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Portrait of singer Robert Merrill

January 26, 2014

There are very few of these shows out there, so don’t miss picking it up here, for free.

Welcome to 2014!

Those who like the singing of opera stars like John Charles Thomas and James Melton, will enjoy this.

And if you don’t?

Then please make sure to read the section below about our special challenge from a collector.

Portrait Of Singer Robert Merrill

Music America Loves Best 104
Starring Robert Merrill
First Song The Song of the Open Road
June 2 , 1946

Vintage Sheet Music Cover Of &Quot;Song Of The Open Road&Quot;

Dunning says that during 1946, this was “The RCA Victor Show” on NBC.  Of course, AFRS had to use a non-commercial title, so it appears they picked up the phrase “music America loves best” which was used in the show scripts.

Vintage Sheet Music Cover Of &Quot;Night And Day&Quot;

Hearing Merrill do an operatic version of the song, I’m getting to think that it’s pretty hard to screw up “Night and Day” since it comes off very well.

Disk Label Of &Quot;Music America Loves Best&Quot; Disk

And don’t forget that we are still in need of your help.  Donations will save our museum and maintain these free downloads.

To download this file, click on the poster at the bottom of this post.

To open the file, type the first letter of all the words in the sentence above AFTER the words “…we are still in need of your help” (all lowercase, no spaces).

And if you can help, please make your donation now, because we are now in the process of raising money to buy a building and must move.  (Click here to read the details.) 

Transcription Disc With Question Mark On Label

So what’s the challenge?

(This is from a CHRS member; she is also a collector.)

We have to raise money NOW, because we have to move out.  (Click here to read the details) 

So, plain and simple, here’s the challenge:  if you downloaders donate, I’ll give you some rare shows from my collection of discs.

How much do we have to donate?

When the downloaders give:

$200 – Ace will give you an mp3 in beautiful sound, of a very famous performer, guest-starring on a very popular comedy.  The program is out there, but maybe not in this AFRS version, and if it is, probably not in as good a shape as mine.

I’ll have new challenges and more discs after $200 comes in, including one disc that is *so rare* that you won’t even find it on anybody’s list, except maybe the broadcast date.

You’ll get some clues about the $200 challenge disc in the next post, and the name of that *rare* disc.

What’s the deadline?

This is Ace again:  That $200 needs to come in by February 28.  It just needs to be a donation made at any time before January 1 and after January 25, 2014.

You read right.  If you made a donation to us in 2013, we’ll count it towards the $200 challenge.

So, please make your donation now, because those rare discs are really swell.

How do we do it?

When you make a donation, which you can do here, put in the Message box the word “downloader”.  That way we can keep track.

If you made a donation in 2013, leave a comment below and we will confirm it and add it to the total.

With your help, we can save all the shows like those you’ve been enjoying.

Vintage Wartime Poster, Showing Three People Raising An American Flag, With The Words &Quot;Let's All Pull Together&Quot;

This Post Has 6 Comments

  1. I made a donation of $30.00 on August 29, 2013 and haven’t regretted it a bit. I hope others will do the same. Thanks for your hard work.

    1. The donor has asked only for donations, so that we can get more money toward our new building.

      Our need for the money is coming up soon, so please make your donation.

  2. Thanks to everyone who reported their donations here. I will contact the qualifying ones to get a total, and check to see what is coming in through the donation page.

    Please keep them coming in, so we can get those special challenge discs!

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