September 27, 2008
“The Goon Show” is one of my all-time favorite radio programs, a remarkable bit of silliness produced by the BBC throughout the 1950s and featuring Harry Secombe, Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers. I never thought I’d find an original transcription from the series, but here ’tis.
“The Pevensey Bay Disaster” was originally broadcast on the BBC as episode 10 in the sixth “Goon Show” series on April 3, 1956. A bit of trivia - just after this program was recorded, a rail disaster occurred and another program in the series was substituted that week; the program was run in the UK months after it was originally recorded.
What you’ll hear in this post is a BBC Transcription Service version of the program as it was originally syndicated in the US in the mid to late 1950s. The shows were edited slightly for overseas markets to remove time sensitive material or jokes that might have been a little too specific to British culture. The BBC has produced a series of audio cds I’d encourage you to buy if you like the show, going back to the original master tapes to reproduce the series as it was originally broadcast.
I’ve often wondered what the reaction was to the “Goon Show” on its first syndicated run here in the States. At the time, there was nothing quite like it on radio; the program was a huge hit in Britain and became something of an institution. The Goons would inspire later comedy shows such as “Monty Python” and “Little Britain”.
The show was transferred from an original set of BBC Transcription Service discs, matrix numbers 16PH86821 and 16PH86822. There’s a very brief “squeal” from “up cue” damage to disc on part two of the show.
September 18, 2008
This week, I’m offering up another rarity that I haven’t been able to dig up much information on. It’s the “Dennis Day Show”, distributed as program 185 in the series by the Armed Forces Radio Service.
You may be familiar with Dennis Day from his appearances on the “Jack Benny Show” and you may have heard a sitcom that ran in the late 1940s featuring Day that’s sometimes called “A Day in the Life of Dennis Day”. This program, however, is from a musical variety series done by Dennis Day in the mid-1950s. I recently found this episode, along with two others in this series and a previously lost 1946 episode of the “Dennis Day Show” in a group of discs I purchased from another collector.
In program 185 in the series, the guests are Mel Blanc and Patty Andrews. Dennis sings “It’s a Grand Night for Singing” and Blanc performs “I Tawt I Taw a Putty Tat”. The main comedy sketch is a parody that looks at what radio would sound like in Ireland and includes satires of “Dragnet” and “Old Doctor Malone”.
The show may have been on June 19, 1955, a date which is noted on the disc label; the content of the programs does definitely date it to 1954 or 1955. Does anyone have information on this series and which network it was broadcast on?
The show as transferred from a set of original vinyl AFRS transcription discs. The other two episodes from the series, along with other finds, will be going on the blog soon.
September 12, 2008
Just a couple of more shows in our series “The Two Daffodils”, a charming little comedy show from circa 1930-31 with Ken Gillum and Duke Atterbury. The program was syndicated by the Continental Broadcasting Corporation.
In program 3082-A, Ken shows off his fancy piano skills in the first unidentified number in the show and there’s a brief sketch that takes place in a police station (a sketch that turns into a Scotsman joke). Ken then sings “I Care for Her, She Cares for Me”; Little Oscar and poet Ewescray pay a visit.
Transferred from an original Continental Broadcasting Corporation laminated transcription pressed by Columbia.
September 4, 2008
Comedians Gill and Doemling highlight “Nonsense and Melody”, a breezy little comedy variety show produced by Transco in 1935-36. We pick up this week with episode 24 in the series.
Jean’s having a party at her hotel as the troupe visits Venice, so we get lots of jokes about canals in the comedy sketch portion of the show. Songs include “If I Had a Million Dollars and You” (with interesting Hawaiian slide guitar backing) and “Cherry Berry Bin” done as a gondolier song. The Jack Tars perform “Be Still My Heart”.
Transferred from an original red vinyl Bruce Eells and Associates vinyl transcription. Apologies for the “crackle” in the last four or five minutes of the show from some damage around the perimeter of the disc.
More episodes in the series will follow in the coming weeks.
August 20, 2008
Well, I’ve only got a couple of shows for you this week, but this one’s a doozy.
Direct for a set of Armed Forces Radio Service transcriptions, here’s a special ninety minute edition of “Command Performance” from May 29, 1946, celebrating the fourth anniversary of AFRS.
The show is a compilation of excerpts representing all of the major series produced especially for personnel in the Army, Navy and Marines during World War II. The program, introduced by Bill Goodwin and hosted by Bob Hope is framed by a “letter” that is a kind of retrospective of major events in the War.
