A Bit of Beautiful Music and a WHOLE LOT of Long John Nebel

I've been so busy this month and despite my best efforts, I am only going to get one post up in July. And it only has three tracks offered. However, one of those tracks is over four hours long. And for those of you who love vintage talk radio, this is the post for you. 

The tape didn't give me ANY idea of the magic it held inside. What it did say was not even accurate: 

In reality, the tape does have music on the first side and talk on the second. But it has talk on both sides, as well, as well as some music on both. Side one does start with all music, which I'll get to in a second, but then it veers into programming that was both talk (for the most part) and music (specifically, what strikes me as a weird interruption of the talk). 

Side one starts (after thirty seconds of a few random short recordings, some of which may be from WOR) with programming from WVNJ, in Newark, New Jersey, apparently from some point in 1963. This is what was later known (if not at that point) as beautiful music programming, and I know that there are those of you out there that just eat this stuff up. Well, here's more than 35 minutes of it. 

Download: "Music for Metropolitans" on WVNJ, Newark, New Jersey, circa 1963

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I've identified the above as likely being from 1963, in part, because the recording of this segment clearly erased the first 35 minutes or so of something that was already recorded on the tape, and which fills up the remainder of both sides of the tape. And since that recording is from the end of 1962, the beautiful music recording comes from at least some later point. 

And that "something" may be a cause for rejoicing among certain of my readership/listenership, because it is the long remembered and much beloved Long John Nebel show, from what appears to be two consecutive overnight broadcasts - if I'm hearing my references right, they are from 11/30/62 and 12/1/62, although if someone cares to correct me, I'm certainly open to that. 

Nebel appears to have needed to have periodic breaks, perhaps to get through what was a LONG airshift for talk radio, five or more hours a night, six nights a week, and perhaps that explains the sort of odd set of "25 minutes of music" that occurs a few times here. Those interludes also seem to have been cut off by the person recording these WOR broadcasts, shortly before the 25 minute mark, and we return to Long John, not always in the middle of the same conversation as before the break, so I'm not sure what happened there. 

And that's all I have to say, I will let you enjoy these four-and-a-quarter hours as they unspool and let you listen to Long John in an approximation of what one might have done while fading in and out of sleep in the middle of the night. Enjoy!

Download: The Long John Nebel Show on WOR, Probably November 30 and December 1, 1962

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And now, after taking a post off, here is a "very short reel", in this case a June, 1998 ad (it's listed as such on the side of the box) for a sandwich chain called "Fazoli's", specifically, the Toledo area Fazoli's stores. I don't know how much later after 1998 commercials were still provided to radio stations on reel tape, but I'm guessing it wasn't long after that at all. This might be from the very tail end of a genre that existed for close to half a century. 

It does not appear that any of the locations advertised here are still in business, by the way, although Fazoli's does have 15 locations in Ohio.

Download: Digital Generation Systems - Fazoli's "Order in the Court" Ad

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A Steve Allen Awards Show Recording, An Audition Tape, More Beautiful Music, Guitar at Home

Hello, hello, hello!

Before I get to this post's features, I want to thank a few people for writing in. Well, thanks to EVERYONE who writes in (except the spammers) - I appreciate it more than I can say. 

But two commenters mentioned the Anthony Bilbow stories, the most recent of which I posted last month. They both let me know that these stories were aired as part of a show called  "Morning Story",  part of the BBC's Light Programme in the 1960's, and that it can be researched at this BBC site. It started as "Worthington" in 1954 and ran through the '60's, eventually as "Morning Story".

Also, Chad let me know that the radio portion of the "Humorous Moment" I shared in my last post is from KFOR AM 1240 in Lincoln, Nebraska. 

Again, thanks!

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First up, I have something I think is pretty special, and which I don't think is available anywhere else. This is a recording of an episode of The Steve Allen Show from the day after Christmas, 1959. On that date, the entire show was turned over to Steve announcing the nominees and winners of "The 10th Annual Look Magazine Awards", in several categories, and the comments of the winners,  as well as brief comedy bits with his regular troupe (Don Knotts, Tom Poston, etc.), and a few musical numbers. 

This appears to be the entire show. The sound quality ranges from fairly good to fairly iffy - the last few minutes have very poor sound quality, and there are a few other spots of poor quality, as well. But hopefully, if this is your thing, you can stand the less than pristine sound. I think this is a real find. 

Download: The Steve Allen Show - The 10th Annual Look Magazine Awards - 12-26-59

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KTUR, Turlock, CA, 1390 on your dial, existed at that frequency from 1949 to 1962. Relatively near the end of that period, someone whose name might be Jack Hield (I've probably got that wrong - let me know what you think he's saying) seems to have sent in an audition tape, using some then-recent news stories to demonstrate his skills. Those stories are all from October of 1958, so I'm guessing that's when this tape was made. 

Download: Jack Hield - Audition Tape for KTUR, Turlock, CA, circa October, 1958

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Oh, and how do I know it was an audition tape and not an actual aircheck? Well, I have the tape box, dear reader/listener. And here is the part of that box that has writing on it: 

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And now, here's a treat (?). The following 45 minutes or so contain the remainder of what was on that audition tape reel. And what does that consist of? Someone playing electric guitar - everything from noodling to chord progressions to recognizable songs, at times loudly, at times softly, at times in tune, at other times out of tune. Then, at certain moments, the guitarist sings with his guitar playing. And then, at a couple of points, we are treated to some 1969 Top 40 radio. Best of all (?), some of this material was recorded on the right channel at 3 3/4 IPS, while the above audition is on the same spot on the tape on the left channel, at 7 1/2 IPS, and the audition tape bleeds through, at the wrong speed, making for a delightful listen during that segment. 

