This Tuesday’s and Saturday’s Phantom Dancer features Spotlight Bands’ ‘Band of the Week’ for 31 January 1942. It’s Sammy Kaye, over the Blue Network
His best-selling record that got him the ‘Band of the Week’ gig? A ditty entitled ‘Remember Pearl Harbour’
Turns out NBC interrupted a Sammy Kaye program to break the news of Pearl Harbour being bombed, 7 December 1941. Hence the message song. And like all message songs, well – you be the judge
See the full play list for this week’s Phantom Dancer after these exciting pics
That’s right, photos. Instead of a Video of the Week, I’m posting some exciting archeological photos I took for you just a few hours ago.
There was a fire near me recently. A dry cleaners burnt to the ground. The building has been demolished. And behind a demolished wall a well-preserved painted advertisement has been revealed
I guessed by the artwork and fonts that the ad was from 1911. A quick look at the Sands Directory tells me I’m about right. The Sands Directory was an annual listing of everyone who lived in Sydney with their addresses and occupations. The last Sands was published in 1932
In 1910, according to Sands, the site of the demolished dry cleaners was the Newtown Carriage Works — Arthur Dunn, proprietor. In 1911, it became H. Phippen’s motor garage. He was a motor engineer. By 1912, Phippen had left and Arthur Dunn’s Coachbuilding business had returned. Or, perhaps, between 1911 – 1914, the site was shared between the coach building and garage businesses – new technology piggybacking on the old. By 1915 the site was occupied by an upholsterer
Because of a locked wire gate I couldn’t get a full shot of this huge, vibrant ad from the street. So below is a series of shots covering the entire wall I took from the footpath. In this first photo, note ‘Cars for Hire’ and ‘Waratah Motor Spirit’. What would have been the demand for Car hire in 1911? Was H. Phippen ahead of his time? Did low demand beat his business? It’s not listed in the Sands Directory for 1912
Waratah Motor Spirit appears to have still been around in 1925 when you could buy it from twelve outlets around Sydney, according to an ad in the Sydney Morning Herald dated 28 Jan 1925. As you can see in the bottom of the wall ad, Waratah, was a product of the Neptune Oil Company. Neptune Oil began in Australia in 1905. A motoring website says Neptune’s Waratah brand was introduced in 1917. This ad proves the motoring historian wrong. The site became an upholsterers in 1915. An upholsterer wouldn’t be putting up an all-weather sign visible to passing motorists for Motor Spirit
Perdriau Tyres? Henry Perdriau entered the rubber importing business in Sydney in 1888. His Perdriau Rubber Co. Ltd. started manufacturing rubber parts in 1904 and finally merged with Dunlop in 1929 to form Dunlop Perdriau Rubber Co. Ltd. Could this be the earliest Perdriau wall sign extant? A Perdriau glass lantern slide ad from 1924 – 29 exists in the ANU Digital Collection in Canberra
It’s hard to see in the photo below, but on site I could just make out the phone number L1905. L stood for 5 and was the area prefix for Newtown and surrounding Inner West Sydney suburbs. Sydney phone numbers used one and two letter prefixes until the mid-1960s. The code was: A = 1, B = 2, F = 3, J = 4, L = 5, M = 6, U = 7, W = 8, X = 9, Y = 0
Some more pics. The sign-writing is of an extremely high standard. The Waratah is a beautiful piece of commercial art. The amount of effort involved in sign writing such a huge space by hand is quite extraordinary, especially if they used, as my grandfather did about the same time as a house painter, individually mixed paints. My grandfather would crush blocks of pigment with a mortar & pestle and mix the powder with linseed oil and I guess some kind of fixer. I particularly like the blue used in the top band of the sign. It’s a colour you don’t see now. The uneven durability of hand-made paint is revealed in the preservation of the different colours. The green lettering for the phone number and the red fill for the Waratah are the most deteriorated
Having been protected by the sun and weather for almost a hundred years by a brick wall, this is a most amazingly intact piece of commercial pre-WWI art
A new building will be erected on the site. Will the sign survive another 100 years? After the photos you’ll see the play list for this week’s Phantom Dancer on 2SER
Here’s this week’s Phantom Dancer play list. Enjoy the show on your radio!
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Play List – The Phantom Dancer
107.3 2SER-FM Sydney |
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Tuesday 29 November 2011 |
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Saturday 3 December 2011 |
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The Wireless
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Lobby Lud
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Set 1
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Theme (I’ll See You In My Dreams) + Got The Sun In The Morning
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Leighton Noble Orchestra (voc) Helen Lynn
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‘One Night Stand’
Starlight Roof Waldorf Astoria Hotel AFRS Re-broadcast 21 Jun 1946 |
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Moonlight Serenade (theme) + At Sundown |
Glenn Miller Orchestra
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Glen Island Casino
New Rochelle WEAF NBC Red NY Oct 1939 |
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Intro + Careless Hands |
Frank Siantra and the hit Paraders (voc) Axel Stordahl Orchestra
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‘Your Hit Parade’ |
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What Will I Tell My Heart? + Blue Skies (Close) |
Jo Stafford (voc) Victor Young Orchestra
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‘Your Melody Hour’
NBC/AFRS 5 Aug 1951 |
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Set 2
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Maramao, Perche Sei Morto?
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Maria Jottini & Trio Lescano with Orchestra
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Rome
1939 |
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Comes Love
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Paul Whiteman Orchestra
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‘Chesterfield Show’
WABC CBS NY 9 Aug 1939 |
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Birmingham Special + Theme
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Glen Gray & The Casa Loma Orchestra
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‘GI Jive’
AFRS Hollywood 1944 |
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Blue Skies + Close
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Bob Chester
Orchestra |
‘One Night Stand’
Panther Room Hotel Sherman AFRS Re-broadcast 8 Oct 1944 |
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Set 3
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Open + Elmers Tune + Let’s Have Another Cup Of Coffee + Remember Pearl Harbour + Close
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Sammy Kaye Orchestra (voc) Band & The 3 Kaydettes
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‘Spotlight Bands’
Blue Network Washington DC 21 Feb 1942 |
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Set 4
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Blue Room Jump
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Count Basie Orchestra
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Blue Room
Hotel Lincoln WABC CBS NY May 1944 |
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Honeysuckle Rose
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Harry James Orchestra (g) Allen Reuss
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Palladium Ballroon
KNX CBS LA 1943 |
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1-2-3-4 Jump
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Woody Herman Orchestra
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‘Woody Herman Show’
WABC CBS NY 27 Sep 1944 |
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Flying Home
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Benny Goodman Quintet
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‘Jubilee’
AFRS Hollywood 1948 |
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Set 5
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Eine Insel Aus Traeumen Geboren
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Hans Rehmstedt Orchestra (voc) Rudi Schuricke
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Comm Rec
Berlin Dec 1938 |
| Bewildered |
Les Brown Orchestra (voc) Billy Eckstine
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Radio Transcription
Hollywood Sep 1949 |
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Ain’t Got Nothin’ But The Blues
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Lena Horne (voc) Fletcher Henderson Orchestra
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‘Jubilee’
AFRS Hollywood 1944 |
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To Each His Own
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Claude Thornhill Orchestra
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Steel Pier
Atlantic City NJ NBC 24 Aug 1956 |
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Set 6
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Confirmation
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Ben Webster Quintet
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Aircheck
1962 |
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C Jam Blues
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Duke Ellington Orchestra
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‘Date With The Duke’
Paradise Theatre ABC Detroit 19 May 1945 |
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Four
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Buddy Rich Quartet
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Birdland
WRCA NBC NY 7 Nov 1958 |
Actor - Singer - Voiceover 