Some Rare Early Johnny Carson Tonight Show Segments, An Interview with a Six-Year-Old, Two Very Different Tapes of Singing, and "The Children's Hour"

I have something extra special to lead off with today, but first, a bit of housekeeping. 

Eric Paddon fills in the gaps yet again regarding my WOR posting, documenting that the first Long John segment is from October 6th, 1962, and that the second segment late on October 17th and early on October 18th, 1962. His comments can be found at the bottom of that post, and are most informative - I encourage you to read them. 

And an anonymous poster - apparently as much of an obsessive as I am - sent me the following comment regarding one of the items in my last post: 

Just thought you might like to know that the Michigan News tape is the 1000th individual mp3 you have put up on the Inches Per Second blog since you started it back in 2015.

The comment goes on say that the number 1000 does not include anything I posted at WFMU. Wow - 1000 items for folks to download. I'm glad I started doing this. 

Finally, a few people let me know that the last offering I shared from the Jack Eigen collection was actually a repeat (and relabeling) of a tape I'd already shared previously. It's way too late to fix that offering, but I will have more Eigen - for real this time - in my next post. 

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Today, I have something extra special to lead off the post - vintage recordings from the first year of Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. My understanding is that the videotapes of 98% of Carson's first decade in the big chair were erased by subsequent programs (leading to a lack of, among other things, any video of the appearance of Lennon and McCartney announcing the start of their Apple Corps). The two segments I have for you here do not appear to exist anywhere online, so these could literally be the only existing copies. 

The first, and probably more interesting one, is a portion of an appearance by Ella Fitzgerald and, briefly, Duke Ellington, on May 13th, 1963. There's about five minutes of music at the start, and the remaining 13 minutes or so are conversation. 

Song-poem enthusiasts (and hopefully any of you out there know about my other blog), might find some fascination in Ella's comments, midway through, about Teri Thornton. Ms. Thornton appeared on The Tonight Show three times during Johnny's first several months on the air, although never after that. Unfortunately, Ms. Thornton did not have the career that Ella and Johnny thought she would attain, but she is known to those of us in the song-poem fan contigent under the names Teri Summers, simply "Teri" and several other names. 

Download: Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, 5-13-63

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On the flip side of the same reel, there is an appearance by Allan Sherman, then-currently riding high with two recent number one albums (and a third about to be released, which would be his biggest). Happily (for those who are fans - and I LOVE his first two albums, the rest.... not so much), he performs a medley of some half-finished ideas in the form of very short songs, most of which I don't believe were ever released commercially, before he goes into a number from that upcoming album, "My Son, the Nut", at the end of the recording. 

Download: Allan Sherman on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, 7-10-63

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Switching gears quite a bit, although staying with television (I think), here's tape that I just love, even though I have absolutely no idea of its source, who was involved, or exactly what's going on here. It is post announced near the end as having been "The Children's Hour", and sure enough, it appears to be a series of skits, songs, etc. performed by a group of children. Some annoying editing was done at the time of the broadcast (and again, I'm assuming this was a TV program, and not a radio show). 

After a short rendition of "School Days", the program segues into some sort of play, described later as a Scottish Fairy Tale, which takes up much of the recording. The last several minutes are taken up with various kids singing various songs, with a bit of accordion thrown in, as well. The high point for me is a single minute, starting at about 16:00, where a child (can't tell if it's a boy or a girl) sings "Hey, Good Lookin'". Pretty much this whole tape is just enchanting, I think, but I am head over heels for that one performance - I just love this kid's voice and enthusiasm. The singing puts me in the mind of the early tapes of Merigail Moreland. I wish I knew who it was.   

Unknown: "The Children's Hour"

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The above tape also contains the following short segment of a few kids singing a few songs. They are not singers on the level of those heard during "The Children's Hour", and in fact, there are some wonderfully off-kilter notes, notes which would be downright embarrassing coming from the adult, but which I find endearing when coming from small children, as well as some deliberately goofy singing. Another sweet tape. The note at 2:53 is one for the ages. 

Unknown: Unknown - Peter Cottontail, Oh Susanna and Jesus Loves Me

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And speaking of children, and of sweetness, here is yet another tape that I heard for the first time recently, which contains a man interviewing a six-year-old. That could be cause for automated avoidance by some of you, and/or concerns about sweetness overload, but that's not what I hear. The man in question seems to be - or at least claims to be - a performer in a traveling circus. His relationship with the child, Joe Hogan, is never explained. The man's name is said once, by the child - maybe it's Patrick? 

I don't know what to make of the clipped sounds at the end of a few of the man's statements - Joe (the child) also seems to have trouble hearing what the man is saying at those moments, too, so perhaps this was not done face to face. Or something. 

