[ARSCLIST] NYC ARSC Meeting Notice - Thursday 4/24

[Dave Nolan <davenolanaudio@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Greetings - 

...And yes, it's time for another thrilling episode of the NY Chapter of 
ARSC!

The meeting will be Thursday 4/24/08, from 7:00pm to 9:00pm (doors and 
refreshments at 6:30) at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan (2nd floor - 
Buttenwieser library)

This month, we have a very intersting double bill: 

Phil Gries of Archival Television Audio will speak about his collection of 
rarely-heard audio-from-television - much of which was never archived by 
the networks themselves - and play samples from his vast collection,

AND

Mike Devecka, a member of the First Sounds group, will give us a behind-the-
scenes look at the discovery of the oldest playable recording in history - 
the 1860 Phonautogram made by French inventor Édouard-Léon Scott de 
Martinville.

Remember that ARSC NY meetigns are FREE and open to the public - bring 
anyone you feel might enjoy the program :-)

Looking forward to seeing everyone there - 

dave nolan
Audio Archivist
92nd Street Y
nyc

***************

text of 4/24/08 ARSC NY meeting flyer:

ARSC New York Chapter       
April 2008 Meeting

Thursday, 4/24/08
at the 92nd Street Y
Buttenwieser Library (2nd Floor)
1395 Lexington Ave. (between 91st & 92nd Streets)
New York,  NY  10128
>From 7pm to 9pm – doors (and refreshments) at 6:30


Part 1:  Phil Gries:  Archival Television Audio – The World’s Largest 
Archive of Recorded Television Sound

Phil Gries will speak about the structure of the ATA archive, its contents, 
preservation, challenges with tapes which are difficult to transfer, and 
the wide genre of material represented.  Audio excerpts representing rare 
holdings in the collection will be played, including Don Pardo’s first two 
bulletins regarding the assassination of president John F. Kennedy (never 
recorded by NBC television - NBC 1963), Jackie Robinson reciting the 
Gettysburg address to his family (WNTA 1960), Jack Paar's walk off (NBC 
1960), the premiere Johnny Carson’s tenure as host of the Tonight Show ( 
NBC 1962), the Tony Awards ( WOR 1963),  Annie Get Your Gun starring Ethel 
Merman (NBC 1966), the Buster Keaton interview from "Here's Hollywood" 
(1961), and Walter Cronkite’s report on the death of Marilyn Monroe (CBS 
1962).

For the past 50 years Phil Gries, developer and owner of Archival 
Television Audio, Inc., has been involved with recording, collating, 
collecting, soliciting, and finding television audio air checks (the sound 
of the program) which represent "lost" discarded, erased,  unavailable & 
unobtainable original television broadcasts which aired in the late 1940's, 
1950's. 1960's, & 1970's when archiving such material was an arcane 
pursuit, by even the Library of Congress. Today, his composite collection 
totals over 12,000 broadcasts...15,000 hours. A  website representing the 
archive (http://www.atvaudio.com/), displays half of the archive's 
inventory at this time. The archive, accredited by the Guinness Book of 
World Records, is a one-of-a-kind resource in the United States, and the 
only archive of its type on the internet. 

Part 2:  Mike Devecka:   Behind the Scenes of the First Sounds Group and 
the Discovery of the World’s Oldest Playable Sound Recording

Several weeks ago at the ARSC Conference in Palo Alto, California, David 
Giovanonni introduced to the conference attendees the debut of the world’s 
oldest playable sound recording, a ten second extract from the French folk 
song, “Au Clair de la Lune” which was recorded on a Phonautogram, a sound 
recording made on what is essentially carbon paper. This recording was made 
April 9, 1860 by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, a Parisian typesetter 
and tinkerer, who, for several years, had been experimenting with the 
recording of sound for the purposes of analysis, not playback.

This evening’s presentation will reprise the essentials of Mr. Giovanonni’s 
presentation at the ARSC Conference for the benefit of those who were 
unable to attend the Conference in California and well as to add some extra 
detail and “back story” for those who did attend. The presentation will 
include some of the detective work involved in discovering the 
phonautograms, the collaboration with the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, and 
well as some of the technical details of the sound restoration process. We 
will hear the phonautograms as well as see printouts of both the 
phonaugrams and the sound files as restored by the First Sounds team. 

Michael Devecka is a record and phonograph collector who has been 
collecting since his tender youth in Portland Oregon. He bought his first 
phonograph and stack of 78 rpm records in the Fall of 1964 at the Salvation 
Army and has been collecting ever since. The bulk of the collection 
consists of pre-1935 discs and cylinders, as well as a range of mechanical 
and early electrical phonographs. Mr. Devecka promotes the Mechanical Music 
Extravaganza , a phonograph and record show, in Wayne, New Jersey. In 
addition he repairs and restores mechanical and early electric phonographs 
at his home workshop in Montclair, New Jersey — and on occasion even sells 
records.

ARSC NY Chapter Meetings are FREE and open to the public – bring a friend!