A Rare Recording of... Series

Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (October 28, 1903 - April 10, 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include Decline and Fall (1928) and A Handful of Dust (1934), the novel, Brideshead Revisited (1945). He is recognized as one of the great prose stylists of the English language in the 20th century. In this recording, Waugh discusses God, religion, writing, and his conversion to Catholicism.

Joan Crawford, born Lucille Fay LeSueur (March 23, 1904 - May 10, 1977) in San Antonio, TX, was an American dancer, businesswoman, and actress of 86 films. Crawford often played hardworking young women who find romance and financial success. Her films that were well received by Depression-era audiences and popular with women. By the 1930s, Crawford became one of Hollywood's most prominent movie stars—rivaling fellow actresses Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo. A three-time Academy Award Best Actress nominee, Crawford took home the Oscar for the 1945 film Mildred Pierce. In this 1971 recording, Crawford discusses filmmaking, her films, and her appearance at an upcoming AFI event in Washington, DC.

Rita Hayworth, born Margarita Carmen Cansino, (October 17, 1918 - May 14, 1987) was an American actress who appeared in 61 films over 37 years achieving fame in the 1940s as one of the top stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Dubbed "The Love Goddess" by the Hollywood press, Hayworth is best known for her performance in the 1946 film noir Gilda as the femme fatale opposite Glenn Ford in her first major dramatic role. The following is from a 1972 interview at the San Francisco National Film Festival.

Marcus Garvey (August 17, 1887 - June 10, 1940) was a charismatic Jamaican-born political leader, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator. He organized the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) and acted as its President-General. In 1916 he moved to New York City where his prominence grew. By 1919 he was considered to be the “Black Moses,” and he claimed a following of over 2 million people. This recording is from a speech he gave in the 1920s.

Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 - April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was the 36th vice president from 1953 to 1961 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. His five years in the White House saw reduction of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, détente with the Soviet Union and China, the first crewed Moon landings, and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Nixon's second term ended early, when he became the only US president to resign from office, as a result of the Watergate scandal.

John William Cheever (May 27, 1912 - June 18, 1982) was an American short story writer and novelist. His fiction is mostly set in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, Westchester suburbs, and old New England villages. A compilation of his short stories, The Stories of John Cheever, won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, a National Book Critics Circle Award, and a 1981 National Book Award. The following is from a 1977 interview where Cheever discusses his novel 'Falconer'.

Carl Jung (1875-1961) was an influential psychologist and author who established the field of analytical psychology. Jung is known for his theorizing about the human unconscious and its relationship to behavior. This recording is part one of a public lecture Jung gave on the concept of synchronicity.

James Francis Cagney Jr., born in New York City, (July 17, 1899 - March 30, 1986) was an American actor and dancer. On stage and in film, he was known for his consistently energetic performances, distinctive vocal style, and deadpan comic timing. Cagney won the Academy Award in 1943 for his performance in Yankee Doodle Dandy. For his contributions to the film industry, Cagney was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 and received the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award in 1974. The following recording is from a 1980 interview.

Myrna Loy, born Myrna Adele Williams in Helena, MT, (August 2, 1905 - December 14, 1993) was an American film, television and stage actress. Trained as a dancer, Loy devoted herself fully to acting following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast for exotic roles, Loy's career prospects improved greatly following her portrayal of Nora Charles in The Thin Man (1934) and helped elevate her reputation as a versatile actress. Although Loy was never nominated for an Academy Award, in 1991 she received an Honorary Academy Award in recognition of her life's work.

The Rebel Yell was a battle cry used by Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. The yell was hollered when soldiers were charging into battle, as a way to intimidate the enemy and to boost their own morale. There is some debate about how the Rebel Yell began. Confederate soldiers may have learned the yell from Native Americans, or simply imitated them. It is known that some Texas Confederate units combined Comanche war whoops into their version of the yell. Another claim is that it came from the screams traditionally made by Irish and Scottish Highlanders when they made a Highland charge during battle. According to Encyclopedia Virginia: "Distinctive noises made by soldiers were identified from the very beginning of the war, but the yell’s first appearance in combat may have come at the Battle of Manassas, on July 21, 1861, and it is strongly associated with the Confederate general Stonewall Jackson." Colonel Keller Anderson of Kentucky's Orphan Brigade said: "Then arose that do-or-die expression, that maniacal maelstrom of sound; that penetrating, rasping, shrieking, blood-curdling noise that could be heard for miles and whose volume reached the heavens--such an expression as never yet came from the throats of sane men, but from men whom the seething blast of an imaginary hell would not check while the sound lasted."