Download: Unknown - Some Solo Guitar, Some Singing with Guitar, A Bit of Top 40 Radio

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Here's something multiple people have asked for - I'm not big on the so-called "Beautiful Music" stations which existed way back when, but plenty of folks love this stuff, and when I find it, I always share it. Here's an hour from WTVN in Columbus. This seems to be from around 1961. I am mystified as to how this station made money - there are very few breaks of any sort for the announcer and nothing I would consider a "commercial" during this hour long excerpt - only a promo for their own programming and a PSA for Radio Free Europe. And even those sound canned, as if the entire broadcast was just a tape someone made earlier, or perhaps even a subscription service. Anybody have an idea? 

Download: WTVN, Columbus - Beautiful Music Programming Circa 1961

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And now it's time for our "Acetate of the Month". I think the titles here are completely self-explanatory.: it's a bunch of people singing at home, doing more than a half dozen songs on two sides of an unlabeled acetate. SING IT, GANG!

Download: Unlabeled Black Acetate - Singing Together At Home - Leela Leela, By the Light, My Happiness, Too Fat Polka

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Download: Unlabeled Black Acetate - Singing Together At Home - You Are My Sunshine, Down On the Levee, Working on the Railroad

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And now for a "Very Short Reel". In this case, this is really a "Very Short Excerpt", because it's really just the first few minutes of a tape that I've been exploring this week. It has a bit of an audio letter (maybe almost the whole thing, but it doesn't seem like it), which is then - partially - interrupted by a recording of an orchestral piece. But the original recording continues on for a bit longer, and we hear both recordings more or less at equal volume. Sort of like part of that guitar player tape up there earlier in the post.

As I said, I've continued to listen to this tape after finding this little segment, and there are several more segments where it is doubly recorded, with both music and talking. I know of at least one reader who enjoys such things, so I may share more of this tape, the next time around!

Download: Brief Fragment of an Audio Letter (with Orchestral Interference)

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Some Possibly Rare and Definitely Awful Johnny Carson, Beautiful Army Music, More Phone Training

Hellooooo, 

For the first offering today, I'm going to share something I believe to be quite rare. At least, I've been unable to find a trace of this recording online anywhere. In 1969-70, Johnny Carson produced four prime time specials, consisting of big name stars doing skits with Carson, much the same as the skits he would often do during one of the segments of his TV show, except this would be an entire episode of such skits. As I said, I can't find hide nor hair of this work anywhere out there in the internet tubes. Maybe it's there and I missed it.

These shows appear to have gone over like a lead balloon. I've found two reviews of them - one from the New York Times the next day, and one from The Village Voice nearly a month later. Despite the time lag on the latter, they both seem to reflect the writers' thoughts on this particular special, and not one of the other three. For the Times review, this is obvious - the writer takes Carson to task for the adolescent and prurient nature of the material - which is absolutely a reference to this episode. As you'll hear, the skits involved are wholly stupid and about on the level of a 12 year old. For the Voice review, it mentions the same stars being in the episode as are heard here (and also references the sixth grade level of the material, a thought that occurred to me separate from the review). The Times review is here. The Voice review is here. 

Oh, and the sound quality here is abysmal. This was recorded extremely softly, and I boosted it about 500%. There is interference from jazz recorded on the other channel at times, and an astoundingly annoying high pitched whine/whistle at other times. On the other hand, the commercials are preserved, making this a nice time capsule from that aspect. The recording stops suddenly at the 52:38 minute mark, meaning we miss the final commercials and last segment of the show. 

Download: The Johnny Carson Special - 11-12-69

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There has been a lot of good response here to recordings of Beautiful Music programming. This short tape - while it qualifies in that category - is a bit different from other such programming, in that it seems to have come from a radio station or perhaps some sort of closed circuit programming which was housed in and directed at the residents of an army base. Rather than commercials, there are frequent plugs for different events and activities on the base. 

Download: Beautiful Music Programming from an Army Base Radio Station

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I called this next one "Telephone Call Examples for Service Observing People". That's a pretty weird and clumsy name, but that's how the tape is introduced. This is yet another in a large number of 1960's telephone training tapes I bought many years ago. 

Download: Telephone Call Examples for Service Observing People

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Last time around, I shared a fairly lengthy tape of WBBM-FM, Chicago, during its "Young Sound" days. Here is another tape from the same collection, featuring three Chicago stations, from roughly the same time period, marred, in this case, by a significant amount of odd and annoying echo. The stations are WBBM (again), WJJD and WNUS. 

Download: Chicago Radio, Late 1960's (with a lot of Echo) - WBBM, WJJD & WNUS

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This next tape is called "Benny Miller's Birthday Party". This is a small get together of a few friends and relatives, and I think that's pretty much all I'll say about it. No, it isn't. I'll say one thing: this seems to feature a time, place and type of people that have been completely extinguished in 21st Century America. Perhaps I'm totally wrong, and my lack of experience of this sort of gang is an accident of my place of birth, type of upbringing, education or whatever. I just wonder if any get birthday get togethers or other small gatherings sound remotely like this, anymore. 

Download: Benny and His Guests - Benny Miller's Birthday Party

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Also last time around (just like the Chicago Radio material), I shared part one of a three part series on The Supreme Court, as presented in February of 1963 on the TV educations program, "Continental Classroom". Here is part two of that series: 

Download: Continental Classroom - 2-13-63 - The Supreme Court, Part Two - Restraints on the Court

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And now, for our "Acetate of the Month". This is one that I've labeled, as you can see, "Dragnet Parody and R. M. Cunningham Narrating An Anniversary Party, Circa 1955. It starts with a parody of "Dragnet", featuring an incident which is described as having occurred at an intersection on the southwest side of Chicago, an incident described as having occurred in 1930. The suspect in the story was returning from a wedding, presumably the wedding for which the anniversary that "Bobby Cunningham" narrates, over the second half of the record. He tells stories of the wedding day and other events from around that time, including some surreptitious alcohol supplying and imbibing from the prohibition era. An odd and entertaining record. I'm guessing the record is from 1955, given the reference to a 25th anniversary and the earlier reference to 1930. 

