This was an interesting find. These two 12″ discs are radio promotions for the 1949 William Castle film-noir from Universal-International: Johnny Stool Pigeon.
Johnny Stool Pigeon stars Howard Duff (as the Federal Agent), Dan Duryea (as the Killer from Alcatraz), and Shelly Winters (as the Woman). Hooray for well-rounded female characters in Hollywood!
The first record is just 8 radio spots in 60, 30, and 15 seconds.
The second record is a “Personal Interview with Dan Duryea”. The “interview” is just a one-sided conversation. The records were sent out to radio stations with a script to be read by the DJ, so that the listeners might think that the actor was visiting their local radio station. Continue reading "Johnny Stool Pigeon"
This is a 10 minute field interview by Frank Reynolds for the Modesto, California radio station KTRB and aired on May 14th, 1954.
Frank is interviewing Mr. and Mrs. Cliff Horst the day before they opened Cliff’s Bakery and Delicatessen at 23 McHenry Ave in Modesto.
This Electrical Transcription (ET) is a large 12″ acetate that was unfortunately stored in a plastic bag, which drew oils out of the record and soaked into the label (as seen in the scan).
Today’s audio offering is an odd one. This 45 record from Dictation Disc is a practice disc for increasing your shorthand speed. The record is undated, but from the tone of the voice work feels very mid-century to me.
A man in his best 1950′s voice dictates various fictitious business letters in increasing speeds. For example, the second track has our man thanking Mr Smith for his order of butter and asks for feedback about their packaging, but in… very… stilted… 50… words per minute.
These tracks are ripe for sampling. If you are inspired, please feel free to take these and make magic. All I ask in return is that you send me a copy and I’ll group them into a future post.
I’m not sure what year this came out, but the voices do not sound like Mel Blanc to me. This bright yellow record came to me without the sleeve, but I found a blurry photo of it online.
Today marks the end of NASA’s Space Shuttle program. When I was a kid, I was fascinated by the Shuttle. Somewhere in my garage is my scrapbook with every Shuttle related newspaper clipping I could get my hands on, a QSL card from STS-5 (or maybe 4), and an autographed photo of the STS-3 crew. I used to write NASA all the time just asking for anything related to the Shuttle.
Recently I discovered this promotional package from Cheerios at my mother’s house. This must have been a “mail in 20 box-tops” kind of promotion. I barely remember it, and I’m shocked that it survived (mostly) unmolested. Luckily for you it did, and I’ve scanned/photographed everything that came in the envelope.
The booklet only mentions the crews of STS-1 and STS-2, so this came out between 11/12/81 (STS-2) and 3/22/82 (STS-3).
Now, onto the Space Shuttle Adventure Kit:
This is the envelope and a generic shuttle sticker.
It’s been fun going through my records again. Finally listening to, and digitizing a lot of the stuff I’ve accumulated over the years. I’m also enjoying being able to update Renraku on a regular basis.
Now I’m already thinking of things like an “Audio Advent” with daily vintage Christmas music posts in December. There will also be more of my “oddball” audio collection too. I just got done digitizing a dictation training 45 record last night, which will be posted next week.
I’m also going to be scanning more photos and ephemera too. I started scanning stuff for a post to mark the end of NASA’s Shuttle program, that should be up tomorrow if I have time to finish scanning everything tonight.
Thanks for visiting, and I hope I can keep you entertained.
There is a shocking lack of information online about Irv Carroll and his humorous songs.
One of the few mentions was from the 3/14/1942 issue of The Billboard that stated that he just released his first single (Let’s All Snore) on his new Bluebird contract.
This is an “Official Mickey Mouse Club” 45 rpm record from 1955 called Mousekedances – 6 Dances and how to do them. Unless there was an insert that has been lost, they only tell you how to do two of the dances. Oddly the instructions for the Big Bear dance do not match up with The Big Bear Boogie, so I won’t be including it in this post.
So for those who are keeping track, that’s 6 Dances and how to do one of them.
Side 1 has one of my favorites from this record: The Mickey Mouse Mambo. This probably marked the end of the Mambo craze in the US. You know an adult musical fad is over when they record a version for children.
My other favorite song is The Big Bear Boogie with the chorus of “Hug a bear, hug a bear, hug a boogie-woogie bear”. That will get stuck in your head. It’s not a bad thing.
I found a few Disney kids records at an estate sale last weekend that were in excellent condition. Here’s a 78rpm “Golden Record” from 1955 with two songs from The Lady and the Tramp.
This was an interesting find. These two 12″ discs are radio promotions for the 1949 William Castle film-noir from Universal-International: Johnny Stool Pigeon. 
The first record is just 8 radio spots in 60, 30, and 15 seconds. 
