Stan Freberg Gives a Speech, Miss Newark of 1956, Lucky Beer in Hawaii, More Australian Shortwave, A Latin Acetate and Rudy Vallee

Hello again!

I have another wide variety of recorded tape to share with you today, lovingly digitized and shared with whatever little part of the world comes to visit. 

My first offering is quite the find, I think. I wish the sound quality was better, but even as it is, it's pretty damn special, and as far as I can tell, one of a kind. I consider Stan Freberg to be among the greatest humorists of the 20th Century, and he is one of my favorite recording artists, even though his recorded output is rather small. And Freberg, of course, became a force in advertising after he (mostly) left the comedy record field, pioneering a humorous tone in advertising that pushed aside the hard sell for at least a time. 

This recording is a speech that Freberg gave at the San Francisco Ad Club. I don't have a date for this, or, literally, any other information. And again, the sound quality leaves a lot to be desired. But still, other than those who were in the audience that night, and anyone who owned or played the tape before I owned it, this is a recording of Stan Freberg that has gone unheard, up until now. 

Download: Stan Freberg at the San Francisco Ad Club

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Okay, now let's spend some time with Barbara Reisman. Who, you might ask is Barbara Reisman? Well, she was only MISS NEWARK OF 1956!!!! I found the following two little segments of tape involving Miss Reisman at the end of a reel of tape which otherwise had nothing of interest on it. There is a local -and I mean really local - newspaper which mentions here here (it's in the middle right on page three).  I also found a link to an obituary, but that page wouldn't load. Boo. 

Anyway, in the first segment, she is heard talking with a few men and then singing a song, and in the second, she's heard on a radio show, "Club Tel Aviv", after the opening chat from the host and a performance by another person. She plays her cello. Whoever recorded this tape somehow managed to record over the big finish of her piece, so the last few notes are interrupted before you get to hear the very end of her performance. Oh, and is it just me, but does the audience at "Club Tel Aviv" sound like tapes of audiences applauding? 

Download: Barbara Reisman, Miss Newark of 1956, Chats with a Few Men and Sings a Song

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Download: "Club Tel Aviv", Featuring Barbara Reisman, Miss Newark of 1956

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Well, after that, perhaps you'd like a drink. Here a tape of a promotions man from Lucky Genuine Draft Beer, who went all the way to Hawaii to promote his product, early in 1966. Maybe that was the best way for him to get to spend a few days in paradise. 

Download: Hawaiian Promotional Interview for Lucky Genuine Draft Beer - February 1966

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For those of you who like it, here are two more entries in the series of Australian Shortwave, which I've been parceling out from time to time since not long after this blog began. I'm fairly certain the person who recorded these programs lived somewhere in North America, because all of the shows (up until this posting) were from episodes directed at that continent. But additionally, I wonder now if the person lived on the west coast of North America, because he or she made an effort (on the same tape as a show from 9/5/74), to capture Australia Shortwave during a program broadcast towards Asia and the South Pacific. The quality of the connection during that portion is, as you'll hear, quite poor, but it did come in, at a level and quality that I would guess it wouldn't have been received in the eastern half of the continent. 

Download: Radio Australia on Shortwave, 9-5-74 (and another date) for North America

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Download: Radio Australia on Shortwave, Undated, for Asia and the South Pacific

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For my "Acetate of the Month", this time around, I picked one which features an unknown Latin band, (they are not named on the label) and a song I have very much enjoyed since the first time I played it, "El Telfonito", along with its flipside, a rather haphazard performance of something called "Zombie": 

Download: Unknown Latin Band - El Telefonito

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Download: Unknown Latin Band - Zombie

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At the end of "Zombie", you can hear an announcer, indicating that these were recorded off the air. Here's the record: 

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And finally, our "Very Short Reel" for the week. Technically, this isn't a "short reel", as it is excerpted from a tape which was about ten minutes long. "Very Short Segment" is more like it. But this is a real period piece, a moment in time and too good to not share. Anyway, remember Zayre? If you're under 40 years old, the answer is probably "no", and if you're under 35, the answer is definitely "no", since they went out of business 33 years ago. But they were as big as K Mart for awhile (for those of you who remember K Mart, or who live near one of the three remaining K Marts that still exist in the US). 

