Part of the history of the BBC is the programmes themselves and so as well as archival material about how the corporation was formed and lives, this history will also include examples of programmes found in other archives. We start slowly here with a transcript of a talk by J. Maynard Keynes subsequently published in The Listener (and reproduced online at the linked fabulously retro) website. Believe me, this is just the start.
The life of Ludwig Blattner, the inventor of the Blattnerphone (pictured above with Ellen Terry) was magic and tragic. Born in Germany, he ran La Scala cinema in Wallasey between 1912-1914. He spent the Great War in an internment camp then ironically created the technology which allowed the BBC to record Chamberlain's announcement of the outbreak of WW2. But in October 1935, he hung himself at the Elstree Country Club and didn't live to see its application.
Find a long article about the Blattnerphone below. There's also a film from the Pathe Archive, a British Instructional Films Production made in conjunction with the BBC which has numerous shots of Broadcasting House just about ready for the official opening including the old main entrance but without the Prospero and Ariel statue above the door. Broadcasting was still based at Savoy Hill, although that was soon to change.
Archive
"Excerpts from their broadcast of Thursday 29th January 1931. These recordings, which feature four numbers, were made on early home recording equipment and cut on 6" double-sided metal discs. They were recorded from the radio during Jack Payne's broadcast on the BBC National Programme which started at 10.30pm and ended at midnight. The London Regional Programme carried the same broadcast from 10.35pm."
[Panachord]
"The recording presented here was made on an aluminium disc and is not of very good quality. Added to which, it was obviously a busy night at the Piccadilly Hotel, judging by the background noise from the clientele. However, after a rough start, the sound quality gradually improves, particularly after the first minute, when it is clearer and free of crackles."
[Syncopation]
"A British Instructional Films Production made with the co-operation of the British Broadcasting Corporation. A film about the standardisation of the English Language."
[Pathe]
"This article was written as a radio talk for a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) series on unemployment (Keynes's talk was the second in the series, delivered in 11 January, 1931). It was first published with the title "The Problem of Unemployment II" in The Listener, 14 January 1931, p.46-47. It was re-titled "Saving and Spending" for the 1931 Essays in Persuasion."
[History of Economics][BBC Programme Index]
Behind The Scenes
Lengthy text feature about the metal recording device invented by Ludwig Blattner which was first hired/adopted by the BBC in 1931 and allowed the recording of radio programmes reliably for the first time.
[Orbem]
"Now Pathetone presents one of the BBC's most popular Broadcasters - Albert Sandler and his Park Lane Hotel Orchestra - Filmed at the Park Lane Hotel."
[Pathe][BBC Programme Index]
"When BBC secretary Marie Slocombe was told to clear out a pile of old records in the late 1930s, she was dismayed to find items featuring the voices of George Bernard Shaw, Winston Churchill and GK Chesterton among those lying on the floor. In this programme, radio historian Sean Street reflects on how Marie Slocombe's decision to keep and organise those early recordings laid the foundations for the BBC's archive, now one of the most significant broadcast collections in the world."
[BBC Archive][BBC Programme Index]
"The past year has again been one of steady and continuous progress, as is witnessed by the increase in the number of wireless receiving licenses issued."
[hathitrust]
With the opening of the Scottish Regional Transmitter at Westerglen, near Falkirk, 1932 will see the addition of another instalment of the new plan of high-power transmission.
[World Radio History]
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