Toastmistresses, A Fairly Generic Rock Band, Pete and his Musical Limitations, The End of the Broadcast Day, and MR. PERSONALITY

Hi, everyone, 

Well, I said things might slow down here and, as I wrote in my most recent post on my other blog, they sure enough have. I want to explain that an immediate family member has received a serious diagnosis and has had two surgeries since my last post. Since I posted to my other site, things are looking up, and hopefully in June I can get back to two posts a month, or... I might not. I hope you will continue to visit and view, read and listen whenever I do post. 

A few comments, first: 

In my last post here, I offered up, without much comment, a short recording from Armed Forces radio, which I included only for completeness sake, as I was much more interested in the material on the other side of the tape. However, I received the following comment, from Chad S. about that Armed Forces material, which indicates that it is far more interesting than I thought: 

At the very end of the Armed Forces Radio Service tape is a brief ID of "VOUS" that gets cut off by the end of the tape. This would appear to be the actual call letters of the American Forces radio station in St. John's and later moved to Argentia, Newfoundland, Canada. Older Newfie stations can still retain their VO- calls from before the province joined Canada in 1949. The base at Argentia shut down in 1993, but it appears the tiny 250 watt station shut down some time before that.

This tiny clip is an absolutely amazing find and possibly the only extant audio of this station!

https://www.radioheritage.com/llri50-post/

And, as I expected, Eric P. returned with a couple of comments on the baseball recording that I posted, including the following: 

1-We start with the ending of the 9/12/59 CBS Game of the Week TV audio (Tigers-Yankees) with Dizzy Dean and Buddy Blattner announcing that we heard an earlier portion of on the other tape posted.

2-At the four minute mark, we find ourselves at the end of the Bottom of the 3rd inning on August 20, 1959, again Yankees-Tigers. This is the Tiger radio network and the announcer is George Kell. Action is continuous through the Bottom 6th to the end of the tape. The Tigers pad their lead from 6-2 to 11-2 in a game they ultimately won 14-2. The station ID is WKZO-Kalamazoo.

Thanks to Eric and Chad, and to everyone who comments, and everyone who listens!

(As an aside, I have, just in the last couple of days, found another tape with over three hours of baseball recordings on it - I have not listened to it yet, as I just digitized it yesterday - but will share it here in the future.)

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Let's start with a tape which reflects a couple of different things which have not existed for a good many years. It is a tape featuring two speeches by members of the "Toastmistress Club", as heard during what appears to have been a radio broadcast. As it says on the page linked, the Toastmistresses had their own club from 1938 until 1985, so this tape could not be less than 40 years old. It's clearly older than that - my other out-of-date thought is that such speeches being broadcast on the radio places this in the early 1960's at the latest. 

Three other things about this tape. First, much of the recording is marred by being doubly recording - some classical recording can be heard throughout more than the first half of the tape, as well as a bit of announcer talk at one point. And second, the machine on which this broadcast was recorded was not working well at all, and the speed of the recording goes up and down, wreaking havoc on the women's voices. And third, not only is the beginning of the first speech missing, the recording starts and stops a couple of times, causing us to miss bits of each speech. 

The last 50 seconds of this tape feature some children being children, followed by a very brief moment of another radio broadcast. 

Download: Two Short Speeches by Members of Toastmistresses (and a bit more)

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Next up, I know nothing about this tape - or this band - beyond what I think is stated after the first song: that this is Miss Patsy Van Simon singing with a band. I could well have that name wrong - feel free to write in if you think you're hearing it better, or especially if you think you know who this is (beyond the name). Anyway, it's a combo playing just about the sort of repertoire you might have heard from a bar band or a wedding band at some point, especially if you weren't paying too much for them. 

There is no audience here, but they are clearly going through said repertoire, and at the end, in the absence of a crowd, they applaud themselves. So was this a demo? I doubt it. A rehearsal? That seems more likely. 

Download: Miss Patsy Van Simon and Her Band

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And now something extremely esoteric. A fellow named Pete - he says his last name a few times here, but I'm not sure I'm hearing it right (as with the above) - had recorded a set of (apparently small) tapes at some point earlier in the 1960's. He mentions multiple dates on these tapes - the tape box reads 1967 - and I'm guessing there are recordings from multiple year copied here. These are all tapes in which {ete sang (badly) with his guitar (tuned and played badly) on one side and without his guitar on the other. At some point, Pete apparently decided to simplify his collection and made copies of his tapes onto another tape, with minimal comment as to their content. That's what we have here. 

The first side, as this tape came to me, starts off with Pete calling it "Side Two", but that may mean side two of whichever older tape he was copying, since on the other side, he refers to it as "This Side", in comparison with the other side of the tape. I may be overthinking this. 

