Transcript

6.19.25 · Smithsonian Magazine

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Speaker 1: Welcome. This is Rebecca Shore for Radio Eye and to
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day I will be reading the Smithsonian Magazine dated June
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twenty twenty five. As a reminder, Radio Eye is a
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reading service intended for people who are blind or have
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other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
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Please join me now for the first article titled Amaze
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Yourself with the Unbelievable Story of Bessie Coleman, the Black
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aviator who wowed the nation with her high flying achievements.
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Long before the Tuskegee Airman, Coleman inspired a generation of
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pilots to take to the skies by Victor Luckerson, it
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felt like a home coming. Thousands of onlookers cheered wildly
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as daredevil pilot Bessie Coleman arked her Curtis Jenny byplane
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into a spiral above a Houston field. The weather was scorching,
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but Coleman kept her cool as she cruised through Loop
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de Loups and go unned across the blue skies at
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seventy five miles per hour. The aviator was already a
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colossal figure to many in the audience. In recent years,
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her globe trotting escapades had taken her to Los Angeles, Chicago, Paris,
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Amsterdam and beyond. The Chicago Defender had declared her the
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Queen of the Air. Now back home in Texas, on
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June nineteenth, nineteen twenty five, she was finally achieving her
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true aerial ambitions as a main attraction in the first
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ever all black air show in the state, and doing
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it on June teenth. No less, I am a native Texan,
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she told a newspaper reporter, and proud that a Texan
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is the only Negro aviatrix in the world. While the
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Tuskegee Airmen have become icons in the history of American aviation,
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fewer people know the story of Bessie Coleman, the black
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pilot who charted a corps for them and many others
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in the nineteen twenties. Known as Brave Bessie or Queen Bess,
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Coleman boasted a fearlessness that made her a perfect fit
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for a June teenth celebration. The holiday got its start
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in Galveston, Texas, on June nineteenth, eighteen sixty five, when
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enslaved African Americans learned of their freedom following the Civil War. Coleman,
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herself born to sharecroper parents, in Slavery's shadow took that
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promise of freedom airborne. The June tenth show in Texas
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was the culmination of an unlikely rise, literally to the clouds,
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for a black woman whose courage still astounds a century later.
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Coleman was born in eighteen ninety two in Atlanta, Texas,
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and moved to the town of Waxahachie when she was
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a toddler. According to her biographer Doris L. Rich, her father,
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who was part Native American, left the family for Oklahoma
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when Bessie was young. Money was tight and education was
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hard to come by. Coleman picked cotton for months each year.
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After the eighth grade, she worked as a washerwoman and
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watched over her younger sisters. Still, she yearned for more.
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When her older brother invited her to come live with
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him on Chicago's South Side, she leapt at the chance.
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She went to beauty school in the city and soon
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became a manicurist. Pretty and quick witted, Coleman preferred to
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work at barber shops, where she would charm mail customers
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for generous tips and provide manicures to proud patrons in
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the front window. She also befriended Robert Abbott, the founder
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and publisher of the Chicago Defender, the nation's leading black newspaper,
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who had become a valued mentor. A Defender news item
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in nineteen eighteen, praised her as a shining example of
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a progressive, up to date young woman. But Coleman was
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not content to be a window prize. One day, her
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older brother, John, a World War One veteran, came into
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the barber shop and proclaimed that black women would never
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be able to fly airplanes. Coleman took the insult as
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a challenge and soon began researching where she could pursue training.
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She found that no white pilots in the area were
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willing to teach her. Military training was also a non
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starter since the U. S. Army Air Service, a forerunner
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to the Air Force, did not accept women, so Coleman
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expanded her vision. She began studying French and saving money
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for a passage to Europe, where women pilots were not
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so disdained. Abbot, reportedly keen to mine black success stories
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to help sell newspapers, urged her on and even provided
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financial backing. On November twentieth, nineteen twenty, at the age
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of twenty eight, Coleman and embarked on the S s Imperator.
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For France. She would train at the Ecco da Bastillon AH.
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She would train at the Eco d'aviacion de Frere Coudron
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at Laquatois, one of France's most prestigious flight schools. Coleman
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spent seven months learning lupe de loups and banking turns
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in a Newport eighty two, a French biplane used for training.