I enjoy the fact that the child sometimes makes a long statement (as when he says the alphabet) and breathes in without stopping talking - he says the words while he's breathing. There are tapes of me at this age, and I would do the same thing. 

What I find remarkable here, and endearing, is that this six-year-old is clearly extremely bright, fully sure of himself, and holds up his end of the interaction completely. I'll let you discover the details for yourself, but I wouldn't be surprised if this kid went on to great success in school and elsewhere. 

Download: A Man Interviews Six-Year-Old Joe Hogan

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Here's a sampling from a small stack of tapes that I got somewhere, all featuring a woman and a man rehearsing songs in 1971, per the tape boxes. I really don't now more about them than that. The following offering actually features the contents of a two full five inch reels featuring this duo. For the most part, they are working on songs I'd prefer not to be in the same county as, at the very least. I generally loathe the sort of material that's heard here. Your mileage may vary.

Download: Unknown - Rehearsing a Bunch of Songs

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Here are the relevant parts of both tape boxes in one image: 

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And finally, a "Very Short Reel". The person speaking (undoubtedly to someone on the phone) is relating a story about getting an audio letter from someone that was recorded at a speed that her machine didn't run at, when she discovers that she herself is being recorded. This is more than a bit of a cheat, as this is simply the opening minute or so of a tape which is full of other recordings - almost entirely of some home recorded, and vapid, organ playing, with a few Hawaiian numbers from a record mixed in. But this goofy little recording leads off the tape, and I thought it was worth sharing. 

Download: Unknown - "He's Tapin' What I'm Sayin"

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A 1950's Rock Session, TV Variety from 1962, Some Odd Interviews, a Truly Bewildering Acetate, and 1980's Radio Jingles

What a wondrous cornucopia of sounds I have for you, this last night of  January, 2002. Let's get right to it. 

First up, a tape which is probably the most fascinating (to me, at least) that I've shared in some time. The box states that it contains excerpts from "The Brazilian Suite", but rather than that, this seven minutes of tape features a small combo, making an attempt to record a song, sometime very likely in the late 1950's, judging from the style of the song and the design of that Scotch tape box that housed it.

I can find no indication that this is a "known" song, and I've labeled it "Blue Tears". And a lovely little number it is, bathed in echo, with a soft backing of a few instruments and a female trio adding some "oohs" and such, and fronted by a lead singer who sounds frozen in 1957-58 or so. There is one complete take, followed by a few breakdowns, and another take is starting just as the tape runs out. 

What a lovely, mysterious little wonder. 

Unknown - Blue Tears (multiple takes)

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Okay, that's the tape that I was most excited about. Here's one that many other readers may find even more fascinating. It's from a collection of tapes that I bought a few decades ago, and am still going through (!), by someone who recorded television shows and performances which were of interested to him or her fairly incessantly in the 1960's. There is a photo of the inside of the tape box, below, but here is a rundown of what you'll hear, during the nearly 90 minutes contained in this recording: 

1.) Mort Sahl hosting the Tonight Show - the last show of a week of hosting duties, while NBC was waiting for Johnny Carson to be available. The date is June 15, 1962, and lengthy excerpts of the show are heard, including an interview with the secretary for the Gemini astronauts, and conversations with someone who appears to be a professor, about some fairly weighty subjects. The recording of this show takes up more than half of the tape. 

2.) The Dave Brubeck combo performing on The Ed Sullivan Show on June 17, 1962

3.) The next subsequent episode of the Tonight Show - from the following Monday, June 18th (hey, that was my brother's eighth birthday!), featuring Steve Lawrence hosting, Steve Allen and songwriter Billy Rose as guests (Allen sings) and, believe it or not, Mort Sahl returning, as another guest.

4.) Oscar Peterson performing on The Today Show (undated)

5.) And my favorite segment, at the end, the wonderful, incomparable Limeliters, performing a few songs on what appears to also be The Today Show (also undated) 

Download: TV Recordings, 1962 - Mort Sahl, Dave Brubeck, Steve Allen, Oscar Peterson, tThe Limeliters

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And here's the inside of the tape box, with The Limeliters' name spelled incorrectly!: 

 

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Here's a tape which is more than a bit of a mystery to me. It sounds like a series of interviews for various positions, but the variety of positions makes me think that this was something else, perhaps even a rehearsal or practice at either interviewing people or being interviewed. 

There are a few references to the Indianapolis Hilton, so I suspect that's where this was being recorded, and most of the jobs being interviewed for involve hotel work of some sort. But not all of them, and not a single one seems to be for the same specific job as any of the other interviews. So it's sort of strange. Strange enough that I thought I'd share it with you. See what you think!

Download: A Series of Interviews at the Indianapolis Hilton

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And now it's time for our "Acetate of the Month". Now if you thought the purpose of the interview tape was inscrutable, or if you thought the "Blue Tears" tape was mysterious, that all may be true, but neither is as inscrutable or mysterious as today's Acetate. 