Download: Dragnet Parody and R. M. Cunningham Narrating an Anniversary Party, Circa 1955

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A piece of paper was taped to the above acetate, as seen below, giving me the latter part of this track's name (and the "R.M." instead of "Bob"). It says 1951, but 1930 plus 25 is 1955, and I'm going with that. 

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And lastly, here is another "Very Short Reel". The title of this one explains this well, too. Some early elementary children sing and say nursery rhymes and/or offer birthday wishes to one of their classmates, Mike. The sounds quality is iffy as the tape was poorly stored and is damaged.

By the way, in the song "Itsy Bitsy Spider", the sun dries up the rain. It doesn't "wash away" the rain - which is what they sing here - that doesn't even make sense! Sheesh. 

Download: Some Elementary School Children - Happy Birthday Mike and Nursery Rhymes

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Vintage WOR from Fall, 1962: Beautiful Music, Long John, Jean Shephard and News, Plus Bud's Kids and More David Hollister

For the third post in a row, I am largely featuring one very long tape. This one will be quite magical, I think, for a good number of people who come to this site. Because after a short segment of home recorded material (which I quite like), the remainder - over five hours of it - contains vintage recordings of WOR radio in New York, including a bit of Beautiful Music-esque programming, a whole lot of Long John Nebel, and sandwiched between those Long John segments, a vintage newscast and nearly an hour of the much beloved Jean Shepherd. All of this except for the opening segment are from a couple of nights in the fall of 1962. 

Without further ado.....

The tape begins with a short segment, recorded most likely several years after the remainder of the tape. On the box, this is labeled as being "Bud's Kids". It starts with a child singing a few things (including the Nationwide jingle still used today), then segues into another child interviewing people (a younger child and an adult), largely about pollution. This very obviously erased about eleven minutes of what was originally on the tape. 

Download: Bud's Kids - A Bit of Singing, Pollution Talk and More

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As soon as the kids are done, we are transported back to 1962. The talk radio segments make it clear that it was the fall of that year, what with talk of the upcoming mid-term elections and conversations about the 1963 cars, among other things - a few ads for TV presentations which appear to have been from 1961 (including a show starring Leslie Neilson), would have to have simply been reruns. There is no way these conversations are from 1961. 

But before all that, we are treated to a few minutes of Beautiful Music, or something approaching it, at least, on a show called "Music from Studio X". 

Download: WOR, Fall, 1962 - Music From Studio X

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That show goes straight into a long (no pun intended) segment of the Long John show, hosted by Long John Nebel. I have posted Long John material once before, and post, with more text about him, and a link to more information on him, can be found here. In this particular episode, the main guest is a representative of the  B'nai B'rith, as well as several other religious leaders and spokesmen, for a wide ranging discussion centered on religion. 

I enjoyed the fact that no one could call into Long John's show, but instead, had to submit telegrams to him, via a downstairs office, which would then be brought to him. 

But the chintzy commercials here may be my favorite part of this recording, particularly the collection of 50 great melodies from classical music on two LP's - lowbrow music appreciation masquerading as highbrow art. I am reminded of the fantastic parody of this product, which that WFMT, the classical station in Chicago, did in the mid-1960's, called "Great Square Inches in Art", where you got God's finger from the Sistine Chapel and the Mona Lisa's smile. 

Download: Long John on WOR, Fall, 1962 - Religion and Related Subjects

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That recording takes up the remainder of side one, and part of side two. The moment it's over, we are taken to another evening from the same time period, and this time, we hear a newscast and then, the deeply beloved, even revered Jean Shepherd takes over for the rest of the hour. You can read about him here, including how he had few if any advertisers for a time, and almost lost his job. Sure enough, there are no commercials in this more than 45 minutes of radio performance. 

I had never heard Shepherd before this. Honestly, I had avoided him, because I linked him in my mind as the writer of the stories which became "A Christmas Story", a much beloved film which I watched once with my family - all of us found it to be wholly awful. Obviously, your mileage may vary, and taste in movies and and humor is as enormously varied as can be. But despite its reputation for verisimilitude, I didn't find a moment of it believable, endearing or funny. So, as much as I dived into Bob and Ray and other contemporaries of Shepherd, I took a pass. 

That was clearly a mistake. This segment is mesmerizing. He does not seem to know or care exactly where he's going, or how he's going to get there. Stories lead from one into another and the outcome - and when it's going to arrive, is always in doubt. This is pure magic, and just about as entertaining as anything I've ever posted here.  

Download: WOR, Fall, 1962 - Newscast and Jean Shepherd

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The tape ends another 106 minutes of Long John, the episode which immediately followed the above Jean Shepherd segment on some long ago 1962 overnight. In the case, the subject is cars, something I rarely need to hear a group of people talk about (with the exception of Tom and Ray, who worth hearing because they were Tom and Ray, not because they were talking about cars). 

Download: Long John on WOR, Fall, 1962 - Car Talk

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By the way, here's all it says on the box: 

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Okay, so two months ago, I shared the very exciting news that I had been gifted with a box full of tapes that had belonged to a composer named David Hollister. Read all about the gift, the tapes and the composer here. 

Today, I'm offering up the contents of the second tape that I grabbed out of that box. The writing on the back of this box looks like this: 

This tape was pretty much a mess. Recordings start and stop, sometimes in the middle of musical phrases, and the next recording picks up 15 seconds or two minutes later, with backwards material from the other side coming through in the mean time. Segments seem to end haphazardly, there is an introduction of a program of materials written by Mr. Hollister, material which seems to have already been heard on the other side of the tape, none of which follows the introduction! This tape is all over the place. I have edited it down to one continuous segment of what appears on the tape, in the order it appears on both sides, with all of the backwards material edited out. 

