Recordings from the Very Dawn of Home Reel to Reel Recorders

Howdy, everyone, and a very happy (upcoming or otherwise) New Year to you and yours! Be sure to go all the way to the bottom of this post before leaving to see my family's unique Christmas Card.

I'm going to ask your indulgence today, as I seriously geek about a tape that I recently bought. Maybe this will hold the same fascination for you, maybe not, but this tape is as rare as they come. I'm going to go on at length, so I hope you'll allow me this geekiness. Let me explain:

As I've written about multiple times elsewhere, part of my fascination with reel to reel tapes and recordings began with my own family's recordings, which went back to 1952 (I was born in 1960), and the behemoth tape recorder on which they were recorded. No one else I knew, when I was growing up, had recordings of any sort that captured their family life, or the things they liked to listen to, from the 1950's. And until this month, my family's first recording, from December of 1952, was the oldest home/family reel recording I'd ever heard, from anyone.

Not anymore. I just purchased a small set of reels, among which were included a set of paper reels (that is, magnetic tape backed by paper, rather than some type of plastic, a format which was phased out at least by 1952), some of which contain home recordings. And the first tape I played from this collection contains recordings which are audibly (and confirmed by the writing on the box) dated to Labor Day of 1949, just over 70 years ago.

I can't imagine how much a reel tape machine cost (in 2019 dollars), in the late 1940's. Recall the initial price for VCRs, and for CD players (and CDs) when those formats were new. I know the first CD I bought cost nearly $30, and some of the players cost a thousand dollars in the early days. Such is the price of new technology. And this family's machine had to have been bought by the summer of 1949. Three years later, in 1952, when my father bought a used studio model, the "new" price for the model he bought was $400, about $4000 in today's dollars. (Dad really must have really wanted the new technology, since he was a relatively new husband and father just starting out on his life's work at the time.) I suspect that in 1949, the cost was even steeper.

Virtually no one outside of the Nazis (who invented reel tape technology) and the American companies (which "borrowed" and studied the technology after the Allies brought it home, for the first few years after the war) knew anything about this technology before 1948.

I recall that the great folk and blues singer Lead Belly, during what became known as his "Last Sessions", recorded in the late fall of 1948, can be heard asking if they don't have to break after five minutes of recording - an artist who had spent much of the decade in various recording studios had never seen a reel tape machine before 1948, and expected to have to stop after every song for a change of disk. The notes to the album refer to the machine used as having been "experimental".

And I also recall that it wasn't until 1949 that Les Paul acquired his first reel to reel machine, and proceeded to revolutionize recording, inventing effects and procedures and making some of the best records ever made in the process.

So this family acquired a reel to reel machine roughly the same time, or a few months after Les Paul began fiddling with his Ampex machine.

Just to clarify, I'm sure that plenty of radio stations, recording studios and, of course, the reel to reel manufacturers had plenty of these machines by 1949. And I have a handful of reels from that era which contain radio broadcasts and records. But nothing from a family's living room.

I would venture a guess that no one else in this family's town, city, county or general region had one of these. To take it a step further (and perhaps I'm underestimating here), I would guess that, in the summer of 1949, the number of private citizens that had a reel to reel machine in the home was numbered in the dozens or hundreds. But this family had one. And I have their tapes.

They are not, I will hasten to add, all that much fascinating as hunks of recording. The first part of the tape has some very dull popular and religious music, and the family sections are bland enough that, were it not for the age of the recordings, I probably wouldn't have considered sharing them. And yet.... wow. Just wow. 1949.

Okay, so what exactly does this thing sound like? Well, here's that opening section, containing just untder nine minutes of the music I just mentioned:

Download: Various Artists - Variety Music
Play:

And here's the meat of the recording - a family with small children, encouraging them to talk - say prayers, say their names, say other things, etc., first on Labor Day, 1949, and then once again, two years later, on October 3rd, 1951. This section runs 23 minutes, and contains a couple of minutes of some more music at the end, which I didn't feel like separating out. I do get a kick out of the fact that the children's prayers, clearly recited on a regular basis, include a wish for such folks as The Easter Bunny, but otherwise, this is garden variety home recording stuff. except, again, 1949. If these children are still around, they're probably in their mid 70's now:

Download: Unknown Family - 1949 & 1951 Recordings
Play:

(Incidentally, as an aside for those who are as geeky as me about this - these 1949 tapes (there is also another one, containing nothing but bland music) are recorded in a fashion that must have been phased out VERY quickly, as they are only the second and third tapes I've ever played which are recorded this way. Rather than whole track mono (where the entire track is used going one direction, very common in the early days), or half track mono (where one half of the tape is recorded on going one direction, the other half recorded on when you flip the tape over - the typical "mono" recorder style of the 1950's and later), the tapes I'm referring two are recorded on half the track, but right down the middle of the tape, leaving the outside quarter on either side blank. On my stereo machine, the recording comes in on the right channel on both sides. Those who understand reel tape recording will follow me, and I'm wondering if any fellow geeks are familiar with this recorder style - it would have used only half the available space, but also only allowed you to record on one side. Very peculiar and unusual.)

~~

For those of you who didn't find that scintillating, I have a sort of sequel to a post I made back in March of 2018, from a network radio series called "The American School of the Air". That posting featured a rather exploitative play-let about a cad trying to take advantage of a young woman, followed by a remarkably (for its day) frank discussion about sex ed. That program was from the subset of episodes of the series called "Opinion Please". I have a stack of tapes from this show.

Today's tape comes from the subset of episodes called "Tales of Adventure", although I don't find it remotely adventurous, and I have a hard time understanding exactly what was supposed to be educational here - it was, after all, "The American School of the Air". The play this time is called "This Football", and if there is a message, it seems to be, "don't use derogatory names to insult older first generation Italians who have no idea how to be a supportive parent". However, even though there is a plot point involving an insult, nothing is really done about it as far as using this event as a teaching tool, within or outside of the play. In fact, this is more of a soap opera than anything educational.

Please enjoy "This Football":

Download: The American School of the Air - This Football (From "Tales of Adventure")
Play:

~~

Next, here's the latest tape I pulled from the stack of "Very Short Reels". In this case, it is a pair of 30 second ads for Dairy Queen. The box it was housed in is scanned below the sound files, but the writing on the box, which is for a 60 second commercial, doesn't match the contents of the reel. And someone has also screwed up the second commercial, as you'll hear less than a second into it.

Download: Dairy Queen - Two 30-Second Ads
Play:

And finally, as promised, and few days late, here is my family's Christmas Card. Just so you know, for most of the last several years, my family has been using the Christmas Card concept as a jumping off point for a bit of performance art. Each of us has supplied ideas in the past - this was was mine. There's a lot going on here... I'm in the middle, with my adult kids on either side of me and my wife on the far left. On the right is my daughter's boyfriend.

Christmas, 1974

Good tidings and a Merry, Happy whatever you're having to all!

