VERY SHORT REELS FESTIVAL!!!

 Today I have something a bit different. Every time I go to upload more stuff for this site or my other site, I can quickly get a bead on how interesting the most recent post, and its various parts, turned out to be to readers/listeners. And that's because I can see how many times each sound file has been accessed (whether played or downloaded - it doesn't distinguish). 

So it is that I have, for a long time, known that the most popular - or at least the most visited - part of each of my posts is the Very Short Reels feature. Those segments can get anywhere from two to five times as many listens/downloads as the average file. 

So today, I'm going to offer up nothing but tracks which are under five minutes long, a veritable VERY SHORT REELS FESTIVAL!!! Because this is sort of a massive undertaking (I have to attach each of the files, twice), I'm not going to have much to say about any of them. 

I have so many of these that this would probably be a good idea even if it didn't seem to be my most popular feature. This post features 25 files. I have nearly that many left of this length to share, going forward, and no doubt will be making more in the coming weeks and months. 

And overview: I am not claiming that all of these are from tiny tapes, which is what I usually feature in the segment titled "very short reels". Some of these are the sum and total of what was on a reel. Others constitute something I found interesting on an otherwise uninteresting reel - maybe two minutes from a 90 minute reel, or maybe five minutes from a ten minute reel, or anything in between those two extremes. I'm going to share them pretty much in no particular order. 

And now, let's get started!

1.) Let's kick things off with a recording of a fellow who had a few things to say about Juvenile Delinquency in Indiana: 

Download: Unknown - Speech on Addressing Juvenile Delinquency in Indiana

Play:

~~

2.) Here are two fellows who are working on an Alvin and the Chipmunks impression, one speed lower than he will play it back: 

Download: Chipmunks Impression

Play:

~~

3.) And for those of you who don't have the technology to speed that up 100% faster, here's what they sound like, as Alvin and his brother: 

Download: Chipmunks Impression (Sped Up)

Play:

~~

4.) Here's an ad for a Transmission Shop which no doubt dates from the days not long after Rap Music went mainstream. I find this ridiculous, and ridiculously entertaining. 

Download: Weber Transmission Ad

Play:

~~

5.) Here's one about about as from the one above as possible: Several takes at doing a promo for a then-upcoming Studs Terkel program. 

Download: Studs Terkel Promos

Play:

~~

6.) I've labeled this one "Brief, Difficult to Understand Phone Conversation", and that about covers it:

Download: Brief, Difficult to Understand Phone Conversation

Play:

~~

7.) This next one is heard, as are all the others, exactly as it spools off the reels. But this one is more than a bit chaotic. It would appear that a radio station had some sort of a treasure hunt going on, and someone, from the station or elsewhere, recorded bits and pieces of the daily "clues", back to back to back, sometimes not catching the entire segment. 

Download: Unknown - Treasure Hunt Clues

Play:

~~

8.) I have several tapes involving someone named Buddy Black, who was a radio personality.... somewhere, at some point. Here is an audio letter, from another Buddy, to Buddy Black, on his 50th birthday, in 1961: 

Download: Audio Letter to Buddy Black on His 50th Birthday

Play:

~~

9.) Here's are two young children, doing a math problem while recording a message to someone, or perhaps pretending they are on a radio station. I'm certain this was once a longer, and probably quite enjoyable segment, but all but the last 43 seconds of this recording were erased by some other material, and this is what was left. 

Download: "Working on All Kinds of Subjects"

Play:

~~

10.) All I'll say about this next one is Get Ready To Feel Hungry - YUM!

Download: Magic Marshmallow Crescent Puffs Recipe Ad

Play:

~~

11.) The title of this one pretty much says it all: "Almost Telling a Story and Singing Along with Sinatra":

Download: Almost Telling a Story and Singing Along with Sinatra

Play:

~~

12.) And say, weren't you just asking what bands were coming to the larger Chicago area for concerts? Do you want to spend our money on Peter, Paul and Mary or Ted Nugent? 

Download: WKQX and WDAI Concert Line

Play:

~~

13.) As I may have mentioned in the past, I was gifted with about a hundred tapes from a fellow in Kingsport, TN, about 20 years ago. Nearly all of these were recordings of local classical concerts, but here's a neat little segment of local radio, including part of a neat Pepsi ad, from one of those tapes. 

Download: Brief Segment of WKPT, Kingsport, TN, Newscast and Pepsi Ad

Play:

~~

14.) Here's something I greatly enjoyed: from an otherwise fairly faceless and dull tape of a live performance recording by a small combo, here's a moment where they start "Bye Bye Blues" with the sax player introducing the tune in a different key than the rest of the band. The goofy part is less than a minute long, but I've left in the entire performance, in order to give a flavor of the rest of the tape. There are also a few spots here where everyone is not quite on the same beat of the measure. Both the wrong key issue and the beat issue are mentioned in the comments at the end.

