TV Dinners.....and other frozen fun from the mid 20th Century!

After being sick last month around good friday, I decided to take the month off for a jetsam post. Yeah, lazy me.

We're back with jingles reflecting a invention of the mid 20th century....the TV dinner. Swanson was the first to have success, when sitting down in front of the TV to eat was the 1950s equilvalent of people and staring at their smartphones today (and people act like staring at screens is new!!! geesh). It was a time to give mom a break for cooking (Mcdonalds was just starting to have success around that time so fast food as we know it today was hardly known) and the family bonding in front of the TV while they watch their favorite shows. Some more details on the wiki page HERE

Banquet has been a Swanson competitor for almost as long as Swanson has turned out TV dinners, well according to their details on their own WEBSITE Banquet though started out with meat pies and that is reflected on the spots on this disc (see the labels for details!). One can argue which tastes better, Banquet or Swanson, but i've had both, so I'll leave the preferences for another day and let you enjoy these banquet radio spots from I believe 1960 to get you in the mood to head to the microwave and throw in your own TV dinner as you are too lazy to cook yourself something. Even after 60+ years, they are still cheaper then going out even for fast food. Enjoy..the spots and your TV dinner :)

SIDE ONE





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SIDE TWO





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Summer Break for the Jetsam so I can chew my gum away.....

Well......sorta.

I've decided to take a break this summer with the jetsam. The main reason? I'm moving. I have a LOT of stuff. Only a fraction of it is heard on the jetsam. radio shows, a large vinyl and CD collection, studios for both production and my internet radio stream, all with vintage broadcast gear and computers, you can see where this is going. It takes time to pack and tear down and unpack and rebuild. The weekly radio show "Cheeze Pleeze" (www.cheezepleeze.com) and the stream (timecapsuleaudionetwork.tripod.com) will be given a bit of priority to be up and running and then the jetsam will be back. I thank you for all the letters and support i've had over the last year with this project, and want to stress, it's isn't permanent, it's just a break. we'll be back in the fall sometime.

Let's throw in one more exhibit before we start the break. Circa 1960s Wrigley spearmint gum jingles from another ET record that had me stand up and take notice when I saw the label. It's from the Universal Recording Corp in Chicago. It's a legendary studio in the city from the 1940s onward started by a man who pioneered numerous recording techniques and tricks and moved to hollywood in the late 50s to start yet another legendary recording studio of his design, Bill Putnam.

You can read more about Universal on the wiki HERE

Well, I suppose records didn't just pay the bills alone...commerical jingles certainly helped too.

I've put all 8 60 sec spots on one mp3 file.

Enjoy! and have a great summer!


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Lang Worth Airlifts Demo.....

Dave Stuckey dropped me a line last month saying he found the page looking for more info on Lang Worth Jingles. He says:

"Have you heard the Hucksters sales record? I found it somewhere here on the net - I think! -- and it's really great... I would love to hear unexpurgated versions!"

Thanks to Dave, I have downloaded it and posted it here for other people to get a grasp at the hucksters and airlifts that this company that seems virtually forgotten online seemed to have put out.

Time permitting, I will be posting some Christmas material, both jingles and beds from the Lang Worth Hucksters and Airlifts series in the very near future. While I don't have a many discs of this series, I enjoy sharing what I do have.

Until then...enjoy the demo. Thanks to my wife for creating the graphic from one of the rather plain record covers VERY quickly.

Lang Worth Radio Hucksters and Airlifts Demo Disc
Date Unknown

SIDE A (Runs 10:27)





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SIDE B (Runs 14:08)




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We Want to Sing About Your Business...

It's been a bit busy for me travelling of late, what with the trip to maine and last weekend to Charlottetown PEI last weekend, but back on track to add some material to the blog!

I was cleaning out the "library" in the basement when I found this tape. Most people have books, I have vinyl records, and cassettes and reel to reel tapes from the last 50 odd years. It's my own personal museum of audio I suppose.

Anyway, this seems to be a demo reel from an advertising agency, jingle production company or something in between. From the sound of the jingles on the tape, I would put it between mid to late 1960s. What's kind of funny about this tape is the lack of quality for the guy doing the narration. I can really picture him in some high priced office with not a lot of furniture taking breaks between reading the copy and flipping the pause control on the reel tape recorder (which you can hear by the way!) to get it to sound like he intended. I guess a recording studio was a little too expensive to record for the narration?

In any event, it's a great basic explanation of how jingles and advertising work for a business that still holds up to this day, and the delightfully dated jingles (both within the narration and after the end of the presentation) make it worth a spot here on the jetsam.


1960s Jingle Company Demo...(runs 14:37) (MONO)
Company is Unknown.




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