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The plains were rickety contraptions with no brakes that belched
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castor oil and had to be dragged to a stop
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with the tail skid after landing. Every pilot knew how
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dangerous flying was, and Coleman herself watched a class mat
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die in an accident while training in France, but she
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was determined to prove that she and people who looked
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like her could conquer this new frontier. I thought it
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my duty to risk my life to learn aviating and
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to encourage flying among men and women of the race,
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she said. I made up my mind to try. I
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tried and was successful. In June nineteen twenty one, Coleman
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received her license from the renowned Federacion Aeronotique Internacional, becoming
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the first black woman to earn the distinction. The license
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granted her the ability to fly anywhere in the world.
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Word of Coleman's unusual achievement soon reached the States. When
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she returned to America in September nineteen twenty one, she
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became a full blown celebrity. A gaggle of reporters awaited
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her arrival in New York on the s S Manchuria.
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A series of profiles in the Chicago Defender soon followed
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when she attended a popular Broadway musical in Manhattan. The
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cast presented Coleman with an engraved silver cup, and the
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multi racial but segregated audience gave her a standing ovation. Still,
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Coleman remained focused on her craft. Soon she was back
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in Europe, gaining more aerial training from leading aircraft experts
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in Amsterdam and Berlin. In the late summer of nineteen
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twenty two, when she again returned to the States, she
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began conducting flying circuses in New York and Chicago and
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at various state fairs. Thousands of fans attended the events,
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which often cost between a quarter and seventy five cents
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per head. Around fourteen dollars to day, and sometimes included
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a chance for attendees to go airborne themselves, with Coleman piloting.
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Her stylish clothes enhanced her showmanship. Her typical uniform was
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a custom leather coat, shiny boots, and a leather helmet
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and goggles. Coleman took her responsibility as a black role
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model seriously. She hoped to launch a flight school to
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train black pilots, especially women. She refused to perform for
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white's only audiences, and while her shows often segregated seating,
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she wouldn't allow venues to force her black fans to
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come through a separate entrance. A movie in which she
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was set to star fell apart when she got hold
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of the script and saw that she'd be portraying an ignorant,
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poverty stricken black woman. No Uncle Tom's stuff for me,
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she told the film's manager as she walked out on
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her contract. But even with the glamor of celebrity, making
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a living was a constant challenge as a member of
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an ensemble. In her early aerial shows, she rarely raked
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in major profits. Planes were expensive, so she typically borrowed
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one from a local pilot for her shows. When she
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finally purchased her own plane in nineteen twenty three, she
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crashed it in California on the way to a performance.
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The accident put her in the hospital for three months
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with fractured ribs and a broken leg. From her hospital bed,
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she insisted her career wasn't over. Tell them all that
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as soon as I can walk, I'm going to fly,
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she wrote in a telegram to well wishers. After her injury,
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Coleman struggled to book gigs and cycled through a series
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of dubious managers in Texas. Though things finally started to
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turn back around. She found fresh income by lecturing on
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her European exploits, which only boosted fan's eagerness to see
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her take to the skies. The June teenth, nineteen twenty
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five festivities cemented her comeback. When Coleman returned to the ground,
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one reporter observed more than a dozen pairs of hands
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were outstretched to help her from the machine. For the
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rest of the summer, Coleman toured around Texas, even performing
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in Waxahachie, the town where she'd grown up. At one show,
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she did a wing walk, stepping out onto the wing
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of the plane while airborne and leaping down into the
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crowd via parachute. She was invited to meet with Miriam
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ferguson the state's first woman governor, at the Texas Governor's mansion.
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Coleman was planning to transition away from daredevil stunts and
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towards speaking and building her flight school for black pilots.
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Less than a year later, however, tragedy struck. In April
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nineteen twenty six, Coleman and another pilot named William Wills
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were conducting an aerial survey of an airfield in Jacksonville, Florida,
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where Coleman was prepping for her next big show. At
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about thirty five hundred feet, Wills lost control of the
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plane and the aircraft flipped upside down. Coleman fell out
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of her seat and plummeted to her death. Wills died
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when the plane crashed into a nearby farm. Investigators later
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found that her wrench had jammed the plane's control gears.