One year ago tomorrow, I shared a tape of The Wessel Family celebrating Christmas in 1973, and as a teaser, mentioned that there was a 1974 recording on the flip side of the same tape. Today, I am sharing that tape. The text I wrote last year fits nicely again here, except that I've changed the length of last year's feature (106 minutes) to the even longer duration indicated below, and edited it a bit. Here's what I wrote:

Today's feature, advertised in the name of this post, is simply a recording of a family's Christmas celebration, complete with stockings, gifts and greeting cards, recorded on Christmas, in 1974. For those with a sentimental side, there are multiple sweet moments here, and for those who simply enjoy the "Fly On the Wall" nature of some of the home recorded tapes I've provided over the years - this is a goldmine. It is, however, very lengthy, running the length of many major motion pictures (126 minutes). So sit back, relax and enjoy the Christmas celebration of the Wessel family.

Download: The Wessel Family - Christmas, 1974
Play:

~~
And now, dessert. In keeping with the ongoing "very short tapes" project, here is another one pulled at random from the stack. It's an ad for Arkansas Western Gas, titled "Anti-Heat Pump", and its from the fall of 1993:

Download: Arkansas Western gas - Anti-Heat Pump Ad
Play:

Earl Godwin, Fizzola Cola and a Vintage Radio Promo Presentation

Hi,

Last time around, I acknowledged that I had goofed a bit in trying to stay chronological in my presentation of Scotch Brand Tape boxes. Specifically, I quickly realized that I had skipped over two relatively brief designs in indicating that Scotch went from the iconic grey-reel-on-black-background box straight into the good-enough-to-use-to-record-an-orchestra box.

I do believe that the latter box was still from the early '60's, for the reasons I outlined in that second post I just linked, but there were two designs that pre-date it, that also came during the period that my family was not buying new tapes, and again, like the orchestra box, I never saw this design until I began collecting other people's tapes.

This box trumpets the fact that, like maybe tape manufacturers in the late 1950's, Scotch was now selling 1800 foot reels, a 50 % improvement in terms of the length of taping tape available - regardless of the speed used - over the previous industry standard of 1200 feet. It keeps the grey-ish tape motif and the general black background, but also has two (very late '50's-ish) clock images and the phrase "extra play". It's a busy image and one that I find very appealing.

And now on to the first of four items I'm sharing today. And forgive my long road trip to get there. I hope its interesting.

I picked this first item because it came up in conversation this week, with some of the children I work with at my church, and I realized with some surprise that I'd never even mentioned this to my own kids, who are now in their late 20's. I'm not even sure any of my friends have ever heard it.

Part of the conversation with these church kids (ages 12-16) included their reference to everyone having to take music theory at the local high school. That struck me as odd.

I commented that at my high school, only those who believed they would be pursuing a career in music took music theory. And, since I had thought that this was where I would be heading (when I was 14, anyway), that I had signed up for Music Theory as part of my Freshman class load - but that there were only about 15 of us in the class. No one had to take it, and no one outside of the 15 of us did. I was encouraged to sign up as a freshman by the teacher of the class, who knew my family (he also thought a music career was in my future). Everyone else in the class was a Junior or Senior, all of them quite focused on careers in music.

The final project, that following spring, was to create a product and write (meaning, submit the sheet music) and record a commercial for the product, using at least one change in tempo or style (I'm sure there were other things we had to include, as well). My product was "Fizzola Cola". As I've mentioned here from time to time, my mother was a professional (and coloratura) classical soprano, so she sang on the commercial. I sang as well, and played the piano.

Here is that ad. The volume at various points is not perfect (the conversation at the start is way too soft, for one thing), and the tape has worn out somewhat in the ensuing 44 years, but it's still worth a listen, I think, and I hope you enjoy it.

Download: Bob and Mary Fran Purse - "Fizzola Cola" Ad
Play:

P.S.: I took the second year of Music Theory as a Senior, still believing at that point that I might pursue a music career. Aside from playing trombone in a pit orchestra for one show, being in a few bands for a short amount of time, and working a few times as a folk singer for children, I never actually did anything that looked like someone who was pursuing a music career. But those two classes made a world of difference for me as a musician and songwriter, even if those things turned out to be solely avocations.

~~

As long as I've focused on my family, I thought I'd also include something I came across a while ago that I had no expectation of finding - a recording of my maternal grandfather in one of his radio broadcasts. Earl Godwin was known as the "Dean of Broadcasters", and was part of the crew that would crowd around President Franklin Roosevelt's desk for press conferences - actually getting to sit next to the president because he was so tall when he stood that the other reporters complained.

He worked for NBC's "Blue" network and remained with the network when it became ABC. I never got to know him, as he died a few years before I was born, and had only heard his voice on one recording, an acetate we owned of a radio tribute to him, on his 75th birthday.

So here I was, listening to a tape I had bought, the earliest one (of several) featuring vintage recordings of day-by-day radio broadcast summaries of the goings-on at the Army-McCarthy hearings, when the announcer introduced commentary from Earl Godwin.

Here is that broadcast:

