Date:         Fri, 3 Oct 2008 23:53:19 -0400
Reply-To:     Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
              <[log in to unmask]>
Sender:       Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
              <[log in to unmask]>
From:         Ron Cowen <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      on record--presidential debates, 1908 style,
              first sound bites of presidential candidates
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

I just wrote a neat piece for Science News magazine online on the coming of age of the phonograph and the first sound bites recorded by candidates running for the White House, exactly 100 years ago in 1908. William Jennings Bryan and William Howard Taft recorded their voices on Edison wax cylinders that were sold for 35 cents apiece, and for the first time the voice of a candidate for president was brought into the home using the phonograph, which had just become more portable and affordable. My story is at http://sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/36947/title/The_first_sound_bites <http://mail.societyforscience.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/36947/title/The_first_sound_bites>  and includes a prescient audio of Bryan talking about the rights of depositors in case of a bank failure.  Also some great images from my personal collection, including a rare French cartoon of Bryan and Taft mannequins standing before cylinder phonographs
Sincerely,
Ron Cowen