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Friday

Lost & Found Sound

LOST & FOUND SOUND: Tennessee Williams - The Pennyland Recordings

6.} {LOST & FOUND SOUND: TENNESSEE WILLIAMS: THE PENNYLAND RECORDINGS Part One} -- We present a story about one of America's best and most eccentric playwrights. In the late 1940's, Tennessee Williams and his friends made a series of recordings at a Voice-O-Graph, a coin-operated booth at a New Orleans amusement park. The recordings include singing, conversation and comic parodies of Williams most famous plays. This is the first time these home-recordings have ever been broadcast.

LOST & FOUND SOUND: Tennessee Williams - The Pennyland Recordings

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Friday

Lost & Found Sound

Lost & Found Sound Ii:

Quest for Sound Curator Jay Allison presents a story about an American couple trying to get to the field where Charles Lindbergh was expected to land on this date in 1927. Minnesotan Xandra Kalman (SAN-drah KAHL-man) and her husband Collie were on vacation in Paris, and made their way to Le Bourget Field when Charles Lindbergh landed there that day. She later told the story to her children and grandchildren and recorded it on audio cassette. Her step-grandson, Marc Ortin submitted it to our Quest for Sound.

Lost & Found Sound Ii:

Audio will be available later today.

Lost & Found Sound

Lost And Found Sound: Diamonds In The Dungheap

The Vincent Voice Library at Michigan State University houses recorded speeches, performances, lectures, interviews, and broadcasts by over 50,000 persons over the last 100 years. NPR's Don Gonyea took a tour of the library and talked to its collector. Maurice Crane presides over a vast repository of the recorded voice. We learn that among the mass of recordings, there are treasures and trash.

Lost And Found Sound: Diamonds In The Dungheap

Audio will be available later today.

Friday

Lost & Found Sound

LOST & FOUND SOUND: CIGAR STORIES -- Actor Andy Garcia narrates

7.} {LOST & FOUND SOUND: CIGAR STORIES -- Actor Andy Garcia narrates a story about the "readers" who made life in cigar factories tolerate. This story, produced by The Kitchen Sisters -- Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva -- in collaboration with Laura Folger and Tina Pacheco, tells the story of the men who were paid to read aloud to men and women rolling cigars in Tampa and Ybor City, Florida at the beginning of the century and into the 30s. These "Lectors" would read from classics, revolutionary tracts and labor union magazines to keep the worker's informed and amused. LOST AND FOUND SOUND learned about this profession as the result of a phone call to its QUEST FOR SOUND line (202-408-0300) from a man in Florida who had 78 r.p.m. records of his father, who was a Lector. After a labor dispute the job of Lector was eliminated. The radio came to take the place of the reader. We trace the origins of the practice of readers, which started in Spain. The readers would often read all the way through a novel -- a little bit each day. People would gather outside the factory windows to listen in. LOST & FOUND SOUND executive producers are The Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, and Jay Allison. Production help from Kate Volkman, Viki Russell, Darcy Bacon and Sandra Wong. NPR coordinating producer is Art Silverman. FORMAT BREAKER {22:00}

Friday

Lost & Found Sound

Lost & Found Sound: Boys To Men

As part of our year-long Friday feature collaboration between NPR and independent producers highlighting this century's recordings, we present two anniversaries that fall on this date. Quest for Sound Curator Jay Allison tells us about Derby, Connecticut, Boy Scout Troop 3. Every year for 75 years the troop has performed a "Gang Show" on this date. We hear excerpts from the recordings the Boy Scouts there made. Today is also the 54th anniversary of the day Germany surrendered to Allied Forces in W.W.II. We hear Winston Churchill and a home recording of a woman reflecting on the end of the war.

Lost & Found Sound: Boys To Men

Audio will be available later today.

Friday

Lost & Found Sound

Lost & Found Sound: Portrait of an Artist Through an Answering Machine

Our year-long Friday series listens to the voices of one mans answering machine, painting a picture of him as mirrored in the voices of his friends and acquaintances. We hear pleas from friends for help, offers from agents, and messages from mom. In a century of recording advances, phone mail now is one of the most direct records of how we lead our lives - in this case how a professional performer leads his life in Los Angeles.

Lost & Found Sound: Portrait of an Artist Through an Answering Machine

Audio will be available later today.

Friday

Lost & Found Sound

Lost And Found Sound: The Twitching Finger Of The Telegraph

As part of a year-long collaboration between NPR and independent producers called "Lost and Found Sound," we present two salutes to a nearly extinct communication medium: the telegraph. NPR's Jonathan Kern recalls how the device and Morse Code were an important part of his childhood -- a language that united him with his father. And, producer Gregory Whitehead presents an essay with sound about his grandfather who was a professional telegrapher.

Lost And Found Sound: The Twitching Finger Of The Telegraph

Audio will be available later today.

Friday

Lost & Found Sound

Lost And Found Sound: AT&T Archives

NPR's Art Silverman, as part of our year-long collaborative venture between NPR and independent producers, explores the sonic landscape saved by the AT&T archives. Among the artifacts at the Warren, New Jersey site are thousands of hours of movies, radio shows, and other sound that what was once our nation's near-monopoly telephone company made to portray itself. The strong, confident image of what came to be called Ma Bell was supported by dramatic rendering of service and community service. AT&T Historian Sheldon Hochheiser serves as tour guide.

Lost And Found Sound: AT&T Archives

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Friday

Lost & Found Sound

Lost And Found Sound: The Art Of The Carnival Talker

As part of ALL THINGS CONSIDERED's year-long Friday series, we travel to the world of the Carnival Talker. Many call them "Barkers," but they dislike that term.

Lost And Found Sound: The Art Of The Carnival Talker

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Friday

Lost & Found Sound

Extinct Tongues

A linguist in Flagstaff, Arizona, Bonny Sands, told us about her colleague from South Africa, Tony Traill. Traill took some old wax cylinders and documented a lot of the now extinct languages of South Africa. He has now put out a CD copy of the original, which was recorded in 1936. We hear excerpts.

Extinct Tongues

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Friday

Lost & Found Sound

Lost and Found Sound: Listening to the Northern Lights

We experience the sounds of the Aurora Borealis through the ears of sound recorder Steve McGreevy. Very low radio frequencies accompany the Northern Lights and at the equinoxes, when the signals are strongest, McGreevy heads north to listen. He hears the chirps, pops and choruses that play out when the Earth's Magnetic Field interacts with the Sun.

Lost and Found Sound: Listening to the Northern Lights

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Friday

Friday

Lost & Found Sound

Lost And Found Sound

Our Friday feature LOST AND FOUND SOUND, a collaboration between NPR and independent producers The Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, and Jay Allison continues. Today's story was drawn from our listener Quest for Sound telephone line. As Quest curator Allison tells us, listener Jonathan Mitchell called to tell us about a cassette that was sent to him by his grandfather when Jonathan was a child. He never knew his grandfather very well, and listening to the tape evokes some mixed feelings. Grandpa wanted to pass down his knowledge about playing the harmonica, but the young Jonathan didn't care. LOST AND FOUND SOUND is a year-long series which airs every Friday. The Quest for Sound line is 202-408-0300.

Lost And Found Sound

Audio will be available later today.

Thursday