April 25, 2022 • 50 mins
Audio ephemera collector Bob Purse returns to talk about more radio ads, this time from a source that remains a mystery.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The music commercials you are about to hear were created
for advertising agencies by star As International. Ephemeral is a
production of I Heeart three D audio for full exposure
listen with that phone? Hey, well Hi, can you hear
(00:23):
this if I play this? Yeah? Fabulous? As long time
listeners already know, this is Bob Purse, would you mind
introducing yourself, just just for those that maybe don't know
you already? All right, my name is Bob Purse. I
live in Arcton Heights, Illinois, and I have been a
(00:45):
serious collector of all manner of recorded sounds since my
early twenties. Let's let's I've estimated that I probably have
had close to ten thousand recordings, albums, real, real tapes, videos,
anything else that's something might have been recorded on. Though
I never asked him whether or not he'd like to be,
(01:07):
Bob is kind of the godfather of this podcast. Our
pilot begins with a tape he found, and we focused
on parts of his collection in our episodes Reputation, The
Tallest Rock, Oh See Black, and the Musical Memories of
(01:31):
Camp Navn. Something about hearing stuff from an era that
I didn't live through for whatever reason that that just
fascinates me. My family was one of the first to
obtain a real to real machine when they were pretty
(01:51):
much only used in studios. So when I was a
little kid, we had recordings of my family from before
I was born. Obviously, that's what everybody has now and
has had for years and years, But in nineteen sixty four,
when I was four, I guarantee you nobody I knew
had recordings of their older siblings or their parents from
before they were born. So I was fascinated by it.
(02:13):
As my mother used to say, her main concern about
me was how to get me to stop playing with
the tape recorder, And there are endless recordings of me
on whatever available space. There was What I think of?
What did I think of? By the time I was
a teenager, fourteen or fifteen, we had upwards of a
hundred and thirty hundred forty tapes recorded by our family.
(02:36):
Some of them are our family, a lot of them
off the air. My mom was a professional singer, so
some of them were of her performances. I decided that
we needed to have these in some sort of order,
which entailed me listening to every moment of every one
of those tapes and writing down exactly what was on them,
where it was on them, and then making a separate
(02:57):
listing of where anything that could possibly be considered important
or the people would want to hear again, and turning
that into a catalog. I want to say I did
that from the summer seventy four, probably to the end
of the summer seventy I'm sixty one now, so it
was a while ago. At some point my uncle Stu,
(03:18):
who was my mom's brother, heard about what I had
done and said he had a much smaller box of tapes,
and would I do the same thing with his tapes?
And I said, yeah, I didn't really have any sort
of emotional connection to what was on his tapes. And
if you think about yourself at age sixteen, that's when
your world is expanding, and there was a lot more
(03:39):
going on in my life at sixteen than there had
been at fourteen. I don't think I ever really started
his project, but four the tapes in the box sort
of intrigued me, and they were labeled star Ads by
Hums one, two, three, and six. The first three were
nothing but examples of commercials produced by this company. Volume
(04:01):
one was clearly their big shot. You know, these are
the ads we've done for either national businesses or which
came out really, really well and and portray what we
can do. The second volume seemed to be either regional
ads or in some cases I'm guessing what were demos
(04:23):
that perhaps were never produced as full commercials. They have
sort of an unfinished quality to them in a couple
of cases. But there were several ads for local newspapers,
particularly the Detroit News, then a whole bunch of commercials
for the phone company, and then at the end six
fabulous ads for a company called Puritan Meets Real. Three
(04:45):
definitely sounded like locally produced ads for local businesses, and
had a whole series of radio station jingles done for
both Canadian and American stations. See I had a bunch
of partials for Simpson Sears, which is the version of
(05:06):
Spears that they add in Canada. And then fourth one
which was labeled six, but I always called it Tape four.
I only had four tapes. Was a presentation by the
head of the company. This is Bruce Davis, president of
Star Ads, explaining the business. In the past thirteen years,
we have produced over twenty three hundred commercial majority in
(05:27):
the national and regional category that the salesman there had
hundreds of samples of ads that he could play for
the prospective client. Should this presentation prove of interest, please
ask our representative for more samples of our work. He
is knowledgeable and has over two hundred examples with him
talking about how the business worked, what would happen if
you hired them, etcetera, etcetera. For each of these commercials,
(05:49):
we did the composition, scoring, and production, and with the
exception of one or two who we did the lyrics
as well. My uncle Stu worked for Star Ads. He
would have been the I with the tape recorder and
the tapes who walked into somebody's office and said, here's
what my company can do. How long he worked for them,
I don't know. He um had several jobs and sales
(06:10):
during the years I was growing up, so I can't
give you an exact date for them. I think the
date on the speech one is seventy, which would mean
that anything on the realists from then or earlier. I've
always figured those ads probably are from about the mid
sixties to nineteen seventy. Let me say something completely graceless.
(06:31):
The Star ads are weird. Some of the production is
really great, and the ad copy tends to be awful clever.
They certainly give a fascinating window into an esoteric time
and place. It's hard to put your finger on just
what it is, but there's something a bit off kilter
about all of them. There was something different about these commercials,
(06:54):
even from the humorous and musically appealing ones that were
around at that time. They tried things that I've never
heard from other ad companies. There's just a freewheeling, loose
field to these commercials, almost as if some of the
people that were writing the copy were like, well, let's
just try this. And the other thing that makes the
(07:16):
star Ads particularly alluring is that, aside from hints given
on the four tapes, we really don't know anything about them.
I have done searches for products from star Ads, but
the phrase star ads in terms of the recording medium
has literally never come up. There's a guy that sings
(07:37):
and talks on a certain high percentage of the commercials
that I've called the voice of Star Ads, like I
have no idea who he was or is, and I'm
not the only one who's tried to figure it out.
I can't say that I've spent a whole lot of
time on it because I wouldn't really know where to start.
Maybe somebody hearing this will know we're going to listen
(07:59):
to some stars after the break. I was thinking instead
of me just picking a bunch of tracks this time,
and we could just go back and forth and play
like star ed Roulette a little bit. Is there a
star Eds song that you would like to hear right now? Yeah?
Puritan doubled him? Whose versions? Then we'll talk about we
(08:23):
can we can we can talk about my version? Do
you know what to pack four Tomorrows lunch to satisfy
that hungry bunch. Puritan has an idea for you. Were
sure the family will like it too. Take a can
of Puritan deviled ham and add salary chopped up fine,
(08:43):
four hard boiled eggs, and some mayonnaise, and for taste
a dash of wine. Now mix salt together, add pepper
and salt, and a pinch of cay in is great,
and pack an extra sandwich. We know they'll say it's
the best they ever ate. That's the guy I've called
the voice of star Ads. He does sing to some
of them. He sung at the beginning of that one,
but mostly he just talks over music. There's a guitar
(09:05):
solo in the middle, which is where whoever is playing
the commercially supposed to keep the voice over for the
specials and current meats in the local supermarket this week.
And then you got that lovely jingle at the end
with the happy turkey women made for you. It did
(09:26):
a bunch of spots for purits and meats. Right, They're
all set up more or less the same way. There's
a couple of different templates, but they all end with
the same jingle, and some of them have organ behind them.
That one had a guitar, there's one with a harmonica.
I'm gonna play your version of the Let's just say
Yeah in nine nineties six or six ninety seven when
(09:49):
I was I've recorded my own music since I was sixteen,
and in n or ninety seven, when I was making
what I considered to be my fourth sort of collection
of humorous music, I decided to record a version of
that commercial because I loved it so much. Do you
know what to backboard tomorrow? Lunch? To satisfy that bunch
(10:10):
utan has an idea for you? Where sure the family
will lock it to take a can of Puritan deviled
ham and add celery chopped up five four hard boiled eggs,
and some mayonnaise and tasted dash of wine. That makes
all together at pepper and salt and a twitch of cayenne.
It's great. Back an extracise, which we know those days.
(10:33):
It's the best thing ever. I was low fi in
those days. I was using a basic four track reel
to real machine, not a studio one by the time,
that just plays stereotapes and a sound on sound if
you bounce things back and forth. So the cloney is
not great. But this is all me except for the line.
They're delicious too. I had my five year old daughter
(10:54):
provide that particular line. Time made you for me. When
I'm starting the background vocals, there is that you too,
the whole, Yeah, the whole. All three of those are
sped up. I was recording with the pitch control pulled
out so that I would sound higher. So you're up again.
(11:17):
No I picked that? Oh no, I see, I see,
I picked your version. Um, forget what you have. I
have like sixties things. Let's do the Big Boy in
got you Meet you at the Big Boy at eight
am for the best hotcakes in town or the precious
eggs in that coffee that's great. Let French host Golden Brown.
(11:39):
Meet you at the Big Boy at twelve pm along
with the rest of the punch. Or a crisp green
salad and a Big Boy burgergir or Slim Jim sandwich
for bunch. Meet Chat at the Big Boy at six
pm four and honest the goodness neal chicken or ham
or shrimp or beet or pies with homemade taste of feel.
Meet yet at the Big Boy after talk to that
(11:59):
late that you can't beat. Meet Jet the Big Boy
and meet Jet the Big boyle favorite place to eat,
Meat Jet the Big Boy, and a time for that
good food you can't beat. Meet Jet the Big Boy
(12:20):
and meet jat the Big boil favorite place to eat.
