MP3:
1 Don Meckstroth - A Greeting (1:06)
2 Mason Adams - Today We Bought A Home (12:55)
3 American Standard - Today We Found Our Home (7:14)
The American Dream set to catchy and dreamy music. This is my favorite mini-product musical next to "The 8 Seasons of Chromolox" (see day #13 of the 2003 365 Days Project) .
A question arises in my mind - Where and when was this record given out or listened to? Unlike other product musicals this was not played out live on stage during a corporate convention. Was this handed to you at the cash register when purchasing American-Standard products in a hardware store? Was it given to customers visiting an office for "Holiday Green" or "Trend-Setting Builder" real-estate? Did they leave you alone in a room with a turntable to listen to this, after giving you a wink and saying, "I'll be back in 15 minutes to answer any questions"? Probably not. Side 2 is full of dinner music.
Perhaps then, it was a gift (especially to newly-weds) from traveling salesman who would stop by a second time later in the day to check upon your interest in the album's presentation. (Much like the amazing Bert Tenzer "Sci-Fi Drama" traveling salesman product records.)
My only clue is in the liner notes: "We sincerely hope you enjoy the reading of the essay, the miniature musical and the lovely dinner music. Your American-Standard representative will soon discuss the complete details of the Trend Setting Builder Program and point out your vital role in upgrading the new home market to more profitable feature goods fixtures through this program."
I love the music and dialog of this record very much. It's Perfect. Laughter even arises at times during the "scene" of the husband and wife waltzing through the kitchen, to the plugs of American-Standard products included as bonus features to the new home - the slip resistant polka-dots in the bathtub and the "vent-away"(?) toilets - "Freeesssshhhh!”
- Contributed by: B.C. Sterrett (The Lost Media Archive)
Image: Today We Bought A Home (illustration courtesy of: Suzanne Baumann)
Media: 12" LP
Album: Today We Bought A Home
Label: American Standard
Catalog: CSS863
Credits: Music by Jules Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. A unique album, prepared exclusively for distributors of American-Standard products, in support of and for the benefit of the Trend Setting Home Builders of America.
Date: 1968
This type of sales pitch is still pitched across America to this day in the hope of capturing sales
When the wife and I were in Las Vegas three years ago we got hooked into attending an "exclusive tour" of some new condos just being finished behind the main Vegas strip. Not bad condos - if you had $600,000 lying around
Not only did we get the condo tour (hosted by a guy who was either getting on or off hard drugs), we got a decent Vegas show tickets (Sigfried and Roy before the nasty tiger accident), free dinner at the Plaza Hotel and a free DVD showing how they designed and built the condo complex that we'd just seen.
The "Today We Bought a Home" LP seems like a kissin' cousin to the DVD we got - basically a similar way that salesmen hooked folks into buying a house, except in an older era
thank you
Posted by: Martin P | January 20, 2007 at 03:39 AM
Narrator sounds like Casey Casem.
Posted by: Rumple Stiltskin | January 20, 2007 at 10:31 AM
Could you please post side 2 of this record? If it's anything like the music on side one, then I'd love to hear it. Thanks. John
Posted by: John | January 20, 2007 at 11:51 AM
Stephen Sondheim (!?!) must've been behind on his mortgage payments.
Posted by: Hell's Donut House | January 20, 2007 at 12:49 PM
The song is reusing tunes from Gypsy - but I don't know if Sondheim really wrote those new lyrics, or simply was included because he wrote the original lyrics.
Posted by: Webhanster Henry | January 22, 2007 at 10:28 PM
Is that the same Mason Adams who was Lou Grant's boss on the show of the same name?
Posted by: SillyWilly | March 20, 2007 at 07:29 AM
Does anyone actually own a copy of Columbia Special Products album #CSS-863 TODAY WE BOUGHT A HOME / TODAY WE FOUND OUR HOME? If so, I would greatly appreciate large label scans of each side of disk, and the stereo numbers that are preceded by letters XSV. Thank you.
Posted by: Reg B. | March 14, 2013 at 12:31 AM