Download: Unknown Combo - Bye Bye Blues (In Different Keys)

Play:

~~

15.) Well, after that, perhaps you'd like a Rheingold Beer: 

Download: Rheingold Beer Ad

Play:

~~

16.) This one I labeled "Weird Short Tape". The speaker here appears to have been using a tape recorder which ran at a variable speed, based on how much tape was on each side of the three inch reel. I've come across this phenomenon on three inch reels many times. I think it was probably a small dictation style machine that only handled three inch reels. Usually, the voices seem to get closer and closer to what their actual voices sounded like as we get towards the end of the tape: 

Download: Weird Short Tape

Play:

~~

17.) I have previously shared short tapes of Firestone Tire ads. Here is another one, not previously shared, from May of 1969, featuring four ads, as detailed on the box: 

Download: Four Firestone Tire and Rubber Company Ads - To Start 5-5-69

Play:

~~

18.) Someone named Larry Ferrari had a program of organ music, somewhere on some TV station. His show was followed by "You Asked For It". Here is a tape with a short fragment of the end of Larry's show and the beginning of "You Asked For It": 

Download: The Larry Ferrari Show & You Asked For It (Fragment)

Play:

~~

19.) Here's a 1982 Dentyne Ad: 

Download: 1982 Dentyne Commercial

Play:

~~

20.) And a 156 second tape containing some unlabeled production music. This actually seems to be the same track, twice, and the tape box, indicating a length of 65 seconds, probably confirms that:

Download: Unknown Production Music

Play:

~~

21.) Aside from the sped-up Chipmunks recording, this next one is the shortest of the batch, at 22 seconds. Here, someone promos a foreign policy special, to be hosted by someone named Dancy. Or perhaps Dancy is doing the promoting. Maybe the tape box will make it more clear to one of you than it does for me: 

Download: Unknown - Three Takes on a News Headline

Play:

~~

22.) Here's all that's left of an audio letter. What's heard here is the end of the first side (the rest erased by something else), the very start of the second side, then the end of the second side (again, the majority of the second side having been erased. It's a little choppy, but I hope that makes sense. 

Download: Short Fragment of an Audio Letter

Play:

~~

23.) Another segment from those Kingsport, TN tapes. This is a fairly creative and interesting ad for a used car lot. Nothing in the first 40 seconds gives ANY indication as to what this ad is promoting. The tape continues for a moment with part of an ad for a pharmacy. Too bad we didn't get to hear any of that stomping Tex Beneke music. 

Download: Scott Motors Used Car Lot, Kingsport, TN

Play:

~~

24.) I made an exception for the randomness of this presentation, due to the just passed 4th of July Holiday. The last two items have patriotic themes. First is a Public Service Announcement for safe driving in Astoria, Oregon, another one of more than a dozen tapes from a station in that town, which I bought more than a decade ago, and which I have featured here multiple times. 

Download: House of Chan 4th of July Safety PSA, for KAST-AM

Play:

~~

25.) And finally, from the "What the Hell Was That, Man?" file, comes a reel I've named "Weird Stars and Stripes Forever Tape". If you don't listen to any of the other tapes here, I really encourage you to listen to this one. It's pretty out there, as out there as 53 seconds can get, anyway. 

Download: Weird Stars and Stripes Forever Tape

Play: 

~~

Well, that's my show for today. I hope you found something - and maybe even several somethings - to enjoy! Please let me know if you'd like to see this feature repeated. 

A Lot of Jack Paar, A Letter from Korea, New Things with Bobby, Astoria Oregon, and Our Regular Features, Too!

Howdy, everyone!

I have another wide variety of recorded material for you today. I'll start with the one I suspect will be far and away the most popular of the six offerings. 

It's another recording of Jack Paar shows! These have been very well received before, so why not offer up some more. 

But I have to be up front here - I have not listened to this lately. It looks like I made this MP3 well over a year ago, and I don't really recall what's there. I have not re-listened since, but when I found that I hadn't offered up this compendium yet, I thought it would be an excellent idea to do so. I do recall that, as indicated, it's not a single show, at least not all the way through, but rather, there are segments, probably from more than one episode. 

So please enjoy another 77 minutes of vintage Jack Paar. 

Download: Jack Paar and Guests - Various Jack Paar Segments

Play:

~~

Okay, on to Korea. During the time I was posting at WFMU, I offered up four tapes featuring an army doctor who had worked in Korea, in a command role. Three of those postings featured tapes back home to his wife, while he was in Korea (all after the hostilities had ended). There were five tapes featured in those three posts. The fourth and final reel shared was an audio diary of a road trip he and his wife took, in retirement. They were well received at the time.

That last tape can be found here, and it also contains links to the three previous postings of tapes from Korea. Recently, I discovered that I have at least one more reel featuring an audio letter to his wife, from this doctor, whose name was Lt. Col. William Reiber. It is a longer tape than the other Korea tapes I have shared - a five inch reel rather than a three inch reel. He mentions running out of things to say due to having chosen a longer tape. And there are a few things that are fairly cringeworthy, when views from today, particularly the segments about his "houseboy". 

But overall, what's here is pretty magical - a slice of life in a time and place that precious few people today experienced. I'll let you experience its various fascinations yourself. Here it is: 

Download: Lt. Col. William Reiber - Audio Letter From an Army Doctor in Korea - 4-15-54

Play:

And here are both sides of the tape box!: 

~~~~

Okay, now let's switch gears so violently that we break the transmission. And this next segment is probably sort of self-indulgent, but I'm gonna share it anyway. I hope you'll listen, but understand if you don't. 

Because this is a tape of me, at age ten. When I recently posted several media recordings that I made at that age, including some rare game show recordings, I added that my early personal reels - those I was gifted with to use for my own recordings, thusly: 

Most of the recordings were pretty unlistenable by anyone who wasn't me, and wasn't me in grade school. I was a severely hyperactive child, prone to simply talking to myself, or pretending I was presenting a (usually very uninteresting) show, or even just banging on things with other things, like a reject from a Spike Jones cover band. 

There was, however, one recording in which I created a "fake show" that I was looking forward to finding, and last week, I found it. Maybe I like this because I remember this day, and this recording, as clear as I remember what I did this morning. Maybe I like it because it's goofily entertaining in its own way. Or maybe I'm the only one who will like it. 

Here, I am pretending I have my own radio channel (later identified on the tape as WREP - that is, W, followed by my initials), and I am demonstrating a home art project that anyone can do (and which I did a lot, around that age). You take a sheet of newspaper, preferably one which has a lot of different squares of stories, ads, or whatever, and your tempera paints, and you paint the different boxy areas different colors, so that no two boxes next to each other are the same color. An art project is probably not the best thing to do while pretending one is on the radio, but I still think this is adorable, and again, I know exactly where I was and what that space looked like, at that moment. 

A couple of things to note here. On two occasions, I say "makes the adjustment", in the voice and cadence of Shelley Berman, which is a lift from one of Berman's greatest bits, one I had long since memorized at age 10. You will also hear my mother and sister, briefly. And perhaps most fun of all, near the end, you will hear my sister playing (and briefly, singing along with) the Absolutely Free album, by The Mothers of Invention. 

Download: Bobby - The New Things Show

Play:

I will add that this artistic "show" was followed by two brief "radio" shows, each featuring an improvised song that the shows were named after, the "Buns Galore" show and the "Fannies Galore" show (butts were a constant source of humor in our household). The "Fannies Galore" show song was rather entertaining, but I will resist the urge to post it here unless there is a groundswell of support for me doing so.