Meet at the Big Boy and meet Chat the Big
while favorite place to eat. I'll tell you what, man,
that really swings. That band is really swinging on that.
That's from the first real the one where they really
kind of demonstrate their big accounts, and that probably their
most saleable work. And that's that's a solid commercial. You
(12:41):
could tune that in. I would think on a certain
station at least and think you were hearing a record
that they were playing rather than a commercial. What's odd
about that is that there's this other commercial from the
third reel called Hamburger House. Besides the amount of money
that would into it, it's the same at the Hamburger
House for the best hotcakes in town, all the finest eggs,
(13:03):
and the coffee that's great in the toast so goody
brown meat at noon at the Hamburger House along with
the rest of them. I can't imagine that, having done
a national ad for Big Boy, that they then turned
around for the Hamburger House wherever that was. But the
other option is just as obnoxious, which would be that
they wrote a commercial for the Hamburger House and then
turned around and rewrote it for Big Boy when they
(13:25):
got a Big Boy at Hamburger House. The Hamburger Houses
our favorite place to eat. It's hot, and I can't
imagine a salesman playing both of them potential customer because
of what it indicates about what they were willing to
do at the Hamburger House. Where that good Bojivan meet
to there, soon meet to there. Now our favorite place
to eat, the Hamburger House. Any old town aren't favorite
(13:47):
place to eat, Yes, son, I think my preference also
goes to the ones that are maybe like the catchy
is the one that sound like almost proper pop songs
until you like digging at the lyrics. So I'm gonna
I'll play you this one. Rewar across the continent wherever
black gold is found, to hear the rhythm of the
oil raps pumping up foil from the ground, through desert
(14:09):
plains and over mountains, piped in an endless line, are
going to make from all left fruit to chroleum speed
Play seventy nine. When it gets to the great refiner, read,
there's the big job yet to do to strip banteets
and cook and squeeze and alclated two same fraction e
plimer rise and tracting solar replines take from all that
(14:33):
rich pachroleum feet Place seventy nine. S feet place made
the big change and the benefits yours and mine, So
why don't you make the big change to speed Play
seventy nine. There's a big change in all of those
stations under the frightful sign sillar up, pillar up, where
the miners gas get speet Play seventy nine, Super regular
(14:55):
Steed play seventy nine. This one, I think, and a
lot of them do. This one does a really good
job showing how um professional and trained their songwriters were. Yeah,
somebody had to sit down with the engineers at the
oil company, now not the executives, but the engineers, and say,
tell me about how gasoline is made. We're gonna put
(15:17):
it in a song. It's almost like a TV theme song,
like Gillian's Island or something. They're laying it out for
you so you understand when you get to the gas
station exactly what you're putting into your car. I would
offer that it's more like Beverly Hill Bill is sure. Sure.
But also just in the song crap, it's got such
a build right, Like it's got two key changes in it.
(15:40):
It's got the percussion ads a layer like every verse,
the vocals um comeing just with like who's the person
that turned the os and they turn like call and
response or there or there or the turning to chorus. No,
their their production values were incredible given what they did
for a lot of companies where they didn't have the
need for the production value. Clearly that they sometimes charge
(16:02):
people plenty of money for good production because a lot
of their regional and local ads some of them sound
like three or four people in a room, and they
don't do badly with that. But it's just a completely
it's you wouldn't believe that some of them come from
the same company. You're turning roulette, Bob, which what you
want to hear next? Well, let's take a walk. Okay,
let's take a walk through the yellow Pages. See what
(16:26):
you have in store. Let's browse around through the nicest
places and never leave your own front door. Check every page.
It's a real adventure. Find what you're looking for. Let's
take a walk through the yellow Pages. Let's take a
(16:47):
walk once more. You find rosters, coasters, pop up coasters,
king size beds and old proposers, doctors, lawyers when they
need them, keats and what you feed them, vender's, vendor's money, lenders,
quickly pairs, unt defenders, and baby things highlands. Find what
(17:08):
you're looking for just breading cards and okay, that commercial
is certifiably insane. It's creative and clever as hell, But
it's who changes tempos in the middle of a commercial?
(17:29):
And then who has two sets of people singing two
different things for the last third of their commercials. And
they're saying such interesting things too, and she's singing over them. Roasters, coasters,
pop up toasters, king sized beds and old four posters, doctors,
lawyers when you need them, parakeets and what you feed them.
That one is wholly unique. I think, I'm not sure
I've ever heard anything remotely like that on the radio.
(17:52):
In terms of ad funding, exactly the same. There's another
Yellow Page's add that sounds exactly the same as the
Kmart to me, I'll give you a splash of the
elevators that I'll play you Kmart home Gersburgers, paints and
plastics are bills forward your home, gymnastics, come drops, goldfish, pranks,
engages to find them all in the Yellow Pages, Yellow Pages,
(18:13):
theemow yellow Pages miss them. And that's this bones what
they do alphabetically, it's there for you. This is Kmart.
They got fined with beerware, pots and paints. They got
Johnson's waxon universal fans, they got DV sets by our Cia,
They got all the best friends made today, stopped and
shop that game, got the best in pain friends. They
(18:35):
guarantee that quality stop the price, Well, yes it is
similar music. The Yellow Pages add they sound like zombies
ship start fits not saying it in the balls park
as broods and foodles. And again the lyrics are fantastic,
just all sorts of creative but nobody sounds like they
have any interests. It sounds like they all have a
(18:56):
dost appointment to get to the kmart. And those guy
sound engaged to me, like they're excited to be there
and that you should want to go there, and then
the chorus. I don't think there's any comparison. Of course,
the Keymard is indelible. Stop that shop that came charge
it there. That's very nice. That, by the way, is
(19:17):
the only commercial on the tape that I actively could
say I remember hearing this back in the old days
on the radio. I think the fact that they did.
But you know, some of these brands and Kymard, it's
just about his you know, naturally recognized that at least
at a period of time, just about as big a
brand as you can get. I mean, like that shows
(19:37):
just like how how big a client they were getting
as an advertising company. Yeah, they had a few, and
Big Boy would be another one. I don't have the
impression that this was a huge outfit, you know, a
huge publishing house of any sort, and most of their
stuff is regional or local. But they attracted with god
knows how much money a couple of really big stars
(19:58):
of a previous day. Let let's hear the ptato chip.
But the chips I don't lie to you getting them
day and like they said, it's by your after five
birds the dinner grade for brunch and instant bed will lunch.
Dast chips just made too much sire alone and great
and didn't side fat chip made with tender love and care.
(20:21):
That's quality there. Trying or try it done. Either way,
it's bag to funnel the chip sat down. There's only
one I said before Detroit was as far west as
they went. This is for our potato chip company that
was regional in Fort Wayne. This is Frankie Lane, who
was huge in the very end of the forties and
(20:41):
throughout the early to mid fifties. He was probably ten
or fifteen years past his prime at this point, but
still that's a pretty big name to attract for a
commercial that's gonna run in part of one stage. I
just gonna try it, Toney. Either way, it's back to funnel,
the chip sat down. There's only one. Five birds debato chips.
If anybody listening has ever seen the clip of Johnny
(21:03):
Carson with the lady that kept potato chips and would
grab ones that look like famous people are looked like items,
she worked at the Cipherg's potato chip factory. I have
a lot of apples and pears and pumpkins, potato chips,
potato chips. I particularly like an instant vegetable for lunch. Yeah,
Ronald Reagan would approve. I'll give you another food one here.
(21:29):
This one I found particularly uh weird. Pixels Burgers, Tucky Burgers,
god best burger. Let me say first off that as
(22:02):
a musician and as a music lover, I am forever
in love with people singing sixth chords. You bring me
somebody singing six chords, and I'll marry you. So that
one's right up my alley. You've got all those tight harmonies,
You've got all those those neat little six and seventh
chords in there. To Kentucky. Kentucky switched to Kentucky around
(22:34):
nineteen sixty nine. Apparently, Kentucky Fried Chicken tried to spin
off into the beef market. It's kind of funny that
they're advertising hamburgers there, because apparently Kentucky Beef was much
more about roast beef sandwiches and trying to compete with Arby's.
I think it's weird, number one, that they tried to
move on from what they were successful with and tried
something as niche as as Arby's to to compete with.
(22:57):
And I'm doubly weird that if they started advertising it,
they made it all about hamburgers, which apparently was not
their main product, and the whole thing seems to have
died a very rapid depth. Anyway, I had never heard
of Kentucky Beef. No, I'll do the other celebrity one,
which is Text Williams. He had had a number one
hit in the late fourties with Smoke that Cigarette, which
(23:18):
is off the Truck's Great record st. Peter at the
Golden Gate that you hates to make him wait, but
you just gotta have another cigarette. His voice had deep,
and considerably since that was already deep by the time
he made that record, but on his later records it's
it's extremely deep. He's the right voice for the tone
(23:38):
of this commercial. Does your car sound like an Ovi seventeen.
Are you losing power and waste and gasoline? Does your
car sound like it's shot because the muzzler's gone to pot.
We'll just bring it down to the day the smugglers shop.
(24:01):
I don't know how you can get more local. Baby
David's Muffler was a global chain, but I don't think
that was a big chain across the whole card. You're
like Big Boy, and yet here's somebody spending a ton
of money on a celebrity and a big band. You
get your muffler in a wink follow a lot less
(24:23):
than you think, So come on down to the day Muffler.
