Lots of Unknowns! Radiation and Calculator Demonstrations, Some Asian Television, Letters From and To Howard, Hoagy Carmichael, Safety & More

A bit of housekeeping to start: 

Thanks for all the comments on the Gary Owens tape. That's a keeper. Thanks also for the guesses as to the purpose of the "Mood Music", as well as the observation that they made have been recorded from acetates. Also, I'm informed that the anonymous "Journey Into Sound" that I posted is a famous album which was featured on a seminal hip-hop track. I had no idea. 

And with regard to the fragment of Illinois Basketball that I featured a month ago, during March Madness, Eric Carlson offered this: 

Very appropriate basketball recording as George Wilson of the winning Marshall High team went on to the University of Cincinnati which twice won the NCAA championship and just missed by two points a third in his time there. He was also on the 1964 Olympics gold winning US basketball team. He passed away last summer.

Thanks for all the comments. They consistently make my day and help make this project worthwhile. 

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There has always been a sense of mystery to some of the things I post here. I regularly attribute the performance or speaking heard on tapes to "unknown" or "unknown (this) or (that)", and now and then someone is able to chime in and give a name or a title to that unknown person or people. 

For today's post, it struck me that, by chance, most of the items I was choosing feature someone (or a group of people) that I cannot identify at all. There are exceptions, but this group of items is sort of dominated by those unknowns. 

If anyone is able to identify anyone heard on ANY of these items, I'm going to guess it's most likely that the man heard on this first piece of tape will be the one who gets identified. It's a peculiar bit of tape, listed on the box as being "Radiation - G.E. Class". See?: 

I suppose this might be Mr. Wizard - the presence of an adolescent assistant makes that more likely, I guess. But if that's the case, why doesn't it say "Mr. Wizard" (who had his own show), and not "Radiation - G.E. Class". And I checked - G.E. was not Mr. Wizard's sponsor. Regardless, it's an interesting little piece of tape, and I hope neither of the participants was harmed by radiation exposure!

Download: Unknown - General Electric Class on Radiation

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Now here's something I can hardly give you any information about at all, but maybe someone out there can decipher the piece of paper from the box, scanned below, or can understand the language here and tell us all what this is. I'm guessing this is a Japanese program, but if not, it is certainly a broadcast containing speaking and singing in some Asian language. I suspect this is a variety show. 

The rest of the tape was also in what appears to be the same language, and was almost certainly a recording of a television broadcast of a movie, but this section, at the beginning of the reel, was separated by two minute-long segments of white noise, before and after it. Then followed the movie broadcast. 

Here it is!

Download: Unknown - Unknown Asian Show

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Here's the card. The material above was on the side marked "B" (the A side was a very badly recorded concert)

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Here's a tape that doesn't fit the general theme (and again, this wasn't pre-planned, just something I noticed about almost everything I grabbed). And I could have sworn I shared this fun little tape years and years ago, but I can find no record of actually having done so. If it is somewhere out there, on this site or WFMU, maybe someone can let me know. 

Anyway, this is a direct line-in tape of a show that was broadcast at some point on the radio, a children's show hosted by someone named Larry Payne, titled "Safety Quiz". This show, as you'll hear, from schools in the Lenawee County area of Michigan, with this particular episode coming from a school in Hudson, MI. And I think that's all I need to say. 

Download: Larry Payne and Kids - Safety Quiz

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Now here's someone who is only slightly less unknown. His name is (or was) Howard, and in this Audio Letter - the beginning of which was erased, so it starts mid-thought - he makes some comments about being in the Armed Forces, and issues he is facing, and then goes on to discuss some of his favorite recent records. He then further goes on to share some of those records. This includes the fact that he is particularly taken with Louis Jordan's new style, and compares and contrasts Jordan's previous style and a somewhat more recent record, from 1952. However, other records he plays, including "Unchained Melody", pretty well date this actual letter and sharing of music to 1955. The sound quality is less than pristine here, but it's still worth a listen. 

Download: Howard Sends an Audio Letter About Being in the Armed Forces, Then Shares a Few Records

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On the flip side of this same tape is a brief audio letter back to Howard. It sounds like the recipients of the above tape responded to him using the same tape. The sound quality is decidedly better, and the lengthy is just about half of that of the above and this one is dated, confirming the 1955. As is so often the case on these early audio letters, there is considerable discussion of the actual recording of a tape and tape machines in general, before moving on to more general subjects. Another man speaks for a few minutes, and then the first man tests the microphone and sings a bit. Then it's over. 

Download: Brief Audio Letter to Howard, 7-24-55

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AND NOW!!!!

