THE NEW JAM ALBUM OF STATION ID'S & SINGLES (Jam Productions, 1979)

 

Here is an interesting item, which is also a fun snapshot of 1979.  JAM Creative Productions is a production house for jingles, background music, and much more, and has been dominating from their Dallas headquarters for over 50 years! (By the way, the name comes from the initials of the founders, a married couple.)  They've had an incredible career of supplying high-quality jingles and music around the world.

These promotional sorts of LP's are always fun, if for no other reason than because you were never supposed to hear them, as they were never available in stores.  Instead, this extremely well-made album serves as a portfolio for everything the company could do. It would've gone to program directors and heads of radio stations, for them to evaluate their advertising needs.  You know as well as I do from your youth that jingles and call-letter identification could make or break a radio station, as it gave them a sense of identity.

Another compelling part of this record is how "1979" it is.  That was a weird time.  Disco was trying to be put to pasture, and the New Wave hadn't yet set in, so the culture in America was trying to figure out what the eventual 80's would sound like, and there was an extension of the mellow "singer/songwriter" vibe that was so big in the earlier part of the 70's.  As such, the album would fit in nicely in the "WKRP" era in sound.

Another fun thing is one of the narrators, whom people of that generation will recognize.  It's Mason Adams, who had that homespun, Jimmy Stewart's Dad type of voice that you could never believe was lying to you, no matter what he said.  We even had an LP of Halloween stories on this blog that he read.  I always knew him as the voice on commercials:  "With a name like Smucker's, it's GOT to be good."  I kept thinking about how ironic that was, because, you know....JAM.  And jellies.  

Anyway, I have said enough times that this is an enjoyable listen.  I relish the days where real singers sung with real instruments and real string sections and real everything.  The average 8-year-old ear doesn't care, but to anyone with sense, it sounds warm and real and like it exists in the actual world.  Sure, it was doing it the hard way, but the hard way is usually the best way.  Unless you are doing brain surgery or something. Use the robot for that.

LINK:  New JAM Album of Station IDs & Singles (1979)

THE 8-BIT CONSTRUCTION SET (Beige Records, 2000)

 

Here is something I ran across that you won't find anywhere else, and it isn't on YouTube or anywhere to be found (you will see why in a moment).  This is a "DJ record," for lack of a better term.  It's ingredients, to make your own mixes and jams.  These were privately produced items, and never sold in stores.  We have actually looked at one in the distant past on this very blog, because there is a Godzilla-themed one that is quite rare today!

Goodness, that was 15 years ago.  Anyway, this record is divided into two sides, and instead of A and B, it's the ATARI and COMMODORE 64 sides:

Both sides begin with montages of samples and sound effects, followed by ten or eleven sampled beats, which are presented in SHORT LOCKED GROOVES.  Get your brain around this--in the space of an inch or so, there are 10 (or 11) tiny bands which your stylus will not advance between.  Thus, this record was nearly IMPOSSIBLE to convert, especially when you can't hear what you are recording until you are done.  What madness is this? How did I resolve this one?

In the course of making this blog, I have had to solve some unusual and wacky problems from time to time.  In this case, I set up a large magnifying lamp with bright built-in LED lights, clamped it to a nearby table, and used it to see the placement of the stylus as best I could with my failing eyes.  And, it actually was successful.  If you have ever messed with locked grooves, they can be quite stubborn to cooperate. But somehow, I got all of them!

The third band on each side is an original chiptune composition using the featured hardware.  These are quite cool.  The final and fourth band on each side is truly original indeed--they contain game programs for their respective systems, which can be recorded onto a cassette and uploaded, just like in the old days.  It doesn't tell us what these games are, but huge points for the innovativeness of the designers here.  Word of warning though, these tracks are unlistenable.  The Commodore one sounds like you are actually inside an MRI machine.

All in all, this is a really fun release, despite the recording challenges.  Kudos to the team who pulled this off, 26 years ago now! Enjoy.

LINK:  8-BIT CONSTRUCTION SET(2000)

Promotional Calendar (Hanna-Barbera Productions, 1978) Godzilla! Super Friends! ........Godzooky.

 

Who knew, but in December of 1978, Hanna-Barbera sent out promotional calendars as gifts, which were printed on 11 x 14 glossy paper, and bound at the top with a green comb, the type of which is still used today. We can obviously spot our favorite kaiju right there on the front, inside of a giant stocking (I mean a GIANT stocking) with everyone else!