Pretty much the same band as I'm Big Boy, I suppose,
don't you think. Yeah they're swinging, man, the way they
make those horns squeal, I mean they're all good. I'm
not all good. No, no, no no. Did I send
you that other Hamburger House one with a weird jazz backing, Yeah?
(24:45):
You earth go for it to live good? Thanks, come
to something special burn. The harmonies on the phrase hamburger
house are frightening. If a band hit those in the
midst of going from one thing to another during some
(25:05):
sort of bebop tun that'll be fine. That's not what
they're doing. Something special Burger. If you turn this on
and I don't think you think it was a hit record.
I don't think you think it was a commercial. I
think you wonder what the hell was going on any
kind of me consentation of me to something special Burger
(25:34):
House and Burger Burger Burger. I also don't think that
the pitch is so strong and that one like like
flavor comes alive, things come alive. I don't think I
don't think that that's the right pitch for a restaurant
(25:55):
at all. I'll give you a weird one here this
please for Speedways guided tour please. Now they're crude oil
comes and clopping up through this and not not amizer
and round she goes and over and up and comes
out here like a guys. And then she's fibulized and
(26:19):
these copper pipes and electro bobulated. Then she sits so
hip footballized and astro Did you know that's the hardest part.
I love that it's so weird. What would you think
coming across that in nineteen sixty seven or sixty eight,
probably think it was some goofball DJ with a special
(26:41):
feature or something. I mean, I was eight and sixty
eight and I remember distinctly my brother listening to Top
forty radio and all the goofy things that DJs did
and that would have fit right in, but not as
a commercial. I mean, it's funny, it's a really really
funny commercial, but it's not the right length. I think
it's about forty seconds long. They must have been voiceover
but for or aption or something, because it's really unclear
(27:02):
that I've just heard a commercial and I don't know
what the product is. I'm sure they say speedway guided
to her right at the top, but this is so
much weird stuff and you have no idea by the
end of it. At least I don't like what I
just heard. After the break, more star ads, including maybe
the weirdest, each of our least favorites and what seems
to be their proudest achievement. Um, all right, Kmart, we
(27:38):
did Big Boy, we did Save Words. We did in
Davis clover Land Dairy, which is probably my least favorite. Okay,
we don't have to use that, no, I mean, we
could play it if you have something interesting to say.
I wouldn't I don't know that I don't know that
I do. It's just I'll play It's just a splash
of it land whom meals where the prize cow slowly
(28:03):
brows and the clover Since for what it's worth, this
song has been stuck in my head ever since. Burns
and milk, sing of French cream, sing of country eggs,
and but as smooth as so everything comes so far
fresh from the dairy with cows to you. If you
(28:27):
don't own account, call north nine to to to to
sing a song off clover Land and I will sing
it to everyone. Sings of the farm fresh things that
come from clover Land to you. I will say where
(28:50):
the prize cows slowly browsed is one of the greatest
lines in history. Do you everything about cows browsing? And
also I I also like if you don't want a cow,
that's a good line, don't all North nine to to
to man talk is probably my least favorite out of them,
(29:13):
being Oh man, mantalk is great. I'm playing mantalk right now.
Ok Man talk. They make the cause that get the
wheels to move so forcefully. The telephone the most important
cogging in the stream. When work is done. They plan
(29:34):
the fishing for vacation days, and then they talk about
the giant ones that got away. They plan a lot day,
do a lot. The phone is what they use for
man talk, man talking. The phone is what they need
for business calls of urgency, and what a friend the
(29:58):
telephone is at veges. It's like it was there a
need to to like masculize the telephone. I think you
(30:20):
could listen to that commercial and actually not be sure
what it was advertising. I also think that sounds like
a really pretentious set piece from a really bad Broadway musical.
There's also a kid Talk one if you want to
hear it, kid Talk Wow. Oh, I definitely want to
want to run two phones, that ring is one. And
I want to mention I've had people say that I'm
(30:42):
overblowing this, but again, these commercials were probably made in
the mid to late sixties. One of the best hits
of that entire era, in my opinion, is King of
the Road by Roger Miller. Traders spot see Rooms split
fifty cents to my year's song two Phones, that ring
(31:02):
is one, lift the opening melody in chords from the
King of the Road. Two Poes, That ring is one,
make bar easier living. And when you gather up boat,
that's all the road that really is stop boat giving
except jim phone, safe time and steps. So don't wait
to have it done. Busy households, maasy need to phones
(31:26):
that ring as one. I think that's I think it's
really catchy. I think that it's got a nice little
swinging be to it. But it seems like the feel
of it is definitely to be Stone from Roger Miller record,
and the first six or eight notes of the melody
as well extend jim phone, safe time and steps. Don't
wait to have it done. I don't think you get
away with that today. Two phones that ring is one,
(31:53):
make poor easier living. And when you gather up pope,
that's all there roll that really it is not booking.
Let's do fun full originals, questions on the crazy side,
made to autograph, goofy, cookie colorful. Each one is worth
the laugh. There's the soccer to me friends who kill me,
friends who send me too, and one for friends of
fracture me that could be you or you. Fund full
(32:14):
of reginals. Fun Full of originals want to play me
to cutter within the stuff playmate line, we have a
bearer called Raisin Barnaby, who really flipped your mind. There's
a monkey much and Monty, Roguish Rodney Roding, dig Fat
Punge and Penelope the super groovy big fun Full of Originals.
Fun Full Originals original heroic. Herby is a pin cow.
(32:35):
He's a hippoll kind of guy. Daffy daff means a donkey,
cuppy Titus. He's not shy and he's furies kind of foxy.
Joined the income and be cool. Get your friends to
autograph from when you grooping there at school. Keep all
the cut of characters and charming chums around my quiver
and quincy quarterback or homesick homer Hound. Here's the Leopard,
lopan Lonnie chorus Koy because she's a coyle. Harmonious Harvey
he's a hippie, lovable lords Jeess, a dog put cowardy
culvert in your cave Man events is actually man. He's high.
(32:57):
So we have twenty one Matt character. Is he just
something kind of guy? Now you've met the members of
our fun Field family tree that your very favorite playmates.
Enjoying the family Originals fun Full Originals Originals. I want
to know how many times he had to do that,
and how much they had to stitch together, because that's
a bravado performance. I hear one cross fade. There could
(33:18):
be more, but I hear one where he actually overlaps himself.
That one is so so sixties psychedelias. I would love
to see the products. Whatever the fund full originals were,
it certainly lost to time. I think I've looked that
up without any sort of success. Either it was something
very local or something that simply didn't take off. Let's
(33:38):
do the new tiger in town. All right, there's a
new tiger in town. There's a new tiger in town.
It's the big new Marcus fifty. It's got the tiger's
power and the tiger's drive. Again, there's probably a national
contract for mercury beneath that coats so keen and sleek.
The sin was was rippled like a lightning, streaking glides
(33:59):
island as a cat, and it gets where you're going
and nothing flattened. With a really interesting arrangement. It's a
savage beauty with a brand new name. At hers politely
if you like a tame, but give it the gas
and watch chip pounds. There's steely muscle in every ounce.
That a whole lot of commercials I've ever heard that
sounds remotely like that. That's the big numeric as fifty
with the motor that feels like it's alive. The dealer's
(34:21):
got one caged for you, and you can be a
tiger tamer to come in and ride the tiger. There's
a new tiger in town. Get the car with the
tiger's power and drive. Get the big numeric as fifty five. Okay,
people size ads, right, that's the one I was thinking.
(34:44):
News classified ads are people's size ads, and people reach
people with people's size ads. It's people mostly who read
the news, so people's size ads are what people choose
to use. I'm Mrs Green got a new sewing machine.
I'd sell my old one gladly. I'm Mrs Brown. I
live across town and I need that machine quite badly.
(35:04):
Now how do they get together? These two each has
what the other could use. Well, this people's size problem
is easily solved with un classified ad in the news.
Say I've got to finish my barbecue. Can I find
some secondhand break with just one of those little old
people size ads? You bet you can, and it's quick
and that's just why so many people use those people
(35:25):
size ads in the news. To place people size ads,
the number to know is wood word three seventy wood
word three seventy five. Oh to place people size ads.
That number to know let me hear. If you got
it ready, goold word three. There's a bunch of commercials
for the Detroit News with various aspects of their salesforce.
(35:48):
I think there's at least three people's size ad ads
on the tape. The first thing I remember thinking is, well,
the sound quality has really gone down. It doesn't stay
like that, but that the sound quality on that is
not something that I would use to try to sell
somebody on my ability because it's tinny and it just
doesn't sound very well produced. But there's still a lot
of creativity in there. I love the guy with the
(36:09):
rhyme right in the middle of his spiel by some
secondhand brick you bet you can, and it's quick. I like, um,
it's mostly people who read the news. Let's do customer relations.
I handle customer relations for our color telephones, and I
do my very best to see there's one in every home.
(36:31):
I must admit I stumbled on a problem rather quaint.
When a man came in the other day and this
was his complaint. I like your color telephones. I was
happy when I found them, and so I ordered seven,
and I built my home around them. There's a blue
one in the kitchen. In the bedroom, there's a pink
a quiet beiges in the study. That's where I like
(36:53):
to think. I've got a red one in the playroom.
