The 1950's on the Radio and at Home with the Coughlin's, Charlie Louvin Fandom, More Shortwave, and The Reasons People Buy Cars

 Before I get started with today's offerings, I would like to direct you to the comments from last time, and the way that three regular readers/commentators) figured out the teams and date, broadcaster and broadcast medium (and even the inning!) of the very brief baseball segment. One of them further delved in further and determined the date of the high school basketball game I posted. Aren't researchers amazing? Isn't the internet amazing? Have a look at the comments at the bottom of that post. Thank you, Ken, Snoopy and Eric!

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And for this week's post, I'd like to start with more Shortwave from Australia. And that's because, within the last month, I have made the acquaintance of Thomas Witherspoon, who blogs about, and has a shared archive of, Shortwave Radio and Broadcasts. His blog is here and his shortwave recording offerings are here. He has kindly written a post about this site, and cross posted one of my previous shortwave recordings. Glad to have met you, Thomas - you are clearly a kindred spirit to me and to those who read this site. 

Anyway, in honor of this meeting of the minds, I found yet another Shortwave broadcast in my collection to pass along. In this case, it is again Australian Shortwave, from Spring of 1968. An I will acknowledge right off the bat that the recording quality is abysmal. It starts poorly and gets worse and worse as it goes along. This is actually why I hadn't shared it before. But I thought the time was right to offer it up, terrible quality and all. 

Download: Australian Shortwave, Spring 1968

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And now we move on to the complete contents of another reel of tape, an old favorite of mine which I've owned for decades but only recently got around to digitizing. This is a recording made in the home of someone named Coughlin. The first side features part of a local Chicago daytime also featuring someone named Coughlin, specifically a show called "Coughlin's Corner": 

I believe, but am not certain, that this is John Coughlin, who went on to be a much beloved weatherman on Chicago television, and who you can read a bit about, here. This is a slight, but enjoyable 16 minutes or so, featuring Coughlin and a sidekick named Rainer, playing a few hits of the day - that day apparently being the mid-winter of 1957 - reading ads and making comments on the records and other such things as daytime hosts were known to do. 

Unfortunately, this was recorded from a radio with a microphone in a room, rather than line-in, so it's not the highest quality in the world, but it's not bad, either. 

Download: Coughlin's Corner

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The flip side of the tape is recorded at the slower 3 3/4 IPS, and therefore, has about twice as much time recorded on it, all of which are home recordings from the Coughlin Home. Just over half of this side is taken up with the singing of various pop songs, accompanied by piano. This is not the most scintillating part of the tape, but I decided to include it for completeness. By the way, a small portion of this recording was actually at the end of the first side of the tape. 

If this is not to your taste, I still encourage you to have a listen to the portion that follows after this sound clip.

Download: Recordings Made in the Coughlin Home - Pop Songs with Piano

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The remainder of the tape features a small child, containing a portion that I find this deeply endearing. I didn't set this up to correspond to Easter, but the first moments of the segment feature a performance of "Peter Cottontail", After another song (and a moment of an adult singing), the same child is allowed to bang on the piano and make up a song. Rather horrid and adorable at the same time. Then we have a rapid fire version of The Three Little Pigs.

But the centerpiece of the section starts at 6:45, and it's a mock interview with "Mrs. Gene Autry", with (I believe) the same small child taking the part of that interviewee, followed by a similar interview with "The Bride of the Year", Marjorie Coughlin. I encourage you to listen, if you enjoy whimsy to any degree, or just the guilelessness of children. The little girl's joyful noise just as the machine is being turned off is worth the price of admission. 

Download: Recordings Made in the Coughlin Home - Small Child Sings and Talks, and Mock Interview

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And now for something very, very specific, perhaps not only one of a kind in terms of being the only tape with this recording on it (of course), but also one of a kind in terms of the participant, the recipient and the subject matter. 