~~~

Many years ago, I bought a bit batch of tapes which turned out to be from a radio station in Astoria, Oregon, circa 1990 or so. I've featured individual tapes from that collection in my "Very Short Reels" project over the years. But here is a 13 minute reel that collects PSA's sponsored by local business and a few local Astoria ads, interspersed for some reason with some ads for Stroh's. 

Download: A Collection of Ads for Stroh's and Local Astoria, Oregon Businesses

Play: 

~~

And now, the Acetate of the Month. This one features a small child named Gail along with a woman named Hattie. If I could find the disc, I'd post a picture here, and maybe it would have more information. 

It takes about 75 seconds to get going, but the last 2 1/2 minutes are deeply endearing. I particularly enjoy the snoring sound offered at the end of "Little Boy Blue", and the duo singing featured in the last minute or more. Let's suppose this is from the mid-1940's, and if so, Baby Gail would now be about 80 years old. 

Download: A Presto Acetate - Baby Gail and Hattie

Play:

~~

And finally, the ever-popular feature, the "Very Short Reel". 

I love this little scrap of tape: What we have is a couple of guys testing their machine, going through a variety of topics and accents. A radio announcer in the background seems to announce WSPL or WFPL, but I can find no definitive information about stations with either of those call letters at 104.3 anywhere, at any point. Maybe someone out there knows, or can find out. 

Download: "Testing" - An 88 Second Chat

Play:

Hoagy Carmichael, An Impatient Grandma, A 1976 Aircheck, and How to Bisect an Angle

Greetings, 

I have another nice cornucopia of sound for y'all today, but first, I wanted to give great thanks, yet again, to Eric Paddon, who has been of great help over the years getting to the bottom of the history behind things I've shared. His recent note to me is so great, and so essential to the site and the post it relates to, that rather than just link to that post, which is here, I'm also going to repeat his comment in its entirety in today's post. It relates to the series of game show recordings that were posted in the middle of my last entry. 

Here's what he wrote:

The index of Gil Fates book on the history of "What's My Line?" reveals this particular program was part of the August 21, 1969 taping session for the show's 1969-70 season originally. That said, even if this was recorded in 1971, it would not be a "rerun" per se because syndicated game shows (which WML was starting in the Fall of 1968) in those days were "bicycled" to different stations and thus no two stations would be showing the same episodes at the same time. And if a station signed up to air the program after it had been on for a year, it would have the option of running the previous year's shows first! This practice continued with syndicated game shows up through the end of the 1970s and it explains why some stations would sometimes be airing a syndicated game show more than a year or two after actual production had ceased (or why in the case of "What's My Line?" some stations would be airing episodes featuring Bennett Cerf on the panel more than a year or two after he died). Wally Bruner is the host, and the panelists are Gene Rayburn, Nancy Dussault, Jack Cassidy and Sue Oakland (who did the on-air editorials for WCBS-TV in this era). A rare week when Arlene Francis was off.

The "Beat The Clock" fragment is more rare and potentially from an episode that doesn't exist (in contrast to the WML which is accounted for). The 1969-70 season was the first year of the BTC revival with Jack Narz hosting. That first season it was taped in New York, but starting in its second year, production moved to Montreal to save costs. GSN and BUZZR have never aired any episodes from the first season in New York which suggests they don't exist.

"Words and Music" would be the rarest of the three as NBC did not keep any of their daytime game shows. No videos have ever surfaced and only one other audio recording in the past. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpIRFQTfjDU&t=39s

Many, many thanks, Eric. 

~~~

And now, here's a tape that came with a sheet of paper stuff into the box that looks like this: 

The contents of the tape are as marvelous as that sort of haphazard capturing of it might indicate. Because here we have nearly an entire broadcast of a short lived show titled "The Saturday Night Revue" which ran in 1953 and 1954. Fans of Hoagy Carmichael will particularly love this tape, as he hosts the show and performs several of his best known songs.

These are interspersed with a few very draggy and fairly unfunny comedic sketches and other material. I find it interesting that they chose to do what to modern ears will be a very offensive Asian caricature introduction at one point, yet Carmichael seemingly knew well enough to change the words to one of his songs, a moment later, which contained a far less offensive (in 1953) word, singing that the Hong Kong Blues was about an unfortunate "southern" man. 

Incidentally, it's clear that the note above was written decades after this program was recorded - just have a look at the zip code, area codes and fax number at the bottom of the page. The writer also identified the Asian bit as "racist". 

The show is not complete - or perhaps this is parts of more than one episode - anyway, the tape ran out during a comedy sketch. And the sound/tape quality is fairly bad at some points. But what's here is a pretty good snapshot of a variety show in the early Eisenhower years. 

Download: The Saturday Night Revue, Circa 1953

Play:  

The flip side of the tape is a different animal entirely. I suspect it's from the same time period, although I really don't know. Our note-taker has offered up a few comments on the flipside of the page (see below), mostly saying that "Grandma is Crazy", and indicating that there is later a phone call in which we mostly only hear our end. 

I went back and forth about whether to include this 30 minute recording, and finally decided it was worth preserving for its acute level of real "around the house" feel. Anyone who has dealt with a relative with dementia will find the "Grandma" section familiar and probably a difficult listen, and that's all I'll say. And the phone call is entertaining enough, if you like such things - it would be easy enough with sound software to get a good portion of the other person's conversation, too. 

Here's that tape. 

Download: Recordings Around the House, circa 1953: Grandma Wants to Go Upstairs, A Phone Call

Play: 

And here's the flip side of that piece of paper:

~~~

Next, I have a "scoped" aircheck. Many - perhaps most - of you might know that when a DJ wants to promote his talent, for a new opportunity or any other reason, he or she will record an airshift or two, and cut out all of the music, aside from the section where he or she is talking. 

That's essentially what we have here, with a few odd differences. The DJ's name might be Lan Shepard. I can't tell for sure, and a web search was no help. He was definitely doing overnights on WWCO in Waterbury Connecticut, and combined parts of at least two overnight shifts into this short (12 1/2 minute) tape. 

What I find odd is that this scoped aircheck contains the newscast - which Shepard did not do - and some commercials, which doesn't sound like the DJ either. 

This also served to remind me - not that I've ever forgotten - how wretched most top 40 hits were in 1976. Blech. Actually, my favorite thing here is the concert ad at around the ten minute mark. Fleetwood Mac opening for Jefferson Starship!! Can you believe it? I'm sure that 1976 was the last time that would have been possible. 

Download: Scoped Airchecks - Lan Shepard, Overnight on WWCO, Waterbury Connecticut, June, 1976

Play:  

~~~

Switching gears pretty dang aggressively, here's the contents of one of those three inch reels I've mentioned from time to time. Both sides of the tape total just under eight minutes. On side one, a young person explains her (while I'm guessing it's a "her") project, "How to Bisect an Angle". When she's done, we hear the last few seconds of someone playing the ukulele. 

On side two, it's "Joke Time", and I find this to be a massively entertaining little four or so minutes with a group of what I'm guessing are middle school aged kids. The presence (at the end) of one of the Beatles' first two US hit songs in the background, and their enthusiastic singing along, date this to at least the late winter of 1964, and I'm guessing that it's from just about that time, and not much later. 

Download: How to Bisect an Angle & Joke Time

Play: 

~~

And finally, it's time for our "Very Short Reel". And here's a very short reel about a very short lived Baseball team, The Rochester Aces. They only existed under that name for a year - and it was a very good year, too, ending up in a trip to the 1993 Northern League championship, which they lost. You can read about them here. 

Download: Rochester Aces Promo - June 1993

Play:

And here's that tape box!:

This Tape is a Goldmine!!!!

 Hello, everyone, 

Today, I have something I think is quite special. I'm going to give quite a bit of backstory, and then get to today's offerings, most of which come from the same tape. That tape is one that I made, over 50 years ago. 

The backstory: I've already shared in multiple places that the tape recorder was among my favorite "toys", even as a five and six year old. And there are seemingly endless recordings of me, me with my brother and me with my friends, on my family's tapes, starting from when I was about those ages. 

On Christmas, 1969, the year I was nine, I was gifted with the first reel of tape which was to be mine, all mine. I had it completely filled, mostly recording at the super slow speed of 1 7/8, and for some of it, recording in mono on all four channels, by the end of January, 1970. That's well over six hours of recording in about five weeks. 

By the fall of 1970, I was on my third "all mine" tape, and I announced at the beginning of it that this tape would be used to record things of interest off of the TV. I recorded an entire broadcast of an obscure animated cartoon ("Hoppity Goes to Town"), parts of "The Wizard of Oz", and parts of a few other broadcast movies. 

Around age 16, after cataloging all of my family's tapes, I then went through all of my personal tapes (about 36 of them, by that point), writing down what was on them, and where on the tape (per the counter on our reel machine) each section began and ended. For the earlier tapes, this had to be an exercise in tedium. Most of the recordings were pretty unlistenable by anyone who wasn't me, and wasn't me in grade school. I was a severely hyperactive child, prone to simply talking to myself, or pretending I was presenting a (usually very uninteresting) show, or even just banging on things with other things, like a reject from a Spike Jones cover band. 

There were periodic highlights, a few of which I'll share in the future, but mostly, these are probably less interesting than banging ones head against the wall. I know this because, about six months ago, I started digitizing these tapes and listening to them all the way through, doubtless for the first time since I was 16. 

But the one labeled "Bob Tape # 3" surprised me. For one thing, I never got finished documenting its contents, and skipped over the second side (both channels - which were recorded separately) completely. And that second side contained magic I didn't expect. For those of you who are not into vintage media (in this case, TV, mostly local TV) recordings, this is probably not the post for you - or you can skip down to the Acetate of the Month and the Very Short Reel. 

But if what I've described floats your boat like it does for me - and it floats my yacht - this is a treasure trove. A goldmine. A picture of much of what a ten year old might well have been watching - including a lot of child-focused commercials - during the period September 1970 to January 1971, in the Chicago market. 

Mostly, I'm going to share these in what appears to be chronological order, from the fall of 1970 to January of 1971, as they appear on side two of the tape. Then at the end, I have a bit of a hodgepodge, a single track made up of several short segments from 1970, from the first side of the tape. I wanted to get this post out today, which is the last chance I'd have until next weekend, and I didn't have time to chop that group of recordings up, the way I did with the other segments heard below. 

Two thing before I explain what each track features. First, at times I was quick to turn the machine off and then on again. Sometimes this was done in quick succession, maybe two or three times within ten seconds. Other times, I wasn't interested in capturing whatever the next thing turned out to be, often a segment or commercial, and didn't return to recording until a few minutes later. So parts of this are quite choppy.  

I should also mention that, in a few of these cases, the shows in question were children's shows which featured a variety of entertainments, some of them cartoons. I have edited out the cartoon soundtracks, which are mostly to films which are quite commonly available. 

