[78-L] Clamp them records down,durium chevrolet

[Michael Biel]

Royal Pemberton wrote:
> On the subject of the small Durium records, has anyone here ever heard
> the Amelia Earhart one?  It's a 4" square item made for her book THE
> FUN OF IT.
>
> A copy of it was in one of the pockets of a Little Wonder album I'd
> bought for $15 in 1975.  I've never seen a copy of the book.
>
> Here's an mp3 of my copy:  http://www.box.net/shared/g8lxdp7fl8
This was the first of the small Duriums I ever found, and I've had it 
since the 1960s.  I also have never seen the book.   I used the CBS 
announcer at the end of it, Frank Knight, in my 1973 presentation 
"Announcing Styles of the 20s" as an example of the smooth vocal style 
of CBS announcers like Knight and David Ross, vs.the rougher accents of 
NBC Red announcers like Graham McNamee and Phillips Carlin, and the 
over-cultured voices of the NBC Blue announcers like Milton Cross and 
Alwyn Bach. 

By the way, the announcer with the syrupy fey voice on some of the 
5-minute Hit of the Weeks is Tony Wons.  I had discussed him in that 
presentation but had not yet found a recording of him -- so I thought.  
It turns out that unknowingly the voice that closed my talk was his!  I 
used his announcement at the end of one of the college songs "Are you 
listening?  I know you Illinois fans are.  Next Thursday a new Hit of 
the Week that plays for five minutes.  And that makes a lot of 
difference, doesn't it?"  (Music up to conclusion.) 

I am planning on revising this presentation in the next year and taking 
it on the road to Old Time Radio conventions.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com