There is all sorts of material here. For my money, if you want to hear what's really interesting, jump to the 22:30 point and listen to most of the last ten minutes of this tape, wherein a baritone sings with piano accompaniment. This material starts fairly normal but becomes more and more esoteric, and finally, downright bizarre. By minute 25, the pianist is performing a playful series of rather ugly combinations of keys, and the baritone's singing features fart sounds and nonsense syllables. More odd vocalizing follows, but none of that prepared me (or will prepare you) for the song which ends this segment, and which runs from 30:40 to 32:08. And that is ALL I'll say about it. 

Download: David Hollister and Others - David Hollister Variety Tape # 1

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And finally, today's "Very Short Reel". If you can figure out why this 139 seconds of tape was recorded, you are more observant and clever than I am. Herein, a man narrates an extremely short slide show presentation, featuring someone named The Right Reverend Richardson Reid. Perhaps I am spelling it or hearing it wrong, but I can find no reference to him. 

Download: Very Short Slide Show Narration - The Right Reverend Richardson Reid

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More Than FOUR HOURS of Gary Owens on Armed Forces Radio, 1967!

Today's post will excite some of you for hours on end. First, I will say this: 

In the early 1980's, I became of devotee of Gary Owens' magnificent radio show "Soundtrack of the '60's". The music was wonderful, and I became familiar with a lot of oldies I hadn't heard before, particularly those from 1960-63. But the real appeal of the show was Gary Owens' insane commentary and asides between the songs. I was, of course, familiar with him from "Laugh-In", but had known nothing else of him. These shows made me a huge fan, and I filled multiple cassettes with nothing but the looniness he filled his deejay patter with. 

So now, what I've discovered in my collection, is a series of recordings made in Saigon, presumably by a soldier, in 1967, of a show called "GO: The Music Guy Show", which aired on Armed Forces Radio. Here's the slip from inside the box: 

There are actually six shows on the tape, five of them complete (or nearly complete) and the last one interrupted when the tape runs out. There are brief gaps in a couple of the others, where the recording stopped for some reason. 

Looking at the inset card again, I think I have these dates wrong - the first three are probably the "Pre-Cassette (sic) tapes, which are undated, above, and the last three are probably the ones with dates. But I'm not going to start over again and rename and link them all.... Oh, and the last two were recorded in terrible quality - very bass-heavy and hard to listen to. I have done some equalizing to them. If that is not to your liking, let me know, and I'll post them in their original form and you can have a crack at 'em. 

Anyway....

The music heard on these shows is not appealing to me AT ALL. Those of you who enjoy the Beautiful Music offerings I've put up may find this right up your alley, although I suspect this material would have been more accurately termed "Easy Listening" in 1967. I did grin at the song "I Looked Back" by Perry Como, but Como was almost ALWAYS far better than anyone else in this god-forsaken genre of music. I didn't know Gary Owens, but I've always pictured him enjoying the top 40 hits of the day over this sort of mush, so I imagine him gritting his teeth through these sessions, but I could be wrong. 

But as I expected, the star of these tapes is Gary Owens, who is, just as on "Soundtrack of the '60s", hysterically funny in his asides and bits. He throws in some historical facts here and there, and each episode has a bit of puffery about citizenship, soldiering or similar. But then it's right back to the ridiculous names, silly voices and general ridiculousness. 

This tape is a real treasure.   

Download: Gary Owens - GO, The Music Guy Show - Armed Forces Radio, 8-5-67

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Download: Gary Owens - GO, The Music Guy Show - Armed Forces Radio, 8-12-67

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Download: Gary Owens - GO, The Music Guy Show - Armed Forces Radio, 8-19-67

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Download: Gary Owens - GO, The Music Guy Show - Armed Forces Radio, Unknown Date # 1

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Download: Gary Owens - GO, The Music Guy Show - Armed Forces Radio, Unknown Date # 2

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Download: Gary Owens - GO, The Music Guy Show - Armed Forces Radio, Unknown Date # 3 (Incomplete)

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You might also enjoy the writing on the inside of the tape box: 

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Well, it wouldn't be a full post without a "Very Short Reel", and so here are some parts of a Spelling Test which popped up on a small reel of tape. This tape only qualifies (and barely) as "Very Short", because a few minutes have been edited out of the middle of it. As you'll hear, a loud hum recurs a few times. At one point on the original tape (around 2:15) the hum finally overcame the recorded speech entirely, and so I cut that part out. As a result, the test jumps from the seventh word of the ten word test directly into the answers being given, starting with the spelling of the first word. 

This teacher is sort of cruel, I think. He had the children score each other's tests and then told them they were to read out loud the score of the person whose test each of them had reviewed. Ecch. 

Download: Unknown - Spelling Test 
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Meet the Beatles! Plus More Beautiful Music, Doing the Dishes, Flood Talk, Webb Pierce, Flex-O-Matic, A Father's Gift, A Banking Milestone and A Few Minutes with Dana

Good day, ya'll, 

A quick thank you - once again - to Eric Paddon, who has again supplied a bit of detail to one of my posts. In this case, he has shared that the "Sunday in New York" program that I shared a few episodes from last time around: 

ran on WCBS Radio weekly from January 10, 1959 to July 19, 1959 per NY newspaper listings. Jordan hosted other programs at the station too and was one of their prominent personalities. WCBS was known as a "middle of the road" station until it became all-news in 1967.

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We're going to start with something that could not be more timely, given that it has been exactly 60 years this month since The Beatles arrived in America to play the Ed Sullivan Show, appear at Carnegie Hall and at the Washington Coliseum, and take the nation by storm. Oddly, I saw nothing in any media this week or this month marking this anniversary - previous "Big" year anniversaries of this arrival have been all over the news and entertainment programs. 