Okay, let's start. First up is Ray Rayner. If you're not from Chicago, or not over 50 years old, I encourage you to read about Ray here. Ray was a legendary performer in a genre that has completely disappeared - the local morning kids show. And his show, on WGN, was more than that. He featured traffic reports, sang songs, did comedy bits (literally lip-synching to records), showed the local sports highlights, comment on current events (lightly), did crafts, hosted animal segments, and showed cartoons. At times (as you'll hear later), he simply engaged in conversations about a point of interest with his offstage crew. And in doing this, he BLEW AWAY all of the competition for ratings, among morning TV shows in Chicago. If you can find clips of him online, you will be absolutely befuddled by what he was doing. But it was wonderful, and as a child, Ray was something of a hero to me. I even recorded a song of sorts about him once, after he retired. 

Segment one is nearly seven minutes from a Ray Raynor broadcast. The sports results make clear that the date was 9/10/70. We start with the sports results and highlights (and you can hear me repeat the standings, then hear the wonderful Jack Brickhouse in the highlights), as well as the weather. After a cut, we hear Ray singing a song. He may sound like an amateur, but he had a long string of successes, concurrent with his morning show, as an actor in local dinner theatre. We finish with some commercials, interrupted at one point by yours truly. 

Download: Ray Rayner and His Friends - 9/10/70

Play:

The longest segment comes next, and (after a moment of some other show) it's a portion of "Bozo's Circus", probably from the same month. Again, this was a HUGE show in Chicago, with a ticket waiting list of over five years at times, and a massive TV audience. Ray Rayner was one of the clowns, Oliver (although he left the show the following year), with Bob Bell as Bozo, Roy Brown as Cookie, and Ringmaster Ned Locke, one of the sweetest personalities ever to appear on TV. 

This segment fascinates me, mostly for the opening bit. In the end, it's a shaggy dog joke related to Cookie drawing pictures while everyone else sings (and the joke is not worth the wait). But it's that singing that amazes me. For we are told that everyone is going to sing "Swingin' On a Star", from 1944 (26 years earlier). It's clear from this performance that nearly all of the children present know the choruses (in which the words change) well enough to sing along (and there would have been no point in having the words in front of them - most of these children were not old enough to read). Can you imagine a group of five year olds actively singing along to a hit from 26 years ago today? "It's All Coming Back to Me Now? One Sweet Day? I don't think so. Truly a moment captured in time. I love it. 

Part of a Sugar Crisp commercial follows, but then we cut to a few minutes of Herb Alpert style music. I'm not sure what this would have been, but I left it in. Then we hear a tedious skit about a flea circus, followed by a real treat, a Tony the Tiger ad (featuring Thurl Ravenscroft, of course). The show returns with the focal point of every Bozo episode, the Grand Prize Game. A McDonaldland commercial follows (by the way, I had a visceral, nearly hatred reaction to those McDonaldland commercials, when they debuted, which I believe was earlier in 1970 - I never did warm up to them). 

Download: Bozo's Circus, circa Fall, 1970
Play:

What follows may be the rarest thing on this tape. It's a recording of most of an episode of a short lived game show called "Words and Music", hosted by Wink Martindale. You can read about the show here. The show only lasted 94 episodes, and debuted on 9/28/70, so we've moved forward a bit in time for this recording. The segment is pretty well self explanatory. Unfortunately, is this case, the commercials are cut. 

Download: Words and Music (game show), circa Fall, 1970

Play:

This slides almost right into an episode of What's My Line. But first, we get to hear a legendary commercial for the local ABC news team. I've literally never forgotten the portrayal of the hapless weather girl in this ad. It's really good. The What's My Line episode features Joe Frazier as one of the guests. That he is introduced as the Heavyweight champ - which he was, starting in early 1970 - but also that he just had a song (a 45) released - which happened in late 1969 - makes me suspect this broadcast was a rerun. 

Download: What's My Line?

Play:

The game show segments keep getting shorter. Here's a two minute chunk of "Beat the Clock", and a bit of a commercial that followed: 

Download; Beat the Clock, Late 1970

Play:

And now we move into 1971. This nearly five minute segment captures the sign on, and opening segments, of a morning of broadcasting on WBBM, the CBS affiliate in town. We start with the national anthem, opening legal and promotional statements, as well as the opening and closing announcements for "Thought for the Day" - I chose not to record the actual thought itself. We then get a preview of the evening's broadcasts, nicely dating this recording to January 9, 1971. At the end, our announcer introduces the news, which we do not hear. But we do hear his name - George Menard - amazingly, the same George Menard who was heard at times during those late 1940's daytime radio shows I shared as part of the Porter Heaps collection, last year. 

Download: WBBM TV Sign-On, Preview, Etc, 1/9/71

Play:

We end the main part of this series with 93 seconds of odds and ends from the end of that part of the tape. I have NO idea what the first part of this section was supposed to be. Maybe someone else can enlighten us. Then there is another McDonaldland ad. And I hate the very sound of it. 

Download; Early 1971 TV Odds and Ends

Play:

So I mentioned above that there were other 1970 recordings elsewhere on the tape. They are, like some of those above, from September of that year. I have not, and will not have the time to chop these up, so I'm posting them here, because I really want to get this posted today. 

This montage is just over 15 minutes long, and here is what you'll hear. 

0:00: A few short commercials, with conversation in the background, followed by some messed up sounds from the TV (with my mother's amused response). 1:02: More of Ray Rayner, including another song, and some of those random conversations I mentioned earlier. Yes, this was Chicago's favorite morning show, by far. 2:52: More commercials

