Hello, everybody, Hello!
I have five selections from my collection today, ranging far and wide as a sampling of the eclectic nature of that collection.
First of all, a tape that I just love. One of the things I treasure most, when digging through tapes, is finding a tape which reflects honest-to-goodness love and affection of family, and people having a really good time. And that's the way I hear this tape.
This is almost certainly from the same family who recorded the very first post I shared on this site, "A Gaggle of Giggling Twelve Year Olds". The parrot heard on that tape is frequently heard here - I've edited out more than 20 minutes of recordings of the bird making noise, which was interspersed with the sections shared here. And I recognize some of the same voices.
Anyway, the majority of this tape is made up of children who are in the midst of learning to play instruments - accordion and piano - as well as singing naturally and with great enthusiasm. I understand that for some of you that immediately spells torture, and I will not try to argue with you - in some cases (not here), I'd fully agree.
But for me, this is gold. Some may hear a bit of brow-beating in the dad pushing his daughter to play her song, early in the tape, but there is genuine and strong affection clearly apparent on both sides, and the girl soon makes fun of dad, as soon as he's out of earshot, certainly knowing full well he'd be able to hear it later. She's not feeling harassed - she wants to share what she can do.
The first half of the tape features music played by kids who are just at the start of learning, interspersed with a silly conversation with "Donald Duck" - a cartoon voice I've never been able to stand - and some great play-acting between two girls, sisters, I think, in a short skit - which may be my favorite section of the tape.
There's also a neat little interaction between father and daughter about a test she took, and then it's back to the music. At about the 26 minute point, the remainder of the original is erased, with the announcement that it's now 1962 (I believe we've gone forward two years or so), and we're going to hear how much the musicianship has improved. In that last segment, we again hear piano, accordion, and several duets for piano and voice, with one of the girls repeatedly singing in a fairly over-the-top dramatic style which I, again, find deeply endearing.
Of all the tapes I've shared in the past few months, this is my favorite.
Download: A Collection of Musical Performances and Fun Conversations
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This one doesn't require anywhere near as much explanation. This is simply a recording made of short segments of two episodes of The Tonight Show, less than 18 months after Johnny Carson took over as host. First we hear humorist and rancontour Sam Levenson talking about a variety of things, particularly his history with the violin, followed by some violin playing. Then, probably from another episode (I believe both of these are from January or February of 1964), Johnny talks about an earlier show which featured a "talking" dog, and a clip from that show is shared.
Download: Excerpts from Early Tonight Shows -Sam Levenson and a Talking Dog - early 1964.mp3
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In February of this year, I shared a tape from Joe Gerossi, a man who seemed to have considered himself quite the wit, in which he was heard in a variety of sessions and with a variety of friends. I have since found that I have at least two more tapes of Joe Gerossi in my collection. One of them has not yet been digitized, but will be, soon. The other only features him for a few moments, telling some ethnic jokes of the type typical way back when at the start of the tape, and offering a few other thoughts at the end. In between was a full two hours of a very badly Dean Martin TV roast show, which I am not sharing here.
And now, Heeeere's Joe:
Download: A Few Ethnic Jokes from Joe Gerossi
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Next up, here's an example of something I have many varieties of: The Stereo Demonstration Tape. From the dawn of Reel-to-Reel stereo in 1956 to at some time in the late 1960's, purchasing a new tape recorder often meant also receiving a tape demonstrating the wonders of the reel to reel world, particularly if you'd purchased a stereo machine, which were wildly expensive - a single stereo pre-recorded tape of your favorite performer in 1957 cost about $75 in today's dollars, so imagine how much the new machine cost.
Anyway, the "Voice of Music" company seems to have been particularly aggressive in this marketing aspect, as I have several five inch reels - both demos and short performances of musical works - bearing their imprint. Here is a copy of the Stereo Demonstration Tape from Voice of Music.
I will add one more thing - because this tape dates to the days when "Stereo" meant two channels recorded across the entire width of the tape (and not the four channel, two direction style which became the industry standard by the end of the '50's), we're technically only hearing half of the programming here. It's still in stereo, but my more modern stereo machine is only playing half of each signal. I hope that makes sense.
Download: Voice of Music Stereo Demonstration Tape
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And finally, no post would be complete without a very short reel. Here's an ad for "Tess Electronics". I don't have a box for this one, so there's no specific date, aside from "June 9th", but I'm guessing the 1980's. And I certainly hope it's my tape machine that couldn't well handle this reel, or perhaps that it's deteriorated over the years, as so many 1980's tapes have done, because, for an ad for Electronics, this thing sounds awful, with muddy sound in the right channel and frequent clicking noises.
Download: Tess Electronics - Ad for the Week of June 9th
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I am pretty sure that the Tonight Show segment with Sam Levenson is from March 12, 1964. Levenson appeared four times that year, first on New Year's Day, then on January 14 (that program exists as a kinescope) then March 12 and finally October 12. It isn't the January 14 show and the reason it's probably March 12 is the female voice we hear chime in at the five minute mark is probably Dr. Joyce Brothers who was on the March 12 show.
ReplyDeleteAlso the clip with the "talking dog" replay apparently happened that week too because newspaper coverage mentions that Henry Morgan on March 10 came out and railed endlessly about various things including "Talking dogs" which likely was in response to the playing of this clip (apparently that clip was setting up the return visit of the same dog who had just done a record no less and the dog may not have been as talkative that night!). The original program the clip is from was January 15, 1964 per a newspaper account from Sunday January 19 that describes Carson's stunned reaction to the dog going "Hello" taking place "last Wednesday".
Michel, the dog that did talk apparently had some flash-in-the pan fame that stretched out into 1965. A December 1964 newspaper article talks of the dog appearing in San Antonio in October and outdrawing the Beach Boys! A February 21, 1965 newspaper account recaps the Carson incident on the clip and says that Michel is "the most talked about animal in America."
That March 10 program with the dog clip is apparently the same program where Peter O'Toole, just in from Japan, got up during his segment and collapsed back stage from exhaustion.