Nostalgia USA March 2016 Nostalgia USA MARCH ISSUE | Page 9

MEMORABLE MOMENTS IN RADIO

Bel l e Baker First Person To Broadcast
From Moving Train March 23, 1932

President Cal vin Cool idge t he f irst President
t o Broad- cast Inaugurat ion March 4, 1925

Listen to the
Music Of Belle
Baker

Baker was born Bella Becker in 1893 to a Russian Jewish family.
Baker started performing at the Lower East Side?s Cannon Street
Music Hall at age 11, where she was discovered by the Yiddish
Theatre manager Jacob Adler. She was managed in vaudeville
by Lew Leslie, who would become Baker?s first husband. She
made her vaudeville debut in Scranton, Pennsylvania at the age
of 15. She performed in Oscar Hammerstein I?s Victoria Theatre
in 1911, although her performance was panned, mainly for her
song choices. By age 17, she was a headliner. One of her
earliest hits was, ?Cohen Owes Me $97?.[2]
Belle Baker on the sheet music cover of Nick Clesi?s 1916 hit
?I?m Sorry I Made You Cry?
By 1917, she was a top headliner in New York. In the early
1920s, when she was well known as The Ragtime Singer, Baker
took part in a Baltimore song competition with Catherine
Calvert, Pearl and Violet Hamilton, and Jessie Fordyce. She was
the first artist to record ?All of Me?, one of the most recorded
songs of its era, and she was also the first person in the United

Listen To This Historic Speech
On this date, the first national radio broadcast of an inauguration
occurred when President Calvin Coolidge took the oath of office on the
East Front of the Capitol. Elected Vice President in 1920, Coolidge first
took the oath of office when President Warren Harding died suddenly in
1923. After winning election to a full term in 1924, Coolidge followed his
predecessor?s example and insisted upon a modest inaugural ceremony.
?I favor the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but
because I wish to save people,? Coolidge said about his governing
philosophy. ?The men and women of this country who toil are the ones
who bear the cost of the Government.? The simple inaugural proceedings
did, however, make headlines. The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone
Company installed a series of loud speakers and microphones on the
inaugural platform. The new equipment, operated from a room below the
Capitol?s steps, enabled people in attendance to better hear the
proceedings and allowed those not in the nation?s capital to ?listen in? on
the day?s events. For the occasion, a radio announcers? booth was
constructed on the inaugural platform. More than 20 radio stations
broadcast the proceedings to an estimated 23 million listeners, including
many children whose school auditoriums had been fitted with electronic
equipment to facilitate the broadcast of the historic event. People who
tuned in heard detailed descriptions of the Capitol grounds and the
history of past inaugurations. The print media also covered the day?s
proceedings, and made mention of many in attendance, from the new
Speaker of the House for the 69th Congress (1925?1927), Nicholas
Longworth of Ohio, to former Congresswomen Mae Nolan of California
and Alice Robertson of Oklahoma