[78-L] Nations Forum (was:No Saturday Delivery (no, not the USPS)

[Michael Biel]

Dr. Donna has sent a message to me that she tried again to post but that 
it did not work.  So Ron, there really IS a problem.

To get things moving I will post here info, question, and my reply and 
suggest that the group add any input they have because she at least can 
read it.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com



On 9/3/2011 9:13 PM, Donna Halper wrote:


> I was reading some old microfilm from the Boston Herald/Boston 
> Traveler (sister newspapers back in the 1910s and 1920s).  This was 
> from 13 April 1925, a big ad for Jordan Marsh Department Store.  They 
> were announcing a sale on "2500 Nation's Forum 12-inch Double Disc 
> Records" for 25 cents (original price of $2.00 stamped on every 
> record!).  These were, according to the ad, "orations by notable 
> Americans on one side, a stirring American march by Prince's Band on 
> the other side."  While I am certain pleased that Prince had a band, I 
> was also fascinated to see that among the speakers were Calvin 
> Coolidge, Henry Cabot Lodge, Warren G. Harding, and the guy with the 
> biggest ears I have ever seen, former postmaster and current movie 
> censor Will Hays.
>
> I had no idea that Coolidge (who was the subject of some jests over 
> his very nasal speaking voice) made any records for "Nation's Forum," 
> so is there a back-story about this label or this project?  The topics 
> seem to be informative and patriotic-- for example, Coolidge did "Law 
> and Order" (#61) and "Equal Rights" (#58) and I assume no controversy 
> was ever discussed-- no mention of segregation or discrimination of 
> any kind. Most of the politicians who recorded the speeches seem to be 
> Republicans, and I have no idea if that was by design or because they 
> were in power at that time.  Anyway, can you possibly fill me in on 
> these discs?
>
>



On 9/4/2011 6:32 PM, Michael Biel wrote:
> There IS a back story about it.  It is very famous
> but they are relatively hard to find. I only have a couple.  It is
> interesting to find out what happened to them!!!  Suppesedly there was a
> set of metal parts deposited at the Library of Congress, but that does
> not seem to have happened.  They did put together at least have a set of
> the recordings from various sources and have a web site for them
> http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/nfhtml/   .  Some are from vinyl tests from
> metal parts, but I think these are from the A.F.R. Lawrence collection
> and the metals at Columbia might have been destroyed.  There was a good
> article and discography of them published back in the 70s in a
> short-lived publication "The Discographer" by my friend, the late David
> Goldenberg.
>
> I am not sure of the balance of Republicans vs. Democrats you mention,
> but you did not mention the FDR recording.  That recording had been
> claimed for many years to be the earliest broadcast recording in the
> Museum of Broadcasting's  (now the Paley Center for the Media)
> collection despite my telling them two weeks before they opened -- and
> mentioned it in the ARSC Journal -- that it was NOT a broadcast but was
> a phonograph record.  Finally they changed their listing to "Radio
> broadcast unverified".  IDIOTS.
>
> Mike Bielmbiel at mbiel.com
>
>
>
>
>> Ron Fial wrote:
>>
>> Current working hypothesis:   Nobody sent an email all day!
>>
>> On 9/4/2011 6:04 PM, David Lewis wrote:
>> Very well. Then I won't mention how I haven't been able to reach the digest for at least two, maybe three, days. The error message I get says the server cannot be reached.
>> Uncle Dave Lewis  uncledavelewis at hotmail.com 	
> I got a message from Dr. Donna Halper yesterday saying that she also had
> list messages bounding.  I'll tell her to re-post.  She had a question
> about Nations Forum.
>
> Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com