For here we have a gentleman in Germany recording an audio letter to someone named Pat, who was, at the time, the President of the Charlie Louvin fan club in New Rockford, Pennsylvania (I can't actually find that there's a town by that name, but that's what he says). He includes plenty of Louvin music, which, I would have to guess that the recipient of the tape would already have owned... 

The date is January 18th, 1968. And I think that just about covers it. 

Download: A Tape to Pat, the President of the Charlie Louvin fan club in Pennsylvania, From Germany, 1/18/68. 

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By the way, have you been wondering why people buy cars? If so, YOU'RE IN LUCK!!! Because for one night only, I have Dr. Ernest Dichter to speak on that very subject!

Download: Dr. Ernest Dichter On Why People Buy Cars

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As you'll hear, this seems to be some sort of mix between the actual interview, and various attempts to get retakes of certain questions just right. 

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And now the moment you've all been waiting for: our Very Short Reel™ of the day. This item is one of multiple short reels I have containing advertising for Firestone Tires. I previously shared three ads from 1967 or 1968 within this post, just about a year ago. In this case, it's two ads intended for use across the middle of January, 1969. The style of these commercials remind me more of ads I've heard from the late 1950's, than they do of other ads that I've heard from the late 1960's. 

Download: Two Firestone Tire and Rubber Ads - For 1/13/69 Thru 1/24/69

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Here is the reel box:  

The box indicates that there is an insert in the box. Here is that insert: 

Finally, here's a fun little request from the producers of the commercials, stuck right on the reel itself:

The Porter Heaps Collection of Rare Daytime Radio

Wow - well, it's been almost a month since I posted. Work is getting the best of me these days, and I haven't felt like I've had time to do much of anything. I've been "busy as a porcupine" to quote one of Shelley Berman's many great routines...

But I've got something today that I just love, and that, hopefully, some of you will, too. But there's a story, first. 

Since the 1930's, my family had attended St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Evanston, IL. Then, when my mom returned from college (and a subsequent adventure in New York City), in the mid 1940's, she was a full fledged professional singer. At that time, she was hired as the soprano soloist in St. Matthew's church choir (she would continue in that role for an astonishing 54 years). 

The organist and choir director was a man with one of the great names in history, Porter Heaps. Concurrent to his work at St. Matthew's, Porter was also the organist on several radio shows which were produced - most only transcription discs - out of various spots in and near Chicago. He was also the national spokesman for the Hammond Organ company. 

Reading over his obituaries, it becomes clear that he was the key person in "selling" the country and other musicians on the idea that a small console instrument could be called an "organ", and that the term was not just meant for pipe organs. St. Matthew's had, at the time, a Hammond Organ, of course. You can read about Porter here, including a fascinating paragraph on his use of citrus fruits during his Hammond Organ demonstrations. 

Along the way, he made a handful of albums of organ music, which pop up from time to time, at least in the Chicago area used record stores I've been known to frequent. 

Here is the man himself: 

Getting back to St. Matthew's: I grew up in that same church (indeed, I still attend it to this day), and as Porter and my mom were close friends, I got to know him, about as much as any grade schooler gets to know one's parents' friends. And I thought he was wonderful - a happy-go-lucky elf of a guy, with a great sense of humor and a gentle way with everyone. 

Porter announced his retirement and an upcoming move out west in 1970. But before he left, perhaps (probably) having been told of my love of tape recorders and recordings, he invited me and my mom over for an afternoon of copying some of his favorite tapes. 

But these were no ordinary tapes. They were paper reels, from the dawn of recording, they contained pristine (for the most part) recordings of otherwise long lost regional radio from the late 1940's and very early 1950's, nearly all of which were in his collection because he'd been the organist on those shows. While episodes of these shows exist elsewhere online, they are mostly in lesser sound quality, and they don't include these episodes. 

I quickly fell in love with the entire collection, and well before the end of 1970, the tape marked "Heaps Radio" was undoubtedly my most listened to tape of the year. I loved all the different shows, the very different world that they portrayed, and especially, the wonderful, corny commercial jingle for Quaker Oats, as well as the mystifying (for a ten year old boy) commercials about "certain specific days" that a woman might want to use Lydia Pinkham's products, as well as the brief Pinkham jingle. 

