Christmas Through and Through

 Did you hear? Christmas is tomorrow! It was in all the papers! Well, most of them, anyway! I hope the news reached your corner of the globe! 

With that in mind, today's post will be entirely Christmas and End-of-the-Year related. If that's not your thing, please come back after the first of the year (after checking out the first two shares, I would suggest), but for those who revel in such things, we're going all Christmas, all the time. 

I have a lot of Christmas related things on my plate, so I will be brief in most of my comments:  

~~

I think the most interesting recording here, by far, and the one which will likely have the broadest appeal, is this first offering, which I suspect is exceptionally rare. Not rare in the sense that some of the other items here are - home recordings which literally only exist in one copy - but rare in the sense of it being a recording made at a radio station in 1938. The station is WTIC in Hartford, Connecticut, a station which still exists, with those same call letters, and which will soon celebrate its 100th birthday

Not only are recordings of local stations (as opposed to network programming) of that vintage fairly rare, I don't think this isn't even a broadcast. From what I can tell It's a jokey program created by and for the staff of the radio station, for Christmas that year, poking fun at themselves. . 

At least, that's what I think it is. (It's also not clear to me if this is the entire program, or if some is missing.) Please let me know if you have other impressions, in the comments. 

And oh, yes, this could also qualify as our "Acetate of the Month", as it clearly comes from a recording of multiple acetate sides. But this recording came to me on a reel of tape, where someone had recorded those acetate sides. 

Download: WTIC - A Self-Parody for a Christmas Party - 12-22-38

Play:

~~

What's more, the same tape contained a later, joking recording, created at the same station for some Christmas in the 1940's, a shorter piece of humor titled "The Announcer's Nightmare": 

Download: WTIC - A 1940's Self-Parody for a Christmas Party - The Announcer's Nightmare

Play:  

~~

For an entirely more homey feel, here is a tape of an unknown family singing Christmas Carols at home around 1950 or so. This comes from one of those early paper reels that only were in production until about 1951. Please enjoy these voices from over 70 years ago, sounding (for the most part, anyway) like they could have been recorded last week - such is the magic of reel to reel tape.  

Download: Christmas Carols at Home, Circa 1950

Play:  

~~

But mayhap you prefer your Christmas entertainment to be provided by the more... professional of performers. If that's the case, I present to you: Perry Como's 1964 Christmas Episode of the Kraft Music Hall, from December 17th of that year: 

Download: Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall - Christmas Show - 12-17-64

Play:

~~

Getting back into the domestic life, in 1960, Hope and Franklin decided to record about 42 minutes of their Christmas gathering, including, among other things, what sounds very much like some conversation around the dining room table, and some caroling. And in 2022, I am sharing that recording with you. As one participant suggests, "listen to it while you're having dessert".

Download: Christmas, 1960, at Hope and Franklin's House

Play:

~~

Now that dessert is over, it's time for a few reflections. Here is a gentlemen and his family, living in Sioux Falls, looking back at the events of Christmas that year (1978), as well as the events of the year. The recording was made on Christmas night of that year -  it would appear that this was one of a series, and that this family made such a recording every year, for some number of years, at least. Sort of an end-of-the-year family diary. As far as I've found thus far, I do not have any of their other Christmas recordings. Names of several family members are given, during the reporting, but I'll let you hear those. Something about this tape resonates with me very deeply - I find it extremely sweet and very affecting. 

Download: Christmas Evening, 1978, and Review of the Year

Play:

~~

Our "Very Short Reel" feature for today is also Christmas themed, although it was recorded nearly a month after Christmas of 1951, on January 20, 1952. In this recording, a very small child plays some of his or her (presumably) favorite records, and makes a very small child's attempt to sing along. Note that I don't hold this child to the same standard as the tone-deaf singer who apparently wanted to hear himself singing along to hit records, which I featured last time. It's not this tiny person's fault that the ability to carry a tune has not made itself known yet, nor that the parent decided to record the singing. 

What's more, this kid is in tune at least as often than our would-be singer from last time around. And your mileage may vary a great deal, but I find this recording endearing, something I couldn't say about the aforementioned recording. Perhaps that has something to do with just how long its been since I had a toddler in my life...

After we hear part of a Spike Jones record of nursery rhymes (our only non-Christmas content this week), we go straight into the classic Bing Crosby/Andrews Sisters versions of "Jingle Bells" and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" (with another record overlapping the first song, for a moment, for some reason)

Download: Small Child Sings with Christmas Records - 1-20-52

Play:

~~

And finally, our "Acetate of the Month". And here's a surprise - it's Christmas related! And it's a "very short acetate", lasting barely two minutes. The "Duodisc"-brand acetate was a souvenir of a visit to see Santa at a store - Toyland within "Lord's, in Evanston" (Illinois, of course), you can read about the store here, and see a picture of it - what a fantastic building - here. Santa introduces himself, interviews a child about his life and his wishes for Christmas, then sings a few songs with him. My guess is that each of Santa's visitors got such a record. 

Download: Duodisc Acetate - A Visit with Santa at Lord's in Evanston, IL

Play:

Mayor Daley, Christmas Night, Another Loungey Tape, Some Truly Annoying Recordings, and Some BIG NEWS!

 Hello again!

First, I need to acknowledge my most important news of the year. This past Saturday, my wonderful daughter Molly got married to the equally wonderful Sean. Here they are, stepping out into a swarm of bubbles, just after the ceremony: 

~~

And now, I'd like to do a little housekeeping, or, more specifically, make a few comments and give some belated Thanksgiving thanks to readers and commenters. 

First, to Eric P., who wrote about the fact that I have two near-complete Yankees game radio broadcasts. Eric, the games in question are 9-25-60 and 5-31-61. The former seems to be available, complete, in what I think is the radio broadcast, on YouTube. I cannot find the latter anywhere, so let me know if it circulates in the collection that you mentioned. Basically, let me know if I'd be adding to the available canon by posting either or both of these. Thanks!

