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Lost & Found Sound

Lost And Found Sound: R.A. Coleman's Electronic Memories

As part of our series "Lost & Found Sound," we present an un-narrated story about R. A. Coleman, a black man who recorded the sound of African-American weddings and other events in Memphis during the same period that Sam Phillips was recording those of the white people of the city. Coleman was originally just a photographer, but he began to provide recordings to enhance the memories of couples. He even recorded at funerals. He's remembered by his friends and family.

Lost And Found Sound: R.A. Coleman's Electronic Memories

Only Available in Archive Formats.

Lost & Found Sound

Lost and Found Sound

The year long series, Lost and Found Sound, presents the story of Sam Phillips, the man who founded and ran the Memphis Recording Service. Phillips was a rural boy with the dream of capturing songs of poor Southern people on records. He started in radio. Then, in the late 1940's, he opened a studio in Memphis. The sound he captured has helped shape rock and roll and American music ever since. We hear from Phillips, his family, friends, music experts and some of his recording talent, as they recall the years when Phillips came to realize his dream.

Lost and Found Sound

Only Available in Archive Formats.

Lost & Found Sound

Lost and Found Sound: 20th Century Cylinders

Lost and Found Sound presents a story about present-day uses of the most ancient of recording technologies: the wax cylinder. On the occasion of this month's release by trumpeter Wynton Marsalis's album of wax cylinder recordings, we hear what it is about wax that appeals to some. For Marsalis it's the authentic sound, which reminds him of the jazz greats of the past. Also featured: Les Paul and the band They Might be Giants. John Flansburgh of the "Giants" learns that to get recorded, he has to stick his head into a brass cone and sing in a very pronounced way.

Lost and Found Sound: 20th Century Cylinders

Only Available in Archive Formats.

Lost & Found Sound

CKLW: The Hits Just Keep on Coming

In this latest installment of our Lost and Found Sound series, NPR's Don Gonyea remembers the heyday of powerhouse AM radio. Gonyea grew up in Detroit, where the big station in the 60's and 70's was CKLW. It broadcast from across the Detroit River in Windsor, Ontario. It was a loud, glitzy noise-making enterprise. Everything was shouted -- even the news. The 50,000-watt giant spewed rock and roll and hyped-news across 28 states and mid-Canada. Gonyea describes the formula that made CKLW and its imitators successful.

CKLW: The Hits Just Keep on Coming

Only Available in Archive Formats.

Lost & Found Sound

Lost & Found Sound: A Lover of Lost Fans

As part of our series Lost & Found Sound, Quest for Sound Curator Jay Allison introduces us to a collector of old electric fans. We are treated to solo performances of individual old fans, and an orchestra of fans blowing at once, and learn that in days gone by, a good electric fan was a blessing -- and expensive. Some models cost the average American worker two months pay.

Lost & Found Sound: A Lover of Lost Fans

Only Available in Archive Formats.

Lost & Found Sound

LOST AND FOUND SOUND: One World Flight

Today on Lost and Found Sound, we delve into the audio archives of radio writer and director Norman Corwin. In 1946, while Corwin was working for CBS, producing very popular radio dramas and documentaries, he was the first recipient of the "One World Award." The award was created after presidential candidate Wendell Wilke made a diplomatic world wide tour during World War Two. The prize was a four month flight around the world for Corwin. It resulted in 13 radio documentaries about his travels. Together with producer Mary Beth Kirchner, Corwin re-listens to these tapes and remembers the variety of people he met in his travels; from great leaders such as Nehru, to a young girl in devastated Manila. He returned home with the stories of post-war reality in the outside world. In some cases people had lost entire families. He also found hope for a better world.

LOST AND FOUND SOUND: One World Flight

Only Available in Archive Formats.

Lost & Found Sound

Lost & Found Sound: The Sounds of Silents

Today in our continuing series, "Lost and Found Sound," we have two stories about the era of silent movies. Jay Allison, the curator of our Quest for Sound phone line introduces us to listener Bob Borgen, who has discovered tape of silent film star Buster Keaton at a party in 1962. The tape originally belonged to Keaton's wife. Keaton was a child star of Vaudeville with his family--on the tape Keaton sings songs and tells stories from those days. Our second story comes from our movie reviewer Bob Mondello, who pays tribute to the "silence" of early films. He remembers the time when movies were a purely visual medium---the introduction of sound took away some of the grace of what was taken place on the screen--this was most true for the silent film comedy stars.

Lost & Found Sound: The Sounds of Silents

Only Available in Archive Formats.

Lost & Found Sound

Lost & Found Sound: Man with a Horn

In our weekly series, Lost and Found Sound, a collaboration between NPR and independent producers, we learn about Eric Byron, a self-appointed disc-jockey of sorts who sets up in the corner of a New York City park on Sundays. He uses a home-made phonograph with a four-foot horn made from a heating duct to play old 78-rpm records, many recorded before 1930.

Lost & Found Sound: Man with a Horn

Only Available in Archive Formats.

Lost & Found Sound

Lost and Found Sound: Studio Nine

As part of our year-long collaboration with independent producers, Lost and Found Sound today turns to veteran broadcaster Robert Trout for a look back at CBS Studio Nine. The New York newsroom was the source of much of the century's news for millions of Americans. During the studio's operation from 1938 to 1964, Trout was one of the men who spent the most time there. He recently discovered some of his tapes.

Lost and Found Sound: Studio Nine

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Lost & Found Sound

Lost and Found Sound: "Stars and Stripes Forever"

Noah talks to Loras Schissel of the Library of Congress about Washington native son John Philip Sousa who wrote the march, "The Stars and Stripes Forever." It was an anthem of the Spanish-American War. Sousa considered it the greatest march ever written and got his wish of hearing it just before he died. We also hear Sousa talking on the radio in 1929, and conducting the great march.

Lost and Found Sound: "Stars and Stripes Forever"

Only Available in Archive Formats.

Lost & Found Sound

Lost & Found Sound: Jack Mullin Obit

We remember Jack Mullin, the California man who brought two German tape recorders back from the Second World War and introduced the technology to America. Mullin was an member of the US Army Signal Corps, and stumbled upon reels of magnetic quarter-inch tape and machines in a town near Frankfurt. He came back and perfected the machines. On Novermber 16, 1946, he demonstrated how they worked to a meeting of audio engineers in his home state of California. Soon Bing Crosby started using them to pre-tape his radio show for ABC. Crosby also pioneered the efforts to make tape recorders and recording tape in this country. Mullin worked for Crosby and later for Ampex. Mullin died last week at his California home at age 84.

Lost & Found Sound: Jack Mullin Obit

Only Available in Archive Formats.

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

Only Available in Archive Formats.