Show milestones of history recorded in sound by records in new york s radio city by HOPE chamberlin released by western newspaper union NEW YORK in a small dark room in a corner of a tall building in new yorks radio city adolf hitler shouts bitterly against the british empire prime minister winston churchill retorts vigorously that his country ail r 11 not yield an inch pope vius nus XII prays for peace franklin D roosevelt takes the oath of the office for a third term as president of the united states the dionne quintuplets quintuple ts sing oh johnny oh the setting is the record library of the national broadcasting company stored away in that little room in tall stacks of tin containers are more than transcriptions of virtually every phase of history awaiting only the push of a button and the scratch of a needle to bring them to life for tomorrows historians and students the value of the library cannot aar c t ie measured in dollars its treas gies s rival those of a dozen captain kidds and in years to come students historians scholars deduc educators a and journalists will be able to use the library just as contemporary writers use libraries and museums and newspaper morgues voices emotions important take for example a journalist in the year 1987 who is sweating over a series of colu columns on the second world war newspaper files magazines books scholarly dissertations will provide him with the basic facts but what about the actual voices of hitler mussolini roosevelt churchill eyewitnesses eye witnesses and what about the emotions and intonations which printed words dont convey in tiny grooves he will find the complete story told from dugout and underground studios amid the crash ot of bursting bombs the scream of air raid sirens the ominous sa s1 silence 1 of the forest of on records are president and prime minister king queen and commoner fuehrer and duce speaking to the world men and women in the war zone reporting the thrusts of military might over foreign soil often throughout the days 24 hou hours rs historians of the future will be able to hear the whole story from that most dramatic day in broadcasting sunday september 3 1939 when a tired soft spoken gentleman announced with regret to a grieving world that the government of W eat at britain was at war with the V iserman iman nation and the subsequent replies of dictators hitler and mussolini they will hear chamberlain cutting a record from the air this one is an acetate disc with aluminum platter base it is essential that an even volume be maintained throughout the recording resigning from office and winston churchill the new prime minister resolving to fight on despite the entailing blood and sweat and toil and tears nonmilitary non military history and since the last decade of our civilization has not been a story of war alone historians will be able to review other milestones in our lives momentous events in nearly all phases of life can be resurrected through these disks here are are a few other chunks of history recorded e d on acetate religion the coronation of pope pius XI the pontifical mass for his successor pius XII science the voices and thoughts of marconi wireless inventor in his broadcasts of 1935 and 1936 the report of an expedition directly from the amazonian jungles the picard expedition of 1933 into the stratosphere aeronautics the round the world flight of howard hughes as reported by ground observers and by hughes himself from his plane catastrophes the salvaging of the ill fated submarine from the bottom of the ocean oft off portsmouth N H the ohio river floods sports football and baseball games golf tournaments the olympic games politics conventions inaugurations debates the voices of presidents senators and statesmen of kings queens emperors diplomats and dictators superior to printed word Jam packed with acetate disks the tall piles of tin containers in record library are in some ways more valuable than the other basic source of historical matter the printed word for since the recording of a historical situation presents the actual scene literally and without interpretation the listener is made an ear witness to the goings W playing back a broadcast a few minutes after it has gone cone oo off the t air r is an easy matter one side of the record will contain an hour io long show low because of the aluminum shortage shor taffe only pickups from abroad and a broadcasts oad casts of a controversial nature are recorded on acetate others are recorded on little rolls of film on and placed in a position to pass objectively on what happened because special event broadcasting is taken pretty much for granted it may be hard to conceive the reference value to coming generations of this collection of recordings the worth might be more fully realized by looking further into the past think how they would be cherished if there were records of lin coans gettysburg address and the lincoln douglas debates the surrender of the british army to washington at yorktown napoleons talks to his soldiers and robert ful tons first steamboat trip up the hudson river the acetate recordings mentioned have an aluminum base with the nations defense production in full swing non defense consumption of aluminum is being curtailed therefore only pickups from abroad and broadcasts of a controversial nature ard are now recorded on acetate all other recordings of broadcasts are recorded on little rolls of film which can be played back in a re cordo graph A daylong day long schedule ol of broadcasts occupies but a short film roll record overseas broadcasts overseas broadcasts are recorded on memo vox large flexible celluloid platters one side records an hour long show besides recording foreign music entertainment and feature programs memo vox also records overseas news broadcasts IS 16 hours of them daily in six different languages german french italian spanish portuguese and english by picking upA up these hese foreign broadcasts NBC hopes to aid future historians in their study of what american radio is now doing to offset foreign radio propaganda in the americas to the south As the years roll on students historians to scholars educators and journalists will find delving into bygone days much easier radios record library does away with the arduous task of searching for official papers manuscripts letters diaries broadsides broad sides pamphlets newspapers magazines and volumes of transactions instead of dead documents tomorrows historians can refer to living records |