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.

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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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