Download: Earl Godwin - Comments on the Army-McCarthy Hearings
Play:

~~~

Staying on the theme of radio (and the 1950's), here's a vintage (1953) promotional piece from CBS radio - a commercial sales presentation. I'd venture a guess to say that the vocal insert at 8:34 was not intended to be part of the presentation.

Download: CBS Radio - A 1953 CBS Radio Commercial Sales Presentation
Play:

~~

And finally, as promised each post nowadays, I have again grabbed a "very short reel" at random and will offer it up here. This one takes a bit of explanation, as it appears this length of tape was used three times, with each new use erasing part of the previous use. Advertised on the box (see below), is the final use, a painfully shlocky white-rap tribute to Webber's Transmission, from 1997, which has to be heard to believed. After that's over, we hear most of what was being erased, a commercial for a then-upcoming "Bride and Groom" show. Finally, in the last few seconds of tape after that partial ad, we hear an announcer guaranteeing our satisfaction, with regard to.... something. All in 108 seconds.

Download: Noble Broadcast of Toledo - Webber's Transmission, Bride and Groom Show, Satisfaction Guaranteed
Play:

A Homemade Radio Show, For a Friend Out at Sea

Has it really been a month since I posted? I need to work on that, I guess. Anyway, hopefully, today's fascinating and entertaining main item will make up for the lost time. And what's more, I find that in my haste to get last month's final post up in time, I made an error in the timeline of my Scotch Tape Box series, and skipped two designs entirely. I want to get this up while I have the time, but I'll rectify that oversight next time.

~~

I was contacted back in August by Scott F., who wanted to pay tribute to a late family friend, Brian Nelson, of Chicago. His suggestion (and offer) was that I do this by sharing an example of the sort of thing Nelson did, back in the late 1960's, for Scott's dad, who was out at sea with the navy for much of the decade. In the simplest terms, it's an attempt to create a faux radio broadcast, featuring a mix of the music of the day, and some of the records that Nelson liked and loved, and those which he believed Scott's father liked and loved.

This tape is from 1968. Going into a bit more detail, as you'll hear, the "broadcast" includes a summary of the previous year's enormous Chicago snow storm (known forever more as "The Big Snow"), which seems to be excerpted from a real radio station's presentation about the storm, two phone calls to mutual friends, in order to capture their voices and thoughts on the tape, and brief comments from members of Nelson's family, who happened by the room while he was recording. It's a big production, clearly (see below) using quite a bit of equipment, and the final product is a bit of a mish-mash of music radio style, local news, audio letter and a few other things.

Scott F. offered up the following information:

Brian Nelson was one of my dads best friends, if not his best friend, for years. Brian Nelson was the ultimate audiophile. He built his own mixing consoles, modified the preamplifiers and amplifiers he used. In the day, 4 JBL L100’s with 4 Ionovac tweeters powered by a modified Phase Linear 400 that produced a kilowatt total audio. This tape was made in the period of time where Brian was starting to get his equipment up to speed and having been in broadcasting school he was honing his chops making tapes for my father who was serving our country aboard the USS Lawrence from 1962 to 1968. This tape is one of my favorites of the bunch and I hope all that listen to it can enjoy his humor, creativity and craftsmanship. His record collection numbered into the tens of thousands and were all carefully indexed using his own numbering system typed on index cards in library style drawers. I am going to take a guess that Brian would have been 23 or 24 at this time.

The tape Brian sent was a 2400 foot reel, meaning the ability to tape record just over an hour on each side, at the preferred speed of 7 1/2 IPS, And that's what we have here - more than two hours of one friend, involving other friends and family, and sharing the music they loved, in order to entertain a friend at sea. I think it's great fun and very sweet.

Download:

Brian Nelson Side One
Brian Nelson Side Two

Play:





Many, many thanks to Scott.

~~

Before going on, I want to thank those who confirmed that last month's Jack Paar recordings were from June 14th, 1962, with part of the June 15th show at the end. I'd also like to thank the person who suggested that the Coca-Cola ads were meant to suggest all the things you could be doing, and doing more effectively, while drinking a Coke. And yet another person seems to have confirmed that the short tape of ads I posted likely comes from the Fairmont, West Virginia area. Thanks to everyone for your great comments!

~~

It's been awhile since I shared another example of the unexpectedly large number of recordings I have of shortwave broadcasts from Australia. I no doubt bought a batch of them all in the same place, but at some point, that batch became separated, and I keep coming across them. These are utterly charming segments, and they strike me as a unique and sort of sad illustration of just how much the world has changed in the ensuing 40-50 years. There would be no point in shows like this "Mailbag" today. Also heard is a bit of another show.

Download: More Australian Mailbag
Play:

~~

Finally, it's time for our Very Short Reel of the month. Again, pulled out at random, it's features three ads from The Kidney Foundation, indicating how great it is to be alive.

Download: The Kidney Foundation - It's Great to Be Alive (3 Ads)
Play:

And here's the paperwork that came with the ads:

Mort Sahl Hosts the Tonight Show! PLUS Some Truly Odd Coca-Cola Ads

Howdy, everyone,

As you will have seen if you read my other blog, this has been a truly hectic and busy month, so I will not be typing nearly as much as I often do, allowing much more to be experienced by the listener without all those comments from me.

But first, I want to continue to the Scotch Tape Box series, and that's where I'll do most of my commenting for today. Two entries ago, I shared the box that seems to have been the one they settled on for most of the 1950's, then last time, I went a bit out of turn and showed the 10 inch reel box that seems to have been their style for quite a while in the '50's and maybe into the '60's.

Below you will find the box I believe came next, and it's a radical change from the "picture of a reel of tape" which had been the focal point, to one degree or another, from each previous design:

I believe this design replaced the iconic black-with-most-of-a-reel design some time in the very late 1950's, and was the going design for a couple of years. I say this both because of the material I've found on such tapes over the years - the likely dates of those recordings, and, most centrally: because I literally never saw one of these until I started collecting tapes in the 1980's. That dovetails nicely with the fact that my family did not have a reel to reel machine that worked well - at all - from about 1960 until the fall of 1963. There would have been no reason to buy tapes during that period.

Now, Scotch is promoting the high quality of the tape, and suggesting via the image, that it is what the studios use - and that was probably fairly accurate. This happens to be a 2400 foot reel, which was twice the length that the first reels of tape had. They had previously expanded to 1800 feet, and now made the tape even thinner and lengthened it again. The box says "Double Length - Double Strength", and while the former was absolutely accurate, the new, thinner tape was not in any way stronger - it was more fragile and more likely to stretch and damage, just as you'd imagine. It got even worse when they thinned the tape again and crammed 3600 feet on the same roll of tape, about a decade later.

~~

Okay, like I said, I'm just going to put up this rare and wonderful tape and let it unspool for your enjoyment, without commenting much at all. Here we have an episode (or I think perhaps parts of multiple episodes - I listened to it months ago) of NBC's "Tonight Show", featuring the guest hosting of Mort Sahl. The main part of the tape is an episode featuring several famous women discussing male/female relationships. I'm fairly certain this comes from the several months between Jack Paar's departure from the show and Johnny Carson's arrival, a period during which NBC had multiple guest hosts for the show. If I had more time, I'm sure I could figure out the date(s) of this recording. This is an amazing 90 minutes of tape.