Imagine my surprise and bewilderment when I heard the following sounds - clearly and entirely backwards - coming out of an unlabeled acetate. 

Download: Bizarre Backwards Acetate

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My guess is that this was made for use as some sort of effect on some radio program. 

Now I'm sure a lot of you have the ability to turn this around, using one type of software or another, but I've done it for you, and the results are just as bewildering - here we have an old woman singing a sort of nonsensical folk song - one I am unfamiliar with, in which one of the key words is "pumpernickel" - with her performance chopped up so as to make the rendition all the more incomprehensible. Then, of course, they flipped it backwards for the acetate recording. Wow. 

Download: Bizarre Backwards Acetate (reversed)

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Finally, our very short reel, and a return to normalcy. What we have here is the production of a company called Continental Recordings, with a little more than three minutes of jingles and production music for WGAN, AM 560 in southern Maine

Download: Continental Recordings - WGAN Jingles and Production Music, 1982

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And here's that tape box: 

Comments are welcome and encouraged!

See you next time....

A Sweet Tape by a Musical Family, Early Johnny Carson and a Few Odds and Ends

Hello, everybody, Hello!

I have five selections from my collection today, ranging far and wide as a sampling of the eclectic nature of that collection. 

First of all, a tape that I just love. One of the things I treasure most, when digging through tapes, is finding a tape which reflects honest-to-goodness love and affection of family, and people having a really good time. And that's the way I hear this tape. 

This is almost certainly from the same family who recorded the very first post I shared on this site, "A Gaggle of Giggling Twelve Year Olds". The parrot heard on that tape is frequently heard here - I've edited out more than 20 minutes of recordings of the bird making noise, which was interspersed with the sections shared here. And I recognize some of the same voices. 

Anyway, the majority of this tape is made up of children who are in the midst of learning to play instruments - accordion and piano - as well as singing naturally and with great enthusiasm. I understand that for some of you that immediately spells torture, and I will not try to argue with you - in some cases (not here), I'd fully agree. 

But for me, this is gold. Some may hear a bit of brow-beating in the dad pushing his daughter to play her song, early in the tape, but there is genuine and strong affection clearly apparent on both sides, and the girl soon makes fun of dad, as soon as he's out of earshot, certainly knowing full well he'd be able to hear it later. She's not feeling harassed - she wants to share what she can do. 

The first half of the tape features music played by kids who are just at the start of learning, interspersed with a silly conversation with "Donald Duck" - a cartoon voice I've never been able to stand - and some great play-acting between two girls, sisters, I think, in a short skit - which may be my favorite section of the tape. 

There's also a neat little interaction between father and daughter about a test she took, and then it's back to the music. At about the 26 minute point, the remainder of the original is erased, with the announcement that it's now 1962 (I believe we've gone forward two years or so), and we're going to hear how much the musicianship has improved. In that last segment, we again hear piano, accordion, and several duets for piano and voice, with one of the girls repeatedly singing in a fairly over-the-top dramatic style which I, again, find deeply endearing. 

Of all the tapes I've shared in the past few months, this is my favorite. 

Download: A Collection of Musical Performances and Fun Conversations

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This one doesn't require anywhere near as much explanation. This is simply a recording made of short segments of two episodes of The Tonight Show, less than 18 months after Johnny Carson took over as host. First we hear humorist and rancontour Sam Levenson talking about a variety of things, particularly his history with the violin, followed by some violin playing. Then, probably from another episode (I believe both of these are from January or February of 1964), Johnny talks about an earlier show which featured a "talking" dog, and a clip from that show is shared. 

Download: Excerpts from Early Tonight Shows -Sam Levenson and a Talking Dog - early 1964.mp3

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In February of this year, I shared a tape from Joe Gerossi, a man who seemed to have considered himself quite the wit, in which he was heard in a variety of sessions and with a variety of friends. I have since found that I have at least two more tapes of Joe Gerossi in my collection. One of them has not yet been digitized, but will be, soon. The other only features him for a few moments, telling some ethnic jokes of the type typical way back when at the start of the tape, and offering a few other thoughts at the end. In between was a full two hours of a very badly Dean Martin TV roast show, which I am not sharing here. 

And now, Heeeere's Joe: 

Download: A Few Ethnic Jokes from Joe Gerossi

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Next up, here's an example of something I have many varieties of: The Stereo Demonstration Tape. From the dawn of Reel-to-Reel stereo in 1956 to at some time in the late 1960's, purchasing a new tape recorder often meant also receiving a tape demonstrating the wonders of the reel to reel world, particularly if you'd purchased a stereo machine, which were wildly expensive - a single stereo pre-recorded tape of your favorite performer in 1957 cost about $75 in today's dollars, so imagine how much the new machine cost. 