It brings the room alive. In the living room it's yellow,
the accounts for five. The bathroom phone is ivory. And
there's a green one in the hall. So I've got
seven color telephones and I dearly love them all. So
I said, got it, what's your problem? Sounds like everything's
all right. Well, the people that I talked to only
(37:13):
speak in black and white. If your friends are colorful,
match them with a color telephone. I was talking before
about one of the commercials being a really bad, pretentious
set piece in the Broadway show that's like a pattern
song that that's like the high point of Act two
and some Broadway show. The whole story. I built my
holl around them. That's just funny on his face, And
(37:35):
he bought seven phones before he had a house and
built a house so that you could have seven rooms phones.
What a concept. Their approach seems to be wacky. Yeah,
that's a good word. Yeah. Like it seems to me
that it kind of reflects on the company or at
least the marketing people at these brands to to choose this.
(37:55):
You know, like these are people that were like willing
to kind of do something a little experimental to go
along with the customer relationship. We should do save steps
because that's kind of a partner one to what I think.
They're kind of similar. Hey, here we go. We were
sitting in the office one blustery day discussing the means
and the proper way to tell everyone what we know
is true, what that extra phone in your home can do.
(38:19):
Then Joni spoke up, she's our office miss with some
words of wisdom, and they went like this, it takes
steps to get to that telephone line, and going to
and from takes a lot of time. So calling our
efficiency expert Dave to see what steps and extra phone
can say. He took the size of an average home
and the distancing feet from the telephone. The average step
is two feet or more, and he multiplied by a
(38:40):
family of four to that he had a ten calls
a day multiplied by seven, got a week that way
times fifty two, and he had a year. Drew a
line of the map there to hear with this trusty divider.
He marked off the line was a clocked off portion
of the waste of time. Add the extra phone? Did
id bye do? And here pubs the answer all done
for you. All the step that you say this way
(39:01):
would reach to China in a year and a day,
unless you have a house with the second floor in
which gage you have to do it all once more.
See we approved it from the evidence and extra phone
makes a lot of sins. Thank you, Dave, Hey, where
are you going down the hole? The order one of
my own? It would it act like that be for
the telephone company. Yeah, let's trying to sell people on
(39:23):
the on the need and the desire and the benefit
of getting a second phone in your house, going back
to a time when a lot of people only had
one phone. You're selling bill telephone that's gotta be their
biggest client. Then you're probably right. And yet the telephone
commercials on these tapes are noticeably lower expense than some
(39:45):
of the other ones that had a bass player at
pianist and a drummer, right, and maybe three vocalists. The
phone ones are not big productions at all. You want
to do the octopus one, Sure, here we go. An
octopus down in the Chesapeake found the case of beer
(40:07):
and he said, I guess the peak wouldn't hurt. So
he took just the peak and it was full the
National Beer. So every bottle was identical. There he sits
with one in every tentacle. That poor squit such a
mixed up kit. But the point is very clear. It's
as simple as this. When you've got a thirsty it's
(40:30):
National Beer, National Beer. You like to taste of National Beer.
I love those tightly harmonized suits in the middle. That's
kind of gorgeous. And again there's a ton of money
spent on that commercial. There's a lot of people on
that recording. National Beer. Bob was around, it is still around.
It's known as Natty Ball in the Baltimore area, rude
(40:51):
on the shores of the Chesapeake Bear. What's the instrument
that leads it off? What instrument is that? I think
that's a also known as a contra bassoon, an octave
lower than a bassoon. We should get to the Bastion
(41:12):
beer recipe at all right, I'll play the original first.
Now I've got a pleasant living recipe here. That's a
wonderful dish with national beer. We call it Heavenly Devil
clam and we know you're gonna love it. Yes, ma'am,
you're ready. Now top a pint of clams that are
tender and sweet. I have a cup of shrimp. I
(41:33):
half a cup of crab meat at Worcestershire and tabasco too,
and on the side, make a little rue. Did he say, rude? Well,
what do you do? Flower water? That's all you do.
If that's the rude, that's the rude. Will hoop do
you do? Now? Eat the meat and at the rude,
stir till it's stick, and you're nearly through. Put it
(41:54):
in clamshells with cracker crumbs, baked three and she comes
with the chesapeake. Now that's there. That's the thing of beauty.
(42:19):
The first tape, you know you're you're gonna try to
sell somebody, and you're gonna put your best foot forward. Right.
The first tape opens with a version of the old
song The Halls of Ivy, and then a fifty and
second version of the National Beer jingle which we heard
at the end of that commercial, and then it goes
straight into that ad with the notation that the National
Beer jingle was used in somewhere like three D commercials.
(42:42):
So National Bohemian Beer out of Baltimore was apparently their
biggest client, and they knew that they had something good
because that's the first full sixty second commercial they put
on the tape. And there we have the voices star
ads again telling us how to cook an entire meal
in about thirty five seconds, complete with a little Joe
in the middle, which they got wrong. This is a
(43:03):
National here commercial that they think is that maybe the
best thing they've ever done, because it's the first thing
on the tape and they tell you that you make
rue by mixing flour and water, which is how you
make paste. I had the opportunity to upgrade my ability
to record, first by visiting my brother who had a
home recording studio, and then later on getting my own equipment.
(43:25):
When I was at his place actually for his wedding
in the spring of two thousand, I brought that commercial
along with with the intention of trying to make a
note for a note copy of it with good equipment.
My daughters were with us, and they were eight and six.
I spent a couple of days before and then I
did the vocals on the day before the wedding and
had about half a dozen people come and enjoin me
(43:47):
to sing the chorus. That was the start of a
project that took me nineteen years to make, nineteen songs
that I released, and that this was the first thing
I recorded. Now I've got a pleasant living list. That's
one her for beshol Basha beer. We call it Heavenly
Deviled clam and we know you're gonna love it. Yes, ma'am,
you're ready now, chop a pint of clams that are
(44:10):
tender and sweet. I have a cup of shrimp. I
have a cup of crap Worcestershire and tabasco too. And
on the side of little rude, did you s? Yeah?
What do you do? Mixed flower? And but that's all
you do, that's all you do, And that's a rude Yeah,
that's a who well, whooped you do? Now beat the
(44:31):
meeting at the room, struitily thinking put it in clamshells
with cracker crowns, a fake nationally say. I should have
(44:58):
mentioned beforehand my younger daughter or had not quite developed
the ability to say are yet, which I think makes
it cuter. I also fixed the recipe that it's flour
and butter that makes a row in that flower in water.
I think that you really, you really were successfully conjured
the voice of star ads, and that in that particular performance,
(45:19):
I think you told me that it lines up like
second for second with the original Yeah, beat for beat.
I remember listening to it very carefully along with my
brother and trying to figure out whether there was an
extra clarinet tone in there playing a sixth note. So
I'm gonna press you on this one. I mean, what, what,
what what compelled you to remake like, uh, beat for
(45:40):
beat cover of this of this old ad um. I
don't I don't know, I I don't know. I guess
I just wanted to see if I could do it
and see see what it would see what it was
something like, I don't know. I don't understand the way
my mind works. I should win out that that almost
(46:01):
everything else on that nineteen songs in nineteen years, they're
almost all originals, but there's a handful of covers or
what you might call remix in the midst of that,
all right, I'm gonna roll. This is the last one.
Let me let me speak about this a little bit
so that the Northwest Horritories of Canada, I'm assuming their
tourism department wanted an advertising. Here's a consultation demo that
(46:23):
was submitted to one of our clients. This is the
actual demo the client the Northwest Territories the hundred years Sententennial.
On tape six, which is the fourth of the four
that I have, the head of the company does his feel,
and near the end of it, if I remember correctly,
he talks about the process of making a commercial from
(46:43):
beginning to end. Our procedure is as follows. For a
nominal consultation fee, we create to produce and deliver to
you a demo containing at least three spots, done with
varying approaches based on our research. These are recorded on
tape or disk, whichever you prefer, and done with sufficient
vocal and instrumental substance to enable you to demonstrate to
(47:05):
your client the inherent potential of the material. He indicates
which one they chose, and then includes the final add
which is like a whopping two and a half minutes
long it's a pop song, and that's how we'll go
out here. More audio treasures from Bob Purse on his
blog inches per Second that's inches dash per dash second
(47:27):
dot blog spot dot com, and find his twenty nineteen
album a few more plans at Bob Purse dot bancamp
dot com links to all these are other episodes featuring
Bob and more on our website Ephemeral dot Show. And
now from Starts International. This is the Northwest Territories. Well,
(47:53):
there's a land, a lovely land stretching Barbara's eye can see,
and late at night, when the wind is right, I
can hear it speak to me. Northwest where is quiet now,
where the north wind blows, it covers the earth, where
(48:16):
the winter snows. There's a highway of ice where the
river flows in. The silence speaks to me. The lonesome
sounds of the north West do not all ago? When
the earth was green, there was that everywhere, and the
(48:38):
carabou grazed on the tundrad grass and the bars, the
light in the skies of the sun night with one
of gosmos, wondrous and love, the so size of the
(49:04):
lad arby. But now it's cold and flying south for
while geese feel the sky, and late that night, when
the wind is right, you can hear the mournful crime God,
(49:27):
when this white land turns to green again the sun
was shine on other men. The haunting sounds gonna last
till then hear the sounds of the land for me,
the sounds I love as they speak to me. Last
(49:52):
God West, that where they're still singing, that refrain. It
makes you want to go there, doesn't it. For more
podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thank you
(50:12):
so much for listening.
