A Lot of Jack Paar, A Letter from Korea, New Things with Bobby, Astoria Oregon, and Our Regular Features, Too!

Howdy, everyone!

I have another wide variety of recorded material for you today. I'll start with the one I suspect will be far and away the most popular of the six offerings. 

It's another recording of Jack Paar shows! These have been very well received before, so why not offer up some more. 

But I have to be up front here - I have not listened to this lately. It looks like I made this MP3 well over a year ago, and I don't really recall what's there. I have not re-listened since, but when I found that I hadn't offered up this compendium yet, I thought it would be an excellent idea to do so. I do recall that, as indicated, it's not a single show, at least not all the way through, but rather, there are segments, probably from more than one episode. 

So please enjoy another 77 minutes of vintage Jack Paar. 

Download: Jack Paar and Guests - Various Jack Paar Segments

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Okay, on to Korea. During the time I was posting at WFMU, I offered up four tapes featuring an army doctor who had worked in Korea, in a command role. Three of those postings featured tapes back home to his wife, while he was in Korea (all after the hostilities had ended). There were five tapes featured in those three posts. The fourth and final reel shared was an audio diary of a road trip he and his wife took, in retirement. They were well received at the time.

That last tape can be found here, and it also contains links to the three previous postings of tapes from Korea. Recently, I discovered that I have at least one more reel featuring an audio letter to his wife, from this doctor, whose name was Lt. Col. William Reiber. It is a longer tape than the other Korea tapes I have shared - a five inch reel rather than a three inch reel. He mentions running out of things to say due to having chosen a longer tape. And there are a few things that are fairly cringeworthy, when views from today, particularly the segments about his "houseboy". 

But overall, what's here is pretty magical - a slice of life in a time and place that precious few people today experienced. I'll let you experience its various fascinations yourself. Here it is: 

Download: Lt. Col. William Reiber - Audio Letter From an Army Doctor in Korea - 4-15-54

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And here are both sides of the tape box!: 

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Okay, now let's switch gears so violently that we break the transmission. And this next segment is probably sort of self-indulgent, but I'm gonna share it anyway. I hope you'll listen, but understand if you don't. 

Because this is a tape of me, at age ten. When I recently posted several media recordings that I made at that age, including some rare game show recordings, I added that my early personal reels - those I was gifted with to use for my own recordings, thusly: 

Most of the recordings were pretty unlistenable by anyone who wasn't me, and wasn't me in grade school. I was a severely hyperactive child, prone to simply talking to myself, or pretending I was presenting a (usually very uninteresting) show, or even just banging on things with other things, like a reject from a Spike Jones cover band. 

There was, however, one recording in which I created a "fake show" that I was looking forward to finding, and last week, I found it. Maybe I like this because I remember this day, and this recording, as clear as I remember what I did this morning. Maybe I like it because it's goofily entertaining in its own way. Or maybe I'm the only one who will like it. 

Here, I am pretending I have my own radio channel (later identified on the tape as WREP - that is, W, followed by my initials), and I am demonstrating a home art project that anyone can do (and which I did a lot, around that age). You take a sheet of newspaper, preferably one which has a lot of different squares of stories, ads, or whatever, and your tempera paints, and you paint the different boxy areas different colors, so that no two boxes next to each other are the same color. An art project is probably not the best thing to do while pretending one is on the radio, but I still think this is adorable, and again, I know exactly where I was and what that space looked like, at that moment. 

A couple of things to note here. On two occasions, I say "makes the adjustment", in the voice and cadence of Shelley Berman, which is a lift from one of Berman's greatest bits, one I had long since memorized at age 10. You will also hear my mother and sister, briefly. And perhaps most fun of all, near the end, you will hear my sister playing (and briefly, singing along with) the Absolutely Free album, by The Mothers of Invention. 