Hope opens the show with one his topical monologues. Then, after setting up the show with the “letter”, we hear the following excerpts:
- “Downbeat” featuring a couple of tunes from drummer Ray Bauduc (who played with the Bob Crosby Orchestra)
- “Melody Roundup” with the Riders of the Purple Sage doing “New San Antonio Rose” and Abigail and Buddy performing a “hillbilly” version of “Begin the Beguine”
- “Showtime” with Janet Blair singing Cole Porter’s “I Love You”
- “Mail Call” where Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy do a routine on Dickins’s “Oliver Twist”, introduced by Bill Goodwin
- “GI Jive” hosted by GI Jill with the King Sisters singing “When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano”
- “Jubilee” where the Slim Gaillard Trio perform the hit novelty tune, “Cement Mixer (Put-Ti Put-Ti)”
- a religions program with “Ave Maria” performed by the Bob Mitchell Boys Choir
- “GI Journal” with Kay Kyser joining Jerry Colonna as the Journal’s “star reporter”, then “copy girl” Linda Darnell and Mel Blanc in character as Private Sad Sack in an extended comedy sketch that includes “The Life of the Sad Sack”
- Fred MacMurray hosting a program reminiscing about the year 1935 where the King Sisters sing “I’ve Had My Moments”
- “Words With Music”, with Donald Crisp reading Thomas Hood’s “I Remember”
- “Command Performance” with Bill Goodwin, Bob Hope and Janet Blair in a parody of radio soap operas, “The Ups and Downs of Brenda Scuttlebutt, Girl Yo-Yo”; Fred MacMurray joins them for a sketch about an annoying little boy on the set of a Hollywood movie
- “Purple Heart Album” with Francis Langford singing “We’ll Be Waltzing Again”
If you’ve never listened to AFRS programming, which was produced especially for military personnel and not broadcast stateside, the show gives you a good idea of the range of shows that were a part of AFRS’s schedule alongside their rebroadcasts of material from the major networks. It’s a really entertaining ninety minutes and an intriguing immersion into the popular songs, topical jokes and military culture of World War II.
The program was transferred from an original three-disc AFRS transcription set in near-mint condition.
August 13, 2008
We’re nearing the end of our run of episodes of “The Two Daffodils”, a comedy series syndicated by the Continental Broadcasting Corporation circa 1930-31. The show features comedians Ken Gillum and Duke Atterbury.
In program 3081A, there’s a sketch about a passenger complaining about an airline, Ken Gillum sings a novelty tune, and Little Oscar pays a visit. The show was transferred from an original Columbia shellac pressing.
August 8, 2008
We turn once again to the Transco syndicated musical comedy show, “Nonsense and Melody”, featuring Gill and Doemling from 1935-36. We last left the series with episode 20 a few weeks ago in the blog and I’m missing the disc containing show numbers 21 and 22.
So, picking up with episode 23 in this post, the cast is in Rome. Jean Cowan sings a song about “rock and roll”. (No, it’s not about some obscure forerunner to Elvis Presley or Little Richard - it’s about the “Rocking Rhythm of the Sea”.) The accordion player takes a turn and the Three Jack Tars do “Okay Toots”. The comedy sketch is about Ceasar and Brutus.
The program was transferred directly from an original red vinyl Bruce Eells and Associates transcription probably pressed in the 1940s. I’ve got nine more episodes in the series that will be posted in the coming weeks.
July 2, 2008
Comedians Gill and Doemling play host to another episode of the Transco syndicated musical comedy show, “Nonsense and Melody”, originally recorded in 1935-36. The program was transferred directly from an original red vinyl Bruce Eells and Associates transcription probably pressed in the 1940s.
Jean Cowan sings “That’s College Rhythm”; the accordion soloist performs a tune; the orchestra runs through “Shiek of Araby” and we hear a comedy sketch about a tour of the pyramids where the Three Jack Tars sing a yodel song.
Once again, we dive into a couple of episodes of “Nonsense and Melody”, a Transco syndicated program from circa 1935-36 featuring comedians Gill and Doemling on a ship taking a world cruise. The show is transferred from a red vinyl Bruce Eells and Associates transcription probably pressed in the 1940s.
In program 19, the ship is headed for Egypt. Charlie Wellman sings “Alabamy Bound” in an interesting style that sounds like a cross between Al Jolson and Rudy Valee; the orchestra plays “Bugle Call Rag”; Jean Cowan sings “Mr and Mrs is the Name” and the Jack Tars do a fun rendition of “Cross Eyed Kelly”. The comedy sketch is on Cleopatra and Marc Anthony.
June 20, 2008
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.
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