Oh, and Godzooky is also there.

Let's jump in, and take a look at the contents!

January shows us YOGI'S SPACE RACE, a short-lived attempt to space-ify some HB characters in the wake of Star Wars, which is what everyone else was doing too.  It was also one of those Saturday-morning shows that was part of a "programming block," (in this case, 90 minutes) that included some other features we are going to see shortly.

February's subject might be unknown to you, but JANA OF THE JUNGLE was 1/2 of the original GODZILLA POWER HOUR, and did not go over at all. It's pretty obscure, but episodes are on the YouTubes.

March and April are even more obscure, if that's even possible! GALLOPING GHOST was originally a segment of YOGI'S SPACE RACE, and was later given half of a show, combined with THE BUFORD FILES (hold on for that one).

May is the main attraction, of course. This is a pretty well-used piece of promotional artwork for the series, but the composition is sort of odd, the more you look at it.  It almost seems like a paste-up. Godzilla's image is at a weird angle, and then Godzooky is just sort of tucked into the back.

For June, we have DINKY DOG, and I have no memory of this one whatsoever.  Wikipedia tells me it was part of THE ALL-NEW POPEYE HOUR, and later spun off to its own show.  It was also Hanna-Barbera's first show produced in Australia.

As previously mentioned, THE BUFORD FILES (which I don't remember either) was part of YOGI'S SPACE RACE.

August, however, is pretty special, and my second-favorite page in this calendar.  Not only was Saturday morning my introduction to Godzilla, but Super Friends was very important to me, and I didn't miss it. The 1979 season of the show would've been WORLD'S GREATEST SUPERFRIENDS, which was a good year!

September is SCOOBY-DOO, and if you can sort out the million permutations and combinations of Scooby-Doo shows that have aired over the decades, you are a better man than I.  I will point out that for the 1977-78 season, CAPTAIN CAVEMAN AND THE TEEN ANGELS was shown in the same 2-hour block, which brings us to October.  Do you remember kids running around the playground yelling "Captaaaaaain Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaavemaaannnnnnn!"???

We wrap up the year with two more easy ones.  Huckleberry Hound would've been seen on LAFF-A-LYMPICS about this time, and A FLINTSTONE CHRISTMAS was a prime-time TV special in 1977.

As a bonus, here is the original outer envelope that the calendar was mailed in!

Note the extra artwork up by the postage--9 years old by this time, Scooby-Doo was already the ambassador and symbol of Hanna-Barbera:

You may be interested to know, just in case you save and printout these calendar pages, they will be perfectly good to use again in the years 2029, 2035, 2046...and so on! Enjoy!

The Lufkin Home Recordings (1942-51) A Trove of Cardboard Record Treasures!

 

You know what we haven't done in a long time around here? Some--as one reader so aptly named it--"left field archaeology!" So here is an end-of-year-holiday-of-your-choice gift that I have been sitting on!

In 2024, I was exploring a record store that had taken up shop in the labyrinthine basement of an historic old hotel, and buying an armload of records, when I suddenly dug up a cache of dusty old cardboard records (which we have covered every so often on this site. most notably in this post of "Self-Recorded 78s") in a bag...14 in all! I knew right away that it was my mission to restore them, and offered the guy 20 bucks for the stack.

You can read more about this in the post I just linked, but in short, companies like Wilcox-Gay actually made portable, suitcase-style recorders that allowed you to cut a (in this case, plastic-coated cardboard) record! More common were the vending machine-style kiosks, which allowed you to speak into a receiver, make a 1-minute or so record, and instantly drop it into the mail!

I doubt many people had access to the portable models, especially in the mid-40s, but I am sure businesses purchased them (later models cut shellac-covered metal discs, and were used for dictation and auditions). Somehow, the main characters in our story, John and Storrie (?) Lufkin, had access to one, and it looks like John got it out every time there was a gathering in his home, for at least seven or so years. 

The blanks varied in size, were made by tons of manufacturers, were cut at 78 rpm, and were never made to stand up to repeated playing with heavy steel needles of the day.  All the ones in this group are 6.5 inches, except for one 8-inch recording, but they came in all sizes.  The 6.5 inch size allowed for roughly 2 minutes of recording, and you could stop and start, which would create a new band each time.

