Let's catch up with what folks are writing to me. This one's from Starmaxx and it's in response to that post I put up about replacing human cashiers at parking lots with machines…
I can tell you that these machines came into vogue at the parking lots that service the Washington, D.C. metro-rail (similar to the subway) in the last few years after management found out that the "manned" parking lot attendants were stealing lots of money. Apparently, it went into the millions and had gone on for years. Why an audit never caught this still remains a mystery, but that just goes to show you how the D.C. local government is run!
I had a horrible experience when I attended the 2006 baseball opening day for the Washington Nationals and decided to take mass transit. Went into the metro parking lot, but could not find any parking spaces after looking for 30 minutes. Tried to get out, but you needed the "fare card" to use in the automated machine — but you could only buy the card inside the Metro complex (which meant you had to find a parking space and take a 5 minute walk). What a quandary. Finally, a friendly attendent showed me an empty space. What lunacy — but I now always have a spare card in my glove compartment.
I can understand wanting to eliminate theft but it seems to me it would be quite easy and cheap to have a TV camera monitoring the exit cashiers and counting how many people exited and paid. I don't understand how it's cost efficient to have machines collecting parking fees, especially when you need to have human beings around to jump in when the machines fail or when "the system" doesn't work for some customer. My old pal Pat O'Neill, who does not live in Southern California, writes…
Wait a minute here — you have to pay to park at a shopping mall in Los Angeles? The fact that you're spending money in the stores isn't sufficient revenue? Do any of the stores offer to validate?
f I drove to a mall and found out they wanted me to pay for the "privilege" of leaving my car in the lot while I went in and spent money, I'd quickly find some other place to spend my money!
Don't think that hasn't occurred to some of us. But yes, there are malls out here that don't validate…where you can go in and spend thousands of dollars but you still have to come up with a buck to get out. The Beverly Center and the Beverly Connection, which are across the street from one another, both do that…and I'm guessing they haven't suffered a noticeable loss of consumers or they wouldn't do that.
Both once had free parking if you were there two hours or less. The Beverly Center started charging a buck minimum a few years ago and now the Beverly Connection, which is just reopening after a major renovation, is going that way. It'll be interesting to see if they stick with it. The revamped mall is not yet fully open — some stores aren't finished — so they aren't expecting a lot of business yet. Once they get to the point where they do, they may find that parking fee keeping people away.
Also, the other day, I posted a link to a video and wondered if that was Glenn Yarbrough of the Limeliters singing. I got some interesting responses, like this one from Fred G. Vigeant…
Most definitely Glenn on the Raid commercial. While the song was made popular by the Kingston Trio as the "M.T.A.", the tune is from a song known as "The Wreck of the Old '97," which every folk group, including the Weavers and Leadbelly sang. It may be interesting to you as well, that the Limeliters were formed as a "song try out group" for the Kingston Trio. Lou Gottlieb, who was singing with the Gateway Singers at the time, wrote a couple of songs that were part of the K.T. repertoire. Somebody (it may have been Lou or possible Frank Werber, the Kingston's manager) got the idea that another group could be formed that could "try out" new songs in front of an audience to see they would work. Thus, the Limeliters were formed (named after the club in Aspen, I believe, where they started out) and soon had their own following and recording contract.
A couple of folks thought it wasn't Yarbrough but they were just guessing. Here's another expert opinion from Michael J. Hayde…
First of all, that's definitely Glenn Yarbrough. Nobody could duplicate that voice. Second, I suspect the banjo player is fellow Limeliter Alex Hassilev.
As to why Yarbrough (and possibly Hassilev) did the commercial probably has a lot to do with timing. The Kingston Trio's "M.T.A." was released in the spring of 1959, and peaked on the charts around July. Coincidentally, that's the month the Limeliters were formed. Yarbrough and Hassilev had been working as singles and occasionally as a duo at a club in Aspen called the Limelite. They were joined by Lou Gottlieb, who'd been working as an arranger for…The Kingston Trio. Originally, Gottlieb thought the three of them could record demos for the K.T., but it was clear that the potential for something greater was present.
In any event, that Raid commercial probably was one of many projects the group members took on before, during or after their first (not-so-successful) album on the Elektra label came out in 1960, but prior to their signing to RCA Victor, which put them into the big time. I should add that no folk group did more TV commercials than the Limeliters; it was they who introduced the "Things go better with Coke" jingle, and how I'd love to see that turn up on your website someday.
We aim to please. Here are the Limeliters — who I always liked a lot better than the Kingston Trio, by the way — performing that lovely jingle with Mr. Yarbrough in fine voice as the lead singer. And because no detail's too trivial for me to not point it out, I think the short delivery guy in this commercial is the fine character actor, Bill McCutcheon. Thanks to everyone for all the mail.
