[Dixielandjazz] Sound men...speaking of...

[David Richoux]

eyewitness account of the speech by Lincoln:

from http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/gtsburgaddress.htm

A crowd of fifteen to twenty thousand crowded around the speakers'  
platform. Everett spoke first, holding the audience spell-bound for  
almost two hours. Lincoln then rose and delivered his address in less  
than two minutes. The audience's response was muted, probably due to  
surprise at the brevity of the speech. Seeing his audience's  
reaction, Lincoln remarked to a companion: "It is a flat failure and  
the people are disappointed." However, the following day, Everett  
wrote the President praising his speech and pronouncing it one of the  
best he had heard. As the words Lincoln spoke that day were spread by  
the newspapers, public reaction concurred and Lincoln's few sentences  
have come to be regarded as one the best speeches in American history.

  (diaries and letters of John Hay (1939); Kunhardt, Phillip, B.  
Lincoln at Gettysburg (1983)

David RIchoux

> Larry Walton asks:
>
>
>> I want to know who in hell the sound man was for Lincoln's Gettysburg
>> address? What mikes was he using? What speakers, etc! The ceremony  
>> was
>> outside, fer gawd's sake! And everyone heard it!......
>>
> (snip)
>
> How do we know that everyone of the 15,000 heard it?  Especially  
> since Lincoln was reported to have a somewhat high, nasally voice.
>
> --Bob Ringwald