[78-L] Day of Infamy Speech

[Michael Biel]

From: David Lewis <uncledavelewis at hotmail.com>
> I have found a home recording, 4 sides on 2 cardboard based Wilcox-Gay
> discs which run at 33.3 rpm. I haven't heard enough of them yet to
> determine which Network they are sourced from. They sound pretty
> good, but if the original discs from CBS and Mutual are around
> then they won't sound as good as such sources. But apart from
> side changes, these appear pretty complete; what places I spot
> checked show that the recordist captured at least a couple of
> minutes prior to the speech and at least some commentary after.
> Uncle Dave Lewis

FDR entered the House chamber at 12:30.  All three networks (NBC Red and
Blue were still combined under one management and staff until the end of
the month and had the same coverage) started at 12:15.  (combining three
sources I am still missing about 90 seconds from Mutual at about 12:26.)
The speech lasted 8 minutes until around 12:43.  NBC played the National
Anthem after the speech and then came back with discussions, I think
from NYC.  CBS had Park Simmons in the gallery, and Mutual had Fulton
Lewis Jr., but both networks had another person assisting.  Both began
covering the debate which began about three minutes or so after the
speech.  Simmons stopped coverage when told at about 20 minutes into the
debate, while Lewis openly defied Speaker Rayburn until about five
minutes later when an armed guard came up to help convince him to stop. 
The vote had just begun just before then.  They both continued from
inside the press gallery to announce the vote from the Senate which came
in about 1:10, and the overall broadcasts continued until 1:30 after the
House vote came in.  CBS waited until then to play the National Anthem. 

I could identify which network you have within a few seconds.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com  
 

   -------- Original Message --------
 uncledavelewis at hotmail.com wrote:
> First of all, thanks to everyone who answered the thread. It is much appreciated.

 Dr. B wrote:
 
>> Of course I have the entire broadcasts with the debate from the house of
 representatives on CBS and Mutual, and the speech and commentary on NBC
 all from the original discs, plus some home recordings, and both the
 Victor and Columbia issues. I also have the film (minus two sentences)
 of the speech from the 3 1/2 hour C-SPAN telecast I did on the 50th
 anniv, Dec 7, 1991. The two missing sentences 2/3s of the way in the
 speech came from the fact that it had to be pieced together from the
 four segments the Sherman Grinburg archive had of the Fox Movietone
 version. Something got lost in the cuttings. Ironically, Ray Wile
 reminded me shortly after the telecast that Blackhawk Films had earlier
 been selling the speech on 8 and 16 mm sound for more than a decade. 
 Neither the National Archive nor the Library of Congress had a film of
 the total speech or any of the debate until my C-SPAN telecast. 
 What version were you asking about?