Anyway, the "Voice of Music" company seems to have been particularly aggressive in this marketing aspect, as I have several five inch reels - both demos and short performances of musical works - bearing their imprint. Here is a copy of the Stereo Demonstration Tape from Voice of Music. 

I will add one more thing - because this tape dates to the days when "Stereo" meant two channels recorded across the entire width of the tape (and not the four channel, two direction style which became the industry standard by the end of the '50's), we're technically only hearing half of the programming here. It's still in stereo, but my more modern stereo machine is only playing half of each signal. I hope that makes sense. 

Download: Voice of Music Stereo Demonstration Tape

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And finally, no post would be complete without a very short reel. Here's an ad for "Tess Electronics". I don't have a box for this one, so there's no specific date, aside from "June 9th", but I'm guessing the 1980's. And I certainly hope it's my tape machine that couldn't well handle this reel, or perhaps that it's deteriorated over the years, as so many 1980's tapes have done, because, for an ad for Electronics, this thing sounds awful, with muddy sound in the right channel and frequent clicking noises. 

Download: Tess Electronics - Ad for the Week of June 9th

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Mort Sahl Hosts the Tonight Show! PLUS Some Truly Odd Coca-Cola Ads

Howdy, everyone,

As you will have seen if you read my other blog, this has been a truly hectic and busy month, so I will not be typing nearly as much as I often do, allowing much more to be experienced by the listener without all those comments from me.

But first, I want to continue to the Scotch Tape Box series, and that's where I'll do most of my commenting for today. Two entries ago, I shared the box that seems to have been the one they settled on for most of the 1950's, then last time, I went a bit out of turn and showed the 10 inch reel box that seems to have been their style for quite a while in the '50's and maybe into the '60's.

Below you will find the box I believe came next, and it's a radical change from the "picture of a reel of tape" which had been the focal point, to one degree or another, from each previous design:

I believe this design replaced the iconic black-with-most-of-a-reel design some time in the very late 1950's, and was the going design for a couple of years. I say this both because of the material I've found on such tapes over the years - the likely dates of those recordings, and, most centrally: because I literally never saw one of these until I started collecting tapes in the 1980's. That dovetails nicely with the fact that my family did not have a reel to reel machine that worked well - at all - from about 1960 until the fall of 1963. There would have been no reason to buy tapes during that period.

Now, Scotch is promoting the high quality of the tape, and suggesting via the image, that it is what the studios use - and that was probably fairly accurate. This happens to be a 2400 foot reel, which was twice the length that the first reels of tape had. They had previously expanded to 1800 feet, and now made the tape even thinner and lengthened it again. The box says "Double Length - Double Strength", and while the former was absolutely accurate, the new, thinner tape was not in any way stronger - it was more fragile and more likely to stretch and damage, just as you'd imagine. It got even worse when they thinned the tape again and crammed 3600 feet on the same roll of tape, about a decade later.

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Okay, like I said, I'm just going to put up this rare and wonderful tape and let it unspool for your enjoyment, without commenting much at all. Here we have an episode (or I think perhaps parts of multiple episodes - I listened to it months ago) of NBC's "Tonight Show", featuring the guest hosting of Mort Sahl. The main part of the tape is an episode featuring several famous women discussing male/female relationships. I'm fairly certain this comes from the several months between Jack Paar's departure from the show and Johnny Carson's arrival, a period during which NBC had multiple guest hosts for the show. If I had more time, I'm sure I could figure out the date(s) of this recording. This is an amazing 90 minutes of tape.

Download: Mort Sahl and Guests - The Tonight Show (1962)
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And here's a VERY peculiar tape I heard for the first time, just this week. It features nine Coca-Cola radio, each one of them featuring a string of helpful household hints that, aside from a couple, have NOTHING to do with Coca-Cola, interspersed with the then-current jingle. I'd love to know how these were received in 1971, because hearing them today is befuddling. Make sure you remember to rub lighter fluid on the walls of your house!

Download: Nine 1971 Coca-Cola Radio Ads
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Finally, I again pulled out a "very short tape" from the pile of them I have by the tape recorder, and found that it was labeled ""Clock Jingles". However, that seems unrelated to the tape's actual content, which is a series of ads for several businesses - no doubt in the same market - very likely from the same advertising company. The link below lists the apparent names of the companies (and, for the first one, the radio station). I'm very unsure that I have them all right, but again, maybe someone out there can identify the location and correct names for these companies.

There are 16 1/2 jingles/ads heard here in just 135 seconds. I say "1/2" because the ad that starts at 1:04 is incomplete - it plays just as you'll hear, on the tape.

Download: Unknown - WMMM, Kettering’s Bread, Sorrow’s, First Federal & Corwin’s Ford
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