Last night I was poking around Amazon, looking at collections of classic Christmas music for the Christmas Eve Divaville show. (I have a couple of good ones, but I did this show last year and the year before, and I like to have something new every year because I record the shows and listen to them later. So I don't want to play the same show year after year.) I picked out a couple of CDs and put them in my wishlist, figuring I'd choose one and order it later in the week. Well today Georg got an order from Amazon, which included a CD for me: one of the albums I had put in my wishlist last night! It's a 2 CD set called A Vintage Christmas Cracker and there are a few things I already had, but mostly unusual tracks from lesser known artists. And one absolute gem: the first ever broadcast Christmas Message to the Empire! George V in 1932! I'm so excited! Even if it's too long to play on the air, I'm still thrilled to have it.
Between the surprise gift that I had just picked out for myself, and last week's grocery shopping for the exact same things, the synchronicity is starting to feel almost eerie. Next thing you know I'll be selling my hair to buy him a watch chain and he'll be selling his watch to buy me hair combs ... wait a minute. I don't have long hair and he doesn't have a watch. Whew!
4 Comments
That made me giggle.
The version of the George V speech I have, from one of the British Library's "Voices of History" series (awesome collections -- Hitler! Trotsky! Lenin! Stalin! Churchill! Roosevelt! Gandhi! Florence Nightingale!) is 3'04". There's a cut-down version on "The Century In Sound", at 1'25".
Hi James! The one on my CD is 3'04" so it must be the full version. I listened to it on Thursday and found it not just a historical curiosity, but honestly moving. I'm definitely going to play it on my Christmas show.
I agree -- it's an extraordinary track, the first time a monarch (or at least a British monarch) spoke directly to his people, knowing that a significant percentage of them were listening. George V doesn't get a big place in history, but he deserves a mention for that alone.