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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Interesting Radio Recordings from Two Paper Reels, Birthday Time, An Odd Promo, Music in a Bar and at Home, A Little German, and the use of Cactus and Wood Needles

Howdy, 

I'm starting off today with something I find absolutely fascinating. I recently was lucky enough to purchase two paper reels - that is, reels without plastic backing, just paper. Both were Soundmirror reels, from the company I believe was first in producing reel tape for home buyers. Since that company was out of the reel tape business by 1952, and paper reels were gone by 1953, it's always possible that there could be recordings as much as 80 years old on such a tape. 

That's not quite the case here - these recordings are more like 73 years old - but they are fascinating nonetheless. The first one I listened to had an episode of a radio program called "Answers for Americans", which was heard on the Mutual radio network. A panel of experts answered political questions from listeners, with prizes to the listeners whose questions were used. 

Multiple online sites indicate this was a right wing show particularly focused on anti-communism, but this particular episode really just sounds like the questioners, and the experts, getting their bearings at a very scary moment - the weeks after Stalin died - when a lot of questions about any resetting of US/Soviet relations were unsettled. While I'm sure a left-wing show would have sounded much different, I doubt that a mainstream right-down-the-middle show would have been much different at that particular moment. 

Again, your mileage may vary, but boy did I enjoy listening to this. 

Download: "Answers For Americans" On Mutual Radio, Spring, 1953

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The show ended before the tape did, and at the end of it, there is this fragment of some sort of variety program. The man speaking and singing throughout mentions having starred in "Million Dollar Legs", meaning he could conceivably be one of three male stars of that movie. I certainly am not an expert in any of them, but I'm guessing it's Donald O'Connor

Download: Fragment of a Variety Show circa 1953

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The other paper reel was interesting for a different reason. The person who recorded "Answers for Americans" seemingly recorded another episode of that show or something similar, for the conversation (actually it's more like a series of short speeches) is about how a "One-World Government" would be possible, but only if it were to be a "FREE One-World Government", and I'm sure we all know whose definition of "Free" they were using. 

I believe our recordist must have left the machine alone to record, because powerhouse clear channel station WCKY, and its Country and Western format, begins showing up, interfering with the speechifying. Each station struggles to be heard over the other for a time, but eventually, the Cincinnati C & W format wins out, and the speeches are not heard at all for the last few minutes. What is heard is some down-home entertainment, also likely from right around 1953, complete with ads for worthless patent medicines, which are claimed to be able to cure oh so many ills. 

It's hard to listen to at times, but man oh man, is it rewarding in the end. And the far better radio format wins in the end, too. Well, that's what I think, anyway. 

Download: Competing Stations - "One Free World Government" Discussion Vs. Country and Western on WCKY, Cincinnati

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There is nothing written on either of these tapes' boxes, by the way. One last comment - our recordist clearly intended to record the speeches. Why on earth, after listening to the tape and determining that they had not been recorded correctly, didn't he or she use the tape again? Did the recordist enjoy this mish-mash of sounds?!?!?

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And now, for all you "Ed and Frank" fans, here is more from Ed and Frank: an hour of their drummer and electric piano noodling, as recorded at some facility where I'm guessing a lot of beer was consumed, almost exactly 69 years ago. 

Download: Ed and Frank, 7-4-57
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Or perhaps children's birthdays are more to your liking. This tape is from the 1960's, most likely 1968 based on other material on the reel, some of which I will share at a later date. It's short and (mostly) sweet.

In it, Kay's father tries to get her to talk more than she wants to, we hear some other children and then the requisite singing of "MacArthur Park". No, wait, that's wrong. It's "Happy Birthday". 

Download: Kay's Birthday

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Maybe you can make out the words "Kay's Birthday" on the back of the box: 

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A company called "Magna-Tronics", also probably sometime in the 1960's, promoted a Muzak-like product, which, rather than being for stores, was for radio stations (!) which wanted to simply program someone else's pre-recorded series of bland musical performers for AM or FM broadcast. 

I have no idea how successful this was - it seems like a fool's errand to me - but here is the promotional tape used to sell the program managers on this product. I have one other tape from this company, an actual example of the product that they sent to stations, which I will feature later. 

Download: Magna-Tronics Radio Station Easy Listening Promo Tape

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Quite some time ago - and I can't seem to find the post at the moment - I shared some home recordings of old-timey type music and more recent standards, recorded by some folks who clearly got together frequently and made music... and sometimes recorded it. I have a handful of tapes from these folks, and today I have a second recording by them, about 40 minutes this time, and in this case with all of their names identified on the tape box, and if I can find that box, I will add it to this post. I do have their names in the file name. 

