WWII News 1945-04-22 Drew Pearson


(3.5 stars; 2 reviews)

This is a contemporary amateur home recording of a live WWII-era radio news broadcast (see note below). This is the April 22nd, 1945 installment of Drew Pearson's program of news and commentary, with the main story being the Russian entry into Berlin. There is a gap near the end of the program where the original recorder skipped a commercial, and there is some fading towards the end of the program. The only information on the disk label is "Drew Pearson Sun. Apr. 22 - 1945".

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.

Reviews

Some True - Some Not True


(3 stars)

This newscast is delivered breathlessly by Drew Pearson and is a mixture of facts and baloney. Pearson states that Hitler escaped from the ruins of Berlin and has holed up in the bomb-proof shelter below the Eagle's Nest in Berchtesgaden - false. Pearson states that a concert performance of "Beethoven's Unfinished Symphony" had to be canceled because of the Russian attack on Berlin. Since Schubert, not Beethoven, wrote the "Unfinished" Symphony this statement is false. However, Pearson correctly states that the U.S. Army was ordered to stop at the Elbe so that the Russians could take Berlin. Pearson led his audiences to believe that he was revealing information that the government wanted concealed but we know now that a lot of this information was questionable. Sound is good for a home recording but is boomy like the recording is made from a microphone across the room from the radio.

My first cousin two generations removed


(4 stars)

Was a man of peace, a Quaker. The other broadcast here, made the day my grandfather died, is accompanied by a review I wrote years ago, and at the bottom, there is a link to see an image, a disturbing image of Predictions Of Things To Come. I never met Pearson but via these two broadcast recordings. The "boomy" effect is the fault of some modern revisionist, the original recording was done in a "dead" room, no echo effect at all.