Summer Varieties, Lichens and Mosses, and More!

Hello, everyone,

I hope you are all coping well with whatever level of madness is currently the status quo where you are. I have a few things to distract you from more difficult matters today.

First up, here's a neat bit of local television, of a sort that hasn't existed for a long, long time. It's a half-hour program that aired on WGAL-TV, in Lancaster, PA, in the summer of 1955. This is the final edition of "Summer Varieties", presumably near or at the end of that summer. The show featured local talent on organ, playing several solos, and also accompanying another local talent, a 15 year old female vocalist, one some other songs.

The tape was being recorded with an open microphone by someone, most likely in her home, and you can hear her curse at one point during a soft moment of the show. And I suspect I'm not alone in wishing the person taping this show had tuned in the next week for the return of show this program seems to have been replacing over the summer. "Stump Your Neighbor".

Download: Summer Varieties - WGAL-TV, Summer, 1955
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Next, here's a peculiar little item, which is short enough that I could have included it in my very short tapes series. But I find this one more interesting than many of those tapes, and actually filed it away after making an MP3 of it. It's labeled "Opening and Closing Music for Lichens and Mosses", so if you have any Lichens or Mosses outside your home, or in a frequently visited garden, perhaps you can play this music for them as you arrive and depart.


Download: Opening and Closing Music for Lichens and Mosses
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Here are the front and back of the tape box:

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For those of you who adore recordings of anonymous amateur bands sounding very amateurish while rehearsing medleys, do I have the tape for you!!!! Here 'tis!:

Download: Unknown High School Band - Rehearsing a Medley
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And finally, the moment you've been waiting for - this week's entry in the "Very Short Reels" series. In this case, it's a pair of nice ads for Dodge Pick-Up Trucks, sounding very much like they're from 1971, which they are.

Download: Two 1971 Dodge Truck Ads
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A Rare Nat "King" Cole Recording, The March of Dimes, and More!

Hello,

I hope everyone out there is well and stays well. I have something remarkable today, but first, a few things about recent comments. I appreciate everyone who stops by, and love hearing whatever anyone has to say. Unfortunately, if the person commenting doesn't link to an e-mail address, I am unable to answer personally.

In light of that, I wanted to answer the person who asked if I had any earlier Jack Eigen recordings, from the late 1940's and early 1950's. The answer is that I don't - I only have them from the 1968-early 70's. I've only had one request to share more of this collection, but if anyone else wants to hear it, I'm open to sharing it - I have a ton of it.

On a completely separate note, writer Tony suggests that the mysterious writing on the most recent Scotch tape box, "Weather Balanced" might well have to do with the tape performing equally well, with no discernible differences, in wildly various weather situations, particularly with regard to differences in humidity. That's as good an idea as any.

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Today, I'm featuring a recording I believe to be exceptionally rare, given its historic value and the fact that I can find almost no posting of it online, save for several postings of a single song from the end of the broadcast.

It's from the legendary Nat "King" Cole TV show, which ran for two seasons before NBC gave up trying to find a copy that would regularly sponsor a show hosted by a Black man. The show ran barely over a year. What I have here is virtually the entire episode of August 6, 1957, when Cole welcomed Harry Belafonte. IMDB indicates this was a 15 minute episode, although elsewhere on the page for the show, and on Wikipedia, it says the show expanded to 30 minutes that summer. And indeed, this is a 30 minute episode.

(Not that you asked (and I'm sure you don't care...), but I'm not a fan, at all, of Nat "King" Cole, whose mannered over-enunciated style of singing I find insufferable. On the other hand, Harry Belafonte has made some records I love, including the "Calypso" album, which is certainly among my dozen favorite albums ever. But more often he could be just as precious as Cole, and that's the side of him featured, for the most part, here, with the exception of the calypso number at the end (and which is the segment that's readily available). The first time I heard "Scarlet Ribbons", for example, was one time too many.)

However, I do recognize the importance and rarity of this reel, and that there are far more people who don't share my taste than that do. And I'm happy to share this with whatever part of the world is reading and listening.

Download: The Nat King Cole Show, August 6, 1957, With Harry Belafonte
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Now please understand, I'm certainly not saying that Cole couldn't sing - he obviously had great talent, even if it's not to my taste. As a contrast, here's someone who absolutely could not sing - who clearly had no ability to hear or sing on pitch - and seems to have been blissfully unaware of it, as he happily sings - over and over and over again for God knows what reason - with a very family one-time # 1 hit record:

Download: Unknown - Singing Along to "Runaround Sue"
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Now let's transition into something more entertaining and certainly more meaningful: I recently came across this reel of Public Service Announcements, all strung together on one reel, despite being for three different organizations, ones with no direct link between them, as far as I know. During these 23 minutes, you'll hear from more than a dozen celebrities, some whose names live on even today, at least among some of us, and others who are largely forgotten today, promoting The March of Dimes, then Care Packages, then Cerebral Palsy (unlike the first two, all of the PSAs for latter feature the same celebrity, singer Ken Carson).

Download: A Collection of PSA's for The March of Dimes, Care Packages and Cerebral Palsy
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And finally, let's keep going with our "Very Short Tapes" project. As luck would have it, the tape I pulled out at random (after compiling everything else in this post, also features PSA's, in this case, four PSA's from late in 1980 from the American Heart Association. And here's that tape:

Download: The American Heart Association, Four PSA's, November and December, 1980
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