This is a 8-Inch, metal-core, Recordisc. I've digitized one side, the other has a thick layer of waxy palmitic acid which is hard to remove, and renders the audio into a muddy mess on playback. If I was optimistic about the recording's value I'd have spent the time with some Disc Doctor solution and a rag... but I'm not. So today you get just the one side. I'm also trying a new playback service. Feel free to comment on that.
On the sleeve is the name Texas Jim Robertson, in pencil, that may be one of his cowboy songs on the opening. In the middle of the recording at about the 1:50 mark the first tune ends and it becomes clear this is a radio program. Then there's an ad for rolling tobacco that sticks to the paper. You might recognize it.
I'm mixed on the possibility of Texas Jim Robertson performing for the first minutes of the disc. He was a singer of cowboy songs. He recorded dozens sides for RCA in a long but now overlooked career. some of his works are now looked back on as early Rockabilly.This may or may not be him. I don't find his style so compelling that I can confirm or deny the possibility.
This is a6.5-Inch, metal-core Recordisc. It has an outer edge start and has started to de-laminate and crack, even in the un-cut center area. Thankfully it have arrived on my desk in time to be saved. The recording date is give as 49 which I'll interpret as the year 1949 which is certainly plausible.
I Know Whom I Have Believed
It's labeled, but in cursive written in tiny pencil script. Because of that it took me some time to decipher but the Title is "I Know Whom I Have Believed." It's a hymn from 1883, words by Dan Whittle and music by James McGranahan. More here. In this recording the music is played by organ and vocals by a solo male singer, possibly the organist. Only the first stanza and refrain are performed, but the disc barely holds 2 minutes of audio so a short version was rather prudent.
This is an odd little metal-core disc. The 6.5-inch acetate is orange. I assumed that it had faded or oxidized from red, but the label is clearly purple so perhaps not. It spins at a clean 78 rpm but with an inner-edge start. The audio is clear but takes up less than half of each side even though the grooves reach the outer edge.
It is entirely comprised of a monologue by an old man with a rich god-like voice. It was so great I edited the two sides together so you can enjoy him talk about fishing like he was there with Hemingway, bucolic but implacable. He opens with the lines "I just came down to visit my son and his wife, good wife over Christmas and the famous fishing ground up in the Columbus River Washington and Oregon... and the fishing is good."
The Fishing Is Good
He goes on at some length and his pauses make clear that he's reading from a prepared script. In the background you can occasionally hear a voice that sounds like an echo. but at the very end you can hear it again and it's not an echo. I think it's the sound engineer feeding him lines over the headphones .I'd guess this this is early 1940s because of the center start and the make of disc but it's just a guess.
This is a 78 rpm metal-core, 8-Inch Recordisc. it's actually the B-side of the unlabeled idsc from last week that caught my attention. The physical connection made me suspect Ted Daffan but the song sounds nothing like his pop repertoire. I have my doubts in other words.
It's So Hard to Walk the Straight and Narrow Way
This is a christian country tune presumably called "It's So Hard to Walk the Straight and Narrow Way." The lyric is a reference to Matthew 7:13-14. The lyrics and arrangement appear to be originals. It's a shame the disc is unlabeled. The song consists of voice accordion, guitar and piano. The harmonies are quite competent. They are not local hacks, this was an experienced, road-worn band. The recording ends with an eruption of applause making me suspect this is another live radio recording.
This disc is damaged. It has a chip missing from the outer edge of the acetate coating. It's on both sides indicating it may have been dropped. Thankfully it falls just short of the start of the grooves. The audio is good and clear on this 78 rpm metal-core, 8-Inch Recordisc. The rhythm guitar is tuned a bit flat and the DJ stumbles over his words. This recording appears to be of a live radio broadcast.
Ted Daffan's Texans - Two of a Kind
While unlabeled, the recording is introduced by an unnamed DJ who names the artist as Ted Daffan's Texans. The song is "Two of a Kind" which is described as one off his "latest." It was released in August of 1948, which dates the disc with some accuracy. You can read the rest of Ted's discography here. Daffan is often credited with inventing that strange sub-genre of country music... Trucker music. There are a surprising number of songs about trucking; numerous LPs came out in the 1960s alone. Strange claim to fame.
He wasn't much of a radio man as a country singer. But he had a quiet phase of his career in his early 20s. He was a big fan of Hawaiian music and led a Hawaiian guitar band, the Blue Islanders on KRTH-AM in Houston. He didn't even go country until 1934. Daffan stopped performing in the 1960s and went into music publishing. Ray Charles covered some of his tunes producing a late-career boost. Daffan died in 1996; he was 84.
This is my best find in a long time. This metal-core, blue-label Recordisc spins at 78 rpm and has an outer edge start. It's unlabeled on once side and on the other marked in all capitals "PERKS." I have no idea what that means. (Please excuse the white line across the image. My printer/scanner is better at printing than scanning these days.)
