The 1953 Indianapolis 500, A Bit of Runner-Up Football, and Early WLS Top 40 Radio

Greetings and Happy 61st Birthday To Me!

After I posted what turns out to be a very rare recording of part of the radio broadcast from the 1954 Indianapolis 500, about three weeks ago, I was beseeched by a handful of readers/listeners to also share the record I had mentioned, of the 1953 Indianapolis race, which I'd picked up at the same sale, some time in the mid 1980's. 

Like the 1954 race recording, this is an incomplete capture of the 1953 broadcast, at 103 minutes, just a little bit less of the race than the '54 recording. It starts with a very short recording of a presentation of "The Band of America", but after 85 seconds, it's the race all the way. 

The only other comment I'll make is that I was astonished at the sort of dismissive, or at least minimalized way the announcer mentions that one of the racers had almost literally baked to death in his car, on what was apparently an exceedingly hot day. 

Here's the tape!

Download: The 1953 Indianapolis 500

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Aside from our "very short reel", the rest of what I have to offer today comes from another favorite reel, one I plucked from a shelf of my "favorite reels" just for you this week. 

The entire second side of this tape is wonderful, and the three recordings on it go in reverse chronological order. This happens quite a bit, actually. What happens is that someone used the entire of the tape to record... something. In this case, that happened in the early winter of 1961-62. Then, at some later point, that same someone - or someone else - starts at the beginning of the tape, again, and records something else, using most, but not all of the tape, and leaving the last few minutes of the original recording. In this case, that happened in the first week of 1962. And finally, someone starts the side yet again, and records a third thing, using, in this case, just about half of the side, and leaving the last part of the second recording, along with that already existing tail end of the first recording. In this case, this final recording took place in May of 1962. 

I will link them here in the order heard, which, again, is the opposite order from which they were recorded. 

The first, and by far the most fun for me, is a recording made of WLS, the Top 40 Powerhouse of Chicago, during its earliest heyday - in fact, it's from their second anniversary as a Top 40 station, which was on May 2, 1962. And best of all, it's an uninterrupted recording of the end of their countdown show for the week, containing the top seven hits in Chicagoland for that week. 

The countdown contains a couple of songs I consider to be among the most wonderful of the era ("Old Rivers" & "Stranger On the Shore", along with four that range from okay to pretty awful, and, in a miscarriage of musical taste for the ages, a Number One Record for the week which is surely one of the worst records to ever grace the hit parade - so awful I will not deign to type out its name here. What were the teens of 1962 thinking?

That atrocity aside, this is one of my favorite finds, one I've owned for at least as long as the Indianapolis 500 tapes. 

Download: WLS, Chicago, 5/2/62 - The Top Seven Songs

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When the countdown ended, the recorder was turned off, and we get to hear that recording from January of the same year, specifically, from 1/6/62 - the end of a true oddity, "The Playoff Bowl", essentially "The Third Place" bowl, which was held for several years before the NFL merge, between the second place teams in each division of the NFL, in this case, Detroit Vs Philadelphia. This was held a week after the championship, and must have been just as unexciting as the pro bowl is today. 

What a weird concept. Anyway, here are the 23 minutes or so of The Playoff Bowl, 1962, which survived after the Top 40 Countdown recording. 

Download: End of "The Playoff Bowl - Detroit Vs. Philadelphia, 1/6/62

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Finally, the game ends, and the recording is stopped, leaving us with more WLS - the recording that was initially on the tape. In this case, it's someone - whose name I can't quite make out - filling in for the Legend to Be: Dick Biondi. There's only about five minutes here, but it does contain a local hit by someone named Johnny Cooper - a song which only charted locally, and then only for one week, in January of 1962 on the WLS chart, meaning this recording probably was made in the week or so before "The Playoff Bowl". 

Download: WLS, Chicago, Very Late 1961 or Very Early 1962

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And now, here's our "Very Short Reel" for the week. In this case, it's three minutes as heard on a three inch reel of tape, containing two different men speaking through what sound like Walkie-Talkies - one sided conversations in both cases. 

First, for about 45 seconds, we hear what I'm guessing to be a military man complaining about the performance and behavior of someone under his command. Then, for the last two minutes plus, a different man talks about some sort of water rescue where at least two boats (or something) collided. As he says "A miserable night to be flouting around out in the water..." He also veers off topic a couple of times to wonder about why someone named John doesn't keep in touch with him. 

Download: Brief Walkie Talkie Recording - Water Rescue

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