode I have which takes place in or around NYC.
In the episode, the principle character mentions listening to a DJ named "Long Jack" as part of his alibi.
That's when I immediately assumed that Long Jack must be a euphemism for Long John. But not being from the east coast, and never having visited NYC, I didn't actually realize that Long John could be a real person until that moment.
Thanks Bob, for helping me to connect the dots. And thanks again for another fine recording :)
The initial program on the tape the guests are Judith Malina, actress and founder of "The Living Theater" and Rosemary McGrath, a conservative activist with Young Americans For Freedom. At one point Long John Nebel refers to one of the plays put on by the Living Theater starring an actor named Kheigh Dheigh who would later become better known for his role as Wo Fat on "Hawaii Five-O." This dates the program based on what fragmentary info I can Google to 1961 since that's when the plays Nebel mentions were performing.
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