All About the Grand Canyon, The NWB Show (Whatever That Was), A Life Insurance Speech (OOO, Pinch Me!), A Singer Rehearses, A Couple Celebrates and More

I have a bunch of comments, observations and insights that have been received recently, that I planned to start off this post with, but I've been working on this one for five days and want to get it posted. But I thank everyone who has written in, and I will get to them next time. 

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Let's start with a reel made, presumably, by a teacher. It sounds like she was in the Phoenix area, and she opens the tape by explaining why she wants to show local students a film about The Grand Canyon - some of them have never seen it and may not even know much about it. There follows her narration for the film, accompanied by a musical score. This being audio only, we can't see it, of course. I hope all readers out there have had a chance to see it. 

Download: Grand Canyon Film Introduction and Narration

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And here, for your dining and dancing pleasure, are the some folks, also in Phoenix, heard on the tape for ten minutes after the Grand Canyon narration, sitting around and chatting about all manner of things. Conversations about a few government programs and issues, including Head Start, as well as a mention of the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, pretty effectively date this to the mid 1960's, and no earlier than late 1965. 

Download: Conversation In Arizona Circa Mid 1960's (After the Grand Canyon Film Narration)

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This next tape comes in a box that looks like this: 

And that is all I know about it. This is a neat little tape. It contains a series of relatively short songs, sung by a few men and a few women, accompanied by piano, each track "banded", that is, separated by white leader tape. This is pretty clearly a recording of songs from some sort of performance, but this is not the performance - this is probably a demo or a studio rendition of the show. There are also a few very short tracks - sound effects here, a commercial there. There are a few rough places in the tape, where he jams a bit and/or where there are splices which cut out a moment of sound. I have no idea what this is. Anyone out there have any idea? 

Download: Dub of NWB Show, 10-20-59 - For Club Page (Final Tape)

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Perhaps you would prefer, though, to listen to a 28 minute speech from roughly 53 years ago, given by Tony Cortellessa, to the Franklin Life Insurance Company. If so, BOY ARE YOU IN LUCK!!!:

Download: Tony Cortellessa Speaks to the Franklin Life Insurance Company, 9-11-72

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Here is someone named Eve - I think so, anyway, doing a variety of stage-musical-type songs, including some from the show "Oliver!". The tape box is written on sort of haphazardly. I don't know if that says "Eve Many Songs" or "Eve <her last name> Songs. I think it's "many".

What do you think? And let me know if you want to hear more of people rehearsing songs (or less, for that matter). I have quite a few.

Download: Eve Practices Several Songs with Piano - January 30

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This next one is labeled like this: 

That's a mouthful, and rather than offering comments, I'll let you experience its charms, whatever you find (or don't find) them to be. One warning - after a really quiet section, the tape suddenly gets REALLY LOUD at 21:15. Be prepared. 

Download: Johnson-Mort Wedding Anniversaries, November 5, 1960, at the Miller Home

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And now it's time for our "Acetate of the Month". In this month's episode, Joan records a song ("Always in My Heart") for her absent husband Edward (with Gladys on piano) and then talks to him about how much he is missed. Someone named Jean then sends her love to Tom (who was apparently with Edward). Nothing was written on this acetate so I can't really tell you anything more about it. 

Download: Black and Silver Metal Acetate - Joan Sings a Song for Her Husband and Talks

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Today's "Very Short Reel" is actually another excerpt, which is a cheat, but I really wanted to share this segment. 

First, a little story. When I was little, we had a miniature player piano thingee. I don't quite remember how big it was, or what happened to it, but it had genuine (little) player piano rolls and they really did make it play the way a full sized one does - it was almost more like a music box, due to its size. 

In case you don't know how player piano rolls work, they have spots on the sheet of paper which correspond to all 88 keys on the piano, and there is a hole punched for every note that is to be played. I believe they were made by someone actually playing the piano attached to a machine that would poke the holes, and then additional holes would often be made to add embellishments. There are piano rolls "cut" by Scott Joplin which contain embellishments that render performances that no single pianist could actually ever play. 

As you might imagine, tearing extra holes in the piano roll results in extra notes being played. And, in fact, one of our little piano rolls developed a large tear near the center but off to one side a bit, right near the start of the piece. When you fed that one into the machine, it played the first five seconds or so of the piece, then about 20 keys all slammed their tones, not quite together, but roughly the way you might think a piano falling over might sound. It was quite humorous. 

So anyway.... I found a tape someone made in 1953, capturing a series of player piano rolls fed through their player piano, interspersed with what were, even then, ancient 78 RPM releases. And two of the piano rolls clearly had the same issue as the one we owned. 

What you'll hear here is the woman who introduces all of the rolls and 78's on the tape, introducing the next piano roll, and then the entire roll - well most of it: it would appear that the end of it was damaged and then, most likely, torn off completely before the piece ends. You can hear the woman giggle a little as the odd sounds retreat. I laughed out loud. There is just something devastatingly hilarious about the way it shudders to a stop after such musical eloquence, to that point, as if an actual pianist had been playing and suddenly dropped dead, mid phrase. 

A man then speaks briefly about the wonderful weather they are having - exactly 72 years ago tomorrow, as I post this (wow). Then the woman introduces another piano roll, and THAT one is damaged a few seconds into the song, then is fine from that point on. This second one sounds just like the piano roll we had, with a moment of good music, a few moments of complete mayhem, and then the rest of it is normal again. I've faded it after the goofy part. I hope this makes you laugh as much as it does me. Every... single... time. 

Download: Short Excerpt from a Tape of Piano Roll (with comments on the Weather) - 10-18-53

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Country Radio in 1965, Fake Radio in 1977, Ruthie is Cute, Mary is Not, Some Telephone Mayhem, and a Fifth Anniversary

 Hi, 

First, I want to offer a sincere and very deep thank you for anyone who read my last post, the one about my mother's life story. It is much appreciated. I particularly want to thank those who offered comments, either in the comment section of the post, or directly to my e-mail address (something which a few of my more frequent correspondents have). Each of them is treasured and, again, very much appreciated. 

Second, I want to thank an anonymous poster who responded to a March post (before the "mom" one), with a major correction, and one that I probably could have researched if I wasn't just going by notes that I made when I was 15. It seems that my labeling of the years when I recorded the "WIND Top 1000" is wrong. And I should have realized that anyway. The commenter has pointed on that the news reports during the broadcasts labeled "1971", including one about a mine explosion, are from the third week of July, 1972. What I should have noticed is that both broadcasts features the inclusion of "American Pie", which could not have been on the list in 1971, as it didn't finish its chart run (and qualify for such a list) until 1972. So either those recordings are from two different broadcasts of the list, both in 1972, or the shorter segment is from 1973. I'm guessing the former, since there are no 1973 hits in that broadcast. But anyway, one thing for certain is that the longer segment should be labeled as being from the third week of July, 1972 and not from 1971. Oops. Thank you for the correction!

Finally, I've been asked in the past to let folks know when I have reels for sale on eBay, and right now, that is the case. I have 20 reels listed. None of these feature anything I've shared in this blog - for the most part they contain material that I was not all that interested in. The listing is here. That auction ends on 5/11/23. And if you click on "see other items", you will find that I have listed more than two dozen acetates from my collection, as well. 

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I'll start today's offerings with the one (or in this case, two) that I am certain will be the most popular of all of those in this post. These two sound files contain the entirety of a reel of tape which captured some now-vintage country music radio, specifically, a show hosted by DJ Kenny Biggs, on WEEP, Pittsburgh. Based on the songs played, particularly those identified as currently on the chart or newly released, this is from some time in the fall of 1965. 

The first segment is just over an hour of his show, unedited and complete with DJ patter, station ID's, ads, etc. The flip side of the tape starts with several minutes which contain edits between the songs, but eventually, the edits stop, and a good percentage of the second side also features a lengthy unedited segment of a Kenny Biggs aircheck. 

Download: The Kenny Biggs Show, WEEP, Pittsburgh, Fall, 1965, Part One

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Download: The Kenny Biggs Show, WEEP, Pittsburgh, Fall, 1965, Part Two

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And now for something just barely related to the above two tracks. Here are a few kids presenting their version of a radio station just over a decade later. A sports report near the end of this segment demonstrates that this tape is from 1977, but I believe all of the "hits" featured are from 1975, for some reason. They don't really have the DJ / music mixed at the same volume level at all, but still, it's cute, particularly that sports report and an ad for an acne product.  

The tape starts with a station intro, before cutting away to a few moments of cello practice, which is interrupted by noise from the kids. The actual "radio station" stuff starts about 50 seconds in. 

Download: Some Kids and Their Fake Radio Station, WPDL, 1977

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Here's another home recording, one which is even shorter than the above, (7 1/2 minutes) and which I find quite endearing. This is a child named Ruthie and her family, and they're just going doing the things one did when one's family had a tape recorder - testing the microphone, interviewing a child about her birthday and singing songs. For me, the best part is at the end, when the children present take turns singing one line apiece of a very well known commercial for Nestles' Chocolate, complete (the last two times) with one of the children becoming frustrated with another child who keeps coming in too early - "don't break in my line!" 

Download: Ruthie and Her Family - Testing the Microphone, Ruthie's Birthday, Prayers, Jingle Bells and Nestles Commercial

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Okay, so nearly three years ago, I posted a woman named Mary M. Davis being ridiculous. Here's most of what I wrote at the time: 

This is a bit of virulently right wing propaganda - John Birch Society style - railing against the United Nations. I only have tape four of the series, and if I had more, I'd annoy you with those, too. A quick search shows that Mary Davison wrote multiple books on this and related subjects, and was called a "whistleblower about the United Nations" at least once.

As it turns out, I do have another tape from the series, so if you enjoy this sort of thing, you're in luck. Here it is: 

Download: Mary M Davison - The United Nations, Tape Three

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On the flip side of the tape, there was a bit of bonus anti-UN blathering from Hugh A. Locke, Jr., who manages to take a truly inspiring story (assuming it's true) and turn it into a John Birch Society-esque talking point.  

Download: Hugh A Locke, Jr - 1967 Speech At New England Rally, Part Three

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Ages ago, I bought several boxes of tapes all from the same location, many of which proved to contain Bell Telephone training tapes from Ohio. I've shared several of them, over the years. Here is one which is highly annoying - not as annoying as Mary M Davison, but annoying. 

There is a lot of noise on this tape, particularly a whole lot of repetitive beeping, interspersed with one sided conversations which appear to have been made to a person (or people) who were on a ship (or ships). But you can only hear one side of the conversations. There is also a whole lot of repetitive beeping. Oh, and the opening 20 seconds or so are particularly hard to listen to, and are followed by about 15 seconds of near-silence. What I've described above really starts about 35 seconds in. 

This tape is labeled "Traffic Training Tape" on the front of the box:

On the side it says, "Telephone Transmission Impairments and Sounds" (which it definitely is not - I have that tape, which was also in the collection), and on the tape itself, there is a sticker which says ""Training Tape Telephone Sounds":

After reading each of those titles for this tape, and listening to this reel, I'm still not sure what this is, or who was supposed to learn what from these 14 minutes of recordings. 

Maybe this is only going to appeal to three people (or fewer), but I do occasionally like to give a bit of the flavor of just how wide ranging the tapes in my collection can be. 

Download: Telephone Sounds - Traffic Training Tape

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And finally, a very very short "Very Short Reel". Here are 39 seconds which I found at the end of an otherwise reel of bland music recorded off of records. I suspect this is what was left from a longer recording, the rest of which was erased. From just a short 71 1/2 years ago, here is a tiny fragment of a few people just having a light hearted conversation about what was apparently the fifth day of marriage for two of the people heard here. 

Download: Unknown - Our Fifth Day Wedding Anniversary, November 24, 1951

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