As much as I love
The Internet Archive for it's vast collection of digitized 78's, it can be a bit frustrating at times. For instance, their search engine can be a bit wonky, and doesn't often work the way you think it might. But in the case of these records, it's not really their fault. They can only digitize the records they have, and those records are donated by normal people like you and me. So sometimes there's a record missing or a damaged side, leaving an incomplete set. All the records in today's share are parts of incomplete sets. Can you imagine how excited I was to see a Christmas record from
Elsie, the milk cow spokesperson for Borden? (At first I confused her with the cow on Elmer's Glue, but that confusion didn't last long...Turns out that
Elmer is Elsie's husband. And they have kids!) That excitement was tempered by the fact that the only record shared appeared to be sides 2 & 3. I can only hope that the other record shows up at some point, and I get to hear more singing cow tunes! The record shown at the bottom is probably an even worse case. Only one side of the record was playable, so in that case I have to wait for another copy of the same record to show up. To be honest, I've seen many cases of that turn up in the archive, but with more common records, it happens a lot. The older a record is, and the more esoteric (cows singing?), the less likely a second copy is going to show up, or at least the longer it takes. I believe there was a
Frank Luther album earlier in the season that was missing a record, too, so don't think it's a phenomena that's limited to just these fives sides out of the thousand I've shared this season. Anyhow, if you want to skip these because they're incomplete, I don't mind. Someday the records needed to complete these sets will turn up, and then you can hopefully download the whole thing. Who knows, maybe the missing records are in my collection, and I don't even know it. In the next month or so, I hope to box up all my 78s and the fine folks from the Internet Archive are going to haul them off to their processing center and start digitizing. I'm excited to see, and hear, what all I actually own. Come on, Elsie!!
MEGA
Update-I didn't know the lady providing the voice of Elsie also played Madge in the Palmolive commercials! You remember, "You're soaking in it!" Yeah, those. No mention of her voicing a dairy cow in her Wikipedia entry though. Someone should fix that.
Update-5 Jan 2023-Added a tracklist for searchability.
1. John Nesbitt, Narration With Choir-A Christmas Gift (The Story Of The Juggler Of Our Lady)-Side 1
2. Daddy: Ernest Chappell, Barbara: Betty Philson-The Christmas Adventure Of Billy And Betty-Part 1
3. Jan Miner (Elsie) With Lyn Duddy's Quartet-Elsie's Favorite Christmas Carols
4. Jan Miner (Elsie) With Lyn Duddy's Quartet-Elsie's Favorite Christmas Songs
5. John Nesbitt, Narration With Choir-A Christmas Gift (The Story Of The Juggler Of Our Lady)-Side 4
Yeah, there is quite a bit of missing material on IA, including sides that weren't transferred because of condition.
ReplyDeleteIs it odd that the Christmas Adventure of Billy and Betty stars Daddy and Barbara per the label?
I did not know that Elsie sang! And had her own picture label!
Yeah, sometimes I wish they'd post a picture of that other side, just so I will know what it is supposed to be, rather than having to go elsewhere and look it up. Maybe I'll make a suggestion...
ReplyDeleteI'm assuming we're missing something by only having the label. Maybe the flip side is important in this case, or there was a picture sleeve. :)
Not only did Elsie sing, she was played by the same lady who proclaimed "You're soaking in it!" for years and years on TV! Who knew?? I gotta find the missing record, but there doesn't seem to be any mention of this release on the internets that I can find. :(
ReplyDeleteI have known for many years that Elmer and Elsie were Borden's spokescows. I can't even remember when I first heard that. I did not know that Elsie even vocalized though. How did I miss that??
It's probably a Trivial Pursuit question. :)
ReplyDeleteGrowing up in Illinois as a kid, I seem to remember a tour my family used to take each summer. I can't be sure, but I think it was an old Borden dairy, as I remember the Elsie images. I remember taking a train from the parking lot to an Old West town out in the middle of a field clearing - past huge wooden pictures (billboard cutouts) of horses with a stagecoach, ranchers, and even masked bandits (I believe). I do remember that we used to get free milk and ice cream samples at the end of the tour. Nothing beat that on a hot summer Chicago day.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt that dairy farm is LONG gone - can't find any mention of it on Google...
Too bad - it was fun for kids!
Nice memory. There was a dairy around here that did stuff like that, I think. I never went, but I saw the signs. Thanks for taking the time to comment!
ReplyDelete