Download: Mort Sahl and Guests - The Tonight Show (1962)
Play:

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And here's a VERY peculiar tape I heard for the first time, just this week. It features nine Coca-Cola radio, each one of them featuring a string of helpful household hints that, aside from a couple, have NOTHING to do with Coca-Cola, interspersed with the then-current jingle. I'd love to know how these were received in 1971, because hearing them today is befuddling. Make sure you remember to rub lighter fluid on the walls of your house!

Download: Nine 1971 Coca-Cola Radio Ads
Play:

~~

Finally, I again pulled out a "very short tape" from the pile of them I have by the tape recorder, and found that it was labeled ""Clock Jingles". However, that seems unrelated to the tape's actual content, which is a series of ads for several businesses - no doubt in the same market - very likely from the same advertising company. The link below lists the apparent names of the companies (and, for the first one, the radio station). I'm very unsure that I have them all right, but again, maybe someone out there can identify the location and correct names for these companies.

There are 16 1/2 jingles/ads heard here in just 135 seconds. I say "1/2" because the ad that starts at 1:04 is incomplete - it plays just as you'll hear, on the tape.

Download: Unknown - WMMM, Kettering’s Bread, Sorrow’s, First Federal & Corwin’s Ford
Play:

Two Unusual Collections and Two Very Short Tapes

Happy September!

First, I am indebted, and far from the first time, to Eric Paddon, a consistent follower, and one who often chimes in with further or clarifying information when I share media tapes, particularly vintage radio and TV involving celebrates, shows or genres of the past. Last month, I posted excerpts from two episodes of the Bea Kalmus shows, and Eric offered up detailed and fascinating commentary. You could read these on the page for that posting, but I want to share them here.


The musical that never came off "Mad Avenue" that Fairfax Mason refers to was supposed to open in the summer of 1960 starring Frankie Laine. Then behind the scenes problems resulted in it being delayed and in September 1960, the NY Daily News reported it was going to go into rehearsals in December 1960, still starring Laine, but it never did. The producer of the show sued another NY newspaper in November 1960 for libel, claiming that a June report on the show "dissolving in rehearsal" had caused investors to ask for their money back, and that apparently was why the show never opened.

While there is a superficiality to programs like this and others of the day like the weekly CBS Radio talk show hosted by Mitch Miller in this era from Sardis I do find it a fascinating time capsule of the era and it's very rare when programming like this surfaces.

Also, Mason's career clearly revolved around the narrow world of New York cabaret spots and nightclubs. That has the effect of making such people seem very obscure today because they don't leave behind a long trail of performance work in film/theater to judge their careers, but NY audiences in those days tended to have a better awareness of such people even if they were nobodies west of the Hudson. (The NY Daily News noted she had won the "most beautiful child" contest they put on in 1940 when plugging her eventual Broadway debut in "How To Succeed" While her part was small, apparently she did understudy the lead actress during her time on the show).

Thanks again, Eric!

~~

Today, I have two major items which are unrelated except that they each feature a series of internally related items, strung together in this way for reasons that are not clear to me, although I have a better idea in terms of the first set than I do for the second.

First up, a reel which contains a recording - clearly made from a record, but my copy in on a reel, of a series of numbered musical cues, played by an orchestra. Some are little more than "stingers" - very short pieces probably meant to accentuate a moment in a production (perhaps a radio production), others are introductory or transitional musical phrases, and others are considerably longer music beds. The numbering system is weird - as is the emotionless voice rattling them off . And while there are themes that recur within some of the segments, the different musical items are different enough that they'd be unlikely to all be used in the same setting. However, it seems likely that this was an album of music cues, perhaps for sale, and explained somewhere in a brochure, all of them for use whenever the producer wanted them used.

A neat little oddity:

Download: Unknown - A Collection of Numbered Musical Cues
Play:

~~

As I said, the second item I have today isn't exactly related to the above, but what it does have in common is that it's a series of related items, gathered together here for a reason I can't quite fathom.

I actually thought I'd posted this somewhere before, but I can't find it - if I did, and someone can point me to it, I'll own up!

For 15 minutes, what you'll hear here are is a series of short, suspenseful introductions to.... something. The narrator is excellent, the production values heard in the background are nice, and it seems like somethings going to happen. But as soon as each introduction ends, it goes to the start of another one, which at least in some cases seems to pick up part of the same story, some time later.

Guesses (or answers!) as to what this is about are welcome!

Download: Unknown - A Series of Suspenseful Radio Show Openings
Play:

~~

And now, a couple of very short bits. I thought I'd share the sort of thing I sometimes find buried on otherwise dull tapes (or even otherwise unrecorded tapes). Here's someone singing a familiar song for all of 35 seconds or so.

Download: Unknown - The House of the Rising Sun
Play:

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And finally, I have again grabbed one of my "very short reels" at random and digitized it for my ongoing series. In this case, we have an early '80's anti-smoking PSA, set to a generic version of some of the most horrific of popular music styles of that moment, and labeled "Peer Group". In honor of the departing Mad Magazine, let me just say "ECCH".

Download: "Peer Group" Anti-Smoking PSA
Play:

Whew. I think I need to play some Queen, Fats Domino or Fats Waller to clear my mind of that.

Late Night Gossip Radio, New York City, 1959-1960

Before I get to another quartet of tapes, I wanted to continue with the "Scotch Tape Box" series, which you can follow by clicking the link for "Scotch Tape box History" at the bottom of this post. I'm going to do my best to share these in chronological order, although I'm not sure on a couple of styles, but this post is the exception. 

Because while the 3 inch, 5 inch and 7 inch boxes produced by scotch each went through myriad changes during the '50's, they seemed to have largely stayed with one style, throughout, for their 10 inch product. Maybe they were setting it apart because it was even more likely than the other products to be used by professionals in the recording studio (and indeed, this was a sales point, right on the box). Regardless, every ten inch Scotch reel I've found from the early days (and admittedly, I haven't seen that many) has looked like this: 

Similarly, every Scotch box I've ever seen with this design has been a ten inch reel. I don't think they ever housed smaller reels in boxes that looked like this.

That box has considerable wear. This particular tape is one of six 10 inch reels my family owned and used, all of them filled before I was born in 1960, and this is the only Scotch brand one of the six. The others were all Audiotape brand. Unlike almost all our family's early tapes, there are no personal family recordings on this tape - it contains a performance of a Paganini violin piece and a collection of live Benny Goodman performances.

~~

Not so very long ago, I obtained a couple of five inch audiotape reels, labeled professionally with a "TV Time Recordings" logo, and featuring segments of "The Bea Kalmus Show" on WMGM radio, New York, dated exactly two months apart, and both of them featuring a local New York starlet named Fairfield Mason. I'm certain these came from Mason's collection or that of her family, as each tape is clearly excerpted from a much longer radio show.

And what a show it must have been. I'm not particularly a fan of this "gossip column on the air" style of radio, which Irv Kupcinent did for years here in Chicago. In fact, I find it aggressive in its vapidity. On the other hand, its certainly a snap-shot in time, and a time where this version of show-biz might have felt quite strong and steady, even though it was nearing the end of the line.

