PAMS Magic, Fooling Around, Some Right Wing Fun, Sunday in New York, More BBC Stories, Dulcimer Magic, and Everybody Likes It!

Okay, so who is ready for more than three hours more of reel to reel wonderment? And I promise no long-winded self-referential observations this time. 

But first, I want to yet again thank Eric Paddon for filling in the gaps in the information about television recordings, as he has done so many times. I'm not going to copy and paste here, but if you enjoyed the games shows that I posted last time, I encourage you to go back to that posting and look at the two comments he left. Thanks!!!

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Let's start with the tape I believe will be the most popular for today's posting, as it ties into top forty radio and features the absolute masters of the Jingle World therein, the PAMS company of Texas. Here is their presentation for "series 44", from the mid 1970's, complete with a sales pitch and then, at the end, an example of every jingle the purchasing station would receive (redone with their own call letters, frequency and/or slogans, of course). Great stuff!

Download: PAMS Sales Pitch for Series 44

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From the sublime to the ridiculous. Here is a tape of a few young pals cracking jokes, playing off each other and generally goofing around. Oddly, their recording is interrupted twice by some other person recording microphone checks, and, following the second round of tests, recording a few moments of the radio. The tape ends with some truly annoying sounds. All in the space of less than ten minutes. 

Download: A Group of Guys Fooling Around (Interrupted  By Some Microphone Testing and Radio)

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At some point, probably many years ago now, I bought what turned out to be a stack of tapes (and two books) containing various recordings (and two books) generated by The John Birch Society. For those of you unfamiliar with this particular brand of American insanity, happy reading. Suffice it to say that even William F. Buckley and the ultra-conservative National Review thought they were wackos. I may share other recordings from these tapes, as I get to them, but for now, here is a short radio program, dated 1967 (see below) on the side of the box, titled "Are You Listening, Uncle Sam?". It looks like this is a single episode of a series by that title rather than a stand-alone presentation. Whoever captured these opinions and edited then into this presentation certainly wanted to present Birchers as reasonable people who were alarmed by things happening in the government of the day, but behind the scenes, the larger group's believes, desires and plans were off-the-charts batshit crazy.  

By the way, rather hilariously, this episode is labeled on the side of the box with a homonym error, calling it "Roll of Government", which I think is something they serve at Washington, D.C. breakfast joints. Anyway, I suggest not trusting your political views to people who couldn't pass a fourth grade spelling test. 

Download: The John Birch Society - Are You Listening, Uncle Sam?

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Here's something much more pleasant. This tape contains a few episodes of a show called "Sunday in New York", from what appears to be early 1959, based on the reference to the New York premiere of  Sammy Davis Jr's first starring film, and a few other things which are said. For the most part, these segments contain singer and actress Portia Nelson performing songs, and chatting briefly with Lee Jordan. However, some of the episodes also had a DJ aspect to them, in which the Portia and Lee chat about a performer and then play a record by that singer. I wonder when the last time such a program - with live, in the studio music of this sort (mixed in with records) was a regular feature on any radio station in the country. 

Download: Portia Nelson and Lee Jordan - 'Sunday In New York', 1959

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Five months ago, I shared a lengthy recording of an English author named Antony Bilbow, reading his story on the BBC. I mentioned that I had three more sets of readings on the same tape, and asked if anyone wanted to hear more. I did get one request for more, and based on the time-worn theory that if you receive one comment, there are several more people who in agreement, here is the second of the four recordings of BBC broadcasts of Antony Bilbow, reading his stories: 

Download: Antony Bilbow - Stories on English Radio, Volume 2

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When I was a regular contributor to the late great Beware of the Blog (find the last of those posts here - that post contains links to the previous ones - I also posted an additional one on this site about 18 months ago), I posted a series of tapes made by an army doctor who was living in Korea following the war there, during the mid 1950's. I recently found that I still had some previously unlistened to tapes from that collection, including the following interesting item. This is not one of his audio letters. It is, instead, a recording he made of a big band jazz concert given by a group of Filipinos from the Second Battalion Team, at a location in Yong Dong Po, Korea, in August of 1954. I think that's all there needs to be said. The music is self-explanatory, and his introduction does the rest. 

Download: The Second Battalion Team Filipino Orchestra, Live in Yong Dong Po, Korea, 8-8-54

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And now for our "Acetate of the Month". One side of it looks like this: 

Both sides feature someone playing the dulcimer. I am sure I've butchered his or her name, but it looks like "Dr. Bluice" to me. Maybe someone can correct me, as a search for that name turns up nothing - not a single hit. Anyway, one side is recorded at 33 RPM and features Slavic (or, as it says here, Slavik Folk Songs. 

Download: Dr. Bluice Plays Dulcimer - Slavic Folk Songs (33 RPM Side)

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The other side is recorded at 78 RPM, and features a tune with a name written on the label which I have not tried to decipher (it's pictured below). Again, maybe someone out there can be of assistance. 

Download: Dr. Bluice - Dulcimer Music - 11-28-53 (78 RPM Side)

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And finally, our "Very Short Reel". And this time, that phrase is a total misrepresentation, but I want to share this 30 seconds of gold. For this is not the entire contents of a short reel of tape. This is an excerpt from a tape of more than three hours. But again, I really want to share it. 

Here's a bit of backstory: In the early '70's, Diet Rite Cola introduced a new jingle, with the sales pitch being that "Everybody Likes It" (not even those who feel a need to diet). After the jingle had been in the ether for long enough for all TV viewers to be familiar with it, the ad company went around and filmed everyday people doing everyday things, while singing the jingle. Then they edited small excerpts from each of these into commercials in which the jingle was sung by six or more different people. I was very happy to find one of these on Youtube not long ago, and you can see that one here (for some reason, it starts a second time and then is shown in chopped up form). I'm particularly partial to the girl kicking her legs on the bed and the guy in the hard hat with a ridiculous scratchy voice. 

But there was one version of this commercial that I simply loved, at the time. All these years later, I could still hear the woman with an English accent near the end, and several of the singers who are just a bit off key throughout. So I was overjoyed to find a recording of just that commercial on a reel of tape which otherwise captured a TV broadcast of a "Movie of the Week". And now I'm sharing it with you. 

Download: Diet Rite Cola - "Everybody Likes It" Ad

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