Transcription Mystery Disc #177

This is another nearly destroyed disc I acquired in that lot of transcription losers. This one is a Recordisc and has an outer edge start and spins at 78rpm. Obviously it has a metal core. It is labeled "A Gay Ranchero, King's Men, 10/28/41. But the labeling has nothing to do with the recoverable contents.

We know the date of the recording but only the innermost rings are playable, so most of the audio is forever lost. "A Gay Ranchero" was a film in 1948... six years after this was recorded. There was also a lesser known Spanish film of the same title in 1941. [Source] Neither of those relate whatsoever to the contents of the disc.

The recording is of the Fibber and Molly McGee program. [Source] the program is so well documented that I was able to search by dialog.

COP: I'M NOT AN ARMY MAN. I'm a police lieutenant.
FIBBER: Oh rejected, eh? Well, we can't all be --
MOLLY: McGEE BE QUIET. What did you say the plan was, officer?
COP: I'll stand right here, behind the book case, near the door. If that gangster comes back...you maneuver so that his back is toward me.
FIBBER: GOOD IDEA! SHOOT HIM IN THE BACK! MUCH THE SAFEST WAY BECAUSE --
COP: I'm not going to shoot him. I'm going to slip the handcuffs on him
FIBBER: Oh.

The program "Fibber Meets a Racketeer"  aired on NBC Tuesday 10/28/41 Tat 5:30 PM matching the date on the disc perfectly... if not the rest of the labeling. The Gay Ranchero may have serenaded us on the destroyed portion of the disc. 

Fibber McGee and Molly Part 2

I've written about them before but I had a great chance discovery in a thrift shop in Illinois. For a whopping 79 cents I acquired their Christmas program. I had forgotten who the original sponsor was until I played the LP.

The program opens:

"The Johnson Wax program with Fibber McGee and Molly!  The makers of Johnson’s Wax and Johnson’s Self-Polishing Glo-Coat presents Fibber McGee and Molly, written by Don Quinn."

It usually ends with a longer Johnson wax spot something like this:

"If you own a piano, you certainly want to keep it in beautiful condition. Here’s a way to do it. Polish your piano with Johnson’s Creme Wax, the amazing polish that cleans so quickly, dries so quickly, polishes so quickly, that using it is practically as easy as dusting. A couple of minutes -- that’s all the time it takes to do the job. Because Johnson Creme Wax not only cleans in a moment, it dries in a moment. And it polishes in a moment to a hard satin smooth finish with no sticky oil left to catch dust. Tomorrow ask for Johnson’s Creme Wax, the fastest wax polish you can buy."

Johnson's Wax didn't' stick with them quite all the way to the end. They pulled out after May of 1950. Pet Milk picked up the series and stuck with them for two years, and then Reynolds Wrap , who stuck with them to the bitter end. The the last 30-minute broadcast was on June 30, 1953. they tried to move to TV starting October of that year, with 15 minute daily bits but that tanked. They also tried to do a series of 5 minute segments on NBC's Monitor weekend service in the late '50s. We are lucky today that Johnson wax held onto the recordings as they are all we have today. I've never found a good catalog of the label, so I can only guess based on the out-dated bio that it was released between 1961 and 1988.

The LP was pressed by Mark 56 records and the cover uses the Johnson Wax Glo-coat brand. Mark 56 also released radio serials from Buck Rogers, Dick Tracey, Don Winslow, Gasoline Alley, Joe Palooka, Jungle Jim, Little Orphan Annie, Nick Carter Master Detective, Mandrake the Magician, Red Ryder, Sad Sack, the Shadow, Superman, Terry and the Pirates, and a whole series by the Mercury Theater.

Almost all of these releases were produced by George Garabedian. George is a mysterious character, his label based in Anaheim. He was also a musician who did strange parodies, and joke albums including the very obscure George Garabedian Players which was sort of a satire on Herb Alpert. You can sample that horror here.

WOMEN IN RADIO WEEK pt 2

So Marian Driscoll got second billing as Molly, she was still wildly popular.

The radio serial Fibber McGee and Molly premiered in 1935. The program struggled in the ratings for 5 long years. When suddenly in 1940 it started picking up steam, in three more years it was the top-rated program in America. (free mp3s of the program here)

Marian Driscoll was a genuine coal miner’s daughter, was born in Peoria, Illinois on November 15, 1898. She toiled and touring in obscurity for years on the small-time show biz circuit with Fibber eventually arriving in Chicago in 1924. It was there in the sindy city that broke into radio. They eventually performed on thousands of shows and developed 145 different voices and characters.

Broadcast to the nation from WMAQ-AM Chicago, the show entertained America for 19 years. Running on WMAQ-AM until March 1956, and then moving to NBC’s Monitor until 1959. Somewhere in the mid fifties the program was cut from 30 mintes to fifteen.

The program was sponsored by Johnson's Wax for most of its long run. Don Quinn, a former cartoonist was the writer of the series. He wrote the sponsors into the script where possible creating some of the earliest product placements in brodcast media history. Marion's poor health prevented her from working much in her later years, and as a result Fibber McGee and Molly ended while other radio serials were making the leap to TV. It was briefly on television with different actors playing the lead roles, but no one could capture the chemistry of Jim and Marion. It tanked.

NBC kept transcription discs from most of the programs that S.C.Johnson's Wax sponsored. Many of these have become available for sale. More than 700 complete shows are currently in the hands of collectors. Marion died in 1965. the notion that people have these old radio serials on their goddamn ipods is very peculiar to me. but it's true.
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