Perks Comedy
The recording is of some home-made comedy skits. It begins with a strange monologue opening then most but not all of some slightly dirty parable. Then Dick Carlston plays a little piano punctuated by the comic emcee saying "man can that boy play" in what might be an impersonation of Eddie "Rochester" Anderson. There's a few more strange jokes a Bugs Bunny impersonation and a couple verses of Mary had a little lamb. I'd have no way to date this except that the other side is a dub of an Andre Kostelanetz medly. That's got to be a mid 40s.
This 8-inch, metal core Recordisc is recorded on both sides and labeled, sort of. It bears the single name "KEN" in all capital letters in pencil on one side. That first side begins with a man introducing some kids singing in a chorus. He speaks very woodenly "Hello Kenny, Edgar and the boys will sing a new chorus for you." the kids sing in harmony though a bit flat. Afterwards a woman reads a story about Mr.s Chipmunk.
Jimmy Sliderlegs
The B-side is a woman reading a very old nursery rhyme, Jimmy Sliderlegs, then plays a bit of piano. The recitation is a warning against the dangers of sliding down the bannister. The melody is the Farmer in the Dell but many different sets of lyrics have been put to it. I've clipped out the woman reading the nursery rhyme. it's quite obscure, dating to at least the mid 1800s, making it a strange selection for a recording that must date to the early 1950s.
This metal core, 8-Inch Recordisc has an outer edge start and spins at 78 rpm. That's all fairly normal. The label reads "Hillbilly Stuff" 9/28/46. So my interest was piqued to say the least. The recording is in excellent condition with very low noise, adequate fodder for a commercial release actually. It's a very unusual find considering it's almost 70 years old.
The Melody Boys - The Love of A Lifetime
This turns out to be a live radio recording of The Melody Boys. There have been a few groups to use that name, or variations like the Mountain Melody boys, Harold Stepteau and his Melody Boys, The Melody Boys Quartet, The Honolulu Melody Boys, The Southern Melody Boys, The Baltimore Melody Boys, The Roseland Melody Boys, T. Texas Tyler and the Oklahoma Melody Boys, The Texas Melody Boys, and the Dixie Melody Boys. This is not the one formed by Harry Choate, the infamous hell-raising Cajun musician, dang. That band was active from 1946 to 1951, and recorded for Gold Star Records.
It's also unlikely that they are the one formed by Herschel Foshee, aided by Joe Roper, in the 1930s as the Stamps-Baxter Quartet. After the death of Foshee in 1949 they changed names to Smilin’ Joe Roper and the Melody Boys. More here. This recording predates their name change by 3 years. Though they did play on KARK-AM regularly giving some plausibility to the recording here.There was another Melody Boys that were a house band on WISE-AM in Asheville, NC connected to Jim Shumate.
I had to give this one a good wipe down before I even tried to play it just to get the grit and sand out of the grooves.Obviously this one has gotten wet and stayed wet and rusted, cracked and started to de-laminate. It's a near death experience for an acetate. However, part of this Recordisc did survive and lived to be ripped today. It has a metal core (obviously) outer-edge start and spins at 78 rpm. It's labeled "Red Flannel" and Hot Shots" It bears the date 11/29/41.
Hoosier Hot Shots
The Hot Shots herein are surely the Hoosier Hot Shots, a band that first appeared in 1930 on WOWO in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, and continued to operate in one form or another until about 1970. They relocated to WLS in Chicago in 1933 and it is from a live syndicated broadcast there that this recording was probably made. Mutual had them on with Uncle Ezra,Merry-Go-Round Up and their own Hoosier Hot Shot Show. The clip is short.. it could have been any of them. But the song appears to be "Put On Your Old Red Flannel Nightgown" which was released on the Vocalion label #5132. That was pressed in 1939 so the chronology bears out.
What I know of the Milt Herth Trio you could fit on a matchbook cover. They were an obscure music trio, half jazz, half novelty wholly strange. They were sometimes also billed as the Milt Hurth Trio, as this one it labeled. And that's not just random small town playbills. It was sometimes spelling with a "U" in paid newspaper advertisements. More here.
This disc is an 8-inch metal core Recordisc with an outer edge start. It's partly labeled with the band name "Milt Hurth Trio" and the date 9-15-46. The song name is not listed, and the initials CFC are in the center prominently. I think those are the engineers initials. But that's a guess. It could just as easily be a radio recording, there was a CFC in Canada in the mid 1940s, but I have nothing to corroborate that connection.
