Monday, March 01, 2010

Transcription Mystery Disc #52

This is another Wilcox-Gay Recordio Disc and it is in terrible, I mean terrible condition. There are cracks both parallel to, running down and running across the grooves. It's center hole is worn and its even warped. It has been wronged in almost every way possible. Bad condition can be a sign of age, but poor storage can accomplish significant damage quite quickly. I get the impression this was stored somewhere very warm.
Side A is clearly marked "No. 1, Dec. 22" No year. They always forget the year. Maddeningly parts of the audio are perfectly clear giving me false hope. I transcribe below what you have no hope of understanding from an MP3 minus the parts I find wholly unintelligible.

"Merry Christmas everyone, we're here at the ...house in Canton Missouri... They're two nice people. They've invited us over tonight we're making popcorn balls... they've also taken us around the country side to several different towns. It looks like we're going to have a white Christmas. We had a big snow last night and I cant get to see our Christmas Program until Tuesday. I am beginning to think that we're this close to southerns. We have had about 13 inches of snow here this winter. It is two below zero now and getting colder. Gina's out calling all the Cows and chickens and pigs and dogs in so they don't freeze."
But after those niceties things get strange. A man starts mooing a hollering about cows and dogs, then the sing a rousing but terribly off-key version of Jingle Bells, then back to the mooing. It's truly strange. The recording has nothing to date it by. Hypothetically some detailed weather records might help match it up but I think that's a bit much. Phonozoic identifies this specific Wilcox-Gay transcription blank as a "Wilcox-Gay Recordio Type 3A variant 1"
Which dates it to around 1947.

No comments:

Post a Comment