Guest Post: Some Great 1950's Rarities - Jazz Radio, Lee Hazen, A & P, Rod Serling's Music Show & The Midwestern Hayride

Today, I have something special for everyone. Since the summer of 2019, I have been in an email exchange with a man named Matt, who has a vast reel to reel collection of his own. He has been nice enough on two occasions to send me 1800 foot reels full of some of the treasures from his collection. I don't think I understood after he sent the first one that he meant for me to share whatever I wanted to, on this site (and I need to go back and revisit that tape, now that I do understand that), but he made this clear to me a few weeks ago regarding the most recent tape he sent. And so that's what I'm going to do. I'm also going to turn over the comments, for the most part, to him, and I will share those excerpts that I've chosen, from his tape to me, in the order in which they appear on the tape. It made for a somewhat shorter post than usual, so I have tacked on a few of my own items at the end. 

The first segment features DJ Bill Marlowe appearing on WILD radio, Boston, on Halloween of 1959. Here's what Matt wrote: 

Bill Marlowe was a Boston "star" who did remotes, pitched everything, and was quite the personality. The reel was marked "Marlowe aircheck" on an old reel of Irish. I have a feeling it's a tape of another tape. It was given to me by a friend who used to trade airchecks with me . I have another Marlowe check but it's MOR schlock. He jumped around a bit, ending up at WRKO radio in Boston? NYC?  I recall reading something about a riot that happened at a dance party that Marlowe was giving. He hated Rock and Roll...Silly Billy !

I will only add that this tape has been "Scoped" (that is, edited down to mostly focus on the DJ), rather haphazardly. There are longer portions of some songs than you would typically hear on a "scoped" reel, and some commercials play in their entirety while others are cut almost completely. It makes for a slightly choppy listen. 

Download: Bill Marlowe on WILD, Boston, 10-31-59

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Next up, a short tape of some guitar music, made by a young man named Lee Hazen, who would go on to do a lot of significant work in the ensuing years. Here again is Matt: 

Lee Hazen made a "demo tape" of some of his recording career since the 50's. The recording of his Lambretta was recorded on an Ampex A 122 at the ripe age of 14. After that he shifted from being a frustrated musician to a top shelf recordist  He started his career at Criteria, then King and finally ending up at Woodland sound. His first major recording job was "The Escorts" who later became the Allman Brothers .In 2002  Lee sold that first recording (master) that was a live show with the Beach Boys at Ormond Beach ,Fla to the Brothers ex roadie.  His first real paying job was with the Nashville songwriters guild working for Glen Snoddy. The two guitar pieces were Lee's compositions from his days at the guild . If you look him up on the net you will find a lot about him  He eventually had his own studio  at his house in Hendersonville 'TN Where he recorded and produced England Dan and John Ford Coley's Hit "I really want to see you tonight". We were good friends until his death a few years back.  Johnny Cash, Linda Ronstadt, Leon Russell, Lonnie Mack ,Dan Fogelberg were some of the few who he either mastered or recorded. Perhaps you recall "Little Black Egg" by the Nightcrawlers?  His neighbor was  Crystal Gayle and when I would visit he would take me to see Lawrence Welk's guitar player who lived up the street.  That cat could play at age 80!

Download: Lee Hazen - Demo Tape, 1961

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The next section of Matt's tape qualifies as our "Acetate of the Month", as it clearly originated on an acetate, even though it came to me on a tape. In the 1950's and 1960's, prerecorded ads were often recorded on acetates which would be used for a week or a month or, to promote whatever the store or business wanted to promote at that moment. I have dozens of these, Matt did not offer up anything worth quoting in this case, but indicated that he has hundreds of them. This undated acetate contains four ads for the A & P grocery store chain. 

Download: Four A & P Ads

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The next segment may be the most fascinating here. That's because it is an early television effort from Rod Serling. "Melody Showcase" appeared on WLW, Cincinnati, and Serling was one of the writers AND one of the performers on this "Let's Put On a Show" styled program. If Serling wrote the genuinely awful and campy sounding transitions here - as phony in terms of feigned enthusiasm and staginess as can be - well, then he certainly got a lot better in the ensuing few years. They come from a large amount of material Matt was gifted with after a friend who had worked at that station had died. Here's what Matt had to say: 

In a corner of the basement was a stack of paper tapes. On direction was mostly preacher talks and a few bits of choral religious singing. When flipped over, they were tapes from the skimmer at WLW. One tape dated from 1953 was "Melody Showcase", with the then-new writer Rod Serling in attendance. He started in Cincy at Channel 12 but moved to what was then Channel 4 - WLW - soon before the recording was made. He tried to be funny but you can tell he wasn't really into such campy fluff.

