Sounds of History - clips on the internet; 'n' stuff
"Sounds of history"
By Helen Bradley, May 28, 2005 (Icon)

Before TV there was the radio. In the evenings, after dinner, everyone would pull up an easy chair around a radio in the living room and listen to the news of the day or the antics of the characters in their favourite radio serials.

Thanks to the internet and installed audio players on your computer, you can take a trip back in time to revisit some of the sounds that made history.

Historic broadcasts
To take a trip down memory lane, whether you remember these clips because you heard them in their original context or if you're just wondering what all the fuss was about, visit the History Channel's audio archives ( www.historychannel.com/speeches/archive1.html ).

Here you'll find four pages of links to audio clips of speeches and interviews including those of Neil Armstrong as he took his first steps on the Moon, King Edward VIII's abdication speech, Thomas Edison on the development of electricity and even the inimitable Mae West talking about men, women and diamonds and speaking her famous line: 'Come up and see me sometime. Anytime. The sooner the better.'

There are also excerpts from the rousing WWII speeches of Winston Churchill at the BBC's history site ( www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/ wwtwo/churchill_audio.shtml ).

Serial bytes
One of the radio serials that kids in the US listened to around the same time Churchill was making his speeches were the antics of Captain Midnight. At the Radio Days archives (www.otr.com/cm_archives.shtml) you'll find MP3 audio files of nearly 60 early episodes of the Captain Midnight radio show which ran from 1938 until it finally morphed into a TV series. Each episode kicks off with ads for the Captain Midnight New 1940 Flight Patrol that kids were encouraged to join.

There are excerpts from two popular Australian radio serials Blue Hills and Argonauts Brains Trust (in addition to the calling of the 1932 Melbourne Cup) at the ABC's site ( www.abc.net.au/archives/av/radsamp.htm ).

Classic voices
If the classics are more your interest, you can hear excerpts from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and From the Legend of Good Women read by professors in Middle English ( academics.vmi.edu/english/ audio/audio_index.html ). They emphasise the pronunciation of the texts and, if this is confusing, there are also transcripts of what is being read so you can follow along at the same time."

And other stuff:
USBGEEK.COM Goodies of all Gadgety types
Whatever: Sympathy for the Publicist (from John Scalzi's blog - publicist as Giant Weenie)
www.giancarlozema.com Giancarlo Zema Design Group, e.g. Jelly-fish 45, floating house with underwater view
[permalink][comment] - posted by Mez @ 6/10/2005 03:25:00 am