The group consisted of pianist Willie "The Lion" Smith, drummer O'Neil Spencer, and of course Organist Milt Herth. Sometimes they performed as a quartet with guitarist Teddy Bunn. Later Erinie Austin played drums for them. Herth cut as many as 8 sides for Decca in the late 1930s and early 1940s, and at least one for Coral around the same time. According to the 1943 Billboard Yearbook Herth's debut in radio came in 1933. Another source credits his debut to 1935 as an organist on WIND-AM. He was still releasing marginally listenable organ music as late as 1955.
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.
This 8 inch metal core Recordisc has an outer edge start and spins at 78 rpm. It's one of the unusual cases that is not only labeled, but the edge start box is even correctly checked. It's dated for 10-6-46, with the title "Five Minutes More" and the recorder is marked in cursive capitals... might be RAC, RAG, R+G... can't tell. I really hate cursive. But it's probably just the engineers initials.
The recording is of a popular orchestra playing the tune "Five Minutes More." I thought it might be Tex Beneke. They cut the song as a hit single in 1946, but so did Glen Miller, Bob Crosby, The Three Suns, Frank Sinatra, and even Skitch Henderson. This is none of those bands.
At the 2:30 mark I figured out why. It's not a dub of a record. It's a live radio recording. The Host breaks in amid light applause and says "There goes that band again" as string music fades up. That phrase was the closing theme of the Dick Jurgens Orchestra. The audio is too good for this to be a live recording, it had to be a recording of a radio performance. Dick Jurgens was playing the Hotel Claremont in June of 1946, and Yank Bandstand for ARFS that fall. He didn't have his own CBS program until 1948. I deduce that somehow this is a recording from one of those "Yank Bandstand" programs. More here.
This Recordisc transcription disc is in the worst condition I think I've ever seen... well the worst that still had any thing attached to the substrate. I thin we've all seen a bald disc or two. This disc is labeled and dated, though the damage has physically removed the data from large portions of both sides. I carefully cleaned what was left and made a somewhat successful attempt to recover at least some of the audio.
The disc is 8 inches in diameter and spins at 78 rpm with an outer edge start. The recording dates are for October 14th and 15th of 1941. The first cut "Everybody Blames Us" is totally unknown to me but the other side, "When the Mists" is an old hymn from the late 1800s. In this version it's a male lead supported by a church organ, it's followed by a little preaching. The first cut is either a dub or a radio recording, it's hard to say which with so much audio missing. the other sounds more like a live recording... from 72 years ago. Below is the other side after a thorough cleaning. It was too nasty to put on my scanner.
This Pepsi Disc was filthy, totally filthy. I had to carefully wipe it down. I play back it's cracked splintered surface at 33 rpm then correct the speed digitally. Miraculously, the source audio survived the process. As you can see from the image the outermost grooves are destroyed, but the recording picks up mid sentence in listenable condition. The disc is a 78 rpm, paper-core 6-inch Pepsi co-branded Recordisc, clearly of the make distributed to servicemen in WWII. So I expect this was made between 1941 and 1945, with the later date being far more probable. Though some sources loosely date them to 1942. There are a few undated others floating about the internet too. Jerry's Love Letter
It's an inauspicious disc to hit #160 with, though so was 150. Before previewing a disc one has no way to know what is really on any acetate. Such was the case in this case. The disc is labeled, but the label is wrong.The disc spins at 78 rpm and is 8-inches in diameter. The make is Recordisc, and is actually dated to 1/11/47. The rest of the markings (cursive) read "Andy Russel Sentimental Reasons" and the top line looks like "Top Time Hits Record." The song was a top 5 hit in January of 1947. So I assumed it was a dub. It's not, or more accurately it's not anymore... Someone recorded over it. There's a snippet of Mr. Russell at the end and a tell tale dubbing twang noise.
Barrelhouse Piano
The new recording is of barrel house piano. I don't recognize the song, but it's slightly distorted probably from mic placement. The effect makes it sound vaguely like a synth. The pianist is capable with good timing and nice two-hand work playing skilled one handed runs alongside the rhythm. There's no way to date the recording, I can only say that it occurred after January 11th 1947.
This 8-inch Recordisc is a recording is very quiet and has some splits along some inner grooves, but it is in otherwise great condition and the bed noise is quite low. It's a recording of a radio broadcast by Willis Meyers and the Bar X Ranch Boys. The opening song is a guitar and vocal harmony duet of "Bluetail Fly." The song dates back to at least 1840, but this recording spins at 33 rpm which dates it definitively to after 1948. This is the second time that I've found a home recording of this song. The first time was way back in February of 2011 here.
Willis Meyers and the Bar X Ranch Boys
At the end of the first song at about 2:05 the guitarist keeps on strumming but they begin conversing about their upcoming appearances. They're playing at Arts Auction in Lehigh, the Millway Ford dealership, the new Eagles home In Pottstown, a highschool near Harrisburg, Hampton's Auction Ground in Birdsboro, a grand opening in York Pennsylvania and then they shout out to the newly wedded Mr. and Mrs. Lester Miller of Reading, PA.
