Grandpa's iPod » Grandpa's iPod

This is a pretty strange show, produced locally at WJR and hosted by Ron Gamble.  Listeners send in song titles, which Jimmy Clark has to play on a Novachord.  Harold Keene judges whether he's played it well enough. If Jimmy is stumped and can't play the song, the listener who sent it in wins a dollar.

It includes a nice Wonder Bread commercial and a couple of "merry Christmas" messages from Colgate-Palmolive.

I'm working on some other Christmas programs, which I hope to get posted in the next couple of days.

Hidden treasure! I didn't know that I had any "Your Hit Parade" programs until recently. My grandpa didn't put the show name on any of his index cards or on the records themselves--only the song names were listed, followed by "HP." My mom told me what that meant just a few months ago.

This is almost a complete show. The discs weren't the on-air masters, just records he cut for himself. He missed the first couple of minutes of the show and cut out some of the commercials. Where he apparently just lifted the needle, I did a very slight fade-out/fade-in to make the transitions less jarring. The recording quality is pretty good except for pops at the end. The record is actually broken (cracked from rim to label) so I was amazed it turned out as well as it did. I didn't do any noise reduction or restoration.

Thanks to Mike Harron, I found the whole script for this show online. Here's the rundown for the show:

My recording starts during "Along the Navajo Trail," so it's missing any introductory material. Commercials no. 1, 2 and the closing commercial are all missing, but commercial no. 3 is included. The background music for the station break is there, but the actual station identification isn't.

I have a few more discs of "Your Hit Parade," but I have a feeling that this might be the only complete show. I'm having to do some detective work on the site with the scripts to try to piece together what I have. I'll post them all eventually, whether they're complete programs or not. This show was recorded on three record sides. There are about 4 or 5 missing records that should have been interspersed with the shows I have. My mom tells me that when my grandpa was moving from Davisburg (Michigan) to Detroit he had his records in the back seat of his car. He was almost to his new house when a dog ran out in front of his car, causing him to slam on the brakes. The records slid off the seat and quite a few were broken.

http://www.grandpasipod.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/40.55_HP_11-24-45.mp3

Hidden treasure! I didn't know that I had any "Your Hit Parade" programs until recently. My grandpa didn't put the show name on any of his index cards or on the records themselves--only the song names were listed, followed by "HP." My mom told me what that meant just a few months ago.

This is almost a complete show. The discs weren't the on-air masters, just records he cut for himself. He missed the first couple of minutes of the show and cut out some of the commercials. Where he apparently just lifted the needle, I did a very slight fade-out/fade-in to make the transitions less jarring. The recording quality is pretty good except for pops at the end. The record is actually broken (cracked from rim to label) so I was amazed it turned out as well as it did. I didn't do any noise reduction or restoration.

Thanks to Mike Harron, I found the whole script for this show online. Here's the rundown for the show:

My recording starts during "Along the Navajo Trail," so it's missing any introductory material. Commercials no. 1, 2 and the closing commercial are all missing, but commercial no. 3 is included. The background music for the station break is there, but the actual station identification isn't.

I have a few more discs of "Your Hit Parade," but I have a feeling that this might be the only complete show. I'm having to do some detective work on the site with the scripts to try to piece together what I have. I'll post them all eventually, whether they're complete programs or not. This show was recorded on three record sides. There are about 4 or 5 missing records that should have been interspersed with the shows I have. My mom tells me that when my grandpa was moving from Davisburg (Michigan) to Detroit he had his records in the back seat of his car. He was almost to his new house when a dog ran out in front of his car, causing him to slam on the brakes. The records slid off the seat and quite a few were broken.

http://www.grandpasipod.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/40.55_HP_11-24-45.mp3

While the turkey was in the oven today, I was able to digitize a few more records. I should be able to keep these posts coming!

Today I have Art Linkletter's House Party from May 21, 1947. The Wikipedia entry for the program is rather sparse, but says that it was on CBS radio from 1945 to 1967, and on TV from 1952 to 1969. It's a 30-minute show.

I'm not going to say anything more about it except enjoy! :)

Finally, I'm back with a real post. I want to apologize for the terse tone of my last post. I was really frustrated with not being able to get anything new recorded. I have so appreciated the emails and comments checking in on me and my gear. Ever since we started back to school (we homeschool our three kids) and fall sports got into full swing, my life has been a little crazy. Things are slowing down a bit now so I should have a little more time to spend on the records. I've also figured out a simpler way to digitize them, so hopefully that will help too.

I don't know much about today's post. It's an aircheck disc my grandpa made of Fats Waller. There are four songs: "I'm Crazy About My Baby," "Spider and the Fly," "After You've Gone," and an instrumental of "Tea for Two." I did a little research, and found a record called "Fats on the Air, Vol. 2" on Amazon, which has a track that includes these same four songs. I wasn't able to find much information about it, though; the record isn't even listed in the discography on Fats Waller's Wikipedia page.  But it appears that this record was released in the UK in 1963, and I'm pretty sure mine predates that. It's an aluminum-based disc, which means it's probably post-war, and records that are indexed around it are dated 1946 and 1947. My guess is that it was made in the mid to late 40s.

I didn't do any noise reduction on this so I could get it posted more quickly. It sounds pretty good until near the end, but even then it's not too bad.

