David Breneman wrote:
--- Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> The set I speak of is "Jack Benny's > Golden Age of Radio," which included a lot of good snips of shows > and Benny's sometimes funny commentary.
That was a great set. I've got it somewhere. It really started the old-radio-on-LP craze, didn't it? Although at about the same time a Seattle radio station (KVI I think) broadcast a weekend-long marathon called "The Audioboigraphy of Radio." It was an awfully ambition undertaking - it may have been syndicated. But the old radio's rennaisance seemed to have started about that time.
It was certainly the only gathering of old time radio on record at a time when there was nothing but the lousy chopped-up version of War of the Worlds on Audio Rarities, and then Longines followed it up with the first good-sounding issue of WotW (the same master that subsequently appeared on Evolution and other labels and is still available from Radio Spirits and still has the same overlap where sides 1 & 2 were cross-faded in the transfer). But "Cat Wife" on that set was a disaster, sorry..over-acted and badly produced. The original from 1938 was infinitely better, although I don't know if it's ever appeared in good sound. Longines also put out a Golden Age of Comedy box that isn't as common as the radio set but was well produced.
My dad was a big Longines subscriber, but he mostly bought the compilations. Big boxed sets of best of Dean Martin, best of Lawrence Welk, etc. Also some individual albums of compilations of pop songs from certain years. I saved a lot of those because they're very well made although I've played practically none of them. He had a few of the elevator music sets like "Ebb Tide" which I've never listened to. I don't know if those are original recordings or compilations.
There's a Harry James set that comes mostly from Capitols..otherwise I never bother with Longines sets.
dl