So, what exactly was ON these 14 discs? Someone's family history, is what....as well as a few surprises that I wasn't ready for.  You will notice in the photo above that model pictured that it included an AM radio, and now I know how Lufkin recorded several partial songs of the day.  This blew my mind, that somebody in the 1940's was sitting listening to the radio, and racing to record it, the way I used to have a cassette tape ready as a kid when a song I wanted came on! 

These records are in the order they were in as I restored them, so they aren't in chronological order, but as you listen, you will piece together elements of the family's lives.  Particularly interesting is the "Graduation Night" disc from 1944, where the Lufkin daughter and her cousin prepare to go out on the town, and John Lufkin is excited about the D-Day Invasion just occurring! 

Unfortunately, I have had to leave a few of these out--some are just two scratchy excerpts of popular songs, and there is no point in sharing them here, when you could retrieve the actual full recordings with a couple of clicks if you cared.  The OTHER reason is...well, I chickened out at sharing a couple of discs where they are drinking with friends and decide it's a good idea to tell bawdy (and even racist) jokes! It's your grandparents, "after dark." Hide the children!

So, here are the contents of these amazing discs:

DISC #01 : Tommy Dorsey - Black Magic / Moonlight Becomes You (sourced from AM radio) excluded from download

DISC #02: "Time Waits Frank M?n" / Post-D-Day Message to the people of France (perhaps General Eisenhower speaking?) [sourced from AM radio]

DISC #03: "Graduation June 1944" (Date is given as June 13, 1944.  A family celebration of graduation night for two cousins, Ruthie (Ruth Virginia Zimmerman) and Barbara (Lufkin), including members of the Zimmerman and Lufkin families (the mothers are sisters). The father encourages the girls to speak, and we hear well-wishes from mothers ("Mrs. Zimmerman, from Riverside"), grandmother, and aunts. The father mentions being proud, and that the June 6th D-Day Invasion had just occurred the previous week.  The girls leave to go out on the town. One of the mothers advises them: "don't cut too many capers."

DISC #04: "STORIES" (No date given; the parents (Lufkins?) from the other discs host several friends for drinking and poker, and decide to take turns telling bawdy (and even quite racist!) jokes on both sides.) excluded from download for obvious reasons

DISC #05: "October 22, 1944" (A married couple drop by to visit the Lufkins, who were already hosting another couple for dinner.  Side 2 is made up of one of the women singing "Embracable You," a capella for 3 different bands.)

DISC #06: "FROSSELLS & LUFKINS NOV. 14 1942" / "PRESIDENT'S SPEECH" (November 14, 1942. The Frossells visit the (John & Story/Storrie) Lufkin home.  Side 2 is an excerpt of an FDR speech from a radio source.

DISC #07: December 31, 1950, New Year's Eve for 1951.  Another party at the Lufkin house ("Johnny & Story/Storrie").  Side 1 begins with the group singing "Auld Lang Syne" and sharing well-wishes for the New Year.  Side 2 continues their comments. The latest recording in the group, chronologically.

DISC #08: Bing Crosby - Dearly Beloved / White Christmas (AM radio source) excluded from download (you are welcome!)

DISC #09: Both sides sourced from radio broadcast of a war correspondent giving an account of the June 6, 1944 D-Day invasion of Normandy.

DISC #10: Bing Crosby - I Walk Alone / unknown - Cool Water (AM radio broadcast) excluded from download, extremely dull

DISC #11: "Fred Waring / NELL Jan. 27" (The "Fred Waring" side is from a radio broadcast of a choral performance of a wartime song about going home, briefly concluding with announcer.  The "Nell" side is what's interesting here:  a gathering at the Lufkin home ("from the Lufkin residence on L Avenue"), where Nell (who calls it "Radio Station NELL") tries to get Mrs. Lufkin to talk.  She isn't interested; "that's all.")

DISC #12: "People Say We're In Love / How Sweet You Are" sourced from AM radio and boring.  excluded from download

DISC #13: "Southern Moon / Night Before Christmas" sourced from AM radio excluded from download (yeccchhh)

DISC #14: (Couples partying at the Lufkin home, singing "How Dry I Am" and "Wedding Bells Are Breaking Up That Old Gang Of Mine." The reverse (unnumbered) side had a damaged beginning, but the side is almost completely silent (even though it has grooves), as if the microphone was disconnected.  At the extreme end of this side, some voices are heard, but time has run out and it ends in the normal locked groove.