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Rumors swirled that someone had sabotaged Coleman, but no further
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evidence of foul play ever emerged. Freak accidents were unfortunately
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common in the early days of aviation. Coleman's death had
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the weight of a national tragedy, at least in Black America.
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More than five thousand people attended her memorial service in Jacksonville.
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In Chicago, where Coleman had first pursued her dream of
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becoming a pilot. Ten thousand mourners honored her coffin ahead
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of her funeral at Pilgrim Baptist Church. Congressman Oscar de
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Priest and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells participated in
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the homegoing ceremonies. The Defender published several obituaries, mournful but proud,
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Coleman's eyes, one article reflected, were always fixed on the stars.
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Coleman was just thirty four when she died, never achieving
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her lifelong dream of training a new generation of black pilots,
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but her legacy as an aviator would touch many lives.
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Just three years after her death, a Los Angeles based
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pilot and aviation entrepreneur named William Powell formed a flight
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school called the Bessie Coleman Aero Club. Among the group's
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members was James Banning, who in nineteen thirty two made
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history with Thomas c. Allen becoming the first black pilots
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to conduct a transcontinental flight. In nineteen thirty four, when
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Powell published a book about his own aerial exploits, he
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dedicated it to Coleman, who had displayed courage equal to
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that of the most daring men. Over the ensuing decades,
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Coleman's legend quietly grew. When astronaut May Jemison became the
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first African American woman to travel to space, she carried
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a photograph of Coleman with her. Coleman also inspired Jesse L. Brown,
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the first African American pilot to complete Navy flight training,
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and this summer, Coleman will be featured in the renewed
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Pioneers of Flight Gallery at the newly renovated Smithsonian National
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Air and Space Museum, celebrating her role as a groundbreaking
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aviator and a thrilling barnstormer, and accompanying this article, pioneering
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teenage parachuter Georgia Tiny Broadwick showed that courage isn't counted
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in pounds. The first woman to parachute from an airplane.
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She will be recognized in an exhibit when part of
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the newly renovated National Air and Space Museum reopens this year.
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By Sonia Anderson in nineteen o eight, a fifteen year
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old girl named Georgia Tiny Broadwick leapt from a hot
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air balloon and floated more than one thousand feet down
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to Earth under a parachute. It was the start of
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a prolific aerial career. The four foot eight eighty five
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pound Brodwick went on to jump from the sky some
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nine hundred times, demonstrate skydiving for the U. S. Army,
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and inspire an invention that changed parachuting. Born in eighteen
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ninety three, the North Carolinian spent her youth working in
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a cotton mill, got married at twelve years old, and
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was abandoned by her husband shortly thereafter. When she was fifteen,
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she watched the parachuter Charles Broadwick jump from a lofted
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balloon at a carnival. Hooked, Broadwick convinced him to teach
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her as act, after which she took his name. At
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a carnival in Raleigh in nineteen o eight, Broadwick performed
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her first public jump. Soon spectators were lining up to
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see her fly. Aviation was still in its infancy and
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Americans were thrilled about leaving the earth and being in
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an apparatus that allows you to get closer to the heavens,
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says Lieutenant Colonel Jessica Brown, a storian at the U. S.
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Air Force Academy, parachutists could fall like angels and alight
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without injury. Not to say Broadwick always landed smoothly as
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she went where the wind took her. Once that was
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through the window of a train's caboose, another time into
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a cactus patch. Soon, Broadwick became the first woman to
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parachute from an airplane. In one early jump, on January ninth,
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nineteen fourteen, she sat in a swing that hung from
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a plane two thousand feet above Los Angeles, pulled a lever,
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and dropped. She floated safely into Griffith Park. Later that year,
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Broadwick was demonstrating parachuting for soldiers in San Diego when
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she encountered a pivotal snag. Her parachute's static line was
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catching on the aircraft, so she cut it. Free falling,
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Broadwick maneuvered her lines to open the parachute. Her snip
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is often credited as the first use of a rip chord,
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later patented by Floyd Smith. Growing up in poverty, Broadwick
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showed working people that the wonders of aviation weren't only
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for wealthy men. Her skill and courage, Brown says, proved
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that aviation is classless. Next how the Grand Ole Opry
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put uniquely American music at center stage through daring business
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decisions and an eye for talent. The vaunted country radio
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program still stands as a taste maker for the fastest
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growing genre in popular music. By Lindsay Kusiak. On December tenth,
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nineteen twenty seven, radio host George D. Hay announced the
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end of an hour long opera program on Nashville's w
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SM Radio. Next up was the much more down home
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Barn Dance. For the past hour, we have been listening
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to the music taken largely from the Grand Opera, Hay
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ad libbed. From now on, we will present the Grand
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Ole Opry. It was an inadvertent and fateful christening for
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what would become a cultural institution and eventually the longest
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running radio program in the country, introducing tens of millions
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of listeners to a distinctly American born genre of music.