And here, to commemorate the events of that week, is a real audio time capsule, a radio program that must have been put together on the fly. It aired on New York powerhouse Top 40 station WINS-AM. Since it had only been clear that The Beatles were going to be "a thing" for a few weeks at that point, this program had to have been cobbled together in a matter of days, as it clearly aired within the first few days of The Beatles' arrival. From the sounds of what is said here, it would appear that this special aired before the Beatles had played a live show anywhere but perhaps on The Ed Sullivan Show, if that. 

The entire show is not captured here, and I'm not sure how much was missed. When the tape starts, the program is already in progress. The documentary then is heard throughout the first side of the tape, about 26 minutes of it. There is a short gap at that point, then you hear the concluding few minutes from the other side. 

The documentary includes interviews with the band members, a piece featuring some American musicians' reactions and thoughts about the group, interviews with fans, a bit of history of the group, interviews with people who give their input as to why the group is so popular, etc. A couple of the band's early songs are heard. The narrator of the show is Murray the K. The show (as was the bands' first Capitol album) is called "Meet the Beatles"

Enjoy!

Download: "Meet the Beatles" - A WINS Radio Special, February, 1964

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Now, as much as I suspect that will greatly appeal to a lot of people, here is another type of radio broadcast that I have been requested to share, whenever I come across it. The appeal here is more of a mystery to me, but I really strive to offer up what people want to hear. And so, here is a 30 minute slice of some Beautiful Music programming (containing a few items I was surprised to hear amongst such programming) from a station, WFMB, in Springfield, IL. The recording cuts off just before some news is about to start, so there is no way to date this particular segment. 

Download: WFMB, Springfield IL - Beautiful Music Programming

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Almost exactly five years ago, I featured a recording session for a product called the Cannon Flex-O-Matic. And now, here we have eight of the completed ads for that same product. 

Download: Eight Completed Ads for the Cannon Flex-O-Matic

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Now, here's a short home recording that is best summed up by its title, "A Few Minutes with Dana": 

Download: A Few Minutes with Dana

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Next, here's an episode of "The Webb Pierce Show", featuring the country star and his guests in a half hour or so of music. There were actually two TV shows by that name, both apparently produced at WSIX, Nashville, about a decade apart. There's some really great stuff here. The songs performed here, as well as the presence here of the start of "Stop the Music", a game show which aired in the mid 1950's, proves that this recording is from the 1955 edition of the show, rather than 1965 version. 

Download: The Webb Pierce Show (and a Bit of Stop the Music)

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Just up there a li'l bit, about 90 words or so ago, we had a short home recording with Dana. Now, here's another one, a brief (six minute) slice of life with a woman (identified early on as Marge Miller) and (presumably) her husband, as dishes are washed and a bit of homey conversation is engaged in. 

Download: Dishes and Conversation with Marge Miller and Her Husband

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With flooding out west in the news in recent weeks, here's a tape from 1955 featuring Senator Prescott Bush, patriarch of a political family you may be familiar with, being interviewed about flooding that was being told "The worst disaster to ever hit the state of Connecticut".

Download: Senator Prescott Bush Interview About the Flooding in Connecticut, 1955

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And now it's time for our "Acetate of the Month". And this takes a bit of explanation. In 1973, my mother and I visited her oldest brother, Harry Godwin, at his home in Memphis. I've written a bit about Harry before, but he was a larger than life figure, who, being nearly a generation older than my mother (17 years older), fashioned himself in more of a grandfather role to me than an uncle (particularly as I had never known either of my grandparents. 

(That Wikipedia stub overstates his musical career a bit - he was, first and foremost, a manufacturer's rep, and only began working in music - as a lyricist and as a jazz promoter -  in his late forties. I believe it also gets his birthday wrong.)

During that visit, which perhaps I will write about elsewhere someday, I was delighted to find a drawer full of homemade acetates, mostly the five and seven inch variety, which Harry and his children had made in the 1940's and 1950's. Harry allowed me to tape record them for my posterity, during that visit, and so I did so, introducing each of them myself with a tiny be of explanation

And so, we have a hybrid here - a reel to reel tape of an acetate. In this case, as you'll hear, Harry tells a familiar story for his younger children (he had six kids from two marriages) on one side, then dedicates a short Robert Louis Stevenson poem to one of those children on the other side. 

Download: Harry Godwin - The Three Little Pigs and The Lamplighter

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And finally, a "Very Short Reel". Here's an ad celebrating 60 years of banking in northern Arkansas. 

Download: First Federal, Arkansas, 60th Anniversary Ad, 1994

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Lots of Beautiful Music, Alcoholism Stories, An Odd Rehearsal Tape, Orchids on the Radio and Testing, Testing

Today's lead feature is something of a sort that multiple readers have asked me to please share whenever I come across it. And that is: Beautiful Music Programming. I admit to being wholly and deeply mystified by this, but I'm certainly not trying to be here solely to share what I like, and, if anything, the requests for this sort of programming have been the second or third most common thing I've been asked for more of!

So when I recently found two entire tape sides full of this stuff - nearly 130 minutes of programming from a Los Angeles station some time in the early 1970's - I  knew how I was going to lead off my next post. And that's what I'm doing! 

Download: KEZM, Los Angeles, Beautiful Music Programming, Early 1970's, Side One

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Download: KEZM, Los Angeles, Beautiful Music Programming, Early 1970's, Side Two

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Taking a hard turn into something completely different, here's another tape I unearthed in the last month which contains an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting from November of 1957. This meeting featured the testimony of two recovering alcoholics, both of whom present their histories. Near the end of the tape, the meeting ends and the recorder was turned off. At that point, we hear a short segment of a previous meeting, which was being erased by the November meeting. 

Download: An Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting, 11-23-57

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Okay, speaking of things which mystify me.... Here's a tape I obtained decades ago. I'm going to try not to overexplain this, but what I will say is that it contains singing by a few women - sometimes singing solo, often in duos and at times in trios. This appears to be a rehearsal tape, and several of the songs are from a musical production called "Israel Oh Israel". A professional presentation of that show can be found for sale here. But not all of the songs here are from this store. 

