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.

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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
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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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