For all of you who have been waiting to hear a tape recording of a presentation in which a man demonstrates the wonders of a Mechanical Calculator - and I KNOW you're out there - here is just what you've been waiting for! This tape even has the benefit of having some interference by another recording at another speed, for the first 30 seconds or so. I'm sure I've made your day. You're welcome. 

Download: Unknown - Demonstrating a Mechanical Calculator

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Now it's time for our "Acetate of the Month". And this one keeps up the general theme of "lack of information". I again know nothing about this record, aside from that it was an unlabeled Audiodisc acetate, recorded at 33 1/3 RPM (which is fairly unusual for the acetates in my collection - most are 78s), and that it features a man with a British accent offering two bits of commentary, one called "A Cognac in the Morning", and the other, "The Gentle Art of Croquet":  

Download: Audiodisc Acetate - English Man Speaking - A Cognac In the Morning

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Download: Audiodisc Acetate - English Man Speaking - The Gentle Art of Croquet

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And finally, our "Very Short Reel" for this posting. And yet again, I've chosen something which has an air of mystery about it, in this case, the entire thing is a mystery. This short tape (just under three minutes) contains an unidentified woman singing a pompous, pretentious song, one which is also unidentified. She is singing to God about all the failings of man, and beseeching the Lord to.... well, I'm actually not sure what she is asking for.... The performance is full of spoken word segments, and the whole thing sounds like nothing so much as a Halmark label song-poem, the likes of which I have featured many times on my other blog - here are my Halmark label posts. 

Maybe someone out there knows who this is, and perhaps even the backstory. Whoever the people behind this are, they did manage to make a recording that does have something Godlike above it: It's Godawful. 

Download: Unknown Singer - Unknown Song

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A Tribute to an Old Friend, Stereo Demonstration, Brainwashing, Mood Music, Carla and Linda, and More!

I would like to start today's post with a bit of a tribute. It was shortly before I finished my last post, on Easter Sunday, that I learned that an old friend of mine had died in his sleep on the overnight going into Easter. I'll just refer to him Mako, as that's what all of us called him. He died after at least ten years of failing health, a period during which he lived in a nursing home, and unfortunately, I think I spoke to him only once, during that period, and didn't see him at all. 

I first met Mako when I was around 19 and he was around 13. He was unusually smart and witty for an early teen, and had broad and deep interests in many things. I remember arguing and discussing a variety of political issues with him a few years later, when we were, respectively, about 21 and 15 (what I had known and thought about any such issues at age 15 would have fit into a thimble). He was a self described "raconteur and bon vivant", and rarely has anyone described himself more accurately. He could speak extemporaneously about nearly any subject, and was rarely less than fascinating to be with.

I've written from time to time about the parties featuring improvised and planned comedy and music, which I was one of the driving forces behind, and which were held from 1983 until 1991, and again from 2004 until 2016 (and which perhaps will start up again!). Mako was a central part of these from the beginning. One of the things I've found myself quite good at is coming up with comedic concepts (and even character names) which I am unable to pull off myself, but for which I can often successfully figure out who else might make the idea "work". So it was at the first of these parties, when I suggested that Mako host an improved, fake revival meeting as a man with the old south in his bones, "The Reverend Billy Joe Bob Leghorn". It was a magnificent 20 minutes. He was all of 17 at the time. Mako and I were in and out of each other's lives between the late 1980's and the early 2010's, and when we were in touch, he attended these parties, and always played a central role when he was there. 

Eight years later, in 1991, it was, as it turns out, the last such party for 13 years, and Mako was again present. It was the smallest attended of these parties ever - only about eight of us there - but one of the best. As I sometimes did, I wrote a lengthy fake newscast, riffing off the stories of the day and simply playing with language to make jokes. I also usually wrote a few other things for my friends to read, as part of the newscast. This party occurred not long after the Clarence Thomas / Anita Hill story was in the news, and in response, I wrote what I think is one of the funniest bits of comedy I ever composed, a veritable string of double entendres about the matter. However, as good as it was, in Mako's hands, it became exponentially greater. He did a perfect job, and made it far funnier than I could of, or than anyone else I knew could of. I asked him simply to perform it in that same character, The Reverend Billy Joe Bob Leghorn. He took it and ran with it. It turned out to be the third and last time he would inhabit that faux preacher. 

This recording even fits with the theme of this site. All but the first two parties are preserved on videotape, so there is video of this performance. But being that I am a person who treasures high quality recordings, ALL of the parties have also been captured in reel to reel tape. 

