Continuing Newstalgia's look at Conventions past, here is the Keynote address by Mrs. Franklin Roosevelt at the 1956 Democratic Convention. Adlai Stevenson was once again the Standard Bearer and it was this convention that the name of Sen. John F. Kennedy was first foisted into the spotlight as potential Presidential material, by being considered a vice-Presidential running mate for Stevenson. Kennedy declined and the VP slot went to Estes Kefauver, whose Crime Committee hearings made him a household name to millions of voters.

Here is Eleanor Roosevelt's complete address from that convention.

As long as we're jumping into seldom featured material on Newstalgia, I thought I would keep it going with a dose of, what is sometimes referred to as "Traditional Jazz", but at the time of this broadcast was known simply as Dixieland.

Pretty much faded from view as genres go, Dixieland (or Traditional Jazz) had a real spike in popularity in the mid-1950's and was considered something of a raucous cousin where serious Jazz was concerned. Certainly when compared to the Cool School, Dixieland got it's fair share of cringe worthy reactions. But, in all fairness, this was the basis for which a lot of Jazz sprang from - as evidenced by Louis Armstrong who is probably it's most well known figure.

Al Hirt was a fixture for Mardi Gras and was as much a part of the scenery in New Orleans as the proverbial Crawfish boil. Hirt achieved huge commercial success through a number of hit singles and popular albums and was, conceivably as instrumental in making Traditional Jazz a popular mainstream idiom as The Kingston Trio and The Christy Minstrels were in making Folk music a popular genre for mainstream consumption.

So tonight it's an episode of the weekly CBS Radio program Jazz Band Ball featuring Al Hirt and his band live in New Orleans from August 18, 1956.

A good time was had by all.

Jumping back over to Basin Street in New York City, from a broadcast aired over CBS Radio on April 16, 1956. Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra with vocals by Dan Grissom.

Need I say more?

I didn't think so . . . .

In lesser hands this interview would have been a shambles and it probably would have become a forum for the Jabberwocky that flew out of his mouth, but this interview with Senator James Eastland (D-Mississippi) gives some idea just how entrenched, how arrogant and how racist the bloc of Senators known as Dixiecrats were.

I am still hot on the trail of the infamous (and somewhat legendary) Meet The Press interview with Senator Bilbo, another Dixiecrat from Mississippi who proudly proclaimed his membership in the KKK in 1946. But until I find it, this will have to do for the Mississippi contingent who made up the States Rights South in the 1950's and 60's.

A sampling of the interview:

Lawrence Spivak: “Senator, by what inalienable right do you ask certain freedoms for yourself and the other white people of Mississippi that you refuse to grant to the Colored people of your state?”

Sen. James Eastland: “ Why they have all the . . .there is no discrimination. Now, I believe in full economic equality, for every man.”

Spivak: “You say there is no discrimination . . . .

Eastland: “Wait, wait, just a minute now. For every man, regardless of race. But there are social questions and we do have a problem that we think we know more about than people who do not have that problem, And that we think the system of segregation is in the best interests of both races. It doesn’t mean . . it’s not based on any doctrine that one man is superior to another. It’s not based on any doctrine that one man is better than another, but that experience has shown that both races develop their own culture and develop better when they’re separated, because there is more to this question of race than merely the color of a man’s skin. There are different characteristics, different traits.”

And it stays pretty much the same for the entire interview.

This interview comes just about a year before the Central high school integration confrontation in Little Rock Arkansas. But you can see just how deeply the resistance was and what a political thorn these Dixiecrats were in the side of any Civil Rights reform on a Federal level. Which is certainly one reason the struggle lasted so long. The irony in all of this is that Eastland rose very high in the ranks of the Senate and, in addition to being second in line of succession to the Presidency in case of emergency he was also the longest serving Senator, having retired in 1978. In short, he wielded an enormous amount of power.

Here is Meet The Press with Senator James Eastland from January 29, 1956.

Something of a double-header tonight. In a live concert broadcast from the Composer Club on 58th Street in Manhattan on July 23, 1956, the music of Jazz Guitar legend Tal Farlow and his Trio, followed by a set by Piano great Marian McPartland her her Trio.

Two great sets which could have gone on for hours, but Network radio in the 1950's being what it was, had to make do with a half-hour's worth.

Still, top-flight performances from some of the greatest names in Jazz.

Enjoy.

During the early days of the Tape Recorder (yes, those bulky reel to reel machines) it almost seemed a national pastime that hobbyists sprung up all over the country recording, in addition to family get-togethers, every possible sound of nature, city, and industry. Entire albums were released featuring sounds of Coney Island, sounds of rainstorms complete with thunder and sounds of race tracks (both horse and car). Some people found it to be the perfect medium for documentaries. And so the concept of "A document for Ear" was launched. CBS Radio was at the forefront of this new medium for on-the-spot recording going back to the late 1940's.

