Hey, y’all! Hope you’re doing your best. It’s Tuesday again, and we’re back on the air this week! Read on down to learn more about what we’re playing tonight on datafruits.fm!
Talkie Time: The Phyl Coe Mysteries: The Dead Magician / The Case Of The Missing Masterpiece / Mystery Of The Death Ray Tube / Murder In The Sky
BUY A PHILCO RADIO OR YOU AIN'T WINNIN' THIS CONTEST! --the phylly co corporation, probably
(This program schedule was originally aired February 21, 2024.)
According to Paul Urbahns’ fantastic piece written for the August 2007 issue of the MWOTRC’s “Radio Recall”, Phyl Coe Radio Mysteries was one of many shows designed to sell you something. This one, though, was unique: its host was a woman.
Yeah, no, V-tubers and gacha and the like weren’t exactly around in the 1930s, so “getting pretty girls to talk your ear off and sell you stuff you don’t need” wouldn’t really hit its apex until about eighty years down the line. Closest we had was, like, cigarette cards. Innovation takes time.
Played by Peggy Allenby, Phyl Coe (yes, name ripped directly from the product she was hawking) often found herself accompanied by her boyfriend–mystery novelist, and general-purpose adoring sidekick Thomas Taylor–as the two stumbled into mystery and murder more often than anyone really should.
One thing I really, really wanted to track down but couldn’t is the Philco Mystery Book that accompanied the show. As you’ll see during the episode, listeners were urged to head on down to their local Philco dealer to pick themselves up one of these feelies, which covered four episodes worth of the show and apparently had clues, illustrations, and the like to help you figure out just who-the-hell-dunnit.
Apparently I’m not the only schmuck trying to find one of these – there’s a 2019 thread over on antiqueradios.com with another poor sap trying in vain to track the thing down – but with only sixteen episodes broadcast, I imagine the books weren’t popular enough to still have any existing copies floating around today.
(Although, as always, if you happen to have a lead on one…email me!)
Anyways, tonight we have “The Dead Magician” (released on September 7, 1937) “The Missing Masterpiece” (released on September 14, 1937), “Mystery Of The Death Ray Tube” (September 21, 1937) and “Murder In The Sky” (September 28, 1937). If you happen to be in the market for a new radio…well, PhilCo isn’t around anymore, so good luck with that. But hey, come on over and tune in anyways.
The Jazz Program: Sun Ra - The Nubians Of Plutonia / Atlantis / Astro Black
(This program schedule was originally aired February 21, 2024.)
While it might not keep with the "Impulse! Records Only" theme we have going this month, I do want to highlight the cover art to the original Saturn release of the album. As best I can tell, the artist is uncredited; if you know who put offset press to paper here, let me (or the fine folks at the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum, home of the Sun Ra Archive) know.
Sun Ra could very damn well get his own theme month, and if I have my way (which I probably will; this is my show, after all) that’s probably what we’ll do next February. This month, however, we’ve got three of his records which ended up issued (or re-issued, as is the case with the first two) on Coltrane’s Impulse! label.
I want to draw attention to the word “re-issued” in the previous paragraph, because this gets into another subject I’m professionally involved in and personally fascinated by: cover art, and the evolutions these releases went through in subsequent printings.
The first two albums on this list had brand-new covers designed for them when they were re-issued by Impulse!, and while I do enjoy them (the John Lykes piece that graces the cover of the ‘74 re-release of “The Nubians Of Plutonia” being particularly gorgeous) I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you about the Sun Ra Archives online collection, graciously catalogued for all of our enjoyment on the website of the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum where the archives reside.
Sadly, the vast majority of the pieces from the Saturn releases, as well as the rest of the collection, go uncredited, but the entire catalogue is filled with excellent example after excellent example of offset printing. Whether you’re a printmaker, an illustrator, or just like pretty things as much as I do, go head over there and give this a look; you’ll find something that catches your eye.
The man from Saturn himself, immortalized on Jon Hunt's cover of the 2018 Modern Harmonic release of Astro Black.
Anyways, now that I’ve got my obligatory gushing-about-graphics out of the way…onto the lineup. First up is “The Nubians Of Plutonia”, recorded between ‘58 and ‘59, released in ‘66, and re-issued by Impulse in ‘74.
After that, we’ve got the aforementioned “Atlantis”, recorded between 1967 and 1969, released on Saturn in ‘69, and re-issued on Impulse! (with an unfortunately truncated third track on the A-side) in 1978.
And finally, we’ve got “Astro Black” released in 1973 on both Impulse! and Saturn Research. While this version’s cover art didn’t change from the Impulse! and Saturn Research releases–as far as I can tell, they were released at the same time–I do want to point out the absolutely fantastic graphic design work, complete with a hard as hell photo of Ra himself, on the 2018 Modern Harmonic release which comes to us courtesy of designer Jon Hunt.
Space is the place, so they say, and we’re channeling our inner Space Core and heading there tonight. Hope you can join us; it’ll be a helluva trip.
Aaand that’s it for this week! We’ve got some program reruns again tonight, sadly. Don’t worry too much; as always, they’re damn good reruns.
Speaking of, if you’re reading this the day of, and you can make it in tonight, you should 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.