Bea Kalmus is written up in a few places as the first female DJ in the country, and I have no idea if that's true. She also made albums, appeared in a forgotten film titled "Disk Jockey" (which I would love to see, as it also features an appearance by the Weavers - but no one seems to have it) and would sometimes sing along with the records that she played. In between, on her late night show, which came from a local restaurant (as did Kupcinent's), she would interview the stage, screen and music stars who were in town.

If Bea Kalmus' star has faded to almost nothing - and significant mentions of her on the web are minimal - Fairfax Mason, the guest heard here, does not appear to have been much of a star even in 1959 or 1960. The potential Broadway show she mentions in each broadcast does not appear to have ever come to fruition, and she has only one Broadway credit to her name, a small part in "How to Succeed", a few years later. A deeper search in Google Books finds that she was still working as a singer/entertainer in 1992, at what appears to have been a small New York club. But Bea treats her as if she was Ethel Merman.

I, for one, cannot stand Fairfax Mason's laugh.

Here are both tapes, from November 26th, 1959 and January 26, 1960, dates which nicely book-ended Mason's trip to Newfoundland, where I'm sure it's quite lovely at the start of winter. The second interview is nearly twice as long as the first.

Download: The Bea Kalmus Show, with Fairfax Mason - 11/26/59
Play:


Download: The Bea Kalmus Show, with Fairfax Mason - 1/26/60
Play:

~~

Going in about as random a different direction as I could, here 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. By the way, the crackling sound is on the original tape. 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.

Download: Mary Davison - The United Nations, Tape Four
Play:

~~

And finally, something very nice randomly selected by my towering stack of Very Short Tapes (this series can also be linked, at the bottom of this post). This one turned out to be a Demo Reel for legendary voice-over talent Hal Douglas, who was particularly well known for his narration of movie trailers. Here he is heard in a series of commercials and segments of commercials, in a demo reel for potential customers.

Download: Hal Douglas - Voice Talent Demo Reel
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VIntage Top 40, Military Corn Flakes, Some Silliness and Prize Fights

ANNOUNCEMENT!!! ANNOUNCEMENT!!! ANNOUNCEMENT!!! 

I have four disparate selections from the archives today, but first, I wanted to do a little promotion: 

Some of you own, or are aware of my "The Many Moods of Bob" collection, an album of comic songs which I put together in the late '90's, and which went up online on the Happy Puppy label several years later. Well, since that time, I have continued to write and record both comic and serious songs, although a lot more of the former, recording them whenever I had enough time. And now, after 19 years, this 19 track album is available. It's called "A Few More Plans". 

There's a wide variety of material - songs set to psychedelic style, calypso, jazz, rhumba, gospel, and much more, all featuring my style of humor and songwriting. Three of them have been featured on the Dr. Demento show in recent years. Mostly, it's me: my voice and my keyboard (and a few other instruments in places), but a few tracks feature family members and a friend.

Mixed in are four instrumentals. One of these - the title track - is a fairly insane trip through sound which wouldn't be out of place as the accompaniment to a silent movie. The other three instrumentals are simply revved up versions of songs I've been playing forever. There's also a remake of a beloved, very obscure commercial (of all things), a remake of a song-poem, and a rendition of a song my brother once dreamed, during a nightmare, more than 50 years ago. 

I have been writing and recording songs - serious and decidedly not so - since I was 16 years old, and I believe that, as a set of material, this is by far the best project I've ever produced in those 40-some years, and I would love it if you'd have a listen. It's located here: 

https://bobpurse.bandcamp.com/releases

You can listen to all the songs for free on the site, and read the lengthy notes attached to each song (under "lyrics" - there was no other way to do it), and if you'd be so kind as to buy it (which allows the download of the material and all the notes and the front and back covers), it's only two dollars.

One more thing: I'm not really on social media, for a variety of reasons, and I would very much like it if  - on the chance that you enjoy the material - you'd consider putting up links to my project on whichever of these sites you are part of. If you choose to do that, I'd really appreciate it. 

~~

First up, and probably the most appealing to the largest number of readers/listeners out there, is a lovely 20 minute blast of vintage top 40 programming from early 1961, at WCOL, Columbus, Ohio. I never get tired of this stuff. 

Download: WCOL, Columbus, Ohio, Winter, 1961

Play:

~~

Next up, a truly bizarre little story from a woman, recounting a story from basic training that I've dubbed "Kerosene Corn Flakes". The story is told more than once, for some reason, and rather than edit it down, I've decided to share the entire seven minute segment, which came to me on a three inch reel of tape, not marked as to its contents. 

Download: Unknown - Kerosene Corn Flakes

Play:

~~

I've just noticed that each of my segments for the week, in order, is shorter than the previous one. In this case, we have a group of friends just goofing around and being silly. There are brief renditions of at least three songs here, the latest of which is from 1964, which may help date the tape. I actually wish there was more of this, but it's only three minutes long. And that's all I know about it! 

Download: Unknown - Three Minutes of Silliness 

Play:

~~

And finally, as promised, the second installment of my "very short tapes" feature. I got a few bits of feedback on this, and it looks like there might be significant interest in this. Again, I pulled one from the middle of the pile, at random, and got two promos for the 1996 Tyson-Holyfield fight, along with the other fights on the card. This was not the "Don't Go Biting My Ear" fight, which was the following year - it was the first match-up. 

Download: Two Tyson-Holyfield Promos

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Give Bobby a Microphone, and He'll Entertain an Imaginary Audience

No, this Bobby isn't me, although what that title applied to me, as well. We'll get to Bobby in a minute. But first, another chapter in my roughly chronological parade of Scotch brand reel to reel tape boxes. The series can be found here, and the most recent post in that series (as of now, anyway) will show you a very spare, almost entirely white (well, cream) box with some black line drawings and a bit of red. My impression, based on the fairly limited number of boxes of this type that I've found, is that that white design was in use relatively briefly. However, it was also in use during a period that very few homes had reel to reel tape machines, and the pros were likely using 10 inch reels (which had a different box - that's for next time).

The next box design flipped the white one on its head, being dominated by black, and in place of the line drawing of a tape, and actual image of a tape.

This is the most "iconic" '50's box, to me - the one I come across over and over again from that era. It is my impression that they used this design longer than any other design of the 1950's or 1960's. If I picture the generic "vintage Scotch box", it is this one. Not only does this box appear to have been in use from circa 1953 or so until the late 1950's, it is exactly in that era - particularly by 1957 or so - that home reel to reel machines became far more affordable, and the number of tapes that I find which were recorded privately, by families, explodes around that time.

Finding home tapes from prior to 1955 is quite rare - those from 1957 and later are increasingly common as the years go on. Even in my own family, where we'd had a machine since 1952, we only amassed about ten or fifteen tapes to use prior to the late 1950's.- they were expensive! By the early '60's we had about three dozen. This tape design, from one of the biggest manufacturers of tape (along with Audiotape) overlaps that explosion in customer base.