Then at 3:50: A lengthy segment of Bill Jackson's "Cartoon Town". This show, which aired on UHS channel WFLD, was the afternoon counterpart to Ray Rayner's show, although not as popular, and much more focused on entertaining children. In this segment, Bill is interacting with his character "Blob", a blob of clay which he would decorate, and which would talk to him via taped groans and other sounds. The Old Professor was another character. You'll hear me interact with the TV at one point. After a bit of some commercials, we have another Bill Jackson segment, the start of one where he would create a drawing out of a viewer's initials.

At 9:03: a further moment of Bill Jackson gives way to an ad for Girl Scouting (which is interrupted by a channel change to another Thurl Ravenscroft/Tony the Tiger ad and several other ads, including the unforgettable Baby Go Bye-Bye, and a tie in to H.R. Pufenstuf (which I hated even more than McDonaldland). The promo for Red Skelton dates all of these recordings to September of 1970, by the way). Finally, at 13:20: A few moments of the Saturday morning show, "Tomfoolery", which I LOVED, and which I recorded on other tapes several times. 

Download: Odds and Ends from September, 1970

Play:

Incidentally, buried in the middle of all this media recording, on this tape, is a perfect example of the sort of thing I was wont to do when recording myself. It is mercifully short, so I am going to share it here. I do not have any idea what my "stand-up" bit - or whatever it's supposed to be - meant. Clearly, I knew what I was saying, as I go through the routine (one line) twice and act out the audience reaction, but... I have no idea. 

Download: Bobby - The Any Pokabuuh Show, Featuring Bill Banana

Play:

~~

Now it's time for our Acetate of the Month. 

If you've been with me for a long time (or have heard my podcast on the subject), you know that I am very much in thrall to an album called "Musical Memories of Camp Bryn Afon", recorded in northern Wisconsin in 1965. 

What I've never shared with more than a couple of people is that I also have several acetates from another (unknown) camp, recorded in the late 1940's, but containing performances which have considerable similarities to (and some differences from) the Camp Bryn Afon recordings. I bought them all at the ALS Mammoth Music Mart (which I've also written about a lot), at least 30 years ago. Today, I will share both sides of one of those. It looks like this: 

As you can see, the acetate was recorded on August 16th, 1947, perhaps in honor of how Elvis would die just 30 short years later on that date, but probably not. 

Keep in mind that summer camps would have (and probably still have) all campers divided up into two teams, designated by colors. On Camp Bryn Afon, it's the Blue and the White. At this camp, it was the Gold and the Blue. Today's offerings are Gold Team songs. 

The "Gold Razz" is a series of rewritten pop hits, much the same as on the Camp Bryn Afon" album, but here performed as a medley, and given the acetate sound quality, I can't always make out what they're singing about, but I do know that "Stormy Weather" is turned into a complaint about Pink Eye (Conjunctivitis). There is also a reference to the St. Vitus Dance. It's pretty long for a 10 inch acetate - over three and half minutes, and there's quite a bit of variety. At one point there is an annoying hum, followed by some speed problems. This is on the disc and is not a result of my digitization. 

I love the energy of these performances, in much the same way I love the CBA album. 

Download: Girls' Camp - Gold Razz, 8/16/47

Play:

The flip side contains two far shorter songs, back to back, the "Gold Entrance" (to the tune of "Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead!) and the "Gold Fight Song" (to the tune of "Waitin' For the Robert E. Lee). 

Download: Girls Camp - Entrance Song and Fight Song

Play:

If anyone is interested in hearing more of these, I have several acetates from this camp. Just let me know.

~~

And finally, our Very Short Reel™. With primary elections very much in the news these days, I thought I'd share this little set of two advertisements, which the speaker appears to have recorded and put on the air with his own money. It seems he very much believed his friend belonged on the school board. 

There are several "Mountain Home School Districts" in the US, but I'm guessing, based on the speaker's accent, that this election was in the one located in Arkansas. 

The first ad indicates that the election was the next day. The second ad indicates that the election was on the day of the broadcast. 

Download: Tony Taylor Says Vote for Mike DeMass

Play:

The Return of Joe Gerossi, Belated Mother's Day Thoughts, A Garage Band, An Audition, Some Promos, and the End of a Family Visit

 Greetings, fans of measuring the speed at which recording tape passes by the erase, record and playback heads of a reel to reel machine. 

That's probably not actually why you're here... 

First, I would like to share that, as of last Monday, I will again be gainfully employed. Thanks to everyone who chimed in with encouragement and/or condolences regarding the loss of my previous job. As I wrote today on my other blog, the immediate effect here is that I have considerably less time, as I am ramping up in the new job, to blather on at length about things I'm sharing. Some of you may not see this as a problem...

What is also means here, at least for this posting, is that I have not had the time to scan new stuff, or to go back and listen in detail to anything I saved some time ago. So I'm sharing a half-dozen things today which I listened to some weeks, or maybe even months or years ago, without the benefit of re-listening. I can remember all of them, to one degree or another, but will not be nearly as detailed as usual. They are not mysteries to me, but their contents are not fresh on my mind, either. 

With that out of the way, let's get the recorded material you've been waiting for!

~~

Back in 2020, on two occasions, I shared the entertaining ramblings of someone named Joe Gerossi. Those posts can be found here and here. At the time of the second of those postings, I mentioned that there was a third tape of Mr. Gerossi, which I intended to digitize soon. I did do so, but then failed to share it for well over a year. Here is that tape, lasting nearly an hour. Again, I have not rescanned this tape since digitizing it, so you are free to discover its charms, and any sections which are less than charming, on your own.

Download: An Hour with Joe Gerossi

Play:

~~

Since Mother's Day is so close in the rear view mirror, here is a tape I've been sitting on for at least five years, waiting to remember to share it for Mother's Day. I hope this is close enough for there to be some enjoyment. It's a recording of a Primary School's Mother's Day program, recorded at some point in the 1950's. As I recall, the sound quality is extremely poor at points during this recording, but the overall sweetness of it prevails and made it worth sharing. 

