Here is another record I know absolutely nothing about. I’ll bet you there was never a “The Loving Sounds.” No one ever went in search for this record. No one ever paid for it outside of a thrift store. This album sounds like a bunch of leftover European production library tracks, licensed for next to nothing and given away in a long forgotten department store promotion. This is the perfect share for the post MegaUpload era: an orphaned project that no one ever loved and no one cares about.

But you will. This is the kind of music that fans of this blog (Meat Heads notwithstanding) keep returning for. Innocuous, nondescript low-fidelity Muzak fodder of indifferent quality, gotten for nothing, saved briefly, then discarded. This is the kind of album only a “collector” such I would lovingly rip, edit and share for the half-dozen of you who’ll download anything.

There are enough rabid production library freaks out there who could recognize these tracks in their sleep. But they’re no doubt too busy pursuing storage unit treasure or refreshing online auction pages every ten seconds to visit Bostworld. The rest of you are free to do what you always do whenever you see a “download” link. Do it now, culture lovers, before album sharing becomes a thing of the past.

DOWNLOAD: Multiupload | Mediafire

“The expansion of self-service stores and the resulting change in consumer buying habits have contributed to the development of point-of-purchase materials. Their importance have increased with the growth of retailing and the needs of mass marketing. More often than not, unplanned buying decisions are made in the store, and the effective display of merchandise is the deciding factor in the consumer’s choice.

“It is in the retail store, away from the mass media, that the consumer and advertiser confront each other — the advertiser with product, the consumer with money. The results are immediately discernible.”

– Harvey Offenhartz, “Point-Of-Purchase Design” (1968)

Click on each photo for more information:

Inside the Astrosphere a theater was designed to resemble the interior of an American Airlines 707 Astrojet. The seats, although set eight across as in airliners of the future, are duplicates of 707 seating. The visitors strap themselves into the seats, put on headsets, and watch a twelve-minute film about travel across America, including a pilot’s eye view of both the landing and take-off. Stewardesses assist visitors. and travel literature is provided in seat pockets located in front of the passengers. This on-ground pre-conditioning of prospective passengers cannot help but stimulate their desire for air travel. Conservative American estimates fore-cast two million actual visitors to the Astrosphere and ten million people who will have seen it.

The Astrosphere is the largest dual-walled, air-inflated unit ever built. It has aproximately 6000 square feet of usable space, over half of which is used for visitor traffic flow and exhibit areas. Carried in four forty-foot vans, it can be set up in three hours.

The interior view shows the 128-seat theater in the center of the Astrosphere.

The cutaway model shows the plan of the Astrosphere. In the area outside the theater are exhibits by American Express Company, Hertz Rent-a-Car, Holiday Inns of America, and Texaco. all showing the relationship of these companies to travel. Domestic travel is promoted in keeping with the Discover America program established by President Johnson. Flags surrounding the sphere are of the 50 states.

The American Airlines example of marketing at shopping centers to reach the consumer directly will inevitably be further developed by other companies. Shopping centers may soon become small world’s fairs as marketers continue to cut the distance, be it physical or conceptual, between their product and the consumer.

– “Point Of Purchase Design,” by Harvey Offenhartz (1968)

More about Castle Films:

Monsters From The Vault

Robbies Reels

FDR Newsreel

Cover examples from POV Online

Wikipedia

Modern Mechanix

Campbell Films

Long since eaten I’m afraid, and their decedents relegated to the evil confines of some factory farm hidden out of site up in the hills somewhere. The only time they get their pictures in a magazine these days is if they’re lucky enough to have some PETA spy smuggle a camera into one of their torture sessions.

I joke, of course. The Arizona National Livestock Show continues to this day, going strong, “supporting youth and promoting livestock and agriculture since 1948.” In fact, you can go see it this year from December 28 through January 1 at the Arizona State Fairgrounds. Bring your camera (hidden or otherwise).

But if you can’t muster the effort to head down there (I know I can’t), you can check out these glorious pix from yesteryear — the October 1968 edition of “Arizona Highways” magazine, to be specific.