Monday, August 15, 2005

Vintage shopping radio spots!

Hey gang! I think a lot of you are going to dig this. I know I sure do.

Here are some old shopping center and department store radio spots I've scrounged around and collected. These were all culled from old radio recordings, and they vary somewhat in volume, so I advise you to be ready to adjust yours from one file to the next. Quality varies, too; some sound great, some terrible.

Vintage commercials like these, really capture the magical vibe and lure of retro shopping spaces. Download these babies, throw 'em all into your MP3 player of choice, close your eyes and let the magic begin! It's also kind of cool to gaze at the pictures here on the blog, whilst listening to these groovy sounds.

The files are all in MP3 format and I'm trying out this free file hosting service for the first time with these, so we'll see how it goes. Hope it all works smoothly for everyone. Please drop me an e-mail or post here if you have any problems. Just follow the instructions closely at each link, and you should be good to go in no time. It's all pretty self-explanatory.

Pick your poison: download the complete collection in one handy zip file (6.24 MB), or each seperately below.

Cherry Hill Mall (1964) - Cherry Hill, NJ.

Federal Department Stores (10-17-67) Spot for Jonathan Moore suits at Federal's.

Gimbles (1969) - Just a few seconds here.

Kmart (1961) - Detroit area recording. Quite an infectious little ditty! Though it also makes me feel like I'm at a drive-in movie.

Kmart (1971) - Detroit area recording. Kmart is the savings place!

Korvettes (1970) - This short snippet almost sounds like it's pumping through the speakers in a mall or store!

Linoleum ('60s or '70s) - I think maybe they need to make their target message a little clearer.

Lits Department Store (1976) - Very short stinger message from a Philadelphia, PA area recording. Sounds like in-store speaker sound, too--almost like you'd hear this right when you walk in. It's actually just a snippet of a longer commercial spot I don't have in its entirety yet.

Pick and Pay (12-23-63) - Part of a Pick and Pay store spot from the Cleveland area. This, just a couple days before Christmas of 1963.

Robert Hall Clothing Stores (1955) - A classic jingle here, folks, with Les Paul and Mary Ford! It will be stuck in your head for days, I'm sorry to tell you. It's actually a cool little tune, and Les Paul's breezy guitar licks are dynamite! California area recording.

Robert Hall Clothing Stores (1964) - This song is like crack, man. Should be illegal. Heck, maybe it is, I don't know. California area recording.

Shopping mall
(1960's) - Small part of some unknown shopping mall or shopping center spot. And yes, the girl is actually saying "hep" there at the end. :)

Southgate Shopping Center (6-25-59) - Wow! Maybe my favorite of the bunch, because it really captures that retro dreamy, romantic feeling I have about old shopping malls and department stores. And just listen to that beautiful background muzak, too! Southgate sure sounds like paradise to me!

Career Girl Stores (1970's) - Oh yeah! Some hot, breathable polyester action! (This short clip via the fabulous DeeT's 70's Page!

Value City (1962) - Cleveland, Ohio area recording. The little ditty at the end of this one is great! Value City is a dreeeeeam! Indeed.

Welp, hope you've enjoyed the sounds! Yes, there's more to come... :)

15 comments:

  1. those downloads are wonderful!
    and remember the grant department store and murphy's?
    oh and woolco (i think thats how you spell it)

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  2. Thanks for the downloads! Did you digitize them your self? The downloads worked okay, but I don't really care for qfile. You can only download one file at a time (if you don't pay for their premium service). It would be a better idea to zip all the files into one file and share that file instead.

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  3. Thanks, Mega! I think I have a Grant spot Maybe Woolco, too! There will be future volumes in this series. :)

    Thanks for the comments, Chris. I added a single zip download, which I had actually planned to include this morning, but ran out of time to work on it.

    As for QuickFile, the reason I'm trying them is mainly because they won't delete uploads after only 7 days, like most of the other free file hosting services do. 7 days is just too darn short! Qfile leaves them for 30 days(!) before they consider removing them, and even then will leave them indefinitely as long as they're still getting a download to reset the timer. I dig that! A lot of blogs use YouSendit.com, but again, I won't because they will only leave files on their servers for 7 days, period.

    So even though qfile doesn't have the most elegant interface, and only lets you download one file at a time (do most of the others even allow multiple?), I know of several big MP3 blogs that use it, too, and it's simply the best I've found so far for giving me a longer time period on the hosting.

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  4. Any chance you can repost the zip file? Qfile.de seems to have disappeared. :(

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  5. Yep! I'll get he zip back up tomorrow. Sorry about that.

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  6. Shame that it's gone now. Just found out about Keith's wonderful site, now I want retrobution! :)

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  7. I am loving this site...but I found it a wee bit late any chance of reposting the zip file?

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  8. Can you send me the files?
    bmoviecast@gmail.com

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  9. I am dying to hear these files. Is there any way you could re-post or email them to me?

    54cermak@gmail.com

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  10. I would like to hear thos files too.
    Thanks you.

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  11. Ack, I missed them too! I hope you repost them soon if you can, dying to hear them!

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  12. I would also love to be able to download these files whenever you get a chance to re-post them.....Or is there any way you could just email me the zip file instead? My address is: tpledger@comcast.net In the meantime, I'll keep checking your site for them.....

    Thanks!

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  13. If you could, Rapidshare.com is a good place to host files because I believe they keep them as long as you want. It would be great to hear these, I hope you can rehost them someplace soon.

    Wonderful site by the way. :)

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  14. Any chance you can repost the zip file? Qfile.de seems to have disappeared... again!

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