The ability to record sound has been around for a long time. For example, there is a recording extant from 1878.
Considering that, then, my question is as follows:
Of the notable people who have been alive during the past 125 or so years, whom either 1) have no known recordings existing of their voice, or 2) have surprisingly few existing, considering their promenance/employment in a field likely to result in recordings be made (e.g., entertainment and politics)/time lived in the recording era?
I don’t think there are any extant recordings of Queen Victoria. I recall reading in a biography that several recordings were made in the late 19th century, but that she requested that they be destroyed.
This was covered in an earlier thread, but the only claimed recording of Oscar Wilde is very likely a fake.
From the Library of Congress, a large selection of on-line recordings:
• Emile Berliner and the Birth of the Recording Industry.
• Inventing Entertainment: The Motion Picture and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies.
• American Leaders Speak: Recordings from World War I and the 1920 Election.
Also available:
• All the U.S. presidents from Benjamin Harrison onward.
There has been an earlier thread on this subject?
I didn’t find it when I searched.
I think King David Kalakaua of Hawaii may fit the bill. He realized he was dying on a trip to San Francisco, and was able to get a final message to his people down on an Edison cylinder. It features what’s probably his best known quote: “Tell my people aloha. Tell them that I tried.”
I’ve seen the cylinder on the insider’s tour of Honolulu’s Bishop Museum. The guide explained that by the time the museum received it, the recording had been played so many times that the audio is irretrievably lost.
And that royally sucks.
In biographies of two of my favorite writers, Carson McCullers and Raymond Chandler, it was revealed that both of these folks made public recordings during their lifetime: McCullers for a “poets read their work” LP and Chandler for an interview broadcast on BBC radio near the end of his life. I’d love to hear how these two people sounded, and try as I may I just can’t track the damn things down.
I believe this cite came up in an earlier thread about early sound recordings.
The McCullers archive site claims they have audio material. If you’re up for the trip to Georgia…
Arnold Shultz.
An itinerant black guitarist and fiddler who was described by all who heard him as the most powerful guitar player they had ever heard, rating him above the level of such seminal artists as Robert Johnson and Leadbelly.
His primary claim to fame now is that he often stopped in Rosine, KY in the early 1900’s-1910’s or so, and would play barn dances with a young teenager named Bill Monroe, with Shultz fiddling and Monroe playing the guitar. Many credit Shultz as the single strongest influence of black music upon Bill Monroe (who of course, went on to invent bluegrass, a style combining appalachian, scots-irish and piedmont black music)
Alan Turing recorded a radio talk for the BBC’s Third Programme channel, which was broadcast on 15th May 1951, about whether computers could think. He also took part in a later studio discussion on the same subject for the channel, recorded at BBC Manchester on 10th January 1952. In preparation for the latter, he took part in an informal spoof rehearsal, which was recorded by one of his friends.
None of these recordings is thought to survive - though his prepared text for the first does - and there are no other recordings of his voice that are known to have been made.
The recordings of the Presidents linked above is fascinating. Almost all of them through Calvin Coolidge sound the same - I guess because almost all of them came from Ohio.
Coolidge sounds like he’s inhaled helium (which is just what you’d expect given his appearance).
I’ve read that presidents before the ubiquity of radio and TV tended to have high-pitched voices, because that’s what carries well in a crowd of live people. Since then, the desirable public speaking voice for men has been much deeper and lower, because we hear them on the radio and not as much on the campaign trail.
I was just reading the other day that there are no extant audio recordings of Theda Bara, who was a top silent film actress of her day. I suspect there are many silent film stars for whom we have no voice recordings.
Specifically about Oscar Wilde’s possible recording.
Any recordings of Mark Twain?
Yes but all he does is swear and tell dirty limericks.
Or not.
Any extant recordings of C. S. Lewis? I know he broadcast some talks on BBC radio around WWII. It would be interesting to hear how he sounded, particularly since I’ve heard he was the inspiration for Treebeard’s booming voice in The Lord of the Rings.
Somebody mentioned mark Twain…do recordings of his voice actually exist?
-Nikola Tesla
-Dr. Sun Yat-Sen
-Dr. Erwin Schrotinger
-Theodore Von Karman
-Frank llloyd Wright
I’d be grateful if somebody knows if such recordings exist!
I have no cite, but I remember reading that no recordings exist of Jenny Lind, the famous singer who died in 1887.
That would be wrong; the noted radio program collector J. David Goldin has two appearances of Bara in the 1930’s on radio in his collection: This is their listing
Walloon- I’ve heard the recording in question, and it doesn’t sound right, especially considering other cylinder recordings of the era that I’ve listened too.