These performances are, to use the technical term, awful. And it does not appear that Pete was particularly aware of this. In fact, I have another tape (which I'll share later) where Pete consolidates even more of his old tapes onto another reel, copying them onto the left channel, while he sings along with himself, anew, on the right channel. 

These go out to a reader/listener with whom I have been having a delightful email exchange with, about terrible records and performances. Enjoy!

Download:  Pete - Pete Sings With His Guitar, One Part

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Download: Pete - Pete Sings Without His Guitar, Another Part

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Pete wrote all over the tape box and also put stickers on both sides of the reel, to sum up everything captured on this tape. See?: 

 

  

He also included copious notes, four pages of them. Here is one: 

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Here's a neat little reel I found recently. Shortly before her father's death, then-Princess Elizabeth made a trip across Canada, which, based on what I've just read, was supposed to have been made by the king, but he was too ill. This little tape simply captures a variety of reports made before and during that visit, and ends with a speech by the princess just before her departure from the country. The tape ends just as she starts speaking in French, so we unfortunately miss the point at which John Astin rushed the stage and began kissing her up her arm, saying "Princess, You Spoke French!"

Download: Coverage of Princess Elizabeth's Visit to Canada, Fall, 1951

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The next tape is little more than a fragment - under eight minutes of radio recording. But it does feature something rarely heard these days (except from those relatively few remaining AM stations which are licensed for daylight broadcasting only). It's the end of the broadcast day, as heard on WHFS, South Bend, IN, on some long-ago day (or rather, night). You'll hear some classical music, then some station ID backdrop music with an announcer ending his show ("The Wax Museum"), and previewing his next episode (which sounds like an interesting broadcast, actually). Then another announcer does Marine Corps ad, offers up some items of interest about the station and closes up shop for the night with the National Anthem (complete with a moment of un-syncopated rhythm where there usually is syncopation). They were not returning for broadcast again until the next day at 1 PM. What's that about? 

Download: WHFS, South Bend, IN - End of the Broadcast Day

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Nearly every post, I end with a "Very Short Reel", and this week is no exception. But before that, here's a "Very VERY Short Acetate" - all 91 seconds of it - as my "Acetate of the Month". I labeled it as "Man Speaks About 'Protocol M'", and at that time, I did not find anything more about it. I've now searched again, and discovered that the man is reading an editorial from Time Magazine, dated 4/19/48. You can read it here. The acetate space runs out just before the man finishes his reading. 

Download: Unlabeled Black 6 Inch Acetate -Man Speaks About "Protocol M"

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And now for the aforementioned "Very Short Reel". This tape, of just under five minutes, starts with a man introducing himself as "Mr. Personality". He then babbles on for a few minutes, telling some ancient jokes along the way, in a very poorly recorded segment. Then the sound improves, and it's Christmastime - a group of folks test the microphone and levels, and continue this process, and to discuss it, for far longer than seems necessary to me. 

Download: Mr. Personality and Checking the Levels

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Even More Baseball, The "Do You Remember" Dance, The Country Music Story, and "Don't Sit On My Mother's Violin"

As I alluded to in my last post, I don't have a lot of time to write as much as I often do, or to get an acetate of the month ready, either. 

I do, however, want to make sure I refer people back to the comments about my last post. There are multiple posts explaining the details of the baseball offering in that post, and expressing a good deal of excitement over those contents. I'm glad to have shared them. There is also a shorter note expressing an equal amount of excitement over the posting I linked to, in that post, from Kyle - a post of Easy Listening Programming from the 1960's. 

There is lot of text in those comments, so I'm not going to repost them here, but I encourage you to have a look at them if that sort of thing is of interest to you. 

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I'll start with the segment that I know some people are waiting for - the remaining "Badly Recorded Baseball". This tape is considerably shorter than the one I shared last time, and at its worst, is nowhere near as bad as the worst parts of the last reel, but through much of it, there is a ton of static as well as interference from another station. But I look forward to the feedback on this one, which I'm sure is coming, and which will no doubt contain details about just what game(s) are heard here. 

Download: More (Largely Badly Recorded) Baseball, circa 1959

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Next up, both sides of a smallish reel of tape. The tape itself was a standard five inch reel, enough for recording perhaps a half-hour of material at 3 3/4 IPS, but it was two smaller reels spliced together, and the (shorter) one at the start of side one (and end of side two) was unrecorded. Side two was the more interesting of the two sides, but first.... on the recorded part of side one was the modestly (at best) interesting excerpt from The United States Armed Forces Radio Services, featuring some classical performances. 

Download: Brief Excerpt from The United States Armed Forces Radio Service

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The real (and reel) fun from this tape is on the second side, though, where some kids recorded themselves being kids. There is a brief performance of the hit song "Short Shorts", a longer segment of the song "Chances Are" - both of which likely date this tape to early 1958 - and then some general silliness. 