I actually sold this tape some time ago, but saved the MP3 to share here, eventually. Personally, I find the singing here, when the singers go into their upper ranges, to be aggressively hideous - shrill and ugly in tone - and moderately hideous the rest of the time (my mother would likely have begged me to turn it off) - but I do think it is... interesting, interested enough to share. So here it is. 

Download: A Female Trio Rehearses

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Here's an undated piece of AM radio talk which I find sort of befuddling, and humorous in that capacity. It just seems to me that doing a radio segment on flowers - a category of objects (in this case, Orchids) which would seem to only be able to be enjoyed by the senses of smell, sight and touch - is unintentionally ridiculous. 

This comes from radio station WDLC, AM 1490, which was (and is) in Port Jervis, New York. The show is "The Pike County Hour". Port Jervis is not actually in Pike County (which is in Pennsylvania), but it borders that county. 

Download: Pike County Hour, WDLC, 1490 - Show About Orchids

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And now, our "Very Short Reel" for this post. I've named this "Testing the Microphone" and I suspect that's self-explanatory. 

Download: Testing the Microphone

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Late September Cornucopia!

Greetings!

First, thank you to those who chimed in with comments and or condolences about my basement calamity. I appreciate it.

I have five reels/segments of reels today, with no particular theme, and none of them stand out as being the most exciting or most interesting (although perhaps one wins the "least interesting" prize), so I'll just start describing and posting them here in random order.

With politics all over the news these days, perhaps the most relevant of these clips is one from early in the 1964 primary season, specifically, January 31, 1964, and an interview with the eventual nominee, Barry Goldwater, on "The Jack Paar Program" for that evening.

We certainly have come (or gone) a long way in terms of what constitutes an acceptable and appropriate interview - on both sides of the conversation - between a host and a politician, in the ensuing 56 years.

Download: Jack Paar - Interview with Barry Goldwater, 1/31/64
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Probably my favorite of today's five-spot comes from almost exactly 11 years before that Goldwater interview. In this case, it's a family named The Robertsons, mom, dad and two boys, reaching out to friends via this new contraption called a reel to reel tape recorder to make a new thing called an audio letter on tape.  Very, very few people had home recorders in 1953. What a revolutionary thing this must have felt like.

Most of this audio letter is taken up by the couple's sons, who go on longer than either parent wants them to, and continue after they've been asked to stop because they're almost done.

I find this whole thing utterly charming and endearing, and hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Here is the back of the four inch reel tape box - a size I don't believe Scotch made for very long, by the way:

And here is the actual recording:

Download: An Audio Letter from The Robertsons - David, Douglas, Margie and Pete - January 27, 1953
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I did mention that one segment might be the least interesting, and here it is. Tedious might actually be a better word. This track combines two things I've shared in the past - the slide show narration, of which I've offered several, and the hard-to-get-through boring tape, which I've only offered up occasionally, including last time around.

This tape comes from our friends at the General Telephone Company of California, and it is a 36 1/2 minute narration of a slide show about..... well.... "Wiper Springs on Stroger Two Motion Switches". Doesn't that sound scintillating? I've listened to the entire thing and have no idea what they're talking about, or what it has to do with telephones.

The tape begins and ends with machinery sounds, but almost the entire thing is the slide show narration.

ENJOY!!!

Download: General Telephone Company of California - Wiper Springs on Stroger Two Motion Switches (slide show)
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Next up, some Beautiful Music. This sort of thing does not "do it" for me, but every time I post this stuff I get thankful, grateful comments, so as I come across more if it, I will certainly post it. This segment is fairly short - just under 16 minutes - and I don't think it's a single, uncut 16 minutes, as there seems to be at least one edit in there. Happily, there is a commercial break included. The station is WFMS, Indianapolis, which seems to have become a Country station in the early 1970's, so this is probably from the 1960's.

Download: WFMS, Indianapolis, Beautiful Music Programming
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And finally, this week's Very Short Reel.

This is a voice actor / voice over actor demo reel. These sort of reels were sent by the boatload to companies across the country to peddle the vocal wares of a variety of voice over people and actors looking for some extra change. I have dozens of these, or maybe even hundreds.

The one I pulled out at random today is by Neil Kobin, and I'm thinking this is from the 1970's. Here is Neil Kobin's Demo Reel:

Download: Neil Kobin's Demo Reel
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And the box cover:

Jack Eigen, Volume Two, Some Short Advertising Tapes, and More Beautiful Music

Greetings!

Almost two years ago, I shared the first of what I expected to be many postings featuring a Chicago radio legend by the name of Jack Eigen. You can read about him (along with a few links) in that original post here.

I fully expected to hear from multiple people requesting more, given the nature and interest of those who frequent this blog, and was genuinely surprised when I received only two comments over the next couple of months, one from someone who was interested in hearing more, and one stating he'd rather not have me share any more. I left it alone.

In the last two months, though, for whatever reason, three different people have written in, requesting more, two of them sharing significant memories of the show, and one of those sharing pictures.

And so, in response to those requests, I give you a second helping of Jack Eigen. As with the other posting, I have not re-listened to this prior to posting, and probably last heard this tape all the way through 15 years or more ago. Doubtless there are excerpts from more than one episode here (the tape is over three hours long), and if you listen through, I'm sure more than one of you can fairly easily nail down a date. I do know that all of these tapes are from near the end of his reign - mid to late '60's and into 1970 or 1971. But that's it.

Enjoy!!!