Download: More Music at Home - Bill, Vernene, Dianne, Helen and Flavian, 3/23/62

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Well, this is not the box that goes along with that reel, but it is a box from a tape with some of the same people. They all look more or less like this: 

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And for the last reel today.... I wasn't sure what to do with this but I decided to share it. Maybe someone out there can let all of us know what is being said. As it is titled "A woman speaking "mostly" in German". And that's really and truly all I know about it. 

Download: A Woman Speaking (Mostly) in German

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And finally, here's an Acetate of the Month. It looks like this: 

As you can see. it features what is mostly a blank label from the Acetate company / recording studio, with what might be a family name written in the corner. Note the encouragement to use a "cactus or wood" needle to play this record. WHAT???? Well, a bit of internet sleuthing shows both of these are for real. That's a new one on me!

One side features a bunch of conversations - which definitely sounds like "around the house" type conversations than those that would have taken place in a studio, then a short rendition of "Let Me Call You Sweetheart". Here 'tis: 

Download: Cathedral Latin Acetate - Family Conversations and Let Me Call You Sweetheart

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The flip side is considerably longer, and I've labeled it "Some Sort of Family Skit". That's the best I can do. Maybe someone with better ears than me can make out all of what goes on here. Despite my cluelessness, I still sort of enjoy it. 

Download: Cathedral Latin Acetate - Some Sort of Family Skit

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Very Short Reels will return next time!

Blowout Post # 8! - I Don't Even Remember These Files!

I'm going to try something a little different today, even a bit different from the other "Blowout Posts" I've shared. 

You see, I have well over 300 sound files in my "Not Yet Used" file for this blog, including material I digitized over a decade ago. So today, I'm going to share some of the oldest previously unshared sound files from that "Not Yet Used" file. Everything in today's post, except the last entry, was digitized eight to twelve years ago. 

So for most of these, well, I simply don't recall them well enough to comment without listening again. And I'm not going to listen again, which means I'm just throwing them up, and you, dear reader and listener, can determine which you want to hear, and once you decide to hear them, you can decide if they were worth hearing. I'm sharing 12 files, some of them quite long, plus the traditional "Very Short Reel". My comments will be extremely brief. Perhaps some of you will prefer that. 

I also may have scannable tape boxes with information for some of these tapes, but those are probably packed away or at least filed on a shelf somewhere. If I come across any of them in the future, I'll add them to the post. 

This first one I actually know pretty well what it is, as it's titled "A Conversation with Van Cliburn" - obviously a chat with the internationally renowned pianist. Other than that, you're on your own. 

Download: A Conversation with Van Cliburn

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Here's what some of the radio programming sounded like in Kingsport, TN, in early 1964: 

Download: Kingsport, TN Radio, Early 1964

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For those of you who cannot wait to listen to almost 90 minutes of municipal meetings, especially if they are from Massachusetts and deal with a road upgrade, this next offering IS FOR YOU!

Download: Two Hearings About a Road Upgrade in Massachusetts

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Or Mayhap some down-homey singing, strumming and blowing is more your speed. If so, here is a short, home recorded tape of Vocals, Guitar and Harmonica from a few anonymous guys, with a bit of big band music at the end. 

Download: Vocals, Guitar and Harmonica

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Or perhaps a 20 minute show on a cure for arthritis is more up your alley. Presumably, the original tape ended suddenly, as heard here: 

Download: Dr. Bernard A Bellew - The Cure For Arthritis

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This one is labeled, "Robyn Hurt - Three Faces of Eve" - I assume this was written on the tape box, but given that I digitized this in 2015 or so, it's not surprising that I can no longer find that box: 

Download: Robyn Hurt - Three Faces of Eve

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This one says: "Two NBC Programs After the Death of Eisenhower". Yep, that's what it says. I bet that's what it is: 

Download: Two NBC Programs After the Death of Eisenhower

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This might be interesting - it's an audio letter from Florida to Colorado. I don't recall anything about it, though. If I was in Florida, I would absolutely move to Colorado. Well, I'd move somewhere else, somewhere cooler and saner. 

Download: Audio Letter from Florida to Colorado

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"The Bell Telephone Hour" was a mainstay on television for many years. Here is an episode from 1961 titled "A Galaxy of Music": 

Download: The Bell Telephone Hour, 3-3-61 - A Galaxy of Music

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Here is the endlessly pompous and completely insufferable Earl Nightingale, with a recording called "The Executive Market" which does not seem to be anywhere else online. If anyone ever deserved to be punched in the face, this guy would qualify.

Download: Earl Nightingale - The Executive Market

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Some additional cretinous material from Earl Nightingale is in this post. 

