The Girls of 1959, An Audio Letter, A Brand New Feature, and MORE!

Hi everybody! 

Did you get a little snow? We didn't get as much as some, although we've had well over two feet this month. We're about 16 miles west of Lake Michigan. Those closer by got walloped, as has a lot of the country. 

Well, while you're relaxing, whether after digging out or, if you're somewhere warmer, doing whatever you chose to do today, I have a whopping five items for you, including a brand new feature. 

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I'm going to start with a tape that I just love.

It features a family whose name is spoken repeatedly, but which I'm just not sure I have right. When I searched for what I was hearing, the closest common "hit" I got was Laamanen, which is a Finnish name, and that's what I've gone with. Let me know if you think it's something else. 

The prime sections of this 21 minute slice of home life, circa 1959 (based on the pop music heard and sung) is a sometimes raucous conversation between a few girls in their mid-teens - high school age, I'd say. But it starts with a tiny bit of Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, then a longer (but still short) bit of The Chordettes, before a young woman reads instructions for tape recording, with a man (her father, I'd say), speaking in between her two short segments. 

We then get a moment of the idiotic Paul Anka hit "You Are My Destiny" (sample lyric: "you are what you are to me"), and then the group of girls start recording. At first they talk about singing a song, then do so, giving way again to the rest of Paul Anka being ridiculous (well, not the rest of his ridiculousness - that would require another 62 years of tape). 

The rest of the tape, 16 minutes of so, is essentially the girls talking, singing a few songs, telling a political joke which must have been stale even in 1959, and generally entertaining themselves. It's a bit like eavesdropping on a slumber party, and it's the sort of thing that I consider to be GOLD, when I discover it on a tape.  

I say all this knowing that a.) it is probably not for everyone and b.) some parts of it are very badly recorded. Still, I hope many of you find this as endearing and fun as I do. 

Download: Fun at the Laamanen Home

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For those who prefer their home recordings to be more sedate, organized and conversational, I have here a very nice audio letter from a couple, Burt and Jean, speaking to one of Burt's sisters, who I believe is named Bea. 

All sorts of subjects are covered here, from school to religion to... well, the conversation takes many turns and detours, which I won't detail here. This is both sides of a reel of tape, and lasts just under 30 minutes. 

 Download: Burt and Jean - Audio Letter to Bea

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Next up, a very curious tape, just under 14 minutes, which I found as the sole contents of a half-filled 10 1/2 inch reel, recorded at the professional speed of 15 inches per second. And it's a real hodgepodge, some of which is identified as coming from KBTV, Denver, and is from 1965. Transitions are aprubt and seemingly random.  

Among the material - 1.) some portion of a TV show or TV broadcast of a movie. 2.) A moment of a commercial, followed by TV news, including a commercial. This is by far the longest segment, and just as we're hearing about why a drunk driving bill shouldn't be passed it stops, mid-thought. 3.) A moment of an interview. 4.) A weather forecast. 5.) What sounds like the broadcast of another movie - a period drama? 

That's the rundown. Again, a pretty odd bit of tape. 

Download: KBTV and Other Denver Media Recordings, Circa 1965

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And now for my new feature, only a bit off-topic. If you've been reading the comments to my last two posts (and my response to one poster, who posts as Oldradios90, within my last post), you'll know that I've been toying, both in my own thoughts recently, and in response to his request, of adding a feature of some of the acetates I have in my collection. 

As you may (or even likely) know, prior to the introduction of reel to reel tape, the most common home recording mediums were the wire recorder (not very common at all, though) and the home disc cutting machine, which would make the equivalent of records, on what were called "Acetates", although they did not actually contain any acetate. 

Acetates were made in all sorts of settings - recording studios, offices, 'record yourself" booths, the homes of those who had enough money to buy such a machine, and many other settings. As they often feature home recordings, raw performances and media recordings, I have also sought out acetates, and have owned hundreds of them, although I've sold some in recent years (I've always made copies of those I sell - I admittedly have a weird affection for reel tapes - I always want to keep the actual product - but I don't have the same connection to acetates). 

The interest here will no doubt be in those that contain the same sort of interesting things that I feature from reels, and today I have one which I find very interesting, and which also ties into Mardi Gras, which, where I'm sitting, has just under four hours left. 

This is a very specific use of the acetate, from very late in the format's history - 1962. Near and on election day, those supporting a candidate would record pitches to "the people" to be played over a loud-speaker as a car, truck or van carried the record and blared the message out of that speaker, over and over again. These were known as "sound truck" recordings, and what I have here is one for a local, New Orleans School Board election, on July 28, 1962, set to just about the most appropriate backing music imaginable. 

Acetates wear out many times quicker than records, and this one was no doubt played dozens, if not hundreds of times - its condition is not unlike many of the acetates in my collection.

Please let me know what you think of this feature. For now, I'm calling it "Acetate of the Month". 

Download: 7/28/62 New Orleans Sound-Truck Recording for a Local School Board Election

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Finally, our "Very Short Reel" for the week. And I am stretching the concept here, because although this is three inch reel of tape, its contents is twice as long as that of any short reel I've shared to this point. That's because it has material on three of its four tracks - the reel itself, at the speed recorded, only lasts four minutes per side, and the entire recording as you can see, if just under 7 1/2 minutes. 

But what an odd combination of recordings. Two tracks contain German music, recorded, it would appear, off of the radio, while the third track (heard here in between the two German tracks) contains a jingle recorded for The New York Mets, a conglomeration that, my extensive research shows, profess to be a baseball team. However, they're not named "The Chicago Cubs", and they're apparently from New York City, so I have considerable doubts that they actually a legitimate major league team. 

Regardless, this is a lovely ditty, but my favorite thing about this section of the tape is that, after the jingle ends, there is just a tiny, tiny bit of fan cheering - literally the shortest segment possible in order to discern that it is actually cheering - and the appropriate length of cheering deserved by such a team.  

Download: German Radio and "Meet the Mets"

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