There is a cruise-in every Thursday evening, just one town over from where I live.

Last week, I decided to try to get the public a little more personally involved and brought along a straw boater's hat, a derby and a newsboy hat, a package of false, stick-on handlebar mustaches from the local party store, a couple of old vests and a pair of Grandpa's arm garters.

A bunch of families showed up with their kids and I asked them if they'd like to pose for photos in my Touring with the funny hats and stuff. The response was unexpectedly enthusiastic! I shot a bunch of photos with my little cell-phone camera and e-mailed them out to these families. The kids absolutely loved it.

Topped off the evening by giving an old couple a ride around the neighborhood. What a great time!

Bob

Bob, you are just the kind of nut were looking for.

I am inspired.

Hi Bob

How about posting a picture or two?

Harvey .....

Bob,
What a great way to get kids interested in old cars...maybe, anyway.

Way to go may have to give that a try myself. Dave

"Bob, you are just the kind of nut were looking for." Love it LOL!

Way to go, Bob.

Makes me want to get out a T and go to a show.

Thanks for the thought about using vintage hats as a prop for kids photos. I get kids in my cars when I show them at the local museum and many parents go away with some great photo opportunity shots. I have plenty of hats and just never thought about using them that way. Incidentally, I have found a sure fire way to get a winning smile kid photo is to blow the oghaa horn just as the parent is taking the shot. Works every time.

Bill R. '25 Fordor

I've been picking the grand daughters up from elementary school all this week in "Lizzie".
I drive my car around so much grocery shopping and things like that, it's not really much of a 'novelty' in my town anymore.

Great Idea, I let kids sit in T at S & S, and mum or dad take pictures too. Think I'll add the hats and mustaches. We gotta get the young ones involved, This just might spark some interest!!

I really gotta get a life...

This week, I added some music to the presentation. A friend of mine gave me a recording of "The Little Rascals" music. I stuck a modern boom-box in the wicker basket on my running board, where it could be heard but not seen.

Unfortunately, the threat of rain kept the field down to about eight cars, whereas last week, we must have had between one and two-hundred. No spectators showed up. Oh--and it didn't rain. Oh well, the season is young.

Bob

Here you go Bob. I've got this record and the Victrola it was first played on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXObWK_lKkM
Tape this and add it to your selection.

The Good Old Days (Little Rascals theme) is one of Leroy Shield's best pieces of music from the Hal Roach comedies, and there's more available. I have a CD titled The Beau Hunks Play the Original Laurel & Hardy Music (MSA 99025) that's a musical treat. Vince Giordano's Quality Shout is a great CD of T era music by Giordano's Nighthawks. You may recognize The Moon and You, also available on Vince's website. When I think of music from the late twenties, this is one of the tunes that come to mind.

http://www.myspace.com/vincegiordanothenighthawks

Y'know, when I listen to that old music and the way it was recorded, it just underlines how OLD our cars really are. This stuff even predates Swing, Dixieland-Jazz and Blues. I guess this category of music was... what, Ragtime?

Bob

Nope. The ragtime era was from the late nineties to the mid-teens. Developed by brothel pianists in Missouri and nearby states, it introduced a distinctive syncopation to popular music and became wildly popular. But it was scorned by many upper class types, partly because it came from black folks, and because many otherwise good pianists couldn't play it. Major ragtime figures were composer Scott Joplin and pianist Jelly Roll Morton, better known for his jazz efforts. "I invented jazz."

Blues came from blacks in the rural south about the same time as ragtime arose in the mid-west. Classic blues follows a strict lyrical pattern of the first line being repeated as the second, and the third line rhyming with the repeated first. It also follows a strict musical pattern, with twelve bars containing three chords in a set sequence. (See Wikipedia.) The most popular blues singer of the T era was Bessie Smith.

Jazz developed in New Orleans and was later termed "Dixieland" to differentiate it from subsequent jazz forms. The first jazz recordings were released in the late teens. The essential element of jazz is improvisation, in which players will come up with impromptu variations on an original melody. Sometimes the variation is a completely new tune using the same chord changes as the original. The greatest jazz performers of the T era were King Oliver and Louis Armstrong. The twenties are, of course, known as the Jazz Age. Ironically, though the greatest early jazz players were black, the band leader who became known as "The King of Jazz" was a white man whose name was white man, Paul Whiteman. Despite the title, Whiteman's orchestra played little to no improvisation, and thus his music doesn't really qualify as jazz though it includes other jazz features.

Swing was a popular big band music development of the early thirties, and though Benny Goodman was billed as the King of Swing, the real king was Fletcher Henderson, who wrote the arrangements.

Gee, I do go on, don't I? You got me started on a favorite interest. I haven't checked this but I expect a google search of all the names mentioned above will find online recordings of these folks and provide good examples of the various musical forms and styles that were popular in the early twentieth century.

I forgot to invite corrections to the above dissertation by those who really know the subject.

Wow, you really know your stuff!

So, how would you categorize the "Little Rascals" style of music?

Bob

Pop music in the style of the period. The Good Old Days is a waltz. One of the things I like about Mexican music, as opposed to pop music in this country, is that a waltz can still be a big hit like Lágrimas del Corazon.

Boy, it has been a long time since I have seen the "Rascals". I can't for the life of me remember their tune! Oh, but I do listen to period music and such. Steve, I enjoyed your little background piece on the subject. A lot of good basic information.
One style of music I listen to a lot, not mentioned because it is from a different history, is early country/western. Mostly I listen to Jimmie Rodgers because I have the modern CD set with almost all of his recordings. But I also like Frank Crumit, Vernon Dalhart and a dozen others.
Another fantastic type of recordings are the comedy songs and vaudeville. I can't get enough of them. Billy Murray was one of the best and most prolific artists of the era. I have an original recording of "On The Limb Of The Old Apple Tree (Parody of In The Shade Of The Old Apple Tree)" Victor label with a very low record number and several recordings from the twenties up till the early thirties. I have two versions of "Barnacle Bill The Sailor".
And you said you "go on".
Drive safe, and enjoy by listening to period music, W2

Here you go, Wayne. Vince and the Nighthawks playing The Good Old Days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUH-7iwupHU&feature=related

Kudos big time to you!!!!
CHip