Print and Convergence

Back when Mary was a young girl, she was always busy with working on the farm or school. Since she had to read in school, she didn't have much interest in doing more of it in her free time.
"I wasn't a big reader, much like now," she told me. Her family did have subscriptions to magazines and newspapers, however. The Quincy Hearald Whig was the bigger paper that covered local tri-state news, and then her town had the Golden New Era.
 
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Her dad subscribed to Successful Farms and Farmers' Almanac, and her mother subscribed to Good Housekeeping, Ladies' Home Journal, and McCall's . The mail carrier would always come and bring them by.  Mary did like to look at Look! and Life magazines. She didn't ask about any magazines that were controversial, she didn't really care.

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http://www.yesterdish.com/wp-content/gallery/images-in-posts/2014-6-23-look-magazine-cover.jpg

As I said before, Mary wasn't much of a reader back then, so there weren't really any restrictions for her there. Now that she has free time from school and the farm, she likes to read biographies, and novels by her favorite authors which include John Grisham, Jodi Picolt, Danielle Steel, Erin Hildebrand, and Paul Evan.

She usually goes to the library for her books nowadays, whereas she would have gotten them from school when she was younger, because there was no library in her hometown even if she had time to read.

Mary had a few things to point out about how print has changed over the years. Firstly, there were nowhere near as many ads as there are today. Secondly, the print is more sophisticated now. There was no color or coupons that came with them, and the paper back then was not glossy like it is in magazines now.

I asked her if she read things online or used a Kindle or Nook-type device to read and she said no. She and I both agree that we like the accomplished feeling of getting to turn the page. She doesn't read things online very much either.

Since we were on the topic of online, I asked her opinion on convergence, or the endangerment of print to the digital online world, and she had a statement to make. "I know it's coming, but I'm still gonna' be sad about it," she said, referring to the day when print is a thing of the past. We both hope, however, that that doesn't happen.

Movies

Mary remembers quite a bit about the coming of movies. The town she was living in at the time had 2 small theatres. The movies they showed were mostly Westerns with John Wayne and Roy Rogers.

 

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They were only open in the evenings with the exception of some Sundays when they would have a matinee showing. Mary said the movie theatre was a popular place for date night with your sweetheart. The drive-ins were also very popular.

 

Mary was not particularly as interested in Westerns as she was in musicals. She mentioned a couple of her favorite as The Wizard of Oz with Judy Garland and, something that I will be watching in just a few hours from now, White Christmas with Bing Crosby.

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Her parents did not have many restrictions on what she could go watch because there weren't many inappropriate things, unlike today. The didn't even have ratings back then, either. Then again, Mary didn't exactly have an interest in seeing inappropriate things in the first place.

 

I asked my Aunt Mary if she watched videos or movies on line with Netflix or online streaming sites, and she said no, she did not really even need to. She uses Redbox from time to time, but she can get movies to watch over her U-verse from AT&T.

Television and Cable

As with all households in the early era of TV, Mary's family was excited to have one in their home.
"First it was black and white - no color whatsoever," she said. When she was a teenager in the mid and late 40s, she would watch television in the living room with her family. There were mainly musicals or news programs on, and they only had a few channels. As years went on, there were progressively more channels and programs added.

Her favorite programs or people to watch were programs with Bob Hope, Little House on the Prairie, and the ever so popular Ed Sullivan Show.

 
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Despite the black and white picture and the small selection of channels, Mary's family had a TV set before many of their neighbors did. So on weekends and sometimes for dinner, people would come over to visit, have dinner and watch the television.

Mary described the experience of the television and "new and wonderful", and the everyone was "just in awe". Having a television in their home really brought the family together more.

One of the differences between television then and now is that back then, there weren't nearly as many commercials as today. Also, the reception was not so bad for being on a farm, but when the weather was bad the picture was terrible. They had the Saturday morning cartoons back then, too, where as now, a few months ago, the last Saturday morning cartoon aired.

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As for corporate sponsors of shows, Mary didn't have any that came to mind other than automobile companies and baking products. As for the game show scandals, Mary didn't pay much attention to them. She watched the game shows, but she didn't concern her time with the scandals.
"I'm sure other people did," she told me.

Now, of course things are different. Mary has a high definition color television, and U-Verse from AT&T which gives her a huge variety of channels and shows. Some of her current favorite programs are Dancing with the Stars, The Voice, American Idol, The Goodwife, and Fox News. She lives around the St. Louis area and gets sick of  seeing the same local news, especially in recent weeks, so she likes to see the news from the rest of the country and other parts of the world. Now, especially with the Holiday season, she likes to watch the Lifetime and Hallmark Channels. 

Aunt Mary reminds me of my Gramma with her television choices, and we had an especially enthusiastic talk about what she liked to watch now. I think it is safe to say that Mary is glad for television and cable.

Radio

Mary had plenty of memories about radio in her day. She remembers her family having a big Phillips radio in the living room as a piece of furniture when she was a child and in her teens. Over the next couple years, her family got radios that were smaller as they came out. She remembers that first they had one console in the family living room, then after a while, there were 3 or 4 throughout the house. She didn't remember much of what she liked to listen to, but she remembered that her father liked to listen to "Barn Dance", which was a country-western music program.

Mary usually like to listen to the radio when she got home from school, at night after work, or whenever she could with her family. After a while as she got older, she would have her own smaller radio in her bedroom.

She remembers that a lot of the commercials were for baking products. One in particular that she mentioned was Clabber Girl Baking Soda. There were also a number of educational programs on the radio. Most of the were family based or political speakers.

There weren't too many problems with the radio set that her family had, but she was very quick to mention the static. They lived on a farm in rural Illinois, and there was terrible static, especially when there were storms around.


When FM radio was introduced, Mary said it was "a big, big plus", for her family. The reception out on the farm was much better. There were plenty of funny talk shows for the family.

In public places, Mary mentioned that some restaurants and diners had big nickelodeons, or machines where you could put in a nickel and play a song through the diner. Later on, they had individual little set-ups at each dining booth where you could sit at your place and choose a song, instead of getting up.

All in all, radio was something that was a big part of media when Mary was growing up.

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Sound Recordings

My aunt Mary has grown up in the age of new music production, being a teenager in the time of the 33's and 45's. These were the vinyl records that she listened to with her family. She mainly remembers artists like Frankie Avalon, Frank Sinatra, and Bing Crosby.

When Mary was a teenager, her parents had a manual winding console phonograph in their living room that looked a lot like this one:

http://www.8-track-shack.com/popup_image.php?pID=132025&invis=1&osCsid=295186ee3525bd517b4d0e4fdff66993


After she married, her husband had a portable record machine that was again, manual. It was carried around in a suitcase and when you opened it up, it was a record player. Further along in the marriage, she and her husband got a turntable for their home that would change records on its own after one was finished, kind of like a CD disc changer today. You could load it with 3 or 4 records at a time.

Mary's parents were pretty lenient with what could be listened to in the home. Her family was pretty musically inclined as was she. She took piano lessons and sang as a child. Her parents also let her play what she wanted on the consoles.

She found out about different artists and musicians in a few different ways. "Mainly through listening to the radio," she says, and she also heard from her friends and other people who hear about them.

Today, she likes to listen to easy listening stations, with the occasional country western, on Sirius XM Radio through her satellite television. Sometimes, she listens to music on the internet from streaming sites and the radio. Music is what keeps her calm and helps her relax.

The Interviewee

    Finding an interviewee who can remember back to the 1950's is a tricky task in itself, let alone finding someone who can remember specific things and can tell me the details. Most of my family has regretfully passed away in the passed year, or, due to medical conditions, are unable to participate in these interviews. What is left after that cannot remember much, if anything. Despite this, my great aunt  Mary who was born in the year 1932, and for whom I am very grateful, was able to help me in my journey back in time to learn more about the evolution of media. Coming soon will be Mary's recollection of how the world of music and sound recordings has changed throughout her life. This is to be followed by posts about what she remembers from the evolutions of radio, television, movies, and printed media. :)

     This is a blog that I have created for a class a Truman State University. Posts will be findings from interviews with an individual who can remember way farther back about their experiences with media in their lifetime. Blogs scare me, so bear with me.