1960: The 7th Game, Armed Forces Edition, News and a Ball, Alan King, Two Very Different Types of Singing

Before getting to this week's offering, I wanted to ask if anyone is having trouble downloading files. Two people that read my other blog have reported that when they try to download the files they get an error message saying "od.lk". I am unable to reproduce this downloading from any of my pages, and I am about as far from a computer expert as one can get, so I don't know the solution. This is apparently a problem with the site I use (Opendrive), but I can't find a solution, or even reproduce the issue. Is anyone having this issue, and does anyone know how to fix it? 

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Okay, well last time I asked if the baseball reel I found contained a broadcast that wasn't out there anywhere. It turns out that it is in fact a recording that is not available anywhere but in my basement. There were a lot of comments on this, both in response to the post and in my email. Rather than post them all or summarize them here, I'm going to refer you back to the comments at the bottom of that post, where you can read all about this recording (you'll have to scroll up a bit). Thanks for all of the information and feedback and encouragement to share this tape. 

You will also find comments on other parts of that post, including one from Snoopy, in response to the very short reel I featured, a comment that made me laugh out loud. Thanks for that!

Okay, so this is in fact a recording of the storied final game of the 1960 world series, but rather than the broadcast feed with commercials, it is the Armed Forces Radio feed, with Red Barber and Gordon Bridge doing analysis in place of those commercials. 

I'm going to assume that the recordist noticed that the tape was running out around the sixth inning, and chose to stop recording until the end of the game. I could be wrong about that, but for whatever reason, some pivotal action in the late innings is not heard here, and a whole lot of eighth inning scoring is missed. The sound quality improves and worsens at various points, but overall, it's pretty well recorded. 

Enjoy!!!

Download: The 1960 World Series, Game Seven - 9-13-60 - The Armed Forces Broadcast Version

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Someone asked if I have other games from this series, and unfortunately, I don't know - this tape is one of the many that got soaked in my pipe burst a few years ago, and while that didn't really damage any tapes, it did result in tapes which were originally all with their "brethren" so to speak - tapes I got from the same source - getting all messed up and placed at random in piles. And since about two hundred tapes got wet, it would be quite the chore to figure out if there were other baseball tapes among them. 

One of these days I will post pictures of the as-yet unlistened-to tapes in my basement. You might be astonished by their volume. There is no way I have enough days left on this planet to listen to them all. 

Oh, and a point of interest for some of you comes from someone named Jimmy, who emailed me a link to his archive.org posting of what he describes as "a very rare 1886 baseball game re-creation by Gordon McLendon on the Liberty Broadcasting System, circa 1950". That can be found here. Thanks!

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That baseball blast was the big item for the week, and I'm going to keep the rest of this brief, with several short or relatively short items that don't need a lot of introduction. 

On a falling-apart reel of Scotch Brand tape (I literally had to glue the reel back together to play it and find out what it contained), I found a recording of the 1957 inauguration of Eisenhower and Nixon, followed by the inaugural address. That event seems to be well documented, aurally and visually, elsewhere, so I just kept the part after that, which features a brief newscast and the beginning of the coverage of one of that year's inaugural balls. The station is KOIN, Portland, which has subsequently gone through a whole lot of name changes and which currently spews hateful messaging to the local population. At the time, it was a CBS station.  

Download: KOIN, Portland, 1-20-57 - CBS News and The Inaugural Ball

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Here is an endlessly entertaining little tape. A group of children - siblings? friends? relatives? who knows - spent some time singing a remarkable variety of songs, in a variety of styles, often trying to recreate the sound of the singers who made the songs popular. These range from Broadway hits to Jefferson Airplane (!). In the midst of all of this is a typical 1960's insult flung by one participant at another, for no apparent reason. The sound quality and volume both vary quite a bit - there are moments when the machine clearly was not working correctly - and I have edited out a few sections which were either not recorded on at all or were so quiet that trying to boost them into something listenable was impossible - in all, I streamlined this by about five minutes. Even if you don't (or don't particularly) like children singing for their own amusement, I encourage you to listen to this and see if you don't smile, or laugh, or both.  

Download: Some Children Singing a Variety of Popular Songs

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This one is called "Alan King on 'The Ed Sullivan Show', 6-2-68", and that nearly covers it. But it's worth noting that King (whose popularity I will never understand) mentions the tribute to Irving Berlin the previous week, and Ed's 20th anniversary show the following week. In truth, the Berlin show was several weeks earlier, and this show was actually the first of two planned 20th anniversary shows, according to this comprehensive website. The second half of the anniversary tribute never happened, due to the assassination, that following week, of Robert Kennedy. 

Incidentally, the show had pre-empted by a special for the Sunday following April 4, so there was no show following the assassination of Dr. King. I wonder what they would have done that week. Actually, I kind of shudder to think that maybe nothing special would have been done at all. 

Download: Alan King on 'The Ed Sullivan Show', 6-2-68

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Here's a little more than fifteen minutes of a few female singers with piano accompaniment. Based on the quality of the performances, I'm going to guess (or at least hope) that these singers, who seem to have been shooting for mastery of classical, or at least stage styles of singing, were very early in their training here. 

Download: Female Singers with Piano Accompaniment 

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Now it's time for our "Acetate of the Month". This is a short disc featuring someone who decided to continue to record (only on one side of the disc), despite the fact that a child was crying for most of its duration. Eventually a different child starts singing "Mockingbird Hill", meaning that this disc is probably from 1951 or 1952. And then the recording space runs out. 

Download: Audiodisc 6 inch Acetate - Home Recording - Child Crying, Mockingbird Hill

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Very short reels will return next time. 

PAMS, PAMS, PAMS! Plus an Audio Letter, A Few Rehearsals, Old Time Religion, Frito-Lays, and More!

Right off the bat, I want to ask the sports broadcast fans out there if I have something special, and if so, I will feature it soon. I will share a short excerpt here. The recording is of a national broadcast of the seventh game of the 1960 World Series, which is considered one of the greatest games in history. It is not the entire game - a couple of the late innings were not recorded and then we pick up again in the ninth. But I'm assuming this material is not rare. 

What may be rare is that this is the armed service radio broadcast, and in place of the commercials, there is commentary and analysis by two other announcers, one of whom I think might be Red Barber. They act as if they are giving these observations live, in place of the commercials, but I suspect that the program was prepared, after the fact, for broadcast to the troops. If this is worth sharing, I'll do so soon. Let me know! Here's the excerpt: 

Download: Baseball Excerpt

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And now for a lengthy side trip into the land of comments. 

I thought when I got caught up on comments not long ago that it would be quite awhile before I would need to do the same again. But there have been a LOT of interesting comments since then, so I'm going to compile them once again. If you don't want to wade through them just look for the squiggle ~~ which is where the offerings will start. 

First, I will address a request from Kyle, who let me know about which networks' JFK assassination/follow-up/funeral coverage is not already widely circulated and asked if I had any of this material. The short answer is "I don't know". When I'm done listening to something I don't plan to share, it typically goes in a big box downstairs, and I don't really recall what I may have heard or not heard.  I'm literally talking about hundreds of tapes, not all of which are even marked. Going forward, I will definitely keep an ear out for those networks, when I invariably come across more JFK material. 

Radio posts seem to be among the most (if not the most) popular. Certainly, my lack of research results in a lot of responses. The recent post "Radio, Radio and More Radio" got all sorts of feedback, some of which I will repost here, but if you want to see all of it, just go back to that post. All of the following refer to elements of that post.   

ACE contributed the following: 

Very interesting London Mirror recording for the following reason: I think it's an end of year review because mention is made of Moon River being 'high in the hit parade'. Well in the UK that entered the charts week ending 18 November 1961 and was the Christmas Number 1 that year. However the La Vallerossa song puts the timeframe back to early March 1961 as the presenter references their opening week, but from what I find out March 61 was when the did dates in the UK, maybe longer, can't say but that went so well they mined an album from it.

Snoopy adds the following: 

On the 1970s Ads and Music Beds tape, shazam tells me 1:03-1:56 and 1:57-3:13 are pieces from an album "Six Moons of Jupiter" by a John Hill, evidently originally released in 1971, re-released 2008. I like the jazzy solo sax piece at 1:57, "Ganymede"; it sounds so out of place from all the cheeseball ads.

Chad also narrowed down information on yet another item from that post: 

The notes about Grace Lutheran Church of Somers Point, NJ building a new parish hall narrows this down to 1955 as backed up by the church's history as listed on their website: http://mobile.gracelutheranspnj.comcastbiz.net/history. The news about protests in Mississippi following Emmett Till's murder and comments from newly crowned Miss America Sharon Ritchie further narrow this down to September 1955. The news story about five preteens who extensively vandalized the New Carondelet Baptist Church in St. Louis and, quote, "made page one news" is probably the best way to pinpoint the date. The congregation still exists but their website is off line.

Eric offered a wealth of information about various aspects of that post. I have edited this comment here - if you want to read more about the case missing girls, go back to the post. It is sad and maddening: 

The WOR broadcast is from June 27, 1963 as the sports report refers to the White Sox beating the Yankees 6-0. Before that, there is also a commercial for TV Guide mentioning Donna Reed and Carl Betz on the cover which was the June 29 issue.

The Mutual Newscast is from the week of July 19-23, 1965. The story about the missing Texas University co-eds refers to Susan Rigsby and Shirley Ann Stark who disappeared Sunday, July 18th and the newscast says they disappeared "Sunday" meaning this is still the week following the Sunday it happened. 

There were also two comments identifying the date of the tape containing news reports on the riots in Greece, each of which identifies a different date. Apparently there was more than one riot. Have a look at the original post for those offerings. 

That's all for that post - like I said, quite a bit. On to others...

Someone called "The Rabbit" made a comment - which is worth reading in its entirety on the post - about the instrumental version of theme song to the Top Cat TV series and the fact that this series was and is wildly popular in Venezuela. 

Eric also had something to say about the Magna-Tronics Sales pitch in this post: 

To give you an idea of what went into a Magna-Tronics setup, the April 8, 1963 edition of Broadcasting magazine lists Tape-Athon's "new automatic program system" designed to work with what Magna-Tronics was selling, a four tape deck system with built in timers and a switcher for 32 hours of continuous programming with no repeats.I'm sure the hardware paid for itself...at least it better, at $2,489 in JFK bucks.

A brief segment of radio station WGN in this post, resulted the following, from Frenchyak: 

The Freddy Martin song on WGN is Penny Whistle Blues from 1952, a cover of a South African song by Willard Cele from 1951. Very cool!

Andrew offered up this comment on a segment featured on this post from almost four years ago: 

The real name of KMUN's Polly "Columbo" was Polly Smullin. Her husband William was a pioneer broadcast operator in the Pacific North West.

Andrew (perhaps the same Andrew as above) went back to a post from more than six years ago, and in addition to wishing me the best (thank you), he shared this: 

The second of your "Can I Help You" programmes was broadcast on the BBC Home Service on Sun 25th Mar 1962, at 1:40pm.The programme strand, which offered information and advice on legal, social, and financial problems, first aired in 1947 and, as far as I can tell, came to an end in 1970. 

In my most recent previous post, I got the date on some beautiful music programming wrong, and if I'd been paying attention, would have gotten it right, as an anonymous poster let me know: 

At about the 22:45 mark of the WVNJ recording there's an ad for the "Chevrolet 68 Savings Explo" (a savings explosion!!) which suggests the year is actually 1968.

But my favorite comment - and I really didn't know folks cared so much - came after that most recent post, which I put up after an unusually long break of 26 26 days, due to having been really busy during July. I was deeply touched by this anonymous comment. It said: 

Good to see you back - glad all is well. The closer the end of the month came the more concerned I was.

Thank you for all the comments, but especially for that one. 

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A good percentage of those reading this site will be familiar with PAMS, the Dallas area radio jingle factory which was the Gold Standard in radio jingles, promotion music and other aspects of radio - particularly, but not limited to, top 40 radio, especially in the 1960's. 

What I have here is a compilation tape I found that has five of the sales promotions for five different PAMS packets of jingles on a theme. Perhaps these are all available out there in their entirety, in which case sorry to be redundant, but I have haven't been able to find that these are all out there - I haven't even found any one of them intact as heard here. Perhaps I'm just not good at searching. But in case I'm right that these are already floating around, I thought I'd share them here. 

Download: A Set of Five PAMS Sales Packages

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Next up, for those who like audio letters, here is a fun one, or at least I think so. A visitor from England, Mrs. Phillips, records a conversation with her American hosts, who seem to have visited her a few years earlier (if I hear it correctly, perhaps during Queen Elizabeth's coronation, in 1953). This was meant to go right away to a couple named George and Virginia, but Lou (who is heard of the tape) forgot to send it, so he recorded a lengthy apology as well as additional bits of news and gossip on side two of the tape, and included a note saying so: 

I've labeled it May, because that's when it was sent, but the main part of it was recorded in March. Here's the tape: 

Download: Audio Letter, May, 1956 - 'Lou's Tape #7 - Talk With Mrs. Philipps

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This next one could have been a "Very Short Reel" feature, but since I have an even shorter one this week, I thought I'd put it up here. It's just an unidentified radio station in 1957, on which a few hits of the day are played and the recordist captured enough DJ patter to make it worth offering it up here, despite the distortion heard pretty much throughout. 

Download: Brief Excerpt from an Indianapolis Rock and Roll Station, 1957

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I know I have at least a couple of reader/listeners out there who enjoy hearing vintage religious related tapes, including services (and if you have something you are partial to, feel free to share, and if I have it, I'll keep it in mind to feature it). So here is an hour or so of what I believe is a 1950's pentecostal revival type service, featuring a certain Brother Green. 

Download: A Pentecostal Revival Meeting, Featuring Brother Green

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Next we have a tape from the Cinema Recording Corporation, the raw tapes featuring the sounds for (presumably) a television ad for a product that the company bought in 1961 and discontinued in 1973: Red Dot Potato Chips. I've never heard of them before. If anyone can figure out exactly what was going on visually in this commercial (or these commercials) feel free to comment. 

Download: Cinema Recording Corp - Frito-Lays Red Dot Ads Raw Tapes

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The next two offerings feature rehearsals, but other than that fact, they really have very little in common. Part of the back cover looks like this: 

So presumably the child heard warbling off-key, for the first 160 seconds here, in a few different songs,  is Johnny. I think it's cute - in fact, I'd rather listen to this 50 times than hear a batch of children who have had every natural bit of their singing ability trained out of them sing something like "Tomorrow". You, however, may well find it amazingly annoying. 

Speaking of child choirs, Johnny gives way to the "Jr Choir Hughes", whoever they may have been, for the last eight or so minutes of this tape. These kids are definitely rehearsed, but thankfully, they are not "trained" and they sing with their natural, exuberant voices. They sing a few songs, including the gorgeous "Brahms Lullaby" a few times. And despite the organ being a bit too loud and distortion creeping in here and there, I love those natural voices. Not as much as on the second best album ever made ("Through Children's Eyes") or on the astonishing, otherworldly and beautiful track heard at the 25:40 point in this video (okay, now I'm teary, and I probably will be for the rest of the night - happens every time I hear that). But still, it's very much in my wheelhouse. 

Download: A Young Child Sings, Then a Youth Choir Rehearses

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Recently, I came across a batch of tapes, many of them recorded at the professional speed of 15 inches per second, and all of which contain recordings of a pianist accompanying, and often teaching/offering suggestions to, a few singers. I thought I'd sample one of them here, one which primarily features a baritone but in which there is also a soprano present, who also sings a bit. If there is any interest in hearing more of these, let me know. There were about a half dozen, of varying lengths. 

Download: A Baritone and a Soprano Rehearse with Piano

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And here's a "Very Short Reel", perhaps one of the more pointless ones I've shared. This was the only thing recorded on a seven inch, 1800 foot reel (i.e. 90 minutes of recording time available at the least, at standard speeds, and as much as six hours of recording time at the lowest common speed). What's more, this was recorded at the start of the second side of the reel, as it came to me, which is extra weird. As it says, it's just a couple of guys checking the microphone and then talking about.... .something. 

Download: Two Men Checking the Microphone and Then Discussing Something

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Interesting Radio Recordings from Two Paper Reels, Birthday Time, An Odd Promo, Music in a Bar and at Home, A Little German, and the use of Cactus and Wood Needles

Howdy, 

I'm starting off today with something I find absolutely fascinating. I recently was lucky enough to purchase two paper reels - that is, reels without plastic backing, just paper. Both were Soundmirror reels, from the company I believe was first in producing reel tape for home buyers. Since that company was out of the reel tape business by 1952, and paper reels were gone by 1953, it's always possible that there could be recordings as much as 80 years old on such a tape. 

That's not quite the case here - these recordings are more like 73 years old - but they are fascinating nonetheless. The first one I listened to had an episode of a radio program called "Answers for Americans", which was heard on the Mutual radio network. A panel of experts answered political questions from listeners, with prizes to the listeners whose questions were used. 

Multiple online sites indicate this was a right wing show particularly focused on anti-communism, but this particular episode really just sounds like the questioners, and the experts, getting their bearings at a very scary moment - the weeks after Stalin died - when a lot of questions about any resetting of US/Soviet relations were unsettled. While I'm sure a left-wing show would have sounded much different, I doubt that a mainstream right-down-the-middle show would have been much different at that particular moment. 

