Update: We've gotten donations trickling in the past few hours and I can't tell you how much they are appreciated and needed. Keep up the incredible response. We're almost half-way there, but we still have a way to go. With your help, and your donations - no matter how much, we can do it. Please donate what you can and help save Newstalgia.

A voice from the deep-distant past. Teddy Roosevelt was considered to be the first Progressive President of the United States. During his time in office from 1901, (following the assassination of William McKinley) until 1908, he Created the National Park Service as we know it today. He signed into law the Pure Food and Drug Act, Child Labor laws, campaigned for a Healthcare System (which just goes to show you how long that argument's been going on), and introduced sweeping Anti-Trust legislation.

In 1912, after unsuccessfully attempting a nomination via the Republican Party, he formed his own Bullmoose Party and ran on a third-party ticket, against Woodrow Wilson.

Here is an address he made during that campaign, recorded on September 22, 1912 - the title of the address is "Liberty Of The People." Since the sound is a little rough (recording was in its infancy at the time), here is a transcript of that address:

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They aren't actually collaborating, just sharing the same stage at The Birdland in New York City for this broadcast from the All Star Parade Of Bands series from NBC Radio, recorded on June 4, 1955.

Erroll Garner opens the broadcast, and it includes his latest composition, Misty along with a lot of other great sounds for the first half of the show.

And then Perez Prado takes over the second half, opening with Cherry Pink (and Apple Blossom White), which was a huge hit for him around this time. The rest of his set is high-voltage, just like all of his material.

Two great sets from a very unlikely pairing, but that was what radio in the 1950's was all about.

Big Band this week - actually Big Latin Band this week. Xavier Cugat and his orchestra performing live at the Last Frontier in Las Vegas (not sure if the announcer meant The Frontier but . . .) and recorded by NBC on November 30, 1953.

Xavier Cugat is probably best remembered as the band leader who brought Latin Jazz to the U.S. - dubbed The King Of The Rhumba, he put Latin Music pretty much in the mainstream from the 1940's onwards and paved the way for a lot of artists to expose their work to the American audience and turn on a lot of Jazz people on to the heady style of Cuban and Afro-Cuban music.

Towards the end of his set he plays the iconic Mambo #5 which was made an international hit by another Cuban bandleader, Perez Prado around the same time - so if it sounds familiar but not quite, that's the reason.

Something just a bit different this week - but swingin' nonetheless.

Update: With a mass outpouring of donations and kind words overnight, we've come within a few hundred dollars of our goal. We'll end the fundraiser after today and give what we have to the building owners and hopefully the crisis will be over tomorrow. I can't begin to express my gratitude and admiration for all of you who have made donations. Your contributions have all made a huge difference and I am so blown away by the responses. It is sometimes difficult to know, working on posts all day and usually with only the computer screen as an audience, to tell if any of the historic materials I've been offering these last few years have been seen or have been of any help to anyone. The past 10 days of this fundraiser have proven there are a lot of you out there and that makes this decades-long quest for archiving and preserving history completely worth it. I'll be here as long as you're here. If you are still interested in making a contribution, I'm still in heavy appeal-mode for the rest of the day. As always, any amount you feel comfortable with is enormous to me. My deepest and most heartfelt thanks to you all.

This May Day in 1961 had ominous tones for the future - although at the time it didn't sound that way. The news for this day was the crisis in Southeast Asia, specifically the dispute between Laos and Cambodia. Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia had proposed a 14 nation Political Conference to the King of Laos in an effort to diffuse the situation. The proposal was rejected and Sihanouk then called for ceasefire talks to begin.

Meanwhile, President Kennedy was being apprised of the situation in South Vietnam via a recently concluded Military fact finding mission to the area.

On the Domestic front - Commerce Secretary Luther Hodges was quoted as saying the Communist Economic offensive was a matter of grave concern to the Free World, with obvious hints towards the situation in Latin America. Elsewhere - it was reported the Unemployment figures in the U.S. were regarded as "intolerable" by Capitol Hill.

On an upbeat note - Scientists at Cape Canaveral were weighting weather conditions for a scheduled launch of he first manned-Space flight by the U.S. - the flight was slated to go on May 2nd, if all signs were good.

And Jordan's King Hussein announced via Radio Aman that he was engaged to "the woman of his dreams" - a commoner who also happened to be the daughter of a British Army Officer. Hussein also added that yes, she was a Muslim - so not to worry.

And that's what this May 1st was mostly about in 1961 as reported by NBC News On The Hour.

News on this day in 1941 was grim for the Balkans. As of 9:00 pm the previous night, the Yugoslav Army signed surrender terms with Germany, ending Yugoslavia's defense against German invasion and ending Yugoslavia. The surrender was carried out by the remaining Yugoslav military leaders, acting on behalf of King Peter, whose whereabouts was unknown. Berlin then announced a New Order for the Balkans would be announced soon and all eyes were on Greece, which was next in line and continuing the resistance.

But the war went on in other parts of Europe. RAF bombers staged another raid on Germany, hitting targets in Berlin and, it was later revealed, targets in Cologne and the occupied Dutch city of Rotterdam. 8 British planes were lost and it was the first time the new Sterling Bomber was used in raids.

