Blowout Post # 4

Greetings!

Every month, I make a point of trying to put up two posts. This, I think, goes back to my posting schedule back at WFMU, and it's hardwired into me at this point. In fact, I've only missed that target eleven times in the years of posting, and in some of those periods, I made three posts in surrounding months. 

Anyway, February is short. And I want to have a post up within the next four hours. So it's time for another BLOWOUT POST! That's where I just shove a bunch of stuff - much more than usual - that doesn't need much comment, and let you have a ball with it. I know there are at least a few out there that actually prefer this mode. I will have very little to say, except for a rant about one of the segments. By chance, this is a very media-heavy offering. Let's begin, shall we?: 

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First up, and what I suspect will be the most popular share for this post, here are 14 great ads promoting Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer, all on the theme of "Give That Man a Blue Ribbon". There is no date on the box (see the scan and photo, below) - maybe someone out there knows when these are from: 

Download:  McCann-Erickson, Inc - Pabst Blue Ribbon, 14 "Give That Man a Blue Ribbon' Radio Ads

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Next, I was very excited to find the following slip of paper inside a tape box:

... and I looked forward to a tape full of vintage top 40 Television. Sadly, much of the tape has been erased by all manner of oddness, some of which is below, and some of which I'll be sharing at a later date, but a small portion of Clark Race's TV show, clearly from 1960, remained on the tape, and that's what I'll offer up here: 

Download: Clark Race Record Hop on KDKA TV, 1960

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The title of this one should tell you everything you need to know, and the tape itself will say the rest:

Download: A Phone Call - Ken Wants to See You

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Okay, here's my rant. Why, exactly, would one spend the clearly excessive time it would take to learn Bob Newhart's comedy act, word for word, pause for pause and idiosyncrasy for idiosyncrasy. I simply cannot fathom it. The material worked because it was Bob Newhart, and because it sounded like Bob Newhart and because there was an audience!

And yet, here we have a sample - and I'm only providing a sample - of a tape lasting TWENTY FIVE MINUTES, in which some bozo mimics Bob Newhart into the microphone. Without an audience, either. I get garage bands covering Paul Revere and the Raiders in 1966. I do not get "covering" Bob Newhart in 1960 or 1961, alone with a tape recorder. It seems borderline psychotic to me. 

Oh, and this is part of what erased that promising looking Clark Race TV Record Hop, by the way. 

Download; Bob Newhart Impressions (excerpt)

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On a short reel of tape, I found two interesting recordings. The first few seconds of the tape had this rather endearing little moment between (I'm guessing) a father and his two sons: 

Download: A Short Interview with Eric and His Brother

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The rest of that same tape - recorded on both sides - was this interview with a New York Policeman, first about a police-sponsored carnival, and then about what I've called "Youth Today". There is a gap in the conversation where the first side ends and the second side picks up. 

Download: Conversation with New York Policeman - Upcoming Circus and Issues with Youth Today

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And here is an example of a show called "Continental Classroom", which aired on Public Television stations in the years before there was a PBS. If this intrigues anyone, I can offer more - I have several recordings of this show on a collection of tapes I acquired at least 20 years ago. 

Download: Continental Classroom - 1-11-63 - The Legislative Process, with Stephan K Bailey

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And if you want to enjoy some music, here's an episode of "The Bell Telephone Hour" from the late winter of 1961: 

Download: The Bell Telephone Hour, 3-17-61 - Much Ado About Music

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One of my favorite childhood Saturday morning TV shows ever was a short lived program based on the nonsense writings and drawings of Edward Lear. I've mentioned it here before, when another of my tapes captured a short segment of the show. Here is a longer segment of "Tomfoolery", from one of my own tapes, complete with little 10-year-old Bobby Purse providing an introduction (and a big ol' sniff along the way):  

Download: Tomfoolery - Saturday Morning Cartoon Show, January, 1971

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Paper reels, as I've mentioned before, were the earliest format of reel to reel tape, before they found that plastic backing worked much better. Any paper reel will be, by definition, more than 70 years old at this point, as they were phased out in 1951 or so. That doesn't mean the recordings on them are all 70+ years old, but most of such tapes do contain recordings of that vintage.

I don't actually have a date for this short reel of paper-backed reel to reel tape. It contains a Sermon delivered at the Diocese of Buffalo. 

Download: A Paper Reel - Sermon at the Diocese of Buffalo

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And now, for our "Acetate of the Month". Here is a recording made just weeks after V-E Day, near the end of World War II, featuring personnel from an American radio station interviewing American Soldiers in Britain, on June 22, 1945. 

Download: 6-22-45 Interview with American Soldiers in Britain

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And now for our "Very Short Reel". Today, I'm offering up three short promos for Evangelist David Nunn, who can read about in dozens of websites. In the case of these promos, we are being urged to listen to "The Healing Messenger Broadcast", which was heard no doubt around the country on various religious radio stations: 

Download: Evangelist David Nunn - Three Promos for "The Healing Messenger Broadcast"

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