Download: Unknown - Short Shorts, Chances Are and Don't Sit On My Mother's Violin

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My longest offering this time around is one of those live performances I share from time to time. I don't know the name of this band, but it was undoubtedly a local dance band which played at various events, in whatever area Troy High School was/is in. I have a handful of tapes from this outfit, each one saying how many "men" worked the gig - in this case, as you can see below, it was "eight men". This is from Thanksgiving, 1956, and a dance apparently titled "Do You Remember?", if the writing on the tape box is to be believed. Travel back with me to a very different era and enjoy this anonymous dance band: 

Download: Unknown Band - Performance at Troy High, Thanksgiving, 1956 ('Do You Remember')

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In January, 1971, a series called "The Country Music Story", hosted by Johnny Cash, ran on American television. Someone recorded large portions of one episode, and here is that recording.

Download: Segments of 'The Country Music Story' With Johnny Cash, January 1971

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For my "Very Short Reel" this time around, I have a tape labeled "Interacting with a Bit of the 'Sgt Pepper' Album", and I think that sums it up fairly well. Here are a few folks, presumably at home, and presumably enjoying what was, at that moment, a still recently-new album.

Download: Unknown - Interacting with a Bit of the "Sgt Pepper" Album

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Blowout Post # 7!

It's time once again for me to clear the decks and post a whopping twelve different recordings in quick succession, with very little comment. Yes, it's another BLOWOUT Post, Number Seven in the series. 

A reminder/explanation: These are files that I have made over the years, from my collection, that I either have little to say about, or don't remember much about, or both. In most cases, I have not listened to these since the day they were digitized, which was likely more than ten years ago in some cases. 

In all, there is nearly six hours of recorded material in today's post. 

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Five months ago, in this post, I shared one episode of London Mirror, from a tape which contained multiple episodes of that show. I wrote quite a bit about it, at that time, and you can look back at that post for what I said at the time. Anyway, I find this program fascinating and very entertaining, so I'll lead of today's post with another episode from that same tape:

Download: London Mirror - 11-25-61

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This one says "Portion of a Trial". Again, aside from a bit of scanning, I have not re-listened to these offerings - I'm just putting a bunch of them up there and out there for your perusal. And I honestly don't remember anything about this one. Enjoy!

Download: Portion of a Trial

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Here's another recording which is well explained by its title, "Accordion Playing and A Cappella Singing". 

Download: Accordion Playing and A Cappella Singing

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Here is a tape featuring about five and a half minutes of news as broadcast in Michigan in 1954: 

Download: International, National and Local News from Michigan, 1954

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I have, on several occasions, delved into a collection I own which came from someone who worked for multiple TV networks (and possibly elsewhere) in the 1960's, including a bunch of tapes featuring dubbing or looping in dialogue for shows and movies. I can't find the box for this tape at the moment (I digitized this at least a decade ago), but it said something about "Figard" on it, and I've been unable to find out what that might mean. But it could be the name of the program or movie which was being worked on, here. 

Download: More Dubbing for a TV or Movie, Possibly "Figard"

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Somewhere along the line I managed to pick up a set of tapes by someone who led various sized dance bands in the late 1960's at local parties and events. This one is referred to, on the tape box (see below) as Kendall's Ork (with 8 members), but not all of them show this name for the group, and each performance seems to have a different number of guys on the bandstand. This particular performance is from the Winchester Nurse's Association's shindig on 9-25-59. Maybe you were there!

Download: Kendall's Ork (8 Members) - Winchester Nurse's Association - 9-25-59

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Lemme ask ya somethin'. Do you like Insurance Assessors? Put your hands together for Insurance Assessors! I bet at least a few of you were bopping to that great 1994 hit "The Insurance Assessor Mambo" when it got all the way to number one on the Billboard Insurance Songs Chart that year. 

For all of you Insurance Assessor fans, here's an Insurance Assessor reporting his findings on a variety of buildings that he insurance assessed. 

Seriously, I do like to throw in something like this every now and then, just to give a fuller picture of the ridiculously wide range of tapes that I come across. 

Download: An Insurance Assessor Reports His Finding

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Here's another easy one to describe. It's called "Three Songs by a Barbershop Quartet". The description I have for it is that it is three songs sung by a quartet, barbershop style. 

Download: Three Songs by a Barbershop Quartet

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And yet another easy one to explain. It's called "A Young Girl, A Baby, and Their Dad". In this one, you'll hear.... oh, never mind. 

Download: A Young Girl, a Baby, and Their Dad

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Yet another one I'm not going to have much of anything to say about. Here's "An Evangelical Preacher", who is preaching, evangelically. 