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Are you still with me? Because this is the one I'm sure most of you have been waiting for. It's the famous (perhaps infamous) "Chat Around the House & Fireplace Talk". I'm sure this one will be notorious enough to be discussed next week on "The View":

Download: Chat Around the House & Fireplace Talk

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And just before my "Very Short Reel", I will offer this "Very Long Reel", over two hours of Medical Hypnosis Training from Dave Elman. Sorry, I only have lesson two. You are getting very sleepy at this point. 

Download: Dave Elman - Medical Hypnosis, Lesson 2

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And now, for the only newly digitized item here. It's my "Very Short Reel" for the post. And this is from the same new-to-me box of tapes that I received in late July, which I also featured at the end of this post. It is another group of three ads, just as in that post, this time for Delta Airlines. Presumably, this is from the same company - Needham Harper Steers - as are many of the tapes in that box, but this one was unlabeled, so I can't be certain. But I'm guessing they are, hence the labeling here. 

Download: Needham Harper Steers - Three Delta Airlines Ads

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That's eight hours and 17 minutes of sound files. I hope you found something to enjoy today. 

Top 40 Radio in 1963, Lawyers Entertain in 1953, Arthur Godfrey in 1969, Testing the Microphone in 1967, North Dakota Knickerbockers, and an Arrogant Blue-Nose Browbeats a Citizen.

I'll start off with some good old Top 40 Radio recordings, as those seem to be among the most popular things I share. Here is just over an hour of such programming, from WEAM, a powerhouse in Arlington, Virginia. One caveat - Vintage Top 40 recordings are usually the most interesting to folks due to the material between the songs - the commercials, the DJ patter, etc. That's what you'll get in the first 32 minutes here. The second side of the tape (the final 32 minutes) are far more edited and mostly feature the local and national hits of the day. 

I remain amazed, as I always am by tapes of this vintage, by the fact that the standard procedure on these stations seemed to be to play one song, then a commercial, then another song, then another commercial, etc. 

And maybe I'm just being dense (which is not at all unlikely), but I cannot for the life of me figure out the point of one line in a cigarette commercial, one which (I was actually impressed to hear) encouraged only adults to smoke. It features the following line: "Lucky Separates the Men from the Boys.... But Not From the Girls". Huh? 

Download: WEAM, Top Forty Radio, Arlington, Virginia, 1963

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Now, here's a tape which is a real time capsule, and a fascinating look at a very specific time and place. For here we have 30 or so minutes of various entertainments as they were provided to a convention of lawyers in 1953. There is a small vocal group with piano who sing a few songs at the start, and later a folk singer type who sings some slightly bawdy material, then, at the end, a bit of a racy story - the sound quality gets poor near the end and the tape runs out before we get to the end of the story.

This was clearly a room full of nothing but (or very nearly nothing but) male lawyers, which is no surprise, given the date. And as befits a show geared towards a very male group of highly educated professionals, in 1953, the centerpiece of this tape, and clearly the bit which was meant as the highlight of the entertainment, is what I would, in retrospect call its lowlight: a sketch in which a group of lawyers present what a lawyers' coffee klatch / card playing session would look like if all of the lawyers behaved and talked as their wives do, when at their own get togethers. Ho ho ho. It's cringeworthy.  

Download: Entertainment at a Lawyers' Convention, 1953

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Here's a short, fun little tape I listened to for the first time recently. I don't know if this was a syndicated program or if The Knickerbockers were local to North Dakota, but for 11 1/2 minutes, they provided a performance of what were, even in 1951, some old-timey songs for the listeners of WDAY. The show was called "Harmony Lane", and the reference to the recent death of a songwriter (who also was a professional boxer!) nicely provides us with a date for this program. 

Download: Harmony Lane, with The Knickerbocker Four on WDAY, North Dakota, 1951

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I have been periodically sharing the contents of several tapes which feature Chicago radio icon Jack Eigen, including in my last post. What I'd forgotten about those tapes (until I pulled them out) is that they also contain some recordings of the syndicated program hosted by Arthur Godfrey. The show ran for under an hour (I would assume after a newscast). 

I have said repeatedly that I don't particularly enjoy Jack Eigen's shows and don't fully understand the appeal. But Eigen's shows were award-worthy compared with these late-era Godfrey shows (and, I'm guessing, the same could be said about earlier examples of his show, which ran for decades). Godfrey has a small band of sycophants who laugh at all of his cringeworthy jokes (as bad as any of the laughing goons heard today on hundreds of local morning radio shows), does live, boring reads for a variety of cheap products, and generally provides morning entertainment seemingly designed to put the listener back to sleep. Ecch. 

I suppose my reaction to these shows could also be influenced by having read many things about what an enormous jackass Godfrey was. 

I have more of these - please let me know if you want to hear them. And why. 