Second, to Diane, who admittedly, probably won't see this - I always appreciate hearing from someone related to a person featured on one of my postings. Thank you. For the rest of you, one of my early favorites here were the tapes of Bob Hoppe, one of which can be heard here. That post also links back to an earlier posting of similar material. Well, his granddaughter just commented on that post, and that really made my day. 

And then, finally, thanks! Thanks to Lee D., Vinushka, Larry Z, Snoopy, Timmy and Anonymous, for general encouragement, love notes, additional information and/or specific feedback about what is most enjoyable.

Please know that I read and appreciate every comment. And if I missed anyone, I apologize!

Okay...

~~

I'll start with something that seems to get a lot of positive reaction around here, Commercials. In this case, a tape that starts with part of a commercial promotion that I found severely irritating at the time, the "Noid" commercials put out by Dominoes in the late 1980's. If this tape solely contained "Noid" ads, I doubt I would be sharing it, but the tape then also contains several minutes of Dominoes production music, which I think is interesting: 

Download: Dominos Pizza - 'Noid' Commercials and Production Music - 11-7-88

Play: 

~~

Switching gears roughly enough to perhaps end up needing a new transmission, I note that we are coming up on, one week from tomorrow, the 46th anniversary of the death of Mayor Richard J. Daley of Chicago. As I have never lived more than ten miles outside of the Chicago city limits, this was a man whose name and exploits dominated what little I knew about politics as I was growing up. And his birthday, just days before Christmas, 1976, was a shock to most of us who lived in and near the city. The following day, the hosts and producers of a local TV show called AM Chicago, understandably threw out everything which had been planned for the day, and produced a show entirely about the life and death of Mayor Daley. Here is that show: 

Download: AM Chicago - The Day After Mayor Daley Died

Play: 

~~

Let's have some happier Christmas memories now. Here's someone's audio letter, recorded on Christmas night, to mom and dad. This seems to be from either 1961 or 1962: 

Download: A Christmas Night Audio Letter to Mom and Dad, from San Diego, circa 1961 or 1962

Play: 

~~

And now, something that you may well find annoying, and which I find annoying as well, but which also holds a strange fascination for me. I've shared a few of these before, and here's another one. 

Okay, first: I do not understand the practice of recording oneself playing records, and singing along with them. Do people who do this actually go back and fondly listen to themselves singing along with record that they presumably still own, and could listen to, and sing along with, right now, rather than listening to a tape of the same thing? 

And what to make of this practice when the person doing the singing and recording CAN'T SING?!?!?! Here is a fellow enjoying his collection of circa 1956-61 pop records, and doing an astonishingly bad job of accompanying them with something closer to atonality than to tunefulness. 

I remain thoroughly befuddled by this exercise, but, as I said, it sort of fascinates me, too. 

Download: Singing Along Badly with the Hits, circa 1961 (and a few odds and ends)

Play: 

~~

Here's a fairly short bit of tape, featuring someone testing his microphone and recorder, then recording a few minutes of a station called KAJO in Grant's Pass, Oregon. The Kate Smith record featured at the end of this segment was released in 1965, and the reference to the LBJ administration during the microphone test indicates it has to be from no later than 1968, so that's a fairly good snapshot of the era in which this was recorded. 

Download: Testing and KAJO Redio, Grants Pass, Oregon
Play: 

~~

I've gotten a bit of positive feedback from posting loungy acts in concert, and so, for those folks, here is a male acoustic duo with about 24 minutes of performance. They do not appear to have much of an audience. I know nothing else about these performers, the venue or the date: 

Download: Unknown - An Male Duo with Acoustic Guitars, Live

Play:

~~

Finally, our "Very Short Reel" for the post. Here is a gentleman singing a song which certainly sounds like a show tune, but I have been unable to find any reference to these lyrics online. I've dubbed it "Except When We Tangle With Dames"

Download: Unknown - Unknown Song ("Except When We Tangle With Dames") 

Play:

~~

Blowout Post # 3!!!

Well, it's time for me to have no time to blather on again, so today, we'll have episode three of the "Blowout Post" series, which I started under similar circumstances a few months ago. In summary, I'm going to unload ten files about which I have relatively little to say, some of them quite lengthy and fairly esoteric (107 minutes of discussions of how to entertain a visiting honoree, anyone???), and others perhaps more generally entertaining. About none of them, except the first one, do I have very much to say. 

~~

We'll start off with an sample from a bunch of tapes I listened to over the last several weeks, all from various members of the same group of amateur musicians. Across the tapes, variously, are heard accordion, guitar, ukulele, drums, piano and probably a few other instruments, as well as vocals at times. Not all of them at the same time, or even on the same tape, but clearly, people who enjoyed playing pop hits, folk tunes and dance music together. This particular tape starts with a few seconds of music off of TV or radio, and ends with one of the participants reading the names of some of the songs that were played. 

If this is appealing to you, let me know - there's a bunch more, including some with more variety of song styles and instruments. And, intriguingly, these tapes seem to feature at least some family members who were heard on the "Gaggle of Giggling 12 Year Olds" / "Noisy Birdy" tape which was the very first reel I shared on this blog. Clearly, I obtained far more tapes from that family than I previously knew I had. 

Download: Music at Home - Marlene, Bill and Vernene, 1-17-58

Play:

By the way, some of these tapes come with extensive notations. Here is what was in this tape's box. As you can see, the file shared above is actually from two different recordings, one on 1/17/58 and one on 1/21/58: 

~~

From a considerably more accomplished musician, and certainly a more celebrated (and ridiculed) showman, here is a tape of an episode of Liberace's 1950's television show: 

Download: An Episode of the Liberace Television Show

Play:

~~

Next up, here's a guy who is giving a speech - to whom, when and where I do not know - that I find more and more disagreeable as it goes on. But I'm a lefty if there ever was one. I'm sure he'd find my ideas just as cockamamie as I do some of his. 

