November 27, 2005

Now a Word From Our Scumbag Sponsor

From the 1980s into the early 1990s, an ad hoc community of NYC crackheads, thieves and the homeless would assemble after dark on 2nd Avenue between 6th Street and St. Marks. There, like denizens of a more exotic and smellier Casbah, black-marketeers would display their wares upon discarded towels or dirty bedsheets – items plucked from dumpsters, or ripped from the glove compartments of parked cars. If a home was burglarized, many a victim headed straight for this impromptu outdoor thrift shop, and I heard more than once about people rescuing their stolen valuables just in time (after a few of the appropriate threats got bandied about). Like most of the avid shoppers, I liked to assume I was buying recovered trash and not supporting random theft, but you never knew the pedigree of the merchandise.

Like many a collector’s curse, I “lucked into” the habit of hoarding radio station promo records. I was walking home and some guy had a fresh stack of 45s toppling from his seller’s blanket. I stopped and read the labels; I couldn’t believe my luck. I ended up paying fifty cents apiece for them.

A bit of radio history. DJs used to receive these 7” ready-to-play commercials direct from the sponsor. Most of the time there were multiple versions of an ad (for example, a 60-second, 30-second and 15-second cut) separated by locked grooves in the record. It was often a one-sided disc, though sometimes two; sometimes 45rpm, sometimes 33.3; and the variety of promotions and cross-promotions is delicious.

These are a subset of those spots – movie trailers for radio play. Aside from the delightfully self-important announcers and hilariously sordid, completely misleading ad campaigns, I especially like that the format was so democratic – the major studios threw out tasteless ads for their big-budget schlock the exact same way Independent-International and AIP did for their repackaged Eurosleaze and homegrown exploitation flicks. Everything got pressed to vinyl. As a lover of these movies, it’s really cool to be able, in effect, to own a piece of them. At one time these commercial discs were the industry standard. Why are they so hard to find now? I suspect there’s a whole lot of other collectors out there.

The Naughty Stewardesses (60 sec.) imdb listing

Framed (30 sec.) imdb listing

Dr. Tarr’s Torture Dungeon (30 sec.) imdb listing

Frenzy of Blood double feature (60 sec.) both imdb listings

Loving Cousins (60 sec.) imdb listing

Mandingo (30 sec.) imdb listing

Angel’s Wild Women (30 sec.) imdb listing

Dreamer (30 sec.) imdb listing

Females For Hire (30 sec.) imdb listing

Triple Terror Show (30 sec.) all three imdb listings

The Lonely Woman (60 sec.) imdb listing

Ginger / The Abductors (50 sec.) both imdb listings

Island of Lost Girls / Nice Girl (60 sec.) imdb listing

Mark of the Devil (60 sec.) imdb listing

Nurses For Sale (60 sec.) imdb listing

UPDATE 12-1-05: If you’ve got the patience to fight the infamous Blogger servers, Skinny Robbie posted 100 more (!) radio spots on his blog last Halloween. You greedy, greedy people.

Rick at 9:02 pm

Comments (32)

32 CommentsÈ

  1. These are completely incredible. Thanks so much for putting them up. (Also, the “Nurses for Sale” IMDB link points to the wrong German movie. Not that I was checking.)

    Comment by Martha Ñ November 28, 2005 @ 4:01 am

  2. Ginger / The Abductors has a invalid Link (empty space in filename)
    (Firefox and IE) A Quick look at the Sourcecode
    If you need this try this Link in a Download manager
    http://toestubber.com/a112705/Ginger-The%20Abductors_ad50-4.mp3

    btw. its Ginger / The Abductors not ADBDUCTORS ..

    best regards
    Peter

    Comment by drWhiet Ñ November 28, 2005 @ 10:38 am

  3. I remember those Mandingo ads! I still have never seen it all the way through, but I’d catch bits of it on “The Star Channel” when I was a kid.

    Now, a radio spot for “Fight for Your Life” would just rule…

    Comment by Mike Desert Ñ November 28, 2005 @ 12:06 pm

  4. Thanks; all mistakes should be fixed now. By the way, that IMDB link is correct. It was interesting to find out how many of these drive-in obscurities were retitled European movies.