Download: The Arthur Godfrey Show, 5-22-69

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Here's a fun - and then later, a bit boring - fairly brief tape, presumably from 1967. I'm honestly including this one mostly for completeness sake - what's on the other side (below) is MUCH more interesting. But the opening segment, in which a couple of kids sing two fairly disparate top 40 hits from 1967, is pretty entertaining. From there on out, it's sort of a slog through a lot of microphone tests, first with interminable "number" tests and then checking the levels via reading of local news reports. Then you'll be ready for the fireworks on the other side of the tape... 

Download: Unknown - A Few Hits from 1967 and Lots of Microphone Testing

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I really shared the above tape for a sense of completeness, as it is the second side of the tape which is more interesting, and I would say, by far the most compelling recording I am sharing today. 

The Women's Christian Temperance Union, which was founded in Ohio but has been based in Evanston, IL for more than a century, was one of the premier driving forces behind Prohibition, if not the single biggest driver of the movement that led to it. And of course, what the bluenoses at the WCTU couldn't foresee in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century was that Prohibition would give rise to the ever increasing success organized crime, a problem that has never left us since.  (As I've mentioned in passing, my maternal grandfather was the spokesman for the WCTU in the 1920's and early 1930's (prior to his moving on to radio work and nationwide media prominence), to my mother's eternal embarrassment.)

Anyway, even though this is from the flip side of the tape above, I can't assume it's also from 1967. Because the flip side also contained some extremely badly recorded excerpts from 1950's Liberace TV episode. So it really could be from any point from the mid-1950's on. 

Regardless of the date, this is an amazing and despicable recording. A Mrs. Mars, of the WCTU, calls a locally prominent man (he doesn't seem to be a politician, but he seems to be a citizen of some significant influence). I am not sure I've gotten his name right - it sounds like Lusford, but could well be something else. Mrs. Mars records the call and makes no mention of this to the man she is calling - I don't know if that was illegal at the time or not. My supposition is that she wanted to have proof of whatever it was he might say, should she later wish to undercut his influence or catch him in a later contradiction or lie. She seems to have no problem recording herself engaging in her own inexcusable behavior - no doubt because she had no problem with engaging in that behavior. 

As I always say, your mileage may vary, but I hear a bully, one who is self-assured of being holier than thou about just about everyone, capable of using her influence to undercut anyone she doesn't approve of. She draws lines in the sand. For example, one candidate for office was one arrested for bootlegging (which by definition must have been at least 20, possibly 30 years earlier). And she seems to have spies in Mr. Lusford's place of business, as she knows for a fact that another candidate of questionable integrity recently visited that building, and stayed there quite a long time. Mr. Lusford must tell her at least three times that he didn't see the man, but she is not impressed. There are other questions of the "when did you stop beating your wife" nature along the way. 

I was reminded several times of Joe McCarthy's methods while listening to this tape, and I know that similar browbeatings have taken place over the years in Congress and elsewhere by people with certain agendas. 

Have a listen.

Download: Mrs. Mars of the WCTU Calls Mr. Lusford

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And now it's time for the "Very Short Reel" for this post. It's getting to be time that some people might be thinking about what they'll be doing on the last night of the year. So here is an ad agency named "Sound Resources" with two ads - a 60 second one and a 30 second one - for the Treasure Island Casino's New Year's Party. I advise calling first - I sort of doubt the details heard in this ad still apply. 

Download: Sound Resources - Treasure Island Casino's New Year's Party

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By Request! More Jack Eigen! Plus Ridiculous Vocals, My Favorite Poet, Igor Stravinsky, Some Relatives Visit, Steinbeck Pro and Con and a bit of Union Propaganda

Greetings! 

Before I get to this week's offerings, I want to share a very interesting comment I received regarding the last post, specifically, the tape of an adult man interviewing six-year-old Joe Hogan. An anonymous reader listener wrote: 

The man interviewing him seams to be in another room. I think this may have been some sort of studio. The clicking you here is the talkback going on and off. Back then, you had to hold down the button to talk, then release. He kept releasing it to soon. This seams like some sort of low budget production deal I think. I think Joe is listening through a monitor (the room sound when they talk) its not a direct mic feed or anything. I don't think they were related, I think he was just trying to make Joe feel comfortable. Maybe some sort of news thing for the school? Also, if you listening very carefully when he asks Joe, "Can you write?" He accidentally releases the talkback in the middle of his sentence, and you can briefly hear Joe's mic pick him up from the control room

Makes sense to me! Thanks!

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I have received a handful of requests for a further portion of my collection of Jack Eigen broadcasts. And this requires a bit of explanation. First, for those who haven't heard any of the other offerings in this series, my write up on Mr. Eigen can be found in this post. Suffice to say that, for the better part of twenty years, Jack Eigen was an irritant on the late night Chicago radio dial, but one that plenty of people could barely do without. As my mother once told me (and as is mentioned in that earlier post), his irritating manner was, in her view, essentially what drew people into listening to his shows. 