The second track is "I bought a Rock for a Rocky Mountain Gal" which I think was an original by Wilf Carter. That was recorded in 1940, supporting my original date. It's followed by more chatter (at 5:15)starting with a shout out to their sponsor Larry's Electrical Sales and Service at 308 Courtland Avenue, Lansdale, PA. He refers to a specific model of GE TV, the Black Daylight Television. That dates the recording to1950 or later further narrowing the date.
They follow that with a short version of Freight Train Boogie by The Delmore Brothers, and chatter a bit more as the bed noise over takes the audio. They make some reference to playing at 5:00 - 5:30 Monday through Saturday. Billboard further confirms the date and place with a notice in 1947 that the band is performing on WEEU-AM, Reading and WSAN-AM Allentown and WNAR-AM Norristown.In 1946 Billboard listed them only playing Saturdays on WNAR so clearly they had done well in the interim. I also ripped side B, you can hear the station ID at about 2:40.
This is a Wilcox-gay Recordio. It's 6.5 inches in diameter and has a metal core. This side of the disc is labeled, but it's all scratched out as you can see. It says "Wonderful You" and the artist seems to be Heinie. It is dated clearly to 1/8/47. Heinie
The song is solo piano, barely over 2 minutes long. I assumed it was a take on "You Wonderful You" from the Judy Garland Movie Summer Stock but that came out in 1950. It may be an original. The pianist Heinie remains a mystery as well.
This is a 6.5 inch Recordisc, undated. The title is given as "Whisper to me" with the recorder marked down as just "Ward" which I presume to be a surname. It's in very nice shape and even still has a shiny surface, marked with just one chip on the outer edge. Phonozoic dates this type of Recordisc (Type 2C) to 1948. My copy is undated so I'll rely on his research.
Whisper To Me
The recording is so clear I just edited out three harsh pops and uploaded. It required no filtering. What's interesting is that the singer appears to be faking an exaggerated French accent. This intimates that it's intended to be comedy. My only other support for this the melody, which I think is lifted from another song. It may even be a parody.
The lyrics at least appear to be original though replete with trite phrases, but so is Justin Bieber's discography. That's just what pop is about. I have nothing here to work with to narrow down the date range or the origin, this one is a dead end.
This is a 10-Inch Recordisc, it's label matches the Type 2C listed at Phonozoic, but the core is aluminum. It's uncertain, but my opinion is that all or at least more of the color variants of this type of Recordisc label were concurrent. I think that the aluminum discs predate the fiber-core blanks generally. The dates are generally from 1946 - 1949. I have one that dates to 1942 and I admit that seems spurious and it may be a second generation dub.This one is different from the others in that it does have a date "2-3-48," but no other information besides a wavy line that might be a signature...can't tell. The B side also is dated "2-3-48," but it it's blank or worn smooth, either way there's no audio to be had. Side A
There are three voices on the recording, two male one female. It took me a little time but I quickly realized that they were doing a reading of Alice In Wonderland. It is from CHAPTER VII, A Mad Tea Party, you can read along here. I've clipped and posted the most clear portion above. I reduced the bed noise as much as I can with a noise filter, but it's clear this disc had a lot of plays which wore down the groove notably. It begins on that page with the words "I do,' Alice hastily replied; `at least--at least I mean what I say--that's the same thing, you know.'" It's worth reading along for a bit. I can't tell if this was a copy of a commercial version or some amateur production... but both seem plausible.
This 6.5 inch Recordisc brand acetate is in beautiful condition. There isn't a blemish on it, and the signal to noise ratio is excellent. It's one of the most listenable acetates I've ever digitized. It's too bad the engineers handwriting is completely illegible. It starts out DAWSEY ARS... then the next letter might be an "E" with the top two lines intersecting or an anemic "R." That's followed by a clear-ish "NA" then maybe an "E" on it's side or a stumpy "W", possibly followed by an upside down "Y" or a squiggle, and ending with an "X" or sideways "Y" or cockeyed "T". My best guess is DAWSEY ARSENAET. But it's just a guess.It spins at 78 rpm with an outer edge start.
"Strolling Down Memory Lane"
The audio and the performance are far beyond what could have been done with a home recorder by an amateur engineer. Phonozoic lists an identical label as Recordisc Type 2B, It's not certain, but since their later discs had fiber cores, the dates are probably similar, putting mine at a comparable 1946 date. The song is a version of "Strolling Down Memory Lane." The tune was written by Abe Burrows sometime before 1948. Burrows starts selling radio sketches in 1938 and spent four years as a writer for the program Duffy's Tavern. Decca released it as a B-side in 1947... so somehow this acetate postdates that... unless it's his own demo, which I doubt very much.
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