In
A Little Garden
Ipana Troubadours
1926
(Columbia 738-D mx 142604)
Here is a record I picked up recently
while going through a junk record stack at a second hand bookstore.
By "junk records" I mean that out of the few hundred 78 rpm records the
store had for sale for 78 cents each, I only walked out with two
records. This one has been scuffed up quite a bit over the
years - but the audio restoration software did a great job of cleaning
it up and removing several very loud "pops." You can still hear some
of the smaller "pops" which the software is capable of removing but only
with quite a bit more time and effort on my part. One thing about
the old Columbia "Viva-Tonal" electric records of the 1920s and early 1930s
is that they were some of the best made records of the time and often sound
surprisingly good even after having been subjected to decades of abuse.
In excellent condition, they have very little surface noise and the sound
quality is usually exquisite.
"Ipana Troubadours" was a pseudonym
used by the Sam Lanin Orchestra and the name of the band's popular radio
program.
Ipana was a highly successful brand of toothpaste manufactured by Bristol-Meyers.
The Ipana Troubadours radio program
debuted on April 8, 1925 and was one of the early network programs.
When the program started commercial radio was still in its infancy and
stations were prohibited by the government from airing explicit sales pitches
for products. Instead, advertising messages were made indirectly
and more subtly - not unlike the corporate "underwriting" announcements
on today's PBS television stations in the USA. Naming a program after
a commercial sponsor was one such form of indirect advertising and was
commonly used throughout the 1920s and continued for many years even after
the prohibition against explicit advertisements was finally lifted.
The Ipana Troubadours remained on
the air until January 1931. Aside from his work on radio, Lanin
was also quite busy in the recording studio. He recorded for virtually
every American record label in existence during the 1920s under dozens
of pseudonyms. His band's recorded output in terms of quantity was
second only that of the Ben Selvin band.
Chutney
Victor Military Band
1914
(Victor 17692-A)
This week's selection is a rather
charming ragtime number composed by Theodore Morse (1873-1924) who wrote
a number of ragtime and popular tunes around the turn of the 20th century
and the following two decades. Morse is best remembered for
his 1917 composition "Hail, Hail, The Gang's All Here." Most of his
works, however, have long since been forgotten by modern audiences.
This record was recorded on November
17, 1914 and appeared in stores in early 1915.