~~~

The "Bobby" in question is one Bobby Berlt, and I love this tape. Bobby is attending an event with several relatives, and has been afforded the opportunity to babble into a tape recorder. When I first heard this tape, Bobby's well-spoken manner and the content of what he says and does led me to believe he was eight or nine. But late in the tape, he mentions that the previous year he'd been too young for Cub Scouts, and that he's since joined, meaning that he's probably five-and-a-half or six, which actually makes his "performance" here fairly impressive and not just endearing.

That's me speaking, of course, I can imagine those who don't work with and/or enjoy children finding this a difficult listen. For 16 minutes, Bobby talks. He talks about last year's vacation, imagining himself talking to an audience of younger children (an audience whose voices he occasionally provides). He provides interlude music, claiming it was to pass the time while he was otherwise occupied, and he talks about this year's trip to see the relatives he's with. Things bog down a bit near the end, when he becomes obsessed with getting his uncle to come over and talk (and when the uncle does show up, he dismisses him after about 45 seconds), then he talks to his aunt and decides he's done.

Bobby Berlt, if you're out there, I'd love to hear from you, and hear whether you enjoyed your performance!

Download: Bobby Berlt - Talking
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~~

Next up, here is a relic from a very different time, sociologically and politically. It's a 24 minute public affairs radio program, produced by the Ohio Farm Bureau, titled "When Neighbors Meet". The reference to Gerald Ford being House Minority Leader places it somewhere between 1965 and 1973. That's about all I'll say about it. Have a listen.