For those of you who have downloaded my previous Eigen offerings, I will share (as I mentioned in my last post) that I actually cheated you out of additional Eigen material when I posted what I identified as "Volume Five", last May. You see, that offering was actually the exact same tape as the one I had posted as "Volume Four", over a year ago. 

So here is the reel "Volume Five", which I will label as "Volume 5" so that your folder won't get confused and tell you that there is already a file by named "Volume Five". This is by far the longest one yet, I think. It is over four and a half hours long. Enjoy!

Download: Jack Eigen - The Jack Eigen Show, Volume 5

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I seem to have left on about ten seconds' silence at the beginning of this file, by accident. So don't be surprised at a bit of silence at first...

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Next up, here is someone named Bob Terry, enjoying his 50th birthday party in 1980. Someone - presumably the birthday boy, plays a lot of piano, including a few parody numbers which presumably were his own creations, and none of them terribly clever. For the last several minutes, the pianist/birthday boy and his guests try to work out a happy birthday dirge based on a familiar melody, although it seems to be a struggle to perfect what they're trying to do. That section goes on, and on, and on, and on.

Download: The Bob Terry 50th Birthday Party

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The next three rather esoteric items all come from the same tape, and all were recorded in 1962 off of television. I am presenting them here in the order they appear on the tape, even though the second one is dated before the first one (presumably, the first segment erased something previously recorded even earlier, on that section of the tape). I cannot locate this tape to show you a scan of the writing on the box (I may have sold it along with a bunch of other tapes, some time ago), but the information on dates was from the box.

First up is a short segment in which two jazz performers, pianist/singer Rose Murphy and bassist Slam Stewart, promote a local appearance in Albany on WRGB, a pioneering television station in Schenectady, New York. I learn from Wikipedia that WRGB was one of the world's first TV stations, way back in 1928 (!) and the fourth commercial station to sign on, in 1942. However, it was also the station that launched the career of Rachael Ray, and that is simply unforgivable. May you rot in hell for what you've done, WRGB. 

Anyway, I was certainly familiar with Slam Stewart and his sing-along bass playing, but had not encountered Rose Murphy before. Her piano playing is fine. But her singing... Oh my God, she was GODAWFUL! I have a hard time believing her performance style wasn't some sort of elaborate dry joke, designed to see how many pretentious jazz-hounds she could make rave over an absurd, terrible  and mannered singing. Your mileage may vary. 

After a pre-recorded track featuring both performers singing and playing, there is a great instrumental featuring Stewart and then a song featuring Murphy, before just a taste of Murphy's signature song and a fade out. 

Download: Rose Murphy and Slam Stewart - WRGB - 6-7-62

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Next on the tape is John Ciardi, giving a lovely presentation - along with the legendary Alan Lomax, on The Sea Islands, This was part of a short lived CBS-TV series called "Accent on an American Summer", and this episode focused on the music of these islands, dating from the slave era and later created by the descendants of slaves.  

Alan Lomax should need no introduction (if for nothing else but helping to mentor Pete Seeger and first bringing him to prominence, but of course, so much more), but John Ciardi? I'm sure he's largely forgotten, if indeed he was ever well known outside of literary and poetry circles. But he was well known and beloved in the home in which I grew up, due to his having written two of our favorite books, books of poetry for children. He actually wrote well over a dozen books of poems for children, it seems. We owned "I Met a Man" and "The Man Who Sang the Sillies", and there were few books in our home that I loved more, for both the wonderful nonsense of his rhymes  (which I'm sure had a deep influence on my own lyric-writing and general sense of humor), and for the marvelous illustrations by Edward Gorey. I found the following image from my favorite of his poems, which had my favorite of the illustrations, as well: 

Genius. Absolute genius. 

Anyway, I was delighted to find this tape, as I had no idea he had done anything else but write those two lovely books. 

Download: John Ciardi on The Sea Islands - 2-14-62

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Then the tape ends with a recording of a program in which Igor Stravinsky conducts one of his own compositions, "The Flood", and which is followed by a documentary about Stravinsky. This is a much longer segment - almost 50 minutes - and it is also from 1962: 

Download: Igor Stravinsky Conducts His "The Flood", and Documentary on Stravinsky, 1962

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I feel like I've done sort of a lot of typing so far, and will be below, as well, so I'm gonna scale it back for this one. This next piece of tape is "called Aunt Edith and Uncle Carl Come to Visit, 7-27-60", and I think that just about describes it. 