While downplaying damage reports, the Germans staged their own raids on Britain, primarily hitting port cities.

Public opinion in Britain was running against the Government's handling of the War so far. Most Britons felt the problem lay on the Political/Diplomatic side with the "wait-until-attacked" policy having disastrous results, and what was needed was an overall Aggressive/Offensive Policy.

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill - it was learned a number of Senators were using their influence to try and get draft deferments for their sons and constituents with most claiming family members being actively involved in important defense work. It wasn't sitting well with the public and many were called out for their actions.

The Soft Coal miner's strike was continuing. The Senate commenced arguments on the Vincent Bill which would legally prevent unions from going on strike in the Defense Industry. And a heated argument was anticipated over the newly introduced Convoy Bill and our increasing participation in the European conflict.

And that's what happened on this particular April 18th in 1941 as reported by the NBC News Of The World.

News for this day in 1940 was all about the deteriorating situation in Norway and the reaction on both sides of the Atlantic to what was becoming an ominous tide to the war. It was also around this day the world got a new word to mull around; Quisling.

Vidkun Quisling was head of the puppet government which ultimately paved the way for Berlin to take over Norway with comparative ease. After this episode, anyone accused of selling out or being a traitor to his own country was referred to as a "Quisling". But the invasion of Norway wasn't without resistance, and the small Norwegian Army, still loyal to the King who was now in hiding somewhere in the mountains, was facing the German onslaught, along with assistance from Britain. It wasn't sufficient enough to prevent the German army from occupying Oslo and several other key cities in the country. As of this day, most fighting was taking place around the port city of Narvik and speculation was rife that Norway would be one of several small European countries coming under German occupation in the coming months.

News from Capitol Hill was also in reaction to the situation in Norway, with a feature report of heroism on the part of American Ambassador to Norway Daisy Harriman in aiding refugees and keeping the State Department informed of the goings on.

All of this led many in Washington to wonder just how long it was going to be before the U.S. got involved in the shooting war.

But at the moment, it was all very distant and abstract, even as it was being reported by the NBC Blue Network on their News Of The World for April 13, 1940.

This is a slight cheat. This session wasn't done for BBC Radio but rather it's the audio portion of a BBC-TV session The Mothers Of Invention did in on October 23, 1968.

Frank makes mention of the fact that this is something that never would have been done on American TV at the time and he was right. America just wasn't ready for Frank, or anything experimental. And even though we joke about it now, it spoke volumes about where the mainstream were in the so-called "Swinging 60's" and what an uphill slog it was just to get an audience.

So tonight's session comes from BBC-TV. And the tracks featured are:

1. Improvisations
2. King Kong
3. Oh, In The Sky

Vintage Frank Zappa and the reason music of the 60's took a huge leap forward. I can't imagine what the music scene would have been like without him.

News this day was about the sudden collapse of any Peace Settlement in the Middle East. Jordan's King Hussein issued a tersely worded note saying the PLO weren't serious in discussing any worthwhile peace deal. This was hot on the heels of the assassination of PLO Moderate Leader Issam Sartawi in Portugal. Reagan scrambled to put a positive spin on things, but the damage had been done and now it was back to square one.

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill - Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger was busy going on a promo tour for the Star Wars Missile Defense initiative, trying to drum up support. And a plan was introduced to keep the MX Missile program going, despite a Nuclear Freeze Initiative introduced in the House. Also on Capitol Hill, a fight was underway over the confirmation of Kenneth Adelman as Director of Arms Control.

The Space Shuttle Challenger was heading back to Cape Canaveral to ready for its next launch, after a successful landing the day before.

And all roads were closed in London and traffic was snarled for miles in every direction as a World War 2 era bomb was being defused.

Just one of those kinds of days.

As heard on The CBS World News Roundup and the 9:00 am (Pacific Coast) network news for April 11, 1983.

Forty-four years ago today, on April 4, 1968, the news traveled quickly regarding the shooting death of Dr. Martin Luther King in Memphis, Tennessee.

As a reminder of how the day went, here is a special News broadcast as presented by NBC Radio shortly after Dr. King had been pronounced dead.

A dose of Americana tonight by way of the King of Bluegrass, Bill Monroe. This is a tape made during a performance at New River Ranch in Rising Sun, Maryland on July 28, 1963 playing to an enthusiastic audience. Bluegrass staged a revival in the late 1950's/ early 1960's, right around the same time Folk Music dipped its toes in mainstream and gave us The Kingston Trio, The Brothers Four, The Christy Minstrels and a whole generation of others. But what it also did was give Bluegrass a boost and legendary practitioners like Bill Monroe were on hand to reap the rewards and adulation of a whole new audience of fans who had never been exposed to this slice of rural life before.

And maybe you haven't either. Bill Monroe left a long and rich legacy, and fortunately for many, these concerts were recorded and are, for the most part preserved. These tapes weren't broadcast and judging by the photos in the tape box, were recorded by a very dedicated engineer by the name of George B. McCeney. Anything beyond that, I really don't know aside from this being a pretty fast-paced half hour of some serious Bluegrass.

Something you don't hear every day.