365 DAYS PROJECT

2003   MAY 9   #129

Dora Hall - Introduction/Hang On Sloopy

As a kid in elementary school I hated school parties. My mom felt that she shouldn"t be cooking or baking for kids she didn"t know and that they can "Go screw themselves. I ain"t cooking for them! Do I look like a soup kitchen?' So while all the kids were bringing in cookies, cakes, and other assorted foods I was in charge of either the eating utensils or the cups. So whenever my class was having a Christmas party or a party in general I would go to the local supermarket and get a bag of those red Solo cups. Some folks might have been in this same situation or may know Solo cups from a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

Solo Cups (http://www.solocup.com) was founded in 1936 as the Paper Container Manufacturing Company by Leo Hulseman, who was also the president of the company. The company changed their name to Solo Cups in 1946 and has been producing cups ever since. But cups weren"t the only thing the company produced. They produced America"s Queen of Vanity Entertainment- Miss Dora Hall!

Dora Hall was the wife of Leo Hulseman. A 71-year old grandmother who used to sing for troops in World War I, she used the Solo Cup fortune to release several records in the 60"s and 70"s that were distributed free in packages of Solo Cup plastic cups and paper plates. Too bad I wasn"t a kid growing up in the sixties I would have had the whole set! But the music train didn"t stop at records for Dora Hall. She branched out in 1971 with her major television special "Once Upon a Tour' which was proudly sponsored by Solo Cups. Her husband paid the $400,000 bill that went with the show.

While doing research for this selection I e-mailed the Solo Cup Co. to get some more info on Dora Hall and her recordings. They have not responded yet. But for more info on Dora Hall you can visit the Unofficial Dora Hall website at,http://www.dorahall.tvheaven.com

- Zeb Navarro (znavarro@cox.net)
  Host, "Oldies and Oddities' http://www.geocities.com/oldiesandoddities/
  KKSM, San Diego, Ca.

TT-3:11 / 4.4MB / 192kbps 44.1khz
"Introduction" from the LP soundtrack "Once Upon a Tour" (Cozy)
"Hang on Sloopy" from the LP "Great Hits" (Calamo)


(Image courtesy of Zeb Navarro)

Rocketboy (Who also thinks Bert Kaemphert is still the bees knees) writes:
Okay, I admit it. I'm a Dora Hall fanatic, and I don't really care who knows. My Dora Hall fetish started when i got a single of her glorious rendition of "I Got You Babe" b/w "New Boy" in the mail from a Solo cup order form. It came in a sleeve with the precaution "adult" in large stamped on letters. This must have been in about 1974. My folks had to preview it first thinking that the "adult" stamp must have rendered this disc raunchier than Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin's orgasmic moanings. Needless to say, they were unoffended and the wonderful soothing sounds of Dora were mine to hear. I still love that battered old single. Dora was great!

Liza writes:
Weird. Just a few days after becoming obsessed with this site, at a thrift store I found a bizarre-looking VHS tape with an ugly illustration and a taped-on label that says "Imagine That!" I immediately bought it because it said it was distributed by a subsidiary of Solo Cup Company, and I thought, "What the?" It turns out this incredibly strange video (which is reviewed on this site) features the "talents" of Dora Hall. Awesome. Um. It's completley insane. I love it.