Download: Jack Eigen, Volume Two
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Oh, and I mentioned pictures! Here are three of the pictures which were sent to me, courtesy of a long time Eigen and WMAQ fan from those days, named Allen. Here's Jack Eigen himself, in October, 1967:

Here's a slightly blurry picture of Steve Allen (left) and Tony Bennett, who were on the air with Eigen, at the time of this photo:

And finally, this is Jim Hill, who took over every night after Eigen's program. He and Allen were lifelong friends, after getting to know each other when Allen went to the station, many times, to be in the audience of Eigen's shows:

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Speaking of reader/listener feedback, I've continued to receive further requests for posts of Beautiful Music Radio, and by chance, I came across one just this week.This tape is of the cleverly named KABL, which identified itself as being in San Francisco (get it? KABL), until the FCC told them they had to be upfront and honest and identify that they were licensed and were broadcasting from Oakland (and if you don't know why a station might misrepresent that fact in the bay area, well, there are plenty of websites which could explain it - and it's a very unpleasant reason, indeed, one with ramifications that persist - literally - to this day). 

Anyway, this is clearly two different, short segments. The first one has a newscast which places it firmly right after the Republican convention that year, so likely July or early August of that year (the brief mention of Lucky Lager will no doubt let you know that this comes from yet another tape in the same collection that I have delved into for the last two posts). There was then a gap in the tape (which I've eliminated) and a second segment of the same tape, with a reference at the end to Thanksgiving being on the way, so that is no doubt from November of the same year. I'm guessing that for some who wished to hear more Beautiful Music, there is too much talking and news here for your taste, but that's what I found (and honestly, it's what makes it interesting to me). 

Download: Beautiful Music KABL, Oakland/San Francisco, Two Segments from 1964

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And here's something quite a bit shorter - and it's from the first part of the KABL tape, above. These ads were likely recorded for use on KABL, as the announcer involved worked at the station, according to a few web sites I just perused. 

Here's announcer John K. Chapel, recording three ads for The Rose Exterminator Company, and one for Leisure Town in Vacaville - about 45 minutes from Oakland, by the way. This retirement community is still a going concern. 

These is a raw tape for the commercials - there are brief comments in between the third and fourth ads. 

John K. Chapel: Three Ads for the Rose Exterminator Company and one for Leisure Town

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And finally, as you've all been waiting for, it's another in the series of very short reels. By chance, the small reel I selected at random actually has more material on it than the ads I excerpted from a full size reel, just above. 

This is a demo reel for a commercial pitchman named Al Gates. Based on a quick web search, he seems to have a very well known guy in the radio commercial voice talent and voice over biz, although his is a common enough name that I could well have been looking at more than one Al Gates. 

This is an interesting set of commercials in that one of them contains a self-referential moment - Al Gates narrating a commercial about... Al Gates. 

Download: Al Gates' Demo Reel

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February 9th Potpourri: Joe Gerossi, His Friends, and More!

I see by the calendar that it's February 9th. This marks the 56th anniversary of the Beatles' first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show - can you believe it?

And as I have no particular theme for today's posts, I'll label it a potpourri.

But first - as some of you know, I also write a blog which is largely about the wholly American side-show to the music industry known as song-poems. And I am happy to announce that I have been invited to be part of yet another podcast, this one focusing on 25 of my own personal favorite song-poem and song-poem related records. This has been in the works for over six months, and the podcaster, Brian Kramp, and I finally did the interview late in January. The podcast can be heard here and here, and if you want to see the list of songs, it can be found here (the list is in reverse order, from 25 up, with a section near the top of a handful of song-poem related discs (which are not actually song poems). It's all explained in the show.

But let's get back to the reel to reel thang:

My prime offering for the day is something of a potpourri all on its own. And while I found it strangely entertaining, I can certainly understand if others tire of it quickly, or even gradually. It's a home recording (well, at least parts of it seem to have been recorded in a barber shop, actually), featuring a handful of people speaking, complicated at times by both a.) repeated decisions to erase existing recordings, often mid-sentence, and b.) even more so a poorly functioning reel to reel machine.

The dominant speaker for much of the tape is a barber named Joe Gerossi, who seems to have fashioned himself as something of a dry wit, and you can decide for yourself how accurate that is. After a bit of speaking, we get to hear some homey (and homely) music for the next eight minutes or so, although a short discussion of how long a soldier has to be stay in the army pops up near the end.

After a moment with a small child, Mr. Gerossi interviews a client of his barbershop, then we enter a lengthy section where he attempt to interact with a Myna Bird, with virtually no success. The disorienting thing here - and which makes it sort of fascinating to me - is that he is recording over a previous attempt to do the same sort of recording, and it would appear that his machine wasn't working well, because the old recording is bleeding through, sort of like a fun-house mirror version of what we're listening to. It also helps that every now and then the speed of the recording falters. There is also, regrettably, some harmonica playing here and there. A very odd segment.

Then, at about the 24 minute mark, another voice takes over, not identified, doing some extremely ineffective sounding fast-speak hypnotism. And again, this is rendered fairly disorienting because Joe and his monologues about the Myna are three-quarters erased but still audible behind much of this five minute portion.

Someone sings "Chantilly Lace" (perhaps dating this tape to 1958?) and then Mr. Gerossi returns, getting a couple of responses from the Myna Bird, but not much. All too soon (or perhaps far too late) the tape ends just beyond the 32 minute mark.

Download: Joe Gerossi and Friends - Various Recordings
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Switching gears so severely as to be essentially in a completely different type of vehicle, here's a short hunk of tape containing multiple attempts at getting some opening and closing music JUST right, for a show called "Stars in Action", which multiple sources tell me aired on CBS during the 1958-59 TV season. It was, oddly, a program of repeats of a CBS show from earlier in the decade, shown under this new title, and part of CBS' fall lineup for 1958. I wonder if that's been done before or since.

These largely sound interchangeable to me - in fact, these sound canned, rather than live - but clearly they had something specific in mind. My favorite moment is the little moment of confusion and slight laughter at about 3:03.

