rand’s esoteric otr

I just finished transferring to digital several discs in this series that have been obtained by the Old Time Radio Researchers Group.  As a special treat, they’ve given me permission to share this program on the blog.  Many thanks!

With the recent troubles on Wall Street and the “bailout” or “rescue” package for the financial industry working its way through Congress, along with some major bank failures, it seems like a good time to delve into some of the public debate going on about the economy during a previous economic crisis.

“American Family Robinson” is an unusual program.  It’s a continuing drama produced as part of a propaganda campaign by the National Industrial Council.  The Council, made of up large business interests, hoped to combat public support for Roosevelt’s liberal New Deal policies.  So, the programs are an interesting mix of family drama and little conversations about things like the evils of socialism and high taxes on business.

Sound familiar?

The show centers around a “typical” American family; Luke Robinson is the head of household and owns a newspaper; his daughter has just married a young reporter at the paper.  There’s also a crazy aunt and uncle that provide comic relief as the aunt opens up her own department store and the uncle gets involved in “get rich quick” schemes.

In program 55, a serious problem has developed for the family.  Luke has learned that the newspaper is in debt and is loosing money and it looks like the shareholders are going to close down the paper.  Mrs. Robinson and the daughter prepare dinner and know that something’s up, but are unsure what’s going on; they take time to have a little talk about the role that housewives play in the economy as Luke heads home to break the bad news about the paper.

“American Family Robinson” was extremely popular, running on about 300 radio stations and sponsored locally by small business or a local Chamber of Commerce.  Despite the popularity of the show, very few episodes survive.

This show was transferred directly from a World Broadcasting transcription, matrix number 9090-4V.  The disc itself is quite unusual, made of some type of “floppy” plastic that isn’t vinyl and appears to be easily damaged.  That may be why more episodes of the series aren’t in circulation.

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Here’s the last transcription I’ll be posting for now in the series “The Works Progress Administration Presents”, a program featuring musical ensembles of the Federal Music Project and information about programs and services of the WPA to help communities with the Depression.

In program 46 of the 1938 series, we hear the Commonwealth Symphony and State Chorus of Boston, conducted by A. Buckingham Simpson, performing excerpts of Bizet’s “Carmen”.  The program was transferred directly from an original RCA Victrolac pressing, matrix MS 013478.

I have one more program in the series, featuring a Federal Music Project group performing folk music of Mexico, but it’s badly pressed and doesn’t have the best sound - if someone is interested, I can post it on the blog at a later time.

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I had someone write who enjoyed hearing the classical music program “The Works Progress Administration Presents” a few weeks ago, so here’s another episode.  The program featured WPA-sponsored musical ensembles from the Federal Music Project performing contemporary and classical works and has a few words about WPA programs in your area.

Program six of the 1937 series features the Federal Music Project Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Samuel Gardner, with works by Hayden and Mozart.

The program was transferred from RCA Victrolac pressing, matrix MS 04978.

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Continuing from our previous post on the series “The Works Progress Administration Presents”, we have another rare recording of a lesser known composer.

Program 53 of the 1938 series features the Forum String Quartet of Boston performing the Lento from the String Quartet, Opus 96 by Dvorak and the Allegretto movement from the Creole Quartet by Harry Newton Redman.  This appears to be the only known recording of a work by Redman, who was a member of the New England Conservatory of Music.

Directly transferred from RCA Victrolac pressing, matrix number MS 013489.

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Here’s a little something for you classical music buffs out there.

“The Works Progress Administration Presents” was a series syndicated from 1936 to 1938 featuring WPA sponsored orchestral, vocal and chamber groups performing contemporary and standard classical works. The program was part of the Federal Music Project, directed by Nikolai Sokoloff, a Russian-American conductor and violinist. Each quarter hour program includes a commercial promoting some aspect of the WPA’s work in local communities or programs that unemployed workers could take advantage of.

In program 10 of the 1937 series, we hear the Los Angeles Grand Opera Group performing selections from the first and third act of the opera, “Fernando del Nonsensico” by composer Felix Borowski. The piece is a satire of grand opera that references “Lucia”, “Aida”, “Carmen”, and other popular works.

The Federal Music Project in Los Angeles produced the opera in February, 1936 and this was the radio premiere of the work. Borowski was newspaper critic at the Chicago Sun and professor of theory and counterpoint at the Chicago Musical College. This is the only known recording of “Fernando del Nonsensico”.

I recently obtained five programs from this series and would like to hear more - though the groups mostly tackle standard repertoire, they occasionally work in lesser known compositions from contemporary composers.

The program was directly transferred from RCA Victrolac pressing, matrix number PMS 09299. (Note that the disc has a slight warp.)

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In this post, an unusual 16″ record that isn’t a radio show, as I initially thought when I saw the disc.  This is a soundtrack record that originally accompanied a filmstrip to promote “The Townsend Plan” and is number 2 in an apparent series of these presentations.

The program is a bit dull in the first ten minutes where they go through many economic facts and figures, but picks up when the plan is actually explained and they address questions about the plan from everyday folks.  The dry, authoritative style would be something that comedians like the Firesign Theater would poke fun at in later years.  “A flag will wave on high only so long as the people beneath it are provided for!”

The Townsend Plan was a proposal by a physician, Dr. Francis Everett Townsend, that guaranteed a monthly pension of $200 per person (over $3,000 in 2007 dollars) with the stipulation that the money be spent by the recipients within a month.  The plan would have been paid for by a 2% tax on all business transactions.  The basic idea was to stimulate the economy by placing more money in circulation and end the Depression.

Townsend clubs sprang up all around the country and the Plan gained considerable attention, leading to the enactment of Social Security Act in 1935.  Townsend continued to lobby for the plan, since he still opposed Social Security and many other aspects of the administration’s handling of economic policy.

This disc would appear to date from the late 1930’s since it discusses the disadvantages of the Social Security Act and how the Roosevelt administration is using preparations for war as a means to lift the economy - it might have been produced as part of Townsend’s push about the plan that lead to amendments to the Social Security Act in 1939.  The filmstrip and disc were likely used as informational programming by Townsend clubs to recruit new members or to motivate members to lobby their representatives.

You can read more about the Townsend Plan at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Townsend_plan .

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