I think this is amazing stuff, as awful as the actual contents can be at times. Of course, "America's Got Talent" and "The Masked Singer" currently rack up fantastic ratings, so it doesn't seem like this country's overall taste in programming has improved in 70 years. 

Download: Melody Showcase, WLW, Cincinnati, Circa 1953

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The rest of that same "Melody Showcase" tape contained my favorite item from the entire tape that Matt sent me: a few minutes of rehearsal from a local show - from the same station, of course - "Midwestern Hayride". Here's Matt again: 

Midwestern Hayride was a regional powerhouse that at times rivaled the Grand ole Opry in listenership . They were a national NBC TV summer replacement I think in 1956 or so . I have about 8 tapes from the 1950's. One is from the control room of the TV station which is a real hoot. Bonnie Lou was an excellent yodeler and cut a few sides . One charted on the country charts but I can't recall when. From the early 50's to mid seventies WLW Crosley/Avco owned 4 TV /Radio Stations-Cincy, Columbus, Dayton ,Indy and a radio only in Atlanta.   Midwestern Hayride was a weekly program and always had a good book until the demise of country musical programs .

Download: Rehearsal Session for 'Midwestern Hayride', WLW, Cincinnati, Circa 1957

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Now, I love that entire segment, but far more than the rest of it, I adore the arrangement and performance of a song heard in pieces - and then almost complete - in the first half of the tape, a song called "The Lord is a Busy Man". I first heard Matt's tape about three weeks ago, maybe a bit more, and I have listened back to this particular song (the nearly complete run through) nearly every day since. I've isolated it here as a single offering in case some of you do not care to listen to the entire 12 minute segment above but might be willing to hear a two minute song if I rave about it. 

Lyrically, this is just cutesy. Presumably, these lyrics about what The Lord does every day weren't meant to be taken seriously - I'm sure the point was meant to be on the relationship with humanity. But the words are absolutely not the point for me. It's all about that arrangement. WOW. The small backing combo is rocking and swinging their hearts out, and that close vocal arrangement.... well, nearly every single word of the song has four part harmony, most of them sung with all the voices inside of the same octave. Tight, wonderful harmony, nearly all of it based (for all you musicians) around sixth chords. And I'm telling you, I LIVE FOR SIXTH CHORDS. And then those magical moments of unison shouting - especially near the end, when one of the musicians shouts out encouragement....the whole thing is amazing. I had taken an MP3 of this tape on a walk with me and when I got to this song, I was SWOONING. I mean, it just about knocked the wind out of me, and I'd be surprised if it doesn't soon notch its way into my top 100 list of all time (yes, I have such a list). 

And it's definitely the arrangement and certainly not the words: there are other versions of this song out there - it seems to date to about 1955 - and they do nothing for me. 

I hope it lives up to all that for you, dear listener. This is utter perfection in vocal and instrumental arrangement.

Download: Midwestern Hayride Rehearsal - The Lord is a Busy Man

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Thank you SO MUCH, Matt, for everything here. And folks, he's promised there's more if I want it. I certainly do. 

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And now, we're back to things from Bob's collection. I'll round out this post with two items, one VERY long and one VERY short. Sticking with the 1950's theme, here is a two hour audio letter from Mr. and Mrs. Cox to their son Billy, dated October 9th, 1955 (John Lennon's 15th birthday, by the way). Along the way, they go through myriad subjects, don't they? And that's really all I have to say about it!

Download: Barbara Cox and Her Husband - Audio Letter to Son Billy, October 9, 1955

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And as (almost) always, I'll finish with a "Very Short Reel". I have, in several cases recently, shared an excerpt from a longer reel of tape - often the only thing of interest among many minutes or hours of recording. But in this case, I've gone back to the original concept of this feature: this is from a seven inch reel which contained only a little tiny bit of tape. And on that tape was just over five minutes of a guy playing guitar. There are two pieces here - I hesitate to call them songs. During the performances, the guy playing is sort of mumbling something, but I really can't tell if he's singing a melody or just humming notes that fit with his three chords. The second seems more likely to be a recognizable song, but I don't recognize it. So if anyone out there recognizes an actual tune in either of these two performances, please let me (and all of us) know. 

Download: Unknown - A Guy and a Guitar

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