Download: A Primary School Mother's Day Program

Play:

~~

Here's a tape I've simply labeled "A Garage Band Rehearses". I did just scan this one a bit to remind myself of the era, and found it contained multiple Chuck Berry numbers, "Gloria", "Wooly Bully" and the like, so I'm going to say circa 1965-66. 

Download: A Garage Band Rehearses

Play:

~~

Here is the only item I'm sharing this week for which I have a relevant image. This is the sticker placed right on the reel: 

As you can see, this is the announcer audition reel for someone named C. Hughes, made on November 30, 1956, just a short 65 1/2 years ago. Mr. Hughes certainly was an announcer of his era. Have a listen!

Download: C. Hughes Audition Tape, November, 1956

Play:

~~

And speaking of radio advertising, here are eight commercials put out by The National Religious Broadcasters, in all of five and a half minutes, from 1971: 

Download: Eight Promos for the National Religious Broadcasters

Play:

~~

Here's the final offering for today. I guess I could have made either of these last two items the "Very Short Reel" for the week, but as this one is the shortest, at under four and a half minutes. I've called this, "Comments at the End of a Family Visit", and it's from July 15, 1953. In it, we hear a short organ solo, then a series of family members - adults and children, at least some of them having the family name "Van Sickle" - talk about what a wonderful time they've been having. I hope they came back again. 

Download: Comments at the End of a Family Visit, 7/15/53

Play:

Vintage Folk Music Radio, More From Japan, Satchmo, Another Acetate, and The Man From Labatt

Hello, everybody, hello!

Before I get started with today's items, I wanted to share that I have again been invited to be part of a podcast. It's the same show - Ephemeral - which has featured elements of my collection four times in the past, and has had me on, as an interviewee, three of those times. 

This time around, I am sharing the world of the Star Ads. Those of you who have been with me since the WFMU days, or the 2003 365 days project before that, might remember the Star Ads, but in case you don't know what I'm talking about, I have shared excerpts from them here and here. 

The new podcast, which features several more , previously unshared Star Ads, can be heard at: 

https://www.ephemeral.show/episode/star-ads

~~

I also wanted to give an update on my last post, information which will be of great interest to those in the Chicago area, at least those over the age of 50. A new reader, Ed (and welcome and thanks, Ed), wrote in to confirm that "Coughlin's Corner" was indeed hosted by the future Chicago weatherman John Coughlin, but more interestingly, his sidekick on the show was none other than Ray Rayner, who would later become a star of children's television in Chicago for well over 20 years. I love Ray Rayner, and I'm glad to have that information. Thanks again, Ed!

And also, someone who calls himself "Old Guy" wrote in to say that the person in charge of the Charlie Louvin Fan Club (also from the last post), who received an audio letter from Germany, was located in New Oxford,  Pennsylvania, rather than New Rockford. Thanks to you, as well! 

Now if I could only make out the senders name, which is garbled by a bit of damaged tape, in the opening moments of that recording. 

And thanks to both of you - and everyone else who has written - for the kind words about my work on this blog. 

~~

Another cornucopia for you today, starting with a tape I first got to hear almost exactly 27 years ago, in the spring of 1995. And it was one of about a dozen tapes I had bought somewhere (can't recall) which I was very excited to play. And that's because they all contained vintage recordings of one of my favorite radio shows: The Midnight Special. Allow me to geek out about The Midnight Special for a half dozen paragraphs. 

The Midnight Special is legendary in Chicago. It began airing on the classical station WFMT around 1953, created by and initially hosted by none other than Mike Nichols. Hosting duties quickly turned over to two of the stations bigwigs, Norm Pellegrini and Ray Nordstrand, and remained in their hands - along with a third host, starting in the 1980's - for roughly 40 years. Their slogan was to play" folk music and farce, show tunes and satire, madness and escape". I've called it "Folk Music Radio" in the name of the post, and that was always the biggest part of the show, but as you'll hear, there were many other genres dipped into, as well.

Along the way, the program championed all sorts of musicians who were hardly being heard anywhere else, particularly in the years before the folk explosion at the end of the 1950's. They were also perhaps the first station in the country (or, at least outside of the Boston area) to play Tom Lehrer's music. My parents taped many favorites from the show, starting not long after its inception, and their New Year's Eve marathon shows were played every year, from long before I was born and well into the 1970's. 

The show took a dive, in my opinion, when people started to decide that if you played an acoustic instrument, you were automatically folk singer, even if you were singing navel-gazing songs. And so, somehow, "singer songwriter" and "folk music" got intertwined in a way I simply couldn't stomach, especially as I find them to be pretty much the antithesis of each other - the self-absorbed vs the global. To pick one example at random, James Taylor singing "Fire and Rain" - as much as one might like it - is not folk singing, and the fact that it's sung to an acoustic guitar does not make it so. I could go on, but I won't. I faded away from the show when the then-new host became the dominent and eventually only host, over 30 years ago. The show no longer resembled what it once was. Okay, end of rant.  

Anyway, these tapes were all from circa 1960, or a year or so on either side, and that was overwhelmingly exciting for me. My favorite of all of the episodes was this one, which dates from early October of 1960's, probably the first week of that month, based on the new releases mentioned and one comment from the host, who in this case is Norm Pellegrini (who I preferred to Ray Nordstrand, by the way). 

This is a recording of the entire two hour show, except for a verse or so of a Richard Dyer-Bennett song at the point that the tape needed to be turned over (and any time one can miss part - or all - of a Richard Dyer-Bennett performance is a happy moment for me). The commercials are included (except for a short period of time many years ago, WFMT has never allowed pre-recorded commercials - they are all spoken by the show hosts). There are segments here that I could do without, as there have been on every broadcast of the Special that I've ever heard, but the high points here are very, very high, and the low points are brief. 

