June 20, 2008
Here’s another episode of a long-running fifteen minute dramatic series, “Front Page Drama”, syndicated by Hearst Newspapers and featuring dramatizations of stories appearing in the “American Weekly” newspaper supplement. In this episode, “Conqueror’s Son”, the setting is Vienna in 1832 and the story deals with mixed identities and intrigue in a royal court. The program, number 143, was syndicated for broadcast on January 18, 1936.
The program was dubbed directly from an RCA Victrolac pressing, matrix number MS98586. This is one of four discs in this series, also containing episodes of “Jungle Jim”, that I picked up from an antiques dealer; the discs included the original shipping containers where they were sent to a radio station in Prescott, Arizona in 1936. One also included an original steel “Shadowgraphed” needle used to play the disc - the needle, used during a transition period to early vinyl discs, was “pre-worn” to fit the groove properly.
Bea Kalmus, according to several sources I browsed on the web and in books, was one of the first female disc jockeys in New York and a respected nightclub singer. Kalmus broadcast her WMGM show from Silverman’s International; she featured show business guests on the program and would sometimes sing along with records or perform songs from her own repertoire. (You can read more about Kalmus here.)
In this post, we have a half-hour excerpt from her broadcast of January 13, 1960 featuring an interview with songwriter Otis Blackwell. They discuss his hit songs such as “Don’t Be Cruel”, “Fever”, and “Hey Little Girl” and different aspects of breaking into the songwriting business.
The show was dubbed direct from a one-off acetate made by TV Time Recordings, which would make reference discs for performers, agents and others in the business from radio and television programs.
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music — randsesotericotr @ 11:48 am
“Manhattan Merry-Go-Round” was a program similar to “Your Hit Parade”, highlighting popular music based on record and sheet music sales. The format of the show was unusual, taking the listener to different popular New York night spots and Broadway shows to see what songs were being performed there. The show was produced by Frank and Anne Hummert, best known for their daytime dramas such as “Ma Perkins”, “Just Plain Bill” and “Backstage Wife”.
This episode, originally broadcast in 1947 and number 47 in the series when it was distributed on AFRS, features “I’ll Go Home with Bonnie Jean” from “Brigadoon”, “Bless You for Being an Angel”, “Zip a Dee Doo Dah” and many other popular songs of the day.
Apologies for the scratchy sound of the transfer. Unfortunately, many AFRS pressings, particularly during the war period, weren’t the best in the world and suffer from a shower of pops and ticks like this.
Another episode in the 1930-31 comedy series, “The Two Daffodils” featuring Duke Atterbury and Ken Gillum, transferred from an original Columbia transcription disc. The show was syndicated by the Continental Broadcasting Corporation.
In program 3079A, Ken Gillum performs “Everything is Hotsy Totsy Now”, “Am I Blue?”, and “You Got Me Cuckoo”. We also get a poem from Ewescray, a routine about a visit to an insane asylum, and Professor Ignatz takes listener questions.
The original laminated Columbia pressings of this series are quite heavy and thick, weighing about three and a half pounds - I always bring one out if someone has never seen a transcription disc before. This disc was particularly difficult to transfer since it had warped into a kind of lopsided “u” shape - I finally got it to balance well enough on the turntable so that the edge of the record wouldn’t hit the back of the tonearm and cause it fly off the record.
June 12, 2008
As a special treat, here’s an episode of “Lum N’ Abner” that appears to be uncirculated among otr enthusiasts - “Accidentally Yours” from July 1947, created especially for National Farm Safety Week.
The program was transferred from an original RCA Orthacoustic vinyl transcription disc, matrix number ND7-MM-10097, and was used during the Farm Safety campaign run between July 20 and 26, 1947 by the National Safety Council, Chicago. The other side of the disc contains short segments by various political figures about farm safety that could be used in local farm and news programs.
In the show, Lum and Abner hang up a poster promoting Farm Safety Week and, of course, create many opportunities for accidents in the Jot’em Down Store. Cedric Wehunt and Ben Withers pay a visit.
Chester Lauck and Norris Goff began their run as Lum and Abner in 1932 and the series continued in one form or another until the mid-1950s, appearing on all four major networks during the run of the series. The characters inhabit the mythical small town of Pine Ridge, Arkansas, but Lauck and Goff based them on people they knew growing up in the state.
One of the fun things about the show is that you can hear Lauck starting to break up during one part, where he tosses out some figures on the number of accidents and deaths each year on farms, but he regains his composure and they go on with the recording session.