Anyway, remember Rudy Vallee? You're older than 40 if you do. He went out of business a few years before Zayre, but in his time, made some brilliant records, and was as big a star as there has ever been, for a time, that time being 100 years or more ago. 

This brief segment brought Zayre and Rudy Vallee together, from what I am guessing was the only time, joined as well by The Ray Charles Singers, a conglomeration formed by a white man named Ray Charles a year or two before that other Ray Charles made his first record. 

Download: Rudy Vallee and the Ray Charles Singers - Zayre Commercial

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A Family Tree, A Young Family, and Some Advertising Odds and Ends

First, I had a request to post all of the documentation from the Huntley-Brinkley tape from a couple of weeks ago, and I wanted to make sure that I mentioned that I have added the two other parts of the list to the previous post, here.

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I've got another trio of tapes for you today! Starting with this one:

That box is from a tape which is, in certain ways fascinating, while at the same time, fairly tedious. Here's the story: On January 27, 1963, an elderly woman named Martha Hogan was interviewed by family members, primarily one of them, about her family tree. For just a hair under one hour, she answers with various aspects of the story, going back well into the 1800's.

That alone would usually make this gold for the archivist, the tape hound and the genealogist. And while there is material to intrigue and delight everyone who would expect to find that gold... well, unfortunately, the person interviewing her is far from an expert in such a task. I'm no expert either, but in my hearing of this material, I find that he frequently asks questions in boring ways, and gets fairly boring responses, asks the same things multiple times, and fails to follow up on more interesting side trips into the lives of the people who Martha Hogan knew and/or knew of. Far too much of this tape is simply a recitation of who was born when, was related to who, and died when. That's important stuff, but there is so much more I hoped to hear.

I'm thinking with the information on this tape box, and on the tape, it would be easily for someone to come up with more information about these people.

Anyway, it's still very much worth a listen for those who were with me by the end of the first paragraph up there. And here it is:

Download: Martha Hogan and Family - Martha Hogan's Family Tree - 1-27-63.mp3
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And now, from the other end of the life cycle, here is a short (five minute), sweet little tape featuring a small child, named Paulie, heard enjoying a nursery rhyme with his mother, then offering up some family names. Then, in the last 75 seconds or so, daddy comes in and asks some even more detailed questions about who Paulie is. (And again, although it would be harder, I'm guessing it would not be terribly difficult to find out exactly who these people were/are, from this tape.)

Download: Paulie, Mommy and Daddy - Paulie with Mommy, then Daddy
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And finally - and perhaps the most appealing to a good number of readers/listeners - I have a motley collection of various ads and attempts at ads, over half of which originated in Hawaii. I'm offering up this 17 minute hodgepodge exactly as it rolls off of the reel. First up, some weird promos attempting to promote local merchants by indicating their support for a local shipping strike, including a breakdown or two.

After about five minutes of this, we hear what was being erased by those recordings - some attempts, both successful and (mostly) not so successful, at recording some voice over ads for local Hawaiian businesses (specifically, O'ahu). That section ends suddenly, with an obscenity. This is followed by a brief excerpt of someone - sounding very much the amateur to me - attempting to get part of a newscast just right.

Perhaps best of all is the last six minutes, which do not appear to come from Hawaii. Instead, this sounds like a demo reel for an advertising company, with some delightful, old-fashioned 1960's style ads, in something of a medley. Locations advertised here are found in Alabama and Texas, among others. There's even a sales pitch near the end, followed by some perky jingles for WABI, a station which was in Bangor, Maine.

Presumably, the demo reel ended up in Hawaii at some point, and the first portion of it was reused and reused by multiple staff, leading to this wonderful hodgepodge.

Download: Various - A Collection of Ad Demos and Attempts at Recording Ads
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