That was sort of a long story, but Mako is worth it, and a lot more. Maybe someday I'll post his attempt (also my idea) to host a talk show parody, as the lead in "Mahatma!: The Mahatma Gandhi Show", from a 1985 party, or the other talk show parody he hosted (an idea cooked up by my younger child and me), in the persona of Mothra Bunsen, host of "Mothra Bunsen's Neck-Slappin' Good Time Hour" (maybe you had to be there...). But for now, here is his masterpiece - a rendition of a script I wrote called "The Missionary Position": 

Download: Mako (As the Rev Billy Joe Bob Leghorn) - The Missionary Position

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I'm ever so glad I got to know Mako, and that I had the opportunity to introduce him to so many others, who got to know him through the aforementioned parties. He brightened my life every time I was with him. 

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A short introduction for this next piece. Here is yet another of those Stereo Demonstration tapes which came with the newest of stereo tape recorders, in the years when such technology was new, roughly 1957 to 1961. You'll even get to hear "The Ceremony of the Keys". I'm sure the narrator, with his cultured English accent, was chosen for just the sort of style and finesse such a voice brings to mind when hearing such a demonstration. Interestingly enough, this tape did not come to me in its original box, and unlike every other demonstration tape I've heard, the narration doesn't seem to be promoting a specific brand of tape machine or record label's releases. This is quite unusual. But regardless, I don't know who produced this tape!

Download: A Journey Into Sound - Stereo Demonstration Tape

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Nearly 14 years ago, at WFMU's blog, I posted an interview with Edward Hunter, the man who coined the English language version of the term "Brainwashing". Today, I have another recording of Mr. Hunter, a lengthy speech given in Port Washington, New York. And that's all I have to say about it. 

Download: Edward Hunter - Speech on Brainwashing in Port Washington, New York

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This next tape, as you can see from this scan of part of the tape box, is labeled "Mood Music for Motion Pix": 

And I'm going to share it just as it plays off the reel, and identified under that title. And for more than 30 of its 40 plus minutes, I believe that's exactly what it is. But the first ten minutes don't really fit the description, nor do they seem of a piece with the rest of the tape. That section all seems to be its own segment, and I also think it is an example of what today would be called "World Music", and I'm not even going to hazard a guess as to what part of the world it is from. 

The rest really does sound like maybe someone compiled it for use with home movies or perhaps an amateur film, or perhaps even something else. 

Download: Mood Music for Motion Pix

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Here, maybe this will help. These four sheets of paper were contained within the box, stapled together in the order I've scanned them here. They certainly purport, I think, to describe in detail what's heard on this tape. But I can't match these various notes together in any way that makes sense, to the sounds heard on the tape. Perhaps some smart person (or people) out there can figure it out and educate me. 

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Now, here's a tape featuring sisters Carla and Linda, singing a wide variety of music. It's dated from December of 1959, and February and May of 1960. Not surprisingly, the early parts of the tape are dominated by Christian and/or Christmas songs (not all of the latter being of a religious nature), but then the rest of the tape is filled with everything from nonsense songs to folk songs and even a pair of songs from the German opera Hansel and Gretel, as well as some re-written Mozart. 

Along the way, the girls' father interviews them a few times, and we learn that for Linda's 1960 birthday party, the family went to Fanny's Famous Restaurant, which was a legendary spot on the north side of Evanston, IL, well known for its unique salad dressing and unique spin on spaghetti, giving us a good idea of where these girls were growing up. 

I figure these girls are somewhere close to 70 years old now. 

Download: Carla and Linda - Singing and Talking, December, 1959 to May, 1960

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And now, here's something I've wanted to do for a while. I have no idea if it will popular or not, but if you're of a mind to, please tell me. I'm simply going to share both sides of a home recorded variety reel - a tape which appears to all come from the same person or family, which contains a variety of different types of recordings made around the house, live as they lived, or off of the radio or records, or, as on the first side, perhaps by someone who carted their recorder to a singing lesson or performance. I do not know anything about the people heard on this tape, aside from some names which crop up on the second side. 

The first side is about a dozen minutes shorter than the second side because the opening musical performances were recorded at 15 IPS while the rest of the tape was recorded at 7 1/2 IPS. The names of the files explain very well what is contained on each side. 

Again, let me know if you're interested in more of this sort of "slice of someone's life" thing. 

Download: A Home Recorded Variety Reel, Side 1 - A Soprano Rehearses, Pop Songs, Trumpet Practice, Talking and Singing

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Download: A Home Recorded Variety Reel, Side 2 - Home Recordings and Radio Broadcasts - Piano, Hawaiian Songs, A Soprano On the Air, A Bit of Talking

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And now it's time for our "Very Short Reel". This is all that was recorded on a full, 1200 foot reel of tape - the rest was never used. I think it's self explanatory. 

Download: "Not Plugged In"

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