March on Washington?

[PStamler]

Hi folks:

This Wednesday is the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a high point of the Civil Rights movement, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered the "I Have a Dream Speech".

So...who ran the PA that covered a quarter-million marchers? And does anyone here know how, technically, they did it? Large PA systems were in their infancy at the time.

Peace,
Paul

[Scott Dorsey]

PStamler > wrote:
>Hi folks:
>
>This Wednesday is the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a high point of the Civil Rights movement, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered the "I Have a Dream Speech".
>
>So...who ran the PA that covered a quarter-million marchers? And does anyone here know how, technically, they did it? Large PA systems were in their infancy at the time.

I don't know. BUT, I have seen pictures that had a small rack with a couple
Altec green items in it, pictures that show a bunch of re-entrant horns all
over the place (and it would have been without delay compensation back then),
and reports from people who said they couldn't understand a thing being said.
Which would seem typical of the era.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Mike Rivers[_2_]]

On 8/26/2013 3:18 PM, PStamler wrote:

> So...who ran the PA that covered a quarter-million marchers? And does
> anyone here know how, technically, they did it?

Gee, I dunno. I wasn't really all that interested in PA systems back
then. I was thinking that Maryland Sound was around at the time and
would be likely to have been able to handle the event, but according to
their web site, they were established in 1966. It was probably someone
from out of town.





--
For a good time, call http://mikeriversaudio.wordpress.com

[[email protected]]

>
>
> > So...who ran the PA that covered a quarter-million marchers? And does
>
> > anyone here know how, technically, they did it?
>
>
>
I don't know what they did back in the 60's but i was at a gathering on the mall a few years ago. They had several locations with large TV screens and speaker arrays set up and they appeared to be linked by RF links to the podium. The speakers all were delayed and as you walked farther and farther from the podium, the sound from each speaker array arrived in time. By the time we got to the other end of the pool, the sound was still in sync with itself from all the speakers but of course was WAY out of lip sync with the video.

[PStamler]

On Monday, August 26, 2013 4:41:55 PM UTC-5, Mike Rivers wrote:

> I was thinking that Maryland Sound was around at the time and
> would be likely to have been able to handle the event, but according to
> their web site, they were established in 1966. It was probably someone
> from out of town.

As someone pointed out to me, whoever handled the job was probably a union outfit, since the AFL-CIO was strongly involved in the March. Maybe somebody from the IBEW or IATSE would have the records.

Peace,
Paul

[[email protected]]

On Monday, August 26, 2013 2:18:02 PM UTC-5, PStamler wrote:
> Hi folks:
>
>
>
> This Wednesday is the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a high point of the Civil Rights movement, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered the "I Have a Dream Speech".
>
>
>
> So...who ran the PA that covered a quarter-million marchers? And does anyone here know how, technically, they did it? Large PA systems were in their infancy at the time.
>
>
>
> Peace,
>
> Paul



I was listening to an interview about the march yesterday. One of the guests who attended back then, was asked about the PA system, etc. The caller on the phone asked if the crowd could all hear what was going on. He said that there were far more people in attendance, than the PA system could cover. He said from their position near the rear portion of the crowd, you couldn't hear any of the speeches going on.

He added....he didn't even know the "I Have a Dream" speech had occurred, until he got back home and heard about it.

Mike

[PStamler]

There's a good story about the music that accompanied the March on Washington, with tangential discussion of the sound system, at:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/08/dream-songs-the-music-of-the-march-on-washington.html

Peace,
Paul