This week, I’m starting posts of a new series of uncirculated programs from discs that I recently obtained from a collection in Canada. It’s “Choose a Song Partner”, a program syndicated by Eugenia Price Productions and sponsored by Formfit Life Bras and Life Girdles. Based on the content, the shows appear to date from circa 1947-48.
The concept of the show is simple. Beryl Vaughn plays host to the series, giving humorous clues to song titles that are performed by Don Moreland with organist Adele Scott. In program one, Don sings “Stormy Weather”, “Peg O’ My Heart”, “The Way You Look Tonight”, and Dinah. The program has been transferred from an original Columbia vinyl transcription, matrix number YTC 4723.
I’ve not been able to find much information about the series and the performers; I’m not even sure if the show was primarily distributed in the US or Canada since the discs came from north of the border.
Beryl Vaughn, according to the IMDB, played a bit part in the movie “Penny Serenade” and was also seen on tv’s “Sky King”. Don Moreland appeared in “Dubarry was a Lady” as part of a vocal group. According to the WFMU blog, Don was active in Chicago radio; someone at WFMU ran into a collection of home recordings by Don and his daughter dating from the 1950s. You can read about them here and here.
Eugenia Price had a long and distinguished career in radio, working with soaps in the 1930s and forming her own production company in the 1940s. After a conversion to Christianity, she became a writer and director for the long-running religious drama “Unshacked!” and eventually became an inspirational speaker and author of historical novels.
More episodes from “Choose a Song Partner” are coming in future blog posts in the coming months.
Note: Listeners may find this program offensive due to racial stereotyping themes.
Another circa 1949 episode of “Southland Echoes”, sponsored by Black Draught Laxative and syndicated by the Nelson Chesman Company of Chatanooga, Tennessee.
Episode 49-6 features the Homeland Harmony Quartet singing “He Bore It All” and “When the Saints Go Marching In”. The Jones Sisters perform some yodeling in “Liza Jane” and the ballad “They Took the Stars Out of Heaven”. Blackface comedians Jam-Up and Honey talk about farms.
This program was transferred from an original vinyl transcription disc. Unfortunately, there’s a bad scratch that runs through the first five minutes or so of the program. Also, this show has an unusual technical problem seen in some of the programs from the series - there’s a strange “drop out” in the sound near the end of the number “They Took the Stars Out of Heaven”, so this isn’t a problem with your MP3 player or the MP3 file.
I’ll be posting a couple of shows from this series about once a month.
Note: Listeners may find this program offensive due to racial stereotyping themes.
We continue our look at an uncirculated country music and comedy show from circa 1949, with a couple more episodes of “Southland Echoes”, produced by the Nelson Chesman Company in Chattanooga.
Sponsored by Black Draught Laxative and Cardui for Women, episode 49-5 features the influential Southern Gospel group, the Homeland Harmony Quartet, singing “Living on the Sunny Side” and “After the Sunrise”. West Virginia performers the Jones Sisters sing “My Adobe Hacienda” and “The Echoes from the Hills”. Blackface comedians Jam-Up and Honey do a routine on how love is like sea sickness.
June 7, 2008
Another entry in the series “Ports of Call” from 1935-36, where we visit the dramatized history and culture of exotic countries in a half-hour. The program was produced by Philip J. Meany Advertising of Los Angeles and mastered at Radio Recorders in Hollywood.
Episode 33 looks at New Zealand where we learn about the origin of the main island of New Zealand, which appeared during a fishing expedition by a local god; colonization of the islands by the British; and a protected whale. I’m not sure what native New Zealander’s will think of Hawaiian music being associated with the country, by the way.
This episode is not in circulation and has been transferred directly from a set of blue Columbia Flexite transcription discs.
“Ports of Call” is a little-known syndicated series from 1935-36 that visits a different country each week and dramatizes a few hundred years of the country’s history in a half hour. The show was produced by the Philip J. Meany Advertising in Los Angeles and mastered at Radio Recorders in Hollywood.
In program 32 in the series, we pay a visit to Sweden, learning about the origins of its culture of learning, leanings towards neutrality, and child-queens who like to hear canons go “boom”. The show is transferred directly from a set of gorgeous blue Columbia Flexite pressings. This episode of the series is in circulation, but copies I’ve heard suffer from phasing problems caused by a bad tape transfer.
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