More Vintage Baseball, The 1961 Oscars, Marge and Her Songs, More from Japan and the Trip to Vegas

Howdy Doody, everyone,

Last time around, I finally provided the New York Yankees tapes which had been a subject of discussion for a month or more. And that got me to thinking about how I have my own vintage baseball recordings. 

These are not nearly as historical (or complete, for that matter) as the Yankees/Red Sox games shared last time around, but they are a piece of my own history. 

I have no memory of falling in love with baseball, but it must have been a very sudden thing. I turned nine during the much-discussed CUBS season of 1969, and have no memory of it, or the excitement it caused. 1970 must have been my pivotal year. Because by opening day of 1971, I was enough of a fan that I feigned being sick on that opening day, in order to see the entire first game of the season. I'm sure my mom knew I wasn't actually unwell, but she seems to have gone along with it. 

And what's more, I taped parts of the game - essentially, all of the innings when the CUBS were up to bat. During the recording, especially in the early innings, you will hear me chiming in with comments and outbursts, as well as very soft conversations with my mother. 

Interestingly, play-by-play man Jack Brickhouse left the game in the later innings, in order to catch a plane to Los Angeles, in order to call a game for the then-fairly-new Chicago Bulls. I had no idea that they had a very good team in what was then their fifth season, but they were in the latter stages of the playoffs, and indeed, would lose the series with the Lakers, three games to two, that very night. So Brickhouse called two games in two different sports, half a country apart, in one day. 

Here is the tape.  

Download: Chicago Cubs Vs St Louis Cardinals - Opening Day, 1971 - 4-6-71 (Excerpts)

Play:

The next day, I raced back to the TV to capture the end of the second game of the season, which decidedly did not go the way the first game had gone. As you'll hear, Brickhouse was back to Chicago by that following afternoon, to call another Cubs game. 

Download: Chicago Cubs Vs St Louis Cardinals - Second Game, 1971 - 4-7-71 (Final Innings)

Play: 

~~

The latest nominations for Academy Awards, for films released on 2022, were just named a few days ago. And so what better time than now to share with you this lengthy recording of what I believe to be the entire 1961 Academy Awards telecast. I can't find that this is generally available anywhere, so this may be a particularly interesting recording for some of you.

Download: The 1961 Oscar Telecast

~~

Play:

Here is a tape which is one of a seemingly endless group of tapes which came from the collection of someone named Marge Magenheimer. Ms. Magenheimer (I'm going to type "Marge" from now on) seems to have written a couple of songs, and the tapes in question contain endless versions of those two songs in various settings and tempos, and with various singers.

This particular tape starts with Marge introducing an exciting moment in her life, when one of these songs, "Take Me In Your Arms" (copyright June, 1954) was to be performed on the radio by a pianist, followed by that radio broadcast. Then Marge sings the song with the piano. The radio performer then plays another of Marge's songs "You're a Lucky So-and-So", and she again sings over the broadcast. I can't tell for sure if she was part of the recorded broadcast, or singing over instrumental renditions of her song. I think it's the latter - that she was singing along with either a radio broadcast or a dub of that broadcast. 

There follows an instrumental version of Marge's third song, which might be called "So Long, Baby". 

The recording than appears to switch to a live recording by Marge, accompanied by perhaps another pianist, this time everyone performing live, in another rendition of "So Long, Baby". Or maybe this is still over a tape recorded backing. Anyway, this performance (really two shots at it, back to back) goes on for approximately three days. Or seems like it. 

Download: Marge Magenheimer and Friends Sing a Set of Songs - Circa January, 1955

Play:

~~

Returning to a project I've been working on for several months now, probably over a year, here is yet another audio letter from our young man in Japan, circa 1967. I'm still unclear as to exactly what he was doing there - certainly a student, not so certainly a soldier, but I'll keep the identification as a "student-soldier" consistent with the previous postings. 

Download: Another Student-Soldier Tape from Japan, 9-16-67

Play:

~~

And now, here's a tape I just listened to this week. The tape actually has about five short conversations on it, but all but one of them are recorded so poorly (low volume) and with enough low hum that no amount of fiddling on my part seemed to be able to make them decipherable. The one section that can be heard features a few folks, one of whom is a woman named Bill (not Billie, "Bill" - that's a new one on me), discussing a trip to Las Vegas, as well as the drive home, at some earlier time in their lives. 

Download: Bill and Friends - The Trip to Vegas, etc

Play:

~~

Our "Acetate of the Month" could not look more bland: 

But contained on that plain black disc with its plain black label, is heard a men's singing group, performing six songs all about the Sigma Chi fraternity. Here's the entire record: 

Download: Men's College Singing Group - 6 Sigma Chi Songs - One Side

Play:

Download: Men's College Singing Group - 6 Sigma Chi Songs - Other Side

Play:

~~

And finally, our "Very Short Reel" for this posting. The tape label promises to only provide us with a 60 second, Post-Christmas-Sale (from 1998) for "Car Stereo One" somewhere in or near Toledo, and that ad is heard, but the tape was previously used for two ads for Fritz Gifts & Collectibles Inc., of  Monroe, MI, just 20 short miles from Toledo. So left on the tape is the clunky introduction to those ads, 47 seconds of the first of the two ads, and two seconds of the second ad, so you'll hear those in sequence after the Car Stereo ad: 

Download: Car Stereo One & Fritz Gifts and Collectibles - December, 1998

Play: