Hey, y’all! Hope you’re doing your best. We’re back on the air this week, and it’s time for yet another walk-through of the history behind the subjects of tonight’s episodes of Talkie Time and The Jazz Program on datafruits.fm!
Talkie Time : Night Beat - Number 13 / I Wish You Were Dead
(This program schedule was originally aired May 9, 2023.)
"eat your wheaties and drink your pabst, kiddo, and you can look as cool and constipated as i am. also i'm going out for milk and cigarettes, i'll be back in a few decades" --randy stone, probably.
There have been many legends of radio and TV with some notable sponsors. Orson Welles’ radio theatre troupe was notably sponsored by Campbell Soup. Jim Henson got his start blowing up proto-Muppets in the name of Wilkin’s Coffee. But very few can say that they were sponsored by your alcoholic stepdad’s breakfast of choice–namely, the winning combination of Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer and Wheaties.1
Night Beat has that honor. Starring Frank Lovejoy himself as reporter Randy Stone, each episode has Stone on the titular night beat for the Chicago Star, and each episode ends with him screaming for the copy boy to take his story in to the editor’s office because he was just too lazy to do it himself, just like your alcoholic stepdad used to do about the TV remote. Sponsored by the breakfast of champions, indeed.
We’ll be hearing ‘Number 13’, which originally aired on March 6, 1950, and in which Randy gets shot by a geriatric in the first five minutes and somehow lives through the rest of the episode. Probably something to do with all the Wheaties he’s been eating.
After that, it’s ‘I Wish You Were Dead’, which originally aired on May 22, 1950. Our boy Randy Stone meets Light Yagami…er, Mister Fettle, who claims he can kill a man by simply thinking really murderous thoughts in their general direction. Is he full of shit, or is there actually something weird going on? Well, the fact that we aren’t exactly listening to The Shadow or Weird Tales tonight should give you a clue on that one. You should still tune in to find out, anyways. I mighta switched up the disks by accident. You never know.
The Jazz Program: Ben Webster - See You At The Fair (1964) / Ben Webster Plays Duke Ellington (1989) / Soulville (1957)
(This program schedule was originally aired May 16, 2023.)
I know that I constantly keep putting Secret Fourth Recordstm here, but I highly recommend this one. "Atmosphere For Lovers And Thieves" is an album that sets out to provide exactly what its title suggests, and it delivers in spades.
I love me some Ben Webster. Old-time fans of the show know that, before we went to an “artist spotlight”-type format, the title track from his record “Soulville” was our unofficial theme song.
Slow, jazzy, and the perfect theme to “light up a smoke, light a cigar, and light your local police precinct on fire” (as the old opening to the show used to go), my home state’s finest saxophonist and his motley crew sure know how to set a mood.
We’ll be going through plenty of Webster’s smooth, smooth moods this evening; three, to be exact. First up is 1964’s “See You At The Fair”, and after that we’ve got 1989’s fantastic tribute record ‘Ben Webster Plays Duke Ellington’.
Finally, we’ll be closing it out with the aforementioned ‘Soulville’, released in 1957. If you can stay up for this one, definitely give it a shot; it’s one of my all-time favorites.
Smooth, easy, and with just enough swing to get your toe tapping while the sax and the liquor and the dim club lights keep you lost in thought–that’s Ben Webster. Tune in, and tap your toes and light up a cigar with us. Felonious arson of public property may be optional, but your presence is something we can’t start the party without.
Aaand that’s it for this week! Unfortunately, we’re back to re-runs this week–I’ve got this month’s Clippings to write, as well as a few other projects and deadlines to close out–but hopefully we’ll be back to new sets and new programming again soon!
If you’re reading this the day of, and you can make it in tonight, come hang out in the chat with us on Datafruits! We’ve got a good crowd of folks in the chat every week, and whether you have a suggestion for a future show or just want to hang out and chat with fellow jazz enjoyers, you’re welcome here with us.
You’re all amazing and don’t let anyone tell you that you’re not. Stay safe out there, and I’ll see you back again next week. Same time, same station.
Footnotes…
-
If that sounds like a strange thing for me to fixate on, I want to point out that this strange sponsorship pairing is literally in the first three lines of the Wikipedia article.. I’m gonna guess that I’m not the only one who finds that combo unintentionally hilarious. ↩︎