Download: An Evangelical Preacher

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And now, for an "Acetate of the Month". In this unlabeled recording, a group of family and friends sing the pop hit "K-K-K-Katy", and then a woman reads a short paragraph of nonsense, then a man tells a story about a small woman trying to remove a large boulder. The sound quality gets fairly poor in the last 45 seconds or so of this recording. 

Download: Audiodisc Unlabeled Acetate - K-K-K-Katy, Humorous Recitation and Boulder Story

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I have, on two previous occasions, here and here, I am, here again, featuring one of the many tapes I somehow became the owner of, which feature an amateur songwriter named Marge Magenheimer. This one qualifies as our "Very Short Reel" for this posting, although some of what's said indicates that it probably came from what was originally a longer tape. But this was all that was on the tape when I got it. There is a bit of pop song singing, then a dedication of sorts from a family member or friend, followed by a short statement from Marge. Then a pianist plays one of Marge's songs. 

Download: A Few More Minutes with Marge Magenheimer and Friends

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Some Great Jingles, London Nightlife, High School Radio, Talking to Australia, Some Cute Kids, and the Sports of 1971

HI! 

I'm gonna dive right in! Let's start with a lovely little tape which is labeled, as you can see below, "Agency Jingles - Background Music", and on the side of the box it is further labeled "# 53":

And of course, it's also labeled with a complete listing of the tracks, most of which - but not all - are in fact instrumental music for radio commercials. There are some vocals mixed in, though. I have no idea what agency created these or exactly when they are from. All of the information I have is in the scan, above. But these are great!

Download: Agency Jingles - Background Music # 53

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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 recording specifically from this program. I have found, in my collection, a tape containing three episodes of this show, "London Mirror", from late in 1961, all but this first one complete (this one is missing the opening theme). The variety heard in these forty-some minutes is truly impressive even if, rather than play that icky Elvis Presley, they instead had a bland rendition of his latest hit performed by an in-house conglomeration. In fact, rock and roll music (and its creators) is conspicuously absent among the otherwise fairly broad picture of night life in London reflected in these shows. Many of you (well, me, at least) might be most intrigued by the segment featuring Goons great Harry Secombe, as this appears to be a recording of him made specifically for the show, and perhaps not available anywhere else. The person who recorded this show even cut out the newspaper ad for the program, which captures all of that variety in a very small space: 

Please let me know if you'd like to hear more of these - as I said I've found three and there may be more.

Download: London Mirror, 11/18/61

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Now, let's fly from London to Turlock, CA, some time in the late 1970's, and what was then the local high school radio station, where someone was trying - very poor attempts, to my ears - to make some promos for said station, KDBG. 

Download: Working on a Promo for KDBG Radio, Turlock High School, Turrlock, CA

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But that's only part of what's on this reel - if it wasn't, I'd have used that segment for a "very short reels" presentation. No, the rest of the tape contains an episode of another student's country music programming, including, for the last several minutes, what was apparently the stations very own mix of some odd, humorous country material, ending with a peculiar take on the country standard "Still". 

Download: Country Music on KDBG Radio, Turlock High School, Turlock, CA

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And now, here's a moment in time. I have a bunch of tapes from a professional band - nowhere on them does it seem to specify who they were, just the number of "men" in the group and the event captured on the tape - in concert at "The Elks' Ball" at the end of January, 1959. I have unfortunately misplaced the box for this one, but that's what it said, along with that reference to "nine men" or whatever it was. Their repertoire is pretty well all over the map - everything from "The Peter Gunn Theme" to "The Walter Winchell Rhumba" to "Misty" to "Oh Johnny Oh". Download this one and listen to it sometime while you're working around the house. It's about 72 minutes long. 

And again, if you dig this, let me know. I have more from this ensemble. 

Download: Unknown Band - Performance at The Elks' Ball, 1-30-59

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For those of you who enjoy Audio Letters, here's one from a man in Maine to a friend in Australia: 

Download: Audio Letter from Maine to Australia

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And now it's time for our "Acetate of the Month". And I gotta say, as brief as this is (67 seconds), it's one of the sweetest, even the most adorable, things I've ever shared here. This record scores a 10 on the "authentic cuteness" scale. It's titled (by me, anyway, there is nothing written on the disc itself) "Two Children Play-Act a Visit", and I don't think anything further needs to be said. Enjoy!

Download: Voice-O-Graph 6 Inch Recording Disc Acetate - Two Children Play-Act a Visit

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And finally, a very short reel. Here is a child of the early '70's, clearly from Pittsburgh (or at least a Pittsburgh fan), giving a short play by play of the 1971 world series, before cutting in with a bit of radio, then being generally boisterous (with at least one other child, I think) and finishing with a bit of basketball play by play. Interestingly, both the Pirates and the basketball team end up with 14 runs/points. 

Download: Unknown - Baseball and Basketball Reports, 1971

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