The music commercials you are about to hear were created
for advertising agencies by star As International. Ephemeral is a
production of I Heeart three D audio for full exposure
listen with that phone? Hey, well Hi, can you hear
(00:23):
this if I play this? Yeah? Fabulous? As long time
listeners already know, this is Bob Purse, would you mind
introducing yourself, just just for those that maybe don't know
you already? All right, my name is Bob Purse. I
live in Arcton Heights, Illinois, and I have been a
(00:45):
serious collector of all manner of recorded sounds since my
early twenties. Let's let's I've estimated that I probably have
had close to ten thousand recordings, albums, real, real tapes, videos,
anything else that's something might have been recorded on. Though
I never asked him whether or not he'd like to be,
(01:07):
Bob is kind of the godfather of this podcast. Our
pilot begins with a tape he found, and we focused
on parts of his collection in our episodes Reputation, The
Tallest Rock, Oh See Black, and the Musical Memories of
(01:31):
Camp Navn. Something about hearing stuff from an era that
I didn't live through for whatever reason that that just
fascinates me. My family was one of the first to
obtain a real to real machine when they were pretty
(01:51):
much only used in studios. So when I was a
little kid, we had recordings of my family from before
I was born. Obviously, that's what everybody has now and
has had for years and years, But in nineteen sixty four,
when I was four, I guarantee you nobody I knew
had recordings of their older siblings or their parents from
before they were born. So I was fascinated by it.
(02:13):
As my mother used to say, her main concern about
me was how to get me to stop playing with
the tape recorder, And there are endless recordings of me
on whatever available space. There was What I think of?
What did I think of? By the time I was
a teenager, fourteen or fifteen, we had upwards of a
hundred and thirty hundred forty tapes recorded by our family.
(02:36):
Some of them are our family, a lot of them
off the air. My mom was a professional singer, so
some of them were of her performances. I decided that
we needed to have these in some sort of order,
which entailed me listening to every moment of every one
of those tapes and writing down exactly what was on them,
where it was on them, and then making a separate
(02:57):
listing of where anything that could possibly be considered important
or the people would want to hear again, and turning
that into a catalog. I want to say I did
that from the summer seventy four, probably to the end
of the summer seventy I'm sixty one now, so it
was a while ago. At some point my uncle Stu,
(03:18):
who was my mom's brother, heard about what I had
done and said he had a much smaller box of tapes,
and would I do the same thing with his tapes?
And I said, yeah, I didn't really have any sort
of emotional connection to what was on his tapes. And
if you think about yourself at age sixteen, that's when
your world is expanding, and there was a lot more
(03:39):
going on in my life at sixteen than there had
been at fourteen. I don't think I ever really started
his project, but four the tapes in the box sort
of intrigued me, and they were labeled star Ads by
Hums one, two, three, and six. The first three were
nothing but examples of commercials produced by this company. Volume
(04:01):
one was clearly their big shot. You know, these are
the ads we've done for either national businesses or which
came out really, really well and and portray what we
can do. The second volume seemed to be either regional
ads or in some cases I'm guessing what were demos
(04:23):
that perhaps were never produced as full commercials. They have
sort of an unfinished quality to them in a couple
of cases. But there were several ads for local newspapers,
particularly the Detroit News, then a whole bunch of commercials
for the phone company, and then at the end six
fabulous ads for a company called Puritan Meets Real. Three
(04:45):
definitely sounded like locally produced ads for local businesses, and
had a whole series of radio station jingles done for
both Canadian and American stations. See I had a bunch
of partials for Simpson Sears, which is the version of
(05:06):
Spears that they add in Canada. And then fourth one
which was labeled six, but I always called it Tape four.
I only had four tapes. Was a presentation by the
head of the company. This is Bruce Davis, president of
Star Ads, explaining the business. In the past thirteen years,
we have produced over twenty three hundred commercial majority in
(05:27):
the national and regional category that the salesman there had
hundreds of samples of ads that he could play for
the prospective client. Should this presentation prove of interest, please
ask our representative for more samples of our work. He
is knowledgeable and has over two hundred examples with him
talking about how the business worked, what would happen if
you hired them, etcetera, etcetera. For each of these commercials,
(05:49):
we did the composition, scoring, and production, and with the
exception of one or two who we did the lyrics
as well. My uncle Stu worked for Star Ads. He
would have been the I with the tape recorder and
the tapes who walked into somebody's office and said, here's
what my company can do. How long he worked for them,
I don't know. He um had several jobs and sales
(06:10):
during the years I was growing up, so I can't
give you an exact date for them. I think the
date on the speech one is seventy, which would mean
that anything on the realists from then or earlier. I've
always figured those ads probably are from about the mid
sixties to nineteen seventy. Let me say something completely graceless.
(06:31):
The Star ads are weird. Some of the production is
really great, and the ad copy tends to be awful clever.
They certainly give a fascinating window into an esoteric time
and place. It's hard to put your finger on just
what it is, but there's something a bit off kilter
about all of them. There was something different about these commercials,
(06:54):
even from the humorous and musically appealing ones that were
around at that time. They tried things that I've never
heard from other ad companies. There's just a freewheeling, loose
field to these commercials, almost as if some of the
people that were writing the copy were like, well, let's
just try this. And the other thing that makes the
(07:16):
star Ads particularly alluring is that, aside from hints given
on the four tapes, we really don't know anything about them.
I have done searches for products from star Ads, but
the phrase star ads in terms of the recording medium
has literally never come up. There's a guy that sings
(07:37):
and talks on a certain high percentage of the commercials
that I've called the voice of Star Ads, like I
have no idea who he was or is, and I'm
not the only one who's tried to figure it out.
I can't say that I've spent a whole lot of
time on it because I wouldn't really know where to start.
Maybe somebody hearing this will know we're going to listen
(07:59):
to some stars after the break. I was thinking instead
of me just picking a bunch of tracks this time,
and we could just go back and forth and play
like star ed Roulette a little bit. Is there a
star Eds song that you would like to hear right now? Yeah?
Puritan doubled him? Whose versions? Then we'll talk about we
(08:23):
can we can we can talk about my version? Do
you know what to pack four Tomorrows lunch to satisfy
that hungry bunch. Puritan has an idea for you. Were
sure the family will like it too. Take a can
of Puritan deviled ham and add salary chopped up fine,
(08:43):
four hard boiled eggs, and some mayonnaise, and for taste
a dash of wine. Now mix salt together, add pepper
and salt, and a pinch of cay in is great,
and pack an extra sandwich. We know they'll say it's
the best they ever ate. That's the guy I've called
the voice of star Ads. He does sing to some
of them. He sung at the beginning of that one,
but mostly he just talks over music. There's a guitar
(09:05):
solo in the middle, which is where whoever is playing
the commercially supposed to keep the voice over for the
specials and current meats in the local supermarket this week.
And then you got that lovely jingle at the end
with the happy turkey women made for you. It did
(09:26):
a bunch of spots for purits and meats. Right, They're
all set up more or less the same way. There's
a couple of different templates, but they all end with
the same jingle, and some of them have organ behind them.
That one had a guitar, there's one with a harmonica.
I'm gonna play your version of the Let's just say
Yeah in nine nineties six or six ninety seven when
(09:49):
I was I've recorded my own music since I was sixteen,
and in n or ninety seven, when I was making
what I considered to be my fourth sort of collection
of humorous music, I decided to record a version of
that commercial because I loved it so much. Do you
know what to backboard tomorrow? Lunch? To satisfy that bunch
(10:10):
utan has an idea for you? Where sure the family
will lock it to take a can of Puritan deviled
ham and add celery chopped up five four hard boiled eggs,
and some mayonnaise and tasted dash of wine. That makes
all together at pepper and salt and a twitch of cayenne.
It's great. Back an extracise, which we know those days.
(10:33):
It's the best thing ever. I was low fi in
those days. I was using a basic four track reel
to real machine, not a studio one by the time,
that just plays stereotapes and a sound on sound if
you bounce things back and forth. So the cloney is
not great. But this is all me except for the line.
They're delicious too. I had my five year old daughter
(10:54):
provide that particular line. Time made you for me. When
I'm starting the background vocals, there is that you too,
the whole, Yeah, the whole. All three of those are
sped up. I was recording with the pitch control pulled
out so that I would sound higher. So you're up again.
(11:17):
No I picked that? Oh no, I see, I see,
I picked your version. Um, forget what you have. I
have like sixties things. Let's do the Big Boy in
got you Meet you at the Big Boy at eight
am for the best hotcakes in town or the precious
eggs in that coffee that's great. Let French host Golden Brown.
(11:39):
Meet you at the Big Boy at twelve pm along
with the rest of the punch. Or a crisp green
salad and a Big Boy burgergir or Slim Jim sandwich
for bunch. Meet Chat at the Big Boy at six
pm four and honest the goodness neal chicken or ham
or shrimp or beet or pies with homemade taste of feel.
Meet yet at the Big Boy after talk to that
(11:59):
late that you can't beat. Meet Jet the Big Boy
and meet Jet the Big boyle favorite place to eat,
Meat Jet the Big Boy, and a time for that
good food you can't beat. Meet Jet the Big Boy
(12:20):
and meet jat the Big boil favorite place to eat.
Meet at the Big Boy and meet Chat the Big
while favorite place to eat. I'll tell you what, man,
that really swings. That band is really swinging on that.
