UAVH H.L. Mencken, Scopes Trial – Souls Need Reconversion Nightly (5 of 13)

Yearning Mountaineers’ Souls Need Reconversion Nightly, Mencken Finds

Intro. song: The Pied Pipers “Yes! We Have No Bananas”
Outro song: Chick Straun “Don’t Bring Lulu!”

Notes: I’m least satisfied with the recording of the Mencken piece in this episode. I’d recorded it entirely 3 separate times and the 3rd was shortly before I posted it (the first episode to not be posted right after midnight the day of). I had to record it hastily because I’d blown out the levels on all the prior recordings, but this one suffers from plosive problems (the mic picking up the breath of air when you make “p” sounds, etc.) and various “mouth noises”. Because this is one of my favorite reports, I may rerecord it at a later date and update the file, but this’ll have to do for now.

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UAVH H.L. Mencken, Scopes Trial – Homo Neanderthalensis (1 of 13)

Homo Neanderthalensis

Welcome to the first installation of an ongoing series of reports on the Scopes Trial in Dayton Tennesee in 1925, exactly 85 years ago! The trial was the first in the US to be broadcast on the radio. Those recordings no longer exist, but we will be releasing a podcast every day that Mencken published an article in the Baltimore Sun. Relive the trial in real time through the words of one of America’s greatest and most prolific writers.
Intro. song: Coon-Sanders Nighthawks “Hong Kong Dream Girl”

Outro song: Ted Weems “Somebody Stole My Gal”

Notes: The radio was a new medium. I’ve had a hard time finding examples of radio shows from the time, but these podcasts aren’t created to be true to the period. All of the music was from 1925 or prior, and were popular hits. The trial itself was broadcast live, an historical first, but no recordings of it exist.

June 29th – Homo Neanderthalensis
July 9th – Sickening Doubts About Publicity
July 10th – Impossibility of Obtaining Fair Jury
July 11th – Trial as Religious Orgy
July 13th – Souls Need Reconversion Nightly
July 14th – Darrow’s Eloquent Appeal
July 15th – Law and Freedom
July 16th – Fair Trial Beyond Ken
July 17th – Malone the Victor
July 18th – Genesis Triumphant
July 20th – Tennessee in the Frying Pan
July 27th – Bryan
Sept. 14th* - Aftermath
*Will be released by July 30th.

The full text of the report after the fold!

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