Carl Edward Sagan (November 9, 1934 - December 20, 1996), born in Brooklyn, NY, was an American astronomer and astrophysicist. His best-known scientific contribution was his research on the possibility of extraterrestrial life, including experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by exposure to light. He assembled the first physical messages sent into space, the Pioneer plaque and the Voyager Golden Record, which were universal messages that could potentially be understood by any extraterrestrial intelligence that might find them. The following is a lecture Sagan gave in 1977 during which he discussed the place, scale and geometry of earth--the third planet from the Sun, formed 4.5 billion years ago--in our solar system.

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (November 30, 1874 - January 24, 1965) was born in Oxfordshire, England, of mixed English and American parentage. He would become a statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, during the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. Apart from two years between 1922 and 1924, he was a Member of Parliament from 1900 to 1964 as both a member of the Liberal Party and, later, as member and leader of the Conservative Party. Widely considered one of the 20th century's most significant figures, Churchill is seen as a victorious wartime leader who played an important role in defending Europe's liberal democracy against the spread of fascism. "We Shall Fight On The Beaches" was a speech delivered by the Churchill as Prime Minister to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom on June 4th 1940.

Yuri Bezmenov (1939 - January 5, 1993), was a Soviet journalist for RIA Novosti and a former KGB informant who defected to Canada. After being assigned to a station in India, Bezmenov eventually grew to love the people and the culture of India. At the same time, he began to resent the KGB-sanctioned repression of intellectuals who dissented from Moscow's policies and he decided to defect to the West. Bezmenov is best remembered for his anti-communist lectures and books published in the 1980s under the alias of Tomas David Schuman.

David Wark Griffith (January 22, 1875 - July 23, 1948), best known for directing the 1915 film "The Birth of a Nation," is considered one of the most influential figures in the history of the motion picture, pioneering many aspects of film editing and expanding the art of the narrative film. In 1919, together with Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, Griffith founded the movie studio United Artists, with the goal of enabling actors and directors to make films on their own terms as opposed to the terms of commercial studios. In this 1930 recording, actor Walter Huston and director DW Griffith discuss Griffith's film "The Birth of a Nation." 

By the end his military career, Major General Smedley D. Butler was the most decorated Marine in US history, having received two medals of honor. After his service, he became an outspoken critic of US wars and wrote a scathing book called, “War Is A Racket.” The following audio clips include; In November 1934, Butler exposing an alleged fascist coup to remove President Franklin D Roosevelt from office and overthrow the U.S. government; A scathing rebuke of Roosevelt and the integrity of the upcoming 1936 election. In 1937, making a plea for the removal of all American civilians and military forces from Chinese war zone. In 1932, praising the determination, and patriotism of the Veterans Bonus Army—tens of thousands of World War I veterans who marched on Washington DC demanding early payments of their army bonuses.

Granddaughter of renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright, Anne Baxter, born in Michigan City, IN, (May 7, 1923 - December 12, 1985) was a star of Hollywood films, Broadway productions, and television series. She won a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award and a Golden Globe in 1947 for The Razor's Edge, was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar in 1951 for All About Eve, and received an Emmy nomination in 1969. The following is from an interview in 1985.

Vina Fay Wray (September 15, 1907 - August 8, 2004) was a Canadian-American actress best known for starring as Ann Darrow in the 1933 film King Kong. Through an acting career that spanned nearly six decades, Wray attained international recognition as an actress in horror films and has been dubbed one of the early "scream queens." The following recording is from a tv interview in the 1980s.

When running as the third-party Progressive (Bull Moose) candidate for president of the United States in 1912, Theodore Roosevelt recorded a number of campaign speeches. Represented here are all of the cylinder recordings he made for the Edison Company in August of 1912, including "The Progressive Covenant with the People," "The Right of the People to Rule," "The Farmer and the Businessman," and "Social and Industrial Justice." Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 - January 6, 1919) was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26th president of the United States from 1901 to 1909. He previously served as the 25th vice president under President William McKinley from March to September 1901 and as the 33rd governor of New York from 1899 to 1900. Assuming the presidency after McKinley's assassination, Roosevelt emerged as a leader of the Republican Party and became a driving force for anti-trust and Progressive policies.

Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 - December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as vice president from January to April 1945 under FDR and as a US senator from Missouri from 1935 to January 1945. Assuming the presidency after FDR's death, Truman implemented the Marshall Plan to rebuild the economy of Western Europe and established both the Truman Doctrine and NATO to contain the expansion of Soviet communism. In these recordings from the 1960s, Truman discusses the establishment of Israel in 1948, the bravery of Jewish soldiers, and his view of the Jewish-Arab conflict in Palestine.

Hear live recordings of 11 US Presidents, including Benjamin Harrison (23rd), William McKinley (25th), Theodore Roosevelt (26th), William H. Taft (27th), Woodrow Wilson (28th), Warren G. Harding (29th), Calvin Coolidge (30th), Herbert Hoover (31st), Franklin D. Roosevelt (32nd), Harry S. Truman (34th), Dwight D. Eisenhower (34th).

Father Charles Coughlin was a controversial Canadian-American Catholic priest based in Michigan. Calling for monetary reforms, the nationalization of major industries and railroads, and protection of the rights of labor, Coughlin used weekly radio broadcasts to reach a mass audience of up to thirty million listeners during the 1930s. An early supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal, Coughlin later became a harsh critic. After the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the Roosevelt administration finally forced the cancellation of his radio program and forbade the dissemination of his newspaper, Social Justice.

Margaret Higgins Sanger, September 14, 1879 - September 6, 1966, was an American birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse. Sanger popularized the term "birth control", opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, and established organizations that evolved into the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The following is a recorded tv interview.

John Ernst Steinbeck (February 27, 1902 - December 20, 1968), born in Salinas, CA, was an American writer who won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception." His writings include the novels Of Mice and Men (1937), the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Grapes of Wrath (1939), and East of Eden (1952). The following is Steinbeck's speech at the Nobel Banquet at the City Hall in Stockholm, December 10, 1962.

President John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 - November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the youngest person to assume the presidency by election and the youngest president at the end of his tenure. Kennedy served at the climax of the Cold War, and the majority of his foreign policy concerned relations with the Soviet Union and Cuba. A Democrat, Kennedy represented Massachusetts in both houses of the U.S. Congress prior to his presidency.

Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland (October 22, 1917 - December 15, 2013), known professionally as Joan Fontaine, was an English-American actress who appeared in more than 45 films in a career that spanned five decades. She and her older sister, actress Olivia de Havilland, had a well-documented rivalry. Fontaine won an Academy Award in 1941 for her role in the film, Suspicion. She and de Havilland remain the only siblings to win lead-acting Academy Awards. The following recording is from a 1977 television interview.

The following recording is a telephone call from President Lyndon B. Johnson (August 27, 1908 - January 22, 1973), the 36th president of the United States, to Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 - December 26, 1972), the 33rd American president, wishing him a Merry Christmas.

Hear the actual recording of "The Price of Free World Victory" speech given by Vice President Henry Wallace at a dinner of the Free World Association in New York City on May 8th, 1942. Henry Agard Wallace (October 7, 1888 - November 18, 1965) was an American politician, journalist, farmer, and businessman who served as the 33rd vice president of the United States under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He served as the 11th U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and the 10th U.S. Secretary of Commerce. He was the nominee of the new Progressive Party in the 1948 presidential election.

Leander T. "Lee" Herron (December 29, 1846 - April 5, 1937) was a Corporal in the United States Army who, on September 2, 1868, while detailed as mail courier from Fort Larned to Fort Dodge in Kansas, voluntarily went to the assistance of a party of 4 enlisted men who had been attacked by 50 Indians, and remained with them until the party was relieved. Fifty-one years after his heroic actions, Herron received the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest medal for valor. In this audio recording, Herron recalls the heroic event.

Marilyn Monroe, born Norma Jeane Mortenson (June 1, 1926 - August 4, 1962) was an American actress and model. Known for playing comic "blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 60s, as well as an emblem of the era's sexual revolution. She was a top-billed actress for a decade, and her films grossed $200 million (equivalent to $2 billion in 2022) by the time of her death in 1962. Long after her death, Monroe remains a pop culture icon. The following is a series of revealing audio clips from interviews and moments when Monroe was in front of the press.

Hear a recorded interview between Donald H. Kirkley and H.L. Mencken, American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 - January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, and contemporary movements. His satirical reporting on the Scopes Trial, which he dubbed the "Monkey Trial", also gained him attention. The term "Menckenian" has entered multiple dictionaries to describe anything of or pertaining to Mencken, including his combative rhetorical and prose style.