Again, your mileage may vary, but boy did I enjoy listening to this. 

Download: "Answers For Americans" On Mutual Radio, Spring, 1953

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The show ended before the tape did, and at the end of it, there is this fragment of some sort of variety program. The man speaking and singing throughout mentions having starred in "Million Dollar Legs", meaning he could conceivably be one of three male stars of that movie. I certainly am not an expert in any of them, but I'm guessing it's Donald O'Connor

Download: Fragment of a Variety Show circa 1953

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The other paper reel was interesting for a different reason. The person who recorded "Answers for Americans" seemingly recorded another episode of that show or something similar, for the conversation (actually it's more like a series of short speeches) is about how a "One-World Government" would be possible, but only if it were to be a "FREE One-World Government", and I'm sure we all know whose definition of "Free" they were using. 

I believe our recordist must have left the machine alone to record, because powerhouse clear channel station WCKY, and its Country and Western format, begins showing up, interfering with the speechifying. Each station struggles to be heard over the other for a time, but eventually, the Cincinnati C & W format wins out, and the speeches are not heard at all for the last few minutes. What is heard is some down-home entertainment, also likely from right around 1953, complete with ads for worthless patent medicines, which are claimed to be able to cure oh so many ills. 

It's hard to listen to at times, but man oh man, is it rewarding in the end. And the far better radio format wins in the end, too. Well, that's what I think, anyway. 

Download: Competing Stations - "One Free World Government" Discussion Vs. Country and Western on WCKY, Cincinnati

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There is nothing written on either of these tapes' boxes, by the way. One last comment - our recordist clearly intended to record the speeches. Why on earth, after listening to the tape and determining that they had not been recorded correctly, didn't he or she use the tape again? Did the recordist enjoy this mish-mash of sounds?!?!?

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And now, for all you "Ed and Frank" fans, here is more from Ed and Frank: an hour of their drummer and electric piano noodling, as recorded at some facility where I'm guessing a lot of beer was consumed, almost exactly 69 years ago. 

Download: Ed and Frank, 7-4-57
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Or perhaps children's birthdays are more to your liking. This tape is from the 1960's, most likely 1968 based on other material on the reel, some of which I will share at a later date. It's short and (mostly) sweet.

In it, Kay's father tries to get her to talk more than she wants to, we hear some other children and then the requisite singing of "MacArthur Park". No, wait, that's wrong. It's "Happy Birthday". 

Download: Kay's Birthday

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Maybe you can make out the words "Kay's Birthday" on the back of the box: 

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A company called "Magna-Tronics", also probably sometime in the 1960's, promoted a Muzak-like product, which, rather than being for stores, was for radio stations (!) which wanted to simply program someone else's pre-recorded series of bland musical performers for AM or FM broadcast. 

I have no idea how successful this was - it seems like a fool's errand to me - but here is the promotional tape used to sell the program managers on this product. I have one other tape from this company, an actual example of the product that they sent to stations, which I will feature later. 

Download: Magna-Tronics Radio Station Easy Listening Promo Tape

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Quite some time ago - and I can't seem to find the post at the moment - I shared some home recordings of old-timey type music and more recent standards, recorded by some folks who clearly got together frequently and made music... and sometimes recorded it. I have a handful of tapes from these folks, and today I have a second recording by them, about 40 minutes this time, and in this case with all of their names identified on the tape box, and if I can find that box, I will add it to this post. I do have their names in the file name. 

Download: More Music at Home - Bill, Vernene, Dianne, Helen and Flavian, 3/23/62

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Well, this is not the box that goes along with that reel, but it is a box from a tape with some of the same people. They all look more or less like this: 

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And for the last reel today.... I wasn't sure what to do with this but I decided to share it. Maybe someone out there can let all of us know what is being said. As it is titled "A woman speaking "mostly" in German". And that's really and truly all I know about it. 

Download: A Woman Speaking (Mostly) in German

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And finally, here's an Acetate of the Month. It looks like this: 

As you can see. it features what is mostly a blank label from the Acetate company / recording studio, with what might be a family name written in the corner. Note the encouragement to use a "cactus or wood" needle to play this record. WHAT???? Well, a bit of internet sleuthing shows both of these are for real. That's a new one on me!

One side features a bunch of conversations - which definitely sounds like "around the house" type conversations than those that would have taken place in a studio, then a short rendition of "Let Me Call You Sweetheart". Here 'tis: 

Download: Cathedral Latin Acetate - Family Conversations and Let Me Call You Sweetheart

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The flip side is considerably longer, and I've labeled it "Some Sort of Family Skit". That's the best I can do. Maybe someone with better ears than me can make out all of what goes on here. Despite my cluelessness, I still sort of enjoy it. 

Download: Cathedral Latin Acetate - Some Sort of Family Skit

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Very Short Reels will return next time!

Jingles and Stingers, Birthday Singing, The Jazzy Air Force, Some Medical Lectures, Letter to America, WGN and The Not-So-Fabulous FABIAN

 Happy Almost My Birthday!

I have a real hodge-podge of items today, so let's get right to it!

I ended the last post with some radio material.... well, I started it with radio material too, and only had radio material in it.... so how about starting this one with a neat little tape of some radio jingles and stingers? This tape comes from WGLI, an AM station on Long Island which is long defunct.

There is no date on this box to indicate when this is from, but it sure sounds like the '60's to me. I also get a kick out of the fact that these jingles are contained on a reused United Nations tape box. 

Anyway, here is the tape. I particularly enjoy the itemized numbered intros for each song that would have been in a countdown, and also that, on this tape, they count UP. 

Download: WGLI, Long Island, NY, Jingles and Stingers

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Switching gears pretty harshly, and apropos of my own celebration tomorrow, here are a gang of friends celebrating someone's birthday, by gathering around the piano and singing a whole bunch of songs.  

Download: A Sing-Along Birthday Party

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Next up, here is a jazzy program from those jazzy folks at the United States Air Force Recruiting Service. It's an odd sort of propaganda, that's for sure, and is titled '"Serenade in Blue". On it, we hear a variety of acts playing a variety of jazzy material, and interspersed with informational bits about such things as ways the Air Force is helping to prevent animal species from becoming extinct, and ways the Air Force is addressing the need to conserve energy (this must be from the 1970s...)

Download: The United States Air Force Recruiting Service - Serenade in Blue

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And now, here's something which is bound to appeal to the largest possible audience. Well, that's not actually true, but I digitized it more than five years ago and haven't yet shared it, so here it is. It is the second tape I've shared (of dozens that I bought somewhere, a LONG time ago), from our friends at the Medical Audio Digest .(Here is the first one.) This one is called "Obstetrics and Gynecology - Hirsutism and Virilism, Management of Endometriosis". I can just see you all getting up to dance now!

Download: Audio Digest, Obstetrics and Gynecology - Hirsutism and Virilism, Management of Endometriosis

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Next up, this is called "Audio Letter from Frank Smith in Australia to Larry in America", and I suspect that's all that needs to be said: 

Download: Audio Letter from Frank Smith in Australia to Larry in America

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Here's an oddity I just came across. Please know in advance that the recording quality here is quite poor. Who remember Fabian? I don't mean who remembers who he was - I was born in 1960 and I know who he was. But who remembers hearing his songs on the radio and seeing his early films when they were new? I sure don't. I have looked to see if this program exists at all online, particularly in better quality, but have not found it. 

Well, this is a somewhat backhanded documentary about Fabian, made after he had moved into movies, but entirely focused on his "singing" career. As alleged in those days and as still clear as day, the man simply couldn't sing. But that didn't stop him from having a half dozen hits, including a few top tens, entirely because he looked the part, which was what his handlers were talking about. 

You'll hear from the man himself, who clearly knew and felt like he was in over his head and didn't want to be there. The recording cuts off suddenly, just as Hollywood (where he did considerably better) was beckoning, so I don't think this is the entire show. But it's mighty interesting, if you can get past the terrible sound quality. 

Download: Documentary on Fabian

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And now a "Very Short Reel". 

What we have here is a Brief Segment of what was then a Chicago and midwestern powerhouse station (and now an insufferable embarrassment), WGN Radio, from July, 1953. The end of one song (a vocal) is heard, then a Freddy Martin Orchestra instrumental, which is back-announced as being the last song on a 20 minute program of music. This is followed by about 90 seconds of news, the contents of which date the recording nicely, reporting, as it does, on the imminent truce in the Korean War.

Download: Brief Segment of WGN Radio, July, 1953

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Radio, Radio and More Radio

When I went to select things to post this time around, I sort of found that I had a LOT of various radio-related items - an abundance of them it seemed. So I decided to nothing but RADIO in today's post. 

All of the tapes featured here are recordings made of actual radio broadcasts, except the first one. And this first one is probably my favorite of the batch - just ten minutes or so of what I've called "1970's Ads and Music Beds". Presumably these all came from the same company, but I do not know who was behind this tape, or why it has completed ads paired with background music for ads. It just is. Enjoy!

Download: A Short Compilation of 1970's Ads and Music Beds

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Here's one I've labeled "Religion News, Circa 1956". Perhaps someone out there can narrow it down further: 

Download: Religion News, Circa 1956 

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And now, from more than a decade later, and from a far more Earthly realm, here is The Old Redhead, also  no doubt known to many in his orbit as "The Old Jackass", Arthur Godfrey. I have shared other Godfrey segments before - just click on the Arthur Godfrey tab below or put his name in the search at upper left. Like those previous segments, this comes from the waning days of Godfrey's radio show, in this case June 4 of 1969. Let's listen in: 

Download: The Arthur Godfrey Show, 6-4-69

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Just over two years ago, in this post, I wrote about a tape of a program called "London Mirror", saying: 

Now here is a bit of programming, from the BBC, that I find absolutely fascinating. It is an edition of what was apparently a weekly show, one which captured as much as possible of what was going on in world of entertainment and theatre in London. Again, this was captured on a weekly basis, with new material every week, some of it from records, but mostly recorded specifically from this program.

I later shared another episode from the same tape. While both of those tapes were dated well (by newspaper clippings in the box), the third episode on the box was not identified in any way. But as the other two were from the second half of November, 1961, I'm guessing this is from the following week, or shortly thereafter. I continue to find these tapes fascinating. 

Download: London Mirror - Unknown Date, Probably Late 1961

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Now here's an odd one, and I wish I had this entire program - some of it was erased by something far less interesting. It's a radio drama presentation of the story of "Rumpelstiltskin". And I really don't know anything more about it. I do think it's very worth hearing. 

Download: Radio Production of 'Rumpelstiltskin' (Incomplete)

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This next tape is labeled "Brief Excerpt from WOR, June, 1963", and indeed is what it is. But I should also mention that the sound quality starts out absolutely abysmal and gets steadily better throughout, but never approaches "good" quality. The segment starts with a mention of a 1964 gift catalog, but either that was extremely pre-mature or this is actually from two different recordings (which I doubt) because the sports report is definitely from late June of '63. 

Download: Brief Excerpt from WOR, June, 1963

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Now, what compilation of radio would be complete without a lengthy (perhaps over-long) AM radio tribute to musicians from the Big Band era. Well, I run a full service site here, so I have just what you were looking for. A radio station called WHEL, at 1570 AM, in New Albany, IN, ran a tribute the Dorsey Brothers and their various bands. That station's is now known as WLRS, and was only WHEL for 13 years, ending in 1978. My guess is that this tape comes from closer to the end of that period. Here is a 77 minutes excerpt of that Dorsey presentation: 

Download: Tribute to the Dorsey Brothers on WHEL, 1570 AM, New Albany, IN

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And now for our Acetate of the Month. This one is a short, vintage recording from radio station WJJD in Chicago. This AM station existed for some 63 years in Chicago, before rapidly switching call letters three times in four years. It is now WYLL. It is possible, or even likely, that the last 68 seconds here actually comes from another station, as WJJD had a country format at the time (it was later Chicago's first Top 40 station). This segment is, admittedly, very badly recorded and hard to listen to, but it does keep with this post's theme of radio material. 

Download: Audiodisc 6 inch Acetate - WJJD, Cowboy Song, Piano Instrumental

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And finally, a Very Short Reel. I have previously shared segments of country music programming from WEEP in Pittsburgh, and here is just a bit more of that station, However, this is a brief segment of the nationally syndicated Mutual News (including a commercial) as heard over WEEP from some time between 1966 and 1968, based on the news heard. Perhaps someone else can narrow it down closer based on the news reported. I have been unsuccessful in trying to do the same. 

Download: Brief Fragment of Mutual News on WEEP, Pittsburgh

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Even More Pittsburgh Football, The College Bowl, What Schools Need, A Preacher at Work and at Home, and the Man On the Farm

I did a bit more digging into the pile of tapes that had that near-complete classic playoff game and found the following reel - most of this game had been erased by a recording of the broadcast of John Kennedy's funeral (and I assure you, I've run across at least a dozen recordings of that, in my collection), but when it was over and the machine was shut off, the end of a game from almost exactly two months earlier was there, between Pittsburgh and the St. Louis Cardinals, and here is that broadcast recording: 

Download: St Louis Cardinals at Pittsburgh Steelers - 9-29-63 - Most of Fourth Quarter

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And while we're on the subject of "entertainment options that sometimes have the word 'Bowl' attached to them", here is a neat tape I found containing two complete episodes and one partial one (minus commercials) of the show "College Bowl". The reference to the "Bay of Pigs" incident having happened exactly three years earlier nicely dates the first of these shows to April of 1964, and the remaining two shows are clearly the next two in sequence. 

I sincerely doubt you would find a team of college kids today that could answer as many of these specific questions, as are answered correctly here. If nothing else, it certainly plays up the change in focus of a typical college education between then and now. 

Download: College Bowl, April & May, 1964, Two and a Half Episodes

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Now let me ask you something. Are you, like so many of us are, concerned about the future of the Sherman Schools? That's the sort of thing that keeps me up at night. Here's a man whose doing something about it - he's presenting his thoughts on the needs and future expectations of the Sherman Schools. Thank goodness. 

Actually, I was pleased to hear that this wasn't some sort of reactionary screed, but that this guy actually sounds pretty progressive. 

I will also note that, for whatever reason, he taped some segments at full volume and other segments at an extremely low level. I have attempted to bring the softer segments up in volume to something close to the average of the louder segments, but there is a lot of white noise or hiss in there, as a result. 

Download: Comments on the Needs and Future Expectations of Sherman Schools

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I find a LOT of tapes with religious services (almost always Christian services) on them - typically, if they are full services, they are either of the Catholic/Episcopal/Lutheran structure (all very similar in content) or of the Baptist and/or Fundamentalist structure. Usually, the only thing that varies, and which might be interesting (to me at least, and with the exception of special services such as baptisms) are the sermons. 

The tape below (after a bit of harmonizing) captures parts of three speeches. I'm not sure I'd call them all sermons. The first one is a sort of homily made up of a parable. And I will say it's one of the least convincing parables I can imagine, as the "punchline" is a major letdown - I thought to myself "THAT's what you were leading up to? Really?" The rest is more typical sermonizing.

This tape is dated April 10, 1971 and the sticker on it also indicates it was recorded in Hinsdale, IL (see below). But I'm fairly certain that there are at least three separate services excerpted here.

Download: Segments of Various Sermon and Church Services

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On the other side of this tape is a unique documenting of a three-way phone call, complete with the operator assistance at the start. Presumably at least one of the participants is from the family that included the preacher heard above, but whoever this is, they were making a call that involved the Chicago suburbs, the Phoenix area and perhaps some third location. 

I found this tape delightful. The conversations are interesting (I wonder what was being shipped to Arizona, and why it had to be picked up so far from Phoenix), and the best part, the kids - most likely cousins - talking with each other. 

The tape ends with a brief bit of religious singing. This is probably my favorite tape in today's offerings. 

Download: A Three Way Phone Call to Arizona and a Some Religious Singing (plus)

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And now it's time for an Acetate of the Month.

Nearly five years ago, I posted "The Porter Heaps Collection", of a bunch of 1940's and 1950's radio shows that the former organist at my church had given me upon his retirement. One of those - probably my favorite, was "Man on the Farm". And in my collection, I was lucky enough to acquire an acetate version of a 1952 episode of "Man on the Farm", half of the show on one side of the disc and half on the other. 

If I'd been around, and old enough, to enjoy radio in the early 1950's, I suspect I'd have been a big fan of "Man on the Farm". 

Download: Columbia Reference Recording 12 inch Acetate - Man on the Farm, 10-4-52, Part One

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Download: Columbia Reference Recording 12 inch Acetate - Man on the Farm, 10-4-52, Part Two

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~~

Very Short Reels will return next time around. 

Happy May, everyone. 

The Immaculate Reception, A NASA Flashback, Lloyd Nolan Sells, Partying Like It's 1959, and a Whole Lotta Comments

 Boy, Howdy! Do I have a lot of comments, clarifications, corrections and great thoughts from readers/listeners to get to. It's been ages since I got caught up on these. I like to catch folks up on these, because readers may have looked at an individual page and missed the comments, or, equally likely, may have looked at a page before the comments were made. If you left a comment you really think I should feature here - and I don't do so - apologies in advance. 

<and yes, the promised football tape is here today - thanks for all the feedback on that.>

If this rehashing of comments is not of interest to you, by all means skip down to the first media player/download down there and have at it. 

I think I'll do this post by post. 

Here are some things that were said in response to this January 20th post (which was actually not, as I thought it was, my 250th post - it was # 247):

In response I heard from Snoopy, who let me know that the piano piece I didn't recognize is The Theme from "The Apartment". 

Chad offered up that the brief segment of Pittsburgh radio station KQV (heard on the same tape as the piano player) is from the spring of 1963, probably just before Easter weekend, which was in the middle of April that year. He adds that the two guys pretending to run their own obscene radio station have Pittsburgh accents.

An anonymous poster says that the interview that wasn't (from the end of the post) has to be from 1970, without explaining why, but I have no reason to doubt this. 

Finally, Josh offered up a link to a vintage religious broadcast, also digitized from a reel, which is found here. 

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Then, 11 days later, on January 31st, I posted again, and heard from Mike that the KHJ promo tape I offered up as a "very short reel" are bogus. He suggested comparing them with the real (reel?) deal at this page and at this YouTube posting. 

Also, if you follow the link to that post and scroll down to the comments, Eric wrote a bunch, too much for me to share here, about the dates and other minutiae regarding some elements of the featured tape. 

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My March 19th post got a lot of comments: 

Eric was as helpful as ever with dates, and confirmed that I was one year off on the Steve Allen/Ella Fitzgerald tape. It was from 4/25/56, almost exactly 70 years ago. He also noted that Gene Rayburn, who would later become much more well known, can also be heard on that clip. 

Multiple readers chimed in on the KNX segment. The finally named commenter "Easy Bake Oven" reports that I digitized the reel sides in reverse order, and that the second part was recorded before the first part, as I shared them. Chad points out that the deejay and the date are right there for the taking on the tape itself: Steve Marshall, and 7/26/74. Mike identifies the format as "Mellow Rock" and further identifies that linked to the wrong Wikipedia page. A station later known as KNX was playing country at that time, but this is not that KNX - this one is now KCBS. Spiritof76 contradicts my statement that no one in Chicago had this format by identifying two that did - WBBM-FM and WSDM. (I do remember WSDM - it called itself both "Wisdom" and "Smack Dab in the Middle" (of the dial) at different points and had all female deejays for a while, including Linda Ellerbee, although I don't recall their format at all - my main memory of the station is that it was the first Chicago home of Dr. Demento.)

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My most recent post, from March 31st, also drew a lot of comments. Most of them consisted of confirmations that people would like to have the football game I asked about, and that will be forthcoming, but there was also a request for an older clip that was formerly available on WFMU (and I will look for that, and there was this from Eric: 

The University of Portland and Lewis and Clark baseball game was played Tuesday, May 1, 1956. Portland led 8-2 after three innings and won 14-5. Pete Ward who played nine seasons in the major leagues mostly with the White Sox was on the Lewis and Clark team.

So it is 70 year old baseball, not 75 year old. Thank you for the additional information. 

There are some other, one-shot comments on older posts, but I'm going to save those for next time. Thanks to everyone who has written in - I'd be doing this anyway, I think, but reading the comments and knowing that there are people who care about this stuff makes my day. And my week. And my year. 

~~

Okay, so here it is. What I wrote at the end of last month should serve as an adequate introduction to this very historical and apparently rare piece. At the time, I was asking if this was indeed rare, and I got a lot of feedback that it is. Thanks to those who wrote to encourage me to post this. Here's what I wrote: 

I have found in my collection a nearly complete recording of the radio broadcast coverage of the legendary "Immaculate Reception" football game from 12/23/72. This is the Pittsburgh radio call, and while commercials (and half time) were not recorded, and the person recording also began editing the time in between plays at the end to save tape, the entire call from start to finish is on the tape with the exception of a few moments between those plays near the end.  

That description covers it well. Here is that tape. 

Download: Jack Fleming and Myron Cope: Oakland Raiders at Pittsburgh Steelers on WTAE, Pittsburgh, 12-23-72

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At the end of side one - and just a little bit at the end of side two - there were fragments of other, previously recorded games, as our recordist had clearly been recording games for some time, and erasing those which were no longer of interest. Here is a composite of the ends of the two sides - what is heard after the 12-23-72 recording on each side ends: 

Download: Odds and Ends from Other Football Broadcasts

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Here is the tape box, indicating that person's history of recording games on that particular reel of tape: 

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Switching gears pretty hard, here's a fun little tape, in which Lloyd Nolan records a few ads for Depositor's Trust. This was clearly recorded (since he mentions it) during the run of the groundbreaking show "Julia" (1968-71), which I call as the first sitcom I went out of my way to watch every week, and that I loved. That the title character's son  - a major part of the show - was a year or so younger than me was probably part of the appeal. Just a little side comment from your trusty curator. 

Download: Lloyd Nolan - Ads for Depositor's Trust

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Here is a composite of the parts of the front and back covers that had writing: 

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With the recent successful NASA mission, I thought it might be nice to share the following tape. Following John Glenn's successful flight, he and his family were welcomed to a reception with President Kennedy, Vice President Johnson and many others, three days after that flight. There are extensive recordings /videos of that event available. But this is something just a bit different - this is in depth coverage of the various participants moving from Cape Canaveral, to the site of that event. Narrating the action (and at one point getting humorously confused by what he's seeing), well, I believe that's Walter Cronkite (and "the action" is used loosely here), but someone out there is sure to correct me if I'm wrong. 

Download: John Glenn Goes to Meet President Kennedy Following His Flight, 2-23-62

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Now, lemme ask you somethin'. Do you like parties? Do you like the 1950's? Do you like friends? Do you like recordings of friends at a 1950's party? Then this tape is for YOU!

Download: A Friendly Party Gathering, 1959

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Note: Based on the tape box below), this would appear to be some of the same people who were heard on the 1960 "Johnson-Mort" wedding anniversary tape that I shared in this post. 