That's from the first real the one where they really
kind of demonstrate their big accounts, and that probably their
most saleable work. And that's that's a solid commercial. You
(12:41):
could tune that in. I would think on a certain
station at least and think you were hearing a record
that they were playing rather than a commercial. What's odd
about that is that there's this other commercial from the
third reel called Hamburger House. Besides the amount of money
that would into it, it's the same at the Hamburger
House for the best hotcakes in town, all the finest eggs,
(13:03):
and the coffee that's great in the toast so goody
brown meat at noon at the Hamburger House along with
the rest of them. I can't imagine that, having done
a national ad for Big Boy, that they then turned
around for the Hamburger House wherever that was. But the
other option is just as obnoxious, which would be that
they wrote a commercial for the Hamburger House and then
turned around and rewrote it for Big Boy when they
(13:25):
got a Big Boy at Hamburger House. The Hamburger Houses
our favorite place to eat. It's hot, and I can't
imagine a salesman playing both of them potential customer because
of what it indicates about what they were willing to
do at the Hamburger House. Where that good Bojivan meet
to there, soon meet to there. Now our favorite place
to eat, the Hamburger House. Any old town aren't favorite
(13:47):
place to eat, Yes, son, I think my preference also
goes to the ones that are maybe like the catchy
is the one that sound like almost proper pop songs
until you like digging at the lyrics. So I'm gonna
I'll play you this one. Rewar across the continent wherever
black gold is found, to hear the rhythm of the
oil raps pumping up foil from the ground, through desert
(14:09):
plains and over mountains, piped in an endless line, are
going to make from all left fruit to chroleum speed
Play seventy nine. When it gets to the great refiner, read,
there's the big job yet to do to strip banteets
and cook and squeeze and alclated two same fraction e
plimer rise and tracting solar replines take from all that
(14:33):
rich pachroleum feet Place seventy nine. S feet place made
the big change and the benefits yours and mine, So
why don't you make the big change to speed Play
seventy nine. There's a big change in all of those
stations under the frightful sign sillar up, pillar up, where
the miners gas get speet Play seventy nine, Super regular
(14:55):
Steed play seventy nine. This one, I think, and a
lot of them do. This one does a really good
job showing how um professional and trained their songwriters were. Yeah,
somebody had to sit down with the engineers at the
oil company, now not the executives, but the engineers, and say,
tell me about how gasoline is made. We're gonna put
(15:17):
it in a song. It's almost like a TV theme song,
like Gillian's Island or something. They're laying it out for
you so you understand when you get to the gas
station exactly what you're putting into your car. I would
offer that it's more like Beverly Hill Bill is sure. Sure.
But also just in the song crap, it's got such
a build right, Like it's got two key changes in it.
(15:40):
It's got the percussion ads a layer like every verse,
the vocals um comeing just with like who's the person
that turned the os and they turn like call and
response or there or there or the turning to chorus. No,
their their production values were incredible given what they did
for a lot of companies where they didn't have the
need for the production value. Clearly that they sometimes charge
(16:02):
people plenty of money for good production because a lot
of their regional and local ads some of them sound
like three or four people in a room, and they
don't do badly with that. But it's just a completely
it's you wouldn't believe that some of them come from
the same company. You're turning roulette, Bob, which what you
want to hear next? Well, let's take a walk. Okay,
let's take a walk through the yellow Pages. See what
(16:26):
you have in store. Let's browse around through the nicest
places and never leave your own front door. Check every page.
It's a real adventure. Find what you're looking for. Let's
take a walk through the yellow Pages. Let's take a
(16:47):
walk once more. You find rosters, coasters, pop up coasters,
king size beds and old proposers, doctors, lawyers when they
need them, keats and what you feed them, vender's, vendor's money, lenders,
quickly pairs, unt defenders, and baby things highlands. Find what
(17:08):
you're looking for just breading cards and okay, that commercial
is certifiably insane. It's creative and clever as hell, But
it's who changes tempos in the middle of a commercial?
(17:29):
And then who has two sets of people singing two
different things for the last third of their commercials. And
they're saying such interesting things too, and she's singing over them. Roasters, coasters,
pop up toasters, king sized beds and old four posters, doctors,
lawyers when you need them, parakeets and what you feed them.
That one is wholly unique. I think, I'm not sure
I've ever heard anything remotely like that on the radio.
(17:52):
In terms of ad funding, exactly the same. There's another
Yellow Page's add that sounds exactly the same as the
Kmart to me, I'll give you a splash of the
elevators that I'll play you Kmart home Gersburgers, paints and
plastics are bills forward your home, gymnastics, come drops, goldfish, pranks,
engages to find them all in the Yellow Pages, Yellow Pages,
(18:13):
theemow yellow Pages miss them. And that's this bones what
they do alphabetically, it's there for you. This is Kmart.
They got fined with beerware, pots and paints. They got
Johnson's waxon universal fans, they got DV sets by our Cia,
They got all the best friends made today, stopped and
shop that game, got the best in pain friends. They
(18:35):
guarantee that quality stop the price, Well, yes it is
similar music. The Yellow Pages add they sound like zombies
ship start fits not saying it in the balls park
as broods and foodles. And again the lyrics are fantastic,
just all sorts of creative but nobody sounds like they
have any interests. It sounds like they all have a
(18:56):
dost appointment to get to the kmart. And those guy
sound engaged to me, like they're excited to be there
and that you should want to go there, and then
the chorus. I don't think there's any comparison. Of course,
the Keymard is indelible. Stop that shop that came charge
it there. That's very nice. That, by the way, is
(19:17):
the only commercial on the tape that I actively could
say I remember hearing this back in the old days
on the radio. I think the fact that they did.
But you know, some of these brands and Kymard, it's
just about his you know, naturally recognized that at least
at a period of time, just about as big a
brand as you can get. I mean, like that shows
(19:37):
just like how how big a client they were getting
as an advertising company. Yeah, they had a few, and
Big Boy would be another one. I don't have the
impression that this was a huge outfit, you know, a
huge publishing house of any sort, and most of their
stuff is regional or local. But they attracted with god
knows how much money a couple of really big stars
(19:58):
of a previous day. Let let's hear the ptato chip.
But the chips I don't lie to you getting them
day and like they said, it's by your after five
birds the dinner grade for brunch and instant bed will lunch.
Dast chips just made too much sire alone and great
and didn't side fat chip made with tender love and care.
(20:21):
That's quality there. Trying or try it done. Either way,
it's bag to funnel the chip sat down. There's only
one I said before Detroit was as far west as
they went. This is for our potato chip company that
was regional in Fort Wayne. This is Frankie Lane, who
was huge in the very end of the forties and
(20:41):
throughout the early to mid fifties. He was probably ten
or fifteen years past his prime at this point, but
still that's a pretty big name to attract for a
commercial that's gonna run in part of one stage. I
just gonna try it, Toney. Either way, it's back to funnel,
the chip sat down. There's only one. Five birds debato chips.
If anybody listening has ever seen the clip of Johnny
(21:03):
Carson with the lady that kept potato chips and would
grab ones that look like famous people are looked like items,
she worked at the Cipherg's potato chip factory. I have
a lot of apples and pears and pumpkins, potato chips,
potato chips. I particularly like an instant vegetable for lunch. Yeah,
Ronald Reagan would approve. I'll give you another food one here.
(21:29):
This one I found particularly uh weird. Pixels Burgers, Tucky Burgers,
god best burger. Let me say first off that as
(22:02):
a musician and as a music lover, I am forever
in love with people singing sixth chords. You bring me
somebody singing six chords, and I'll marry you. So that
one's right up my alley. You've got all those tight harmonies,
You've got all those those neat little six and seventh
chords in there. To Kentucky. Kentucky switched to Kentucky around
(22:34):
nineteen sixty nine. Apparently, Kentucky Fried Chicken tried to spin
off into the beef market. It's kind of funny that
they're advertising hamburgers there, because apparently Kentucky Beef was much
more about roast beef sandwiches and trying to compete with Arby's.
I think it's weird, number one, that they tried to
move on from what they were successful with and tried
something as niche as as Arby's to to compete with.
(22:57):
And I'm doubly weird that if they started advertising it,
they made it all about hamburgers, which apparently was not
their main product, and the whole thing seems to have
died a very rapid depth. Anyway, I had never heard
of Kentucky Beef. No, I'll do the other celebrity one,
which is Text Williams. He had had a number one
hit in the late fourties with Smoke that Cigarette, which
(23:18):
is off the Truck's Great record st. Peter at the
Golden Gate that you hates to make him wait, but
you just gotta have another cigarette. His voice had deep,
and considerably since that was already deep by the time
he made that record, but on his later records it's
it's extremely deep. He's the right voice for the tone
(23:38):
of this commercial. Does your car sound like an Ovi seventeen.
Are you losing power and waste and gasoline? Does your
car sound like it's shot because the muzzler's gone to pot.
We'll just bring it down to the day the smugglers shop.
(24:01):
I don't know how you can get more local. Baby
David's Muffler was a global chain, but I don't think
that was a big chain across the whole card. You're
like Big Boy, and yet here's somebody spending a ton
of money on a celebrity and a big band. You
get your muffler in a wink follow a lot less
(24:23):
than you think, So come on down to the day Muffler.