Download: Aunt Edith and Uncle Carl Come to Visit, 7-27-60

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Now it's time for our "Acetate of the Month". Most of the time, these are 78 RPM acetates, and last from three to seven minutes, total, for both sides. But acetates were also cut at 33 1/3 RPM, long before that speed was available commercially, and they were also cut at that speed, by private users, in the 1950's and well into the 1960's (and of course, by professional studios, long after that). And those 33 1/3 acetates could, of course, be far longer than their 78-era brethren. Today's offering is 26 minutes long, and the disc itself looks like this: 

Much of the information you need to know what you're going to hear is right there in that picture. The rest is in the first moments of the sound file. The discussion is between high school students. The school Evanston Township High School (I was able to find a reference to the teacher named on the label having worked there), and the other student, discussing Steinbeck with Dick Mills, is Bill Brower.

This is, as I'm sure you're imagining, scintillating stuff. 

Download: Custom Sound Studios 12 inch Acetate - Bill Brower and Dick Mills - A Discussion of the Style of John Steinbeck, Evanston, IL, September, 1957, Side One 

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Download: Custom Sound Studios 12 inch Acetate - Bill Brower and Dick Mills - A Discussion of the Style of John Steinbeck, Evanston, IL, September, 1957, Side Two

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Here's a photo of the second side of the acetate: 

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Finally, a "Very Short Reel". This is a bit of propaganda - and I don't mean that negatively - from the AFL-CIO. This sounds very much like it was the soundtrack to a short film, and the closing statements further make it sound as if this was one of a series of short films, presumably all from the AFL-CIO, which perhaps were paid for and ran on television stations in five minute timeslots. 

I should explain that I made some of the files that I am sharing today, and in the recent past, and no doubt in the future, as long as six or seven years ago. I have a large collection of "not yet used" items, and this one was digitized at least four years ago. All that is to explain why I can no longer find this tape's box, either (although it's unlikely I sold this one). But the name of the file is almost certainly what was written on the box. 

Download: AFL-CIO - Americans At Work - Building Aircraft

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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: 

~~

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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Bob Hope's Murder, A 75 Year Old Mix Tape, A Lot More Jack Eigen, The Irish in America, 1970's Folkies, Cheesiness from a Night Club and "Whatever Happened"?

Okay. so I have a bit more time today to do a little housekeeping. 

First, I would like to direct you to the posting of the four hours of Gary Owens, where a commenter named Kyle has written a few comments in which he links to some interesting audio that he owns, on YouTube. 

Second, thanks to the anonymous poster who let me know I'd failed to upload the scan of the sheet from the Asian television recording. I attached it, and it's there now. Thanks to another anonymous poster regarding the same scan, who told me that the writing refers to a Japanese historical drama, Shishi no Jidai, which aired in 1980. That's almost certainly the part of the tape I didn't share, and which came after what was pretty clearly some sort of variety show. 

And finally, thanks to MackdaddyG for some kind words of great support, and to Eric Carlson, who wrote, regarding the short tape of Erskine Hawkins (in a couple of separate comments):

The beginning of the Erskine Hawkins tape is a talk with singer and pianist Joe Boatner who arranged the song Amour Secret with the Royal Ink Spots released on the Montreal based Rusticana label in 1961. When the Saints was the flip side of Amour Secret also arranged by Joe Boatner.

For only $5 per person you could "ring in the New Year" of 1962 at the Imperial Dining Room of the Thruway Motel in Albany, New York, with both Erskine Hawkins and His Orchestra and The Ink Spots with Joe Bottner as spelled in the advertisement in the December 17, 1961, Albany Times-Union.

Really, thanks to everyone who takes the time to listen and read, and extra thanks to those who comment. 

~~

Warning, rant ahead. Feel free to skip forward two paragraphs if you're not interested. I hope I don't aggravate those I just thanked...

But do you want to know a secret? I consider myself a connoisseur of comedy. I own hundreds and hundreds of comedy albums, I have written comedy pieces and performed both written and improvised comedy. I write funny songs. From about the age of eight or nine and until I left home and got married, I went to sleep every single night listening to one of several dozen of my favorite comedy albums playing on my turntable.  

I don't "get" Bob Hope. I seriously don't understand what there is to "get". I consider him one of many "anti-comedians", people who makes life less humorous by their presence, and in their failed attempts to be funny. I have been exposed to his "humor" for most of my nearly 64 years, and yet have never once having cracked a smile, let along laughed, at anything he ever said. I aggressively don't get it. I find myself constitutionally incapable of sharing a Bob Hope rarity without mentioning that. Not that you asked....

However, your mileage may very much vary, and even more regardless, many out there may really enjoy hearing the sort of cornball humor that passed for big budget TV special entertainment in the mid-1960's. And so, herewith I will share this recording of a TV special that Bob Hope and the folks at NBC produced in October of 1966, titled "Murder at NBC" and featuring, per IMDB, a veritable who's who of comedic talent of that era (of varying quality, to be sure), including Milton Berle, Don Adams, Red Buttons, Johnny Carson, Jack Carter, Bill Cosby, Jimmy Durante, Don Rickles, Rowan and Martin, Jonathan Winters and more. 

