Author: DOuG pRATt

Two Arms! Two Arms!

Blogging newspaper editor Mike Dobbs has posted some scans from a 1939 magazine article called “The Movies Launch a Kindergarten of Democracy”. [Link] The pictures are scenes promoting the Warner Brothers cartoon “Old Glory”, directed by Chuck Jones. Here’s the cartoon, released in 1940, in all its patriotic, rotoscoped, Technicolor™ old glory.

http://youtu.be/utkBu-mqi-c

Notice the two words that are missing from the Pledge of Allegiance? And of course there are two states missing in the map of the United States.

Synthetic Sir George

Time BeatWaltz in Orbit

I’ve been trying to find a copy of a 1962 single of partially electronic music, Time Beat b/w Waltz in Time, by Ray Cathode. I’ve placed bids, and lost, for the single on eBay, but fortunately I found these MP3’s on WFMU’s Beware of the Blog. [Link] Here are the tracks.

Ray Cathode – Beat Time
[audio:http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/DG/time_beat.mp3]

Ray Cathode – Waltz in Orbit
[audio:http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/DG/waltz_in_orbit.mp3]

Ray Cathode was a pseudonym for a collaboration between BBC technician-producer Maddalena Fagandini and George Martin, who would sign the Beatles to Parlophone Records just a couple of months later. The recording was made for the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, which was set up to create atmospheric music and effects for radio and TV. The 1963 production by Delia Derbyshire of Ron Grainer’s theme for Doctor Who is undoubtedly the workshop’s most familiar work.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/APR07/DoctorWho.mp3]

More Frank Luther

Frank Luther
A while back I featured an interesting children’s record by Frank Luther. That being the only thing I’d ever heard by him, he sounded so old, although he wasn’t yet 60 at the time. So I thought I’d dig up a few recordings from Luther’s earlier days, as an urban musical cowboy. It was worth the effort. This is absolutely super stuff, that I know my buddy Dennis, in particular, will appreciate very much.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/APR07/BarbaraAllen.mp3,http://www.dograt.com/Audio/APR07/10Hours6Days.mp3,http://www.dograt.com/Audio/APR07/SwallerTailCoat.mp3]

Random Web Page — The Scott Wheeler Story

Scott Wheeler 1954At the link is a Web site I came across by chance. [Link] It’s by a Boston area guy named Scott Wheeler, “The website of the first official Liverpool “Merseycat” musician born in the USA — on the cutting edge of a classic rock and roll sound!”

My take on Wheeler is he’s one of those Beatles fans who’s always hovered around the edges of the entertainment business, looking for a way in. He got a band together in the 60’s, worked in the radio biz, and wrote for a small city newspaper, etc. I can relate, except I’ve never tried my hand at music. Art was my forté.

Wheeler’s site is typical of someone who hasn’t yet discovered blogging software. It’s a collection of static pages that haven’t been maintained for over a year. There are a lot of dead links and missing pictures, but it’s still worth browsing because Wheeler has done some interesting things in his life, including a writing a book about someone at the outer fringes of John Lennon’s life, his uncle Charlie. [Link] One thing’s for sure — Wheeler had a better Superman costume than I did when I was a kid!

Postcript: George Scott Wheeler obituary.

Antiques Rock Show

Ever watch The Antiques Road Show? Lots of boring old stuff for boring old people, huh? But what if there were an Antiques Rock Show? At the link is a very amusing video of exactly that. [Link]

WFMU Record Fair

Probably the closest the actual Antiques Road Show has gotten to doing something like this is a segment with vintage rock concert posters. [Link] The show’s pop culture collectibles appraiser is Gary Sohmers, whose business is near here.