And there you have it.  Each disc required some careful cleaning, and lots of work to deal with damage, remove as much surface noise as possible, and bring out the best possible sound (remember too, these things were recorded with a pretty lackluster built-in microphone.) There are scans of both sides of each disc included with the download so you can see the labels, and as much information is included as possible.

And now, the shot in the dark--are you related to the Lufkin family, or anyone else included here? My guess is that nobody has known of the existence of these recordings for decades. They obviously languished in storage for many years, until they were sold as a part of a record collection.  It would be  huge thrill if I could reunite these with the actual family (I can't imagine somebody giving me recordings of my own grandparents!), but until then, here is a private look directly into a family's lives!

LINK:  The Lufkin Recordings

That Time A Giant Ketchup Bottle Robot Gave Me A Pickle Pin

 

Stay with me on this one, we will get there, I promise.  

So, the World's Fair used to be a thing, and more often than not, they have been called "Expos," but in 1982, it was still called the World's Fair, and was held in Knoxville, Tennessee.  Often, a landmark structure of some sort was built to commemorate the event (the most famous being the Space Needle in Seattle, or even the Eiffel Tower), and for Knoxville, a large observation tower was constructed, called the Sunsphere. And, it's still there to this day, hanging on.

Promotional postcard sold at the event, because no construction was completed to actually take photos of at the time they were printed.

Your humble host was there--in fact, here is my ticket for one of the days (it cost $9.95 per day):

Technology is often a theme of World's Fairs, and 1982 was no exception.  Two major ingredients of the fair were two things that had completely taken over the world in 1982:  the Rubik's cube and Pac-Man.  In fact, there was even a giant motorized Rubik's cube that worked itself as it spun around, for people to gawk at and take photos of.

But there were also robots! In particular, the one we are here to discuss today is this one:

[Photo from knoxnews.com article]

In fact, the other day, I was reading this book:

And there, on the page, was this guy...and the memories came right back to me:

This is "H.J.," and I had forgotten all about meeting him at the Fair.  He was controlled remotely by an operator, who rolled him around (from not very far away) and carried on conversations with guests via a headset and microphone.  It was done exactly like the many non-humanoid droids in the first Star Wars: as giant remote-controlled vehicles.

But H.J. did another thing too! A small tray in front opened up, and dispensed a promotional pin to the surprised visitor!

This pin is about 1.25 inches long, and says "HEINZ" on one side.

And somehow, I've managed to keep from losing it, all these years!

Well, that's cool--end of story, right? Actually, no!  Our story is going to take a few more turns...

So, H.J. was a somewhat short-lived promotional mascot for Heinz--here is a promotional postcard put out at the time:

And here lies our first revelation:  this robot I met all those years ago was not H.J.! In fact he was.....H.J. 2! Gasp!

And here is their wedding photo, R2-D2 officiating.

Yes, the Heinz company had not one, but two of these guys! In fact, as the 1982 World's Fair was coming close to wrapping up that October, the first H.J. suddenly went missing on his way to a trade show in Cleveland, and H.J. 2 was quickly shipped off to fill in, leaving the 1982 World's Fair with no giant talking ketchup bottle robots!

The story gets even stranger (I did lots of research for this post), because A UPI-archived article from November 5, 1982 reveals the fate of the first H.J.!  No, he wasn't stolen by college students, or added to Pee Wee Herman's house! Instead, he was....left in the freight terminal of the San Francisco airport, where nobody paid any attention.

Yep, that happened.  There he sat, like the Ark of the Covenant amidst a sea of crates.  But fear not, our story has a happy ending! An "observant airline worker" located the missing oversized automated condiment container, and returned it to Heinz! The day was saved!  

And, as it turns out, it gets even better, because the Heinz company actually offered a reward for the return of their lost robot, which the airline worker received! It was.....

....two cases of ketchup.  You can't make this stuff up!

NEW Godzilla Item Discovered, And It's Another Puffy Thing

 (NOTE: This directly continues from the last post, and is Part 2 of a long and sordid story.)

