Singer Sewing EP by Win Stracke

Subject: Singer Sewing EP by Win Stracke
From: GUEST,Tim Ferrin
Date: 11 May 16 - 09:40 AM

Mudcat Friends,

I'm on the hunt for any information I can find about a record made by Win Stracke, Ella Jenkins, (and perhaps Ginni Clemmens,) for Singer Sewing Co. in the 1960s or 1970s.

I've not been able to find much about the project, just a mention from Ella Jenkins' and her manager. Does this ring a bell with anyone? I'd love to know more about it, and ultimately find a copy if it was ever released.

Thank you for your help!

Best,
Tim Ferrin

Subject: RE: Singer Sewing EP by Win Stracke
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 11 May 16 - 12:26 PM

looks like a very interesting project.

I also look forward to more information

sandra (who used to own a Singer sewing machine)

Subject: RE: Singer Sewing EP by Win Stracke
From: JennieG
Date: 12 May 16 - 12:20 AM

And so do I - who has four Singer sewing machines!

Subject: RE: Singer Sewing EP by Win Stracke
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 12 May 16 - 02:13 AM

A Singer Graflex maybe?

Win (Wyn) did a couple of "Black Folk Music in America" 35mm filmstrips for Singer Education & Training Products. The panels were cued to soundtracks that came in LP (7" & 12") & later on cassette.

The sub-division was based in Chicago and the 70s timing is about right. Don't recall Jenkins or Clemmens doing the same but a lot of stuff was uncredited.

Subject: RE: Singer Sewing EP by Win Stracke
From: Joe Offer
Date: 12 May 16 - 04:14 PM

I was going to say that I had correspondence from somebody who was doing research on the work of Ella Jenkins, but I couldn't remember who that person was. So, I crosslinked this thread to our Ella Jenkins threads, at least temporarily, and then I found that the person I corresponded with was....Tim Ferrin.
Hi, Tim!

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Singer Sewing EP by Win Stracke
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 12 May 16 - 06:54 PM

Black folk music in America


Author:
Society for Visual Education.

Publisher:
Chicago, Ill. : Society for Visual Education, ©1970.

Edition/Format:
Visual material : Filmstrip : Secondary (senior high) school : EnglishView all editions and formats   

Database:
WorldCat


OCLC Number:
12191065

Notes:
"Singer education & training products."

Credits:
Author, Burton Munk ; consultant, Win Stracke.

Description:
4 filmstrips : col. ; 35 mm. + 2 sound cassettes, 4 guides.

Contents:
Songs of slavery (18 min.) --
Black songs of the Civil War (20 min.) --
Black songs after the Civil War (19 min.) --
Black songs of modern times (19 min.).

Subject: RE: Singer Sewing EP by Win Stracke
From: GUEST
Date: 12 May 16 - 08:02 PM

Well, that sounds very promising. Thank you!

Now, does anyone have a copy?! Looks like there are four in libraries on worldcat, but nothing close to Chicago.

FYI - I was mis-remembering. The third person involved was likely Brother John Sellers, not Ginni Clemmens.

Subject: RE: Singer Sewing EP by Win Stracke
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 17 Mar 26 - 06:50 PM

Radio 4 programme about the Singer Sewing Machine.

And there are snatches of a couple of songs, though I wasn't able to glean any useful info.

Popping the link here for anyone interested in Singer sewing machines.

---

Song of the Singer Sewing Machine - 2016
Archive on 4

The song of the Singer has whirred its way through more than 160 years.

There is not a town in the world where this machine has not made its presence felt.

Maria Margaronis considers the might of the sewing machine to make empires and change lives for better or worse.

Isaac Singer patented his machine in 1851.

That bold fact alone doesn't even begin to describe the individual behind this perfection of technologies and processes. Impresario, inventor, actor and millionaire and father of 22 children with six wives, the last of whom was the model for the Statue of Liberty.

There was skulduggery and power play at work in his ability to capture the market - the rise of the first multi-national.

By the late 19th century, Singer had 86,000 employees and 5,000 branch offices in 190 countries - a reach second only to the Catholic Church.

But we begin on a busy North London road. The shop simply says SINGER, inside is a nest of sewing machines.

It is here that Maria has brought her mother's old machine and it is here she begins her story, unpicking the threads of time. This machine was one of millions made on Glasgow's Clydeside. Singer's European heartland until 1980. A place that produced some 36 million machines.

Maria travels to both Glasgow and to the site of the vast American Singer factory in Elizabethport New Jersey to piece together the story of a once all powerful empire. From the Amazon river where they were traded for emeralds to St Petersburg where the Bolsheviks had the temerity to nationalize the Singer factory.

Drawing on oral history, newly recorded interviews and rare gems, Maria follows the many threads of Singers presence in the world.


www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07z2j3r

Subject: RE: Singer Sewing EP by Win Stracke
From: GerryM
Date: 17 Mar 26 - 09:15 PM

I know of a couple of artists who have incorporated the sounds of a sewing machine into their music.

One is Steve Poltz. I saw him at the Blue Mountains Music Festival in Katoomba, New South Wales, last weekend. For one of his songs he had a recording, on his phone, of a sewing machine, as his accompaniment. I don't know whether this song with that accompaniment is available on CD.

My daughter and her husband, Sarah Myerson and Ilya Shneyveys, have recently released a CD, Electric Rose: The Rose Cohen Experience. Track 2 is Bay Mashin (Yiddish for "At the Machine"). It's about a woman working at a sewing machine in a sweatshop. Sarah operates a sewing machine during the song. When she and Ilya tour the album, she brings along a small sewing machine, and works at it while singing the song.

I don't know whether the machines used in these songs are from the Singer company.

Subject: RE: Singer Sewing EP by Win Stracke
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Mar 26 - 11:16 PM

The Singer Featherweight (introduced in 1933) was revolutionary in that it was made to be portable. Unlike the earlier cast iron models, they were cast of aluminum. They haven't been made for decades now, but are still very popular, especially with quilters who often travel to meetings or shows and want to take a machine with them. As it happens I listened to this interview last week and could find it in my YouTube history: Why the Featherweight Became a Sewing Legend. I've advanced through the video to almost 6 minutes where he starts talking about the history. This guy restores the Featherweights and you'll learn a lot if you listen to the whole thing. (Raises hand - I learned how to sew on my mother's Singer Featherweight.)

Subject: RE: Singer Sewing EP by Win Stracke
From: Jack Campin
Date: 18 Mar 26 - 05:53 AM

The Singer factory in Clydebank west of Glasgow (such an enormous factory it had its own railway station, still there) was used for arms manufacture during WW2. Which made it a primary target for the German bombers in the Clydebank Blitz. Hundreds of people died and whole streets of the workers' housing were obliterated. But as far as I know there are no songs about it.   Official secrecy meant it wasn't made public knowledge for years.