Download: Ohio Farm Bureau - When Neighbors Meet
Play:

~~

Finally, I'm going to start another little series here, a project begun in part to make myself digitize a bunch of very short tapes that I own. These are typically five inch reels, but which have only a few feet of tape on them - they usually have an ad or two, or some voice actor's demo reel. They are anywhere from 30 seconds to three minutes in length. I have hundreds of them - more than three dozen sitting less than four feet away right now, waiting to be digitized - and I'm going to try and share one within every post. I grabbed one at random, and it actually turns out to be one that is fairly inexplicable - it's not an ad or a demo. It's.... well, listen:

Download: "Malfunction, Malfunction"
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End of June Potpourri

Before I get to this week's posting, I wanted to share with everyone that, as a result of the collecting passion reflected every time I post here - the collecting and sharing of interesting recordings found on reel to reel tapes - I have now been featured on a major podcast called Ephemeral. The story in question is about Merigail Moreland, who I featured at WFMU many years ago. The show is about 40 minutes long, and can be heard here. Please give it a listen when you have the time. I think you'll find it worthwhile.

~~

And I also thought I would use this last day of June, 2019, to share a few tapes which demonstrate some of the extreme variety I come across when I grab a bunch of tapes for review. These are four fairly distinct recordings, all interesting in their own ways, although perhaps not the most pleasant to listen to at times.

Let's start with the one which is, perhaps, less pleasant to listen to, shall we. I've simply labeled this "Some truly idiosyncratic singing", although you may choose to define it somewhat differently. This segment - less than ten minutes - was virtually the only thing recorded on full length tape (1200 ft - 60 minutes recording time at 7 1/2 IPS) in question. No extra points for getting through the whole segment.

Download: Unknown - Some Truly Idiosyncratic Singing
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Next up, a true moment in time, a moment unlike any we're likely to experience in 21st Century America, or that any of us are likely to have experienced in the last 30 years, I'd venture to say. You see, it's the 1950's, and a new Nestle factory is going to be built in White Plains, New York. A Nestle representative is there from Europe, and the local Catholic Priest is going to offer up a prayer for the event, which is the laying of the cornerstone for the factory. AND: It's being covered, live, on the radio. Those were the days, huh?

Download: Coverage of the Laying of the Cornerstone at a Nestle Factory
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The third tape I've served up for you is another in a series of tapes I acquired some time ago from various local Bell Telephone companies. In this case, it's the Ohio Bell Telephone company, taking us back to the 1960's (I would guess, anyway), when we all had landlines, and they were all from the same company. Here's an internal training tape demonstrating the many ways that phone service could be... less than adequate:

Download: Ohio Bell Telephone Company - Transmission Impairments
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And finally, for all of you who need a heat pump this week, here is an indication of who you should call. At least, if you're in Arkansas.

Download: Three Arkansas Heat Pump Association Ads
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WCHB, Detroit - Live from the Michigan State Fair, August, 1963

Hello!

First, I'd like to acknowledge that a helpful commenter or two (not sure if it was one person or two), has/have provided more information about the rock and roll TV show I shared last time around. That updated post can be found here.

Today, I have something just as keen, or maybe even more so. I've had this tape in one of my stacks for ages, but just discovered its contents in the last two weeks. Most of this tape is filled up with an amazing aircheck from a station called WCHB in Detroit.

Wikipedia reports that the station was briefly a top 40 station in 1963, before going to all country, and this tape, which can only be from August of 1963, certainly would predate that sort of switch. But this is NOT a top 40 station, so Wikipedia seems to be a it off.

This is clearly an R & B station, hosted by an African-American dee-jay, whose name I can't quite grasp, and who is broadcasting from the Michigan State Fair in Detroit. He uses an amazing, and absolutely wonderful amount of reverb (I love reverb), talks over records, comments on things, interviews fair-goers, and does commercials.

Unfortunately, there are points at which the dee-jay material is cut off and we slide right into the next song, but there is a LOT of prime AM radio from 1963 here. And I'm fairly certain that, among my tapes this is the first one of an R & B station that I've come across. There are a lot of songs here that I've never heard before, or even heard of, and this is among my favorite eras for music.

(It's worth recalling that it was around this time that Billboard decided to discontinue R & B charts, feeling at least in part - and I know there were other reasons - that R & B was so well integrated into top 40 that having two charts was redundant. Just this 70 minutes or so proves how inaccurate that was).

Anyway, enjoy this for all it's worth. It's one of my favorite new finds of the last few years.

Download: WCHB, Detroit - Live from the Michigan State Fair, August, 1963
Play:

The remainder of the tape is made up of the same person's recording of multiple stations, presumably in the Detroit area, and from very much the same general time period. If one ever needed to hear the distinction between the stuff that really had it going on, and the more whitebread aspects of top 40 radio, in the summer of 1963, one could hardly do better than to contrast the above tape with the start of the remaining material, which features "Blue Velvet" by Bobby Vinton.

Download: Various Detroit Stations, Late Summer, 1963
Play:

~~
And now, because this is my 59th birthday, I'm going to indulge a bit, and share with you a 150 second blast of my own family's tape collection, recorded by and with my mother, in January of 1964, just 4-5 months after the above, and featuring two brief renditions of a song most small children would have known in those days, "I Love Little Pussy", and a somewhat longer version of another song most children of any age would not have known in those days, "There is a Tavern in the Town".

I am, in the case of "Tavern", doing my 3 1/2 year old best to yodel in the style of a record that was, and is, a great family favorite, Wally Cox' rendition of the song, which you can hear here. Seriously, listen to that first - it will help make my version make more sense. Sort of.

I enjoy how I stop to make mention - in the middle of saying a stream of incorrect and non-existent words - of how I've just said the wrong words. You'll also hear me excitedly talk about how daddy sings the song.

I hope you find some enjoyment in this.

Download: Bobby Purse - I Love Little Pussy & Tavern in the Town
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By the way, that Wally Cox record is a contender for my favorite 100 records ever,  and even so, it's outranked by the Rudy Vallee version, which may be my favorite comic recording ever.

S. J. Perelman on S. J. Perelman and More.... PLUS: A Local TV Dance Party from Pittsburgh, Spring, 1960

Hi there,

 

I have two unique and wonderful (and totally unrelated) lengthy reels of tape to share with you today, but first, I wanted to return to my ongoing series on the (roughly) chronological history of Scotch brand reel to reel tape boxes. I will add a label to these posts so that you can follow them. Using that label, you can find the previous posts here. The first two posts in the series took us from the initial product offering through around 1951 or 1952. For whatever reason, by the summer of 1952, those colorful and complicated patterns were shown the door, and Scotch went with a very austere look, almost devoid of color, except for the Scotch logo and what was left of the plaid pattern along the right side of the box:  

 

 

I actually have several "clean" and well preserved examples of this particular box, but I chose the very much "used and repaired" one above because it's a very special one from my collection. This box holds the first tape my family owned and recorded on, 67 winters ago. Many years ago, I shared about half it its contents - a recording made on Christmas morning, 1952 - at WFMU (along with the image of a slightly better preserved box from another tape from that era). And why does it have a giant "15"" written on the box? Well, after our first tape recorder broke, the newer home models no longer ran at the speed of 15 inches per second, which was largely meant for professional use. Most of our early tapes were on ten inch reels, which would not fit on the newer models either. But the handful of 7" tapes we had recorded on the old machine could not be heard correctly on the new equipment, and the "15"" on the box was an announcement that this was one of those tapes.