Download: Bobby - The New Things Show

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I will add that this artistic "show" was followed by two brief "radio" shows, each featuring an improvised song that the shows were named after, the "Buns Galore" show and the "Fannies Galore" show (butts were a constant source of humor in our household). The "Fannies Galore" show song was rather entertaining, but I will resist the urge to post it here unless there is a groundswell of support for me doing so.

~~~

Many years ago, I bought a bit batch of tapes which turned out to be from a radio station in Astoria, Oregon, circa 1990 or so. I've featured individual tapes from that collection in my "Very Short Reels" project over the years. But here is a 13 minute reel that collects PSA's sponsored by local business and a few local Astoria ads, interspersed for some reason with some ads for Stroh's. 

Download: A Collection of Ads for Stroh's and Local Astoria, Oregon Businesses

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And now, the Acetate of the Month. This one features a small child named Gail along with a woman named Hattie. If I could find the disc, I'd post a picture here, and maybe it would have more information. 

It takes about 75 seconds to get going, but the last 2 1/2 minutes are deeply endearing. I particularly enjoy the snoring sound offered at the end of "Little Boy Blue", and the duo singing featured in the last minute or more. Let's suppose this is from the mid-1940's, and if so, Baby Gail would now be about 80 years old. 

Download: A Presto Acetate - Baby Gail and Hattie

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And finally, the ever-popular feature, the "Very Short Reel". 

I love this little scrap of tape: What we have is a couple of guys testing their machine, going through a variety of topics and accents. A radio announcer in the background seems to announce WSPL or WFPL, but I can find no definitive information about stations with either of those call letters at 104.3 anywhere, at any point. Maybe someone out there knows, or can find out. 

Download: "Testing" - An 88 Second Chat

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Hoagy Carmichael, An Impatient Grandma, A 1976 Aircheck, and How to Bisect an Angle

Greetings, 

I have another nice cornucopia of sound for y'all today, but first, I wanted to give great thanks, yet again, to Eric Paddon, who has been of great help over the years getting to the bottom of the history behind things I've shared. His recent note to me is so great, and so essential to the site and the post it relates to, that rather than just link to that post, which is here, I'm also going to repeat his comment in its entirety in today's post. It relates to the series of game show recordings that were posted in the middle of my last entry. 

Here's what he wrote:

The index of Gil Fates book on the history of "What's My Line?" reveals this particular program was part of the August 21, 1969 taping session for the show's 1969-70 season originally. That said, even if this was recorded in 1971, it would not be a "rerun" per se because syndicated game shows (which WML was starting in the Fall of 1968) in those days were "bicycled" to different stations and thus no two stations would be showing the same episodes at the same time. And if a station signed up to air the program after it had been on for a year, it would have the option of running the previous year's shows first! This practice continued with syndicated game shows up through the end of the 1970s and it explains why some stations would sometimes be airing a syndicated game show more than a year or two after actual production had ceased (or why in the case of "What's My Line?" some stations would be airing episodes featuring Bennett Cerf on the panel more than a year or two after he died). Wally Bruner is the host, and the panelists are Gene Rayburn, Nancy Dussault, Jack Cassidy and Sue Oakland (who did the on-air editorials for WCBS-TV in this era). A rare week when Arlene Francis was off.

The "Beat The Clock" fragment is more rare and potentially from an episode that doesn't exist (in contrast to the WML which is accounted for). The 1969-70 season was the first year of the BTC revival with Jack Narz hosting. That first season it was taped in New York, but starting in its second year, production moved to Montreal to save costs. GSN and BUZZR have never aired any episodes from the first season in New York which suggests they don't exist.

"Words and Music" would be the rarest of the three as NBC did not keep any of their daytime game shows. No videos have ever surfaced and only one other audio recording in the past. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpIRFQTfjDU&t=39s

Many, many thanks, Eric. 

~~~

And now, here's a tape that came with a sheet of paper stuff into the box that looks like this: 

The contents of the tape are as marvelous as that sort of haphazard capturing of it might indicate. Because here we have nearly an entire broadcast of a short lived show titled "The Saturday Night Revue" which ran in 1953 and 1954. Fans of Hoagy Carmichael will particularly love this tape, as he hosts the show and performs several of his best known songs.