But is it funny? Not to me, anyway. Not for a second. This sort of show is exactly is why the 1970's versions of George Carlin and Richard Pryor had to happen. And why the Monty Python's Flying Circus really had to happen.  

Download: Bob Hope's "Murder At NBC" - 10-19-66

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~~

This next 32 minute slice of reel to reel is more interesting for what it is than for what it contains. For this may be one of the earliest examples ever made of what's long since become known as the Mix Tape. This recording exists on a paper-backed reel, of the sort only produced from around 1947 until about 1951. What's more, it appears on a reel manufactured by what I've come to understand was the first brand to market reel tape to the general public, Soundmirror (by The Brush Development Company). What's more, this particular tape box is, I believe, that company's first design. So the tape itself is perhaps 77 years old or so. Here is the tape box: 

On the tape, a man provides someone with a series of musical performances, most from records (including a couple which have skips) and at least one from the radio. My guess is that this recording was made before 1950, meaning it is at least 75 years old. Maybe someone out there can identify the specific records heard and either confirm that is possible, based on their release dates, or rule it out. 

Anyway, since 78s and Acetates generally could only fit about 4-5 minutes of material to a side, and since wire recorders were a brief niche method of recording, I have to guess that this is one of the earliest "mix tapes" you're ever going to hear. Enjoy!

Download: A 75 Year Old Mix Tape

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And here's the lineup, from the back of the box: 

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I had a request for more Jack Eigen, and as I have literally dozens of hours of the man's work, I am happy to oblige. I wrote about him at length in this post. If you want to hear more, than simply click on his name in the labels at the bottom of this post (or put "Jack Eigen" in the search bar at upper left (this will not work on a cell phone)). Either way will bring up all of the previous Eigen posts. 

Download: Jack Eigen - The Jack Eigen Show, Volume Five

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~~

I have a ton of recordings from various television productions, many of which I've shared over the years, including some featuring Howard K. Smith, as this one does. And on the box, it specifies that this was a "Rangertone Sync" interview. I guess the "Rangertone Sync" is a method by which a reel to reel recording is automatically synchronized with the film/video being made at the same time. Here he is speaking with Mr. Farley about the Irish in America

Download: Howard K Smith - Rangertone Sync - Interview About Irish in America with Mr. Farley

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~~

The next tape is nothing more or less than a few people singing together, performing songs that I researched a bit and found were recorded, respectively, by Dan Fogelberg and Linda Ronstadt. 

Download: Unknown Folkies Sing Dan Fogelberg and Linda Ronstadt Songs 

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~~

Back when I was posting at WFMU, I shared a few tapes feature a Chicago musician named Larry Taylor. This link will take you to the second of those posts, which itself contains a link to the first one, In my final post at WFMU, I shared some amazing excerpts from Larry Taylor's work with everyone's
favorite Solo Cup Magnate's wife (and notable person of limited singing talent), Dora Hall. 

The dozens of Larry Taylor tapes that I acquired in the late 1980's also contained multiple tapes featuring a local nightclub entertainer named Rocco Greco, who presumably was a friend of Mr. Taylor. These are uniformly cheesy and interminable, at least to my ears. I once even found a locally produced 45 RPM single, complete with cheesy picture sleeve, released by Mr. Greco. 

I recently came across a tape which seemed to be separate in my collection from the Larry Taylor tapes, but I'm almost certain it started out in that batch, and that the performer heard for most of this recording is, indeed, Rocco Greco. 

Oh, and here is his obituary, which curiously does not mention his work (although the memorial comments do). 

Download: Some 1962 Night Club Type Entertainment, Possibly Featuring Rocco Greco

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~~

And finally, our "Very Short Reel". Here is someone named "Malcolm Dodds", with what was almost certainly a demo reel of one of his performances, a song called "Whatever Happened". 

Download: Malcolm Dodds - Whatever Happened

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Blowout Post # 6

I've been doing these Blowout Posts when I'm finding I don't have the time to check and listen to stuff I want to feature. I'm also using them to make a dent in the ridiculous backlog of digitized sounds that I've made for myself (and yourselves). My "Interesting Reels" file has a sub-file named "Not Yet Used", and it has, at the moment, 376 items in it!

For today's Blowout Post, I went back to some of the older items in that folder, "older" meaning that they are sound files I made quite some time ago. I have, for the most part, not listened to these since the month I made them, which in some cases may be five to ten years ago, and I'm not going to listen to them again now (beside just a taste, in some cases). I'm just going to trust that I was right to think they might hold interest for someone, and slap 'em up there, 12 different items from 11 different tapes, plus our "Acetate of the Month". Just under five and a half hours of sound!!!