This is a very bland box, perhaps the blandest that Scotch released in the period from the 1940's through the 1960's, and I don't believe it was in production very long at all, but it resonates with me enormously, because the site of it reminds me of the contents of those tapes - my family, before I was born.

And now.... on with the countdown!

~~~

There is a group of tapes that I've written about multiple times here and at WFMU, purchased ages ago now, and containing various media recordings, raw tapes and other items, primarily related to CBS television but also some other materials. It has supplied well over a dozen posts here and at WFMU, I would guess. I am still slowly going through them, as I never really go through any one collection all at once - it would detract from other things I want to listen to, and I don't have the time or wherewithal to do that, anyway.

So it was with great interest that I listened to one tape simply labeled "S. J. Perelman". I knew the name, and a bit about the man, but mostly associated him with the fact that he wrote for and with the Marx Brothers at one point, during the period when they made their best works.

The tape turns out to be largely a monologue, for what purpose, I'm not sure. Mostly likely some sort of televised piece, perhaps a profile, about him. But while there is someone directing the reminiscences at times, this isn't conducted as a typical interview, which I find interesting and unusual.

He talks about his life, the people he worked with, his view on the politics of the day (and a current response to it) and offers a few short anecdotes of the type only someone who had the life he'd led could tell.

I found this whole tape fascinating and at times riveting, and hope you do, too.

Download: S. J. Perelman on S. J. Perelman... and More!
Play:

~~

Many of you will probably prefer the second tape to the first - I'd be surprised if that wasn't the case.  And it's something equally special - a recording of a local, "American Bandstand" type TV show from KDKA, Pittsburgh, circa Spring, 1960 (barely weeks before I was born!), complete with national hits, up and comers that did or didn't get big, and local performers, along with a lot of chatter from the host, Clark Ray. The tape runs about 47 minutes and contains too many wonderful moments to try and list here. This is one which is better enjoyed without too much blather from me, anyway, and again, I hope it's to your liking!

UPDATE 6/20: Either one or two anonymous posters have very helpfully offered updates to this post - he/she/they have informed me that the host's name was Clark Race, not Clark Ray, and that he was a legend in Pittsburgh. I have updated the name of the file, below, although the actual file linked still contains the incorrect name. In addition, close attention to what is said at one point has helped that commenter identify the date on this recording as Saturday, May 7th, 1960.

Many, many thanks!

Download: Clark Race's Record Hop, KDKA-TV, Pittsburgh, Spring, 1960
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A Special Post for Pete Seeger's 100th Birthday: The Weavers and Mahalia Jackson, Live on TV, January, 1958

Today is May 3rd, 2019.

 

This is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Pete Seeger. I consider Pete to have been the greatest vocalist ever recorded - and I don't think it's close, with John Lennon as a distant second. His voice can move me to a degree unmatched by anyone else I've ever heard. It was a natural instrument, a clear extension of his speaking voice, and unencumbered by training, artifice, pretention, smarm or anything else that might interfere with simple, direct, emotional singing.

 

On top of that, I consider Pete Seeger to be the single most important American musician of the 20th Century, when one takes into account all of his work: musical, social, political, environmental and more. I can certainly argue this point, but I doubt most of you have all that much interest, and it would take far more time and typing than I'm going to expend here and now. Feel free to disagree, but I'm not trying to start a debate, just telling you where I stand.

 

In addition, The Weavers are indisputably one of the most important groups of the second half of the century. Without the Weavers - and particularly Pete - there's no folk revival, no folk rock, and that's just for starters. So it was with GREAT interest, about 30 years or so ago, when I found the following label on an otherwise nondescript reel of tape:

 

 

In addition to just wanting to hear this, immediately, the date on this session intrigued me. January 13th, 1958. Most articles on the Weavers would have it that they were blacklisted from TV after 1951. AND: from reading a few books by and about Pete Seeger, I knew that he quit the Weavers in the winter of 1958. Was this a live performance on TV, during their blacklist? And was their very last live performance with Pete as a member (prior to reunions)?

Now I have the answers, and both answers are "yes" and "sort of". These answers come from a recent biograph of the Weavers, "Wasn't That a Time". This book documents that the WGN appearance captured here was their first TV appearance in years, and also indicates that, while in Chicago, they took part in a jam session at the then-brand-new Old Town School of Folk Music - the latter seemingly not a scheduled appearance in the evening after the TV program. This was certainly their last pre-arranged live performance.

What happened next was an studio attempt at making a rock-and-roll flavored single, which was panned by everyone involved, then a vote on whether or not to record a commercial for L & M cigarettes. Pete was outvoted, three to one, worked on the commercial with the group, then immediately quit.

That means this is undoubtedly the last recording of the original Weavers prior to the split. And there does not appear to be a copy of this performance anywhere online (it can be viewed at the Museum of Broadcast Communications Museum in Chicago, and I have seen it, but you can't take or get a copy).

A big additional benefit of this recording is the presence of the great Mahalia Jackson, who sings a few songs, including teaming up with the Weavers at the end of the hour long recording.

A huge deficit of this recording is the presence of the consistently and severely insufferable Richard Dyer-Bennett, a performer whose pretentiousness truly knew no bounds. I can imagine plenty of 1950's and 1960's people being unable to take folk music seriously, if they'd first been presented with Dyer-Bennett as a purveyor of the genre. He even manages to ruin "O No John", a fun, playful little number which was in my mother's repertoire. The Anti-Seeger, if you will. (I will add that the effect is even worse if you can see him in this performance which (as I've mentioned) I have.) Again, I'm sure there are those of you out there who's mileage varies. Such are the vagaries of taste.

But enough about him. Way too much.

This is probably the tape from my collection that I consider the most valuable. I would include the Merigail Moreland tapes and the raw tapes I own from an unreleased Dora Hall Dixieland album. The latter two, though would have a tiny, and a small audience interested, respectively. The audience for this one, I'm guessing, is quite large, and I've considered trying to sell it at times. But when it comes right down to it, I'm never parting with this tape, and if that's the case, I might as well share it with the world, or whatever part of the world is reading and listening to this.

Enjoy!

Download: Various Artists - The Hour of Music, January 13, 1958, Part One
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Download: Various Artists - The Hour of Music, January 13, 1958, Part Two
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Happy Birthday, Pete! I miss you.

WNOR, Norfolk, Virginia, 12/20/67

Today, I have something very special to share, something which was dropped into my lap some months ago, with a follow-up confirmation that it was okay to feature it here. A man who greatly enjoys my site named Scott, from Texas, offered to send me four hours of vintage AM Top 40 radio from late 1967, in Norfolk, Virginia. I have a couple of things to say about this recording, but first, here's how he described what he was offering (and later sent) me:


I found all of the tapes that my friend sent to my dad while he was serving in the Navy from 1962 to 1968. In finding these I found a tape of a full 4 hour show of Bill Adams on 1230 AM.......nothing is cut out except for the turn of the tape at the end of the sides (4 track mono on wonderfully ammonia stinky Kodak tape......3 tracks at 1250 feet at 3 3/4 IPS........) I have transferred this (and all of the tapes sent to the U.S.S Lawrence during my father’s tenure) to Variable Bit Rate MP3 for my archives. 

That pretty much sums it up. I will just add that I was amazed at the number of commercial breaks and live reads that take place during this four hour show. I don't believe that there are any more actual commercials than were likely present on other stations in this era (and I have not only several other tapes from this general period, but also my own memories), but here in Chicago, at least, I think the commercials were run together in packages of 3-4 minutes. In this segment, it is rare for two songs to be played back to back without significant DJ chatter and at least one live read, if not an actual recorded commercial. And I'm not sure there are ANY segments where more than two songs run back to back without commercials in between. 

That doesn't take away from the enjoyment at all - even the commercials are quite entertaining - but I did find it odd. And of course the music is often just glorious, and there's the added benefit of featuring a few records I've never heard before. 


That's really all I have to say aside from a giant THANK YOU to Scott. The tape is divided into three segments, all of which are posted below: 

Download: WNOR, Norfolk, Virginia, 12/20/67 - The Bill Adams Show, Part One

Play:  

Download: WNOR, Norfolk, Virginia, 12/20/67 - The Bill Adams Show, Part Two

Play:  

Download: WNOR, Norfolk, Virginia, 12/20/67 - The Bill Adams Show, Part Three

Play:

A Vacation! Ed Sullivan! Mike Wallace! The Brooklyn Dodgers! All on One Five Inch Reel!!!

Hello everyone!

Before I get to this weeks remarkable reel of tape, here is volume two of my series covering the evolution of tapes from the Minnesota Mining Company, aka Scotch Tapes. Last time, I shared what has been confirmed to me as the first design they used, a very attractive and busy Scottish plaid theme that was in place from around 1948-1949.

Fairly quickly, they appear to have modified this box considerably. Perhaps someone in marketing decided it would be a good idea to have an image of the tape right on the box. The plaid theme is relegated to the background, and is well under a quarter of the box, the reel is the dominant part of the image, and in a new feature, there is a little box near the bottom telling you whether you've purchased the paper-backed tape which had initially been the only choice, or if you've bought the new, plastic-backed version (which would soon become the industry standard). This box appeared in perhaps 1949 or 1950, and was replaced by at least 1951, if not earlier. By the time the next design came along, paper-backed reels were a thing of the past.

Incidentally, the timing chart seen here as part of the reel, was indeed part of the reel, although it must have been easy to dislodge - I've only ever seen two or three of them. And finally, for seven inch reels, 1200 feet seems to have been the only choice at this point. As different (and thinner) plastics would be employed, going forward, this would eventually expand into a choice of 1200, 1800, 2400 and even 3600 feet on a single seven inch reel.

What a fascinating and fantastic time capsule I have for you today, all captured at 3 3/4 inches per second in glorious mono, on a single five inch reel of tape. Here's what the back of the box (a Scotch box, by the way) looks like: 

Incidentally, in reference to my comments on tape length, above, by the tape this tape was bought (1956 at the latest), the industry had figured out how to use thinner plastics. This tape lasts an hour or so on each side, meaning it's an 1200 foot reel, the same length as on the seven inch reel pictured at the top. In 1951 or 1952, they probably would only have been able to fit 900 feet onto a five inch reel. 

These are the things I think about. Don't pity me. 

The tape is dated 1957, as you can see, and virtually all of the recordings do appear to come from that year. But the tape had also obviously been used previously, as the last thing on the tape - and the most wonderful of the four segments - is clearly something recorded in the fall of 1956, then partially erased by the material earlier on that side. And I sure wish that erasing hadn't taken place. But still the material that is here is mostly great, so let's dive right in. 

The first segment of the tape is the one I find the least interesting, even though it contains a genre I usually love - the home recording, with family and friends. In this particular case, the 16 minute recording just isn't all that interesting, starting as it does with someone breathing into a microphone, and dominated as it is, later, by a woman reading a Mad Magazine article without much humor or character in her vocal delivery. The entire recording is essentially some folks from Massachusetts finishing up their yearly visit to the home of friends. 

Download: The End of our 1957 Vacation

Play:

Next up, a reel treat for anyone who enjoys recordings of vintage variety TV. The remainder of side one, except for a tiny bit at the end, contains the broadcast of the Ed Sullivan show for March 3rd, 1957. I suspect that this was recorded first, then the opening section was by the vacation material, which seems to date from later that year, in summertime. 

The show is billed as a tribute to My Fair Lady, on the first anniversary of its debut on Broadway, and there are several acts (and comments) related to that show, but there are other, unrelated acts as well, including a lengthy, sort of pathos-laden bit at the end by a comedian, as well as a lot of commercials, particularly those featuring a special offer/contest, which you'll hear about as the tape unspools on your listening device. 

On the one hand, this is not an episode of "The Ed Sullivan Show" that I would have particularly enjoyed watching, compared to some of the episodes which have had segments excerpted on specials over the years, but on the other hand, it sure is a fascinating listen!

(the last two minutes or so are what's left of an even earlier-recorded business meeting of some sort. I'm not sorry that this recording was mostly erased.)

Download: Various Artists: The Ed Sullivan Show, march 3rd, 1957

Play:

Side two begins with a split second of the same meeting, followed by someone starting to sing "Stardust", before quickly segueing into an episode of a show Mike Wallace hosted during this era, "Night Beat". Virtually the entire show is here - 51 minutes - missing only what Wallace indicates at the start were going to be some theatre reviews. 

There are three segments here, first a news round up, then an interview with the former ambassador to Russia, George Kennan, and finally Garry Davis, proponent of one-world government. It's an interesting listen. For one moment, mid-show, the recordist stops the tape and picks up again a few feet forward on the tape, and we teasingly get to hear a few moments of a pivotal Brooklyn Dodgers baseball game. Ah, well. 

One more thing; in four spots early in this segment, whoever was recording did <something> which resulted in lengthy and loud, high pitched whines. I have edited these out, leaving just a split second of the start of the whine. They will sound like edits, because they are. I am sparing your ears. 

Download: Mike Wallace and guests - Night Beat (date unknown)

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And finally, the pièce de résistance.

What we have here is a tantalizingly brief (eight minutes) recording of the Brooklyn Dodgers, at the start of their locker room celebration, just after beating the Pittsburgh Pirates, on September 30th, 1956, to win the National League Pennant on the last day of the season. What a great little hunk of tape.

Download: Brooklyn Dodgers Pennant Celebration - September 30th, 1956

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