Reel Legacy in America
Matt's Moment
The tapes contain nearly 50 hours of recordings - most of which proved to be Don's mix tapes full of popular recordings he made by taping radio broadcasts or records. These reels were often marked "Music Junk" or something of that nature.
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Many of the "clubhouse" hidden gems came from listening to every second of the tapes to make sure nothing was missed. In that process, we uncovered the following recordings which could have been easily overlooked.
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Nearly one hour into one of the mix tapes, the previously recorded music was abruptly interrupted.
Apparently, Don was working on his music when Matt decided that right then and there he wanted to record his thoughts about opening a restaurant on 47th and Wolcott. He also wanted to share some thoughts with his wife Helen, who he believed was spending too much time with her friend Rosemary.
Helen would sometimes ask Don to record the music that she liked on tapes so she could listen to them during the day. It is obvious that Matt was recording the following section as a joke so that Helen would unexpectedly hear his voice the next time she listened to her music.
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If you listen closely near 1 minute and 20 seconds, you can hear Matt try to hold back from laughing while he was recording.
Matt also wanted Helen to hear him sing on her mix tape, so he decided to sing her an impromptu song in Polish.
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Listen closely around 30 seconds and you will hear Matt and Don laughing as he forgets the lyrics.
Close Lisak family friend Patrick Doody provided the reel-to-reel machine used to recover this cherished audio.
We would like to offer our sincere thanks for his help and friendship!
Maestro Matt
In the early 1970s, Rita and her family had a portable cassette recorder that they used to capture moments of their children singing and playing. The following audio was recovered from the cassettes when unexpected cameos were made by Matt as the record light was red.
Matt talks about keeping his business open at all times, visiting Arizona, and skinny toothpicks.
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Matt sings a full four verses of his favorite song in Polish.
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Matt sings an encore of another funny song in Polish.
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Helen's Hello
In the 1970s, Helen's daughters Rita & Cookie both moved to Southern Illinois to forge their paths. Due to the expensive costs of long distance phone calls, Helen and her daughters would often send care packages back and forth to one another. A common item in these care packages was a recorded audio tape talking about what was happening in each other's lives.
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On March 8, 1976, Helen made one of these audio recordings for Rita and her family to hear. The recording chronicles what was happening in Helen's life, who was sick, what they were doing, and a variety of other things. These excerpts were recovered from the recording to offer a glimpse of Helen's personality, her life, and some things to make you smile.