Pretty much the same band as I'm Big Boy, I suppose,
don't you think. Yeah they're swinging, man, the way they
make those horns squeal, I mean they're all good. I'm
not all good. No, no, no no. Did I send
you that other Hamburger House one with a weird jazz backing, Yeah?
(24:45):
You earth go for it to live good? Thanks, come
to something special burn. The harmonies on the phrase hamburger
house are frightening. If a band hit those in the
midst of going from one thing to another during some
(25:05):
sort of bebop tun that'll be fine. That's not what
they're doing. Something special Burger. If you turn this on
and I don't think you think it was a hit record.
I don't think you think it was a commercial. I
think you wonder what the hell was going on any
kind of me consentation of me to something special Burger
(25:34):
House and Burger Burger Burger. I also don't think that
the pitch is so strong and that one like like
flavor comes alive, things come alive. I don't think I
don't think that that's the right pitch for a restaurant
(25:55):
at all. I'll give you a weird one here this
please for Speedways guided tour please. Now they're crude oil
comes and clopping up through this and not not amizer
and round she goes and over and up and comes
out here like a guys. And then she's fibulized and
(26:19):
these copper pipes and electro bobulated. Then she sits so
hip footballized and astro Did you know that's the hardest part.
I love that it's so weird. What would you think
coming across that in nineteen sixty seven or sixty eight,
probably think it was some goofball DJ with a special
(26:41):
feature or something. I mean, I was eight and sixty
eight and I remember distinctly my brother listening to Top
forty radio and all the goofy things that DJs did
and that would have fit right in, but not as
a commercial. I mean, it's funny, it's a really really
funny commercial, but it's not the right length. I think
it's about forty seconds long. They must have been voiceover
but for or aption or something, because it's really unclear
(27:02):
that I've just heard a commercial and I don't know
what the product is. I'm sure they say speedway guided
to her right at the top, but this is so
much weird stuff and you have no idea by the
end of it. At least I don't like what I
just heard. After the break, more star ads, including maybe
the weirdest, each of our least favorites and what seems
to be their proudest achievement. Um, all right, Kmart, we
(27:38):
did Big Boy, we did Save Words. We did in
Davis clover Land Dairy, which is probably my least favorite. Okay,
we don't have to use that, no, I mean, we
could play it if you have something interesting to say.
I wouldn't I don't know that I don't know that
I do. It's just I'll play It's just a splash
of it land whom meals where the prize cow slowly
(28:03):
brows and the clover Since for what it's worth, this
song has been stuck in my head ever since. Burns
and milk, sing of French cream, sing of country eggs,
and but as smooth as so everything comes so far
fresh from the dairy with cows to you. If you
(28:27):
don't own account, call north nine to to to to
sing a song off clover Land and I will sing
it to everyone. Sings of the farm fresh things that
come from clover Land to you. I will say where
(28:50):
the prize cows slowly browsed is one of the greatest
lines in history. Do you everything about cows browsing? And
also I I also like if you don't want a cow,
that's a good line, don't all North nine to to
to man talk is probably my least favorite out of them,
(29:13):
being Oh man, mantalk is great. I'm playing mantalk right now.
Ok Man talk. They make the cause that get the
wheels to move so forcefully. The telephone the most important
cogging in the stream. When work is done. They plan
(29:34):
the fishing for vacation days, and then they talk about
the giant ones that got away. They plan a lot day,
do a lot. The phone is what they use for
man talk, man talking. The phone is what they need
for business calls of urgency, and what a friend the
(29:58):
telephone is at veges. It's like it was there a
need to to like masculize the telephone. I think you
(30:20):
could listen to that commercial and actually not be sure
what it was advertising. I also think that sounds like
a really pretentious set piece from a really bad Broadway musical.
There's also a kid Talk one if you want to
hear it, kid Talk Wow. Oh, I definitely want to
want to run two phones, that ring is one. And
I want to mention I've had people say that I'm
(30:42):
overblowing this, but again, these commercials were probably made in
the mid to late sixties. One of the best hits
of that entire era, in my opinion, is King of
the Road by Roger Miller. Traders spot see Rooms split
fifty cents to my year's song two Phones, that ring
(31:02):
is one, lift the opening melody in chords from the
King of the Road. Two Poes, That ring is one,
make bar easier living. And when you gather up boat,
that's all the road that really is stop boat giving
except jim phone, safe time and steps. So don't wait
to have it done. Busy households, maasy need to phones
(31:26):
that ring as one. I think that's I think it's
really catchy. I think that it's got a nice little
swinging be to it. But it seems like the feel
of it is definitely to be Stone from Roger Miller record,
and the first six or eight notes of the melody
as well extend jim phone, safe time and steps. Don't
wait to have it done. I don't think you get
away with that today. Two phones that ring is one,
(31:53):
make poor easier living. And when you gather up pope,
that's all there roll that really it is not booking.
Let's do fun full originals, questions on the crazy side,
made to autograph, goofy, cookie colorful. Each one is worth
the laugh. There's the soccer to me friends who kill me,
friends who send me too, and one for friends of
fracture me that could be you or you. Fund full
(32:14):
of reginals. Fun Full of originals want to play me
to cutter within the stuff playmate line, we have a
bearer called Raisin Barnaby, who really flipped your mind. There's
a monkey much and Monty, Roguish Rodney Roding, dig Fat
Punge and Penelope the super groovy big fun Full of Originals.
Fun Full Originals original heroic. Herby is a pin cow.
(32:35):
He's a hippoll kind of guy. Daffy daff means a donkey,
cuppy Titus. He's not shy and he's furies kind of foxy.
Joined the income and be cool. Get your friends to
autograph from when you grooping there at school. Keep all
the cut of characters and charming chums around my quiver
and quincy quarterback or homesick homer Hound. Here's the Leopard,
lopan Lonnie chorus Koy because she's a coyle. Harmonious Harvey
he's a hippie, lovable lords Jeess, a dog put cowardy
culvert in your cave Man events is actually man. He's high.
(32:57):
So we have twenty one Matt character. Is he just
something kind of guy? Now you've met the members of
our fun Field family tree that your very favorite playmates.
Enjoying the family Originals fun Full Originals Originals. I want
to know how many times he had to do that,
and how much they had to stitch together, because that's
a bravado performance. I hear one cross fade. There could
(33:18):
be more, but I hear one where he actually overlaps himself.
That one is so so sixties psychedelias. I would love
to see the products. Whatever the fund full originals were,
it certainly lost to time. I think I've looked that
up without any sort of success. Either it was something
very local or something that simply didn't take off. Let's
(33:38):
do the new tiger in town. All right, there's a
new tiger in town. There's a new tiger in town.
It's the big new Marcus fifty. It's got the tiger's
power and the tiger's drive. Again, there's probably a national
contract for mercury beneath that coats so keen and sleek.
The sin was was rippled like a lightning, streaking glides
(33:59):
island as a cat, and it gets where you're going
and nothing flattened. With a really interesting arrangement. It's a
savage beauty with a brand new name. At hers politely
if you like a tame, but give it the gas
and watch chip pounds. There's steely muscle in every ounce.
That a whole lot of commercials I've ever heard that
sounds remotely like that. That's the big numeric as fifty
with the motor that feels like it's alive. The dealer's
(34:21):
got one caged for you, and you can be a
tiger tamer to come in and ride the tiger. There's
a new tiger in town. Get the car with the
tiger's power and drive. Get the big numeric as fifty five. Okay,
people size ads, right, that's the one I was thinking.
(34:44):
News classified ads are people's size ads, and people reach
people with people's size ads. It's people mostly who read
the news, so people's size ads are what people choose
to use. I'm Mrs Green got a new sewing machine.
I'd sell my old one gladly. I'm Mrs Brown. I
live across town and I need that machine quite badly.
(35:04):
Now how do they get together? These two each has
what the other could use. Well, this people's size problem
is easily solved with un classified ad in the news.
Say I've got to finish my barbecue. Can I find
some secondhand break with just one of those little old
people size ads? You bet you can, and it's quick
and that's just why so many people use those people
(35:25):
size ads in the news. To place people size ads,
the number to know is wood word three seventy wood
word three seventy five. Oh to place people size ads.
That number to know let me hear. If you got
it ready, goold word three. There's a bunch of commercials
for the Detroit News with various aspects of their salesforce.
(35:48):
I think there's at least three people's size ad ads
on the tape. The first thing I remember thinking is, well,
the sound quality has really gone down. It doesn't stay
like that, but that the sound quality on that is
not something that I would use to try to sell
somebody on my ability because it's tinny and it just
doesn't sound very well produced. But there's still a lot
of creativity in there. I love the guy with the
(36:09):
rhyme right in the middle of his spiel by some
secondhand brick you bet you can, and it's quick. I like, um,
it's mostly people who read the news. Let's do customer relations.
I handle customer relations for our color telephones, and I
do my very best to see there's one in every home.
(36:31):
I must admit I stumbled on a problem rather quaint.
When a man came in the other day and this
was his complaint. I like your color telephones. I was
happy when I found them, and so I ordered seven,
and I built my home around them. There's a blue
one in the kitchen. In the bedroom, there's a pink
a quiet beiges in the study. That's where I like
(36:53):
to think. I've got a red one in the playroom.
