Once in a while, you run into the most puzzling things in batches of “throwaway” transcription discs. This one had me asking “What the heck?”
This is an audition for a half-hour game show called “Tune Test”. Similar to “Stop the Music”, the host of the show would call random numbers and ask contestants to identify a song and answer a music-related question.
What’s odd about this disc is that I can’t really decide if it’s a real audition for an actual proposed program or some kind of elaborate gag or parody of these game shows.
You never hear the contestants on the other end of the line - just the host, Jack Fuller, hawking the fake product “Dimaxio”, which does everything and is available everywhere, and creating the most elaborate reactions to the “callers”.
Is this Jack Fuller the same guy who was an announcer for “Vic and Sade”?
I have no idea if he was working from a script or improvising around some loose notes - regardless, it’s a remarkable acting performance.
Our mp3 was transferred from a 16” thin vinyl transcription produced by Radio Ventures, Inc, 75 E Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois and labeled “Tone Test Audition with Merchandise Awards”. The master numbers U-1629 and U-1630 and the numbers D-49034 and D-49035 are etched in the run-off.
My Google searching couldn’t turn up anything on Jack Fuller except listings at Goldin for his announcing work on “Vic and Sade” and absolutely nothing on “Radio Ventures, Inc”. Based on references to “The Jolson Story” and similarities to “Stop the Music”, I’m guessing this dates from the late ’40s.
What do you think? Is this a real audition or a satire made as some kind of joke?