The episode starts (after the introductory comments) with a track from the then-brand new Jimmie Driftwood album "Tall Tales in Song", the song is "Fi-Di Diddle Um-a Dazey", and upon hearing this tape, that immediately became an all time favorite of mine, which it is to this day. I sought out a used copy of that album starting virtually the next day, and not long after, Bear Family released ALL of Driftwood's RCA albums in a box set, which I gobbled up as soon as it was available. 

As mentioned, I have several more of these, as well as other Midnight Special tapes from the 1960's and '70's which I've picked up along the way, and if there is interest, I can digitize some of those. 

Download: Norm Pellegrini and Various Artists - WFMT: The Midnight Special, Early October, 1960

Play:

~~

Now, here's a little piece of tape featuring an interview with Mark David, who was a representative of Labatt Beer. The interviewer is one Bob Brokaw. I can't put my hands on this tape at the moment, to share an image (I digitized this about two years ago), but it was dated 7/22/64. The beer now claims to be the # 1 selling Canadian beer worldwide, but at the time of this interview (and this is the point of the interview), the beer was being introduced in the US. And we even get a weather forecast, another Firestone Tire ad (after those I shared last time), and a fantastic, if very brief, ad for Capri Luncheon Meats! This program aired on KGO, San Francisco. 

Download: Bob Brokaw Interviews Mark David, The Man from Labatt, 7-22-64

Play:

~~

Moving on, here's another interview, or at least a fragment of an interview. This might be a commonly available recording, I don't know, but in case it isn't, I thought I'd share it here. It's six minutes of an interview with Louis Armstrong, in which he is very briefly being asked questions about his career, in chronological order. Not included here (as it came after the playing of several Armstrong live tracks), is the announcer explaining that the interview is from Vancouver, in 1954. I believe this is wrong, as the album he is promoting seems to have come out in 1958, but I've kept the date as 1954 here, since that's what's identified. The key point here, I think is that "Hillbillies Make Love, Too". 

Download: Segment of Interview with Louis Armstrong, Vancouver, 1954

Play:

~~

And now, it's time for yet another in the series of tapes sent home, from our young man in Japan, who I will continue to identify as a "student/soldier", although that may not be accurate. This one dates from prior to his introduction of music to his tapes. 

Please see the previous entries for more explanation here - or rather, an explanation of my confusion about exactly why teen was in Japan in the late 1960's. Maybe there are some clues here that I've missed. This tape is date May 15, 1968. 

Download: Audio Letter from a Student-Soldier in Japan, 5-15-68

Play:

~~

And here's what everyone has been waiting for! It's our Acetate of the Month. Today's acetate has all sorts of writing on it, identifying the singers and songs, with the pianist and the person recording the record listed in this side of the record, as well. Look!:  

These are religious numbers, and both are terrifically sentimental performances, sung in a very old-timey harmony style, one which appeals to me a great deal. The singers, as you can see, are Lillie Berggren and Clara Edvenson, with Edith Mathson at the piano, and A.C. Mathson taking care of the recording duties. Here's the side seen above, "The Lights of Home": 

Download: Lillie Berggren and Clara Edvenson, with Edith Mathson, Piano - The Lights of Home

Play:  

Here's the flip side, "Be Still My Soul", with more old-timey piano stylings and sweet, old-folks-at-home harmonies. 

Download: Lillie Berggren and Clara Edvenson, with Edith Mathson, Piano - Be Still My Soul

Play:

~~

And here's the other thing you've all been waiting for! It's this week's episode of "Very Short Reels". The following 148 seconds - about the length of the average 1960's pop hit - is all that was captured on one side of a three inch reel of tape that found its way to my collection. 

And at some point, this must have been someone's prized possession, as (after about 40 seconds of difficulty with making the recording) it captures what is described as "Debbie's First Cry at Four Days Old", with the date given as September 28th, 1952. Debbie is coming up on 70 years old this fall. This is followed by another recording, perhaps Debbie a few months later, but whether it's her or someone else, it's certainly a baby laughing. 

Download: Debbie's First Cry, Four Days Old, 9/28/52, Plus a Bit of Baby Laughter

Play:

As the tape box (below) indicates, the flip side had recordings of part of Eisenhower's acceptance speech and Stevenson's concession speech, following the 1952 Presidential Election. Those seem likely to be available elsewhere, so I didn't include them here. 

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

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

~~

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

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

Download: Australian Shortwave, Spring 1968

Play:

~~~

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

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

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

Download: Coughlin's Corner

Play:

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

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

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

Play:  

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

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

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

Play:

~~~

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

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

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

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

Play:

~~~

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

Download: Dr. Ernest Dichter On Why People Buy Cars

Play:

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

~~

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

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

Play:

Here is the reel box:  

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

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