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And now, a "Very Short Reel". I have named this "A Bit of Singing and a Bit of Counting", and that pretty much sums it up. 

Download: A Bit of Singing and a Bit of Counting

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Some 75 Year Old College Baseball, The Return of Dr. Bill, Ronnie Hall Sings, An Excitable Audience, Goofing Around and Some Scrap Metal

Hello everyone, 

There are a LOT of comments I've received lately which are fully worth sharing here - more information about things I've posted, clarifications and corrections. But I've again waited until the end of the month and I like to get to posts out each month, so that will have to wait. Maybe I need to start building the next post tomorrow. 

But I do want to ask a question for anyone who might know: I have found in my collection a nearly complete recording of the radio broadcast coverage of the legendary "Immaculate Reception" football game from 12/23/72. This is the Pittsburgh radio call, and while commercials (and half time) were not recorded, and the person recording also began editing the time in between plays at the end to save tape, the entire call from start to finish is on the tape with the exception of a few moments between those plays near the end.  

My question is: Is this available already? Does it circulate or is it posted somewhere online? I've been unable to find it, but would only like to share it if it truly isn't already out there. Again, those who know - let me know!

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Speaking of SPORTS - I have something sort of amazing here. It comes from a paper reel - the sort of tape produced only between the mid 1940's and about 1951, with paper, rather than plastic backing. And while a professional baseball broadcast from that era would be great, something even more esoteric was on this tape: a local college baseball broadcast between two teams from Portland, Oregon! Sadly, there is only about 20 minutes of it here, comprised of portions of two innings, but talk about obscure! Presumably, this is from at least 70, if not 75 years ago, probably closer to the latter, given it being on a paper reel. What are the chances of this existing at all? I thought this was beyond cool. 

Download: A College Baseball Broadcast - University of Portland Vs Lewis and Clark College

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Now, I should mention that the recordings of the two inning segments heard here are not heard back to back on this tape. For whatever reason, the person recording the game ran the tape forward several minutes before starting to record the second segment. I have joined them. 

For the sake of completeness, if nothing else, here is what was otherwise being erased by the baseball segments. This short recording is heard between those two baseball segments. The recording quality is nothing short of abysmal and if someone with a better handle on sound editing wants to work on this, please do. But what you will sort of hear are two men speaking before an audience. Because I was born in 1960, I grew up with the voice of Richard Nixon frequently resonating in my ears for many years, and I'm fairly certain the second speaker is Nixon, presumably near the beginning of his career, just before or after he was Vice President. See what you think. 

Download: Very Poorly Recorded Segments of Speeches

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During the years I was posting on WFMU's Beware of the Blog I featured a series of tapes made by an army doctor in Korea following the end of the war, audio letters sent to his wife. I even included one which captured the highlights of a vacation the two of them took after he retired. Unfortunately, those offerings are no longer available, as Beware of the Blog has gone dark. But for those of you who might have liked them, and for those who didn't know about them but are intrigued, here is yet another of those tapes, one I never shared on WFMU. It's one of the longer ones from the collection.   

If anyone lets me know that there is interest, I will be happy to repost any of the previous WFMU offerings here, not just of these audio letters, but anything which was once available at that site and now is gone. 

Download: Audio Letter from an Army Doctor in Korea - 4-20-54

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More than four months ago, in this post, I features some recordings from a TV show called "The Children's Hour". I now know a bit more about where those recordings came from, or at least why. Since then, I have discovered that I have, in my collection, at least two tapes made of television appearances, local and national, by someone named Ronnie Hall, who was a graduate of that program. Here, from 1957, are some recordings that someone - mostly likely a family member - captured of young Ronnie Hall on some local TV shows and also on the Lawrence Welk show, which would have been a huge deal around 1957. 

Download: Ronnie Hall - Various Television Performances, Circa 1957

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Several years ago, I posted photos of what happened to over 100 of my as yet unlistened-to tapes when a pipe broke and spewed water on them. The box for this tape was unfortunately among those reels. However, you can still make out some of the writing on this box (which is not true for all of the boxes that went through that experience: 

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In my last post, I featured a pop-hits-heavy performance by a high school concert band. Now, here is a tape (labeled "Jazz Band") which was clearly from the same source - the tapes were together, on the same brand of tape, in my collection. Here, again, there are a few pop songs, more than we ever played in my high school jazz band (where our repertoire had exactly zero current pop hits). I don't think all the pieces they play here pop hits, in this case, but I also don't recognize all of the tunes. 

But even more interesting here is the level of engagement of the audience, particularly in their response to the various elements of the Theme from "Shaft" and their explosion of applause at the end of that and other numbers.

Download: A Mid '70's High School Band Concert with a Very Receptive Audience

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Now it's time for our "Acetate of the Month". This one is VERY short and almost as hard to listen to as those speech segments near the top of this post. I've named it "Three Guys Goofing Around" and it comes from a small unlabeled acetate. The contents are barely a minute long, but are rewarding enough for inclusion here, if you can bear with/get past the sound quality. 

Download: Tru-Tune 6 Inch Acetate - Three Guys Goofing Around

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And now, here's a Very Short Reel. This is, honestly, excerpted from a much longer tape, but I wanted to share it by itself. The tape was in horrible condition - plastic was flaking off of it as I copied it digitally and there were multiple breaks - I ended up throwing it away after listening to the digitized version. Most of it was instrumental classical music from "The US Steel Hour" (the radio version of that show), with sound cutting in and out, muddy at best for the most part. You'll hear some of that here, too. But I thought this Public Service Announcement about scrap metal was worth preserving. 

The show's Wikipedia page is largely about the television series which started in 1953, but it states that both shows only featured plays, which is interesting as this recording was most definitely a presentation of music. 

Download: Scrap Metal Plea from US Steel, from the US Steel Hour, circa 1951

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