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:  

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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: 

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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...

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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

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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

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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

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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)

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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
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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

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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") 

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