Download: Unknown - A Chamber-of-Commerce Type Speech

Play:

~~

And now, the aforementioned 107 minute tape of preparations. Someone named Richard Holden (presumably not the Richard Holden I knew at my church in the 1970's, who was a dwarf) was to be honored (along with his family), during the last few days of 1955 at the first days of 1956, in the Los Angeles area. He was to be "The Airman of the Year". The gentlemen heard here go over the minutia buried within the minutia of this visit. And believe it or not, the start of this conversation was actually erased - it originally went on even longer than this!

Download: Making Plans for the Visit of Airman of the Year Richard T Holden, Late 1955

Play: 

~~

Christmas is coming. Did you know? Is this too soon? 

Here is my first Christmas offering. I don't know anything about this little performance, but I called it "A Rather Homely Christmas Carol Concert", not "homely" in the way it's mostly been used in the last several decades (meaning plain, or unattractive), but rather - as I found in one online dictionary - "free from affectation, unaffectedly natural, simple". I rather enjoy it in its guilelessness. I hope you will, too. 

Download: Unknown - A Rather Homely Christmas Carol Concert

Play:

~~

Somewhere between the limited skills of our accordion band and Liberace, you might find the sort of band or duo who played at small meeting houses, supper clubs, Holiday Inns and the like. It would appear, from the paper taped to the box for this reel, that two fellows named Heinz and Parker teamed up and, calling themselves "Padded Cell", appeared locally (wherever "locally" was, for as many as, oh, four people, if the applause here is any indication. There are only the two names on the box, but there are obviously at least three people here, four if the vocalist was not playing an instrument. Anyway, here they are on the first of April, 1961. 

Download: Padded Cell (Heinz and Parker) - Live, 4-1-61

Play:

Here's that paper from the tape box cover: 

Or - and I just thought of this - maybe the name of the nearly empty club was "Padded Cell"

~~

Here's another of those lovely hodgepodge tapes I enjoy so much. This one is particularly varied, even though it very strongly appears to have been recorded by the same family at various points within a relatively short period of years. The title provides all the explanation I hope you'll need. 

Download: Hodgepodge - WLS Polka Show, Conversations Around the House, Choral Song, Audio Letter - Late 1950's

Play:

~~

And here's a short excerpt from a syndicated Album Rock Countdown from May of 1978, as heard on the late, great, WMET, Chicago. This was all there was of the show, on the tape in question. If this had been simply the songs from the countdown, I doubt it would have been very interesting or worth sharing, although God, do I love "Still the Same" - one of my favorite 50 hit singles ever, I'd say, and from an artist I otherwise have almost no interest in, save for that one and "Fire Lake". 

But.... one third of this tape a commercial break, and it provides a nice little pair of radio ads from that moment. And as much as I hate McDonald's, the moment with the little child at the 2:00 mark cracks me up - very effective.

Download: Album Rock Countdown, May, 1978, Short Segment

Play:

~~

And here is the "Very Short Reel" for this post. Not a lot of explanation needed here, just someone reading a bit of a classic novel, "Great Expectations": 

Download: A Brief Reading from "Great Expectations"

Play:

~~

And we'll finish with our "Acetate of the Month". I will let you discover the nature of this little audio letter from the 1940's by listening to it. I will only say that 1.) I included both sides of a small acetate in one file, 2.) I cannot find this record to share a scan of it (I may have sold it...), and 3.) it is as utterly charming as anything I've shared on this site all year. 

Download: Merry Xmas to Willie - 12-12-48 (Knight Acetate)

Play:

"The Sportsman's Friend", The Hits of 1954, A Bit of Art Linkletter, More Shortwave, "Sing Baby Sing", and More!

Howdy, Y'all, 

I have another motley batch of seven slabs of vintage reel to reel recordings for you. I'm delayed this time around by a minor eye injury which made looking at a computer screen (which I have to do for work all day) increasingly uncomfortable, meaning I did little online outside of work for about a week. It seems to be all better now. 

But enough about me. Let's hear even more about Lucky Lager. Somewhere along the road of life I managed to take possession of a whole batch of Lucky Lager related reels, and if this group of sixteen ads on the them of "Sportsman's Friend" is not the best of the lot, it's close. 

Download: Lucky Lager - 16 'Sportsman's Friend' Ads - 1969

Play:

~~

Next up, yet another in my now-diminishing batch of previously unshared Shortwave recordings, this one - as most of them have been - is a recording of Australian programming directed at the American market. 

Download: Australian Scene - August, 1974 (Via Shortwave)

Play:

~~

And now here's a tape which, under most circumstances, would have been my showcase share, right at the top of the post. It's a broadcast of some station's rendering of the top hits of the week, done in very much the style of "Your Hit Parade" in which the songs are played at random, with the ranking number given, rather than being a strict countdown. 

Two things resulted in my burying this down a few spots in this post. First, it's programming from about June of 1954, which was certainly one of the less scintillating moments for pop music in North America. But even more so, the sound quality is wretched. I mean, the shortwave recording above, is also in terrible quality, but that's expected in such a recording. This seems to have been recorded during a thunderstorm or something, and the station doesn't seem that well tuned in, either. If it wasn't for the nature of the tape - a genre I just love (the hits of the week) - I might have passed on sharing it at all. Hope you find it worth listening to, despite the quality. 

Download: The Week's Top Hits, Circa June, 1954

Play:

Here's the relevant bit of the tape box, even if the sticker on it is inaccurate - everything here is from 1954: 

~~

Switching gears pretty aggressively now - and that's a good way to put it, as I'm sure this man switched a few gears in his time - here's a brief excerpt from an episode of "Art Linkletter's House Party", a wildly popular television show which ran for almost two decades. In this segment, he interviews "The Fastest Man in the World", Lt Col John Stapp. The segment does a good job of explaining that title, and if you want to read more about Stapp, you can do so here. 

Download: Lt Col John Stapp on Art Linkletter's House Party

Play:

~~

Are you, by chance in the mood for a bit of supper club style music? Well, if so, I have just what you've been waiting for - about 18 minutes of a guy named Jack Wells, performing in front of what seems to be about eight people at most - dropping the name of blind balladeer Al Hibbler at one point - with a handful of songs. 

Download: Jack Wells Plays a Few Songs

Play:

~~~

Here's one sort of thing that I just love, and that I sometimes hear from others that they enjoy, as well, It's the family home recording, in this case, a bit of a hodgepodge. Adults are heard discussing the recording process itself, and having other innocuous conversations. Children sing songs and are interviewed by the parents. In between the segments are moments of older recordings. An article about a speech by Vice President Nixon is read. A statement about being unable to stop smoking follows, although it veers off into other subjects, after a while. Finally, a brief audio letter finishes the tape - although it seems odd that such a letter would be on a tape filled with family material, and that it would not be recorded on the length of tape actually needed for what the guy wanted to say (it runs out, mid-thought). 

Download: Recordings Around the House

Play:

And finally, our "Very Short Reel" today comes from the Mountain Home Schools of Arkansas, where, at some point, there was a production of a show called "Sing Baby Sing", and here we have three promos for that show. 

Download: Three Promos for the Mountain Home Schools' Production of "Sing Baby Sing"

Play:

An Anti-Medicare Screed, Another Japanese Missive, A Lovely Hodgepodge, Mrs. Isono, and More Mitch Miller Than Anyone Can Stand

Howdy, Y'all. 

Oh and BOOOO!

Last time around, I asked if anyone knew the link between Frank Zappa and "Pipeline" by the Chantays. Well, I had a couple of questions about that, and here is the obscure answer. It comes from an interview I have on tape, I believe it's with Dr. Demento, but I could be wrong. I don't have an exact quote, but in the interview, Zappa says more or less: 

"It was one of the first time I was in a 'real' recording studio with booked time and a song to record." He goes on with something along these lines: "we had to wait for awhile - the producer needed to finish working on a record he KNEW was going to be hit - Pipeline, by the Chantays - before we could record..."

~~

Also, I heard from frequent commenter "Snoopy", who said he'd really like to hear the entire Bob Binderman car race segment, which I edited in order to remove what I thought was about three minutes of mouth-made car noises, with no narration in between. It turns out it's actually 2 1/2 minutes, but for Snoopy, and anyone else who is interested, I have re-posted that bit, unedited this time, at the bottom of this post. 

And now.....

~~

With politics in the news all day, every day here is America this week, we'll start with a flashback to an earlier day, and the hot button issue of 1962 - whether to offer government insurance to certain portions of the population. The bill at the time was the King-Anderson Bill, and the Medical establishment was dead set against it, as heard in this presentation from the head of the AMA -  a response to a much flashier presentation the Kennedy administration had given a short time earlier, as you'll hear. This particular bill was defeated, but a similar bill was more successful a few years later. I've labeled this a screed, and find it to be full of scaremongering - your mileage may vary, but it's worth noting that the successful tweaking of this bill, a few years later, called Medicaid, is quite popular, nearly 60 years after its passage. 

Download: The American Medical Association (Dr Leonard W Larson) -  Presentation Against the King-Anderson Bill - 1962

Play:

~~

Well, after that hyperbole, maybe a nice palette cleanser is in order. Here, ahead of the usual arrangement, is our "Very Short Reel" for the day, a sweet home recording I've labeled "A Few Minutes at the Schafer Home". I don't know the actual spelling of the family's last name, as there are several versions of that moniker, so I guessed. Mostly, this is a series of piano solos rendered by a little girl, but near the end is a bit of stilted conversation which I thought was interesting.  

Download: A Few Minutes at the Schafer Home

Play:

~~

It's been awhile since we checked in with our young man in Japan. As I've explained before, I'm unable to ascertain exactly what he was doing there, although I've identified him as a student-soldier in previous posts and in the names of files. If someone else has figured out what he was doing in Japan from these tapes, I'd love to hear it. Search for "Japan" in the labels, and all of the previous posts from this series of audio letters will show up (along with a few other Japan-related items)

Download: Audio Letter from a Student-Soldier in Japan, January 19th

Play:

~~

I always enjoy it when I come across what I call a hodgepodge - a (usually shortish) tape which contains a series of things completely unrelated, or at best, barely related to each other. That's about all I'll say about this item - its title explains its contents pretty well. 

Download: A Hodgepodge - Born Free, Narration, Heavy Breathing and Mario Andretti

Play:

~~

Last week, I listened to a tape containing two complete New York Yankees baseball broadcasts, one from from 1960 and one from 1961. That was enjoyable enough, but my favorite moment was actually a little ad for Ballantine Beer which popped up in the middle of the 1961 game. This doesn't really qualify as a "very short reel" since it's 40-some seconds out of a tape lasting more than six hours, but I wanted to share it here. 

Download: Ballantine Beer Ad, 1961

Play:

~~

And now, the moment that perhaps NO ONE was waiting for. But.... I had this tape, and it's probably a fairly rare piece, so I thought I'd share it. Contained on the tape are four near-complete episodes of "Sing Along with Mitch" - the four episodes broadcast in May of 1963. This is a really long share, and its certainly from another time and place, but perhaps it's your thang, and if so, do what you wanna do: 

Download: Sing Along With Mitch - Four Full Episodes from May, 1963

Play:

~~

And now it's time for our "Acetate of the Month". I know very, very little about this record. It looks like this on one side: 

And like this on the other side: 

Perhaps someone out there who can read Japanese can tell us all what it means. Regardless, it seems to feature a Mrs. Isono, if the label is to be believed, and why shouldn't it be. Here are the two sides: 

Download: Mrs. Isono - Side One

Play:

Download: Mrs. Isono - Side Two

Play:

~~

And finally, as mentioned in the blurb at the top of this page, here, for those who want it, and Snoopy in particular, is the full, unedited Bob Binderman Auto Race performance, complete with another 150 seconds or so of mouth-as-car-engine performances at the end: 

Download: Bob Binderman - Calling an Auto Race in Reims, France (unedited)

Play:

Some Great Radio Jingles, The Binderman's At Home, and a Bit of Beatles Plagiarism

Happy October 18th! Hmmm. October 18th. Someone I once loved dearly was born on October 18th. It took me all day before I connected today's date to that person. Didn't used to be that way....

Wow - that flashed me back about 46 years. Man - it was great to be 16. And... Man - it was awful to be 16. 

What... Ah, well, that's not why you called....oh, yeah, the post.....

I have something fairly fun to start off with, followed by something magnificent. Then I have a whole batch of recordings from the same tape, and stick around for some astonishing plagiarism., 

That fun segment and the magnificent segment I mentioned come from the very same tape, one that has a spine that looks like this: 

What we have here are two sets of Jingles, spliced together, from two different companies, for two different radio stations. 

The first, and longer segment, is a batch of jingles for WLBQ in Kentucky. These are from the Gwinsound company, a firm I had not heard of before I got this tape, but which seems to be fairly well known among those who collect jingles and such. These are fine, but they start to sound pretty "samey" after awhile, and they certainly don't have that extra OOMPH that need to hear in order for jingles to really resonate with me. Still, they're fun to hear and have.

Download: Gwinsound - A Collection of WLBQ Jingles

Play:

But then we come to the other set, which is from PAMS, and which were created for W-100 (WIOO) in Pennsylvania. Immediately, the magic of PAMS is in the air, and I find these jingles irresistible - they have that certain magic sauce which always seems to exude from the work of the folks at PAMS. This is masterful stuff, engaging, fun and memorable. 

Download: PAMS - A Collection of WIOO (W-100) Jingles

Play:

~~

Most of the rest of this post, all but the very short reels segment, is taken from a single reel that I've owned for decades, and that I enjoy very much. It's for those of you who like home recordings, particularly people trying to be creative in their home recordings (whether successful or not). It seems to have originate in the home of someone named Bob Binderman, and his name is the only thing written on the box. He doesn't appear to be the only adult heard on the tape, but there is no evidence as to who the others might be. 

The tape starts with Mr. Binderman trying to do his best Doodles Weaver impression, in this fictional calling of an automobile race from France. The zooming car sounds at the end actually went on at least another three minutes, but I edited that part down, as it become tedious.  

Download: Bob Binderman - Calling an Auto Race in Reims, France

Play: 

Next, Mr. Binderman uses a variety of records from his collection to tell what he most assuredly meant to be a humorous story about being lost and captured in the jungle. Parts of this work better than other parts, but it strikes me as an interesting attempt all the way through. 

Download: Bob Binderman - Jungle Story

Play: 

The next short segment features a young boy telling a deliberately messed up sports report. My guess is this is Mr. Binderman's son, and that the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree. 

Download: Kid Does Mixed-Up Sports Report

Play: 

The rest of side one of the tape consisted of recordings of female pop vocalists and instrumental pieces copied from records, so let's flip the tape over!

The start of the other side could not be more different than the jokey material on the first side. For here we have a bit of poetry, in tribute to some members of the Air Force. It's introduced as the "Ode to the 309th" and ends with a song for "Bentley's Air Force", and I've attached both names to it here. 

The mention of listening to Rock and Roll would indicate this band of brothers worked together during peacetime. This does not sound like Bob Binderman, but there's no indication of who it is. Any guesses about the source of this material would be welcome. 

Download: Unknown - Ode to the 309th (Bentley's Air Force)

Play:

The tape ends with about 20 minutes of slice-of-life recordings made in someone's home. The stories heard on the radio make it clear that we're now in 1965 (I believe that is likely at least a few years after the other material here), and we're spending those minutes with a little girl named Chrissie and her parents. 

Download: Chrissie and Her Parents - 1965

Play: 

~~

And now, very short reels. I realized with some embarrassment that last time, I shared a Very Short Reel that I'd already offered up more than a year earlier. Somehow, I'd neglected to move it into my "already shared" folders.

So to make up for it, I'll offer up two such very short reels today. 

For the first... I've mentioned a few times that I have a whole batch of tapes which came from a radio station in Astoria, Oregon. Many of those tapes featured a "story time" show called "A Story Told with Aunt Polly", and the voice of that host also shows up on many of the PSA's and local ads that are in that batch of tapes. 

Well, here is the owner of that voice, Polly Columbo, no doubt wearing a raincoat, searching for clues as to whodunnit, and gathering together some of her work into a demo reel. I get a great kick out of the fact that she does voice over introductions for both "Pipeline" by the Chantays and "Baby Snakes" by Frank Zappa during this segment, and not only that, but back to back

Extra points for anyone who knows another link between The Chantays' "Pipeline" and Frank Zappa. 

Download: Polly Columbo's Demo Reel

Play:

But I've saved the best - or at least the oddest - for last. 

This comes from a longer tape of AM, Top 40 radio that I myself recorded in the fall of 1970. The tape is very choppy and not worth sharing as a whole - bits and pieces of songs, etc. But at one point, I did capture a Certs ad which is astonishing in that those who created it simply took a Beatles hit - from about 18 months earlier - and rewrote it to be about Certs. It's got the same melody, it's got essentially the same instrumentation, and even the music bed under the voice over is the same SOLO from that Beatles' hit. 

I wonder at what point this sort of blatant plagiarism stopped being something advertisers could get away with. 

Download: 1970 Certs Ad

Play:

Blowout Post # 2!!!

Welcome to the final hours of September!

One month ago, I wrote a post explaining that I have an overabundance of material, some of which I don't have a lot of things to say/write about, and a periodic dearth of time to put together the sort of post I normally would like to. I proposed that at least sometimes, I would burn off ten or more items at once, with a minimum of text. The responses were fairly varied, but no one was really opposed to what I did in that post, and a few were quite enthusiastic. 

While I don't actually plan to make this a monthly thing, I am doing another of these blowout posts today, for the second month in a row. 

And heeeeeeere we go!!!

Let's start the ball rolling with my favorite of this post's offerings, a batch of commercials for Owens Community College, in Ohio: 

Download: Seven Ads for Owens Community College

Play:

~~

Next up, a sample of something I come across remarkably frequently - a tape that simply captures people sitting around chatting. Sometimes, it's clear that the recording was made for posterity, maybe a particularly interesting conversation, or a visit from old friends, and every voice (or nearly every one) is close to the microphone and it's clear they all wanted to be recorded. Other times, it sounds almost as if the machine was left on by accident, or that perhaps no one by the recordist knows the machine was on. Here is an example of the latter of those two types - a few minutes with some people sitting around talking:

Download: A Few People Sitting Around Talking

Play:

~~

And now, let's talk Milagros. I had never heard of Milagros before I came across this short audio documentary. You can read about them here. Or you can just listen to Marsha Bol and her compatriots: 

Download: Marsha Bol and Others - Life Sized Milagros

Play:

~~

The last time (well, the first time) I did one of these mega-posts, I wrote the following, about an audio diary: 

   I have in my collection several tapes recorded by an American couple living, I believe, in Germany, who made several trips to other parts of Europe during the late 1960's and early 1970's, and made recordings each night, while on those trips, summarizing their experiences from that day.In most cases, they used more than one reel - always three inch reels, with the thinnest, lengthiest tape available, and recorded at 1 7/8 IPS.

Here is another of these tapes, capturing elements of a tour of Norway and Sweden in the summer of 1968. This is the second tape this couple made on their tour of Scandinavia, and once I find and digitize part one, I can share that, too, if there is interest. Unlike the other tape I shared of them, last time, for this vacation, the couple's children accompanied them, and are heard on the tape: 

Download: Audio Diary - Tour of Norway and Sweden, 6-22-68

Play:

Here's that three inch tape box!

~~

And now it's time for the "homely music hour". I have tons of reels like this one, featuring people who love to play and sing, even if they are not truly good at it. In this case, it's someone named Alma playing the piano, in a style I find wonderfully nostalgic, and in certain ways not unlike some of the music I play, while another someone named Gus sings in a style which might have been fashionable in the early days of acoustic recording, circa 1895-1910. It seems to me that the days when anyone would create something sounding like this are long since past. 

Download: Alma and Gus - Alma Playing Piano and Gus Singing

Play:

~~

Oh, and now here's something. You know that old saying about how someone or something can be "more boring than listening to a file cabinet salesman"? Wait, I guess that's not an old saying. But it should be. Exhibit A follows: 

Download: File Cabinet Salesman

Play:

(By the way, in the above segment, just past the 41 minute mark, there is two minutes of a song, followed by a short "Thank You and Farewell - I'm Moving to Houston" speech by a different person than the salesman who had been speaking earlier. That segment gets softer and softer as it continues on through the end of the tape.)

~~

And yet another genre of tape which recurs over and over again is the amateur musical performance (or rehearsal). In this case, rather oddly, the recording of a small combo, led by Bari Sax player (accompanied only by guitar and drums), is interrupted just past the halfway point by a recording (off of the radio) of a Dave "Baby" Cortez track, before it returns to the combo. They're not very good, but they seem to be enjoying themselves. 

Download: A Baritone Sax Led Combo Recital (and a bit of Dave 'Baby' Cortez)

Play:

~~

This next tape may not be to scintillating - unless it is being compared to listening to a file cabinet salesman - but it does have a soft spot in my heart, as it was one of the first tapes I ever bought, when I got serious about looking for this sort of ephemera. I was sort of fascinated by it, too, as it was recorded at 15 inches-per-second, a speed I wouldn't necessarily think one would choose to use to record a sign-making lecture, given how quickly one uses up the available tape at that speed. Yes, I know how geeky this paragraph makes me sound. But no doubt you already knew that, if you've spent any time here.

Download: A Sign-Making Class Lecture, 2-17-61

Play:

~~

The oldest recording in this week's offerings is this short series of excerpts from a Major Bowes Amateur Hour. Since Major Bowes died in 1946, this is definitely older than the other items here. 

Incidentally, I once played Major Bowes' successor, Ted Mack, in an 8th Grade review near the end of my elementary school career. I introduced "The Andrews Sisters" portrayed by the three smallest boys in our class, all of whom were in drag, and they lip synched to an Andrews Sisters' record. (I played trombone in the band for the rest of the show.)

Download: Segments of a Major Bowes Amateur Hour Episode

Play:

~~

Okay....

Last time around, I left the longest offering - a church related segment - as the final one of my Blowout post features. This time, I'm doing it again, with a reel that was recorded, somewhere, in the early 1950's. It's a faith healing session, complete with the faith healer giving a sermon, some music, some more sermonizing and then performing his miracles. If you're up for this sort of thing, it's a pretty amazing recording. If not, well, we still have our monthly and bi-monthly features yet to come, below: 

Download: A Faith Healer Talks and Faith Heals

Play:

~~

And now it's time for our "Acetate of the Month". This is a sweet audio letter from two family members to two other family members. One side is addressed to Bea, and the other side to Momma. It's from November of 1940. I have combined both sides into one single track. The "Momma" side is poorly recorded, or at least has not weathered as well as its flip side, over the years. It is rather difficult listening.

Download: Bob and Ginny - Audio Letters to Bea and to Momma, 11-15-40

Play:

Here's what that record looks like: 

~~

And finally, the "Very Short Reel" for this posting. I find it rather remarkable that I have this specific little advertisement for the Sunday Chicago Tribune. And that's because the issue being advertised contained a profile of a then-completely-unknown woman in an obscure city job, a woman named Jane Byrne. Byrne, of course, would be, by the end of that same decade, Chicago's first woman mayor. The main story advertised here suggests what might be collectable in 2015, without much accuracy. 

Download: Sunday Chicago Tribune Ad, Circa Early 1970's

Play: 

Queen Elizabeth in Chicago, A Labor Day Address, A Demo Reel, Gynecology and "The Dong With the Luminous Nose"

First, I wanted to thank the several people who wrote, either via the comment box or via e-mail, to share their thoughts on last months "BLOWOUT" post. I appreciate the kind words, the thoughts on that format, and the general reactions and impressions of my site. They are all deeply appreciated. It was a small sample, but the general feeling seems to have been that such a post, in which I share a huge volume of material, about which I have relatively little to say, and therefore with minimal text, is a welcome offering. I may do such a post as often as once every other post, at least until I've used up a significant portion of the 400 or so items I have waiting for sharing. For my other posts, I think I will try to cut down on the amount of typing I do, unless there is really something specific I want to pass along.

And now, on with the countdown: 

When I heard the news about Queen Elizabeth, one of my first thoughts was "I should share that tape of the time she visited Chicago". I've owned this five inch reel for decades, digitized it over two years ago, and if I could find it, I would scan the tape box for you. 

Elizabeth visited Chicago for a 16 or so hour visit, after visiting multiple sites in Canada. She arrived, as you'll hear, on a boat in Lake Michigan, and crossed Lake Shore Drive into Grant Park. For decades, that crosswalk was known as "Queen's Crossing", until the city removed the crosswalk and the stop light, a few years ago. I'll let the tape tell the rest of the story. 

Download:  Coverage of Queen Elizabeth's Visit to Chicago, 7-6-59

Play:

As long as I'm sharing that tape, I thought I'd let you hear what was on the rest of that reel. Here's a short segment of WGN radio show called "Midnight Ticker", from the same day as the Queen's visit. 

Download: Peggy Cass on "Midnight Ticker", 7-6-59

Play:

And, as often happens, the remainder of the tape actually contains something which was recorded earlier, and then partially erased by the later material. Here is the tail end of the final episode of "The Gisele MacKenzie Show, a television show which ended its run on March 28th, 1958

Download: The Gisele MacKenzie Show (Final Episode) with Cameraman Lee Mossman and Miyoshi Umeki - 3-28-58

Play:

~~

We also just celebrated Labor Day, and in honor of that, here is a broadcast Labor Day speech by the Vice President of the AFL-CIO, just a short 58 years ago. 

Download: Albert J Hayes, Vice President of AFL-CIO - Labor Day Address, 9-7-64

Play:

~~~

For those of you who, like me, can't get enough of all things Top 40 Radio, I have just the thing for you. Here is a demo reel produced by (or on behalf of) Lee Sherwood, a journeyman DJ, Radio personality and radio executive. This sampling was put together in April of 1971, and is "scoped" - that is, the songs are cut out of the equation. Just listening to this, you can tell that he was that "journeyman", as I described him - still early in his career, this tape represents stops at several different stations. 

Download: Lee Sherwood's Demo Reel, 4-17-71

Play:

~~

Here's a performance of an old bit of nonsense verse with guitar. When I first spooled out this next tape, as soon as the person began reciting the poem, I thought, "I KNOW THOSE WORDS". When I was a kid, one of my favorite books was "The Complete Nonsense of Edward Lear", a fantastic collection of prose, poetry and drawing which I still adore to this day. And for whatever reason, the performer here decided to do a little rendition of "The Dong With a Luminous Nose". The words aren't quite in the order here that they are in my book, but it's certainly the same Edward Lear poem. 

Download: Unknown - Edward Lear's 'The Dong With a Luminous Nose', with Guitar

Play:

~~

And now for something aggressively esoteric. Somewhere along the way I obtained a batch of reels which contain medical lectures and symposiums, under the umbrella title "Audio Digest". These would be sent on a monthly basis to doctors in various specialties, addressing issues within those specialties, from various aspects. The example I have today - this was the tape on the top of the pile, and one of only two of these that I've listened to so far - is on Obstetrics and Gynecology. It is a mind-numbing 57 minutes long, but I am really trying to give a sample of everything in my collection so..... ENJOY!!!

Download: Audio Digest - Obstetrics and Gynecology, Volume 15, Number 13

Play:

~~

And finally, here is our "Very Short Reel" for the day. It is, simply, an ad for a local bank. Here 'tis: 

Download: Pepper-Tanner - Community Bank and Trust Company Ad

Play: 

AUGUST BLOWOUT POST - EVERYTHING MUST GO

 Greetings, my friends. 

I'll tell you a little secret: this site is a LOT of work. I have, at one point or another, listened to everything I post. And if it's been a while and I want to share something interesting, I listen a second time. And all that listening, and all that writing and all that linking takes a lot of time. 

I don't mind, and I'm certainly not complaining - I am overjoyed that I've found a way to share my lifelong fascination with reel to reel recording with those who appreciate my finds. But sometimes it's overwhelming to try and get out two posts a month in the style that I prefer. 

Plus, I did an inventory last month, and I found that, over the years (going back to the WFMU days), I have - in my file named "not yet used" - nearly 400 discrete sound files that I've made from reel tapes, all of which I at least considered for this site, and WFMU before that, which are, as you might guess, "not yet used" on this site. And that number continues to grow, as in a typical month I newly save more items than I share. 

