For the third post in a row, I am largely featuring one very long tape. This one will be quite magical, I think, for a good number of people who come to this site. Because after a short segment of home recorded material (which I quite like), the remainder - over five hours of it - contains vintage recordings of WOR radio in New York, including a bit of Beautiful Music-esque programming, a whole lot of Long John Nebel, and sandwiched between those Long John segments, a vintage newscast and nearly an hour of the much beloved Jean Shepherd. All of this except for the opening segment are from a couple of nights in the fall of 1962.
Without further ado.....
The tape begins with a short segment, recorded most likely several years after the remainder of the tape. On the box, this is labeled as being "Bud's Kids". It starts with a child singing a few things (including the Nationwide jingle still used today), then segues into another child interviewing people (a younger child and an adult), largely about pollution. This very obviously erased about eleven minutes of what was originally on the tape.
Download: Bud's Kids - A Bit of Singing, Pollution Talk and More
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As soon as the kids are done, we are transported back to 1962. The talk radio segments make it clear that it was the fall of that year, what with talk of the upcoming mid-term elections and conversations about the 1963 cars, among other things - a few ads for TV presentations which appear to have been from 1961 (including a show starring Leslie Neilson), would have to have simply been reruns. There is no way these conversations are from 1961.
But before all that, we are treated to a few minutes of Beautiful Music, or something approaching it, at least, on a show called "Music from Studio X".
Download: WOR, Fall, 1962 - Music From Studio X
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That show goes straight into a long (no pun intended) segment of the Long John show, hosted by Long John Nebel. I have posted Long John material once before, and post, with more text about him, and a link to more information on him, can be found here. In this particular episode, the main guest is a representative of the B'nai B'rith, as well as several other religious leaders and spokesmen, for a wide ranging discussion centered on religion.
I enjoyed the fact that no one could call into Long John's show, but instead, had to submit telegrams to him, via a downstairs office, which would then be brought to him.
But the chintzy commercials here may be my favorite part of this recording, particularly the collection of 50 great melodies from classical music on two LP's - lowbrow music appreciation masquerading as highbrow art. I am reminded of the fantastic parody of this product, which that WFMT, the classical station in Chicago, did in the mid-1960's, called "Great Square Inches in Art", where you got God's finger from the Sistine Chapel and the Mona Lisa's smile.
Download: Long John on WOR, Fall, 1962 - Religion and Related Subjects
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That recording takes up the remainder of side one, and part of side two. The moment it's over, we are taken to another evening from the same time period, and this time, we hear a newscast and then, the deeply beloved, even revered Jean Shepherd takes over for the rest of the hour. You can read about him here, including how he had few if any advertisers for a time, and almost lost his job. Sure enough, there are no commercials in this more than 45 minutes of radio performance.
I had never heard Shepherd before this. Honestly, I had avoided him, because I linked him in my mind as the writer of the stories which became "A Christmas Story", a much beloved film which I watched once with my family - all of us found it to be wholly awful. Obviously, your mileage may vary, and taste in movies and and humor is as enormously varied as can be. But despite its reputation for verisimilitude, I didn't find a moment of it believable, endearing or funny. So, as much as I dived into Bob and Ray and other contemporaries of Shepherd, I took a pass.
That was clearly a mistake. This segment is mesmerizing. He does not seem to know or care exactly where he's going, or how he's going to get there. Stories lead from one into another and the outcome - and when it's going to arrive, is always in doubt. This is pure magic, and just about as entertaining as anything I've ever posted here.
Download: WOR, Fall, 1962 - Newscast and Jean Shepherd
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The tape ends another 106 minutes of Long John, the episode which immediately followed the above Jean Shepherd segment on some long ago 1962 overnight. In the case, the subject is cars, something I rarely need to hear a group of people talk about (with the exception of Tom and Ray, who worth hearing because they were Tom and Ray, not because they were talking about cars).
Download: Long John on WOR, Fall, 1962 - Car Talk
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By the way, here's all it says on the box:
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Okay, so two months ago, I shared the very exciting news that I had been gifted with a box full of tapes that had belonged to a composer named David Hollister. Read all about the gift, the tapes and the composer here.
Today, I'm offering up the contents of the second tape that I grabbed out of that box. The writing on the back of this box looks like this:
Download: David Hollister and Others - David Hollister Variety Tape # 1
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And finally, today's "Very Short Reel". If you can figure out why this 139 seconds of tape was recorded, you are more observant and clever than I am. Herein, a man narrates an extremely short slide show presentation, featuring someone named The Right Reverend Richardson Reid. Perhaps I am spelling it or hearing it wrong, but I can find no reference to him.
Download: Very Short Slide Show Narration - The Right Reverend Richardson Reid
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An extended piece of WOR is quite rare! The broadcast date is October 6, 1962 since the host for "Music From Studio X" says "This Wednesday, October 10th." The program had been a daily feature on WOR starting in 1956 and was also part of the national Mutual Network schedule until about 1960 but by this point was only airing locally on WOR. The host identifies himself as Ted Maley (not sure about the spelling).
ReplyDeleteOne of the Long John Nebel guests in the religion discussion, actor Khigh Dhigh, would become famous for his role as the villainous Wo Fat on "Hawaii Five-O." At the time he had a role in the "Manchurian Candidate" that was still two weeks away from being released which was really the first thing he did that boosted his profile as an actor after only doing NY area theater.
The second WOR aircheck with Jean Shepherd and the second Long John Nebel recording is from the evening of October 17, early AM October 18, 1962 as per the news of the NY Rangers hockey defeat that night.
Regarding the TV announcements, "Maverick" was of course a syndicated repeat on WOR while the Leslie Nielsen show plugged "Power By Proxy" was a CBC production from the previous year that was likely getting its first US airing through a syndicated outlet like WOR.
The Flick Lives website seconds the date for the Shepherd show. The recording here basically hits all the signposts on their show description.
DeleteThis post is a treasure trove of radio history, bringing back the golden era of WOR in such a vivid way. The mix of music, talk shows, and vintage commercials is just fascinating, and I particularly enjoyed the segment with Jean Shepherd—it really captures the essence of that time. Thank you for sharing these incredible recordings, they’re truly a joy to listen to!
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