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As Hay playfully commented, the Opry offered a stark contrast
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to other high brow programs populating the airwaves, swapping symphonies
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and arias for jaunty renditions of old Anglo, Celtic, European
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and African American ballads played on the fiddle, banjo and guitar.
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It was hoedown music, or, as hay lovingly called it,
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hillbilly music, and with the radio boom well underway, hay
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had chosen an exceptionally precipitous time to share it. Commercial
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radio fever swept the nation beginning in nineteen twenty, with
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more than six hundred new stations emerging by the time
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the Opry premiered, but it was not the only barn
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dance on air, and hay sought a way to make
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the show unique. He was known for his theatrical on
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air persona, a mordant prude called the Solemn Old Judge,
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and he encouraged each new Opry band to adopt a comical,
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homespun identity that would charm working class listeners. In the process,
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he transformed bands like doctor Humphrey Bates augmented string orchestra
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into the overall clad Possum Hunters, and other groups into
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old timey miners or clumsy farm hands. As the Great
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Depression began, Hayes's salt of the Earth approach charmed the audience,
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while w s M made several ingenious business decisions that
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shaped popular music forever. First, w s M did the
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unthinkable amid a hemorrhaging economy, investing a quarter of a
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million dollars five point eight million dollars to day to
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build a new radio tower. It was the tallest in
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the country and one of only three fifty thousand WOTT
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clear channel towers in the United States. It allowed w
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s m's broadcast to reach the whole nation to bolster
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musicians whose record sales were plummeting down from one hundred
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million in nineteen twenty seven to a meager six million
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dollars in nineteen thirty two, w s M began selling
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bands on regional tours during the week, creating one of
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the country's first talent agencies, the Artist's Service Bureau. Soon,
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Opry stars were performing for as many as twelve thousand
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people a day at schools or picnics Sunday through Friday,
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before hustling back to the Opry for their Saturday night
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radio gig. In nineteen thirty nine, the Grand Ole Opry
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joined NBC's radio network, transmitting the show to one hundred
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twenty five stations. It wasn't long before the Opry's successes
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gained a big time sponsor. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company,
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maker of Camel cigarettes, which sponsored a USO style tour
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starring several Opry stars called the Grand Ole Opry Camel Caravan.
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The troop appeared exclusively for military members at bases throughout
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the US and Central America during the summer of nineteen
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forty one, charming soldiers with toe tapping, hillbilly music and
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comedy from Minnie Pearl. A few months later, following Japan's
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attack on Pearl Harbor, millions of those same soldiers were
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now crooning the Opry's songs on troop ships and in
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overseas barracks as they deployed in World War II. The
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show's new popularity among soldiers spurred the Armed Forces Raped
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Service a f RS to add the Grand Ole Opry
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to its overseas broadcast in nineteen forty three, transmitting the
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Opry's weekly show to three hundred and six outlets in
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forty seven countries. By nineteen forty five, an AFRs station
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in Munich reported that Opry superstar Roy Acuff was more
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popular among its listeners than Frank Sinatra. The show even
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triumphed in the Pacific Theater, where famed war correspondent Ernie
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Pyle reported that during the Battle of Okinawa, Japanese troops
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were chanting to hell with Roosevelt, to Hell with Babe Ruth,
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and to hell with Roy Acuff. In nineteen forty three,
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the Opry moved into the Ryman Auditorium, the city's largest
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venue at the time and still the Saturday night showcase
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featuring up and coming stars like Hank Williams and later
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Patsy Klein, Willie Nelson, and Loretta Lyne, sold out each week.
