Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Time For A Tune

Here is a video I took today. This is an Imperial Records 78RPM disk of Billy Briggs singing his own composition, "Chew Tobacco Rag." The record was made around 1950. I bought it at a flea market in 1977. Enjoy.


Even though Billy's record did not make the country charts, there were cover versions recorded by artists such as Pee Wee King, Spade Cooley, and Lucky Millinder.

ALOHA!

Here are Lawrence Welk and his Champagne Music Makers as seen on the October 10, 1959 telecast of The Lawrence Welk Show. This program originated from the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu. The number features lead violinist Dick Kesner performing "Hawaiian Paradise" on his magic Stradivarius violin. Roughly 46 seconds into the video, while Dick performs, you would see in the background, a 1960 Dodge station wagon. Dodge was still the sponsor of the Welk show. In fact, this episode marked the world premiere showing of the 1960 Dodge and 1960 Dodge Dart.

Friday, February 13, 2009

And Now, A Word From Our Alternate Sponsor

The year is 1957, and here is a commercial for Tootsie Roll, as seen on a telecast of the Howdy Doody Show.




In June, 1956, Howdy and the gang were exiled from weekday afternoons to Saturday mornings because they were getting clobbered ratingswise at the hands of ABC's Mickey Mouse Club. At the time of this broadcast excerpt, the show was still televised live, but by late 1957 or early 1958, they began taping ten shows (in one week) per month. In case you're wondering, that's budding jazz musician Lew Anderson in the role of Clarabell.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

And Now, A Word From Our Sponsor

The year is 1950, and here is an advertisement for 3 Musketeers as seen during a live telecast of the Howdy Doody Show.






Buffalo Bob Smith sure knew how to sell a product. And yes, that was TV's future Captain Kangaroo himself, Bobby Keeshan, as Clarabell the Clown.

Monday, February 09, 2009

FBN On Dish Network

The Fox Business Network (which went on the air on October 15, 2007) was finally added to the Dish Network lineup last Tuesday (February 3) on Channel 206. It is also available in HD.