These are interspersed with a few very draggy and fairly unfunny comedic sketches and other material. I find it interesting that they chose to do what to modern ears will be a very offensive Asian caricature introduction at one point, yet Carmichael seemingly knew well enough to change the words to one of his songs, a moment later, which contained a far less offensive (in 1953) word, singing that the Hong Kong Blues was about an unfortunate "southern" man. 

Incidentally, it's clear that the note above was written decades after this program was recorded - just have a look at the zip code, area codes and fax number at the bottom of the page. The writer also identified the Asian bit as "racist". 

The show is not complete - or perhaps this is parts of more than one episode - anyway, the tape ran out during a comedy sketch. And the sound/tape quality is fairly bad at some points. But what's here is a pretty good snapshot of a variety show in the early Eisenhower years. 

Download: The Saturday Night Revue, Circa 1953

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The flip side of the tape is a different animal entirely. I suspect it's from the same time period, although I really don't know. Our note-taker has offered up a few comments on the flipside of the page (see below), mostly saying that "Grandma is Crazy", and indicating that there is later a phone call in which we mostly only hear our end. 

I went back and forth about whether to include this 30 minute recording, and finally decided it was worth preserving for its acute level of real "around the house" feel. Anyone who has dealt with a relative with dementia will find the "Grandma" section familiar and probably a difficult listen, and that's all I'll say. And the phone call is entertaining enough, if you like such things - it would be easy enough with sound software to get a good portion of the other person's conversation, too. 

Here's that tape. 

Download: Recordings Around the House, circa 1953: Grandma Wants to Go Upstairs, A Phone Call

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And here's the flip side of that piece of paper:

~~~

Next, I have a "scoped" aircheck. Many - perhaps most - of you might know that when a DJ wants to promote his talent, for a new opportunity or any other reason, he or she will record an airshift or two, and cut out all of the music, aside from the section where he or she is talking. 

That's essentially what we have here, with a few odd differences. The DJ's name might be Lan Shepard. I can't tell for sure, and a web search was no help. He was definitely doing overnights on WWCO in Waterbury Connecticut, and combined parts of at least two overnight shifts into this short (12 1/2 minute) tape. 

What I find odd is that this scoped aircheck contains the newscast - which Shepard did not do - and some commercials, which doesn't sound like the DJ either. 

This also served to remind me - not that I've ever forgotten - how wretched most top 40 hits were in 1976. Blech. Actually, my favorite thing here is the concert ad at around the ten minute mark. Fleetwood Mac opening for Jefferson Starship!! Can you believe it? I'm sure that 1976 was the last time that would have been possible. 

Download: Scoped Airchecks - Lan Shepard, Overnight on WWCO, Waterbury Connecticut, June, 1976

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~~~

Switching gears pretty dang aggressively, here's the contents of one of those three inch reels I've mentioned from time to time. Both sides of the tape total just under eight minutes. On side one, a young person explains her (while I'm guessing it's a "her") project, "How to Bisect an Angle". When she's done, we hear the last few seconds of someone playing the ukulele. 

On side two, it's "Joke Time", and I find this to be a massively entertaining little four or so minutes with a group of what I'm guessing are middle school aged kids. The presence (at the end) of one of the Beatles' first two US hit songs in the background, and their enthusiastic singing along, date this to at least the late winter of 1964, and I'm guessing that it's from just about that time, and not much later. 

Download: How to Bisect an Angle & Joke Time

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And finally, it's time for our "Very Short Reel". And here's a very short reel about a very short lived Baseball team, The Rochester Aces. They only existed under that name for a year - and it was a very good year, too, ending up in a trip to the 1993 Northern League championship, which they lost. You can read about them here. 

Download: Rochester Aces Promo - June 1993

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And here's that tape box!: