Satiric radio commentary for the 90s from the man who drained Lake Michigan and filled it with hot chocolate!!!
STAN FREBERG HERE...


Stan's Book Review: "Going, Going, Gone"

Stan Freberg here. Whatever happened to carhops? Doctors' housecalls? Women's stockings? Nothing but pantyhose now. A new book out bemoans the loss of many lost traditions. One thing that's still with us--the radio commercial...fortunately. Be right back. [:60 SPOT BREAK]

Freberg here. A new book just hitting bookstores is called "Going, Going, Gone--Vanishing Americana." It's full of great pictures of things that look very familiar. You think, "Wait a minute--there's still telephones around!" But not like that one! It has a rotary dial. You can't follow instructions from a recorded voice on that baby! "If you wish to reach accounting, press '1'..."

Ah, those were the days, when you didn't have to listen to a long, annoying menu of choices. And there's an enclosed phone booth. They've vanished, too. Where's Superman supposed to change?

The book celebrates many vanishing things from my childhood: marbles, soda fountains, drive-in movies, carhops--with no more drive-in restaurants, there's no place to hop!

No more hotel keys. All gone to electronic plastic keycards. There's a picture of a vinyl record. Kinda sad. All CDs now. A woman's girdle; probably no great loss. The smell of burning leaves. A milkman. A gas station attendant--oh,he's still there, but now he's behind bullet-proof glass.

"Going, Going, Gone" from Chronicle Books. I hadn't realized how much I'd missed.

Stan Freberg here.


Copyright (C)1997, Stan Freberg/Freberg, Ltd. (but not very) Distributed by Dick Brescia Associates and Radio Spirits, Inc.