THE STORY SO FAR: Last time we examined some of the puffy magnetic Godzilla items that the mysterious nameless company made in the late 1970's, namely the key chains and the "Jumbo" 7-inch magnets.  We looked at a hitherto-unforeseen Jumbo magnet, and we also concluded that there were six designs in the key chains, and therefore six Jumbo magnets probably exist (by the way these designs were also found in the various puffy stickers that they made...):

So what is the big deal? Well, as it turns out, this company produced ANOTHER puffy magnetic item in their vast arsenal:

These were the "Combination Magnetic Stickers," meaning they too contained crappy magnets (you remember Top Cat living in prehistoric times with the Flintstones, right?). And as it turns out, they made them for dozens of franchises.  Here are just a few:

Just a quick search will reveal:  The Pink Panther, Casper and Harveytoons characters, Terrytoons characters, Raggedy Ann & Andy, Mr. Magoo, Dick Tracy, and some sort of cutified little girls called "Honey Funnies," that probably should be left alone. As you can see, they were sold on little cards on spinner racks, the same way their puffy stickers were sold.  

Here is what the backs of these items looked like:

There is no artwork on the back, and the "sticker" function was merely a small strip with adhesive underneath...which no doubt stuck better than the magnet, and begs the question of why there even WAS a magnet???!!!

The Godzilla Jumbo Puffy Magnets had blank backs like these, but contained no adhesive strip. 

So, what is so exciting about the Godzooky at the top of this post? Surely we have already seen that.  Well, take a look at this:

Lo and behold, he's one of them! I am embarrassed to say I have had this for many years, and I bought it in a lot of random Godzilla stuff, long ago.  It was just sitting in a display case, on top of some other items.  I think I subconsciously thought it was one of those key chains that had broken off, but thank goodness I kept it!

He is also the identical dimensions to the key chains, which is important to note:

So, just when it gets boring around here, there's a new item to discover, and it was there all along.  Now we have to turn up a packaged example, so drop me a line if you can, or can provide a photo for the guide.  

These were the sorts of disposable things that--especially if they were opened--quickly used up their short lifespans. You can imagine them falling off, and the adhesive instantly getting dirty and full of strange hair...and then your mom threw it away when you weren't looking.  That was the 1970's for sure.

Stay tuned, because we have some more Godzilla history coming up shortly that you won't see anywhere else!

NEW Godzilla Jumbo Puffy Magnet Discovered! (manufacturer unknown, 1979)

(NOTE: This is part 1 of a 2-part discovery, to keep them separate on our chronological list of American Godzilla items produced.)

A few posts ago, we looked at packaged examples of the Jumbo [7-inch] Puffy Magnets (called "Magnetic Godzilla Character TV & Cartoon Pals," by their nameless manufacturer, of which there were three different ones:

They look like this on the reverse (this will be important in Part 2):

No adhesive strip, just (extremely weak) crappy magnets inside. I already owned a vending machine backing card that contained the Godzooky magnet shown above:

HOWEVER-- I recently acquired another vending machine backing card from the same line, and guess what was prominently featured? A fourth style of jumbo puffy magnet things:

You just KNOW these were all folded up inside the little plastic egg, and were never right after that...

This brought our total up to four different styles.  Now, hold that thought, and let's jump back to another product that this company made, the Magnetic Godzilla Key Chains (featured in this post):

These fine products were sold on a hanging store display, and took the weak, ineffective magnet feature from before and added a key chain, which was precariously placed closely to the edge of the plastic puffy design.  Not only would it never hold up keys with a magnet, it would also never hold keys, period, or survive being in your pocket.  So, a fine engineering job all around.  But, I digress...

These puffy designs also had an internal magnet, but were double-sided in their artwork. (This will also be important for Part 2.)  So, how many different key chain designs were available? I sat down and studied them, realizing I had double-counted some a long time ago, which were simply just reverse images of what had already been counted.  I finally arrived at six different designs:

...which can all be found facing the opposite way as well  One way to keep track is, one side of the keychain is glossy, and the other is a dull finish. These puffy shapes measured approximately 3 & 1/2 by 2 & 1/2 inches.

You will notice that all four of our Jumbo Puffy Magnets' artwork featured above can be found in this group of images.  Therefore, I think it's safe to postulate that there are probably six different Jumbo Puffy Magnets to be found as well, like their key chain counterparts. Here are the remaining two styles:

I've never seen loose or packaged examples of these remaining two, but you can bet that I will be on the lookout from this point forward.

Now, if all of this wasn't too confusing or boring, hang on for Part 2, because all of this closer scrutiny made me realize there is another product that this company made, which I had completely left off of our list for years because I wasn't paying attention, and it is probably the very rarest of all of them, hands down.  Stay tuned!