So I'm thinking that when I'm short on time, I will just put up a big batch of files, with little text - perhaps those things that I don't have a lot of explanation to give, or just things I think are interesting enough to share, but perhaps not worth the time it takes to type out a bunch of words. Paradoxically, it will be easier to share 12 files without saying much of anything, than it is to write a bunch of words about five files. So that's what's going to happen here. 

Please let me know what you think of this format. If you like the idea of getting more content and less blather from me, my feelings won't be hurt. And if you find this to be just too much at once, let me know that, as well. 

But first, just a bit of housekeeping. I received a very interesting note from an anonymous poster, yesterday, with regard to what I labeled as "Walkie-Talkies" in my last post. Well, I stand corrected. Here's what was written to me: 

The "walkie talkies" are actually CB radios. The dutiful use of call signs (K- or W- followed by two letters and four digits, different syntax than amateur radio calls) would seem to date this well before the "Breaker Breaker" craze of the mid 1970s. If I was to guess, I'd say mid- to late-1960s.
Unfortunately all of the FCC's records of CB radio call signs were apparently destroyed in the 1980s once the nearly-always-ignored requirement to obtain a CB license was finally put to rest. Otherwise, you might be able to identify some of these talkers!
Even recordings from the 1970s craze are rare, so these pre-craze reels are especially rare and fascinating to hear as the original pre-internet "social media."

Thanks for that clarification and history lesson. Most interesting!

Oh, and I also added a really nice newspaper clipping to that same post, one that was in the box that contained the WRC 40th Anniversary highlights. 

~~

I'm going to do things upside down today, before I get to the main "blowout post" I described above, and share the three items which fit in with my regular features. 

First up, here's the contents of a neat, 12-inch acetate, in our "Acetate of the Month" feature. And with school starting for most children between last week and next week, what could be better than Miss Arlene greeting her room full of Kindergartener. On one side of the record, she greets them - and they greet her - in English, and on the other side, they greet each other in Spanish. 

Download: Kindergarten Class - Miss Arlene Greets Children in English

Play:

Download: Kindergarten Class - Miss Arlene Greets Children in Spanish

Play:

~~

And let's get that "Very Short Reel" out of the way, too. It looks like, during the 1958-59 season, CBS TV ran various re-runs under the title "Stars In Action", or rather, "STARS..... IN.... ACTION!!!!". Here we have what I believe is the recording of various voiceovers being put onto the backing music. 

Download:  "Stars In Action" Main Title Voiceovers

Play:

~~

And now, nine more items, some of them quite lengthy, from my collection: 

By chance, a bunch of the files I chose are recordings of TV shows. So let's stay on the TV side of things to start. Here is the sound off of an entire TV special, a preview of ABC's fall, 1964 Prime Time programming, hosted by Bing Crosby. Crosby himself was the star of a new ABC sitcom that fall, one which didn't make it to the end of the season. 

Download: 1964 Preview of ABC's Fall Season, Starring Bing Crosby

Play:

~~

Now, did you ever wonder what a random woman speaker might have said, in 1970, about what the job of secretary of the future... say, 1980... would consist of and look like? Has that thought kept you up at night? I know it has for me. So I was relieved to find this 43 minute speech, on a tiny, three inch reel of desperately thin recording tape, recorded at 1 7/8 IPS. 

Download: Unknown - The Secretary of the Future, 1980, as Predicted in 1970

Play:

~~

Or perhaps 55 minutes of Fiddle Music, played by 90 year old Aunt Rose, with a much younger male relative on piano, recorded in Maine, among other spots, is more your speed today: 

Download: Fiddle Music with 90 Year Old Aunt Rose, from Maine and Elsewhere

Play:

Here's that tape box: 

~~

Returning to TV, here are some "wild track" recordings (Raw tapes, I think) from an ABC program about Japan, from the 1960's: 

Download: Wild Track Recordings for ABC program on Japan

Play:

And here's a portion of that tape box: 

~~

The next tape almost qualifies as a "Very Short Reel". The title pretty much explains this 5 1/2 minute segment: Robert Recites His Lines and Plays His Accordion, Spring, 1958

Download: Robert Recites His Lines and Plays His Accordion, Spring, 1958

Play:

And guess what, there's writing on this tape's box, too!

~~

Here's the tape I find the most interesting of all of those I'm sharing today. Your mileage may vary. I have in my collection several tapes recorded by an American couple living, I believe, in Germany, who made several trips to other parts of Europe during the late 1960's and early 1970's, and made recordings each night, while on those trips, summarizing their experiences from that day.In most cases, they used more than one reel - always three inch reels, with the thinnest, lengthiest tape available, and recorded at 1 7/8 IPS, as with the secretary speech, above. Here is their audio diary from 1969, capturing part one of a trip to Spain: 

Download: Audio Diary - Trip to Spain, September & October, 1969

Play:

Here's the tape, and the identification of its contents: 

~~

Last time around, I offered up some vintage country music television. This time around, it's more of the same, not from the 1950's, but from 1966, specifically, an episode of the Jimmy Dean show from January 16th of that year. 

Download: The Jimmy Dean Show, January 14, 1966

Play: \

~~

At some point, I came to own a few tapes connected to the Northrup Corporation, one of which you'll now have the chance to hear here. It's a rather odd compendium of various media reports and coverage of Northrup related stories. 

Download: Compilation of Northrup-Related Broadcasts, Summer, 1954

Play:

Here's what that tape box looks like: 

~~

And finally, the longest of all of the items I'm sharing here, which may be of some fascination to certain readers/listeners, and of absolutely no interest to the rest of you. This is an early 1950's revivalist-style church service, from a paper reel (that is, a reel made prior to 1952 featuring recording tape attached to paper backing). 

Download: An Early 50's Revivalist-Style Church Service

Play:

~~

Again, please let me know if you like, or dislike, this format. It is definitely a way to get more of what I have out there to you, the reader and listener, but it's also a ton of stuff to listen to. I'd also be interested in knowing which of the categories covered here are of interest, and not of interest, for future posts.