In the mid-1950's, one of the last of the "experimental" network programs was introduced. The CBS Radio Workshop went by the credo "dedicated to man's imagination - the Theater of the Mind". It offered a vast array of documentaries and new concepts for the medium. One of those programs introduced audiences to a documentary sound maker, Tony Schwartz, whose audio montages became something of a benchmark for the new genre.

One of his most popular was a program called "The Voice Of New York", which was broadcast on March 2, 1956. It was an audio portrait of a city, a sonic tapestry of the sounds and voices that made up New York on the average day. It was subsequently reissued on lp and re-broadcast over the years. Tonight it's the first broadcast as it was originally aired in 1956.

New York sound a whole lot different now, maybe unrecognizable from this recording. But this was what the city sounded like almost 60 years ago as it was picked up by Tony Schwartz and his tape recorder.

Back on schedule this week with Count Basie and His Orchestra live from Birdland on January 9, 1956.

Basie during one of his transitional phases and always in top form. One of the great artists whose band you never got tired of hearing and whose music still sounds as fresh today as it was during this broadcast.

Enjoy.

Back to the classics in concert. This week it's the inimitable Erroll Garner and his Trio, live at Basin Street in "The heart of Manhattan" on May 12, 1956 and broadcast by CBS Radio to the rest of the country on that particular Sunday afternoon in May.

Well, you get to have that Sunday Afternoon with Erroll Garner too - Fifty-five years later and in June.

Better late than never, I suppose.

Enjoy.

With the current story unfolding in Cairo and the cautious attention being paid to events in Tahrir Square by most Arab nations, I'm reminded of another unfolding story that involved a newly emerging Egypt in the 1950's under Col. Gamal Abdul Nasser and how his rise to power came about as the result of a military coup and overthrow of a Monarchy and several decades of indirect British rule.

This radio documentary, Conflict In The Middle East from July 17, 1956 outlines what was happening in the Arab world as the result of the Suez Canal crisis and how the events in Egypt reverberated throughout the region and a new phrase Arab Nationalism was being touted to millions of Arabs. It's a fascinating document about the growth of Arab Nationalism and where it came from with numerous interviews with players in the conflict and assessments by observers.

Wilson Hall (NBC News Bureau Chief, Cairo): “This red hot nationalism is primarily directed against Great Britain and France. We Americans get hit by these verbal brickbats because we’re standing too close to the target. Arab Nationalism, and anti-Westernism, are inseparable. Anti-Western feeling is the easiest manifestation. The West is a handy symbol of Arab frustration which has built up for centuries. For more than five centuries the Arab states have been occupied, ruled, governed or kicked around by nations of Western Europe. Turks, the French, the British have all at one time claimed the Middle East as their bailiwick, their ‘sphere of influence’, ‘just theirs’. The Arabs are tired of being used, exploited is their term. Now they feel that they’re strong enough, and rich enough, to do something about it. The target, the one they’ve seen and been subjected to for generations; the West. The combination coach and quarterback of the Arab team is Gamal Abdul Nasser, leader of Egypt’s revolution. What trick plays he has on the blackboard, for running up the score for the Arabs blanking the West, is not certain. Critics of Nasser say he’s doing all this signal calling because he’s power mad, because he wants to rule all of the Arab world. Friends of Nasser say it’s not that at all. They say, the Arab world was right for a coach and a quarterback. Nasser just happened to come along. There’s probably some truth in both these theories. But this much is certain, Nasser is an all-out flame fanner for Arab Nationalism. The Arabs admire a man of action. Nasser is that. Almost single handedly, Nasser has transformed the Arab League from a rowdy debating society into a working league with a purpose. Nasser has received Czech arms for his growing army, with enough arms left over to parcel out to other Arab countries. Nasser is praised all over the Arab world as the first Arab who has had the nerve to stand up to the West. He pushed the British Army out of the Suez Canal Zone and British administration out of the Sudan. Egypt celebrated the evacuation of the British with a noisy three day celebration. With tears streaming down his face, Nasser raised the Egyptian flag over the Suez Canal Zone. He said ‘no foreign flag will ever again fly over Egypt.”

The Cold War is certainly over. Russia is no longer the dominating story. But it's interesting to see how recent all this history is (as I said yesterday, recent as far as country's go.) and how Nasser and Egypt in general, emerged as a powerful force among Arab nations. Nasser rose to power as the result of a Military coup and ran the country from 1952 until his death in 1970. Nasser wasn't well regarded by Western powers. His successor Anwar Sadat however, was. But that resulted in his assassination by members of the military, paving the way for Hosni Mubarak's rise to power as a military entity.

Over the coming hours and days the story will continue to emerge. But as always, there is a history to these events. The names and faces are all intertwined but the struggle is the same.

One of the most beautiful, lyrical and pure voices in Jazz, it's Sarah Vaughan this weekend live at Sardi's Restaurant on Vine Street in Hollywood. Recorded by NBC Radio on May 21, 1956, this set features Sarah Vaughan in top form and, what sounds like, to a packed house.

Enjoy.