That's the story: aside from the titles and whatever I might recall about them, I am sharing these files with barely any memory of what's on them. I only know that. at some point, I thought they were worth keeping, in order to share them some day. Hope I was right! With a few exceptions, I'll have very little to say about them. 

Here we go!

~~

I'm starting pretty much at random, with a tape containing the sounds from part of a television production of the famous short story "The Lottery", which appeared on a TV show called The Robert Herridge Theater, from April, 1960, close to half way through the show's brief, 1959-60 run. Details of the episode are on this page. This seems to be something of a raw tape from the recording session of the second and final act of the show: 

Download: Robert Herridge Theater - The Lottery

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This one is labeled "Weird Collection of Naval and Gun Rules and Regulations", and I don't know that anything more needs to be said!: 

Download: Weird Collection of Naval and Gun Rules and Regulations

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Here are two family members, a guy and his aunt, who spent some time recording a series of old timey violin and piano square dance style songs. It seems that the man would periodically visit his aunt, who, as he mentions at one point, was around 90 years old at the time of these recordings, and they would enjoy making music together. I think I have a few tapes by these folks, but this seems to be the only one I digitized. 

Download: Aunt Rhoda and Her Nephew - Violin-Piano Square Dances At Home

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~~

Now, if you're like me, you sit around some days unable to stop wondering exactly what are problems of small forest ownership. Yes, that's how at least five or six of my days every month were spent, until I found this tape. It changed my life: 

Download: American Forest Institute - Problems of Small Forest Ownerships

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~~

Here's an audio letter - I don't recall any of the details, really, except that it starts with a child named Ted (hence the labeling of the "performers" of the track), that the children are heard off and on throughout, and that I found both the children's presence and the New Yawk area accents of everyone involved fairly annoying (hence the rest of the track title) - although calling it merely "annoying" barely scratches the surface. 

Download: Ted's Family - A Fairly Annoying Audio Letter

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From what I recall to have been a particularly old reel of tape - from the early '50's - here are two segments featuring a preacher identified as "Brother Brown". First, he offers some fairly typical testimony, and then he engages in a bit of Faith Healing: 

Download: Brother Brown Gives Testimony

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Download: Faith Healing with Brother Brown

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I have, in my collection, a handful of tapes featuring a Chicago radio personality named Buddy Black, who broadcast from the Edgewater Beach Hotel for WGN. I have previously featured a birthday tape he received. Here he is engaging in three on-air phone calls and stocks and finances: 

Download: Buddy Black - Three On-Air Phone Calls

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~~ 

And no blowout post would be complete without..... well, at least THIS blowout post is not complete without an episode of Sing Along with Mitch. As it says, this is possibly, maybe even probably, from December 14, 1961. 

Download: Sing Along with Mitch - Possibly 12-14-61

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By this point, those who are still with me are almost undoubtably saying, "Wait, I came here to learn about Skinner Sealed Spool Valves. Where's the information about Skinner Sealed Spool Valves?"

Wait no longer. Here's part three. For those of you who missed parts one and two, there will be make up sessions in November at the Hyatt. 

Download: Skinner Sealed Spool Valves, Part Three

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~~

Now here's a radio program about.... Radio Programs. This is one of those things were people sit around talking about how great it used to be. In this case, it's a discussion of Old Time Radio, from a year - 1964 - when what we now call Old Time Radio had only started ceasing to be about six or eight years earlier. The show was called "The Reviewing Stand" and involves a couple of stars of Old Time Radio, as well as the much beloved Franklyn MacCormack. This is the second tape in this post which originated at radio station WGN: 

Download: The Reviewing Stand - A 1964 Discussion of Old Time Radio

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It's time for an "Acetate of the Month"!!! YAY! Here's what today's acetate looks like - sorry one side is a bit blurry:

Anyway, I do not know who these jazzmen are (or were), but here's what they sounded like, on that 10 inch Recordisc, precisely four years to the day before my sister was born, on July 14, 1946. As noted on the label, these are copies of another disc, which likely explains the rather wobbly and low quality sound of the disc: 

Download: Unnamed Band - Blues At Half Price

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Download: Unnamed Band - Lady Be Good

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~~

And as always, let's finish with a "Very Short Reel". Here, courtesy of Impact Sound Studios, is an ad for Quick and Reilly of Palm Beach. AND, nicely tying together the post, the contents of this ad hearken back to the earlier Buddy Black tape, since this deals with investments, as well as to the audio letter, since it features another person with an only slightly less annoying, fingers-on-chalkboard, New Yawk accent: 

Download: Impact Sound Studios - Quick and Reilly, Palm Beach Ad

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