[78-L] 1st Family

[Bertrand CHAUMELLE]

Le 7 mars 10, à 00:28, Michael Biel a écrit :

>
> Bertrand CHAUMELLE wrote:
>> The last URL you sent us. So it must be that guide. Thanks to eBey for
>> saving my life !
>>
>> I know that comedy album; I've seen it several times at the flea
>> market, here, in the old days.
>
> Pressed where?  France?
+++Highly unlikely. There was absolutely no potential market for 
English spoken records in France.
I have a Spike Jones LP called "Carmen au Texas" which is of course "SJ 
Murders Carmen" with a French narrator !
He did a great job, his name was Jean Toscane. And the modified French 
cover is swell, too. Totally different.

And Cadence records had almost no exposure here:
a few Everly Brothers sides on the short-lived Heliodor label, then 
some on London (a Decca subsidiary). That's all I can recall. Andy 
Williams himself had no French release until he was on Columbia (CBS 
here).

Comedy records ? Forget it.

> I have Canadian and British issues but didn't
> know of any others.  Get me details of any from Europe.
>
+++Sorry, I can't.

>> I found the cover unattractive
>
> Actually I love the combination of the light green grass and the light
> blue sky.
+++I have a taste for US record covers: they are (were) the best in the 
world. I'm talking about Contemporary (not Blue Note), Riverside, MGM, 
Columbia, RCA Victor, Liberty... But I'm dubious about Cadence, 
Reprise, GNP-Crescendo, Time... Did they EVER create a really good 
cover ?!?

BC

> In the original Cadence pressings the color cover folds over
> the edges to the back, and make blue and green stripes when there are
> several on the shelf.   I remember when price shopping the day  after
> Thanksgiving 1962 there were 500 copies on the counter at e.j. 
> Korvettes
> and the effect of the colored edges was striking.  They had the best
> price and were completely sold out when I returned less than two hours
> later after checking 5 other stores. That day I saw over a thousand
> copies of both that album and My Son the Folk Singer, and not one copy
> was stereo!  I didn't find my first stereo copy of TFF until 1974, and
> MSTFS until maybe 4 years ago.  Yet they both also topped the separate
> Billboard Stereo charts.
>
>
>
>> and I discovered Jonathan Winters, instead. As unattractive, perhaps, 
>> but
>> very funny (in my opinion).
>>
>
> I think I have a complete set of all his LPs, including the underground
> dirty ones.
>> So you're interested by that album, not because it's supposed to make
>> you laugh, but because it's about a president who had a violent death,
>> isn't it ?
>
> Not at all.  I can recite the entire album from beginning to end, and
> some of the tracks from the Vol 2.  I started collecting all of the
> other lesser JFK comedy albums immediately in 1962, such as The Other
> Family, The Other First Family, My Son The President, etc.  I have well
> over 2000 comedy LPs.  I also started buying JFK speech albums even
> before his death  I think the first one with his inaugural address on
> one side and FDR speeches on the other side I got in early 1962.  I 
> have
> a whole room of spoken word documentary and comedy.
>
>> If you happen to find a comedy album about Ike or Truman,
>> you won't stop by ? The tragedy aspect is  'the main ingredient' ? 
>> Just
>> curious.  BC
>>
> I do have every album I've ever been able to afford about Ike and
> Truman, but there were not that many devoted to them individually.
> After JFK there were many presidential comedy albums about Johnson,
> Nixon, Carter, Reagan, etc.   Of course there also were comedy albums 
> by
> Mort Saul and other political comedians like Will Rogers joking about
> Coolidge and FDR.  There was a great album by Professor Irwin Cory
> during the 1960 campaign, and my daughter met him last year and told 
> him
> that my favorite joke is his from that album:  "FDR showed that you
> could be president FOREVER.  Truman proved that ANYBODY can be
> president.  And Eisenhower proved that we don't NEED a president!"  I
> think I got it in 62.
> There are comedy albums of speeches "The Stevenson Wit", "The Kennedy
> Wit", "Who's In Charge Here?" "Welcome to the LBJ Ranch", and many
> others.  There are about 3 or 4 shelf feet of political comedy records
> downstairs.  But most of these have been detailed in the excellent
> Goldmine Price Guide to Comedy Albums, so that aspect has been done.  
> My
> idea is to show the marketing, business, and production aspect of how
> the industry reacted to two huge super-hit albums that absolutely took
> over the 1962 Xmas season and were far from being Christmas oriented
> albums like would normally be expected.  The follow-up was about how 
> the
> industry was wondering how that could match that, but then with less
> than 5 weeks cam the tragedy that shut down the country.  The two
> tribute albums that were totally speeches and were sold for just $1 for
> charity were just as amazing in 4 million sales in a couple of weeks
> that strained all aspects of the industry which knew it was not doing 
> it
> to amke any money.  It was a catharsis for the country.  We laughed one
> year and cried the nest.  The record industry had never seen xmas
> seasons like these two, and now there are no more media sales at all!
> Even the Beatles, Elvis, Michael Jackson were never like this because
> they never hit like this in an Xmas season.
>
> Here's another little story.  In early Dec 1967 Columbia put out a
> comedy album "Senator Bobby's Christmas Party" which sold only in
> December and unsold copies would be sent back by the stores with all 
> the
> other Xmas albums by around a January 10 deadline. The album never
> really sold, and I don't remember seeing a copy in the stores.  We had
> aired a sample 45 of some excerpts that Columbia had sent, but they
> never sent the station the LP.  Around March or April I took a chance
> and included the catalog number in an order for DJ copies I sent in to
> Columbia and was surprised to get it. Of course you know what happened 
> a
> couple of months later and I have never seen another copy of that LP.
> And most of the other Bobby Kennedy comedy albums I have like "Boston
> Soul" I got before the assassination.
>
> Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com
>
>
>
>
> Le 6 mars 10, à 22:13, Michael Biel a écrit :
>>
>>> Bertrand CHAUMELLE wrote:
>>>
>>>> eBey says >Unfortunately, access to this particular item has been
>>>> blocked due to legal restrictions in some countries.
>>>>
>>> Was it the record (just a worn copy Tschaik 6th on Columbia) or his
>>> guide to losing 35 pounds in a week?  THAT woud kill you!
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> I was just wondering, Mike, why do you collect multiple copies of 
>>>> 'The
>>>> First Family' (LP)?
>>>>
>>>>
>>> For many years I have been planning to write the story of the 1962 
>>> Xmas
>>> season when this and My Son the Folk Singer sold millions in a few
>>> weeks.  Cadence had to use 10 pressing plants in the U.S. and I have
>>> copies from at least 8.  I want to include full descriptive data.  I
>>> already  have the complete inside story of the planning, pressing , 
>>> and
>>> distribution of both of the albums, and the story of the sequels.
>>> Something always comes up when I plan to write it, but 2012 is the 
>>> 50th
>>> anniv so this WILL be IT.  I will also do a follow up on the 63 Xmas
>>> season which was overtaken by the JFK assassination and several 
>>> tribute
>>> LPs sold even faster than the First Family/My Son had the year 
>>> before.
>>> I have several shelf feet of JFK LPs and a proper discography has 
>>> never
>>> been done.
>>>
>>>
>>>> And, thanks for you previous 'calm and logical' replies. I think 
>>>> that,
>>>> now, I may have a better understanding of what makes you tick$  BC
>>>>
>>>>
>>> Good.  Now tell me!  (only kidding)
>>>
>>> Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com
>
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