It brings the room alive. In the living room it's yellow,
the accounts for five. The bathroom phone is ivory. And
there's a green one in the hall. So I've got
seven color telephones and I dearly love them all. So
I said, got it, what's your problem? Sounds like everything's
all right. Well, the people that I talked to only
(37:13):
speak in black and white. If your friends are colorful,
match them with a color telephone. I was talking before
about one of the commercials being a really bad, pretentious
set piece in the Broadway show that's like a pattern
song that that's like the high point of Act two
and some Broadway show. The whole story. I built my
holl around them. That's just funny on his face, And
(37:35):
he bought seven phones before he had a house and
built a house so that you could have seven rooms phones.
What a concept. Their approach seems to be wacky. Yeah,
that's a good word. Yeah. Like it seems to me
that it kind of reflects on the company or at
least the marketing people at these brands to to choose this.
(37:55):
You know, like these are people that were like willing
to kind of do something a little experimental to go
along with the customer relationship. We should do save steps
because that's kind of a partner one to what I think.
They're kind of similar. Hey, here we go. We were
sitting in the office one blustery day discussing the means
and the proper way to tell everyone what we know
is true, what that extra phone in your home can do.
(38:19):
Then Joni spoke up, she's our office miss with some
words of wisdom, and they went like this, it takes
steps to get to that telephone line, and going to
and from takes a lot of time. So calling our
efficiency expert Dave to see what steps and extra phone
can say. He took the size of an average home
and the distancing feet from the telephone. The average step
is two feet or more, and he multiplied by a
(38:40):
family of four to that he had a ten calls
a day multiplied by seven, got a week that way
times fifty two, and he had a year. Drew a
line of the map there to hear with this trusty divider.
He marked off the line was a clocked off portion
of the waste of time. Add the extra phone? Did
id bye do? And here pubs the answer all done
for you. All the step that you say this way
(39:01):
would reach to China in a year and a day,
unless you have a house with the second floor in
which gage you have to do it all once more.
See we approved it from the evidence and extra phone
makes a lot of sins. Thank you, Dave, Hey, where
are you going down the hole? The order one of
my own? It would it act like that be for
the telephone company. Yeah, let's trying to sell people on
(39:23):
the on the need and the desire and the benefit
of getting a second phone in your house, going back
to a time when a lot of people only had
one phone. You're selling bill telephone that's gotta be their
biggest client. Then you're probably right. And yet the telephone
commercials on these tapes are noticeably lower expense than some
(39:45):
of the other ones that had a bass player at
pianist and a drummer, right, and maybe three vocalists. The
phone ones are not big productions at all. You want
to do the octopus one, Sure, here we go. An
octopus down in the Chesapeake found the case of beer
(40:07):
and he said, I guess the peak wouldn't hurt. So
he took just the peak and it was full the
National Beer. So every bottle was identical. There he sits
with one in every tentacle. That poor squit such a
mixed up kit. But the point is very clear. It's
as simple as this. When you've got a thirsty it's
(40:30):
National Beer, National Beer. You like to taste of National Beer.
I love those tightly harmonized suits in the middle. That's
kind of gorgeous. And again there's a ton of money
spent on that commercial. There's a lot of people on
that recording. National Beer. Bob was around, it is still around.
It's known as Natty Ball in the Baltimore area, rude
(40:51):
on the shores of the Chesapeake Bear. What's the instrument
that leads it off? What instrument is that? I think
that's a also known as a contra bassoon, an octave
lower than a bassoon. We should get to the Bastion
(41:12):
beer recipe at all right, I'll play the original first.
Now I've got a pleasant living recipe here. That's a
wonderful dish with national beer. We call it Heavenly Devil
clam and we know you're gonna love it. Yes, ma'am,
you're ready. Now top a pint of clams that are
tender and sweet. I have a cup of shrimp. I
(41:33):
half a cup of crab meat at Worcestershire and tabasco too,
and on the side, make a little rue. Did he say, rude? Well,
what do you do? Flower water? That's all you do.
If that's the rude, that's the rude. Will hoop do
you do? Now? Eat the meat and at the rude,
stir till it's stick, and you're nearly through. Put it
(41:54):
in clamshells with cracker crumbs, baked three and she comes
with the chesapeake. Now that's there. That's the thing of beauty.
(42:19):
The first tape, you know you're you're gonna try to
sell somebody, and you're gonna put your best foot forward. Right.
The first tape opens with a version of the old
song The Halls of Ivy, and then a fifty and
second version of the National Beer jingle which we heard
at the end of that commercial, and then it goes
straight into that ad with the notation that the National
Beer jingle was used in somewhere like three D commercials.
(42:42):
So National Bohemian Beer out of Baltimore was apparently their
biggest client, and they knew that they had something good
because that's the first full sixty second commercial they put
on the tape. And there we have the voices star
ads again telling us how to cook an entire meal
in about thirty five seconds, complete with a little Joe
in the middle, which they got wrong. This is a
(43:03):
National here commercial that they think is that maybe the
best thing they've ever done, because it's the first thing
on the tape and they tell you that you make
rue by mixing flour and water, which is how you
make paste. I had the opportunity to upgrade my ability
to record, first by visiting my brother who had a
home recording studio, and then later on getting my own equipment.
(43:25):
When I was at his place actually for his wedding
in the spring of two thousand, I brought that commercial
along with with the intention of trying to make a
note for a note copy of it with good equipment.
My daughters were with us, and they were eight and six.
I spent a couple of days before and then I
did the vocals on the day before the wedding and
had about half a dozen people come and enjoin me
(43:47):
to sing the chorus. That was the start of a
project that took me nineteen years to make, nineteen songs
that I released, and that this was the first thing
I recorded. Now I've got a pleasant living list. That's
one her for beshol Basha beer. We call it Heavenly
Deviled clam and we know you're gonna love it. Yes, ma'am,
you're ready now, chop a pint of clams that are
(44:10):
tender and sweet. I have a cup of shrimp. I
have a cup of crap Worcestershire and tabasco too. And
on the side of little rude, did you s? Yeah?
What do you do? Mixed flower? And but that's all
you do, that's all you do, And that's a rude Yeah,
that's a who well, whooped you do? Now beat the
(44:31):
meeting at the room, struitily thinking put it in clamshells
with cracker crowns, a fake nationally say. I should have
(44:58):
mentioned beforehand my younger daughter or had not quite developed
the ability to say are yet, which I think makes
it cuter. I also fixed the recipe that it's flour
and butter that makes a row in that flower in water.
I think that you really, you really were successfully conjured
the voice of star ads, and that in that particular performance,
(45:19):
I think you told me that it lines up like
second for second with the original Yeah, beat for beat.
I remember listening to it very carefully along with my
brother and trying to figure out whether there was an
extra clarinet tone in there playing a sixth note. So
I'm gonna press you on this one. I mean, what, what,
what what compelled you to remake like, uh, beat for
(45:40):
beat cover of this of this old ad um. I
don't I don't know, I I don't know. I guess
I just wanted to see if I could do it
and see see what it would see what it was
something like, I don't know. I don't understand the way
my mind works. I should win out that that almost
(46:01):
everything else on that nineteen songs in nineteen years, they're
almost all originals, but there's a handful of covers or
what you might call remix in the midst of that,
all right, I'm gonna roll. This is the last one.
Let me let me speak about this a little bit
so that the Northwest Horritories of Canada, I'm assuming their
tourism department wanted an advertising. Here's a consultation demo that
(46:23):
was submitted to one of our clients. This is the
actual demo the client the Northwest Territories the hundred years Sententennial.
On tape six, which is the fourth of the four
that I have, the head of the company does his feel,
and near the end of it, if I remember correctly,
he talks about the process of making a commercial from
(46:43):
beginning to end. Our procedure is as follows. For a
nominal consultation fee, we create to produce and deliver to
you a demo containing at least three spots, done with
varying approaches based on our research. These are recorded on
tape or disk, whichever you prefer, and done with sufficient
vocal and instrumental substance to enable you to demonstrate to
(47:05):
your client the inherent potential of the material. He indicates
which one they chose, and then includes the final add
which is like a whopping two and a half minutes
long it's a pop song, and that's how we'll go
out here. More audio treasures from Bob Purse on his
blog inches per Second that's inches dash per dash second
(47:27):
dot blog spot dot com, and find his twenty nineteen
album a few more plans at Bob Purse dot bancamp
dot com links to all these are other episodes featuring
Bob and more on our website Ephemeral dot Show. And
now from Starts International. This is the Northwest Territories. Well,
(47:53):
there's a land, a lovely land stretching Barbara's eye can see,
and late at night, when the wind is right, I
can hear it speak to me. Northwest where is quiet now,
where the north wind blows, it covers the earth, where
(48:16):
the winter snows. There's a highway of ice where the
river flows in. The silence speaks to me. The lonesome
sounds of the north West do not all ago? When
the earth was green, there was that everywhere, and the
(48:38):
carabou grazed on the tundrad grass and the bars, the
light in the skies of the sun night with one
of gosmos, wondrous and love, the so size of the
(49:04):
lad arby. But now it's cold and flying south for
while geese feel the sky, and late that night, when
the wind is right, you can hear the mournful crime God,
(49:27):
when this white land turns to green again the sun
was shine on other men. The haunting sounds gonna last
till then hear the sounds of the land for me,
the sounds I love as they speak to me. Last
(49:52):
God West, that where they're still singing, that refrain. It
makes you want to go there, doesn't it. For more
podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thank you
(50:12):
so much for listening.
Ephemeral News
Host
Alex Williams
Show Links
AboutPopular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.