It's been a while! Thanks to those of you who commented or emailed me to make sure everything was okay. I haven't had any more mechanical or technical failures, just a lot of busy-ness. I wish I had more time to devote to this project--I could easily spend all day, every day on it. But I don't think my kids or husband would appreciate that.

This is another episode of A Bouquet for You. As I posted before, this CBS program, hosted by Franklyn McCormick, takes letters from listeners requesting songs and sends a bouquet to those whose letters are used on the air. One selected letter-writer who is also having an anniversary receives a “golden gift” of “beautifully matched rings in 14 karat gold.” Caesar Patrillo, Louise King and Billy Leach sing. The orchestra isn’t credited.

Songs include "Seems Like Old Times," "Once in a While," "Temptation," "Peg of my Heart," and "Little Gray Home in the West."

In loving memory of my grandma, Eleanor "Peg" Highfield.

Oh, how I wish this show were complete! I think this is my favorite music program yet. Stan Kenton and his orchestra, live at the Palladium in Hollywood for their last show there after what was apparently a long run. Stan mentions that they're making way for Gene Krupa's band. In my searching, I couldn't find a date for either Kenton's last show or Krupa's first show at the Palladium, but Christmas is mentioned in the program. He also mentions that it's Sunday. This is on the reverse of my Christmas 1945 disc. So that narrows it down, but I still don't know which Sunday of December 1945 this was recorded.

The recording starts mid-song. When it ends, June Christy is introduced and sings "A-sittin' and a-rockin'." Next up is "Never Too Late to Pray," sung by Gene Howard. The final number is a version of Kenton's theme song, "Artistry in Rhythm."  He describes it, "the melody of our theme song, beat up into a real fast, rather exciting arrangement... we hope it gets that way this evening." It features Eddie Safranski on bass, Vido Musso on tenor sax, Buddy Childers on trumpet, and Rob Collier on drums.

If you saw my post from Christmas 1945, you might remember that the record is broken, cracked all the way through from edge to center. I'm really happy that I was able to get this side recorded as well as the Christmas side. It took quite a bit of work, including my husband using his specialty tools at his studio to clean up the pops from the crack, but it came out pretty well. The end of the program drops out as Kenton is talking.

Here's another episode of "Music from the House of Squibb," this one from February 25, 1944.  The first half of the program is pretty good, but the second half has a lot of clicks and pops due to condition issues. I recorded it using a new stylus, hoping that it would track better through the rough spots. I think it did well until the point where the record is pretty much falling apart. I pieced it back together digitally as best I could.

The show is all movie music. Vera Brodsky is the guest singer. There's also a male soloist, but I didn't ever hear his name mentioned. I don't know if maybe the very beginning of the show was missing, but what you hear is all that's on my record. Mike Harron informs me that the NY Times listed Harrison Knox as the scheduled guest for this date, so it may be him (thanks, Mike).

The songs are "Suddenly it's Spring" from Lady in the Dark, "I'll Get By" from A Guy Named Joe, "Long Ago" from Cover Girl, and "The Piccolino" from Top Hat.

Can you believe it--another post already?

This is another episode of "Sing Along with the Landt Trio" of Karl, Jack and Dan. This program has a little extra interest to it: it's Army Day! I knew about Armed Forces Day, but I'd never heard of Army Day. Google to the rescue!

"Army Day was established as a nationwide observance to draw public attention to national defense and to acquaint the public with Army activities." Army Day had a rough beginning, but its official observance on April 6 began in 1929 to mark the day the U.S. entered World War I. 1949 was the last year that Army Day was recognized or celebrated. For more information, you can visit the Department of Defense page about it.

This program of Sing Along begins with popular songs of the day: "Don't Sweetheart Me," "I'll Always be in Love with You," and "I Couldn't Sleep a Wink Last Night." It concludes with two songs in honor of Army Day: "One Little WAC" and "What do they do in the Infantry?"

As a thank-you to those of you who are still with me after such a long hiatus, here's something that I think is pretty special. This was one of my grandpa's "b-sides," where he really only cared about the material on the other side. This was totally unlabeled and undocumented in his records.

Jimmie Fidler was apparently a somewhat controversial entertainment reporter who had a weekly Hollywood news show. I don't know the exact date of this program, but the one on the reverse was from February 4, 1944 so I'll assume it's close to that date. It is FASCINATING, a real time-capsule of the entertainment world. Just to drop a few names from this program: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Lena Horne, Errol Flynn, John Wayne, Greta Garbo, Frank Sinatra, Danny Kaye... and that's not all. It's a real "who's who" of the day. The show is sponsored by Arrid antiperspirant, and includes a few good ads for that (as well as one ad for liver pills).

This record was in really bad shape, with the lacquer cracked and delaminating. In the middle, you'll notice significant pops and drop-outs. I recorded this several times over, at both 78 and 33rpm (I could only do portions at 33), and tried to piece it together as best I could. Even so, there are places where anything from a portion of a second to a few seconds are missing. I encourage you to keep listening; it improves again as you get nearer the end and the content is so good that it's worth it.

I'm not posting a picture since there's no label on this. If you'd like a picture anyway, let me know and I'll put one up.

Thanks again for your patience while I got both life and technical issues straightened out!