[:)] More details about the Pan-American radio show provided by Mike:
Rural Radio magazine
https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Rural-Radio/Rural-Radio-1939-03a.pdf
Don’t miss the coupon on the last page! [:P]
Further reading:
http://ctr.trains.com/~/media/files/pdf/the-grand-ole-pan-american.pdf
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/imgsrv/image?id=mdp.39015010881251;seq=26;size=150;rotation=0
More great music from Mike, time to turn your radio on! [;)]
Pan American Boogie The Delmore Brothers with Lyrics
https://countrymusichalloffame.org/artist/delmore-brothers/
DeFord Bailey: Pan American Blues
Different version of Hank’s song:
(It isn’t L&N images … but you’ll like 'em just the same…)
Here’s the real thing:
That is a pretty ominous album cover…
Thanks to a strange local version of Turner Classic Movies, I’ve seen a biography of Hank Williams that pointed out that he died in the back of a car being driven between performances in different cities.
Perhaps the songs were from his later work…
The tune is that associated with the “Wabash Cannonball”.
Peter
Thanks for that M636. That would be quite a foretelling cover. Other than in the privacy of your own boudoir what better place to make your grand exit.
More goodies sent in from Mike. Seems the RR’s were admonished for not doing enough on the radio.
Timetable Mable / Radio Show
I was wondering how that gent got his hands on that “Time-Table Mabel” record. I’d assumed that was an in-house recording for New England radio stations running Boston & Maine commercials and the present owner got “right-time-right-place” lucky.
The one thing the owner shouldn’t do is run that old 78 on a “Victrola” type record player, it wasn’t meant for that and the heavy needle will ruin the record after a while. Old 78’s should be played on the later type of record player. They’re still around in antique shops and shows and somethime thrift shops, although it takes a little looking to find them.
A modern turntable with 33-45-78 RPM options will work as well.
I’ve gone through YouTube looking for some recordings of the L&N “Pan-American” radio show but no luck. I did find this interesting eight minute film from the L&N Historical Society.
There never actually was a Pan-American radio show. WSM’s transmitter was next to the L&N mainline, and each day they would open a microphone near the line and play the sound of the Pan-American going by…it was more an advertisement for the L&N than anything I guess…“you can set your watch by the Pan-American!” or something like that. It only lasted about two minutes.
Later, when the railroad wasn’t keeping the schedule so well, the station used a recording.
There were railroads that sponsored complete radio shows, like Great Northern. They had a series that IIRC was a different story each week about people riding the then-new Empire Builder.
Just an addition to the comments on the “Pan American” and the WSM transmitter next to the tracks.
“Steam, Steel, and Limiteds” by Kratville, et. all., page 145 has a painting by Gil Reid showing the “Pan” going by the WSM radio tower and comment that WSM would transmit the “Pan” going by. If they were late, a recording was substituted from the studion.
Ed Burns
Thanks gentlemen! I could have sworn I’d read of an L&N radio show but obviously I remembered wrong.
“Timetable Mable” was recorded by Dolly Dawn and the Jesters (a Mike-catnip subject if I ever saw one - she was born Theresa May Stabile, in Newark) in 1946 for the Gordon A. Day advertising agency… likely the people doing the order fulfillment for the copies supplied ‘below cost’.
The specific B&M ‘thing’ being touted appears to be Minuteman service.
For those who want to hear her in real life, there’s a ‘very best of Dolly Dawn’ album on YouTube that apparently has something like 40 of her songs…
All Aboard the George Washington!
More from Mike:
WSM Tower
Part II
Wonderful stuff here. Rode the Pan many times when I lived in Nashville. It provided good connections to the “George Washington” at Louisville and also to the N&Ws “Pocahontas” at Cincinnati. L&N’s diner was good as well - especially for breakfast. I rode the last NB Pan to Louisville on A-day. We wondered what the “South Wind” would have for our trip back. It was a solid SCL consist. “Clear Channel 650 - WSM.” Work Saf - Steve Hoyle
Hank had hired a young man to drive him in his Cadillac from Nashville to Canton Ohio for a New Year’s Day 1953 gig - he couldn’t fly due to bad weather. According to the story, the young man at first thought Hank was sleeping, but eventually stopped at a gas station and asked the attendent to take a look, and he was told Hank was dead.
There was kind of odd movie made about that, starring Kaley Cuoco (before “Big Bang Theory”) and Fred Thompson called “The Last Ride”. I say “odd” because apparently they started making the movie as being about Hank, then found out they couldn’t use his name or story so changed the character’s name…but I guess kept the stuff they shot, so sometimes he’s called “Hank Williams” and sometimes “Henry Wells”. [:S]
If you really did into it, there are several of his songs that borrowed melodies from prior songs; I think one was borrowed from a radio/TV soap commercial.
Gas statiion was in Oak Hill. It was still there when I moved to WV. Of course, it’s gone now.
Woek safe - Steve Hoyle