I'm going to share nearly the entire contents of that tape here, in the order that Porter shared them, leaving out only four novelty records that he included - presumably thinking they would appeal to me, which they did - all of which were rare at the time, but have since become easier to find, especially with youtube. 

For his first selection, Porter gave me a 22 minute segment of a show titled "Man on the Farm", which was a promotional program for Quaker Oats and Mother's Oats ("which ARE the same"), and which also promoted their "Full-O-Pep" Chick Starter and seed sales. I'm not sure this is all from the same episode - it starts midway through an episode, and then there is a short gap at the 9:15 mark.  

But following that gap is, no doubt, the reason Porter started with this reel. It contains what he called "The Heaps Wedding Bit". Unfortunately, Porter's voice is very hard to hear during this bit, as he describes how he played the wedding music for a variety of brides. I'm not sure why that is, but it's certainly the poorest recorded segment of the entire collection, with his tiny voice coming from seemingly two rooms away, followed by booming music on the organ. 

Download: "Man on the Farm" (Featuring the "Heaps Wedding" Bit)

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This was followed by more "Man on the Farm", again, sounding as if perhaps this portion came from more than one episode, or simply had elements of one episode. The high point for me here is the "Meowing Contest".

Download: More "Man on the Farm" (Segments)

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The two longest portions of the Heaps collection are two complete daytime audience participation shows, heard back to back. The first is "Ladies Fair". This is not technically "complete", as the tape recorder had some problems midway through (commented on at the end), and this interrupts several short moments of the show. But the show is full of audience interviews, music, contests and ads and is endlessly entertaining to these ears. 

Download: "Ladies Fair"

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The next track is a full episode of something called "Ladies Be Seated" (later satirized by Bob and Ray as "Ladies, Grab Your Seats"). The content of this show is pretty much interchangeable with "Ladies Fair", and is equally fascinating to me. 

Download: "Ladies Be Seated"

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The "Ladies Be Seated" reel also contained just the short opening moments of something called "Add-A-Line", really no more than an explanation of what the show was about. 

Download: "Add-A-Line" (Short Opening Segment)

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Barely longer than that is the next portion, and it has mystified me now for more than 50 years. Porter clearly wanted to share this moment of hilarity from a "Man on the Farm" broadcast, where the entire audience explodes with laughter at something a woman starts to say, and then they remain unable to stop laughing for two minutes. But what is the joke she is making? I suspect it has something to do with Bed Pans, which no doubt would have been the cause of nervous laughter and naughty chuckling at the time, but I'm not sure. 

Download: "Man on the Farm" (Short Segment - "Pot and Pan" Bit)

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Finally, with a bit more room left on my reel, Porter gave me one more short segment of "Man on the Farm". 

Download: A Final "Man on the Farm" Segment

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I don't usually beg, or even ask, for comments, but as this is one of my favorite tapes ever, I'd love to hear what you think. 

A postscript: 

Porter lived nearly 30 more years after retirement, and well into the years when I was heavily into collecting reels, and he and my mom remained friends. Over the years, I have thought, many, many, many, many times that I should have reached out to Porter, via my mom, to ask if he would give me his tapes, or leave them to me - he had an in-the-wall bookcase that was a literal WALL of tapes, and the thought of what treasures were on the other ones - other than the four or five he shared with me - has haunted me ever since I start seriously collecting them. But I never asked, and who knows where all of those tapes are today. 

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Finally, here is our "Very Short Reel" for this post. Here's the way the tape box for this reel looks: 

The contents of this reel are below - it's a demo reel for Pat Sheridan, who was, for quite a while, an AM radio personality in Chicago, at this time on WMAQ, which was an easy listening/soft rock station in the 1960's and 1970's. His samples here are all over the map, from innuendo and one-liners, to a brief, serious plug for the United Fund. 

Download: Pat Sheridan - Demo Reel, "Sheridanize"

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