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Wednesday

Lost & Found Sound

Lost & Found Sound: Bride, Groom & Microphone

Noah and Linda escort us through a series of recordings of weddings from the 40s, 50s and 70s. Not many people put their weddings on wire, tape or record -- but some of our "Quest For Sound" callers did. We hear a professionally narrated wedding from Manhattan, a "flower power" wedding from Ohio in the 1970s, a traditional church wedding in Mississippi, and even a wedding on the radio. This story is part of our series LOST & FOUND SOUND, a collaboration between independent producers and NPR.

Lost & Found Sound: Bride, Groom & Microphone

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Friday

Lost & Found Sound

Lost And Found Sound: Restoration

In another installment of our year-long series, "Lost and Found Sound," Quest for Sound Curator Jay Allison takes us behind the scenes, to hear old recordings sent to us by listeners. We learn of the difficulties of finding equipment to play some rare audio formats, and how an expert, Steve Smolian, takes a defective item and tries to extract sounds from it. We hear some home recordings by relatives of listeners who have since passed away. Smolian warns laypeople against trying to listen to old formatted items themselves, for fear the original will be destroyed.

Lost And Found Sound: Restoration

Audio will be available later today.

Friday

Father's Day

Lost & Found Sound: Her Father's Voice

Susan Stamberg marks Fathers Day by dusting off 78 rpm home recordings made in 1940 and later by her father. He's been dead three decades. She never had the heart to listen before, feeling his loss was still too near to deal with.

Lost & Found Sound: Her Father's Voice

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Friday

Lost & Found Sound

Lost & Found Sound: Losing Languages

As part of NPR's year-long collaboration with independent producers, NPR's Dean Olsher tells us about the increasing common extinction of the world's languages. Fifty percent of the world's languages are spoken by fewer than 10,000 people. Some languages are spoken by just a handful of people. In a century, 95-percent of the language that exists today will be gone -- the result of the commercial and technical advantages of Chinese, English, French and a few others. Linguists are split on whether extraordinary efforts should be made to SAVE languages, versus allowing them to die naturally.

Lost & Found Sound: Losing Languages

Audio will be available later today.

Friday

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

Audio will be available later today.

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

Audio will be available later today.

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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