Download: CBS Film Services - "Stars in Action", Main and End Titles
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Next up, more Beautiful Music. Last month's posting of some vintage elevator music programming got a few responses, and by chance, I happened across another tape of the same sort of thing a few days after posting that segment. In this case, it's from a then-hugely popular station, WCLR here in Chicago, which sometimes called itself "W-Clear". This reel - both sides of a 1200 foot tape are heard - seems to be from the very earliest days of January, 1972, based on a few of the references to college football and the business stories of 1971, among other things. The most interesting parts of this for me are the breaks for commercials and business (and other) news. There is a brief break at the change of tape sides, and at least one other spot where the person recording this material turned the machine off and back on again, missing a short bit of the broadcast.

Download: WCLR, Chicago - Beautiful Music Circa January, 1972, Side One
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Download: WCLR, Chicago - Beautiful Music Circa January, 1972, Side Two
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And finally, it's time to enjoy another of my myriad "Very Short Reels". Here's a 1998 ad for Ed Schmidt's Used Car Superstore, in Perryburg, Ohio, an ad titled "Regional Used Car Selloff". This aired on station WBUZ, which was a station in nearby (and tiny) Delta, Ohio at the time.

Download: Ed Schmidt - Regional Used Car Selloff
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Four Disparate Radio Tapes

Today, as indicated above, I have three recordings made of - and one made for - radio broadcasts. But first, a few bits of business:

First up: It was earlier last year that I discovered that a podcast had used one of my most ridiculous songs - titled "A Sailing Milk Moustache" - as the introductory music for their year-end show. I reached out to the person behind the podcast, and, after quite a bit of conversation, ended up doing a lengthy interview with him for one of his episodes, all about my history, in terms of my collecting and, particularly, my humorous songs. I was then invited to be a part of this year's New Year's Eve/New Year's Day special.

Interestingly, the show's general theme is (this is from their website):  "A podcast and Website dedicated to understanding the world in which we live from a Christian worldview perspective", although nothing remotely in that area came up in the two shows I was part of.

My interview can be found here, and the New Year show - which I am only part of sporadically, can be heard here.

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And second, I am indebted to Tony, who recently posted with regard to my recent 1949/1951 home recording post, that, having discerned a reference to Time for Beany, it was clear that this family resided in the Los Angeles area, as that puppet show was a local phenomenon at the time. Thanks!

As a side note, I would encourage everyone reading to find some early Time for Beany, the episodes with Stan Freberg and Daws Butler basically (I believe) improvising the show. There are episodes available in various formats, including youtube, It's among the funniest stuff I've ever seen.

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So, on with the countdown!

The most interesting of today's four offerings is probably this mish-mash of recordings off of Chicago radio. It lasts just over 37 minutes, and as far as I can tell, it's all from the AM band, with the exception of a few brief moments of home conversation, made over the earlier radio recordings. The dominant station here is broadcasting an appearance by Governor George Wallace, one of his first appearances after his assassination attempt, at the time of the Democratic Convention, which places this recording definitively in July of 1972. Whoever was recording this day flips back to this news coverage multiple times, and it makes up a good portion of the recording. Bernard Shaw, later to become very well known on CNN, is among the reporters heard. Other stations are heard only momentarily, such as the one playing an Eagles record, and still others are heard for too long for my taste, particularly a bit of religious blather which is fairly far outside my own ideas about faith.

All in all, a neat little time capsule.

Download: Chicago AM Radio, July 1972
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Moving back in time 14 years, here is an 1958 episode of a 15 minute show, produced by the Archdiocese of Chicago, and titled "The Catholic View". This show dates to a point in time when a local Cardinal, Samuel Stritch by name, received a deep honor from the Pope and the Vatican, and departed Chicago with great fanfare, to fulfill his new role, only to encounter unexpected tragedy along the way. I have found at least three tapes (perhaps all from the same collection) recorded at different points in this saga, and this one does not complete the story. If I can find one or both of the others, I will share it next time. The whole thing sounds like something out of a medical drama or even The Twilight Zone, so sudden and severe and unlikely are the highs and lows this man experienced. If you want to get "the rest of the story" a bit faster, you can read a very brief explanation of it at the end of his Wikipedia page, and after that, you can wonder what he might have thought about his niece, Elaine Stritch. 

Download: The Catholic View, May 1958 - Pray for Cardinal Stritch
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Next up, I'll offer a bit of explanation. Quite some time ago, I offered up an ad that I found in the midst of a tape of a "Beautiful Music" station, and mentioned that this is where it came from. Someone asked me to post that full segment, commenting that there is very little record of what "Beautiful Music" stations sounded like. Well, I couldn't find that tape - I may well have sold it. I often bundle together tapes which don't have anything interesting (to me) on them and sell them on eBay. But I've found a segment of another station, WBNS in Columbus, Ohio, complete with drab music and equally drab sponsors.

This segment is about 64 minutes long. I believe it's possible that the last 18 minutes are NOT from a radio broadcast, but rather, are all tracks from the same album. There is a sound (at 45:50) which might be a recorder being switched off or back on at that point, and the next song fades in. The final few tracks sound like they could all be from the same album. But I'm certainly not sure.

If anyone wants to hear more of this sort of material, I can post it as I come across it.

Download: WBNS, Columbus, Ohio - Beautiful Music Programming
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Finally, as part of the ongoing "Very Short Reels" feature, here's the next one I pulled out of the stack. It's a simple, 30 second ad for a Disney film that I don't remember ever even knowing existed, "Atlantis: The Lost Empire". That's odd, actually, because in 2001, my girls were 10 and 8 that summer, and likely at least on the fringe of the audience for this film. Or maybe I was just that dedicated to not having to hear "Come Sail Away".

Download: Walt Disney's "Atlantis" - Radio Ad
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It's worth noting that this commercial has to date to the very last point in time that ads were still being provided to radio stations on reel to reel tape. I'm amazed that this was still a thing in 2001.