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It wasn't until nineteen seventy four that the Opry finally
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moved into its current home, the four thousand, four hundred
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forty seat Grand Ole Opry House. To day, the Grand
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ol Opry has spent nearly one hundred years as a
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country taste maker, elevating stars like George Jones, Garth Brooks,
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Johnny Cash, and hundreds more. Thanks to this hardy institution
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and contributions by crossover artists like Beyonce, country music continues
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to dominate the streaming charts, and in twenty twenty three
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was declared the fastest growing genre in popular music. As
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country singer and Opry member Brad Paisley put it, Pilgrims
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traveled to Jerusalem to see the Holy Land and the
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foundations of their faith. People go to Washington, d c.
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To see the workings of government and the foundation of
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our country, and fans flock to Nashville to see the
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foundation of country music the grand Ole Opry, and accompanying
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that article a family affair. The opry thrives on a
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network of stars invited to join its ranks. Here are
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four of the longest serving members, by Teddy Brokaw Bill
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Monroe member for fifty six years. It's often been said
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that if there were a mount rushmore of the Opry,
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Bill Monroe's face would be featured. In nineteen thirty eight,
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the mandolinist formed the Bluegrass Boys, a group so essential
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in the development of the style that it would ultimately
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give the genre its name. So popular was the group's
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music on the weekly radio program that the show's manager
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once told Monroe, if you ever leave the Opry, you'll
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have to fire yourself. Monroe, who died in nineteen ninety six,
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helped launch the careers of other Opry legends like Flat
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and Scrubs, and also inspired trailblazers far beyond the country
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music world. Elvis covered his Blue Moon of Kentucky, and
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Jerry Garcia traveled with Monroe's tour before forming The Grateful Dead. Next.
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Geenie Seely member for fifty seven years. From the time
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she was tall enough to reach the dial of the
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family radio, Jeanie Seely had dreams of the Grand Ole Opry.
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After a series of hits in her signature country Soul's dial,
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Seely was inducted into the Opry at age twenty seven.
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She pushed its boundaries from the outset, helping to bring
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down the Gingham Curtain, the show's requirement that female performers
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wear long drawn dresses, by refusing to comply unless the
25:04
rules were enforced on the audience as well. Seely repaid
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the Opry with a devotion that persists today, holding the
25:14
record for appearances with over five thousand. When the Opry
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house flooded and waters destroyed Cely's home in twenty ten,
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she still performed in borrowed clothes. Next. Loretta Lynn member
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for sixty years. For six decades, Loretta Lynn, the coal
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miner's daughter, constantly propelled the genre forward. Her hard scrabble
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upbringing in Kentucky, immortalized in her autobiography and its film
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version starring Cissy Spacek as Lynn in an Oscar winning role,
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seemed to drive her unapologetic approach to music. Hits like
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The Pill, which in nineteen seventy five stood as one
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of the first songs to tackle the use of birth control,
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nearly caused her to be banned from the Opry. A
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defiant Lynn played The Pill three times during one Opry
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show and told the media, if they hadn't let me
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sing the song, I have told them to shove the
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grand Ole Opry. Lynn died in twenty twenty two. Finally,
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Bill Anderson, member for sixty three years, the longest tenured
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member of the Opry. Whispering Bill Anderson began his adult
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life on an entirely different path, turning down an offer
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to attend the Chicago Cubs training camp as a pitching
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prospect to attend the University of Georgia as a journalism student. There,
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Anderson availed himself of a half built college television studio
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to record City Lights, which quickly became a smash hit
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for the country star Ray Price in nineteen fifty eight.
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Anderson followed that success with tracks of his own. Now
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in his seventh decade with the show, he still performs
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at the Opry and continues to release music. Lately, his
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biggest hits have come from collaborations with other artists, as
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with Whisky Lullaby, a two thousand three double platinum hit
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co written with John Randall for Brad Paisley and Alison Grause.
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This concludes readings from the Smithsonian Magazine for to day.
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Your reader has been Rebecca Shore. Thank you for listening,
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and have a great day.