The Les Paul Show NBC (w/ the Trio...Les, Mary Ford, and Eddie Stapleton)
11 shows from different dates in 1950
Les hosted a fifteen-minute radio program, The Les Paul Show, on NBC radio in 1950, featuring his trio (himself, Ford, and rhythm player Eddie Stapleton) and his electronics, recorded from their home and with gentle humor between Paul and Ford bridging musical selections, some of which had already been successful on records, some of which anticipated the couple's recordings, and many of which presented re-interpretations of such jazz and pop selections as "In the Mood", "Little Rock Getaway", "Brazil," and "Tiger Rag". Several recordings of these shows survive among old-time radio collectors today.
The show also appeared on television a few years later with the same format, but excluding the trio and retitled The Les Paul & Mary Ford Show (also known as Les Paul & Mary Ford at Home) with "Vaya Con Dios" as a theme song. Sponsored by Warner Lambert's Listerine mouthwash, it was widely syndicated during 1954–1955, and was only five minutes (one or two songs) long on film, therefore used as a brief interlude or fill-in in programming schedules. Since Paul created the entire show himself, including audio and video, he maintained the original recordings and was in the process of restoring them to current quality standards up until his death.
During his radio shows, Paul introduced the fictional "Les Paulverizer" device, which multiplies anything fed into it, like a guitar sound or a voice. Paul has stated that the idea was to explain to the audience how his single guitar could be multiplied to become a group of guitars. The device even became the subject of comedy, with Ford multiplying herself and her vacuum cleaner with it so she could finish the housework faster. Later Paul claimed to have made the myth real for his stage show, using a small(black)box attached to his guitar,which was connected to a sound on sound setting on an echoplex or other tape delay. He typically would lay down one track after another on stage, in sync, and then play over the repeating forms he had recorded.
Here's a great link to a 1940 Popular Science article on Les Paul's home radio station:
Oh, here's the shows...........this is part of a larger request for Les and also for some solo Mary (which I'm still doing some detective work to find), from "anonymous".....(boy, there sure are a lot of folks on the 'net with that name ;)
Show #1 Mar 03, 1950
Show #2 May 05, 1950
Show #3 May 12, 1950
Show #4 May 26 1950
Show #5 June 09, 1950
Show #6 June 16, 1950
Show #7 June 23, 1950
Show #8 June 30, 1950
Show #9 July 11, 1950
Show #10 Aug. 04, 1950
Show #11 Aug. 11, 1950
from "anonymous".....(boy, there sure are a lot of folks on the 'net with that name ;)
ReplyDeleteOk Ok...I'll come clean. My name is John Doe.
Of the Does of Philadelphia?? Oh, dear me, if I knew you were one of THOSE Does....I certainly would've waxed the floors, not just mopped them ;).....lol.
ReplyDeleteHey...I'm sitting here watching my local PBS station and it's Jeff Beck and Imelda May doing a set of Les Paul and Mary Ford covers complete with Imelda double (and triple) tracking her voice and Jeff's Gibson Les Paul drenched in echo and reverb....great stuff! Thanks for the Les Paul radio shows.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds cool! I'd like to see that one. Glad you like the radio programmes....send requests! I love doing them!
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ReplyDelete