365 DAYS PROJECT

2003   NOVEMBER 3   #307

Gaynor and Dorothy Maddox - Steak Dinner

From the LP Cover:

"Nationally known food columnist and his charming wife tell the secret of preparing four gourmet sinners with supreme ease"

Guess who didn't do the dishes after the fact.....

Probably when Martha Stewart was still in diapers, There was Gaynor and Dorothy Maddox. Both were well known at the time (1959 based on a copyright in the front corner of the LP) as writers. Gaynor was author of "Eat Well For Less Money" and "The Safe and Sure Way To Reduce" and Dorothy was a popular food columnist. Their expertise came together in this rather unique LP which gives you step by step advice on how to put together 4 different dinner parties for your friends.

One thing they didn't have expertise in is acting, and could use a bit of training. I found this album unintentionally hilarious as you can easily tell it's scripted, in fact, it's in some cases, they go over the top in trying to sound enthusiastic and energetic. Maybe they should have just stuck to WRITING about a dinner party.

- Scott Snailham, http://www.geocities.com/snarfdudes

TT-12:55 / 11.8MB / 128kbps 44.1khz
from "Hear How To Plan The Perfect Dinner Party"


(Image courtesy of Scott Snailham)

Carl Howard writes:
This entry springs from the phenomenal "Hear How" series released by the Carlton label, and is numbered CHH-14 in that series, which includes tips from experts in other leisure-related fields on improving your bowling, your golf swing, your batting average, skin diving; and if a few other entries were to be lumped together, how to train your dog to speak French while taking better photographs. The extraordinary archival website bsnpubs, which documents as thoroughly as it can the histories of long-ago record labels, has a fantastic and well-illustrated page written by Mike Callahan and David Edwards at, http://www.bsnpubs.com/nyc/carlton.html - which dates the series to 1961 and prefaces the "Hear How" series this way:

"This was obviously an experiment in budget LPs. It was an interesting idea, but by the time they had rung up 15 or so albums, they started running out of ideas. The last few show a decided change in the series into more controversial topics for the early 1960s. Evidently, the public didn't want to hear about these, as the series died about then."

If anyone reading this has copies of two of these last entries, CHH-28 - "Hear How to Achieve Sexual Harmony in Marriage" and/or CHH-29 - "Hear How to Tell Your Children the Facts of Life" they are instructed to BURN/RIP/SHARE them immediately, because they would likely rival The Christopher Recordings in Sexual Instruction for infamous non-lewdness and therefore be highly prized by those who share such twisted arcana.