[78-L] King George VI speeches

[Michael Biel]

On 3/28/2011 4:11 PM, Ted Kneebone wrote:
> I have dubs of two of King George VI speeches.  One is the speech from 1939
> as he became king;

The Coronation was in 1937, not 1939, and I have the entire ceremony 
from NBC and the speech from CBS.  The speech came following an evening 
program "Empire's Homage".  Bob Trout was sent by NBC to London to sit 
in a BBC studio to listen carefully for any signs that the speech was 
pre-recorded and to take it off CBS if it was.  It was live, and I asked 
him if he would have taken it off if it wasn't.  "Of course not, I 
wouldn't want to start an international incident!"  Ironically in the 
earlier program the BBC played four recorded excerpts of the ceremony 
and both American networks aired it.

>   the other is the speech signaling the end of World War II
> in 1945.

I haven't seen The King's Speech yet so I am still unsure of which 
speech it is about, but he was able to get through the coronation speech 
on May 12, 1937, long before he would have to give a speech about the 
war.  In fact he made many broadcast speeches which were issued by HMV.  
The June 1942 HMV catalogue lists: May 12, 1937, Christmas Day 1937, May 
3, 1938, Sept 3, 1939 (the day the war began), Empire Day 1940, Sept 23, 
1940, and Christmas Day 1941.  His wife Queen Elizabeth has an issue of 
her Nov 11, 1939 speech, and the daughter Princess (now Queen) Elizabeth 
has an issued broadcast speech from Oct 13, 1940.  There are many other 
HMV Royal records of Geo V, Ed VIII (but not the abdication) and 
speeches by Chamberlain, Churchill, FDR, etc.  And this is just the June 
1942 catalogue.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com


>    The first came from an ET made off the air by WNAX Yankton, South
> Dakota.  The other came from an anthology of BBC speeches I got in trade.
> If anyone is interested in these, I can provide copies on cassette or CD.
>
> Ted Kneebone
> OTR: http://abe.midco.net/kneebone2