    Mike, I may be wrong, but I think the racial provocation of Fight For Your Life would be really hard to get allowed on radio. Mandingo got away with it by posing as a historical drama. And that one had big-name actors and a football star! Then, like now, William Sanderson was not given his proper respect – a shameful episode in our nation’s past.

    Comment by Rick Ñ November 28, 2005 @ 3:29 pm

  5. aahh, MANDINGO, the most memorable movie i never saw. probably because i CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH…

    Comment by manny sfumato Ñ November 28, 2005 @ 3:46 pm

  6. Awesome Rick Hall! Thanks au-go go. The record noise totally enhances the creepy appeal of these little monsters.

    Comment by Robert Ñ November 28, 2005 @ 4:05 pm

  7. Wow! Those were the days when the crustys ruled Tomkins Square and Ave A. I was in a thrift store in Philadelphia years ago and found a huge stack of Sugar Hill 7” promos. Ah the gentle beauty and curse of the white label promo. The sacred Holy Grail for pretentious assholes!

    Comment by champagne and little bear Ñ November 29, 2005 @ 11:18 am

  8. Beautiful, & why indeed are they so hard to find?

    I have She Devils on Wheels 1:00; Werewolves on Wheels :15, :30 :60; Witchcraft ‘70 :15, :30, :60. I’d be glad to send you mp3’s.

    Jimbo

    Comment by Jimbobnik Ñ November 29, 2005 @ 11:53 am

  9. Jimbo:
    Bring it on!

    Comment by Rick Ñ November 29, 2005 @ 12:12 pm

  10. thanks !

    Comment by Stark Ñ November 29, 2005 @ 11:20 pm

  11. Awesome, and since I own a copy of NAUGHTY STEWARDESSES on DVD, I say, pour some out for the classic Al Adamson, Sam Sherman and Independent-International… long live independent exploitation!

    Comment by j boy charras Ñ December 1, 2005 @ 10:28 am

  12. [...] Es ist mal wieder Zeit für einige Radio Spots. Die 100 Stück, die Skinny Robbie gepostet hatte, liegen ja schon eine Weile zurück. Deshalb hier nun Nachschub. Bei Toe Stubber liegen folgende Perlen zum Download parat: [...]

    Pingback by The Crime in your Coffee » Blog Archive » Radio Spots Ñ December 2, 2005 @ 10:32 am

  13. [...] This post on movie radio spots has some great mp3s, from Angel’s Wild Women to the Triple Terror Show. [...]

    Pingback by The Ultimate Insult » Radio Spots Ñ December 7, 2005 @ 9:00 am

  14. mmm mmm good schlock!

    Thanks for sharing!

    Drew

    PS- Knifegirl is the hottest hotty hot pants in all of hotty-hot-pantville!

    Comment by DJ Drewfus Ñ January 7, 2006 @ 2:13 am

  15. [...] Movie clips from MovieSounds.com and absolutely hilarious radio promo from Toestubber.com. [...]

    Pingback by Sawed-Off Soundtracks » Episode 1: Party Hardy Marty Ñ February 22, 2006 @ 11:52 pm

  16. [...] Check out MovieWavs.com and Toestubber.com for movie, TV, and radio clips. [...]

    Pingback by Sawed-Off Soundtracks » ccMixter Hip-Hop Commute Ñ March 9, 2006 @ 1:24 am

  17. Rick, I’m going to need all these files indexed onto CD please. Thanks.

    Comment by Steve Cattani Ñ March 15, 2006 @ 1:40 pm

  18. [...] Thanks to MovieWavs.com and Toestubber.com for the movie stuff. [...]

    Pingback by Sawed-Off Soundtracks » Blog Archive » Episode 7: Mod Indie Bands Ñ April 11, 2006 @ 10:29 pm

  19. Has there ever been a record of the music to The Abductors or the Ginger trio? Thanks.

    Comment by Daisy Ñ July 26, 2006 @ 12:48 pm

  20. Hey I just wanted to say these are amazing! I play movie trailers on my radio show and some of these are definitely going to get some airtime!

    Thanks!!

    Comment by Mita Ñ August 10, 2006 @ 9:21 am

  21. Hi Rick,

    Thanks so much for posting these—my Mp3 player has been yearning for a full set of sleazy commercials and I was thrilled when I found this link on Skinny Robbie’s old 100 Horror Spots blog entry! (and your links even work!!)

    Looks like I’ve got a new blog to read regularly…

    Comment by Stopheles Ñ August 27, 2006 @ 4:09 pm

  22. Thanks, Stopheles. Welcome to the neglectful, abusive family!

    Comment by Rick Ñ August 27, 2006 @ 5:26 pm

  23. This is so cool. I had a brush with a HUGE collection of 7-inch vinyl and reel-to-reel radio promos in 1981 when I was involved with an #$%@-up effort to re-open a theatre in Raleigh, North Carolina as a rock showcase. Upstairs, along with boxes of posters, were these promos. I couldn’t get the owner’s agent to let me leave with any of it. Sadly, THE AMBASSADOR was torn down soon after for a parking lot. I guess they threw that “crap” out.

    Glad to see ya got these!

    Comment by tony madejczyk Ñ November 25, 2006 @ 11:36 pm

  24. love the females for hire sound byte! i have the poster…
    http://www.frontiernet.net/~javalane/female1.jpg
    http://www.frontiernet.net/~javalane/female2.jpg
    http://www.frontiernet.net/~javalane/female3.jpg

    Comment by bryan todd Ñ December 4, 2006 @ 5:05 pm

  25. [...] radio promos for exploitation movies via Coudal, I think (tags: radio films trashy) [...]

    Pingback by Heraclitean Fire » Links Ñ January 18, 2007 @ 3:21 am

  26. Thanks so much for this. Awesome.

    Comment by dekko Ñ March 6, 2007 @ 8:02 am

  27. LOL—I enjoyed hearing the movie ads! I’m not really into “B-movies”, but it was really funny to hear them.

    Maybe you could help me track down one. It’s from the early ‘70s, and I only remember the first 2 words: “M-G-M PRESENTS…” (said in just about that tone of voice, lol!) It always startled me when it came on the radio—so much so that I never did hear the rest of it—or if I did, I don’t remember. (Then again, MGM itself is pretty scary, with that lion and all. j/k)

    I think it may have been “Night of the Lepus”, which I’ve heard is a real honey-bunny of a bad movie. :D :D :D I watched the trailer for “Night of the Lepus” on YouTube, and it had that same kind of BOOMING, ECHO-Y ANNOUNCER VOICE THAT’S SUPPOSED TO SOUND REALLY SCARY. :) I think that might be it. The time frame is about right too (‘72).

    So if you have the RADIO ad for “Night of the Lepus”—or can direct me to it on some website—could you please give me the info? I’m not so much interested in actually seeing the movie; I just want to see if this is the radio ad I remember. Thanks in advance!

    Comment by Laura Ñ September 7, 2007 @ 12:44 pm

  28. wow great stuff..i have been collecting these for years & use them on my radio show every week (see above for link) i have hundreds of them & just recently lucked into a ton of amazing ones…i also have really old ones on 10” * 12” records…great!

    Comment by howie pyro Ñ September 10, 2007 @ 3:36 am

  29. Has anyone ever seen or herd a radio spot for either SWEDEN HEAVEN AND HELL or MAID IN SWEDEN?! Or any other SWEDISH movie released in america???? Please help me out!

    Comment by stefan Ñ January 21, 2008 @ 6:46 am

  30. These are great. Love to get more. Night Of the Lepus isn’t horribly bad, but it’s not that scary, either. Bunnies running through toy-train villages.

    Comment by jim Ñ August 22, 2008 @ 1:13 pm

  31. Apparently this Skinny Robbie person took his radio spots and won’t share them anymore. Spoilsport. The link is no longer valid, it seems.

    Comment by Jay Ñ October 13, 2008 @ 4:41 pm

  32. I have some of these radio spots, as a matter of fact I have ALOT of these radio spots. Know what they are worth?

    Comment by Ann Owens Ñ March 21, 2009 @ 10:26 am

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